Social Psychological Motivations Research Articles

Why Do People Post Photos on Instagram?

Communication through visual contents has become the new normal, and visual images and photographs are becoming the primary means of communication. People use Instagram not only for communication but also for identity seeking and self-expression. The casual sharing of digital photos on social networking sites has become a part of daily life, and there is a new phenomenon: people travel to take pictures to post on Instagram. In this circumstance, it is important to understand why people post photos on Instagram and who posts photos on Instagram. This study investigated the main and moderating effects of social–psychological motivations (i.e., social interaction, ideal-self presentation, true-self presentation) and an important personal trait, public self-consciousness, on the intention to post photos on Instagram. The study found that social–psychological motivations and public self-consciousness were positively associated with the intention to post photos on Instagram. This study also found a moderating role of public self-consciousness with social–psychological motivations on the intention to post photos on Instagram. Based on the study findings, the implications and directions for future research were discussed.

Incentives For Women to Work Outside the Home - A Field Study in Erbil City

Progress and changes in technology, industry and the economy are a major cause of change in the structure and social system of global societies; among these social changes is the increase in the number of women working outside the home. In light of this phenomenon, we conducted this study, "Women's Work Outside the Home", a field study in Erbil. We have set some objectives, including what are the reasons why women work outside the home. The most important barriers to women when working outside the home are challenged, presenting the most important and negative aspects of women's work outside the home. This research is based on two main aspects: theory and the process; and the theoretical aspect consists of three parts, starting with the overall context of the research, including the research problem and the importance and objectives of the research. The first part of two main topics is the explanation of research concepts, scientific terms, and concepts (motivations, working women). The second part includes previous research, and the third part relates to women's work outside the home, including social motivations, economic motives and psychological motivations. The second aspect is practical (field) and includes two sections, the fourth part speaks of the method of research and procedures for field work, such as the analytical descriptive method, the method of surveying the meeting, and taking examples of the type of sample intended. The researcher used the " Questionnaires " to collect information. At a time when the fifth part of the presentation and analysis of research information. At the end of this research, the results of the study were discussed, and some suggestions and recommendations were made on women's work in Kurdish society.

Catholic Seminarians on “Real Men”, Sexuality, and Essential Male Inclusivity

This paper is based on an empirical study using in-depth qualitative interviews that examines how Roman Catholic undergraduate seminarians in the United States understand gender, sexuality and masculinity. The findings describe how seminarians reject interactionist and social constructionist models of gender, and rely on a strict biological based model where sex/gender are seen as a unified concept. This leads them to adopt an “essential male inclusivity”, where they argue that all people assigned male at birth have equal claim to “manhood”, which eases pressures on them to act in gender normative ways. The social-psychological and identity-based motivations of these beliefs are examined in connection to their life in the seminary and other anticipated occupational characteristics. In contrast, the seminary’s mandates around both celibacy and compulsory heterosexuality, make sexuality more fraught than gender for seminarians. The larger consequences of these perspectives are also explored in regard to gender inequality, homophobia, and the lack of acceptance for the LGBTIQ+ community.

Why Do Japanese People Use Masks Against COVID-19, Even Though Masks Are Unlikely to Offer Protection From Infection?

Wearing masks against 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) is beneficial in suppressing pandemic spread, not through preventing the wearer from being infected but by preventing the wearer from infecting others. Despite not providing much protection, the custom of wearing masks has prevailed in East Asia from the early stages of the pandemic, especially in Japan, to such an extent that it caused a shortfall in supply. Why do many Japanese people wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though masks are unlikely to prevent them from getting infected? We examined six possible psychological reasons for wearing masks: three involved expectations about the risk of infection and three involved other driving psychological forces. The results of our nationwide survey revealed that people conformed to societal norms in wearing masks and felt relief from anxiety when wearing masks. However, risk reduction expectations did not affect mask usage. The social psychological motivations successfully explained much about mask usage. Our findings suggest that policymakers responsible for public health should consider social motivations when implementing public strategies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Application of t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) to clustering of social affiliation and recognition psychological motivations in masters athletes

An exploration of clustering of psychological motivations for participation in sport was conducted using t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE). The data source used for this investigation was survey data gathered on World Masters Games competitors using the Motivations of Marathoners Scales (MOMS). The aim of this research was to assess the suitability of applying t-SNE to creating two-dimensional scatter plots to visualise the relationship between different psychological motivators for the Social Motives category of the MOMS. Application of t-SNE plots could assist in visually mapping psychological constructs and gaining greater understanding of the underlying patterns in the MOMS tool. Although there was more disparity in the clustering of categories within Social Motives than was hypothesised, some clustering patterns were observed. Some items in the MOMS Social Motives category were connected in a logical manner that complied with those originally proposed by the developers of the MOMS. Two-dimensional scatter plots produced using t-SNE may assist in creating hypotheses about the relationships present between psychological constructs in such high-dimensional data.

Preliminary Findings of the Links Between Gender Role Attitudes and Sexual Behaviors in Mexican American Early Adolescent Boys.

This study explored the relations between Latino gender role attitudes (traditional machismo attitudes and caballerismo attitudes) and sexual behaviors among 242 Mexican American early adolescent boys in the southwest United States. Specifically, a multiple mediator model estimated the association between gender role attitudes and sexual activity through a mediational pathway connecting substance use, sexual motives, and peer influence. Results from analyzing this structural equation model indicated that traditional machismo attitudes were not associated with sexual behaviors. Caballerismo gender role attitudes, however, were indirectly linked with reduced sexual motives and substance via peer influence. This study underscores the importance of social context, behavior, and psychological motivations in explaining differences in sexual motives and substance use among young Mexican American adolescent boys who hold different kinds of beliefs about their gender.

Explaining normative behavior in information technology use

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify a model that provides explanations for normative behavior in information technology (IT) use, and to test the model across two different types of normative behavior (i.e. green information technology (GIT), and digital piracy (DP)).Design/methodology/approachThe proposed model is based on the norm activation model (NAM) and the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model (UTAUT). A total of 374 and 360 usable responses were obtained for GIT and DP, respectively. The authors use the SEM technique in order to test the proposed model on the two sub-samples.FindingsFindings from the proposed model show that DP users’ personal norm (PN) negatively impacts behavioral intention and actual behavior. These findings indicate that users of IT who indulge in DP understand that use of pirated software may not be a socially approved behavior but they still indulge in it because their PNs are not aligned with social expectations. GIT users’ PN positively impacts behavioral intention and actual behavior, and the relationship is stronger for behavioral intention than for actual behavior.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample consists of college students and working professionals based in India who may be savvy with respect to internet use. Future work may evaluate whether the pattern of results that the authors report for normative behavior does hold across other types of normative behavior.Practical implicationsThese findings hint at a gap between the moral compass and the final “action” taken by DP users. What managers need to do is to create awareness among their customers about the implementation of DP/GIT and help users engage in normative behavior.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the literature by integrating the UTAUT and the NAM to explain normative behavior of IT use. The authors propose and test a model that identifies cognitive as well as social-psychological motivations to explain normative behavior in IT use, which have been sparingly studied in extant literature, and provides a holistic understanding of the phenomenon. As such, this research contributes to the existing knowledge of understanding of normative IT behavior.

Examining the impact mechanism of social psychological motivations on individuals’ continuance intention of MOOCs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact mechanism of psychological motivations, social influence and institutional influence on individuals’ continuance intention of MOOCs, and further, to explore if there exist behavioral differences between males and females.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the social cognitive theory (SCT) and the technology acceptance theory, this study developed a theoretical model and conducted an empirical study in China. In total, 247 valid data were collected from college students using online survey, and the structural equation modeling technique was used to examine the research model.FindingsThe empirical results suggest that self-efficacy, self-enjoyment, self-development and social norm are positively associated with individuals’ continuance intention of MOOCs, while management commitment in the university has little influence on continuance intention. The moderating test further suggests that males are more likely to be influenced by self-development and perceived usefulness compared with females.Practical implicationsThis study can provide several guidelines to the administrators of the MOOC platform regarding platform design, course selection and social community establishment, so as to encourage more students to participate in the MOOC platform.Originality/valueThis study applied the SCT in the new context of MOOCs to examine the joint effects of social, institutional and psychological motivation factors on individuals’ continuance intention, and unpacks the moderating effect of gender.

Exploring the factors and motivations influencing heating behavioral patterns and future energy use intentions in the hot summer and cold winter climate zone of China

The hot summer and cold winter zone (HSCW) plays a significant role in residential energy consumption in China because of climate, policy, and social-economic factors. Accordingly, occupant heating behaviors and associated social-psychological factors are essential elements in understanding energy consumption. This study presents a new investigation on the demographic factors, building characteristics, and social-psychological motivations influencing current heating patterns and future heating intentions among 904 residents in the HSCW zone in China. Most residents surveyed selected the city-scale central-heating system as their future heating pattern, which might lead to a high level of energy consumption. Among demographics, family income was the main factor influencing residents’ current heating patterns, followed by number of children and building age. Additionally, thermal comfort was one of the most frequent motivations for adopting specific heating patterns in our sample. Although residents were generally concerned about the environmental impacts of energy use, they could have been unaware that their current and future heating patterns could cause high levels of energy consumption. This study provides multifaceted insight in occupant research by investigating the link among occupant heating patterns, climate zone, and behavioral motivations, which should be considered by building designers, policymakers, engineers, and energy educators.

Motivations for Facebook Use and College Student’s Self-esteem and Life Satisfaction

This study investigated college students’ social-psychological motivations of Facebook use and impacts of the motivations on self-esteem and life satisfaction. By applying the social-psychological approach, three dimensions (i.e., social interaction, identity seeking, self-presentation) were identified and six motivational factors of Facebook use (i.e., to feel connected, to gain approval, to establish personal identity, to establish social identity, to present true-self, to present ideal-self) were suggested to be examined. Using a data from a survey of college students, we confirm the applicability of the three dimensions and six motivations and suggest that college students use Facebook to satisfy various needs. This study also found that college students who used Facebook to feel connected and/or to establish personal identity were more likely to have high self-esteem and those who used Facebook to present true-self were more likely to be satisfied with their life. Theoretical and practical implications and limitations of the study were discussed based on the study findings, and areas of future research were suggested.

Rationality, norms and identity in international relations

This article examines major debates between rationalism and constructivism. It presents that there are politically significant motives of social actions, including norms and identity, which cannot be completely subsumed by the concept of instrumental rationality. These ideational or social-psychological motivations are governed primarily by thymos or affect (the moral or emotional part of the human personality) and/or value-oriented rationality. We need more flexible assumptions about main actors and their motives than those of rationalism to explain appropriately the politics of anger, loyalty and a sense of justice at international levels. However, constructivism’s emphasis on ideational motivations cannot totally replace rationalism in explaining international political life. Constructivism maintains that identity or norms are causally prior to actors’ interests. Yet when there is conflict between pursuit of interests and maintenance of identity or norms, actors’ strong and well-defined self-interests can overrule their contested or unstable identity or norms. In short, causal arrows can flow in either direction between identity or norms and interests. This implies that rationalism and constructivism are complementary rather than competitive in explaining international political life.

Benefits of urban landscape eco-volunteerism: Mixed methods segmentation analysis and implications for volunteer retention

Urban landscape restoration and conservation initiatives are challenged by financial and other constraints. Consequently, these initiatives are increasingly reliant on volunteer stewards. Knowledge of why people volunteer to restore and conserve urban ecosystems can help practitioners enhance volunteering as a social-ecological process that is mutually beneficial to landscapes and people. We included two open-ended questions about why people volunteer and what they perceive as benefits of volunteering, in a survey of volunteers for urban landscape restoration and conservation in Seattle, WA. Thematic and statistical analyses of volunteer motivations showed that volunteers expressed social psychological motivations more frequently than environmental reasons for volunteering. We also found that volunteers are not a monolithic group. There were statistically significant differences in the frequency of expression of volunteer motivations among respondent demographic segments. For example, women expressed the quest for positive emotions, as a motivation to volunteer, more often than men did. We illustrate how understanding volunteers’ motivations, expressed in their own words and from their own points of reference, can enhance voluntary social-ecological processes that mutually benefit people and urban landscapes.

Analysis on Variables Affecting the Creation of Tourist Destination Image: Case Study on Domestic Tourists Visiting Yogyakarta between 2007 to 2009

The purpose of this study is to examine the variables that affect the image creation of tourism destinations. This research is a case study on domestic tourists visiting Yogyakarta from 2007 to 2009. This research uses an exploratory and descriptive design, conducted once in one period (cross-sectional). A number of 105 domestic tourists were selected as samples by means of non-probability sampling method and snowball sampling technique. The data were analyzed using reliability and validity tests, frequency distributions, and regression analyses. Results showed that overall image was significantly constructed and affected by cognitive and affective evaluations. Cognitive evaluation was significantly affected by the types of information source from books and movies, while affective evaluation was affected significantly by social-psychological motivations. The research also proves that Yogyakarta has fulfilled the requirements to become a tourist destination; respondents showed positive feelings towards the town and also perceived the town positively. Keywords: cognitive evaluation, affective evaluation, destination image, domestic tourists, Yogyakarta

Four Core Social‐Psychological Motivations to Undertake Collective Action

AbstractCollective action against collective disadvantage is a theoretically and socially relevant phenomenon that has received increased scientific attention in recent years. Because recent work combines different theoretical traditions, the last decade can be rightly called an ‘age of integration’. In this article, I take stock and look ahead by briefly reviewing four core social‐psychological motivations for undertaking collective action (based on identity, morality, emotion, and efficacy). I then review recent accumulating evidence for an encompassing social‐psychological model of collective action that integrates all four core motivations. Based on this model's shortcomings, I close by calling for an ‘age of innovation’ for which I propose a theoretical and research agenda.

Social Ties and User Content Generation: Evidence from Flickr

The content created by the users of social networking sites has reached such high levels of quality and variety that it is comparable to that produced by professional agencies. Therefore, understanding what types of content users generate and the underlying motivational factors is vital to the success of the sites. The extant research on content generation has primarily focused on the amount of content and on how to encourage participation in content creation, and less attention has been paid to the content itself and how social relations affect the types of content that users upload. This study aims to empirically document the relationship between social ties and the similarities between the types of content that people create online. We collected a large data set from the photo-hosting website Flickr detailing the users' social relations over time in conjunction with their photo-uploading behavior. We found that around the time of the formation of a social tie, members of dyads began to upload more similar photos than they did before that time. After a social tie was formed, this similarity evolved in different ways in different subgroups of dyads. Whereas the similarity between photos uploaded by dyads experiencing notably different popularity levels on the site continued to grow, the dyads of users with similar levels of popularity gradually began to upload less similar photos. In cultural production, individuals appear to present themselves as unique; this feature is more salient when the social contacts are similar in popularity status. Photo-shooting behaviors have been found to exhibit the same patterns. Furthermore, we show that the most divergent uploading behavior is observed when a high-popularity user initiates a tie with a user with lower popularity. We use social psychological motivations to explain these results.

Attachment, Belongingness Needs, and Relationship Status Predict Imagined Intimacy With Media Figures

The present study uses an interpersonal relationships measure (Relationship Rating Form [RRF], Fraley & Davis, 1997) to assess both imagined intimacy with a favorite media figure and real intimacy with close others among 173 undergraduates. We examine how relational tendencies (attachment style, need to belong) and relationship status (single or partnered) interact to predict degree of imagined intimacy with same and opposite gender media figures. Results indicate that intimacy reported with a same gender friend is positively correlated with imagined intimacy for a same gender media figure. However, a compensatory pattern emerged with romantic relationships: single individuals reported greater imagined intimacy with opposite gender media figures than those in a relationship. Attachment anxiety and the need to belong (NTB) were positively predictive of imagined intimacy with opposite gender media figures for single individuals only. Social psychological motivations for media attachments are discussed.

Fetal testosterone and empathy

Background In animals, fetal testosterone (fT) plays a central role in organizing the brain and in later social behavior. In humans, exposure to atypical levels of prenatal androgens may result in masculine behavior and ability patterns. Normal inter-individual variation in fT levels has also been correlated with later sex-typed behavior. Methods In the current study, 38 children (24 male, 14 female), whose fT was analyzed in amniotic fluid, were followed up at age 4. They were asked to describe cartoons with 2 moving triangles whose interactions with each other suggested social relationships and psychological motivations. Results Females used more mental and affective state terms to describe the cartoons than males. fT was not associated with the frequency of mental or affective state terms. Females also used more intentional propositions than males. fT was negatively correlated with the frequency of intentional propositions, taking sex differences into account. fT was also negatively correlated with the frequency of intentional propositions when males were examined separately. Males used more neutral propositions than females. fT was directly correlated with the frequency of neutral propositions, taking sex differences into account. This relationship was not seen when males and females were examined separately. Conclusions These findings implicate fT in human social development. The relevance of our findings to the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism is also discussed.

The use of ‘sociopolitical identity-displays’ in Israeli-Palestinian ‘dialogue’ events

The area of intergroup conflict talk has not yet attempted to link social-psychological concepts and discourse phenomena. The present study addresses this gap through ethnographic and quantitative analyses of one in situ 105-minute ‘dialogue’ speech event between Israelis and Palestinians meeting in the Israeli-occupied territory of the West Bank. The notion of sociopolitical identity-displays (SPID) is put forth as a discourse-pragmatic construct that instantiates and enacts particular aspects of identity. Quantitative analysis then indicates differences in SPID use by the two groups. It is suggested that one factor that may be affecting such use is particular social-psychological motivations derived from the work of Henri Tajfel, contextualized to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Specifically, it is suggested that ‘symbolic mobility’ affects Israeli use while ‘psychological distinctiveness’ affects Palestinian use. The potential generalizability of these findings is discussed.

Older adolescents' engagement in casual sex: Impact of risk perception and psychosocial motivations

The relationship between attitudes for casual sex and casual sex behavior was investigated for a group of older adolescents between the ages of 17 and 19. In addition, factors that influence casual sex orientations were studied. Models of behavior that emphasize disease issues as a primary determinant of casual sex behavior were compared with models that emphasize a broader range of social-psychological motivations. Results showed that the relationship between attitudes and behavior was stronger for females than males. In addition, disease-related variables were found to be correlated with behavior in a direction opposite to what traditional disease models would predict. The results were interpreted in the context of a behavioral inference model. It was found that casual sex behavior is more heavily influenced by a broad range of social-psychological motivations as compared to disease-based variables. Implications for educational interventions were developed.