1,721,105 research outputs found
"Experimental Manipulation of Intolerance Uncertainty: Effects on Behavior and Decision Making"
No full textGiudizio di probabilità e decisione in condizione di ambiguità: prescrizioni normative e descrizioni dei processi cognitivi
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Do amoral familism and political distrust really affect North–South differences in Italy?
No full textEspecially in southern Italy, Banfield’s amoral familism is considered an obstacle to the formation of associations and growth of political participation. This article discusses Banfield’s concept, showing that it has been vulgarized merely as familism and, in particular, demonstrates that Banfield intended amoral familism to be understood in terms of political distrust. We investigated whether amoral familism or political distrust, operationalized as an individual difference variable, mediated the relationships between personality traits, personal values, and conventional and unconventional political acts, controlling for differences in political attitude. We recruited 405 participants, distributed across north, central, and southern Italy, to complete a questionnaire on political participation that also assessed Big Five personality factors, values, sociability and political attitude (expertise, interest, self-efficacy), and a new scale assessing amoral familism as a form of political distrust. Regression analyses were used to identify the best predictors of political acts, then structural equation modeling was used to test a model of political participation. Like political attitudes, familism mediated the relationships between personality traits, especially “openness to experience” and “taking conventional and unconventional political acts.” However, our data do not confirm the stereotype that northern and southern Italians differ in their tendency to amoral familism as defined by Banfield
Personality, positivity and happiness: a mediation analysis using a Bifactor Model
No full textAbstractRecent studies suggested an important role of neuroticism and extraversion facets as incremental predictors of subjective well-being outcomes. Research has shown
that positive cognitions mediated the relation between personality traits and well-being. The present study examined the relationship between neuroticism and extraversion,
measured as general and group factors, and subjective happiness through a general positivity factor. 770 community participants (69.4 % females; M=55.34; SD=16.01)
completed personality, satisfaction with life, optimism, self-esteem, and subjective happiness scales. A bifactor model was used to parse general and specific variance components
for multifaceted constructs. The general positivity factor completely mediated neuroticismsubjective happiness relationships and overlapped with general neuroticism, whilst it
partially mediated extraversion-subjective happiness ones. Other paths to happiness involved cheerfulness and enthusiasm. Assertiveness, activity level and excitement-seeking had a weak relationship with subjective happiness and only through positivity. Gregariousness and friendliness had neither direct nor indirect effects on subjective happiness.
Life satisfaction had a twofold role as a component of positivity as well as providing an independent contribution to variance in subjective happiness. In keeping with previous
research, neuroticism acted as a sort of general negativity factor. Cheerfulness and extraversion made an incremental contribution to variance in subjective happiness. Our
findings support the utility of a multifaceted approach to study pathways from personality to well-being. Theoretical and practical implications for promoting well-being were
discussed
Separate but Related: Dimensions of Healthcare Provider Social Support in Day-Treatment Oncology Units
Full text linkSocial support by healthcare providers has been increasingly investigated during the past decade, but studies have made different choices concerning its measurement. To evaluate how social support from a healthcare provider impacts the perceived quality of care and patient outcomes, reliable and valid instruments capable of measuring specific aspects of the construct are needed. In study 1, we tested the factor structure and the psychometric properties of a new Healthcare Provider Social Support measure (HPSS) for oncology settings. One-hundred-sixty-two patients (89 females; M age = 58.97, SD age = 13.28) from religious and government-operated hospitals completed the HPSS during day treatment. We modeled the HPSS factor structure to represent four related aspects: Emotional, Informational, Appraisal, and Instrumental social support. Study 2 preliminarily assessed the concurrent validity of the HPSS with patient perceptions of the patient-doctor relationship. Sixty-nine patients (40 females; M age = 53.67, SD age = 13.74) completed the HPPS with scales assessing perceived doctor-patient communication and patient trust in the healthcare provider. Study 1, using Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling, showed that a bifactor model had an excellent fit. The analysis supported the use of subscale scores, which were more tenable than a single total score in terms of bifactor model indices. This conclusion was also supported by greater scalability of the subscales in a Mokken Scale Analysis. Oncology patients treated in the religious hospital perceived greater Emotional, Informational, and Instrumental social support from their healthcare provider than those treated in government-operated. Study 2 showed that patient ratings of healthcare provider social support, except Instrumental, were positively correlated with better doctor communication skills and greater trust in the physician. Multiple regression analyses showed that Informational and Emotional support provided a unique contribution to building trust in the physician, controlling for the doctor’s communication skills. The study results showed that the four social support ratings were reliable and valid, sharpening the distinction between functional components in the formal healthcare system
Personality, values, amoral familism, sociability and political attitudes differently predict political participation
No full text"Following Tocqueville, Agulhon and Putnam, political participation through associations is thought be the cornerstone of social capital development. Banfield has pointed out that, especially in Italy, amoral familism – a notion close to nepotism - is an obstacle to the formation of associations and to the growth of social capital. In this study we tested a hypothesis about the role of personality, values, familism, sociability and attitudes as predictors of civic and political engagement.
Methods: 405 participants, approximately equally distributed across the north, center and south of Italy completed survey on political participation which also included the big five (BFI), values (PVQ 40), egalitarianism, authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, sociability and political attitudes (expertise, interest, self-efficacy), plus new scales assessing amoral familism and beliefs in a free society. Different regression models were constructed to discover the best predictors of political participation, then structural equation modeling was used to test a causal model.
Results: Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the effects of traits and values, familism and proxies for ideology were not significant after controlling for political attitudes. Demographic variables were controlled for. A structural model with associative sociability and political interest as exogenous variables and political sociability, self-efficacy and participation as endogenous variables showed a good fit to the data.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that amoral familism, values and ideology have a minimal role as predictors of political participation; however we extended the work of Foschi and Lauriola (2014) by showing that political attitudes and sociability played a major role.
Does sociability predict civic involvement and political participation?
No full textIn contemporary history as well as in political science, a strong associational life known as sociability is thought to explain the roots of modern democracy by establishing a link between the increasing availability of free time to the middle classes, increasing willingness to gather with others in circles or associations, and increasing social capital. In personality psychology, sociability is related to prosocial behavior (i.e., the need for affiliation, agreeableness, openness, and extraversion), whose importance in different political behaviors is increasingly recognized. In the present article, we carried out 5 studies (N = 1,429) that showed that political and associative sociability (a) can be reliably assessed, can have cross-cultural validity, and are properly associated with general social interest measures and personality domains and facets in the five-factor model; (b) do not overlap with similar concepts used in political psychology to account for political participation (political expertise, political interest, political self-efficacy); and (c) predicted political and nonpolitical group membership as well as observable choices in decision-making tasks with political and nonpolitical outcomes. The results are discussed, taking into consideration the extent to which specific facets of sociability can mediate between general personality traits and measures of civic involvement and political participation in a holistic model of political behavior
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