Disengagement Theory Research Articles

Trajectories of social participation in old age: a systematic literature review

Abstract Objective: the present study aimed to identify patterns of social participation in old age and the theories used to explain them. Method: A systematic review was performed using the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online (MEDLINE / PUBMED), Scientific Electronic Library Online (Scielo) and Web of Science (ISI Web of Knowledge) databases. The keywords used were: social participation, social engagement, social involvement and social activities; combined with seniors, the elderly, older adults, older people and aging. Research was performed between January and February. Results: thirty-one longitudinal studies on social participation among old and healthy middle-aged adults were included for analysis. In three studies social engagement levels increased, especially at the beginning of old age (up to 75 years). Twenty-one studies presented results that described the reduction of social engagement levels in old age, and five studies found that there was no change in levels of social involvement. The most used theories were: the activity theory, the social disengagement theory, the continuity theory and the theory of socioemotional selectivity. Conclusion: the results point to the need for reflection on what is envisioned and what is practiced in terms of policies and practices aimed at achieving successful aging. Future attempts should include not only incentives to remain active, but a description of factors that influence the social disengagement associated with poor adaptation in old age.

Leaving ideological groups behind: A model of disengagement

ABSTRACTThe social mechanisms in ideological groups work to promote a cohesive social unit and present significant barriers to disengaging. Nonetheless, involvement in these groups is often not a lifelong commitment and many members do leave. The aim of this study was to explore the personal experience of the exiting process from a diverse range of ideological groups, and to construct a theory of disengagement, through 27 in-depth interviews with former members of 1% motorcycle clubs, military special operations forces, cults, white supremacists and fundamental religious or political groups. Participant interviews were analysed using grounded theory methodology to construct a model of disengagement. After the experience of an initial trigger, the group was perceived as inconsistent with the self-concept and conflicted with personally held goals and values, which threatened the participants’ psychological integrity. Participants employed self-concept management strategies to address this inconsistency, which culminated in the decision to leave and tempering of ideology. These findings have relevance to social policies, which aim to influence membership in ideological groups.

Social engagement and physical activity: Commentary on why the activity and disengagement theories of ageing may both be valid

There is a stark contrast between the activity and disengagement theories in terms of what they say is the level of social engagement and physical activity associated with the population of elderly people. Owing to their opposing arguments, it is confusing to realize that research validates both of them. What their originators and researchers have failed to explain is the unique set of factors or conditions under which each theory is more likely to be confirmed. As a consequence, the contrast between the two theories has a misty practical foundation and therefore remains confounding several years after these theories were formulated. In this paper, an attempt is made to identify conditions under which each theory is more likely to be supported in research. This effort is expected to encourage researchers to relate their findings to the appropriate factors in order to better explain the contrast between the two theories and the practical significance of research results.

Cultural–Ecological Theory of Academic Disengagement Used to Explain a Story of Race, Culture and Education

Students of African ancestry often share an experience of being a racialized minority in the context of the educational institution. Late Professor of Anthropology John Ogbu’s Cultural-ecological Theory of Academic Disengagement is employed to describe the negative responses encountered by peers in the name of academic achievement.The late Nigerian-American anthropologist John Ogbu described that it is often socially disadvantageous for black youth to prosper academically in formal education. Black students are often seen as betraying their cultural identities by aspiring to academic success and scholastic achievement and are met with repugnance by black peers.The notion of “acting white” is unnecessary, impertinent should be abandoned outright as achievement should have no color.

Deviance and exit: The organizational costs of job insecurity and moral disengagement.

This study examines why and when employees might respond to job insecurity by engaging in workplace deviance and developing intentions to leave-2 activities that are costly for organizations. Drawing on social exchange theory and the theory of moral disengagement, we propose that job insecurity increases workplace deviance and intentions to leave by encouraging employees to morally disengage. We further propose that the strength of the positive association between job insecurity, moral disengagement, and these outcomes is contingent upon 2 aspects of the situation-employees' perceived employment opportunities outside the organization and the quality of the exchange relationship they have developed with their supervisors (leader-member exchange, or LMX). Two time-lagged studies of Chinese workers provide support for the hypothesized 1st-stage moderated mediation model. Specifically, the indirect effect of job insecurity on organizational and interpersonal deviance and intentions to leave via moral disengagement was positive and significant when individuals had more employment opportunities or when LMX was lower but not when they had fewer employment opportunities or when LMX was higher. (PsycINFO Database Record

Viewing Life of Senior Citizen Convicts in Tihar from the Lens of Gerontological Theories

Ageing is a multidirectional change involving the physical, social, psychological and social spheres of a person’s existence. Ageing is not a steady state but a dynamic process. Theories of ageing, therefore, lead to a body of knowledge that facilitates the description, explanation, modification or optimization of ageing behavior. However, it is unlikely that any one theory of ageing can fully explain the ageing process and behavior and it is evidently possible that an ageing individual can be governed by small portions of multiple theories of ageing at the same time. This phenomenon was observed when life experiences of senior citizen convicts in Tihar prison, New Delhi were recorded and then analyzed in the context of various theories of ageing including the Disengagement theory, Activity theory, Continuity theory, Role theory, Labeling theory, Exchange theory, Subculture theory and Personality theory. Activity theory came out as the strongest and the most apt conceptual framework which governs the life of senior citizen convicts while glimpses of role theory, labeling theory, subculture theory and Exchange theory could also been seen influencing the life of senior citizen convicts and their behavioral traits and attributes.

Stigma, Facility Constraints, and Personal Disbelief: Why Women Disengage from HIV Care During and After Pregnancy in Morogoro Region, Tanzania.

Millions of children are living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, and the primary mode of these childhood infections is mother-to-child transmission. While existing interventions can virtually eliminate such transmission, in low- and middle-income settings, only 63% of pregnant women living with HIV accessed medicines necessary to prevent transmission. In Tanzania, HIV prevalence among pregnant women is 3.2%. Understanding why HIV-positive women disengage from care during and after pregnancy can inform efforts to reduce the impact of HIV on mothers and young children. Informed by the tenets of Grounded Theory, we conducted qualitative interviews with 40 seropositive postpartum women who had disengaged from care to prevent mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). Nearly all women described antiretroviral treatment (ART) as ultimately beneficial but effectively inaccessible given concerns related to stigma. Many women also described how their feelings of health and vitality coupled with concerns about side effects underscored a desire to forgo ART until they deemed it immediately necessary. Relatively fewer women described not knowing or forgetting that they needed to continue their treatment regimens. We present a theory of PMTCT disengagement outlining primary and ancillary barriers. This study is among the first to examine disengagement by interviewing women who had actually discontinued care. We urge that a combination of intervention approaches such as mother-to-mother support groups, electronic medical records with same-day tracing, task shifting, and mobile technology be adapted, implemented, and evaluated within the Tanzanian setting.

Counterfeit Luxuries: Does Moral Reasoning Strategy Influence Consumers’ Pursuit of Counterfeits?

Morality, in the context of luxury counterfeit goods, has been widely discussed in existing literature as having a strong association with decreased purchase intention. However, drawing on moral disengagement theory, we argue that individuals are motivated to justify their immoral behaviors through guilt avoidance, thus increasing counterfeit purchase intention. This research demonstrates that consumers’ desire to purchase counterfeit luxuries hinges on (one of) two types of moral reasoning strategies: moral rationalization and moral decoupling. The empirical results show that each strategy increases purchase intention, but respectively through moral judgment and perceived benefit. Implications for researchers and managers are discussed.

Moral Intuition or Moral Disengagement? Cognitive Science Weighs in on the Animal Ethics Debate

In this paper I problematize the use of appeals to the common intuitions people have about the morality of our society’s current treatment of animals in order to defend that treatment. I do so by looking at recent findings in the field of cognitive science. First I will examine the role that appeals to common intuition play in philosophical arguments about the moral worth of animals, focusing on the work of Carl Cohen and Richard Posner. After describing the theory of Moral Disengagement—which has been used to explain how people live with themselves when they commit acts that they themselves believe are wrong—I will review the recent empirical research that details the nature of the moral disengagement that accompanies animal treatment. This includes studies that reveal that those who eat animals engage in the following behaviors: They minimize the nature of the harm of killing animals by casting the practice in a positive light; They obscure personal responsibility by blaming others for harms; They minimize the effect of the conduct on the animals by avoiding reference to the animal origins of meat; They derogate vegetarians as a way of avoiding feelings of guilt for their own practices. Perhaps most importantly, a number of empirical studies have shown that people’s intuitions about the moral worth of animals are shaped by their practice of eating animals—and not the other way around. In addition to the studies on moral disengagement, there is another body of research that has attempted to discover what accounts for the individual differences in attitudes people have toward the moral worth of animals. These studies have linked masculinity and traits like Authoritarianism, Social Dominance Orientation and Right Wing Authoritarianism to the tendency to disregard the moral worth of animals. I will briefly summarize this body of research and will then conclude by arguing that this data should cause us to be highly skeptical of the value that the common intuition that people who eat animals have about the moral status of animals may have in helping us understand the actual moral worth of animals.

INTERACTIVE LINKS BETWEEN RELATIONAL AGGRESSION, THEORY OF MIND, AND MORAL DISENGAGEMENT AMONG EARLY ADOLESCENTS

The aim of this study was to investigate possible interactive links between theory of mind (ToM), moral disengagement and relational aggression, using a moderated mediation analysis, with gender as a moderator, in a sample of 120 Greek preadolescents. Results indicated that relational aggression was significantly positively associated with moral disengagement and negatively with ToM. Moderated mediation analyses indicated that boys with deficient ToM were more likely to morally disengage from their actions which in turn resulted in relational aggression, while poor ToM was directly linked to relational aggression only for preadolescent girls. Moral disengagement had a direct effect on relational aggression only for boys, while ToM was found to partially mediate the relationship between moral disengagement and relational aggression only for girls. The results emphasize that the co‐morbid effects of socio‐cognitive factors should be taken into consideration when relational aggression is explored.

Unethical Behavior and Negative Emotions: A Theory Integration Approach

The present study integrates and extends moral disengagement theory (MDT) and self-discrepancy theory (SDT) to provide a comprehensive explanation of the process by which individuals, when tempted ...

Unethical behaviors in organizational context: The explanation from moral disengagement theory

Unethical behaviors in organizational context: The explanation from moral disengagement theory

Adaptive Self-regulation in Cycle Time Trials: Goal Pursuit, Goal Disengagement and the Affective Experience

Self-regulation research analyses behaviour and emotion through goal progress (Carver and Scheier 2013). Goal disengagement is advocated as an adaptive self-regulatory strategy for unattainable goals to reduce distress (Wrosch et al. 2003a; 2003b). In an attempt to further understand ongoing goal pursuit and emotions on endurance athletes, this paper applies adaptive self-regulation theory to interpret and explain the experiences of three cyclists in case studies which display variations in success and failure. Following criterion sampling methods we analysed positive and negative affect, goal expectancy and power output from three male participants (triathletes or cyclists; age range 26-50 yrs) who either successfully achieved their goal (Participant 1), were unsuccessful yet recalculated their goal (Participant 2) or failed to achieve their goal (Participant 3) in a 20 km laboratory cycle time trial. Post trial qualitative data provided explanations regarding pacing, perceptions of achievement and feeling states (self-chosen adjectives). Positive affect tracked goal expectancy with increases in positive affect when power output exceeded previous trial averages and goal expectations were high evidencing successful goal striving (Participant 1). Reductions in positive affect occurred where goal progress was below expectations. This reduction was dramatic in the unsuccessful trial (Participant 3). Low levels of positive affect and high levels of negative affect were reported from 12 – 20 km together with disappointment, unexpected feelings of a loss of control and fatigue, suggesting unsuccessful goal striving. Supporting goal disengagement theory, a relinquishment of goal commitment was evident for participant 2 who recalculated his goal. Despite being unsuccessful in achieving his original goal participant 2 reported positive feeling states and perceptions of control post trial indicating adaptive self-regulation strategies were effective in his specific situation. These findings emphasise the need to examine practical adaptive self-regulation strategies in sport and relationships between affect, decision making and goal striving.

Experimental investigation of the bubble behavior in an aerated coaxial mixing vessel through electrical resistance tomography (ERT)

To enhance the efficiency of the aerated mixing vessel, it is critical to investigate the influence of the flow hydrodynamics generated by the impeller on the bubble size and gas holdup. In the current work, the global and local gas holdup values and the Sauter mean bubble diameter for an aerated coaxial mixing vessel equipped with a central pitched blade turbine and an anchor impeller were estimated for the viscous corn syrup solution. The main characteristics of the bubbles including the number of bubble size classes and the contribution of each class of bubble in the overall gas holdup were measured by using the dynamic gas disengagement theory coupled with the electrical resistance tomography (ERT) data. The impacts of the speed ratio and the gas flow rate on the bubble behavior (size and dispersion) were also explored. Bubbles generated at the central impeller plane were smaller than those generated beneath and above the impeller. It was shown that the speed ratio had no effect on the number of the bubble classes existed in the predefined liquid levels of the aerated coaxial mixing vessel. However, the gas holdup related to each class of bubble was affected by changing the speed ratio. The minimum overall gas holdup was obtained at the speed ratio of 10 for all studied gas velocities. In addition, the effect of the speed ratio on the bubble breakup through anchor blades was demonstrated. Gas holdup was correlated to the speed ratio, aerated power per liquid volume, and gas velocity.

Quality of life and care burden among informal caregivers of elderly dependents in Catalonia

INTRODUCTION: $e Quality of Life (QOL) of primary caregivers may have decreased. $e a im of this study was to assess the objective and subjective elements related to QOL of the primary caregivers of the dependent elderly. $e theoretical framework used was the role theory and socialization process of care and the theory of social disengagement. METHODOLOGY: Qualitative study. $e sample consisted of n=22 informal caregivers of peo ple over 75 years old treated by the Primary Home Care Service Center of Vilafranca del Penedes (Barcelona, Spain). Dimensions used were: sociodemographic data, quality of life and happiness, care burden, social and family relationships, motivation and feelings when caring and the health status of the caregiver. $e technique chosen was a semi-structured interview . RESULTS: In our study, half of the caregivers had a regular perception of health and QOL, care burden, a self-care de%cit and contradictory feelings towards caring. CONCLUSIONS: $e Informal caregivers of dependent elderly of the home care program are main ly older women and with one or more chronic condition. $ey have a self-care de%cit. $ey say they have little social and perso nal life.

Responsibility Boundaries in Global Value Chains: Supplier Audit Prioritizations and Moral Disengagement Among Swedish Firms

To address substandard working conditions in global value chains, companies have adopted private regulatory systems governing worker rights. Scholars agree that without onsite factory audits, this private regulation has limited impact at the point of production. Companies, however, audit only a subset of their suppliers, severely restricting their private regulatory attempts. Despite the significance of the placement of suppliers inside or outside firms’ “responsibility boundaries” and despite scholars’ having called for more research into how firms prioritize what suppliers to audit, few, if any, systematic studies have examined the topic. This is problematic, as the placement of firms’ responsibility boundaries determines what suppliers and workers are included in firms’ private regulatory attempts. Based on a study of 12 Swedish firms and the theory of moral disengagement, this paper starts to fill this research gap by exploring how firms’ responsibility boundaries are placed. The paper illustrates how firms’ responsibility boundary placement is best described as a patchwork with firms defining and delimiting their responsibilities differently. The paper also demonstrates that three supplier types (i.e., the worst, morally justified, and immediate suppliers) are particularly likely to be placed inside firms’ responsibility boundaries, while a fourth type (i.e., disregarded suppliers) is likely be placed outside.

Mindful Sustainable Aging: Advancing a Comprehensive Approach to the Challenges and Opportunities of Old Age.

The primary aim of this article is to present a new concept called mindful sustainable aging (MSA), which is informed by mindfulness practices that support the physical, the mental, and especially, the social and the existential dimensions of old life. The concept of MSA is discussed and compared with four influential psychosocial theories in the field of gerontology, i.e., activity theory, disengagement theory, successful aging theory and gerotranscendence theory. The article ends with reviewing research on how mindfulness practice can help to manage, diminish and/or improve a number of serious physical conditions that are common among older people. The potential of mindfulness when it comes to facilitating for older adults in their quest for spiritual and existential meaning is discussed extensively throughout the article.

Variability in Moral Disengagement and Its Relation to Offending in a Sample of Serious Youthful Offenders

Bandura’s theory of moral disengagement (MD) refers to the freeing of oneself from moral or ethical standards to engage in wrongdoing. Little is known about heterogeneity in MD among serious adolescent offenders, how MD changes over time in the transition from adolescence to early adulthood, and how such heterogeneity corresponds to offending. We used data from the Pathways to Desistance study, a longitudinal study of a sample of serious youthful offenders followed for 7 years, to examine trajectories of MD as well as the relationship of these trajectories to offending. Furthermore, we assessed whether MD varied by demographic and individual characteristics. Results indicated the presence of three trajectories: low, moderate, and high patterns. Females and Whites were more likely to be in the low-MD trajectory, whereas Hispanics were more likely to be in the high-MD trajectory. Respondents in the moderate or high-MD trajectories had more re-arrests at the 7-year follow-up relative to those in the low-MD trajectory, net of controls.

‘And they lived happily ever after’: the fairy tale of radical constructivism and von Glasersfeld's ethical disengagement

Is von Glasersfeld's constructivism actually radical? In this article, I respond to this question by analyzing von Glasersfeld's main works. I argue that the essential theoretical move of radical constructivism – namely the assertion that reality is the construction of a human mind that only responds to the subjective perception of ‘what fits’ – results in a conservative vision of reality, knowledge, and education. To the extent that the friction with, and the challenge of, reality is eliminated, knowledge remains only a subjective affair and the world is reduced to a living tautology. In this way, von Glasersfeld constructs a theory of ethical disengagement in which personal responsibility is de facto denied. Thus, to the extent that education entails (and, in a sense, is) responsibility, change, and comparison, radical constructivism is a theory that is unsuitable for education. I also attempt to argue that the equivalence between radical constructivism and relativism and nihilism that many support is incorrect; relativism and nihilism, indeed, stem from a strong moral stance; thus, they may be educationally promising.

Moral disengagement, the dark triad, and unethical consumer attitudes

PurposeBandura’s theory of moral disengagement explains how otherwise ethical persons can behave immorally. We examined whether a trait model of general personality and the “dark triad” underlay moral disengagement, the relationship these constructs have to unethical consumer attitudes, and whether moral disengagement provided incremental validity in the prediction of antisocial behaviour. MethodsSelf-report data were obtained from a community sample of 380 adults via an online survey that administered all measures. ResultsCorrelations between unethical consumer attitudes, lower Agreeableness, lower Conscientiousness, higher moral disengagement, higher psychopathy, and higher Machiavellianism were captured by a single factor. When this broad factor was examined using regression, demographic, personality and the dark triad traits all predicted moral disengagement, specific influences being age, education, Intellect, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. A similar model examining predictors of unethical consumer attitudes again found all blocks contributed to the outcome, with specific influence provided by age, Intellect, and moral disengagement, the latter showing incremental validity as a predictor of unethical consumer attitudes. ConclusionsMoral disengagement is based on low Agreeableness, Machiavellianism and psychopathic-type traits, but provides incremental validity in predicting antisocial attitudes to a trait model alone. Narcissism is neither related to moral disengagement, nor unethical consumer attitudes.