Social Psychological Concepts Research Articles

Psychology in management accounting and control research: an overview of the recent literature

For decades, management accounting and control (MAC) researchers have employed a diverse set of source disciplines to predict and examine behavior, and psychology is among the most frequently drawn upon. Although the literature confirms that psychological theories are highly relevant to MAC research, the existing knowledge on this field remains fragmented. Given this background, we examine recent MAC research through a systematic review of the different subfields of psychology to investigate the development of this stream of research. To do so, we collect 125 relevant articles from nine leading accounting journals between 2000 and 2019 and analyze their contents. On this basis, we provide a detailed overview of the use of psychological theories in recent literature and identify links between specific theories and MAC topics. We find that the quantity and proportion of psychology-based MAC research and the diversity of psychology subfields all increase during our investigation period, especially between 2015 and the first half of 2019. Overall, most studies address performance measurement and evaluation topics, and social psychology concepts are the most frequently applied. However, we find considerable differences in the application of psychological theories across different MAC topics. Our review provides insights into the content of this research stream and, thus, serves as a valuable source for researchers seeking an overview of previous investigations drawing on different subfields of psychology.

Conceptions of the superego in sociological and socio-psychological analyses

ABSTRACT This paper provides a historical overview of the reception of the superego concept in sociology and psychoanalytic social psychology. Central to the discussion are the ways in which classical and contemporary approaches (e.g. Parsons, Elias, Bourdieu) have responded to Freud’s theories concerning the genesis of the superego and its changes in the course of psychic development, to his suppositions concerning anthropology and psychopathology, and to later psychoanalytic extensions of the concept (e.g. Klein, Erikson and Loewald). With reference to Freud’s works of cultural critique, special emphasis is given to conceptions of the superego in studies on authoritarianism, adaptation and morality, notably by the Frankfurt School (Fromm, Horkheimer, Adorno). The authors also discuss the historical changes undergone by the superego concept and examine by way of examples the benefits of concept for achieving a clearer understanding of recent societal trends associated with contemporary phenomena such as digitization and optimization.

Initial coin offerings, asymmetric information, and loyal CEOs

A defining feature of initial coin offerings (ICOs) is that entrepreneurs bear the full marginal investment cost but profit only partially from the marginal investment payoff. This design may exacerbate agency conflicts inherent in corporate finance. As a consequence, signals of entrepreneurial quality such as CEO loyalty, which is an established concept in social psychology and can easily be linked to potential agency conflicts in corporate settings, might be a first-order determinant of economic outcomes in the ICO market. Consistent with this, I find that loyal CEOs have to offer lower financial incentives to attract investors and are still able to raise more proceeds, conduct ICOs more thoroughly, and are less likely to fail. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that asymmetric information between entrepreneurs and investors entail agency costs that are decreasing in CEO loyalty.

Event concept of EMPATHY in English juvenile fantasy prose

The article deals with the research of lingual cognitive and pragmatic aspects of empathy in juvenile fantasy prose. It reveals the nature of empathy from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, linguistic emotiology, and pragmalinguistics. The properties of empathy verbalization in juvenile fantasy prose are researched, namely the lexical and grammatical means of verbalization of the corresponding concepts and empathic illocutionary types of psychological support in discursive contexts of the English juvenile fantasy prose. The implementation of both pragmatic and lingual cognitive research findings in the light of cognitive-discursive paradigm revealed the basis of empathy conceptualization and the multifaceted empathic context. The interpretation of empathy meaning is performed by means of schematic cognitive mapping, as well as via establishing the correlation of empathy determinants in discursive contexts which present the communicative strategy of empathy. The componential analysis of definitions of various affective and cognitive states and processes connected with empathy, such as compassion, understanding, sympathy etc., as well as their antonyms, and determination of weight, status and hierarchy of the corresponding semes in vocabulary definitions, showed that generally accepted and empirically proved division of empathy into affective and cognitive is reflected in the language. The analyses revealed affective (feeling, sympathy, sorrow) cognitive (knowledge, ability, understanding) semes in the definitions of empathy types attributing them to either affective or cognitive group. Types of empathy, which belong to the same affective or cognitive group, are not equal in the degree of empathy manifestation. The factor or driving force for upgrading (or downgrading) to a different level is action. While partly addressing social functioning, empathy is turned to cognition and emotion, thus being framed as a social psychological event concept. As an event concept empathy emerges in consciousness and in verbal behavior under the influence of human activity in a certain communicative-pragmatic situation, arising in a variety of constituents of the cognitive and affective parcels of the domain of empathy and unfolding in two scripts which reflect its active and passive manifestations.

Modelling of Civil Union and Fatherhood: Mechanisms, Predictors, Self-Reference of Identities

The article describes the mechanisms of constructing the practices of marriage and family partnership and paternity. The author notes that an idea of a traditional family, the subject changes the status of traditional family values, destroys the usual role-playing behaviour of men/women, departs from institutional rules and constructs individual values of practices, is freed from the influence of absolute measurements regarding the “sacredness” of classically traditional families, marriage, paternity. In such circumstances, the explanatory capacity of existing scientific approaches to interpreting the polyphony of the meanings of practices and multiple identities is insufficient. It logically raises the question of the need for a new concept of psychological transformation practices of marriage and family partnership and paternity. Thus, addressing these issues gives a new understanding of the mechanisms and processes that recreate the nature of changes in spousal partnerships and paternity practices in the context of social realities. In the process of building of marriage and family partnership and paternity cultural conditioned, individual and personal, emotional and sensitive social and psychological predictors of external variables are personal factors which correlate individual understanding of the meanings of practices and themselves. The work also proposes the social-psychological concept of postmodern transformations of the practices of marriage-family partnership and paternity, according to which the existing polyphony of meanings is the result of the interdependence of social-psychological predictors of meanings, the activation of mechanisms of constructing and the process of self-referential identity.

Releasing Internalized Stigma for Empowerment: Development of Theory-Driven Interventions for Sexual and Gender Minorities

Internalized stigma has a direct and detrimental effect on the mental health of sexual and gender minorities (SGMs), yet few interventions have been specifically designed to reduce such internalized stigma. This article describes numerous social psychology concepts and theories integrated into a brief, online intervention that has demonstrated success in reducing internalized stigma among SGM subpopulations. Using this intervention as an example, we illustrate how concepts from social psychology can expand the development of such interventions and strategies. We demonstrate how social psychological theories, particularly those related to attitude formation and change, may inform development of this and other interventions.

Acculturation and accounting standardization strategies

Research question: The objective of this research is to develop a reliable and valid measurement scale for releasing new cultural attributes based on social psychology concepts and apply them afterwards in the accounting field. Motivation: Migration to International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) standards by a large and growing number of countries has marked the accounting field. However, this application varies from one country to another due to several environmental factors especially cultural ones. Idea: This paper puts the important issue of cultural differences in applying international financial reporting standards (IFRS) to the forefront and especially the strategies countries may apply when coping with the implementation of these standards within their local environment. Data: We selected a total of 33 items from these scales that match most with the objective of our survey. We also added the two questions posed by Berry to determine its acculturation strategies. We used 874 answers from different countries to our questionnaire. Tools: By taking Berry’s typology, we conducted a cluster analysis to dynamic clouds using SPSS, which allows us to identify the different acculturation strategies used by respondents. Findings: Using Berry's acculturation model borrowed from social psychology and adopting an exploratory perspective based on the interpretive approach, we developed a measurement scale through which we identified five new acculturation attributes: interpersonal communication, work performance, open-mindedness, ethnocentrism and knowledge of the host culture. We also found that the integration strategy is the most widespread strategy in a new cultural context. This finding corresponds to the convergence strategy that is most solicited by countries applying IFRS. Contribution: Our research is an adaptation and extension of the acculturation model across some countries that could function as a “map” of potential interventions to strengthen local application of IFRS.

Community Entitativity and Civic Engagement

This study applies the social psychological concept of entitativity to communities of place. Entitativity is the property of a collectivity that differentiates a coherent social group from an aggregate of individuals. This concept, which considers aspects of group life such as boundaries, interaction, shared goals, proximity, and similarity, provides a framework for understanding communities of place as a special type of social group. Using survey data from 9,962 residents of 99 Iowa communities, this study assesses how community entitativity relates to forms of civic engagement (e.g., voluntary citizen participation) in small, rural towns. Results indicate community–level components of entitativity—including rurality, residential stability, sociability, and shared goals—are associated with greater individual–level resident civic engagement. These findings suggest community entitativity can impact resident motivations and attitudes, with the potential to activate local social capital and contribute to successful community outcomes. Implications for the study of social capital, neighborhood effects, place attachment, and sense of community are discussed.

Florian Znaniecki’s cultural psychology project

The aim of this paper is to present the project of cultural psychology formulated by Florian Znaniecki, a Polish philosopher, sociologist and pioneer of social psychology. His view of cultural psychology was connected with the concept of social psychology and was founded on the assumption of culturalism and the theory of cultural actions. Znaniecki’s cultural psychology represents the antipositivistic turning in the social sciences and the humanities and is opposite to the naturalistically oriented psychology. His proposition is also an attempt to go beyond the individualistic or antiindividualistic perspective in the cultural psychology.

Causes of the Passive Attitude in Children at Early Grade Level

Purpose: The passive attitude of a child is a common problem as far as communication is concerned which have long been considered a central concept of social psychology. The current study investigates the causes and fear of children at early grade student. The objectives of the study were (a) to identify the reasons of the passive attitude of children at primary level; (b) to determine the elements involved in creating a passive attitude in the students at primary level; (c) to assess the causes of the passive attitude of students at primary level. 
 Methodology: The nature of this research was descriptive while the survey method was used to gather information. All the learners, parents, teachers of government primary schools of district Bahawalpur were the population of the study. Sample of 592 participants (teachers 125, students 366 and parents 101) was selected through using convenient sampling techniques. The questionnaire was used as a research tool for teachers, parents, and students.
 Main Findings: Findings of the study demonstrate that punishment, scolding, steering, speaking loudly, beating, Burdon of homework and strictness were considered the major causes of passive attitude among students. Most of the teachers were of the view that students feel fear when the teacher scolds them and student’s hesitation level increased.
 Applications: This research study fulfilled both objectives of the study. The results of the study disclosed that majority of the students; teachers and parents opined that strictness of the teachers, punishment, de-motivating attitude of teachers, Burdon of homework, curriculum, the teaching method of teacher, lack of attractive environment, home environment, crowded classrooms and lack of teachers friendly relationship with students. All these become the reasons for shy and poor confidence in the children.
 Originality: In the future, this study will be helpful for the teachers and parents, how to deal with children and seeks their behaviors, As well as, this study will helpful for researchers to investigate each reason and developed the curriculum. Similarly, a policymaker can use this study to develop the rule and regulation for their institutions.

Acculturation as intergenerational trajectory and accountability concerns in immigrant youth discourse

The aim of this study is to explore the ways in which young ‘second generation’ immigrants from Albania in Greece account for their acculturation in semi-structured interviews and orient to different acculturation strategies. Interviews took place in Thessaloniki and 6 women and 13 men, aged between 21 and 30 years, participated. Analysis, which used the tools and concepts of discursive and rhetorical social psychology, indicated that participants’ accounts of acculturation involve multifaceted temporal, intergenerational and intergroup comparisons and juxtapositions which raise important dilemmas of accountability and involve interesting tensions and contradictions. Within these comparative accounts, participants are concurrently oriented to both construct themselves as active agents of a successful integration procedure, on one hand, and to show affinity to important ‘others’, on the other hand. Therefore, the prioritization of different acculturation strategies constitutes the by-product of managing ideological dilemmas in context.

Connecting social psychology concepts with the pursuit of world peace.

Connecting social psychology concepts with the pursuit of world peace.

Institutional Imbalance, Marketized Mentality, and the Justification of Instrumental Offenses: A Cross-National Application of Institutional Anomie Theory

The present study builds upon prior research that has suggested that the social psychological concept of “marketized mentality” (MM) can serve as a conceptual lynchpin to facilitate multilevel analyses informed by Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT), a macro-sociological theory of crime. We examine the connection between a societal indicator of institutional imbalance – a key IAT concept – and a measure of the prevalence of MM with a much larger sample of nations than analyzed previously (58 countries). In addition, we broaden the domain of “outcomes” related to MM to include an attitudinal variable relevant to crime – the willingness to justify instrumental offenses. Consistent with theoretical expectations, the results reveal significant relations between MM, the degree of institutional imbalance, and the willingness to justify instrumental offenses. These findings indicate the potential promise of developing an integrated, micro-macro approach to understanding criminological phenomena by incorporating MM within the IAT-analytic framework.

An Overview of Implicit Racial Stereotype in Malaysia

Based on the concept of social psychology, a stereotype is a scheme or general knowledge structure associated with the characteristics, attribute and behaviour of group members. Therefore, socio-cultural diversity in Malaysia has created a broad spectrum of stereotypical and prejudiced views to describe a particular ethnic group. However, discussing sensitive issues such as stereotyping and prejudice in general often give discomfort. Thus, the emergence of implicit measurements is one of the revolutions of stereotyping and attitudes to enable the assessment of attitudes towards sensitive social domains which can be evaluated through spontaneous and automatic representation that cannot be accessed by traditional questionnaires. Hence, this paper focuses on the topic briefly on the basic terminology and understanding of the measurement of implicit stereotypes adopted by the society in Malaysia.

The Stigma of Tenure Denied: An Exploration of Individual and Institutional Implications

Although tenure denial is a familiar feature of the faculty profession, the dearth of specific research on the subject indicates that it is a phenomenon not sufficiently understood. The analyses that do exist are largely a-theoretical and unsystematic. In this qualitative study, we employed Goffman’s social psychological concepts of stigma and moral career to examine whether tenure denial is stigmatizing, and if so, how individuals navigate the personal, social, and professional implications of this undesirable label. Findings highlight the implicit burden of responsibility placed solely on individuals for their tenure denial, the challenge of managing social and professional situations, and the factors that contribute to or mitigate against the establishment of a new sense of self. We argue that just as the profession is learning that non-tenure track faculty should be treated with respect without regard for their non-traditional professional status, so tenure denial, although painful, need not be stigmatic. Rather, individuals may become advocates, activists, and employees (faculty or otherwise) who are able to serve with greater professional clarity and self-understanding as a result of their tenure denial experience.

Colorism and classism confounded: Perceptions of discrimination in Latin America

Despite competing narratives of mestizaje (race-mixing) emphasizing class discrimination and social movements highlighting the existence of racial discrimination in Latin America, little work has examined the overlap of class and color in people's understandings of discrimination. This study moves beyond the color/class binary by examining perceptions of only class, only color, and both class and color discrimination (dual discrimination). I also examine whether individuals have difficulty attributing the causes of discrimination by expanding upon the social psychological concept of attributional ambiguity. Using nationally representative data from the 2010 LAPOP's Americas Barometer survey, I find that color-based explanations have not replaced class-based explanations. Instead, both class and color appear to be part of schemas drawn upon by individuals to understand the unfavorable treatment they perceive—in line with scholarship showing both class disadvantage and color conjointly influence the stratification systems of Latin America. There is also suggestive evidence that individuals may have trouble disentangling the causes of the discrimination they perceive.

The Exit Threat and Corporate Governance：From the Perspective of Earnings Management

The threat is a common game between stakeholders, forcing the other to make a concession by exerting pressure, and then affecting the equilibrium strategy of the game. In corporate governance, the exit threat is an important means for large shareholders to achieve their governance objectives. However, due to the difficulty of direct observation, the academic community failed to give enough attention. In this paper, the concept of social psychology is introduced into the framework of corporate governance research. The exit threat is a frontier research field in the international finance and accounting circles recently. The literature finds that the credible exit threat can alleviate the agency problem between shareholders and the managing hierarchy （Hope, et al., 2017; Edmans and Holderness, 2017）. Can the exit threat governance effect based on western capital market experience be applied to emerging capital market countries? This problem remains to be further tested. In recent years, China’s capital market has developed rapidly, but large shareholders tunneling listed companies and infringing on the interests of small and medium shareholders emerge endlessly. In these events, the external majority shareholder, who should have acted as a supervisor”, plays the role of collusion”. This leads to the question: will the external majority shareholder conspire with the controlling shareholder and management by using the exit threat? It is necessary to verify the governance hypothesis” and collusion hypothesis” that may exist in the exit threat. Based on 17 080 observation samples from 2007-2015 years’ Shanghai and Shenzhen A shares, this paper examines the governance hypothesis” and conspiracy hypothesis” for the outside blockholders’ exit threat. We also analyze the heterogeneity characteristics of the exit threat governance effect based on the short selling mechanism. The study finds that: the governance hypothesis” of the outside blockholders’ exit threat is established, that is, the exit threat can effectively play the role of earnings management, and one standard deviation plus in the exit threat will reduce 7.143% of accrued earnings management and 4.380% of real earnings management. It further finds that: the governance role of the exit threat is more significant in corporations with short selling, higher stock price sensitivity and higher market value management sensitivity. The findings confirm that the exit threat will have a substantial impact on corporate decision making, and reveal the path of capital market pressure transmitting to the real economy, which provides a new idea for corporate governance improvement. The contributions of this paper are mainly reflected in two aspects: First, it enriches and develops the literature in the field of corporate governance. From the perspective of social psychology, this paper puts the exit threat into the research framework of corporate governance, analyzes the governance effect of the exit threat to the earnings management, and provides empirical evidence from the emerging capital market countries for the exit threat affecting the enterprise micro behavior. Dou, et al. （2016） think that large shareholders’ exit threat can improve the quality of the financial information of enterprises. This study expands the theoretical literature of the Shareholder Activism” of the Chicago school, and confirms that the governance effect of the exit threat also exists in the emerging capital market countries. From the perspective of earnings management, this paper examines the governance effect of the exit threat of large shareholders on earnings management, which is a beneficial supplement to and expansion of Jiang’s （2015） literature, and also provides new evidence for the hot research of the recent international academic circles on the exit threat and the company’s financial relations. Second, it reveals the potential mechanism of the exit threat affecting corporate governance. The existing exit threat literature is more concerned about the impact of the exit threat on the decision or behavior of enterprises, and is not concerned about the potential mechanism of the exit threat affecting corporate governance. This paper finds that the governance effect of the exit threat is more significant when stocks or managers or controlling shareholders are sensitive to the stock price. This shows that only when the decision-maker cares about the stock price, the exit threat can really play a role, thus clarifying the channel that the exit threat affects corporate governance and financial decision-making.

Wise Feedback as a Timely Intervention for At-Risk Students Transitioning Into High School

A promising development in school-based prevention and intervention science is the use of applied social–psychological concepts to improve students’ experiences and outcomes in school. Mounting evidence from rigorous studies supports the efficacy of theoretically informed interventions grounded in social psychology, including growth mindset and values affirmation. One of particular utility for educators and school psychologists is wise feedback, which is a relational technique for providing skillful, constructive feedback. The overarching purpose of this study was to further explore the potential efficacy of wise feedback as a targeted intervention for students exhibiting social problem behaviors resulting in negative outcomes. Wise feedback was implemented using a multiple-baseline design with six students exhibiting signs of dropout (i.e., lack of trust and sense of belonging in a school) in ninth grade. Visual and statistical analysis indicated improvement in the students’ sense of belonging and trust in their schools. Implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

Suggestion of self-(in)coherence modulates cognitive dissonance.

While cognitive dissonance is an influential concept of social psychology, its relations with consciousness and episodic memory remain strongly debated. We recently used the free-choice paradigm (FCP) to demonstrate the crucial role of conscious memory of previous choices on choice-induced preference change (CIPC). After choosing between two similarly rated items, subjects reevaluated chosen items as more attractive, and rejected items as less attractive. However such a CIPC was present exclusively for items that were correctly remembered as chosen or rejected during the choice stage, both in healthy controls and in amnesic patients. In the present work, we show that CIPC can be modulated by suggestive quotes promoting self-coherence or self-incoherence. In addition to the crucial role of memory of previous choices, we discovered that memory of the suggestive quotes was correlated to the modulation of CIPC. Taken together these results suggest that CIPC reflects a dynamic homeostatic regulation of self-coherence.

A French adaptation of the Compassionate Love Scale for teachers: Validation on a sample of teachers and correlation with teacher autonomous motivation

Despite the abundant literature on teacher-student relationships teacher emotional involvement has not been much studied. The social psychological concept of compassionate love describes a type of love that occurs in many relationships and some relational jobs. It can be measured using Sprecher and Fehr's (2005) Compassionate Love Scale (CLS). The first aim of our study was to translate into French and adapt the Compassionate Love Scale for teachers and to determine the metrological qualities of the translated scale, especially factor structure. The present research provided the first test of the scale's temporal stability. The second aim was to evaluate the relation between compassionate love and teacher autonomous motivation. Data were collected via an online questionnaire. In contrast to the one-factor solution provided by previous validation studies, our exploratory factor analyses revealed a two-factor solution (sensibility and sacrifice), which points out the need for further studies. The internal consistency is excellent and its test-retest reliability is good. The French scale for teachers is correlated with empathic concern and spirituality measures, and predicts teacher autonomous motivation. Our study was the first to apply the CLS to teacher-student relationships, thereby opening up new research perspectives.