Terror management and religion: Evidence that intrinsic religiousness mitigates worldview defense following mortality salience.

Terror management theory suggests that people cope with awareness of death by investing in some kind of literal or symbolic immortality. Given the centrality of death transcendence beliefs in most religions, the authors hypothesized that religious beliefs play a protective role in managing terror of death. The authors report three studies suggesting that affirming intrinsic religiousness reduces both death-thought accessibility following mortality salience and the use of terror management defenses with regard to a secular belief system. Study 1 showed that after a naturally occurring reminder of mortality, people who scored high on intrinsic religiousness did not react with worldview defense, whereas people low on intrinsic religiousness did. Study 2 specified that intrinsic religious belief mitigated worldview defense only if participants had the opportunity to affirm their religious beliefs. Study 3 illustrated that affirmation of religious belief decreased death-thought accessibility following mortality salience only for those participants who scored high on the intrinsic religiousness scale. Taken as a whole, these results suggest that only those people who are intrinsically vested in their religion derive terror management benefits from religious beliefs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of teacher judgments of pupil achievement levels.

Analyzed the accuracy of 12 teachers' judgments of pupil achievement levels. Ss were asked to provide for each of their 322 3rd–8th grade pupils an estimate of achievement test performance, a rating of basic intellectual ability, and a rating of motivation to do school work. Pupils were administered the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test and the Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test. Analyses revealed a high level of accuracy for the achievement judgments when compared to test scores. There was no evidence that pupil gender functioned as a biasing variable in the judgments, but there were indications that the pupil ability variable was a source of bias for some Ss, who overestimated the performance of high-ability pupils and underestimated the performance of low-ability pupils. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vitality and interest–enjoyment as a function of class-to-class variation in need-supportive teaching and pupils' autonomous motivation.

In 2 quasi-experimental field studies in a real-life physical education (PE) setting, the authors investigated whether the interest–enjoyment and vitality of Greek pupils (age range, 10–12 years) varied from class to class as a function of the class-to-class variation in the manipulated motivational environment (Studies 1 and 2) and pupils' relative autonomous motivation (Study 2). In Study 1, multilevel analyses showed at the within-student level that students (N = 138, 48.6% boys and 51.4% girls) reported, on average, more interest–enjoyment and vitality after a need-supportive, relative to a typical (i.e., control group), PE class. This main effect was replicated in Study 2 (N = 155, 53.6% boys and 46.4% girls), and Study 2 findings further showed at the between-student level that interest–enjoyment was somewhat higher among pupils scoring higher in relative autonomous motivation. Moreover, Study 2 provided evidence for an interaction effect such that pupils with high, as compared with those with low, relative autonomous motivation benefited significantly more from a need-supportive class. Perceived need support was found to fully explain the effects of manipulated need support on interest-enjoyment and vitality. Results are discussed within the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

A question of standards: Attributions of blame and credit for classroom acts.

We examined differences between blame and credit judgments among 247 students and 13 teachers from 7 first- and 6 fifth-grade classrooms. Study 1 indicated that even young children used information about excuses and justifications in assigning blame but not in determining credit. The gap between grades for assignment of credit was most striking for norms involving specific classroom roles. At both grade levels, norms of duty differed from norms of aspiration; for the latter, more credit was assigned for good outcomes than was blame for bad outcomes. Study 2 analyzed teachers' attributions and examined links between teachers' and pupils' judgments. Children's blame attributions were more highly correlated with those of teachers than were credit attributions. Teachers who provided less negative procedural feedback (NPF) had pupils whose blame judgments were more highly correlated with their own. However, within categories of teachers (grade levels by high-low NPF), individual teachers' and pupils' idiosyncratic judgments were not associated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Manipulating subjective expectancy through feedback: A laboratory study of the expectancy–performance relationship.

Investigated the form of the expectancy–performance relationship in a laboratory study of the performance of 132 undergraduates on a simple clerical task. As feedback after each of 8 trials, Ss were told that their performance was better, worse, or borderline. Ss recorded their subjective expectancies before each trial. Over all Ss, feedback condition had no impact on performance; but when 39 Ss whose reported expectancy did not match their assigned feedback were eliminated, a strong expectancy–performance relationship emerged. Ss having intermediate expectancy outperformed those whose expectancy was low or high. Examination of the nonbelievers supported the mediating role of cognitive variables in deciding how hard to work at this task. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supervisors' beliefs and subordinates' intrinsic motivation: A behavioral confirmation analysis.

Numerous studies have documented that when supervisors are more supportive of autonomy and less controlling, subordinates demonstrate higher levels of intrinsic motivation. The present research examined the role of supervisors' beliefs about a subordinate's intrinsic or extrinsic motivation in explaining this relation. A teaching paradigm was used in which participants were assigned the role of supervisors or subordinates. Supervisors were given no information regarding the subordinate, told that the subordinate was extrinsically motivated, or told that the subordinate was intrinsically motivated. Results revealed that subordinates who were believed to be intrinsically motivated perceived their supervisor as being significantly more supportive of autonomy, reported significantly more intrinsic interest, and spent significantly more time on the task during the free-choice period than subordinates whose supervisors believed them to be extrinsically motivated. Theoretical implications of the behavioral confirmation process for social perception and intrinsic motivation research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Internalization of biopsychosocial values by medical students: A test of self-determination theory.

Two studies tested self-determination theory with 2nd-year medical students in an interviewing course. Study 1 revealed that (a) individuals with a more autonomous orientation on the General Causality Orientations Scale had higher psychosocial beliefs at the beginning of the course and reported more autonomous reasons for participating in the course, and (b) students who perceived their instructors as more autonomy-supportive became more autonomous in their learning during the 6-month course. Study 2, a 30-month longitudinal study, revealed that students who perceived their instructors as more autonomy-supportive became more autonomous in their learning, which in turn accounted for a significant increase in both perceived competence and psychosocial beliefs over the 20-week period of the course, more autonomy support when interviewing a simulated patient 6 months later, and stronger psychosocial beliefs 2 years later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Asthma among secondary schoolchildren in relation to the school environment

BACKGROUND: Poor indoor air quality has been suggested to be related to the increase in the prevalence of asthma that has occurred in the western world, especially among children and young persons. Apart from the home, school is the most important indoor environment for children. OBJECTIVES: The aims were to study the prevalence of current asthma among secondary pupils and its relationship to the school environment, but also to personal factors and domestic exposures. METHODS: Data on asthmatic symptoms, other health aspects, and domestic exposures were gathered using a questionnaire which was sent to 762 pupils in the seventh form (13-14 years old) in 11 randomly chosen schools in the county of Uppsala in Sweden. Pupils answering 'yes' to having had asthma diagnosed by a physician, and having had recent asthma attacks, or who used asthma medication were defined as having current asthma. Data on exposures at school were gathered by measurements in 28 classrooms. The relationship between asthma and exposures was analysed by multiple logistic regression. RESULTS: The questionnaire was completed by 627 (82%). Current asthma was found among 40 pupils (6.4%). Current asthma was more common in those who had an atopic disposition, or food allergy, or who had attended a day care centre for several years. Controlling for these factors, current asthma was related to several factors in the school environment. There were more pupils with current asthma in schools that were larger, had more open shelves, lower room temperature, higher relative air humidity, higher concentrations of formaldehyde or other volatile organic compounds, viable moulds or bacteria or more cat allergen in the settled dust. CONCLUSIONS: Although the pupils attended school for a minor part of their time, our study indicates that the quality of the school environment is of importance and may affect asthmatic symptoms.     

Does extrinsic goal framing enhance extrinsic goal-oriented individuals' learning and performance? An experimental test of the match perspective versus self-determination theory.

Previous work within self-determination theory has shown that experimentally framing a learning activity in terms of extrinsic rather than intrinsic goals results in poorer conceptual learning and performance, presumably because extrinsic goal framing detracts attention from the learning activity and is less directly satisfying of basic psychological needs. According to the match perspective, experimental extrinsic, compared to intrinsic, goal framing should enhance learning and performance for learners who personally hold a stronger extrinsic than intrinsic goal orientation, as these learners' personally held goals match with the situationally induced goals. An experimental field study among 5th-6th grade children shows that extrinsic goal framing resulted in poorer autonomous motivation, conceptual (but not rote) learning, and persistence compared to intrinsic goal framing, irrespective of participants' personal intrinsic versus extrinsic goal orientations and their spontaneous perception of the learning activity as serving an intrinsic or an extrinsic goal. The authors conclude that teachers can best promote intrinsic goals, even when facing students who personally hold a stronger extrinsic than intrinsic goal orientation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation and cheating during early adolescence.

The relations of motivational variables to self-reported cheating behaviors and beliefs in science were examined in a sample of early adolescents. It was hypothesized that cheating and beliefs in the acceptability of cheating would be more likely when students perceived an emphasis on performance and extrinsic incentives rather than on mastery and improvement. Results indicated that students who reported cheating in science perceived their classrooms as being extrinsically focused and perceived their schools as being focused on performance and ability. Students who believed in the acceptability of cheating also reported personal extrinsic goals and a perceived emphasis on extrinsic factors in class. Students who reported cheating also worried about school. The reported use of deep cognitive strategies was related negatively and the use of self-handicapping strategies was related positively to cheating beliefs and behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Field independence and articulation of sources of job satisfaction.

Hypothesized that analytic (field independent) and global (field dependent) perceivers would differ in their ability to differentiate among intrinsic and extrinsic sources of job satisfaction. Ss were 96 civil service supervisors who completed a Group Embedded Figures Test and the Wernimont job-satisfaction questionnaire. Results show that for global perceivers intrinsic and extrinsic satisfactions correlated substantially with each other and with overall job satisfaction while for analytical perceivers intrinsic and extrinsic satisfactions were independent and, as expected, only intrinsic satisfaction correlated with overall job satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's preference for challenge: The role of perceived competence and control.

This research tested the hypothesis that children's perceptions of academic competence and their personal control over school-related performance affect subsequent intrinsic interest and preference for challenge in an evaluative setting. In a correlational study, children's self-reported perceptions of academic competence and personal control were found to relate positively to their intrinsic interest in schoolwork and preference for challenging school activities. A subset of this sample was exposed to varying levels of a controlling directive, and preference for challenge was assessed behaviorally during a free-choice period in which subjects were unaware that they were being observed. As predicted, the data indicated that when given the evaluative, controlling directive, children who had high perceptions of academic competence and control preferred a greater challenge than did children whose perceptions were low on these measures. No difference between groups in terms of preference for challenge was evident when no controlling directive was presented. These findings are discussed in terms of theories of intrinsic motivation and potential processes that underly these effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contingent pay and intrinsic task interest: Moderating effects of work values.

Examined the hypothesis that Ss' work value orientations would moderate the effect that contingent extrinsic incentives may have in reducing intrinsic task interest. 74 business undergraduates were administered demographic and work value questionnaires and the Clerical Abilities subtest of the Short Employment Tests. Ss were asked to proofread 2 short stories (high interest) or 2 law review article sections (low interest) under noncontingent, contingent, or no-pay conditions. Analyses showed that under contingent pay conditions, Ss with relatively higher extrinsic than intrinsic work values reported lower task satisfaction than Ss with relatively higher intrinsic work values. In contrast, under no-pay conditions, Ss with relatively higher extrinsic than intrinsic work values were actually more satisfied than their intrinsic counterparts. Results, therefore, support the existence of both an overjustification and an insufficient justification effect for financial incentives. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Manipulating Subjective Expectancy Through Feedback: A Laboratory Study of the Expectancy-Performance Relationship": Correction to Janz.

Reports an error in the original article by Janz (Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol 67(4) Aug 1982, 480-485). On page 481 and 484, the numbers of subjects in some places were reported incorrectly. The corrections are provided. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1982-29612-001.) Investigated the form of the expectancy-performance relationship in a laboratory study of the performance of 132 undergraduates on a simple clerical task. As feedback after each of 8 trials, Ss were told that their performance was better, worse, or borderline. Ss recorded their subjective expectancies before each trial. Over all Ss, feedback condition had no impact on performance; but when 39 Ss whose reported expectancy did not match their assigned feedback were eliminated, a strong expectancy-performance relationship emerged. Ss having intermediate expectancy outperformed those whose expectancy was low or high. Examination of the nonbelievers supported the mediating role of cognitive variables in deciding how hard to work at this task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of justice beliefs on cognitive appraisal of and subjective physiological, and behavioral responses to potential stress.

Investigated the moderating role of just world beliefs on stress and coping processes. Ss high and low in belief in a just world were asked to perform a potentially stressful laboratory task, which was repeated once. Cognitive appraisals and subjective, autonomic, and behavioral responses were recorded for each of the 2 tasks. The results supported a stress-moderating effect for just world beliefs. lndividuals high in just world beliefs had more benign cognitive appraisals of the stress tasks, rated the tasks as less stressful post hoc, had autonomic reactions consistent with challenge (vs threat), and outperformed Ss low in just world beliefs. Discussion centers on factors that moderate the experiences of challenge and threat in potentially stressful situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The ability to manipulate behavior and to understand manipulation of beliefs: A comparison of individuals with autism, mental retardation, and normal development.

This study investigated the ability to deceive in participants with autism, mental retardation ( MR ), and normal development. The authors used S. Hala, M. Chandler, and A. S. Fritz's (see record, 78:20899) procedures, in which children deceive by creating false trails or by erasing all trails and lying about the true location of a hidden object. Participants with autism and those with MR did not differ in their ability to use a deceptive method to manipulate the behavior of another person. Participants with autism were significantly less able than participants with MR to understand that they manipulated the beliefs of another person by predicting the outcome of their deceptive act. The normal group outperformed the group with autism but not the group with MR on both parts of the task. Different possible interpretations of the results are discussed, including a deficit in theory of mind and a deficit in executive control functions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The distribution of Schistosoma haematobium in the Isoka district, Zambia; and a possible strategy for its control

The distribution of schools prevalent for Schistosoma haematobium in the Isoka district, Zambia was estimated by examining haematuria in the urine of the pupils found in Grades Three, Four or Five using reagent sticks. Thirty three (57 pc) schools had prevalence rates of 25 pc or more. The distribution of S. haematobium was patchy with significant differences in prevalence rates between some areas only short distances apart. A sociological study in the same schools showed that 68 (97 pc) head/senior teachers associated the disease with blood in urine and agreed to perform a reagent stick test on their pupils' urine. Thirty five (50 pc) of these respondents considered S. haematobium infection as a major problem and 66 (94 pc) of them were ready to administer a diagnostic questionnaire to their pupils in a study to identify high risk schools for S. haematobium. We conclude that the identification of high risk schools in the Isoka district, Zambia, using a diagnostic questionnaire and reagent stick testing by teachers, should proceed as a step to controlling S. haematobium infection in the district.     

Self-other differences in children's perceptions about the causes of important events.

Three studies examined differences between children"s (ages 8–15) beliefs about the effectiveness of multiple internal and external causes for producing outcomes in their own lives versus in those of their peers. Differences specific to the school domain were found: Starting at age 11 or 12, children perceived internal causes as more important for others than for themselves; and only beliefs about the self related to perceived control. More strikingly, a sample of gifted children, who presumably receive social feedback that they are different from their peers, reported that (a) they exerted more control and possessed more ability than their peers and (b) other children knew less about the causes of school performance and had to rely more on effort and powerful others; only beliefs about the self correlated to cognitive performance. These results suggest that self–other differences are produced by both developmental change and environmental opportunities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reciprocation ideology.

A questionnaire was used to assess college students' ideologies concerning the use of reciprocation for self-gain. Two independent dimensions were found involving beliefs that (a) returning greater help than previously received will result in generous repayments (creditor ideology) and (b) caution in returning help is required to avoid being taken advantage of (reciprocation wariness). The students subsequently took part in a bargaining situation with a partner who possessed low resources or high resources and who was programmed to give a small proportion or a large proportion of those resources. Students who possessed a strong creditor ideology returned greater resources to two kinds of partners: a partner with high resources who acted stingily and a partner with low resources who acted generously. Students with high reciprocation wariness showed reduced responsiveness to their partner's generosity, returning relatively less to a generous partner and more to a stingy partner. The results indicate that individuals differ systematically in their ideology and behavior involving the use of reciprocation for self-gain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Religiousness and mental health reconsidered: A study of an intrinsically religious sample.

Despite the existence of strong viewpoints, the relation between religiousness and mental health is not yet clearly understood. The Religious Orientation Scale has provided researchers with a valuable tool for differentiating between intrinsic (I) and extrinsic (E) religious orientations, thereby clarifying some of the confusion in this area. In the present study we assessed correlations between these two scales and anxiety, personality traits, self-control, irrational beliefs, and depression. Results generally indicated that I is negatively correlated with anxiety and positively correlated with self-control and "better" personality functioning, whereas the opposite is true of E. Correlations were generally not found with irrational beliefs or depression. By dividing subjects into a fourfold typology, we discovered that 98.6% of the present sample of religious students were "intrinsics." When their personality scores were compared with those of other normal populations, trends slightly favoring this intrinsic sample were observed. Thus, these results indicated that I is related to "normality" and that religiousness is not necessarily indicative of emotional disturbance. Some implications for counseling are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)