Reconsidering the structure of the questionnaire for eudaimonic well-being using wide age-range Japanese adult sample: An exploratory analysis

Background An increasing amount of research is now highlighting the importance of approaching issues of happiness through eudaimonic well-being. However, the literature does not conclusively show a full understanding of the construct of eudaimonic well-being, as previous studies primarily focused on younger samples from Western countries and only a few studies have attempted to explore its psychological construct through exploratory approaches. Therefore, we conducted a survey among a wide range of age groups in Japan to capture the psychological construct of eudaimonic well-being, through an exploratory analytic approach using Questionnaire for Eudaimonic Wellbeing (QEWB). Methods A total of 1126 Japanese participants (580 females, 546 males) were included for analysis. Participants were divided into three age groups according to their age, including 10s to 20s (18–29 years), 30s to 40s (30–49 years) and 50s to 60s (50–69 years). After narrowing down the total number of factors by exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), we conducted an ESEM and bifactor ESEM with oblique goemin and oblique bi-geomin rotations for choosing and assessing the final model based on the rotated results and its interpretability. Results The results of a parallel analysis and goodness-of-fit indices obtained by ESEM indicated that the QEWB consisted of three or more factors. Both a three-to-six factor and bifactor ESEM with oblique goemin rotation showed that three-factor structure for the 30s to 40s and 50s to 60s and four-factor structure for the 10s to 20s should be chosen, respectively. “Deep and Meaningful Engagement,” a factor only relevant to the 10s to 20s may be an expanded version of what original paper called the Intense Involvement in Activities, with more emphasis on the enthusiastic attitude one has towards activities. Conclusions The structure of eudaimonic well-being may differ across cultures and ages, thus requiring further investigation in the field.

Imagistic Ritual, Fusion, and Self-Sacrifice

Efforts to investigate the imagistic mode of religiosity initially focused on the effects of emotionally intense rituals on meaning making. But the discovery of a new psychological construct—identity fusion—made it possible to extend the study of imagistic processes to include increasingly precise measures of the pathways to group bonding. Fusion theory has helped clarify the role of feelings of shared essence, both biological and experiential, in fusing together personal and group identities. And it has allowed researchers to test a host of predictions about the causes and consequences of this for ingroup cooperation and intergroup conflict. This chapter considers how the evolution of the imagistic mode may have benefited ancestral groups, and the individuals belonging to them, but in modern times, it has helped to fuel some of the deadliest forms of violence the world has ever seen.

How to measure a psychological construct in cross-national comparison: Regarding Rhoads et al. (2021)

This is a critique of the altruism variables used by Rhoads et al. (2021). Accepted for publication as "Letter to Editor" in Psychological Science. Rhoads, S. A., Gunter, D., Ryan, R. M., & Marsh, A. A. Global Variation in Subjective Well-Being Predicts Seven Forms of Altruism. Psychological Science, 0(0), 0956797621994767. doi:10.1177/0956797621994767

FARMING ANXIETY AS A PREDICTOR OF FARMERS INTENTION IN THE ERA OF FARMING INSECURITIES

Over the years, Nigeria and other African countries have witnessed an increasing rate of insecurities that cuts across all aspects of society. The growing trend of farmer-herdsmen conflict, banditry, and kidnapping that characterizes the contemporary farming sector is undoubtedly affecting the socio-economic growth and food production in the country. There is a growing concern about farmers motivation and willingness to access their farmlands in this era of constant insecurity. The present study aimed to examine farming anxiety as a psychological construct that could account for the variation in farming intention among the farmers. The study was conducted in the middle-belt region of Nigeria, and four hundred and thirteen farmers drawn from some volatile communities in Benue, Kogi, and Nasarawa state participated in the study. The respondents completed self-report measures of farming anxiety and intention. The regression analysis performed on the data revealed a positive interaction between the independent and dependent variables. Thus, the study concluded that farming anxiety is a significant predictor of farming intention.

Bollywood, Popular Visual Media, and Sexism in India: A Critical Glance Back

Sexism is a sociocultural and psychological construct existing since ages. The popular media, as a mode of influencing public mindset and opinion, is also inflicted by it. The current discussion centers around the gender role stereotyping and sexism portrayed in the mainstream Indian movies, television, and advertisements and its evolution over the years. We also highlight the possible reasons behind the continued sexism in the media, and the bidirectional influence of popular media on the society and vice versa. We conclude that the portrayal is changing with increased awareness despite the challenges present, and a continuous attempt at promoting gender equality at all levels will help shape the sociocultural beliefs and public perceptions in the long run.

Interactions with fallacious robots

The role of social robots as advisors for decision making is investigated. We examined how robot advisors, one with logical reasoning and one with cognitive fallacies, affected participants' decision making under different contexts. The participants were asked to make multiple decisions, while advice from both robots interleaved the decision making process. Participants had to choose which robot they agreed with, and in the end of the scenario, rank the possible options presented to them. After the interaction, participants were asked to assign roles to the robots, e.g. detective, bartender. Our results show that the robots had an effect on the participants' responses, wherein participants changed their decisions based on the robot they agreed with more. Moreover, the context, presented as two different scenarios, also had an effect on preferred robots, wherein an art auction scenario resulted in significantly increased agreement with the fallacious robot, whereas a detective scenario did not. Finally, personality traits, e.g. agreeableness and neuroticism, and attitudes towards robots, had an impact on which robot was assigned to these roles. Taken together, the results presented here shows that social robot's effects on participants' decision making are a complex interaction between context, robots' cognitive fallacies and participants' attitudes and personalities, and could not be considered as a single psychological construct.

PARTICIPATORY MODELLING OF THE CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-BELIEFS AND PERSONALITY USING AGGREGATED FUZZYRELATIONAL MAPMODEL AND KOSKO-HAMMING DISTANCE

Fuzzy Relational Map is an efficient tool in establishing the causal relationship between two disjoint sets of concepts. In situations, wherein the data available is unsupervised involving emotions and reasons described in a language that is vague or difficult to interpret, Fuzzy Relational Map is the pertinent approach of choice. Personality is a psychological construct that has different traits and these traits have some unique behavioral beliefs underneath. In this paper, an extension of a fuzzy relational map called aggregatedFuzzyRelational Map is used to study the association between the traits of personality and the behavioral beliefs that influence a certain type of personality. Further, the fixed points are analyzed with the aid of Kosko-Hamming Distance.

Crossing the seven Cs of internal consistency: Assessing the reliability of formative instruments

Evaluating the reliability of measurement instruments is common practice in organizational psychology. When measurement proceeds using composites of multiple indicators, reliability is often examined with internal consistency estimates. This is common practice for both measurement instruments with a reflective measurement model, where a latent psychological construct is assumed to cause the item scores, and with a formative measurement model, where the composite score defines the construct. In the latter case, however, internal consistency indices such as Coefficient Alpha or Omega are not informative about reliability. In this paper, we review the assumption of reflective measurement and discuss why internal consistency estimates assume this model. We then provide an illustration of a checklist (originally proposed by Jarvis et al., 2003) intended to aid researchers, reviewers and editors in recognizing reflective measurement. Finally, the paper describes how researchers can estimate the reliability of instruments that use formative items. With these contributions, the paper aims to promote awareness of measurement assumptions when estimating reliability, and to provide tailored alternatives for assessing the reliability of formative instruments.

PSYCHOLOGICAL POTENTIAL OF SOLIDARITY IN RUSSIAN MEDIAS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PANDEMIC

В статье ставится задача разработки психологически обоснованных рекомендаций для медиа по формированию солидарных установок и навыков взаимопомощи в условиях такой чрезвычайной ситуации, как пандемия. Анализируются официальные новости, неформальные сообщения в соцсетях, сетки и программы телевещания в первый месяц пандемии в России. Выделяются «видимые» и «невидимые» для медиа психологические факторы солидарности, которая рассматривается как сложный социально-психологический конструкт, включающий не только представления о справедливом мироустройстве, но и эмпатию, позитивную идентичность и личный опыт взаимопомощи. Информирование о различных, иногда взаимоисключающих факторах пандемии (генетических, политических, медицинских, миграционных, демографических, экономических, региональных и т.д.) может привести к когнитивному диссонансу в восприятии информации, дезориентировать и деморализовать членов общества. Отмечается, что СМИ недооценивали культурные и психологические факторы пандемии, не ставили задачу формирования навыков солидарности у детей и взрослых. Анализ сетки федерального телеканала «Карусель» за апрель 2020 г. показал рост развлекательных и снижение просоциальных программ, преобладание тактик отвлечения внимания от пандемии. Показано, что преждевременное информирование о характере распространения вируса, приводил к парадоксальным, обратным тенденциям, то есть медиа по факту моделировали социальное поведение и определяли темпы пандемии. Даются рекомендации по стратегиям и тактикам воздействия на аудиторию, субъектность которой наряду с паникой нарастает в условиях пандемии. The paper aims to develop psychologically grounded recommendations for the media on the formation of solidarity attitudes and skills under the conditions of such a natural disaster as a pandemic. The article analyzes official news, informal messages in social networks, program schedules, video episodes in the first month of the pandemic in Russia. The psychological factors of solidarity, visible and invisible to the media, are distinguished. Solidarity is considered as a complex socio-psychological construct that includes not only ideas about a fair world order, but also empathy, positive identity and personal experience of mutual assistance. Informing about various, sometimes controversial factors of the pandemic (genetic, political, medical, demographic, economic, regional, etc.) could lead to cognitive dissonance in the perception of information, disorientate and demoralize recipients. The cultural and psychological factors of the pandemic were underestimated by medias. The task of developing solidarity skills in children and adults was not set. The analysis of the grid of the federal TV channel «Karusel» for April 2020 showed an increase in entertainment and a decrease in prosocial programs, the predominance of tactics to distract attention from the pandemic. It is shown that premature information about the nature of the spread of the virus led to paradoxical, reverse trends, that is, the media actually modeled social behavior and determined the pace of the pandemic. Recommendations are given on strategies and tactics for influencing the audience, whose subjectivity, along with panic, increases in the context of a pandemic.