Social Psychology Research Articles

Case study approach in post-occupancy evaluation research

A case study is a research approach that focuses on one or multiple real-life cases as the subject, encompassing both concrete entities such as individuals, groups, or organizations, as well as abstract constructs like processes, networks, or projects. This approach is employed to in-deep investigate complex issues and has been applied in various disciplines, such as; the social sciences, humanities, management, psychology, and architecture. The specific characteristics of a case study involve thorough exploration and analysis, data collection from diverse sources, and identification of key themes within the case. The strength of case studies lies in their ability to combine quantitative and qualitative data, enabling researchers to gain a profound understanding of the processes and outcomes of a phenomenon. This study applies a systematic literature review from several credible scholar articles. Two architectural case study researches are selected as precedents to provide a concrete overview of the characteristics, strengths, weaknesses, and procedural framework of implementing the case study approach. Analysis is conducted by comparing various gathered data to discern the potential for case studies to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the complexity of issues and the quest for their solutions.

Educational Leadership at Chinese Universities: Exploring New Perspectives from Postmodernism and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Global economic integration and the ongoing advancement of information technology have brought about rapid and profound transformations in Chinese society. The growing population of postmodernist university students in China is one of the most important factors advancing societal progress. The thesis of the current study is that educators at Chinese universities should exercise transformational and participative leadership to assist their students in succeeding in life. The contribution of the current study lies in not only introducing both the theories of postmodernism and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to the realm of higher education management in China but also adding to higher education’s theories of social psychology and offering a practical approach to leadership for higher education in China.

In what ways do accessible attitudes ease decision making? Examining the reproducibility of accessibility effects across cultural contexts.

Making attitudes more accessible via rehearsal has been shown to ease decision making by speeding the act of choosing and increasing the correspondence between one's attitudes and choices (e.g., Fazio, 1995; Fazio et al., 1992; Fazio & Williams, 1986). These effects are central to decades of attitude research and are citation classics in social psychology. We report 25 studies (N = 6,162), conducted in a diverse and culturally inclusive set of samples and contexts, that shed light on the reproducibility of these seminal findings. We examined the effects of attitude accessibility on decision latency, on the self-reported readiness to make a decision, and on attitude-choice correspondence. Results showed that the effect of attitude accessibility on decision latency is highly reproducible across multiple methods and cultural contexts, and that the effect on attitude-choice correspondence also appears robust in choice contexts that parallel the original experiments but not in choice contexts that highlight the need to consider others' preferences. Effects on self-reported readiness to decide did not emerge. No robust role for culture was observed in moderating these effects, though the limitations of the studies temper these conclusions. In sum, we build on prior research by showing which types of effects are likely to be reliably influenced by attitude accessibility. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of facial skin pigmentation on social judgments in a Mexican population.

People quickly and involuntarily form impressions of others based on their facial physical attributes, which can modulate critical social interactions. Skin pigmentation is one of the most variable and conspicuous facial traits among human populations. Empirical evidence suggests that these variations reflect ancestral ecological selective pressures balancing cutaneous vitamin D synthesis with the protection of the dermis from ultraviolet radiation. Nevertheless, skin pigmentation may currently be subject to additional selective pressures. For instance, the colonial era in Central and South America developed a highly stratified society based on ethnic origins, and light skin pigmentation became associated with higher social status and deference. This association could have originated through historical social learning that promoted favorable social perceptions towards individuals with lighter skin color and unfavorable perceptions towards individuals with darker skin color, which could still be present in the perception of current populations. Facial skin pigmentation is also sexually dimorphic, with males tending to exhibit darker skin than females, a difference that could be driven by sexual selection. To explore whether social learning and sexual selection represent additional selective pressures on skin pigmentation, we tested how this facial trait influences fundamental social perceptions in a Mexican population (N = 700, 489 female). We sampled facial images of eight European American males with natural lighter facial skin and eight males from an indigenous pre-Columbian community from Mexico, the Me'Phaa, with natural darker facial skin. We produced stimuli from these images by varying the skin pigmentation while preserving the facial shape. Stimuli were rated on attractiveness, trustworthiness, perceived health, dominance, aggressiveness, and femininity/masculinity. We found that the natural light-skinned faces were perceived as more attractive, trustworthy, and healthy but less dominant than the natural dark faces. Furthermore, by varying the facial skin color in these original groups, we altered the perceptions of them, mainly their attractiveness. These results partially support the hypothesis that dark facial skin color may help males compete for mates. Also, the results strongly support the view that lighter facial skin color became associated with social benefits through social learning in this Mexican population. Our findings, when viewed through the lens of cultural evolution, align with previous research in social psychology and anthropology. They hold the potential to offer a comprehensive understanding of the origin of this social phenomenon of cultural transmission, which currently plays a role in the formation of racial attitudes, stereotyping, and racial inequality in Mexican and other Latin American populations.

Career Socialisation and Professional Identity

In society and the labour market, we have different positions and statuses, and we have to perform the tasks that go with those roles. According to traditional role theory in social psychology, "a role is a specific mode of response, an indoctrinated, habitual, automatic and mostly unconscious chain of behaviour that takes place in the context of typical social attitudes, emotions and self-identifications." (Buda, 1965 quoted in Csepeli, 2001, 102-103) The elements of behaviour required to occupy a status or position are determined by the roles that the occupant of the status must perform. These roles are associated with attitudes, values and behavioural patterns (Hidy, 2001). In the case of occupations and professions where the roles and tasks can be clearly described (doctor, teacher, architect), the set of roles required can be more easily formulated. In many cases, however, the positions (occupations) on the labour market today require a more varied set of roles from the individual, and it is more difficult to clarify the roles, since these occupations do not have rigid position descriptions, but are rather loosely defined and highly variable (Goffman, 1978). One such occupation is that of community organiser, where it is possible to function successfully in a wide range of fields, even with different attitudes and strengths. Identity formation in careers with such a complex set of roles is therefore difficult, even though a strong professional identity is an important prerequisite for success in any profession.

Life orientation teachers’ experiences of providing psychosocial support to high school learners in the Johannesburg West district

In this article we report on a study in which we explored life orientation (LO) teachers’ experiences in providing psychosocial support to high school learners in the Johannesburg West district. High school learners are in the adolescent developmental stage, which is marked by major shifts in physiology, cognition, and social interactions, rendering them vulnerable to psychosocial problems. To cope with these challenges, they need sufficient age-related guidance and support. However, there is a shortage of social workers, registered counsellors and psychologists who are trained to provide psychosocial support for these issues in South African educational settings. As a result, LO teachers are frequently left with the responsibility of providing these services. Semi-structured telephonic interviews were conducted with 15 LO teachers from 11 schools (Quintiles 1 to 4) in the Johannesburg West district. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings show that LO teachers play a critical role in providing psychosocial support to learners. They are, however, exposed to stressful experiences, which make them vulnerable to vicarious trauma, implying that they require support. It is thus recommended that they be provided with opportunities for debriefing and counselling.

Lingualyzer: A computational linguistic tool for multilingual and multidimensional text analysis

Most natural language models and tools are restricted to one language, typically English. For researchers in the behavioral sciences investigating languages other than English, and for those researchers who would like to make cross-linguistic comparisons, hardly any computational linguistic tools exist, particularly none for those researchers who lack deep computational linguistic knowledge or programming skills. Yet, for interdisciplinary researchers in a variety of fields, ranging from psycholinguistics, social psychology, cognitive psychology, education, to literary studies, there certainly is a need for such a cross-linguistic tool. In the current paper, we present Lingualyzer (https://lingualyzer.com), an easily accessible tool that analyzes text at three different text levels (sentence, paragraph, document), which includes 351 multidimensional linguistic measures that are available in 41 different languages. This paper gives an overview of Lingualyzer, categorizes its hundreds of measures, demonstrates how it distinguishes itself from other text quantification tools, explains how it can be used, and provides validations. Lingualyzer is freely accessible for scientific purposes using an intuitive and easy-to-use interface.

Memahami Teori Belajar Perilaku (Behaviorisme dan Teori Belajar Sosial Bandura serta Contoh Penerapannya)

This research aims to reveal Albert Bandura's behaviorist theory and its application in Arabic language learning. An in-depth study is needed to dissect Bandura's behaviorist theory, which is a new figure in the development of learning theories that have long been adhered to by these teachers. This research is library research, relying on bibliographic sources in the form of books and scientific journals related to research results, using descriptive analysis methods to read data and analyze Bandura's theoretical thinking. The application of behavioristic theory to stimulate student response stimuli is therefore important to understand that every human being has different characteristics and learning styles. The results of this research show that observational learning (modeling), which is better known as social learning theory and personality psychology, as well as programs based on the stimulus-response concept put forward by Bandura, have appeal in learning Arabic. Implementations that can be used include: presenting a lot of material with ḥiwār, imitating idioms, habituation, by not teaching qawā'id separately. Then, all learning objectives can be achieved by optimizing the language environment.

Scaffolding Strategy and Gender Influence in Learning Social Psychology Concepts

The concept of scaffolding has consistently been a widely explored subject in the field of educational psychology. Though a great number of research had been done in science education, there was little known about social science. To address this gap, the current study examined the interplay between gender and scaffolding on students learning of social psychology concepts. One hypothesis was that women would do better in understanding the target concept of the mere exposure effect than men did. Another hypothesis was that participants who were exposed to the scaffolding scenario designed to provide prior knowledge would be more resilient to learning the concept. In a sample of 47 young learners recruited online, aged from under 18 to 26, an anonymous online survey was used to test participants comprehension, and the results were interpreted using ANOVA analysis. Unfortunately, the results showed no significant effects of gender and scaffolding on participants understanding of the given concept. Further discussion about the possible influential factors and suggestions for future research were mentioned at the end.

Dressing up social psychology: Empirically investigating the psychological functions of clothing using the example of symbolic protection.

Clothing behaviour remains an understudied research area within social psychology. Through the present research, we aim to anchor attire as an empirical research subject by investigating the psychological properties of one of its functionalities, namely, to provide protection. We argue that attire's undisputed role in shielding humans from environmental hazards may extend to the psychological level and protect them from the incorporeal consequences of existential threats symbolically. In this Registered Report, a mixed-methods approach links an ecologically valid field study of self-presentation in social media posts during Russia's war on Ukraine (Study 1; N = 248) with supraliminal priming of mortality salience in an online experiment (Study 2; N = 248). Across both studies, we expectthat mortality concerns let people accentuate the physically protective attributes of clothing (e.g. more layers of clothing) and resort to more in-group prototypical dress styles (i.e. more gender-stereotypical). Findings show that people adjust their clothing preferences in response to existential threats, favouring in-group prototypical clothing (more gender-typical for both women and men in Study 1) and physically protective attire (higher in women and lower in men in Study 2) during high (vs. low) levels of existential threat. By positioning clothing as a research area within social psychology, our goal is to stimulate a wave of research on its profound role for humankind. Furthermore, we provide a dynamic and robust methodological approach to researching terror management theory.

Gender essentialism and benevolent sexism in anti‐trans rhetoric

AbstractThe past half‐decade has seen an exponential rise in proposed and debated anti‐trans legislation in the United States. These bills are often positioned at the center of divisive political debates between Republicans (who typically support these laws) and Democrats (who typically do not). In the process of discussing these debates, there has been widespread dissemination of anti‐trans rhetoric that has the potential to impact public opinion. In this review, we approach this rhetoric through the lens of social psychology with a specific focus on instances where anti‐trans legislation is portrayed as beneficial for the rights of other vulnerable groups of people, such as cisgender women and children. We identify psychological constructs reflected in anti‐trans rhetoric and then review existing literature on the consequences and beliefs associated with these constructs. Based upon this review, we argue that the kind of reasoning used to promote anti‐trans laws—specifically, essentialist beliefs and benevolent sexism—is actually associated with outcomes that are detrimental to the very groups these laws purport to protect. Given these potentially adverse effects of essentialism and benevolent sexism, we reflect on ways to reduce the impact of these psychological constructs in everyday life and suggest some alternatives to these laws that would improve the lives of both cisgender and transgender individuals. Next, we briefly discuss other forms of anti‐trans rhetoric and suggest ways that social psychology can be used to positively reframe rhetoric and policy to promote the welfare of transgender and gender‐diverse individuals. We close our paper with a brief discussion of limitations and summary of our ideas.

A comparative study of gender differences in healthy office building strategies

BackgroundThe health of office workers has become a major concern under the pressure of increasingly fierce job competition. As countries have gradually promoted healthy buildings, there is an urgent need to create and construct healthy office environments. Although the WELL Building Standard proposed management and design strategies based on the principles of health and medicine, it does not consider group characteristics or gender differences.PurposeThis study aims to apply the theory of planned behavior to healthy building design and supplement the important role of gender and group characteristics in behavioral guidance based on architectural strategies and user behaviors to improve the relevant building evaluation system.MethodsThis study adopted a questionnaire survey and structural equation model. Four WELL-certified healthy office buildings in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, were selected for the survey. Based on the theory of planned behavior, structural equation models for men and women were established, compared, and analyzed. The factors affecting the health behaviors of the two groups and the actual effectiveness of various building optimization strategies were discussed, and an optimization direction for gender differences was proposed.ResultsThe findings indicated differences between male and female staff in their individual characteristics and implementation of health behaviors. Management strategies, subjective design strategies in assistance and guidance, and objective design strategies in spatial planning can promote the health behaviors of the two groups. However, the design strategies of result feedback and detail optimization only appeared to have a significant positive effect on female staff, whereas the intelligent automation design strategies only had an obvious intervention effect on men’s health behaviors.SignificanceThis study found that the theory of planned behavior in the field of social psychology could be applied to relevant research on architectural design and emphasized the influence of gender. It can not only provide the optimization direction for the evaluation standards of relevant healthy buildings but also promote the implementation of health behaviors in office groups and provide new ideas for promoting the development of healthy buildings.

Small things—‘It felt like love’—The experience of being deeply moved in therapy: Clients' stories of the small things that matter in therapy

Small things—‘It felt like love’—The experience of being deeply moved in therapy: Clients' stories of the small things that matter in therapy

Consumer attitudes: drivers of unlawful disposal of solid waste products

ABSTRACT The consumer attitudes towards how they participate in the disposal of solid waste products is a crucial concern in Ghana. The attribution theory in social psychology emerged in the literature as a paradigm that seeks to explain the consumer attitudes towards solid waste products disposables that are negative and individualistic. This study estimates the motivational factors to consumer attitudes and unlawful disposal of solid waste products in Bono Region of Ghana. The results indicated the direct path dimensions of the analysed hostile aggression was CoE (−0.103), SE (0.040), CR (−2.547), p (0.011), learned helplessness was CoE (0.112), SE (0.052), CR (−2.133), p (0.033), and beliefs was CoE (0.049), SE (0.049), CR (0.988), p (0.323). Beliefs were not significant. However, hostile aggression and learned helplessness were significantly related to the unlawful disposal of solid waste products. The mediation for advertising message type was EST (0.622), SE (0.038), p (0.000) significant indirect effect towards the unlawful disposal of solid waste products and moderation interaction for existential consumer EST (0.002), SE (0.000), CR (70.939), p (0.000) was significant towards the unlawful disposal of solid waste products. The results suggest that many consumers who throw away solid waste products participate in unlawful disposal practices.

Distorted Cognitive Process in Major Depressive Disorder and Relevant Interventions

This paper mainly discussed cognitive distortions of major depression and the methods of intervention for major depression. Then, this paper also contains different studies and different findings that indicate different cognitive patterns and processes of patients with major depression. For example, patients with major depression will be more sensitive to stressful events. Expectations have a significant correlation with major depression. Due to the existence of cognitive dissonance, people tend to reduce this dissonance by changing inconsistent cognition, according to social psychology. An individual's self-esteem level can predict the expectation of future performance. At the same time, some papers have also studied the relationship between mind wandering and major depression, as well as the ambulatory heart rate and variability. There are also relevant studies that found that people with depression post more negative language on social media. Among them, researchers have also developed intervention methods for these cognitive errors. At the same time, it is also important for psychologists to pay attention to patients' expectations when treating patients' mental illness, as the source of most of rumination and loss is to do with the patient's high expectations. Patients struggle to keep track of their most accurate emotions from moment to moment as well. This review can provide some guidance to the design of effective treatment for at-risk individuals.

The development and preliminary validation of the Serbian value lexicon – An archival approach to value measurement

Values refer to stable beliefs and principles held by individuals, which guide their attitudes, behaviours, and judgments, and play a crucial role in shaping their identities and interactions with others. Studying values in social psychology is important as it provides insights into the motivational forces that drive individuals’ behaviour and decision-making, shaping the dynamics of interpersonal relationships and societal interactions. The aim of this paper is to test the possibility of measuring basic values in the archive and text materials. Based on the Schwartz’s theory of values and earlier work on the value lexicon in English, the Serbian lexicon of values was developed and preliminarily validated on a large-scale Internet-based survey. The lexical co-occurrence of words in the natural language use on the Internet was analysed in order to assess the convergent, discriminant and predictive validity of the lexicon. Lexical co-occurrence analysis showed that the words representing the same values co-occurred significantly more in comparison to the words denoting different values. The pattern of correlations between the values measured in the archive material on the Internet using the value lexicon showed high convergence with the pattern of correlations between the values assessed by the self-reported measures used in the European Social Survey in 2018. The relative prominence of the specific values on the official websites of the exemplar societal institutions and organizations identified by the value lexicon was in line with the expectations and preliminarily confirmed the criterion validity of the lexicon of values. Possible applications of the lexicon of values, as well as some methodological issues pertaining to its future use, are discussed in the final part.

The representation of «woman» in english proverbs

Proverbs were first employed verbally without any supporting evidence in recorded literature, according to their origins. They have their origins in a country’s oral traditions. Folk literature known as proverbs condenses the nation’s knowledge into a few sentences. Proverbs, like other forms of folk literature like jokes and riddles, do not just appear out of thin air or are the creations of mythological beings; rather, they are always the products of human invention, whether done knowingly or unknowingly. The national mentality and national symbols of spiritual culture, etc., which have a direct relationship to socio cultural characters, are among the macro-components of the content structure of proverbs and sayings. These also include the social psychology of the language community’s members, the myriad contradictions and aspects of life, relationships between individuals and the community, and national mentality.

A Human Behaviour Perspective on Horizontal Collaboration to Reduce the Climate Impact of Logistics

The transport sector needs to drastically reduce its carbon footprint to comply with the Paris Agreement. In today’s sharing economy, an emerging strategy to contribute to this goal is horizontal collaboration. However, most studies on horizontal collaboration or resource pooling are approached from a theoretical Operations Research perspective, and case studies are usually stylised. At the same time, the uptake of horizontal collaboration in practice is limited. An important explanation for this is that compared to traditional vertical collaboration, coalition formation is much more complex under horizontal collaboration, as some players will be included in the collaborative coalition, while others will be excluded. We conjecture that this renders human behaviour much more important than in more traditional vertical supply chain relations. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a research agenda for an interdisciplinary approach that integrates human behavioural aspects in studies on horizontal supply chain collaboration. We review some vital concepts from social psychology and discuss the importance to the success or failure of horizontal collaboration initiatives to reduce the environment footprint of the logistics sector. We conclude that social psychological insights on mixed-motive interactions are pivotal to understand wicked problems such as Sustainable Development Goal 13 on Climate Action, and that interdisciplinary approaches should therefore receive more attention in academic literature.

To see or not to see: the parallel processing of self-relevance and facial expressions

The self, like the concept of central "gravity", facilitates the processing of information that is directly relevant to the self. This phenomenon is known as the self-prioritization effect. However, it remains unclear whether the self-prioritization effect extends to the processing of emotional facial expressions. To fill this gap, we used a self-association paradigm to investigate the impact of self-relevance on the recognition of emotional facial expressions while controlling for confounding factors such as familiarity and overlearning. Using a large and diverse sample, we replicated the effect of self-relevance on face processing but found no evidence for a modulation of self-relevance on facial emotion recognition. We propose two potential theoretical explanations to account for these findings and emphasize that further research with different experimental designs and a multitasks measurement approach is needed to understand this mechanism fully. Overall, our study contributes to the literature on the parallel cognitive processing of self-relevance and facial emotion recognition, with implications for both social and cognitive psychology.

Principles of environmental and social psychology in UI/UX design for metaverse social games: A case study of Horizon Worlds

Design psychology and environmental and social psychology are two independent yet interconnected fields. This paper aims to integrate these fields and explore their application in user interface/user experience (UI/UX) design for metaverse social games. The principles of design psychology help understand users’ cognitive and emotional needs, enabling the creation of user-friendly interfaces and interaction designs. On the other hand, principles of environmental and social psychology provide insights into how environmental and social factors influence user behavior and psychological states. Building upon the importance and application of design psychology principles in UI/UX design, we delve into the specific environmental and social psychology factors that impact UI/UX design in metaverse social games. As a virtual global social platform, the metaverse necessitates designers to consider users’ social needs, identity expression, and personal interactions, in order to create an immersive and authentic virtual social experience. Through an in-depth analysis of Zuckerberg’s “Horizon Worlds” and its UI/UX design, we explore the comprehensive application of design psychology and environmental and social psychology principles in metaverse social games. We examine aspects such as usability, personalization, social interaction, and emotional connection in UI/UX design and discuss how visual elements, sound effects, and interactive feedback can facilitate the establishment of emotional connections and social networks within the virtual world. This research aims to provide designers with deeper insights and guidance in creating metaverse social game interfaces that align with user needs and societal adaptability. It will further expand the theoretical foundation of UI/UX design for metaverse social games and serve as a case study and reference for empirical research on the application of environmental and social psychology in game interface design.