Social Psychological Studies Research Articles

Introduction to the special issue: nuances of social class and socioeconomic status (Introducción a este monográfico: los matices del concepto de clase social y del nivel socioeconómico)

ABSTRACT The social psychological study of social class and socioeconomic status (SES) has burgeoned in the last 15 years and much progress has been made. Yet, researchers rarely explain their theoretical standpoint, clearly define social class and/or SES or justify their choice of how to measure it. This, we argue, is holding back progress. We suggest that social class should be considered a social category into which we are socialized that affords differing amounts of economic, social and cultural resources, while SES only captures one’s current access to various forms of capital. We briefly review literature that suggests that the meanings, understandings and thus operationalizations of social class and SES vary across groups and contexts. We then give an overview of the special issue, which documents the advances that can be gained from taking a more nuanced and theoretically informed approach to studying social class and SES.

Conformity and Group Performance.

This research provides evidence regarding the causal effect of group conformity on task performance in stable and variable environments. Drawing on studies in cultural evolution, social learning, and social psychology, we experimentally tested the hypotheses that conformity improves group performance in a stable environment (H1) and decreases performance (by hindering adaptability) in a temporally variable environment (H2). We compare the performance of individuals, low conformity groups, and high conformity groups in a four-arm randomized lab experiment (N = 240). High conformity was manipulated by rewarding agreement with the group's majority and imposing a cost on disagreement. The monetary implications of conformity impaired performance in a variable environment but did not have a significant effect on performance in the stable environment. Intragroup individual-level analyses provide insights into the mechanisms that account for the group-level results by showing that lower conformity in groups facilitates efficient adaptability in the use of social information.

Vermeintlich unvermeidlich: Poetik und Psychologie der Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Abstract The ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ has become an influential concept in contemporary behavioral psychology and economics. It has not yet been systematically introduced to literary studies, however, even though prophecies count among the long-lasting motifs of Western literature. This article aims to differentiate the psychological model of the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ by first defining its basic narrative structure and identifying various formal realizations of the structure. A second section argues that these variants are historically dependent – they emerge and evolve with time. I will devote special attention to a typically modernist variant, which surfaces around 1900 in short stories by Oscar Wilde, Thomas Mann, and Arthur Schnitzler. These stories evince the general difficulty of distinguishing between the attribution of causality and its modes of narrative representation. As a third section suggests, a poetics of self-fulfilling prophecies might help to appreciate the role that ambiguity and perspectivism play in any cause-and-effect-narratives, may they be fictional or factual. In light of this, the article reflects more generally on the possibilities and challenges of a dialogue between social psychology and literary studies.

MODERN REQUIREMENTS FOR MANAGERIAL COMPETENCIES: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICE-ORIENTED APPROACHES

The article raises the problem of multiple approaches to determining the requirements for the competencies of a modern leader, since managerial personnel and their activities are the subject of study of management, social psychology, labor economics, and sociology. The topic of building models of specialists in relation to the requirements of the workplace is touched upon, therefore it is proposed for management personnel to systematize general approaches to determining the requirements for special skills and personal qualities in accordance with the professional standard. In the course of the study, special classes of competencies were identified, which can be both highly specialized and general for different types of organizations. An analysis of the literature on management made it possible to actualize the need to single out “supra-professional” competencies or “meta-skills”, which are essentially similar to universal competencies, and to use this approach in the formation of models for training managers. Based on the results of the study, a list of metaskills that are necessary for building a managerial career, are in the top requirements of the labor market, and require priority development for managerial personnel has been compiled. The use of this list in the creation of reference competency models for managers of different levels of management will optimize the process of developing skills, knowledge and skills and select effective tools for their formation.

Visual humanization of refugees: A visual rhetorical analysis of media discourse on the war in Ukraine.

This study examines how news images of refugees in the context of the war in Ukraine mobilize intergroup relations. A visual rhetorical analysis is used to examine the rhetorical strategies employed in news images of Ukrainian refugees in a mainstream Finnish national newspaper from February 25 to May 31, 2022. The data consisted of 465 images. The study constructed four humanizing visual rhetorical strategies based on the visual expression in news images: maternalizing, fragilizing, agonizing, and activizing. The rhetorical strategies constructed four subject positions for Ukrainian refugees: vulnerable victims, innocent victims, suffering Ukrainians, and persistent/resilient Ukrainians. All rhetorical strategies implicitly communicated the subject position of evil to Russia. The paper contributes to the current knowledge of the humanization of refugees in media discourse and the potential of media images to mobilize intergroup relations. Methodologically, the paper elaborates visual rhetorical analysis as a means of social psychological study of refugee discourse in the context of war.

Java Leaders: Raden Adipati Cakranagara I In The Babad Bagelen Social Psychology Study

<p>Abstract<br />Javanese script is an ancient manuscript of ancestral cultural heritage in the form of handwriting which stores various expressions of thoughts, feelings, and results of past cultures. The contents of the diary text of the Babad Bagelen manuscript tell about the leading figure of the first Purwareja regent who was formerly known as the Bagelen area, namely Raden Adipati Cakranagara 1. The colonial era was full of pressure and policies that harmed the natives. This leadership attitude is in the manuscript of Babad Bagelen with the study of Social Psychology by David G. Myers. The presentation of the results of this study was carried out by analyzing the leadership attitude of Raden Adipati Cakranagara 1 which includes (1) Caring for others, (2) Reminding others, (3) Serving others, (4) Giving gifts, (5) Distributing good invitation quotes. The above data written in the Babad Bagelen manuscript shows the leadership attitude of Raden Adipati Cakranagara when he became Regent in Purwareja (Bagelen). The attitude studied through the Social Psychology approach is very suitable for revealing the problems written</p><p>Keywords: Babad Bagelen, Raden Adipati Cakranagara 1, Social Psychology, David G. Myers</p>

A Review of the Use of Virtual Reality Studies in Social Psychology

Experience in virtual environments is becoming widespread in both daily life and scientific studies. With the advancement of virtual reality technology, new research questions can be posed. Thus, different experiences of the body, relationships with avatars, and the use of mobile and interactive media are increasingly preferred as research topics and research methods. In addition, the relationships that people establish in virtual environments have become a new type of interaction in social psychology that needs to be investigated. The aim of this review is to examine how virtual reality is handled both as a study tool and as a field of study in social psychology. First, technical terms and the necessary software and hardware are introduced, and the concepts of presence and immersion, which are important in the virtual reality literature, are explained. Subsequently, examples of studies conducted with virtual reality in areas such as the self, morality, identity, terror management, and social impact in the field of social psychology are presented. Technical limitations, such as the uncanny valley, virtual reality sickness, ethical issues, and experimental design issues that may arise in virtual reality studies, are discussed. Finally, the contributions of virtual reality to the field and what it can do are emphasized.

Deliberation and polarization: a multi-disciplinary review

In recent years, deliberative democracy has drawn attention as a potential way of fighting polarization. Allowing citizens to exchange arguments and viewpoints on political issues in group, can have strong conflict-mitigating effects: it can foster opinion changes (thereby overcoming idea-based polarization), and improve relations between diametrically opposed groups (thereby tackling affective forms of polarization, such as affective polarization). However, these results conflict with social psychological and communication studies which find that communicative encounters between groups can lead to further polarization and even group think. The question therefore arises under which conditions deliberative interactions between citizens can decrease polarization. Based on a multidisciplinary systematic review of the literature, which includes a wide diversity of communicative encounters ranging from short classroom discussions to multi-weekend citizen assemblies, this paper reports several findings. First, we argue that the effects of communicative encounters on polarization are conditional on how those types of communication were conceptualized across disciplines. More precisely, we find depolarizing effects when group discussions adhere to a deliberative democracy framework, and polarizing effects when they do not. Second we find that the depolarizing effects depend on several design factors that are often implemented in deliberative democracy studies. Finally, our analysis shows that that much more work needs to be done to unravel and test the exact causal mechanism(s) underlying the polarization-reducing effects of deliberation. Many potential causal mechanisms were identified, but few studies were able to adjudicate how deliberation affects polarization.

Embodied standpoints in gender difference graphs and tables: When, where, and why are men still prioritized?

Gender difference graphs and tables typically present data representing males first, ahead of data representing females. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association in 2010 advised authors against this “bias” when reporting gender differences. An experiment examined how this preference is related to embodied cognition, and two content analytic studies examined its persistence despite the American Psychological Association's (APA) advice against it. In Study 1, 256 students drew bar graphs of gender differences and power differences. Participants spontaneously arrayed men first and higher power groups first most often, even when graph axes were placed to cue the opposite order. These results suggest that males-first order preferences follow from embodied biases to position agentic groups left and higher up in graphs and tables. Two content analyses systematically sampled psychology articles in four journals over a decade (Study 2) or 70 journals in a recent year (Study 3) to examine the impact of the APA manual’s advice on authors. The males-first preference remains prevalent in psychology publications, has reversed in Psychology of Women Quarterly (Study 2), and became polarized by author gender in social psychology (Study 3). These findings suggest that embodied cognition affects the visual representation of gender differences in psychology and is variably moderated by recent injunctions.

The effect of therapist characteristics on the use and outcome of systematic client feedback in outpatient mental healthcare.

Therapist characteristics are known to affect treatment outcome in general and could also influence the use of systematic client feedback (SCF). The current study explores the effect of feedback orientation, regulatory focus, self-efficacy, attitude towards feedback resources and perceived feedback validity on the use and outcome of SCF in outpatient mental healthcare. The data of therapists (n = 12) and patients (n = 504) of two outpatient centres offering brief psychological treatment were analysed when SCF, based on the Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS), was added to treatment as usual. The data of therapists were obtained through a therapist questionnaire composed of relevant characteristics from feedback studies in social and organizational psychology. The effect on the use of SCF was analysed using logistic regression; whereas, the effect on outcome was assessed using a two-level multilevel analysis. Regular use of SCF and the Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-45) were used as outcome variables. DSM-classification, sex and age of each patient were included as covariates. High perceived feedback validity significantly increased the use of SCF. No significant therapist characteristics effects were found on outcome, but high promotion focus was associated with treating more complex patients. The perceived feedback validity of SCF is likely to have an influence on its use and is probably affected by the changes in the organizational climate.

Consumer–machine relationships in the age of artificial intelligence: Systematic literature review and research directions

AbstractRecent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and the emergence of AI‐based social applications in the market have propelled research on the possibility of consumers developing relationships with AI. Motivated by the diversity of approaches and inconsistent findings in this emerging research stream, this systematic literature review analyzes 37 peer‐reviewed empirical studies focusing on human–AI relationships published between 2018 and 2023. We identify three major theoretical domains (social psychology, communication and media studies, and human–machine interactions) as foundations for conceptual development, and detail theories used in the reviewed papers. Given the radically new nature of social AI innovation, we recommend developing a novel theoretical approach that would synergistically utilize cross‐disciplinary literature. Analysis of the methodology indicates that quantitative studies dominate this research stream, while qualitative, longitudinal, and mixed‐method approaches are used infrequently. Examination of research models and variables used in the studies suggests the need to reconceptualize factors and processes of human–AI relationship, such as agency, autonomy, authenticity, reciprocity, and empathy, to better correspond to the social AI context. Based on our analysis, we propose an integrative conceptual framework and offer directions for future research that incorporate the need to develop a comprehensive theory of human ‐ AI relationships, explore the nomological networks of its key constructs, and implement methodological variety and triangulation.

MEASUREMENT INVARIANCE ACROSS AGE GROUPS OF THE ARMENIAN INSTRUMENT OF CULTURAL LOGICS OF HONOR, DIGNITY AND FACE

This article is part of ongoing studies aimed at validating the measurement model of honor, face, and dignity in the Armenian language. Psychometric equivalence of cultural logics of honor, face, and dignity across age groups was assessed.
 In total, 382 participants aged 18 to 47 (Mage=24.03, SD=5.721, 68.5% were women) were included in the analysis. Two age groups (youngsters, aged 18 to 25, n=273 and adults, aged 26 to 47, n=109) were defined for measurement invariance analysis. Multiple group confirmatory analyses were conducted within four model parameters: configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance. Full invariance was achieved for the cultural logic of face across two age groups. Partial residual invariance was established for the cultural logic of honor. The cultural logic of dignity was partially invariant based on metric and scalar levels.
 These findings provide a psychometric basis for the valid comparisons of the means of cultural logics of honor, dignity and face across age groups. This enriches our understanding of the Armenian instrument's performance and makes it a useful tool for social-psychological studies examining the prevalence of these cultural logics and their associations with other variables such as moral values and self-construal. Further analysis can focus on exploring the peculiarities of the non-invariant items.

The Rise of the Talking Journalist: Human Voice, Engagement, and Trust in Live Journalism Performance

ABSTRACT Live journalism performances have become a rising trend in journalism to gain audiences’ trust and engagement. This article examines how live journalism shows bring talking journalists into the limelight. It illustrates how audience’s experiences regarding journalistic talk provide an understanding of how the idea of trust is negotiated during a performance. The empirical material includes audience surveys and interviews from the Finnish live journalism show Musta laatikko in 2019. By bringing together aspects from journalism studies, social psychology, and sound studies, the article demonstrates the nuanced ways audiences discuss the atmosphere of the show. Especially interesting is how audiences experienced journalist’s professional competence through talk. Notably, talk as a medium was seen to reduce, in positive ways, the distance between a journalist and audience but not the trust between them. Finally, the article demonstrates how live journalism and live talk can provide audiences with much-welcomed algorithm-free and full-concentration possibilities to consume journalism.

Social movements and collective behavior: an integration of meta-analysis and systematic review of social psychology studies.

The impact of social movements (SMs) and collective behavior (CB) supports the relevance of approaching this phenomenon from social psychology. Several systematic reviews (10) and meta-analyses (6) have been carried out in the 21st century, but there is a lack of integration. This study seeks to review the patterns of CB and corroborate the psychosocial factors that explain participation in CB and SMs, as well as the long-term psychological effects of participating in them. A systematic search was carried out in the databases Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, Willey Online Library, EBSCO, and JSTOR for articles dated between 1969 and 2022. We searched for meta-analyses and systematic reviews that empirically evaluated social movements and collective behavior. Of the 494 initial records, after scanning and eligibility phases, 16 meta-analyses and systematic reviews were analyzed in the present work. The evidence reviewed shows that participation in collective gatherings and CB are common. A cross-cultural survey suggests that collective gatherings are mostly of a leisure type, to a lesser extent religious and sporting, and to an even lesser extent, demonstrations and large religious rites. World Value surveys found that one to three persons out of 10 participate in protests or CB related to SMs and four out of 10 movements achieved some kind of success. Studies challenged that CBs were characterized by unanimity of beliefs, identification and behavior, generalized excitement, as well as mass panic and riot after catastrophes. Only two out of 10 CB are violent. Meta-analysis and systematic reviews confirm that participation in CB and SMs was associated with (a) intergroup conflict and realistic threat (r = 0.30); (b) positive attitudes, expectations, or agreement with goals or collective motive (r = 0.44); (c) cognitive fraternal relative deprivation (r = 0.25); (d) collective efficacy (r = 0.36); (e) collective identity (r = 0.34); (f) emotions and affective relative deprivation (r = 0.35); (g) moral conviction and threat to moral (r = 0.29); and (h) disagreement with system justification belief (r = -0.26). Participation in successful CB and SMs provokes positive changes in emotions, social identity and social relationships, values and beliefs, and empowerment, as well as negative effects such as depression, stress, burnout, and disempowerment related to the failures of SMs. Studies confirm the importance of explanatory factors for SMs, with data from various cultural regions. There is a lack of systematic studies of CB as well as meta-analyses and more culturally diverse studies of the effects of participation in them.

How Not to Become a Dominatrix: Moral Panic in the Supervision of a Social Psychology Dissertation on Heterosexual BDSM

ABSTRACT This article draws on standpoint theory, social psychology, psychoanalysis, and gender studies. Perversion is understood here as an insult aimed at controlling the (sexual) freedom of women, especially women conducting academic research on nonconforming sexualities. The author recounts the moral panic that accompanied her supervision of a Ph.D. on female domination in heterosexual BDSM. This dissertation was defended several years ago and is now published, thus allowing a retrospective reading. The candidate was rapidly identified with her research object by other professors and students in the psychology department, which aroused strong emotional reactions when she performed as Mistress Tarna in a Berlin dungeon. The author analyzes the consequences of this moral panic on the supervision of this academic work and questions the place of affect in both ethnographic fieldwork and the interactions between a Ph.D. supervisor and student.

Consumer acceptance under hydrogen energy promotion policy: Evidence from Yangtze River Delta

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (HFCV) as an emerging industry with great potential have received great attention in the Yangtze River Delta, China. Under government's promotion of hydrogen energy, whether HFCV can be accepted by consumers is an important topic for future policymaking. Therefore, this study takes consumers' willingness to consume HFCV as the dependent variable and collects questionnaires from 21 cities in the Yangtze River Delta from 2020 to 2021. Based on Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Logit Regression, the evaluation was conducted from four perspectives: personal and family situation, environmental awareness, energy attitude and local product confidence. The results show that gender, age and income differences are not necessarily determinants of HFCV purchase, but educational level is a significant factor. Consistent with social-psychological studies, personal awareness of environmental protection and energy attitudes are the key factors that are significant affect HFCV purchase. Lastly, it is found that in the Yangtze River Delta, consumers' confidence in Chinese local hydrogen products is also a significant factor. This paper confirms that HFCV consumers have commonalities with other new energy consumers. However, due to the expectation of greater local production and development, enhancing the social recognition and confidence of local hydrogen technology may be one of the promotion approaches neglected.

Social Psychological Studies of Latin American Cultures with Particular Reference to Brazil

This paper presents an English language translation of a book chapter that was originally published in Portuguese. It is reproduced here in full, by kind permission of the editors and publishers, in order to make it available to English language speakers. The paper first addresses ways of defining culture and the development of measures of cultural variation. Contrasts between the collectivism that defines East Asian culture and the collectivism of Latin America are then identified. Topics addressed include values, self-construal, life satisfaction, emotion, honour culture, social influence and the phenomenon of jeitinho. Although the text leads toward a consideration of research into Brazilian culture, it does so by way of discussing the distinctiveness of Latin American cultures more broadly. Details of comparative studies that have sampled further Latin American cultures have been added at the end.

Personhood, Masculinity, and Male-Perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence

Most international violence research that are firmly rooted in the ontology and cultural background of individualism make rash generalisations about violence and human nature by taking the examples of self and gender concepts in Western settings as the only reference point for their claims. Based on the understanding of self in Western cultures, many social psychological studies have over the years blamed interpersonal violence, including intimate partner violence (IPV), on perpetrators’ self-image. For example, while some studies indicate that people with low self-esteem are more likely to turn violent in order to gain esteem, others have theorised that individuals with inflated (high) self-esteem are more susceptible to use violence, particularly when the inflated self is threatened in interpersonal relationships. A growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship also traces the aetiology of IPV and the propensity for men to commit violence against women to the internalisation, endorsement and enactment of culturally defined male gender role. Despite the valuable contributions of these studies, there are significant challenges inherent in research that make broad universal claims about self and violence at the expense of culture and context. One of the most important phenomena that seems underexplored, overlooked or neglected in the context of violence research is how culture-specific notions of personhood and masculinity shapes male-perpetrated IPV. In this article, I explore the centrality of context and culture-specificities of personhood and masculinity in understanding male-perpetrated IPV. I discuss how the dialogical relationship between men’s psychological sense of who they are (personhood) and cultural notions of masculinity provides new insights for understanding violence research in context. I argue that, rather than a threat to a person’s dispositional self, the social pain of unfavourable third-party communal evaluations of masculine inadequacy threatens a man’s relational sense of personhood, and consequently provoke the use of violence towards the source of the threat in intimate relationships in Ghana.

Why We Gather: A New Look, Empirically Documented, at Émile Durkheim's Theory of Collective Assemblies and Collective Effervescence.

For Durkheim, individuals' survival and well-being rest on cultural resources and social belonging that must be revived periodically in collective assemblies. Durkheim's concern was to clarify how these assemblies achieve this revitalization. An intensive examination of primitive religions led him to identify successive levels of engagement experienced by participants and to develop explanatory principles relevant to all types of collective gatherings. Durkheim's conception is widely referred to nowadays. However, the question of its empirical status remains open. We extracted from his text his main statements and translated them into research questions. We then examined each question in relation to current theories and findings. In particular, we relied on the plethora of recent cognitive and social-psychology studies that document conditions of reduced self-other differentiation. Abundant data support that each successive moment of collective assemblies contributes to blurring this differentiation. Ample support also exists that because shared emotions are increasingly amplified in collective context, they can fuel high-intensity experiences. Moreover, recent studies of self-transcendent emotions can account for the self-transformative effects described by Durkheim at the climax of collective assemblies. In conclusion, this century-old model is remarkably supported by recent results, mostly collected in experimental settings.

The pragmatic structure of indeterminacy: Mapping possibilities as context for action

Social psychology studies how situations cause behavior. Situations are partly defined by a matrix of possibilities (including probabilities and contingencies), and so human responses are caused not merely by realities but also by possibilities—even including some possibilities that never materialize. The human mind has complex abilities to recognize, imagine, and deal with possibilities. Two important dimensions of possibility, here labeled horizontal and vertical, differ as to how controllable the outcome is for any particular agent and where the value basis originates. Success/failure is an example of the vertical dimension and normally is only partly controllable, whereas open choice such as ordering off a menu is an example of the horizontal dimension. Possibilities and agency develop complex relationships to time: The future is defined by alternative possibilities whereas the past cannot be changed, though it can be re-imagined counterfactually and also reinterpreted. Last, we highlight the problem of how possibilities and probabilities combine. Statistical analysis of variance strategies offer three models of combination: independent and additive (like main effects), damping versus intensifying each other (as in spreading interactions), or reversing each other’s effects (as in crossover interactions).