Asian Journal of Social Psychology最新文献

There are still problems in the communication of climate change issues. Based on the extended parallel process model (EPPM), this article explores the role of news texts containing emotional appeals in motivating the public's climate action intention. Three web-based, between-subjects experimental studies were conducted. The three studies collected 429, 762, and 1669 valid questionnaires respectively. Results based on moderation and mediation analyses indicated that perceived threat and perceived efficacy positively influenced climate action intention, and that fear and hope emotions mediated the relationship between perceived threat/perceived efficacy and climate action intention. In addition, guilt and encouragement moderated the effect of perceived threat/perceived efficacy on climate action intention. This article provides insights for media information dissemination in achieving the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, as well as provides effective suggestions for the improvement of information content when relevant organizations mobilize the public to participate in low-carbon environmental protection actions.

Moral psychology in the Middle East region is scattered throughout different languages, continents, and methodologies. This article provides the first review on morality in the Middle East region. We review empirical research on morality to identify the research profile of included studies in the Middle East, including the research methods, geographic scope, research variables utilized in the reviewed studies, and key themes emerging from prior relevant studies. An electronic literature search yielded a total of 582 relevant research articles published from 1990 through 2023. This research provides insights regarding moral themes covered by research, gaps in the literature, and future recommendations for research based on the examination of findings, implications, limitations, and future research directions.

Previous studies have indicated that risk perception influences individuals' willingness to engage in protective behaviours; however, the relationship between these two factors remains unclear. This study investigates whether Cultural Tightness–Looseness moderates this relationship. We employed Mixed-Effects Models analysis on data from 29,456 participants across 32 countries, linking their risk perception and protective behaviours to the cultural tightness–looseness of their regions. The results revealed that (i) increased risk perception is associated with heightened protective behaviours, particularly in the spatial distancing dimension; (ii) Cultural Tightness–Looseness partially influenced the relationship between risk perception and protective behaviours. In areas with low Cultural Tightness–Looseness, higher risk perception was associated with greater willingness to engage in protective behaviours. However, in areas with high Cultural Tightness–Looseness, there was no connection between risk perception and protective behaviours. This effect is evident in the dimension of spatial distancing, while it was not observed in the areas of physical hygiene and policy support; and (iii) the self-other perspective difference influenced the aforementioned moderating effect. When participants took a self-perspective, the moderating effect was stronger, whereas when they took an other-perspective, the effect disappeared. These findings emphasize the significant impact of cross-cultural differences on risk perception and behavioural decision-making. They also illustrate how external motivations can suppress internal motivations, offering new insights for designing pandemic response strategies in regions with different social norms.

This article explores the potential for intercultural music engagement to cultivate global consciousness through an overview of interdisciplinary research into this social practice, and literature on cultural identity, diversity and globalisation more broadly. Experimental design, action research, ethnographic and therapeutic case studies reveal a social practice with capacity to prime affiliation with other cultures and identification with all humanity, as well as develop reflexivity and ethical action in contexts of cultural diversity. The complexity of both global consciousness and intercultural music engagement warrants inquiry from multiple disciplinary perspectives, using a variety of research approaches. A broad understanding of psychology, inclusive of therapeutic practice and orientations underpinned by pragmatic philosophy may be a fruitful direction for future research into global consciousness, given it comprises knowledge, emotional and ethical components, as well as reflexive action.

Internal control beliefs refer to the subjective belief that individuals can influence the course of events through their own efforts and actions. Depression is often associated with a diminished sense of control, with individuals frequently reporting a lack of control over their lives. This study aims to explore whether individuals with depressive tendencies demonstrate decreased internal control beliefs and to examine the role of success probability in this process. A total of 23 healthy control participants and 23 participants with depressive tendencies were included in the experiment. Participants were exposed to tasks designed to induce varying levels of perceived control, accompanied by feedback with low, medium, or high probabilities of success. They were then asked to evaluate their internal control beliefs, happiness, and pride. The findings revealed that individuals with depressive tendencies reported significantly lower ratings of internal control beliefs, accompanied by lower happiness and pride compared with healthy controls. Importantly, increasing the probability of success feedback led to enhancements in internal control beliefs, happiness, and pride for all participants. These results confirm that individuals with depressive tendencies show decreased internal control beliefs, highlighting the potential for targeted interventions to improve emotional well-being in this population.

Global competence has gained momentum in international policy and scholarly discourses. As a multidimensional construct, its conceptualisation has been ambiguous. So far, the OECD Global Competence Framework has been the most updated and comprehensive framework for understanding global competence. However, all current conceptualisations, including that of the OECD, have been developed in the Western context, and their applicability in non-Western contexts is questioned. In this paper, we conduct a prototype study to examine how local university students in Hong Kong understand global competence and to explore how their conceptualisations shed light on cross-cultural similarities and differences in their understanding of global competence. Based on three sub-studies (n = 276), this prototype study showed that certain features appear more frequently, are more central to global competence and are seen as more salient in people viewed globally as more competent by the participants. It provides lay (university students) cross-cultural conceptions of global competence beyond definitions and frameworks provided by scholars and international organisations. Local Hong Kong university students' conceptions of global competence not only display an assemblage of multiple dimensions resonating with the international literature but also extend it to other dimensions and features shaped by local social and cultural dynamics.

This study examines the relationship between perceived cultural distance and acculturation preferences of ethnic majority groups and a minority group in six post-Soviet societies: Armenia, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. We surveyed ethnic Russians (the ethnic minority) and members of the majority groups in each society. The total number of respondents was 3271 people. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the status of the Russian population in these republics changed from being the dominant group in the Soviet Union to an ethnic minority group in the newly independent countries. To take into account contextual features, we evaluated the permeability of ethnic boundaries for ethnic Russians, which vary across different post-Soviet republics. We found that in the samples of the national population and one ethnic minority (Russians), the closer the cultural distance, the higher the perceived permeability of boundaries. However, among the national population, a closer cultural distance to Russians is positively associated with the desire to segregate them, while among Russians, a closer cultural distance to the national population is associated with a desire to integrate.

This study evaluates the applicability of the Shift-and-Persist (SAP) theory, focusing on the Japanese population. The SAP theory postulates that combining ‘shifting’ (adapting to stressors) and ‘persisting’ (enduring adversity with optimism) promotes resilience across physical, physiological, and psychological outcomes. Despite the theoretical appeal of SAP theory, empirical evidence supporting its effectiveness in mental health, particularly in non-Western contexts, is inconsistent and sometimes contradictory. We conducted an internal meta-analysis using six pre-registered studies (N = 7519) to examine the SAP theory's applicability in Japan. We investigated two hypotheses: (1) The interaction effects between socioeconomic status (SES), shifting, and persisting mitigate depressive tendencies, and (2) the main effect of the persisting strategy can mitigate depressive tendencies, independently of SES and shifting levels. Results indicated no interaction effects between shifting and persisting; instead, only significant main effects of both shifting and persisting, not supporting Hypotheses 1 or 2. These findings may indicate the critical role of persisting as a protective factor on negative psychological outcomes, although the interaction effect between shifting and persisting in Japanese samples appears limited. The implications of these findings for significant questions about the generalizability of SAP theory and the need to consider cultural factors in psychological interventions are discussed.

This study explores the influence of social norms and individual beliefs on the well-being of unemployed individuals in Turkey, a context marked by both chronic unemployment and a high societal valuation of employment. Using province-level representative data from the 2013 Life Satisfaction Survey, encompassing 196,203 observations, we analyse how descriptive norms (prevalence of unemployment) and injunctive norms (social pressures due to unemployment) at the province level affect the happiness of the unemployed. We utilized people's perception of employment for being respected in social life and personally feeling social pressure as a measure of individual beliefs. Multilevel regression results reveal that descriptive norms can modestly alleviate the adverse impact of unemployment, particularly for the short-term unemployed, while injunctive norms slightly intensify the unhappiness of being unemployed, especially in the short term. The unemployed's personal beliefs about the value of employment matter for their happiness. These findings underscore the theoretical implications of social norms in shaping the well-being of the unemployed and highlight the importance of individual beliefs in moderating these effects.

Residential mobility is a critical socio-ecological factor involving substantial changes in both physical and social environments. However, existing research has inconsistently defined and measured residential mobility, creating ambiguity about whether past experiences or future expectations primarily drive its psychological impact. This study addresses this gap by examining both the distinctions and connections between residential mobility experiences and expectations, with the goal of identifying the primary mechanism influencing subjective well-being. Guided by pragmatic prospection theory and sensitised-specialisation theory, we conducted two studies. In Study 1, a manipulation experiment revealed that residential mobility expectations had a stronger impact on subjective well-being than residential mobility experiences. In Study 2, a large-scale survey demonstrated that residential mobility expectations mediate the relationship between residential mobility experiences and subjective well-being. Together, these findings highlight the distinct yet interconnected roles of residential mobility experiences and expectations. While residential mobility experiences provide a foundational context, it is the expectations of future mobility that predominantly shape the psychological impact on well-being. These results underscore residential mobility expectations as the primary mechanism by which residential mobility influences individual outcomes, offering valuable theoretical and practical insights.