Social Behavior and Personality

The purpose of these studies was to develop a valid measure of trait gratitude, and to evaluate the relationship of gratitude to subjective well-being (SWB). Four studies were conducted evaluating the reliability and validity of the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (GRAT), a measure of dispositional gratitude. This measure was shown to have good internal consistency and temporal stability. The GRAT was shown to relate positively to various measures of SWB. In two experiments, it was shown that grateful thinking improved mood, and results also supported the predictive validity of the GRAT. These studies support the theory that gratitude is an affective trait important to SWB.

This study investigated relationships between self-efficacy, self-esteem, previous performance accomplishments, and academic performance among a sample of 205 postgraduate students. Participants completed measures of past performance accomplishments, self-esteem, and self-efficacy at the start of a 15-week course. Each student's average grade from modules studied was used as the performance measure. Correlation results indicated significant relationships between self-efficacy and self-esteem. Multiple regression results indicated that self-efficacy mediated the relationship between performance accomplishments and academic performance. Findings lend support to the predictive effectiveness of self-efficacy measures in academic settings.

Motive and role identity, previously studied as predictors of volunteerism, were examined as correlates of another discretionary prosocial behavior, Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). County employees (181 females, 62 males) completed questionnaires that measured frequency of OCB, motives for the behavior, and the degree to which the respondents had developed an organizational citizen identity. Motives concerned with the desire to help co-workers and/or the organization proved to be better predictors of OCB than those concerned with the desire for Impression Management. A citizen role identity also correlated with citizenship behavior but, contrary to expectation, mediated the relationship between OCB and motive only partly. The findings suggest that similar mechanisms are involved in sustaining both volunteerism and OCB.

We explored the precise impacts of trust and perceived risk on the core constructs of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). We applied the UTAUT model to the novel context of the Certified e-Document Authority (CeDA) service used in the Republic of Korea. Our results from structural equation modeling largely supported our hypotheses. Trust and perceived risk were shown to be direct antecedents of intention to use, and trust functioned as an indirect antecedent. Performance expectancy and social influence were shown to positively affect behavioral intention. Effort expectancy was also shown to influence performance expectancy. The combination of trust, perceived risk, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and social influence accounted for 55.3% of the variance observed in users' intention to use CeDA services.

A sample of 134 (93 female, 41 male) university students were evaluated with measures of relational and physical aggression, as well as measures of the five personality factors (NEO Five-Factor Inventory; Costa & McCrae, 1992), depression and anxiety (Beck Depression Inventory; Beck, 1987 and Anxiety Inventory; Beck, 1990), and general emotional understanding and functioning (Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory; Bar-On, 1997). Gender differences were found such that the men reported more physical aggression and less Extraversion, with trends for less Neuroticism and less Agreeableness, than the women (NEO-FFI). Additionally, the women had higher Bar-On Interpersonal overall factor scores, including higher scores for the component Empathy, Social Responsibility, and Interpersonal Relationship subscales, than the men. Relational and physical aggression showed different patterns of association with other personality and emotional measures for men and women. In men, higher physical aggression was associated with lower Agreeableness and lower Extraversion. In women, higher physical aggression was associated with higher Conscientiousness, more depression, lower Bar-On EQI Stress Management and higher adaptability. Relational aggression was associated with lower Agreeableness and a lower Bar-On EQI overall score for both men and women. In men, higher relational aggression was additionally associated with more Neuroticism. In women, higher relational aggression was also associated with lower Conscientiousness, and lower Bar-On EQI Interpersonal factor scores.

Humor may be a useful managerial tool, contributing to effectiveness and subordinate satisfaction. A survey explored 290 workers' job satisfaction and impressions of supervisors as a function of subject age, subject sex, supervisor sense of humor, and supervisor sexual humor. Subjects rating their supervisors high in sense of humor reported higher job satisfaction and rated other supervisor qualities higher than did subjects rating their supervisors low in sense of humor. In general, the differences between ratings, given low and high sense of humor supervisors, were greater for younger (under 15) subjects than older. Older females downgraded supervisors who used sexual humor, while younger females and males did not. Future research should attempt to relate humor to objective measures of leader effectiveness.

Previous studies (e.g., Heilman, Block, & Martell, 1995; Heilman, Block, Martell, & Simon, 1989; Kunkel, Dennis, & Waters, 2003; Schein, 1973, 1975; Schein & Mueller, 1992) have detected differences in how participants perceive the characteristics of males and females in general and those of male and female managers, though sex-based stereotyping dissipated with the consideration of successful managers. This study, an administration of the Schein Descriptive Index (SDI, Schein, 1973) and the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI; Bem, 1974) to 220 participants (125 women and 95 men), is the second to extend the operationalization of the extant program beyond the commonplace label of manager to that of chief executive officer (CEO) and the first to find that participants' gender identities may be critical to their perceptions of similarities and differences between the sexes. While males and masculinity continue to be associated with organizational leadership attributes, individuals of either sex who express feminine orientations perceive little difference between the sexes.

Our aim in this study was to probe into the factors of team members' team commitment in order to determine if members' teamwork behaviors significantly influence their trust, and if the members' perception of team support influences their attitude or behavior within a team. A total of 548 questionnaires were distributed to teams participating in competitions, and 206 valid samples were collected (rate of return = 38%). The results of structural equation modeling showed that teamwork behaviors, trust, and perceived team support significantly influenced team commitment, teamwork behaviors significantly influenced trust among the members, and perceived team support significantly influenced teamwork behaviors, trust, and team commitment.

In constructivist approaches to research on career adaptability it has been conceptualized that the development of one’s career is formed from the interplay between the individual and the environment. In this study we utilized structural equation modeling analysis of longitudinal data obtained from 145 Chinese undergraduate students to examine the effects of social support and career decision-making self-efficacy on career adaptability. Our results provided important evidence regarding the effects of career decision-making self-efficacy, which functions as a significant mediator of the effects of social support on career adaptability. We provide integrative conclusions for explaining the relationships between the environment, the individual, and the individual’s career outcome, and have enriched constructivist theories of careers, providing implications for counseling and practice.

We investigated the purchase intentions of consumers with respect to organic food and identified the determinants of the relationship between intended and realized purchase behavior. We conducted 2 surveys with South Korean consumers and developed a new organic food choice behavior model that reflects the relationship determinants. The factors affecting intention to purchase were evaluated using a survey based on the theory of planned behavior. Realized purchases were established through follow-up interviews with a subset (n = 20) of the participants who had completed the original survey. The key influences on intention to purchase were, in descending order, consumer past experience, attitude, the subjective norm, trust, and perceived behavioral control. The determinants of actual purchase behavior were unexpected circumstances, living circumstances, and price.