Showing papers on "Situational ethics published in 2013"

The Psychology of Competition: A Social Comparison Perspective.

Abstract: Social comparison-the tendency to self-evaluate by comparing ourselves to others-is an important source of competitive behavior. We propose a new model that distinguishes between individual and situational factors that increase social comparison and thus lead to a range of competitive attitudes and behavior. Individual factors are those that vary from person to person: the relevance of the performance dimension, the similarity of rivals, and their relationship closeness to the individual, as well as the various individual differences variables relating to social comparison more generally. Situational factors, conversely, are those factors on the social comparison landscape that affect similarly situated individuals: proximity to a standard (i.e., near the number 1 ranking vs. far away), the number of competitors (i.e., few vs. many), social category fault lines (i.e., disputes across vs. within social categories), and more. The distinction between individual and situational factors also helps chart future directions for social comparison research and generates new vistas across psychology and related disciplines.

Situational Judgment Tests : Theory, Measurement, and Application

Abstract: Contents: R. Pritchard, Series Foreword. Preface. J.A. Weekley, R.E. Ployhart, An Introduction to Situational Judgment Testing. Part I:Theory. T.L. Gessner, R.J. Klimoski, Making Sense of Situations. M.E. Brooks, S. Highhouse, Can Good Judgment Be Measured? S.J. Motowidlo, A.C. Cooper, H.L. Jackson, A Theoretical Basis for Situational Judgment Tests. R.E. Ployhart, The Predictor Response Process Model. S.E. Stemler, R.J. Sternberg, Using Situational Judgment Tests to Measure Practical Intelligence. Part II: Measurement. N. Schmitt, D. Chan, Situational Judgment Tests: Method or Construct? J.A. Weekley, R.E. Ployhart, B.C. Holtz, On the Development of Situational Judgment Tests: Issues in Item Development, Scaling, and Scoring. M.A. McDaniel, D.L. Whetzel, N.S. Hartman, N.T. Nguyen, W.L. Grubb, III, Situational Judgment Tests: Validity and an Integrative Model. A.C. Hooper, M.J. Cullen, P.R. Sackett, Operational Threats to the Use of SJTs: Faking, Coaching, and Retesting Issues. T.N. Bauer, D.M. Truxillo, Applicant Reactions to Situational Judgment Tests: Research and Related Practical Issues. Part III: Application. J.B. Olson-Buchanan, F. Drasgow, Multimedia Situational Judgment Tests: The Medium Creates the Message. F. Lievens, International Situational Judgment Tests. B.A. Fritzsche, K.C. Stagl, E. Salas, C.S. Burke, Enhancing the Design, Delivery, and Evaluation of Scenario-Based Training: Can Situational Judgment Tests Contribute? T.V. Mumford, M.A. Campion, F.P. Morgeson, Situational Judgment in Work Teams: A Team Role Typology. R.E. Ployhart, J.A. Weekley, Situational Judgment: Some Suggestions for Future Science and Practice.

Leadership of healthcare professionals: where do we stand?

Abstract: developed within a healthcare context but were usually developed for the business setting and then applied to healthcare. Published researches provide little evidence that such leadership initiatives are associated with improvements in patient care or organizational outcomes when applied in the healthcare setting. Leadership theory is dynamic and continues to change over time. The early Great Man theory assumed that certain people have characteristics that make them better leaders. Various behavioral theories were developed between 1940 and 1980 describing common leadership styles such as authoritarian, democratic and laissez-fair. Situational and contingency theories between 1950 and 1980 recognized the importance of considering the needs of the worker, the task to be performed, and the situation or environment. Interactional leadership theories (1970 to the present) focus on influence within the specific organizational environment and the interactive relationship of the ‘leader’ with the ‘follower’. An emerging theory involves supportive leadership, which states that supporting and building relationships with employees will increase the likelihood that they will be positively influenced and motivated to work towards goals. The theory is founded on organizational behavior studies that suggest that people are happier and more satisfied in their work when they have supportive leaders who empathize at a personal level. 1,2

The Psychology of Competition: A Social Comparison Perspective

Abstract: Social comparison — the tendency to self-evaluate by comparing ourselves to others — is an important source of competitive behavior. We propose a new model that distinguishes between individual and situational factors that increase social comparison and thus lead to a range of competitive attitudes and behavior. Individual factors are those that vary from person to person: the relevance of the performance dimension, the similarity of rivals, and their relationship closeness to the individual, as well as the various individual differences variables relating to social comparison more generally. Situational factors, conversely, are those factors on the social comparison landscape that affect similarly situated individuals: proximity to a standard (i.e., near the number 1 ranking vs. far away), the number of competitors (i.e., few vs. many), social category fault lines (i.e., disputes across vs. within social categories), and more. The distinction between individual and situational factors also helps chart future directions for social comparison research and generates new vistas across psychology and related disciplines..

Situational Causes of Offending: A Fixed-Effects Analysis of Space-Time Budget Data

Abstract: Situational theories of crime assert that the situations that people participate in contain the proximal causes of crime. Prior research has not tested situational hypotheses rigorously, either for lack of detailed situational data or for lack of analytical rigor. The present research combines detailed situational data with analytical methods that eliminate all stable between-individual factors as potential confounds. We test seven potential situational causes: 1) presence of peers, 2) absence of adult handlers, 3) public space, 4) unstructured activities, 5) use of alcohol, 6) use of cannabis, and 7) carrying weapons. In a two-wave panel study, a general sample of adolescents completed a space-time budget interview that recorded, hour by hour over the course of 4 complete days, the activities and whereabouts of the subjects, including any self-reported offenses. In total, 76 individuals reported having committed 104 offenses during the 4 days covered in the space-time budget interview. Using data on the 4,949 hours that these 76 offenders spent awake during these 4 days, within-individual, fixed-effects multivariate logit analyses were used to establish situational causes of offending. The findings demonstrate that offending is strongly and positively related to all hypothesized situational causes except using cannabis and carrying weapons. © 2013 American Society of Criminology.

Emotion regulation choice: selecting between cognitive regulation strategies to control emotion.

Abstract: Consider the anger that arises in a heated argument with your romantic partner, or the dreadful anxious anticipation in the dentist's waiting room prior to a root canal procedure. Our daily lives are densely populated with events that make us emotional. Luckily, however, we developed numerous ways to control or regulate our emotions in order to adapt (Gross, 2007; Koole, 2009 for reviews). A central remaining challenge to explain adaptation, involves understanding how individuals choose between the different emotion regulation strategies in order to fit with differing situational demands. Specifically, when is the aforementioned romantic partner or dental patient more likely to “put aside” or disengage from the emotional situation, and when are they more likely to “make sense” or engage with their emotional reactions? In this opinion article we concentrate on the intersection between affective science and decision making as manifested in emotion regulation choice, defined as the act of making an autonomous choice between different regulation strategies that are available in a particular context.

The Role of HRD in CSR, Sustainability, and Ethics A Relational Model

Abstract: This article proposes a theoretical model linking human resource development (HRD), corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate sustainability (CS), and business ethics. The model development was informed by Pierre Bourdieu’s relational theory of power and practice, and by Norbert Elias’ and Michel Foucault’s theories of power and knowledge. The model suggests that CSR, CS, and ethics are parts of the same organizational subsystem, shaped by a complex interaction between human capital, individual moral development, habitus (mindsets, dispositions), organizational practices and culture, and external situational factors. The generative mechanism, or motor, driving the development and change of organizational culture, consists of power relationships that are shaped by specific figurations of various types of human capital (social, cultural, economic, and symbolic). HRD can influence this system by engaging in culture change efforts, ethics and CS-/CSR-related education and training on all levels of the ...

Refining Lewin's formula: A general model for explaining situational influence on individual social behavior

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to develop a model for individual social behavior, B, that incorporates the contributions of both the personality of the actor, P, and the relevant features of the situation, S, in which he or she is performing. In analyzing the original formula by Lewin, viz., B = f(P.S), the paper first considers the importance accorded the situation in previous theorizing about ‘Asianness’. It then analyzes the contributions of the actor's personality, noting in particular that actors come to develop broad expectancies for situational outcomes, P(S), associated with situations they encounter. Those situations are glossed for social psychological purposes in terms of their affordances for potential yields relative to the actor's motivations for sociality and status. These situational affordances are defined by the normative prescriptions believed to be operative in that situation for acceptable enactments of behaviors aimed at attaining the actor's goals for sociality and status. That normative pressure is objective, though it may be judged by the actor, and is termed the O(S) component of the situation. It is held with some degree of consensus, CO(S), by others in, or observers of, the situation. These two components specify the ‘strength’ of the situation for social psychological purposes, yielding an elaborated Lewinian formula B = f(P.P[S].O[S].CO[S]). The culture of the participants, national, organizational, familial or dyadic, will determine the beta weights linking the components of the formula.

LEAD ARTICLE Refining Lewin's formula: A general model for explaining situational influence on individual social behavior

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to develop a model for individual social behavior, B, that incorporates the contributions of both the personality of the actor, P, and the relevant features of the situation, S, in which he or she is performing. In analyzing the original formula by Lewin, viz., B = f(P.S), the paper first considers the importance accorded the situation in previous theorizing about ‘Asianness’. It then analyzes the contributions of the actor’s personality, noting in particular that actors come to develop broad expectancies for situational outcomes, P(S), associated with situations they encounter. Those situations are glossed for social psychological purposes in terms of their affordances for potential yields relative to the actor’s motivations for sociality and status. These situational affordances are defined by the normative prescriptions believed to be operative in that situation for acceptable enactments of behaviors aimed at attaining the actor’s goals for sociality and status. That normative pressure is objective, though it may be judged by the actor, and is termed the O(S) component of the situation. It is held with some degree of consensus, CO(S), by others in, or observers of, the situation. These two components specify the ‘strength’ of the situation for social psychological purposes, yielding an elaborated Lewinian formula B = f(P.P[S].O[S].CO[S]). The culture of the participants, national, organizational, familial or dyadic, will determine the beta weights linking the components of the formula.

Fairness and the Architecture of Responsibility

Abstract: This essay explores a conception of responsibility at work in moral and criminal responsibility. Our conception draws on work in the compatibilist tradition that focuses on the choices of agents who are reasons-responsive and work in criminal jurisprudence that understands responsibility in terms of the choices of agents who have capacities for practical reason and whose situation affords them the fair opportunity to avoid wrongdoing. Our conception brings together the dimensions of normative competence and situational control, and we factor normative competence into cognitive and volitional capacities, which we treat as equally important to normative competence and responsibility. Normative competence and situational control can and should be understood as expressing a common concern that blame and punishment presuppose that the agent had a fair opportunity to avoid wrongdoing. This fair opportunity is the umbrella concept in our understanding of responsibility, one that explains it distinctive architecture.

The influence of situational emotions on the intention for sustainable consumer behaviour in a student-centred intervention

Abstract: Within the curriculum guidelines for Bavaria, we designed a hands-on educational programme for teaching sustainability with regard to agriculture, food and consumerism, partly implemented on a farm as an out-of-school learning setting. The participants were fifth graders (N = 176). The research followed a quasi-experimental design and used the subscale consumerism of the General Ecological Behaviour Scale and situational emotions (interest, well-being, boredom) to focus data collection activities. The study monitored the students’ knowledge increase and their Inclusion of Nature in Self (INS) scores as possible influencing factors on environmental behaviour. After participation in the programme, while we found that the students intended to consume in more environmentally friendlier ways, this intention did not persistent over a seven-week time span, nor did it relate to the INS or knowledge scores. There was, however, a high correlation with positive situational emotions like interest (r = .46, p ⩽ .001) ...

Supporting Algebraic Reasoning through Personalized Story Scenarios: How Situational Understanding Mediates Performance

Abstract: Context personalization refers to matching instruction to students' out-of-school interests and experiences. Belief in the benefits of matching instruction to interests is widely held in the culture of schooling; however, little research has empirically examined how interest impacts performance and learning in secondary mathematics. Here we investigate these issues with a series of problem-solving sessions where 24 Algebra I students were presented with story problems on linear functions, some of which were personalized to their interests. Our analyses focus on performance, strategy use, and mistake patterns. Results suggest that personalization supported situational reasoning (Nathan, Kintsch, & Young, 1992) about the actions and relationships in the scenario, improving performance for weaker students and on harder problems. However, personalized scenarios seemed to act as a distraction when stronger students in the sample worked on easier problems. Thus context personalization may have the potential to ...

Global and situational meanings in the context of trauma: Relations with psychological well-being

Abstract: Using the meaning making model as our framework, we examined relations among global and appraised meaning and well-being in a sample of 189 college students who had experienced a highly stressful event in the past 5 years. Results suggested that elements of both global meaning (especially self-esteem beliefs) and situational meaning (especially appraisals of the event as violating one's goals) were independently related to a range of well-being outcomes, including depression, anxiety, stress, subjective happiness, and life satisfaction. However, relations varied by specific aspect of well-being. Neither control nor religious beliefs were consistently related to well-being. These results demonstrate the importance of both global and situational meanings in adjusting to life stress. Counselors should attend to both global and situational meanings in the context of helping clients deal with stressful experiences; such attention may focus on bolstering adaptive global beliefs such as self-esteem while also re...

The influence of individual and situational factors on lower-level civil servants’ whistle-blowing intention in indonesia

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to examine empirically the influence of individual and situational factors on the whistle-blowing intentions among lower-level civil servants in Indonesia. This research proposes a conceptual model where individual and situational factors influence the whistle-blowing intention among lower-level civil servants. More precisely this study used three variables as individual factors based on the theory of planned behaviour (the attitude toward whistle-blowing, the subjective norm, and the perceived behavioural control). Two vignettes were used to manipulate three situational factors (the seriousness of wrongdoing, the status of the wrongdoer, and the personal cost of reporting). A survey questionnaire was distributed to 106 civil servants from government institutions in Indonesia by using convenience sampling. There are six hypotheses that were tested by using multiple regression analysis. This research found that individual and situational factors successfully predicted a whistleblowing intention. Specifically, research results indicate there are five antecedents of whistleblowing intention among lower-level civil servants in Indonesia labelled: the attitude toward whistle-blowing, the subjective norm, the perceived behavioural control, the seriousness of wrongdoing, and the status of the wrongdoer. Further implications for practice and research are also discussed. Keywords: whistle-blowing intention, lower-level civil servants, theory of planned behaviour, individual factors, situational factors.

Building shared situational awareness in surgery through distributed dialog

Abstract: Background Failure to convey time-critical information to team members during surgery diminishes members’ perception of the dynamic information relevant to their task, and compromises shared situational awareness. This research reports the dialog around clinical decisions made by team members in the time-pressured and high-risk context of surgery, and the impact of these communications on shared situational awareness. Methods Fieldwork methods were used to capture the dynamic integration of individual and situational elements in surgery that provided the backdrop for clinical decisions. Nineteen semi structured interviews were performed with 24 participants from anaesthesia, surgery, and nursing in the operating rooms of a large metropolitan hospital in Queensland, Australia. Thematic analysis was used. Results: The domain “coordinating decisions in surgery” was generated from textual data. Within this domain, three themes illustrated the dialog of clinical decisions, i.e., synchronizing and strategizing actions, sharing local knowledge, and planning contingency decisions based on priority. Conclusion Strategies used to convey decisions that enhanced shared situational awareness included the use of “self-talk”, closed-loop communications, and “overhearing” conversations that occurred at the operating table. Behaviours’ that compromised a team’s shared situational awareness included tunnelling and fixating on one aspect of the situation.

Considering the Situation: Why People are Better Social Psychologists than Self-psychologists

Abstract: Are people better self- or social psychologists when they predict prosocial behavior? Why might people be more or less accurate when predicting their own and others' actions? In two studies, participants considered variants of situations classically known to influence helping behavior (being alone vs. in a group, being in a good rather than bad mood). Participants made predictions about how they and their peers would act. Their predictions revealed that participants incorporated situational variations into social predictions, yet failed to do so when making self-predictions. These errors in self-prediction were not generated by response scale-type. This evidence suggests that people more appropriately use their knowledge of situational pressures when engaging in social rather than self-predictions.

Exploring the Development of College Students' Situational Interest in Learning Science

Abstract: This quasi-experimental study explores how student cumulative situational interest, short-term preference generated by particular conditions such as novel experiences can be developed into better individual interest, an enduring predisposition to engage in certain activity such as chemistry lessons. A continuous intervention of integrating novelty and aesthetic experience into teaching was used for the experimental group (n = 64) while another class of 105 students studying another course of physical science without the intervention of novelty and aesthetics served as a comparison group. The analysis of covariance comparing the two group students' pre- and post-test perceptions of learning science revealed that the experimental group outperformed the comparison group in their perceptions of interest, enjoyment, and aesthetics. The weekly assessment of student situational interest indicated that the experimental group students' situational interests were well maintained by two leading learning activities: ...

How Managers Talk about their Consumption of Popular Management Concepts: Identity, Rules and Situations

Abstract: This paper analyses how top managers account for their consumption of popular management concepts. By ‘consumption’ we refer to managers acting as active users of popular management concepts within their organizations. After reviewing the relevant literature, we argue that the logic of appropriateness is a better theoretical perspective to view, understand and analyse managers' accounts of concept consumption than is the logic of consequence. We apply this perspective to extensive interviews we conducted with top managers in Germany. Based on the managers' own accounts of how they understand and apply popular management concepts, we identified four discourse categories: (1) learning from others' experiences, (2) controlling organizational change, (3) gaining external legitimacy and (4) collective sensemaking. We argue that these discourse categories all draw on the social norm of rationality central to managerial identity, while differing in socially defined rules about how rationality is realized in typical management situations. Our findings strongly encourage researchers, when investigating popular management concepts in the future, to take into account the situational nature of rationality that circumstantiates the consumption of concepts.

Emotion regulation and attachment: relationships with children's secure base, during different situational and social contexts in naturalistic settings.

Abstract: This study investigated the relationships between children's secure base and emotion regulation, namely their behavioral strategies and emotional expressiveness, during different situational and social contexts in naturalistic settings. Fifty-five children ranging in age from 18 to 26 months of age and their mothers participated in this study. Children were exposed to three situational (fear, positive affect and frustration/anger) and two social (maternal constraint and involvement) contexts. Toddlers' behavioral strategies differed as function of emotion-eliciting context, maternal involvement and attachment quality. Emotional expressiveness varied as function of an interaction involving situational contexts, maternal involvement and children's attachment security.

Situational and global context aware calendar, communications, and relationship management

Abstract: A situational and global context aware calendar, communications, and/or relationship management method and system is disclosed. The system is configured to receive non-calendaring related context information, and, based on that context information, to automatically determine one or more parameters of a meeting request.

The emotional spectrum in traffic situations: Results of two online-studies

Abstract: Statistics indicate that in 2011 more than 2,3 Million traffic accidents occurred on German roads inflicting almost 4100 casualties. A contributing factor for accidents is inappropriate driving behaviour (e.g., risky or aggressive driving or delayed reactions) due to the drivers' strong emotional state. Several situational factors such as goal congruence, goal relevance and blame have been examined and are considered responsible for the nature and intensity of the emotions experienced. However, the impact - and especially the interaction - of these situational factors on emotions experienced in traffic situations are not yet sufficiently clear. Therefore two consecutive studies have concentrated on this question. The participants had to rate emotions they would experience in traffic scenarios, which were presented as short texts in an online-questionnaire. A distinct combination of the situational factors served as a framework for each of the scenarios. In order to assess an extensive variety of emotions, two different versions of the Geneva Emotion Wheel were used. In both studies different combinations of goal congruence, goal relevance and blame influenced participants' emotions. Anger, anxiety and positive feelings such as hope, relief and satisfaction were related to the situational factors. The second study showed that the development of pride, guilt and shame could also be traced back and associated with the appraisal of those situational characteristics.

Depression and embodiment: phenomenological reflections on motility, affectivity, and transcendence

Abstract: This paper integrates personal narratives with the methods of phenomenology in order to draw some general conclusions about 'what it means' and 'what it feels like' to be depressed. The analysis has three parts. First, it explores the ways in which depression disrupts everyday experiences of spatial orientation and motility. This disruption makes it difficult for the person to move and perform basic functional tasks, resulting in a collapse or contraction of the life-world. Second, it illustrates how depression creates a situational atmosphere of emotional indifference that reduces the person's ability to qualitatively distinguish what matters in his or her life because nothing stands out as significant or important anymore. In this regard, depression is distinct from other feelings because it is not directed towards particular objects or situations but to the world as a whole. Finally, the paper examines how depression diminishes the possibility for 'self-creation' or 'self-making'. Restricted by the illness, depression becomes something of a destiny, preventing the person from being open and free to access a range of alternative self-interpretations, identities, and possible ways of being-in-the-world.

Exploring Dynamism in Willingness to Communicate: A Longitudinal Case Study.

Abstract: This paper examines dynamism in students' situational willingness to communicate (WTC) within a second language classroom. This longitudinal study involved twelve English as a Second Language (ESL) participants who enrolled in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programme in New Zealand for five months. Based on data from classroom observations, stimulated-recall interviews and reflective journals, the in-depth analysis of a case study reveals that learners' situational WTC in second language (L2) classes could fluctuate and dynamically change over time. This involved a process where situational WTC was jointly affected by learners' cognitive condition and linguistic factors, together with classroom environmental factors. The in-depth qualitative analysis of a single case in individual lessons allowed us to see the dynamic nature of WTC.

Online complaining: Understanding the adoption process and the role of individual and situational characteristics

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, develop and test a conceptual model to understand customers’ intention to adopt online complaining. Second, to assess two competing perspectives regarding elaboration likelihood for the moderating impact of individual differences. Design/methodology/approach – A scenario‐based survey was used to assess respondents’ beliefs, attitude, and usage intentions toward online complaining. Furthermore, individual and situational characteristics were assessed. The data were analyzed using partial least squares path modeling. Findings – Attitude toward online complaining is a function of both process and outcome beliefs. It is also influenced by individual characteristics, but remains unaffected by situational characteristics. In contrast, usage intentions are influenced by situational characteristics, but by personal differences. For the moderating impact of affect‐based personality characteristics, the often used cognitive effort perspective to elaboration likelihood is not supported. Rather the consumption value perspective applies for these variables. Research limitations/implications – The use of a single setting, as well as the use of scenarios, may negatively impact external validity. Future research is needed to further explain the contradictory perspectives regarding information processing. Practical implications – The results provide insight into determinants of customer online complaining. This opens up new possibilities to increase the number of complainants in case of service failures and for firms to take corrective action. Originality/value – To the authors’ best knowledge, this is a first empirical study aimed at understanding what drives online customer complaining.

Toward a layered model of context for health information searching: An analysis of consumer‐generated questions

Abstract: Designing effective consumer health information systems requires deep understanding of the context in which the systems are being used. However, due to the elusive nature of the concept of context, few studies have made it a focus of examination. To fill this gap, we studied the context of consumer health information searching by analyzing questions posted on a social question and answer site: Yahoo! Answers. Based on the analysis, a model of context was developed. The model consists of 5 layers: demographic, cognitive, affective, situational, and social and environmental. The demographic layer contains demographic factors of the person of concern; the cognitive layer contains factors related to the current search task (specifically, topics of interest and information goals) and users' cognitive ability to articulate their needs. The affective layer contains different affective motivations and intentions behind the search. The situational layer contains users' perceptions of the current health condition and where the person is in the illness trajectory. The social and environmental layer contains users' social roles, social norms, and various information channels. Several novel system functions, including faceted search and layered presentation of results, are proposed based on the model to help contextualize and improve users' interactions with health information systems.