Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology最新文献

The present experiment investigated the personal meaning of a behavior and state social anxiety as predictors of behavioral action. Participants (N = 68) were given the chance to take the behavioral action of recording a statement for a video blog. Participants were randomized to personal meaning (n = 34; assigned to speak on the social issue most important to them and completed a personal meaning enhancement writing task) or control (n = 34; assigned to speak on the social issue least important to them and completed a control writing task) conditions. The results indicated that having personal meaning in a behavior significantly predicted the behavioral action. The findings suggest that having personal meaning in a social anxiety-provoking behavior can increase the likelihood of that behavior. Clinical implications and limitations of the study are also discussed.

Existentially derived frameworks have become more popular among researchers investigating a number of clinical areas, such as posttraumatic stress disorder and chronic pain. Nevertheless, the concept of existential anxiety has often been perceived as overly abstract and conceptually amorphous, which severely limits the ability of empirical research to objectively decipher the corresponding intrapsychic processes. Contemporary existential thought, particularly terror management theory, considers awareness of our own mortality as a driving factor behind many of our motivations as human beings (e.g., meaning-making and connecting with others). By clearly delineating the pathways from death awareness to different manifestations of existential anxiety, clinicians and researchers would have a clearer framework through which to study existential anxiety. The present work introduces the concept of existential pathways as a way of recognizing, discerning, and addressing the causes of existential cognitions, affect, and behaviors within both clinical and research settings. Contemporary existential thought and empirically validated findings within terror management theory are used to develop a conceptual model of how death awareness potentially leads to thoughts, emotions, motivations, and behaviors associated with eight existential constructs: death anxiety, meaning, isolation, freedom, vulnerability, facticity, identity, and chaos. Clinical and research implications are discussed within the context of the existential pathway model, providing guidance on how the model may be used to harness behavioral change and inform research methodology.

Victim sensitivity (VS)—a personality trait reflecting the anxious expectation of being exploited—reliably predicts egoistic behavior in interpersonal situations. Here, we look at intragroup situations and investigate whether even one highly victim-sensitive individual can have a detrimental effect of solidarity and cooperativeness on the entire group. Two studies—one field study with community residents from Philippine villages who played a solidarity game (N  800 individuals, 30 villages) and one lab study with participants in a small-group setting (N = 144 individuals, 48 groups) who played a public goods game—show that the highest VS score in a group negatively predicts solidarity and cooperation in the group, especially when external stressors (e.g., a natural disaster and a climate of distrust) are present and group-level resilience factors (e.g., in-group identification and task enjoyment) are absent. These results are relevant for research on the intragroup processes both from a basic as well as from an applied perspective.

In three preregistered studies, we investigated whether positive and negative organ donation attitudes, intentions, as well as general prosocial behavioral intentions, could be influenced by inducing motivational harmony—the sense that things are going well in life. In Study 1, we examined correlations between motivational harmony, organ donation attitudes, intentions, and prosocial behavioral intentions. Study 2a represented an attempt to assess the malleability of motivational harmony using two different autobiographical recall tasks. The successful induction was utilized in Study 2b, designed to assess whether increasing motivational harmony caused changes in organ donation attitudes, intentions, and prosocial behavioral intentions. This study used a Solomon post-group design, where participants were randomly assigned to receive the scale assessing the proposed mediator (i.e., motivational harmony) or to receive the dependent variables directly after receiving the induction. These studies focused on attitudes and intentions to register oneself as an organ donor after death. Although no direct effects on donor outcomes were identified, the motivational harmony induction task indirectly increased organ donation registration intentions through increased motivational harmony. Moreover, there was both a direct relationship of the motivational harmony induction on prosocial behavior intentions and an indirect association through increased motivational harmony. These findings have theoretical implications for the construct of motivational harmony, as well as practical applications for the promotion of organ donation and prosocial behavior.

People often remotely observe when others resist and reject persuasive messages. Two studies examined participants' perceptions of two strategies, counterarguing and source derogation that people commonly use when resisting persuasive attempts. Additionally, the target resisted a message with which the participants either agreed or disagreed (Studies 1 and 2) and one which contained either strong or weak logic (Study 2). In both studies the strategy of source derogation was evaluated more negatively than counterarguing. Additionally, participants evaluated the target more negatively when he resisted a message with which the participants agreed, even when the target resisted using counterarguing or strong logic. The implications of these different perceptions of attitude resistance techniques is discussed.

The impact of collective narcissism on intergroup and intragroup relations has seen a recent surge in attention. Since collective narcissism is a relatively new topic of study, with only a single published measure, its structure and composition require further investigation. A pilot study investigated a multidimensional model of collective narcissism and identified four factors: entitlement/exploitativeness, dominance/arrogance, apathy, and admiration. Study 1 (a) provided construct, convergent, and discriminant validity and (b) demonstrated that the factors differentially predict various responses in the intergroup context. Study 2 demonstrated the four-factor solution's statistical and theoretical superiority to a single-factor solution when predicting behavior in the intergroup context. Studies 3 and 4 supported the importance of a multidimensional structure to predict intergroup and intragroup behavior. Study 3 revealed that apathy and entitlement/exploitativeness were particularly responsible for negative intergroup and intragroup responses after ingroup failure, whereas Study 4 demonstrated that dominance/arrogance was critical to understand ingroup-enhancing responses. This multidimensional framework contributes theoretical clarity and nuance to the range of narcissistic motivations and responses in the group context. We discuss the importance of a multidimensional approach to collective narcissism and outline its complex relation with a number of intergroup processes, including group identification, ingroup loyalty, and outgroup hostility.

Research on national collective narcissism, the belief and resentment that a nation's exceptionality is not sufficiently recognized by others, provides a theoretical framework for understanding the psychological motivations behind the support for right-wing populism. It bridges the findings regarding the economic and sociocultural conditions implicated in the rise of right-wing populism and the findings regarding leadership processes necessary for it to find its political expression. The conditions are interpreted as producing violations to established expectations regarding self-importance via the gradual repeal of the traditional criteria by which members of hegemonic groups evaluated their self-worth. Populist leaders propagate a social identity organized around the collective narcissistic resentment, enhance it, and propose external explanations for frustration of self and in-group-importance. This garners them a committed followership. Research on collective narcissism indicates that distress resulting from violated expectations regarding self-importance stands behind collective narcissism and its narrow vision of “true” national identity (the people), rejection and hostility toward stigmatized in-group members and out-groups as well as the association between collective narcissism and conspiratorial thinking.