743 research outputs found
COVID-19 Threat and Uncertainty: How Outcome Anticipation Shapes Responses to the Unknown
No full textUncertainty was a common theme in political speeches, fundraising emails, and TV advertisements throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The anxiety and distress felt by many all over the world was presumed to be directly tied to the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic. Yet, these negative feelings cannot be extricated from the negative outcomes associated with COVID-19: Serious illness, death, loss of a loved one, loss of a job, and loss of education for one's child, among others. In this chapter, we posit that negative feelings about the uncertainty engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic are due not to the uncertainty itself, but rather to expectations of negative outcomes to the pandemic, informed in part by people's past experiences. We bolster this argument using experimental data as well as findings that people who were less at risk for negative outcomes during the pandemic (e.g., those with a higher socioeconomic status) experienced less distress about it, and that people who were more at risk (e.g., people with chronic illness, healthcare professionals) experienced more distress. We also highlight the role of optimism and resilience in predicting more positive reactions to uncertain situations, including COVID-19, demonstrating that people's expectations of both positive outcomes and their own abilities to cope with potential negative outcomes inform their reactions to uncertainty
Personal Relationships article People act extremely toward their amorous partner when they feel insignificant.
No full textDrawing on Significance Quest Theory, we hypothesized that when people in romantic relationships experience a general feeling of significance loss, they should develop an obsessive passion towards their partner, which in turn should enhance their willingness to act in an extreme manner to maintain their relationship (i.e., their remaining source of significance). To test this hypothesis, we ran two cross-sectional studies, and a longitudinal one. The first operationalized extreme behaviors through self-sacrifice. The second considered obsessive relational intrusion (ORI) to be an example of extreme behavior. The third study tested if the consequentiality among variables we considered was that hypothesized and ensured that the hypothesized model remained consistent also while considering the possible overlap between significance loss (i.e., quest for significance), and low self-esteem. Results confirmed our hypothesis, suggesting that love, amorous relationships, and romantic partners are perceived as fruitful in maintaining or restoring one’s personal sense of significance. Notably, this research represents one of the first applications of both the Significance Quest Theory and, secondarily, the theory of motivational imbalance, to the context of romantic relationships
Means substitutability in personal significance restoration
Full text linkDrawing on Significance Quest Theory, we hypothesized that when people experience a loss of significance related to a specific life domain, they will aim to restore their significance by acting in an extreme manner in a different life domain. To test this hypothesis, we ran two cross-sectional studies using samples of employed people in romantic relationships. Study 1 tested if people experiencing a loss of significance in the romantic relationship domain were more prone to extremism at work. Study 2 tested whether people experiencing work-related significance loss were more prone to engage in obsessive relational intrusion (ORI) toward their romantic partner. Results from both studies confirmed our hypothesis, suggesting that both amorous relationships and careers are perceived as fruitful in maintaining or restoring ones’ sense of personal significance, even if the original loss of significance is derived from an unrelated domain. Notably, this research represents one of the first tests of the key assumption of Significance Quest Theory entailing the substitutability of means through which one can attain or renew their sense of significance
Expecting the Worst: Why Uncertainty is Scary (But Often Isn’t)
No full textThe present article describes and provides empirical support for a novel theory of affective
reactions to uncertain situations, from which we derive five interrelated hypotheses.
The theory holds that people’s past experiences, both long- and short-term, inform their
expectations for future outcomes, particularly when the specific outcomes in a situation are
unknown. More positive past experiences lead to positive expectations and hence positive
affective reactions and approach behaviors related to uncertainty, and more negative
past experiences lead to negative expectations and hence negative affective reactions and
avoidance behaviors related to uncertainty. While short-term outcomes dominate future
expectations in their immediate aftermath, long-term outcomes lead to more stable
dispositional optimism or pessimism. In the present article, we describe how this theory
explains much prior research on intolerance of uncertainty in several psychological fields,
as well as how it can inform interventions aimed at attenuating the negative effects of
intolerance of uncertainty, which range from anxiety disorders to involvement in violent
extremist groups
People act extremely toward their amorous partner when they feel insignificant
No full textDrawing on significance quest theory, we hypothesized that when people in romantic relationships experience a general feeling of significance loss, they should develop an obsessive passion toward their partner, which in turn should enhance their willingness to act in an extreme manner to maintain their relationship (i.e., their remaining source of significance). To test this hypothesis, we ran two cross-sectional studies and a longitudinal one. The first operationalized extreme behaviors through self-sacrifice. The second considered obsessive relational intrusion (ORI) to be an example of extreme behavior. The third study tested whether the consequentiality among variables we considered was that hypothesized and ensured that the hypothesized model remained consistent also while considering the possible overlap between significance loss (i.e., quest for significance) and low self-esteem. Results confirmed our hypothesis, suggesting that love, amorous relationships, and romantic partners are perceived as fruitful in maintaining or restoring one's personal sense of significance. Notably, this research represents one of the first applications of both the significance quest theory and, secondarily, the theory of motivational imbalance, to the context of romantic relationships
Molly Ivins: Insights from Molly
No full textMary Tyler Molly Ivins (August 30, 1944 – January 31, 2007) was an American newspaper columnist, author, political commentator, and humorist. Born in California and raised in Texas, Ivins attended Smith College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She began her journalism career at the Minneapolis Tribune where she became the first female police reporter at the paper. Ivins joined The Texas Observer in the early 1970s and later moved to The New York Times. She became a columnist for the Dallas Times Herald in the 1980s, and then the Fort Worth Star-Telegram after the Times Herald was sold and shuttered. The column was subsequently syndicated by Creators Syndicate and carried by hundreds of newspapers
Molly Haskell: 03-10-1977
No full textMolly Haskell, film critic for the Village Voice and author of From Reverence to Rape discusses the ways women are portrayed in both film and television. Haskell describes how culture and male influence shape that portrayal and her hopes for the future of women on screen.https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/writers_videos/1057/thumbnail.jp
Need for cognitive closure and desire for cultural tightness mediate the effect of concern about ecological threats on the need for strong leadership
Full text linkThe present research utilizes an evolutionary framework to investigate the process underlying the recent rise of several populist,
“strongmen” leaders. Specifcally, we propose that when people experience contingent (i.e., impending) ecological threats, their
need for cognitive closure is activated, making them desire strong rules (i.e., a tight society) and to be guided by a strong leader.
Further, we hypothesize that desire for cultural tightness, once activated by need for cognitive closure, augments peoples’ need
for strong leaders. In two studies, we tested our hypotheses with respect to two of the most salient ecological threats currently
afecting Europeans, namely COVID-19 (Study 1) and the war in Ukraine (Study 2). Results supported all our hypotheses,
thereby shedding light on psycho-motivational underpinnings (i.e., need for cognitive closure and desire cultural for tightness) of
the rise of populist leaders. Results thus corroborate the idea that populist leaders can use ecological threats-related uncertainty
to maintain or gain power, and that ecological threats could bring to an alignment with right-wing ideas of people’s political
attitudes
People Who Need People (and Some Who Think They Don't): On Compensatory Personal and Social Means of Goal Pursuit
No full textWe propose a new theoretical model depicting the compensatory relations between personal agency and social assistance. It suggests two general hypotheses, namely that (1) the stronger the individuals' sense of personal agency, the weaker their motivation to utilize social assistance and the greater their consequent tendency to develop anti-social attitudes. Conversely, (2) the stronger the individuals' reliance on social assistance, the weaker their motivation to be agentic, and the lesser their tendency to develop a strong sense of self. These relations are assumed to apply across levels of generality, that is, concerning agency and assistance within a single goal domain, as well as across domains where the source of agency (e.g., money, power) or assistance facilitates the attainment of multiple goals. At the time of this writing, the world finds itself in the grip of an unprecedented calamity: the COVID 19 pandemic, the worst such outbreak in living memory. Starting at the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, the virus spread quickly across the planet. Over 37 million persons, globally, have been infected so far and the worst may be yet to come. Over 7.6 million Americans were infected, and over 214,000 died as a consequence. Millions are expected to succumb to the plague, the world economy is taking a historic hit. People are losing jobs, some to be never recovered. Factories and small business are shuttered, many to never reopen. Health systems of the world's nations are stretched to their limits, social services and functions (transportation, education, entertainment, leisure) are near paralysis. Millions are cooped up in their homes: lonely and disoriented, the structures of their daily routines in shambles. Nobody is exempt. All are vulnerable. These somber circumstances induce a sense of fragility and helplessness in millions of individuals. Their sense of personal agency is severely threatened, their need for assistance and support is much magnified. And a fundamental question to psychological science is what impact this has on people's social relations, their attachment to others, their interpersonal orientations, and their attitudes. In the present article, we address such questions by reviewing an extensive body of relevant empirical findings in the social psychological literature and proposing an integrative model that offers new perspectives on the phenomena at stake
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