Europe’s Journal of Psychology (PsychOpen)
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Emotional Impact of Graphic Health Warnings on Tobacco Packaging: Analysis of Their Content
The use of graphic health warnings (GHWs) on tobacco packaging is one of the most widely used public health strategies worldwide, but there is little evidence of the emotional impact of its content and craving they generate. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the emotional and craving responses to GHW content. The study included 300 men and women of different ages (adolescents, young adults, and adults), both smokers and non-smokers. We evaluated the participants’ emotional and craving responses to 16 GHWs with different content (i.e., cancer, cardiovascular disease, abortion, and childhood illness). We analyzed the effects of sex, smoking status, and age. GHWs exhibited the capacity to elicit aversive emotional states, with low levels of arousal and high levels of dominance and did not produce craving. GHWs that showed images of cancer and abortion had the greatest emotional impact. Non-smoking adolescent females experienced the greatest emotional impact of GHWs. The results suggest that GHWs effectively reduce the attractiveness of cigarette packages and discourage consumption, and increasing the size of GHWs may favor avoidance of the package. GHWs that depicted explicit threats had a greater emotional impact, especially in women
The Dark Web of Machiavellianism and Psychopathy: Moral Disengagement in IT Organizations
In the current paper, we were interested in examining a series of predictors of organizational moral disengagement, namely Machiavellianism and psychopathy, along with a series of demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, and work experience). Our sample consisted of 114 IT employees aged 21 to 54 (M = 28.51, 62% males). We used a cross-sectional approach and an original scale to measure organizational moral disengagement. The hierarchical regression analysis suggested that the most important predictor of organizational moral disengagement was Machiavellianism, followed by gender (i.e., males). A significant, negative association emerged between organizational moral disengagement and age, suggesting that the older we grow, the lower the organizational moral disengagement. Machiavellianism and psychopathy were significantly associated with all moral disengagement mechanisms, except one - diffusion of responsibility. The most powerful association we found were between Machiavellianism and moral justification and between psychopathy and euphemistic language. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed
Technostress, Coping, and Anxious and Depressive Symptomatology in University Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic raised many challenges for university staff and students, including the need to work from home, which resulted in a greater reliance on technology. We collected questionnaire data from university students (N = 894) in three European countries: Greece, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Data were collected between 7th April 2020 and 19th June 2020, representing a period covering the first lockdown and university closures in these countries and across Europe generally. We tested the hypotheses that technology-related stressors (techno-overload, work-home conflict, techno-ease, techno-reliability, techno-sociality, and pace of change) would be associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms, and that coping styles (problem-focused, emotion-focused, and avoidance) would mediate these relationships. Results showed significant positive associations between techno-overload, work-home conflict and anxiety and depressive symptoms, and significant negative associations between techno-reliability, techno-ease and anxiety and depressive symptoms. A significant negative association was found between techno-sociality and depressive symptoms but not anxiety symptoms. No evidence was found for an association between pace of change and anxiety or depressive symptoms. Multiple mediation analyses revealed significant direct effects of techno-overload, work-home conflict and techno-ease on anxiety symptoms, and of work-home conflict and techno-ease on depressive symptoms. Work-home conflict had significant indirect effects on anxiety and depressive symptoms through avoidance coping. Techno-overload and techno-ease both had significant indirect effects on anxiety symptoms through problem- and emotion-focused coping. Techno-ease also had a significant indirect effect on depressive symptoms through problem-focused coping. The findings add to the body of evidence on technostress amongst university students and provide knowledge on how technostress translates through coping strategies into anxious and depressive symptoms during the disruption caused by the outbreak of a pandemic disease
Authentic Leadership and Its Relationship With Job Satisfaction: The Mediator Role of Organizational Dehumanization
The objective of this research was to examine the mediating role that organizational dehumanization plays between authentic leadership and job satisfaction. The study was carried out with a sample of 422 participants, 50.7% were men and 49.3% women, with an average age of 38.96 years. The workers belong to different public and private organizations in Chile, and they responded to instruments of sociodemographic characterization, employment history and the scales of organizational dehumanization, authentic leadership, and job satisfaction. Data analysis included descriptive, correlational, and mediation analyses. The results allow us to maintain the hypothesis that organizational dehumanization plays a mediator role in the relationship between authentic leadership and job satisfaction. Implications of these findings are discussed
The Psychological Effects of Imprisonment: The Role of Cognitive, Psychopathic and Affective Traits
The present cross-sectional correlational study aimed to investigate a set of cognitive, affective, and personality traits impacting the psychological effects of imprisonment. Ninety-three male inmates filled out a battery including measures of intelligence, working memory, psychopathy, aggressiveness, anxious trait, emotionality, rumination styles, and empathy proneness. Inmates' psychological outcomes were conceptualized in terms of mood, anxiety, depression, and general health. Results showed that inmates with high cognitive abilities, psychopathic impulsivity, proactive aggression, personal distress and fantasy, anxious and negative emotionality are mainly prone to ill-being psychological outcomes. Contrariwise, the fearless dominance trait, positive emotionality and empathic concern ability seem to expose inmates to positive psychological outcomes. Reactive aggression and perspective taking seem to impact both positive and negative moods. Ruminative style was unrelated to psychological outcomes. These preliminary results provide an insight into which factors intervention programs should be based upon in order to enhance well-being and reduce distress among inmates
Deployment Risk and Resilience Model Applied to Military Children
This exploratory study investigates the impact of a military mission on Portuguese families, specifically on children. Although most research seeks the negative consequences of this lived experience, through the “Deployment Risk and Resilience Model” the present study intends to explore if this period can also be an opportunity for military’s children to grow and become more resilient. Aiming to express freely their lived and felt stories about the phenomenon under study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 children of the service members of the Portuguese Army, aged between 8 and 21 years old. The results of the thematic analysis indicated that the most critical moments of the mission were the notification period, the last days before the departure of the service member, and the deployment. The preparation of activities for the service members’ absence in the pre-deployment and the increase of tasks to be carried out, during the deployment, were the most referenced changes. In the post-deployment, children perceived a rapid readjustment of the family system. Despite the military's children's difficulties in readjusting during the mission, they reported that the feelings of closeness to the nuclear family, increased responsibility, and personal growth were positive results experienced. It would be interesting to extend similar studies within family systems, as in other branches of the armed forces. As practical implications, the findings of our pioneering study may significantly contribute to the construction of programs and/or actions that promote a possible growth in the personal resilience of the children of Portuguese service members, and not only the recovery of the state prior to the mission
Integrative Review of the Recent Literature on Human Resilience: From Concepts, Theories, and Discussions Towards a Complex Understanding
Resilience may be viewed as the capacity of an individual, or perhaps of a dynamic system, to adjust and adapt positively to adversities and disruptions that impact one’s functioning and development. Yet a common statement in the literature is that there are still today numerous ways of defining and conceiving resilience. This multiplicity of approaches calls for clarification and generates a need of common theoretical ground. Therefore, this review aims to examine, to clarify and to synthesize how “human” resilience is conceptualized within the recent human sciences literature to help answer the question: ‘What are the key approaches, concepts, and definitions of resilience?”. Following Whittemore and Knafl (2005, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2005.03621.x) methods, an integrative review of the recent resilience literature (2013–2019) was undertaken. Four databases were used for the search: PsycINFO, PubMed, ERIC, Google Scholar. A reference and citation tracking was then performed on the papers identified. Sixty-nine papers passed all the stages (identification, screening, eligibility, inclusion) and formed the sample. Results show that resilience definitions are nowadays either about “adapting and bouncing back to previous levels of health” or about “thriving and rising above the adversity towards increased levels of health.” Results also show that resilience features—antecedents, mechanisms, consequences—are mainly conceptualized in a vertical sequence where an antecedent influences another or influences a mechanism leading to consequences. This paper concludes that modern conceptions can fit within a transactional and constructivist approach that goes beyond the former approaches by providing a more nuanced and realistic picture of the resilience process and by viewing it as a dynamic and person-situation-defined process
Interethnic Workplace Conflict: Reciprocal Perception of Italian and Immigrant Blue-Collar Coworkers: Interethnic conflict at the workplace
Past research has examined the beneficial effects of contact focusing mainly on the affective dimension of intergroup relationships. Limited research has examined cognitive dimensions, in particular considering at the same time minority and majority group perspectives. This study tested whether contact in a work context relates differentially to the perception of interethnic conflict in Italian (n = 67) and immigrant (n = 40, all male) blue-collar coworkers with the potential mediation of reciprocal stereotypical content (competence and warmth dimensions), interethnic attitudes, perceived discrimination, and whether organizational identification amplifies the effect of contact. Multigroup path analysis revealed that the two stereotype dimensions, warmth and competence, mediate the relationship between interethnic contact and perceived discrimination for Italians, and between organizational identification and perceived conflict for immigrants. Results highlighted an asymmetrical effect of contact on perceived conflict, detrimental and direct for immigrant workers, beneficial and mediate via the outgroup cognitive image for the Italian workers. Findings suggest that a superordinate identity, in terms of organizational identification, may be effective in reducing conflict at the workplace for majority members, whilst a personalized strategy seems to be more suitable for minority members. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed along with the acculturation perspective
Work Motivation and Reactions to Injustice of Temporary Workers: Roles of Social Identities, Autonomy, and Compensations
This article addresses the impact of temporary employment on workers’ social identification, work motivation, and reactions to injustice at the workplace. More precisely, we examined whether organisational identification mediates the effect temporary work (compared to permanent employment) on work motivation, and reactions to injustice. We also examined whether autonomy in contract-choice and compensating features of job contracts (employment duration, qualification matching, and negotiated wages) have positive effects on the organisational and ingroup identifications of temporary workers. Finally, we examined whether ingroup identification of temporary workers act as a mediator and moderates the effect of organisational identification. Results from a survey comparing agency workers with fixed-term and permanent employees mainly from the industry sector first reveal that organisational identification mediates the negative effect of temporary work on work motivation and its positive association with self-centred reactions to injustice. Nevertheless, cluster analysis revealed the existence of three subgroups of agency workers, a minority of them—autonomous and compensated—having similarly high levels of identification and motivation than permanent employees. Additionally, autonomous and compensated workers identify more with their ingroup than low-autonomy and low-compensations workers, ingroup identification explaining their difference in terms of work motivation. Furthermore, ingroup identification of agency workers interact with organisational identification to determine their reactions to injustice. Implications, limitations, and research perspectives deriving from this study are discussed
Supports and Interventions for Carers of a Person with Depressive or Anxiety Symptomology: A Systematic Review
An increasing body of research attests to the capacity of evidence-based interventions to improve outcomes for informal carers. A review of suitable supports and interventions for carers of a person with depressive or anxiety symptomology is timely. This systematic review explores intervention suitability evidence for this carer group. Searches for relevant primary studies were conducted in six databases across a 15-year timeframe (October 2004–October 2019). Studies were assessed and compared narratively and thematically. Qualitative themes were synthesised with quantitative studies to explore the extent to which carer preferences were embedded in interventions. The initial literature search produced 13,183 studies. Six studies—three randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and three mixed-method studies—were included following a double-blinded screening process, a review of reference lists and risk of bias assessment. Included studies contributed either intervention efficacy or acceptability evidence. The synthesis of qualitative themes with quantitative studies found that carer-specific needs and targeted psychoeducation were featured in interventions from all six quantitative studies. Current evidence for appropriate supports and interventions for this carer group is limited. The review uncovers a lack of interventions for carers of a person with anxiety symptomology and limited intervention suitability evidence for carers of a person with depressive symptomology. More research is needed to explore the needs and preferences of this carer group, and how best to support them