Social Psychological Bulletin
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The Resilience of Mothers and Their Job Satisfaction: The Differentiating Role of Single Motherhood
No full textFrom the perspective of the social functioning of a family, single mothers are amongst the most vulnerable social groups in terms of interconnected economic, social and psychological burdens (Van Lancker, Ghysels, & Cantillon, 2015). Women in the situation of lone motherhood are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of meeting too many requirements and an excess of daily tasks. The aim of the study was to clarify whether resilience as an attribute and resilient coping can be a significant resource of their job satisfaction, taking into account the role of single motherhood as a difficult situation. The study involved 435 mothers, among whom 204 (47%) were in a formal or informal relationship, and 231 (53%) were lone mothers. For the measurement of resilient coping, the Brief Resilience Coping Scale – BRCS was used (Piórowska, Basińska, Piórowski, & Janicka, 2017), trait resilience was measured by the Resiliency Assessment Scale (SPP-25) (Ogińska-Bulik & Juczyński, 2008) and job satisfaction was rated by The Satisfaction with Job Scale (Zalewska, 2003b). The analysis showed no significant differences between mothers in terms of the level of job satisfaction, resilient coping and resilience as an attribute – with the exception of one dimension, openness to new experiences and sense of humour, which in the group of lone mothers scored significantly lower than in the group of mothers in relationships. The results also showed a significant differentiating role of marital status and resilient coping as well as trait resilience on job satisfaction
Is “Behavior” the Problem?
No full textDoliński (2018, this issue) deplores the near absence of “real behavior” in social and personality studies and attributes to that omission several problems in our research. We concur in the depiction of problems but take issue with the diagnosis. In a sense, most we ever study is behavior (the definition of the concept is quite broad). The problems are better understood as those of validity, generalizability and consequentialityin contemporary social/personality research and they stem from the “double whammy” of (occasionally unwarranted) IRB restrictions on social/personality research and unrealistic perfectionism that constrain our efforts
For Body and Mind: Practicing Yoga and Emotion Regulation
No full textThe purpose of the present study was to examine if the length of yoga training may influence the use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression (as emotion regulation strategies) and whether this relationship may be moderated by personality traits. Based on previous studies, we hypothesized that the link between the length of yoga practice and emotion regulation can rely most heavily on participants’ conscientiousness and extraversion levels. Ninety women in two groups participated in the study: those who have been practicing yoga for over a year and those who have been practicing for a shorter period of time. An Emotion Regulation Questionnaire was applied to measure the use the strategies of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Moreover, personality traits, based on the Big Five model were assessed. The results of the study provided support for our prediction: participants who engaged in yoga practice for a longer period of time (as compared to participants who practiced yoga for a shorter duration), reported using cognitive reappraisal more often. Furthermore, longer yoga practice was more beneficial than shorter practice especially for individuals with low levels of conscientiousness and extraversion. Thus, extraversion and conscientiousness seem to facilitate the process of drawing benefits from practicing yoga
Simple First: A Skeleton for an Evaluative Learning Model
No full textSimple first is our name for a set of hypotheses that we have found useful in our research on evaluative learning. The hypotheses are: (1) It is easier to encode and retrieve information that two concepts are linked than information about how they are linked; (2) It is easier to store and retrieve information than to make an inference based on that information; (3) When people encounter an object and memory activates valence that is mentally linked to that object, they consider the activation valid evidence that the activated valence characterizes the object. We demonstrate how these hypotheses generate useful assumptions about Evaluative Conditioning, and open paths for further research on evaluative learning and evaluation
Relational Aggressiveness in Adolescence: Relations With Emotional Awareness and Self-Control
No full textInvolvement in relationally aggressive conduct is an important contributor to maladaptive functioning in both childhood and adulthood. Decreased emotional awareness and impairments of self-control are risk factors for relational aggressiveness, while emotional awareness can also be treated as an important prerequisite for proper self-control. The aim of the study was to examine the associations between dimensions of emotional awareness (attention to emotions and emotional clarity), self-control, and relational aggressiveness. Self-control was also examined as a mediating variable between emotional awareness and relational aggressiveness. Self-report measures of trait meta-mood, alexithymia, self-control, and relational aggressiveness were completed by 214 adolescents (129 females), aged 15–23. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed two factors of emotional awareness: (1) inattention to emotions (reflecting low attention to emotions and externally oriented thinking) and (2) a lack of emotional clarity (reflecting difficulties in identifying emotion, difficulties in describing emotion, and low clarity of emotion). Self-control and mood repair ability inversely correlated with proactive and reactive relational aggressiveness, whereas the clarity component of the meta-mood trait only inversely predicted reactive relational aggressiveness. Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that direct relationships between inattention to emotions and relational aggressiveness, as well as between lack of emotional clarity and relational aggressiveness were non-significant. Nevertheless, a lack of emotional clarity was indirectly and significantly associated with relational aggressiveness through decreased self-control
Narcissist Unmasked. Looking for the Narcissistic Decision-Making Mechanism: A Contribution From the Big Five
No full textThe Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Concept is a model of narcissism that disentangles its bright and dark sides by introducing two strategies: admiration and rivalry. Although it is promising and explains the functioning of the narcissist, little is known about the trigger mechanisms that would explain how the strategy of admiration or rivalry is chosen. Based on the circumplex of personality metatraits model, we locate narcissism on the Delta-Minus metatrait. In the metaphor of the narcissistic pendulum, the narcissist at the starting point represents behaviour typical of the Delta-Minus metatrait. The initial decision is influenced by the activity of the amygdala and after conscious assessment, the pendulum could move in the opposite direction if the situational assessment was inadequate
Social Psychology Should Be a Science of Feelings, Thoughts and Behaviour
No full textThis article is a polemic with the eminent psychologists whose articles are published in the present edition of this journal. These articles present their views on the introductory article of the same volume titled “Is psychology still a science of behaviour?” The author of this article concurs with his polemicists that the fundamental task of psychology should be to explain behaviour, not merely to predict it. That said, he argues that in order for this to occur, psychology must, by necessity, study real human behaviours (which, in the opinion of some of the polemicists, is not an imperative). At the same time, he admits that an understanding of behaviour also requires studying what people think and feel.
 
Not by Behaviour Alone: In Defence of Self-Reports and ‘Finger Movements’
No full textWe agree that it is important to study behaviour in psychology but warn against putting behaviour on a scientific pedestal. We argue that this would be problematic for at least three reasons. First, behaviour should not be seen as disconnected from thoughts and feelings; moreover, quarantin- ing different domains of responses does not help to explain human psychology comprehensively. Second, because behaviour hardly ever speaks for itself, it is essential to gather other responses from participants (including self-reports and “finger movement responses”) to understand what their behaviour really means. Finally, and most importantly, we observe that the main response
to the crisis in social psychology has consisted of calls to change our empirical practices. Here this call takes the form of arguing for studying one particular dependent variable: behaviour. Even though we agree that there is value in measuring behaviour, promoting such practices is not go- ing to be a silver bullet that overcomes the key challenges that social psychology as a discipline
is currently facing. To do that, a more fruitful avenue would be to focus on the theory that needs to underpin and inform that empirical work. Indeed, without a proper theoretical framework to guide the study of behaviour, developing a “science of behaviour” is in our view rather futile
Does Our Well-Being Decrease When We Value High Materialistic Aspirations or When We Attain Them?
No full textThe purpose of the study was to explore the relationships between materialistic and non-materialistic aspirations and well-being (cognitive, emotional, and social well-being). The novelty of this study is that besides examining the relationships between the importance of materialistic and non-materialistic aspirations and well-being, it also tested the relationships between the attainment of materialistic and non-materialistic goals and different aspects of well-being. The findings of the study indicate that both attaching importance to non-materialistic aspirations and their attainment are linked with well-being (emotional, cognitive and social well-being). The relationship between the attainment of materialistic aspirations and well-being is complex; the attainment of financial success fosters well-being (cognitive, emotional and social well-being) and the attainment of popularity inhibits well-being. However, the relationship between the attachment of importance to materialistic aspirations and well-being is insignificant