No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Age and Gender Differences in Implicit Motives
Abstract
Research on age differences in implicit motives is rare and has shown contradictory results. We investigated age and gender differences in implicit motives (achievement, power, affiliation and intimacy), measured by the Picture Story Exercise (PSE), in an extensive, heterogeneous dyadic sample of 736 adults aged 20 to 80 years. Data were analyzed with a multilevel approach. Results indicate lower motive scores in all four measured motives in aged as compared to young adults but higher scores in activity inhibition. Further, women scored higher in affiliation and intimacy motives than men, while men scored higher in achievement and power motives and in activity inhibition than women. Possible underlying affective and neuroendocrinological processes of age dependent change in implicit motives are discussed.
... Implications, limitations, and future directions McClelland (1987) thought that both emotions and social behavior follow from underlying (implicit) motives. In this tradition, the Picture Story Exercise (PSE) is often used (i.e., participants are asked to write imaginative stories in response to pictures) and stories are coded for the key social motives of achievement, power, affiliation, and intimacy (Denzinger et al., 2016). This method is complicated (Lang, 2014;Pang & Schultheiss, 2005) and we are still trying to understand how implicit motives work (e.g., Schultheiss & Schultheiss, 2014). ...
... In sum, there are opportunities for linking the RAPT to the PSE implicit motivation literature (Denzinger et al., 2016). ...
... The RAPT likely captures fundamental motivations related to agency and communion (Robinson et al., 2017) and agency and communion organize social motivation and behavior throughout the lifespan (Diehl et al., 2004;Locke, 2015). Nonetheless, there is some evidence that implicit motives decline with age (Denzinger et al., 2016) and older adults typically enact their behaviors in more controlled ways (Roberts et al., 2005). Thus, the RAPT could be less predictive of functioning in old age. ...
Projective tests, which were thought to provide key insights concerning motivation, have largely disappeared from personality psychology. Participants in the present studies (total N = 924) were presented with a Revised Animal Preference Test (RAPT) that quantifies desires to be predator animals in a reliable manner. Drawing from several literatures, including the psychopathy literature, it was hypothesized that higher levels of predator self-identification would be linked to higher levels of fearlessness as well as lower levels of negative emotionality. Consistent with this analysis, participants wishing to be predator (relative to prey) animals scored lower in neuroticism (Study 1), responded to physical threat scenarios in a fearless manner (Study 2), and exhibited lower levels of emotionality in their daily lives (Study 3). The RAPT appears to assess motivations that are linked with callous-unemotional functioning. The findings can be extended, however, and future directions are highlighted.
... Despite many recommendations [2], [4], [5] to ensure sustainable business in human resource management (hereinafter HRM), the principles of diversity and age management are often not applied in companies due to insufficient generation cooperation, insufficient knowledge transfer and insufficient use of knowledge [6]. The quality of the processes relates to the elimination of the threat of losing key knowledge, especially during personnel changes such as retirement; however, an important aspect is factors at the organizational level, which are positively related to the application of several types of diversity and age management [4], [7], [8]. ...
... It takes into account the current demographic conditions and age categories of employees in order to fulfil the organization's goals [9], [10], [11]. The decision whether to apply diversity or directly age management is the responsibility of individual organizations with regard to demographic development and the current situation on the labour market, as well as migration [8], [12]. At the same time, age affects the willingness to adopt new technologies [13], [14], which plays a significant role in a digitizationdependent era. ...
... 7 High level of competence -management is aware of the concept of shared competence and learning, the concept is included in important organizational decisions, and management ensures that experience is being passed on. 8 The organization of work and the working environment meet the needs of our employees of different ages. 9 Satisfying life -recognition, work well-being, and quality of life of older employees have significantly improved in the organization. ...
The main goal is to find out the attitude of the organizations in age diversity regarding the personal work plans of the employees, the policy of the organization and selected identification variables. The data was obtained based on quantitative research and focus groups. The results showed that although company managers are aware of the problem of age strategy and have a friendly attitude towards the age of their employees, most of the surveyed organizations do not have an age strategy included in the organization's policy, and the age strategy is usually not part of the employees' personal work plans.
... Nevertheless, many other implicit measures of personality that do not implicate the IAT also exist (Gawronski & De Houwer, 2014), and some of these implicit measures have been used to examine individual differences in personality across the lifespan. For example, the Picture Story Exercise (PSE; a descendent of the thematic apperception test), an implicit measure that asks participants to tell a story about an ambiguous picture, has been used to examine differences in motives across developmental time (Denzinger et al., 2016). This work finds that implicit motives, conceptualized as enduring, mostly unconscious preferences that drive behavior, do indeed differ across life. ...
... This work finds that implicit motives, conceptualized as enduring, mostly unconscious preferences that drive behavior, do indeed differ across life. Specifically, younger people interpreting stimuli in a way that suggests they hold a stronger motivation for achievement, power, intimacy, and affiliation than older people is consistent with some lifespan theories of development (Charles & Carstensen, 2010;Denzinger et al., 2016). These findings echo our own-implicit measures of personality, broadly defined, can capture some of the same developmental differences found in self-reports of personality. ...
... This raises important questions about whether personality as measured by IAT-type methods can change in response to interventions and whether these changes translate to explicit outcomes, although this is an ongoing research agenda in modern personality psychology (Hudson et al., 2020;Stieger et al., 2021). While the consistency of results across the measures in the current study offers some evidence that the IAT results are not dramatically misleading, future work should examine if and how different implicit measures of personality offer different descriptions of personality change over the life course (Denzinger et al., 2016;Gawronski & De Houwer, 2014). ...
Past research suggests that personality differs by age—older adults tend to be more conscientious, agreeable, and less neurotic than younger adults. However, most of these studies have used self-report measures of personality which may be influenced by people's motivations to appear socially desirable that also change over time. If these changing motivations affect the validity of personality measures, our understanding of age differences in personality may need to be revised. In the current study (N = 12,702), we examined age differences in implicit (i.e., IAT-based) and explicit (i.e., traditional self-report) measures of personality. Although we found some heterogeneity in the exact non-linear age patterns of personality across different measures, the age patterns were largely consistent across implicit and explicit measures of personality.
... Because DTM was developed for the PSE it is straightforward to adapt the presented DIF detection methods for the use in PSE research. Researchers have also been interested in gender (Drescher & Schultheiss, 2016) and age differences (Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandstätter, 2016) in implicit motives. The suggested method can be used to study DIF for those comparisons as well. ...
... Researchers have also been interested in comparing implicit motives in different groups like gender (Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandstätter, 2016;Drescher & Schultheiss, 2016), age (Denzinger et al., 2016), or different cultures (Hofer & Chasiotis, 2011). Although researchers addressed biased items in group comparisons of cultures (Hofer et al., 2005), it is not a standard procedure yet. ...
... Researchers have also been interested in comparing implicit motives in different groups like gender (Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandstätter, 2016;Drescher & Schultheiss, 2016), age (Denzinger et al., 2016), or different cultures (Hofer & Chasiotis, 2011). Although researchers addressed biased items in group comparisons of cultures (Hofer et al., 2005), it is not a standard procedure yet. ...
... The term ageism was coined in the USA in the 1960s. According to Vidovićová (2005) and Denzinger;Backers, Job, Brandstätter (2016), ageism is understood as discrimination on the basis of age caused by prejudice, discriminatory practices and institutional policies (Butler in Vidovićová, 2005) and applies to all age groups (Štorová, 2012;Collien, Sieben, Müller-Camen, 2016). ...
... The term ageism was coined in the USA in the 1960s. According to Vidovićová (2005) and Denzinger;Backers, Job, Brandstätter (2016), ageism is understood as discrimination on the basis of age caused by prejudice, discriminatory practices and institutional policies (Butler in Vidovićová, 2005) and applies to all age groups (Štorová, 2012;Collien, Sieben, Müller-Camen, 2016). ...
... Discrimination is not only an individual process but may also be present in society as whole -for example in laws, organisational culture, culture in general, speech or art. Research by Hagenstad, Uhlenberg (2005) and Denzinger, Backers, Job, Brandstätter (2016) also points out that wherever there is a lack of significant and meaningful interactions between various age groups, there is a substantial risk of ageism on both the level of organisations and the social level. On the other hand, in environments where members of various age groups work together, age stereotypes and prejudice are relatively efficiently reduced (McNair, Flynn, 2005;Collien, Sieben, Müller-Camen, 2016). ...
... First, we will briefly describe the studies and summarize their results; then we will report the authors' assumptions about and interpretations of age differences in implicit motives. Denzinger et al. (2016) carried out a cross-sectional comparison of the implicit motive scores of N = 735 individuals aged from 20 to 80 years and found lower scores for the implicit power, achievement, and affiliation motives in older adults compared with younger adults. Another group of researchers investigated implicit motives in two samples of two different birth cohorts, which were representative of the American population, and documented significant age differences in the implicit power, achievement and affiliation motives, too (Veroff et al., 1960(Veroff et al., , 1980(Veroff et al., , 1984. ...
... One study only found a trend toward a negative relationship between age and implicit motive scores (Thielgen et al., 2015), and another study even reported a positive relationship between age and implicit motive scores (Valero et al., 2014). Nonetheless, the majority of studies reported a negative relationship between age and implicit motive scores (Veroff et al., 1960(Veroff et al., , 1980(Veroff et al., , 1984Salili, 1996;McClelland et al., 1998;Schultheiss and Brunstein, 2001;Pang and Schultheiss, 2005;Denzinger et al., 2016). ...
... Thus, these researchers assumed that such activities become increasingly rewarding and, consequently, activate the respective implicit motives (Valero et al., 2014). Denzinger et al. (2016) took a different theoretical view: they argued that implicit motive scores are strongly related to affective and neuro-endocrinological systems. The authors assumed that individuals undergo some changes in their regulation of affects (e.g., older adults react less strongly to affective incentives than younger adults because they probably strive for emotional stability) and in their hormonal balance (e.g., menopause) with increasing age. ...
Although growing research indicates that certain personality traits change over the lifespan, implicit motives are often deemed to be rather stable personality characteristics. Researchers have been interested in implicit motives for several decades, but our understanding of how these dispositions change still lacks clarity. This article gives an overview and a discussion of the current evidence for the stability of and the changes in implicit motives. After elaborating on the theoretical background of the motive construct and its measurement, we present an overview of studies that have investigated the trainability of implicit motives and their dispositional stability and changes using cross-sectional and longitudinal methods. Although the results are inconclusive concerning the direction of change, the reviewed studies suggest that implicit motives adapt to life circumstances much like other personality traits. This review sets out to contribute to a better understanding of the functioning of implicit motives and to present a roadmap for further research.
... First, there might be influences of situational differences and cues on the measurement of implicit motives (e.g., Haber & Alpert, 1958;Morgan, 1953; and the fantasy production (e.g., McClelland et al., 1972;McClelland & Winter, 1969;Wiemers, Schultheiss, & Wolf, 2015;Wirth & Schultheiss, 2006). Apart from these specific "measurement errors" and "carry-over effects", researchers assume that implicit motives change according to affective learning processes caused by an increased arousal of implicit motives (e.g., McClelland & Kirshnit, 1988;McClelland & Winter, 1969;Valero, Nikitin, & Freund, 2014), training of implicit motives (e.g., McClelland & Winter, 1969), age effects according to specific transitions (e.g., McClelland, Scioli, & Weaver, 1998;Salili, 1996;Veroff, Atkinson, Feld, & Gurin, 1960;Veroff, Depner, Kulka, & Douvan, 1980;Veroff, Reuman, & Feld, 1984), cognitive changes (e.g., Thielgen, Krumm, Rauschenbach, & Hertel, 2015;Valero et al., 2014), and maturation (e.g., Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandstätter, 2016). To sum up, research provided some evidence that implicit motives adapt to specific life circumstances. ...
... nAch = implicit achievement motive, nPow = implicit power motive, nAff = implicit affiliation motive. Denzinger et al. (2016) cross-sectionally compared the implicit motive scores of N = 735 individuals aged from 20 to 80 years and found lower scores of the implicit power, achievement and affiliation motive in older adults compared to younger adults. Another group of researchers investigated implicit motives in two samples representative of the American population and documented significant age differences in the implicit power, achievement and affiliation motive, too (Veroff et al., 1960;Veroff et al., 1980;Veroff et al., 1984). ...
... One study did not find a significant relationship between age and implicit motive scores (Thielgen et al., 2015), and another study documented a positive relationship between age and implicit motive scores (Valero et al., 2014). However, the majority of studies reported a negative relationship between age and implicit motive scores (Denzinger et al., 2016;McClelland et al., 1998;Salili, 1996;Schultheiss & Brunstein, 2001;Veroff et al., 1960;Veroff et al., 1980;Veroff et al., 1984). Thus, there is evidence for considerable age differences in implicit motives. ...
... Das Bedürfnis nach Zugehörigkeit ("need for Affiliation"; n Affiliation) ist das menschliche Streben, positive Beziehungen zu anderen Menschen aufzubauen und zu erhalten (McClelland, 1985, Atkinson andWalker, 1956). Ein weiterer Faktor, der im Zusammenhang mit impliziten Motiven erhoben wird, ist die so genannte Aktivitätsinhibition. Diese beschreibt die Fähigkeit eines Individuums, sich emotionalen und motivvermittelten Impulsen zu widersetzen (McClelland et al., 1972, McClelland, 1979, Langens and Stucke, 2005, Mason and Blankenship, 1987 In einer Gesellschaft, in der immer noch weniger als 10% der Vorstandsposten in DAXnotierten Unternehmen von Frauen bekleidet werden (Amerland, 2020), verwundert es wenig, dass das Leadership Pattern eine starke Assoziation mit dem männlichen Geschlecht aufweist (Denzinger et al., 2016). Es stellt sich die Frage, woher diese Assoziation des männlichen Geschlechts zu einem hohen Machtbedürfnis stammt, während Frauen ein signifikant höheres Zugehörigkeitsmotiv aufweisen als Männer (Drescher and Schultheiss, 2016 (Archer, 1991, Booth et al., 2006, Eisenegger et al., 2011. ...
... Die Annahme, dass es einen direkten Zusammenhang zwischen diesen beiden Faktoren gibt, muss überdacht und weitere Untersuchungen dahingehend vorgenommen werden. Studien, die sowohl den IAT als auch die PSE nutzen, um n Achievement zu erfassen, könnten hilfreich sein, um beispielsweise eine höhere Sensitivität der PSE gegenüber n Achievement aufzudecken.6.2.3 Diskussion der ValidierungshypothesenDas höhere Macht-und Erfolgsmotiv bei Männern(Validierungshypothesen 1 und 3), das auch Denzinger in seiner Studie beschrieb(Denzinger et al., 2016), war ebenfalls im Trend zu erkennen. Für das nötige Signifikanzniveau mangelte es vermutlich auch hier an der Stichprobengröße. ...
Background and Aims The ratio of the 2nd to 4th finger length (2D:4D) as an indicator for prenatal androgen exposure has been the topic of numerous studies throughout many fields of research. This study concentrates on the effect of the prenatal androgen on the development of implicit motives, namely the need for achievement, need for affiliation and need for power. Previous studies examining the 2D:4D ratio and implicit motives used the Picture Story Exercise and were limited in sample size mainly because of the time-consuming testing and scoring process. This study tries to replicate and extend preceding findings using the Implicit Association Test (IAT), an easily accessible and objectively assessable alternative to the Picture Story Exercise to quantify implicit motives. Methods This study was conducted on 203 individuals, 102 female and 101 male, ranging from ages 18 to 65. Each individuals’ hands were scanned for the assessment of 2D:4D, following a questionnaire using, among other tests, three IATs, as well as assessing Cognitive Reflection and time estimation as suggested analogues for the Activity Inhibition, as measured in the Picture Story Exercise. Results The 2D:4D ratio alone was not significantly correlated to any of the implicit motives. However, when separated into groups of high and low impulsivity based on time estimation or the Cognitive Reflection Test, there was a significant negative correlation in the male cohort between the need for power and the 2D:4D ratio (rsp = -0,284, p = 0,032 for time underestimation; rsp = - 0,244, p = 0,048 for high cognitive reflection), thus reproducing the results previously made using the Picture Story Exercise in the group of high Activity Inhibition. The data on IAT and 2D:4D separately for males and females were also compared to the literature for validation. Conclusion The results found in this study are in line with previous findings, indeed confirming a certain influence of prenatal androgen exposition on the development of implicit motives in male adults, when separated for high cognitive reflection / time underestimation reflecting low impulsivity. As the results are similar to those produced in studies using the Picture Story Exercise. This might indicate that the Implicit Association Test in combination with the Cognitive Reflection Test or time estimation is a valid alternative to the Picture Story Exercise and Activity Inhibition
... Women are expected to show higher scores in a liation motives, and men are assumed to have higher power motives. This was clearly empirically supported for the a liation motive (Denzinger et al., 2016;Drescher & Schultheiss, 2016), whereas for the power motive the result pattern is less clear (Denzinger et al., 2016;Pang & Schultheiss, 2005). We assume that these motives are assumed to correlate with a concept on a broader level of abstraction, that is gender role self-concepts (GRSC; Athenstaedt, 2003). ...
... Women are expected to show higher scores in a liation motives, and men are assumed to have higher power motives. This was clearly empirically supported for the a liation motive (Denzinger et al., 2016;Drescher & Schultheiss, 2016), whereas for the power motive the result pattern is less clear (Denzinger et al., 2016;Pang & Schultheiss, 2005). We assume that these motives are assumed to correlate with a concept on a broader level of abstraction, that is gender role self-concepts (GRSC; Athenstaedt, 2003). ...
... Women are expected to show higher scores in a liation motives, and men are assumed to have higher power motives. This was clearly empirically supported for the a liation motive (Denzinger et al., 2016;Drescher & Schultheiss, 2016), whereas for the power motive the result pattern is less clear (Denzinger et al., 2016;Pang & Schultheiss, 2005). We assume that these motives are assumed to correlate with a concept on a broader level of abstraction, that is gender role self-concepts (GRSC; Athenstaedt, 2003). ...
... Women are expected to show higher scores in a liation motives, and men are assumed to have higher power motives. This was clearly empirically supported for the a liation motive (Denzinger et al., 2016;Drescher & Schultheiss, 2016), whereas for the power motive the result pattern is less clear (Denzinger et al., 2016;Pang & Schultheiss, 2005). We assume that these motives are assumed to correlate with a concept on a broader level of abstraction, that is gender role self-concepts (GRSC; Athenstaedt, 2003). ...
Trials guidance: The Abstract should not exceed 350 words. Please minimize the use of abbreviations and do not cite references in the abstract. The abstract must include the following separate sections:
• Background: the context and purpose of the study
• Methods: how the study will be performed
• Discussion: a brief summary and potential implications
Background. Social Support research shows that providing social support in socio-evaluative stress situations reduces participants´ stress responses. This stress-buffer effect of social support, however, does not hold for everybody and some studies even found a stress-amplifying effect of social support. Motive disposition research suggests that social motives (affiliation and power) lead to differential and sometimes even opposing affective, and physiological responses to interpersonal interaction processes. We here integrate both lines of research and hypothesize that participants with strong affiliation motives benefit whereas participants with strong power motives do not benefit from social support in terms of psychobiological responses to a given stressor. Further, participants with strong affiliation and power motives are expected to respond to social support with an arousal of motive-specific affects and reproductive hormone responses (affiliation: progesterone, power: estradiol, testosterone). In addition, we test whether women and men differ in the response to social support and in strengths of social motives.
Methods. We aim to collect data of 308 participants (equal number of men and women) recruited at the local university of the authors. Participants´ social motives are assessed using a standardized measure in motive research (Picture Story Exercise) administered via a web-survey. In a following laboratory session, the Trier Social Stress designed for groups is used to experimentally induce psychosocial stress. One group of participants receives social support from a confederate of the experimenter whereas the control group does not. Stress responses will be assessed by a modified version of the state anxiety scale of the State – Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1970) and by physiological indicators of stress (cortisol, alpha-amylase gained from saliva samples) at seven points of measurement. Reproductive hormones will be analyzed from four out of these seven saliva samples. Heart rate and heart rate variability will be assessed continuously. We additionally measure participants´ performance in the interview (part of TSST) using a self-developed categorization system.
Discussion. Our theory-driven integration of social motives in social support research, and the precise analysis of sex differences might disentangle inconsistent findings in TSST- research. The more faceted view on individual differences has direct implications for applied contexts as it provides a framework for tailored conceptualizations of social support programs.
Trial registration:
OSF- Preregistration: Registration DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/984RW
Citation: Schüler, J., Ditzen, B., & Haufler, A. (2021, July 5). Social support as a stress buffer or stress amplifier: The moderating role of social motives. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/984RW
... Previous research has found a relatively consistent pattern for gender differences in the affiliation and power motive. Men have higher power scores than women, whereas women have higher affiliation and intimacy scores than men (Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandstätter, 2016;Drescher & Schultheiss, 2016;McAdams, Lester, Brand, McNamara, & Lensky, 1988;Pang & Schultheiss, 2005;Schultheiss & Brunstein, 2001). For the achievement motive, however, previous study results are mixed showing higher achievement scores for men than for women (Denzinger et al., 2016), whereas other studies could not find gender differences (Duncan & Peterson, 2010;Langan-Fox & Grant, 2006;Pang & Baumann, 2020;Pang & Schultheiss, 2005;Stewart & Chester, 1982). ...
... Men have higher power scores than women, whereas women have higher affiliation and intimacy scores than men (Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandstätter, 2016;Drescher & Schultheiss, 2016;McAdams, Lester, Brand, McNamara, & Lensky, 1988;Pang & Schultheiss, 2005;Schultheiss & Brunstein, 2001). For the achievement motive, however, previous study results are mixed showing higher achievement scores for men than for women (Denzinger et al., 2016), whereas other studies could not find gender differences (Duncan & Peterson, 2010;Langan-Fox & Grant, 2006;Pang & Baumann, 2020;Pang & Schultheiss, 2005;Stewart & Chester, 1982). ...
Achievement incentives in sports are assumed to trigger achievement motivation, which in turn increases performance. We used a within-subject-design to test achievement motive arousal (using an A-B-A design) using video clips. We hypothesized that an ACH-video clip arouses the achievement motive (PSE) stronger, leads to better performance in a skipping task and elicits stronger perceived effort and commitment for the task than the NEUTRAL- and NO-video conditions. We investigated gender differences. 184 students (92 women, age: M = 27.66 years, SD = 9.72) participated in a three-part web-survey. Neither main nor interaction effects of Video-Condition and Gender were found on motive arousal and skipping frequency. Significant interaction effects on skipping slope and perceived effort, however, showed that women are more engaged after the ACH-video than after the NEUTRAL-video and NO-video and here even outperformed men. Results are discussed in terms of why external “motivators” (e.g., videos) affect men and women differently.
... In addition, research investigating the relationship between motives and gender in the leadership context has largely focused on explicit rather than implicit motivational constructs (e.g., Bark et al., 2016;Elprana et al., 2015;Schuh et al., 2014). Moreover, those few studies that have examined the role of gender in IM (e.g., Denzinger et al., 2016;Pang & Schultheiss, 2005;Schultheiss & Brunstein, 2001) have neither investigated leaders nor shown consistent results. A recent meta-analysis found that women-in-general scored higher on affiliation motivation than men-in-general but similarly on achievement and power motivation (Drescher & Schultheiss, 2016). ...
... A recent meta-analysis found that women-in-general scored higher on affiliation motivation than men-in-general but similarly on achievement and power motivation (Drescher & Schultheiss, 2016). In contrast, other research found that men score higher on achievement and power motivation than women (e.g., Denzinger et al., 2016). Thus, to date, knowledge is limited as to whether gender effects will appear in executive leadership roles in which women are scarce and in which female CEOs might adapt their motivational expressions to fit the masculine requirements of the leader role and/or their female gender role. ...
Purpose
This study examined gender differences in CEOs' expression of implicit achievement, power and affiliation motivation. Building on the role congruity account of sex differences and similarities in motivation and existing literature on implicit motives, the study tested whether female CEOs would express higher affiliation motivation than male CEOs and similar levels of achievement motivation. In addition, gender differences in power motivation were explored.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used propensity score matching to generate a comparable sample of male and female CEOs from publicly traded companies. Subsequently, the authors content-coded CEO letters from annual reports using Winter's (1994) manual for scoring motive imagery in running text.
Findings
Overall, CEOs expressed more achievement and power motivation than affiliation motivation. Comparisons between male and female CEOs showed that female CEOs expressed lower power and higher affiliation motivation than male CEOs.
Research limitations/implications
By integrating implicit motive theory with social role theory and the role congruity account of motivation, this study provides a theoretical framework and novel demonstration that understanding social roles and gender roles can lend insights into motive expression by CEOs.
Originality/value
The study uses established theory and a validated scoring method in a novel way by analyzing implicit motives from CEO letters, a critical communication channel in the CEO–shareholder relationship. In doing so, this study adopts a sociocultural perspective. Informed by the role congruity account of motivation, the study demonstrates the importance of social roles and gender roles for motivational displays.
... However, due to the cross-sectional character of these studies, causal interpretations have to be taken with care. Furthermore, little is known about the stability of implicit motives or the exact conditions under which implicit motive strengths change across the life span (Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandstätter, 2016;Valero, Nikitin, & Freund, 2015;Veroff, Reuman, & Feld, 1984). ...
... Does it, for example, stem from affectively charged preferences for certain kinds of incentives that are learned in early childhood (McClelland et al., 1989)? Does it remain relatively stable across the life span (Denzinger et al., 2016)? Does it influence information processing (memory, attention) as other implicit motives do (Bender & Woike, 2010)? ...
The present article starts with discussing similarities and differences between conceptualizations of human needs in self‐determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan [1985], Intrinsic motivation and self‐determination in human behavior; Deci & Ryan [2000], Nebraska symposium on motivation: Perspectives on motivation) and motive disposition theory (MDT; McClelland, Human motivation, 1985). The second section focuses on the two‐process model of psychological needs (Sheldon [2011], Psychological Review, 118: 552), which aims to integrate the two approaches, whereas the third section highlights some aspects of both theories that are still decoupled or even contradictory, but nevertheless still have a high potential to be linked. These three aspects are (a) the noncorresponding concepts of implicit power motive (MDT) and basic need for autonomy (SDT); (b) the differentiation of needs into hope and fear components, which is theoretically embedded in MDT, but not in SDT; and (c) MDT researchers’ differentiation into an implicit and explicit motivational system, which is not included in SDT. Particularly, the last section highlights the potential for areas in which further integration is possible, which provides a foundation for comprehensive and exciting research on human motivation.
... The very first indication of age-related differences in implicit motives comes from studies comparing younger and older adults (Denzinger et al., 2016;Valero et al., 2015). ...
With this article, we address some of the theoretical and methodological issues faced when attempting to take a developmental approach to understand a psychological phenomenon that encompasses the entire lifespan, that is, from birth to old age. Most prominent among these issues is the challenge of defining and operationalizing a psychological construct valid for the entire lifespan. This entails both the questions of measurement equivalence and continuity and change in the theoretical meaning of a construct. We discuss six different psychological constructs from this perspective. The question that we ask throughout this endeavor is (with a twinkle in our eye) whether adults and young children are members of two different species. From a biological perspective, they are, of course, members of the same species, homo sapiens sapiens. However, the answer might need to be clarified from a cognitive developmental perspective. First, it is difficult to define a construct continuously across the entire lifespan. Hence, the question remains whether constructs such as depression or the self are similar or even the same in early childhood and old age. Second, it is impossible to apply the same measures to assess the constructs across the lifespan. Third, competencies, knowledge, and processing strategies change substantially, particularly from early childhood to later ages. Consequently, it appears that members of the “extreme ends” of the life span, infants and the elderly, seem to be members of “two different species.” However, once we have a theoretical understanding of which less specific measurement is equivalent, we can start to link the data on the construct development. Thus, we are not comparing apples and oranges because we build into the analyses the theoretically justified assumption that a limited set of lifespan developmental principles must and can explain how apples turned into oranges.
... The first finding is in line with previous empirical evidence suggesting that women score higher in implicit affiliation motivation (Drescher and Schultheiss, 2016). In the case of the second finding regarding the achievement motive, no gender differences were reported in the mentioned meta-analysis (Drescher and Schultheiss, 2016), but there is some evidence that men score higher regarding the achievement motive compared to women (Denzinger et al., 2016). As elaborated earlier, the achievement motive components were activated more strongly in mobility scenarios maybe due to the stronger physical character of the presented situations. ...
The current study introduces the Multi-Motive Grid Mobility (MMG-M) in an age-stratified sample (N = 206) that aims to disentangle six motive components – hope of success, hope of affiliation, hope of power, fear of failure, fear of rejection, and fear of power – in mobility-related and mobility-unrelated scenarios. Similar to the classical Multi-Motive Grid (MMG), we selected 14 picture scenarios representing seven mobility and seven non-mobility situations. The scenarios were combined with 12 statements from the MMG. Both the MMG-M and MMG were assessed to allow comparability between psychometric criteria. The results of confirmatory factor analyses yielded a good model fit for a six-factor solution with an additional mobility factor for the MMG-M. Internal consistency of the items was similar to the MMG. Lastly, we investigated associations between the motive components and mobility-related variables. We found that risk awareness was positively related to all fear components in both mobility and non-mobility scenarios. Most importantly, physical constraint was positively associated with fear of rejection and fear of power in mobility situations underlining the importance to create support systems to reduce these concerns in people’s everyday lives.
... However, we do think that our findings may have some degree of generalizability when we look at others' research. For instance, in a large-scale Swiss cohort study with 736 participants aged 20 to 80 years, women consistently wrote longer PSE stories than men, while at the same time also showing evidence of a decrease of this sex difference over the life span (ds ϭ 0.78, 0.42, and 0.27 in young, middle-aged, and aged adults, respectively; Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandstätter, 2016). At the other end of the age spectrum, a large-scale U.S. study of 2,495 children and adolescents 6 to 21 years old and requiring participants to compose a written newsletter (i.e., a different task) found an overall narrative-fluency female advantage of d ϭ 0.40 (Scheiber, Reynolds, Hajovsky, & Kaufman, 2015). ...
Objective:
Despite evidence for an estradiol-linked sex difference in verbal fluency favoring women, recent reviews question this difference. We therefore examined the issue based on a narrative task that we have administered to different populations for over 20 years.
Method:
We meta-analyzed 98 studies (N = 11,528) conducted by our laboratories and that featured measures of biological sex and storytelling. We ran primary-data analyses (N = 797) on an overlapping subset of these studies that also included salivary hormone and digit ratio measures.
Results:
Women told longer stories than men, d = 0.31, 95% CI [0.24, 0.38], an effect that did not vary by geographic region but was moderated by cue type (verbal: d = 0.57, [0.44, 0.71]; pictures: d = 0.29, [0.22, 0.36]), response modality (oral: d = -0.04, [-0.18, 0.09]; handwriting: d = 0.39, [0.31, 0.47]; typing: d = 0.31, [0.21, 0.42]), and age (prepubertal children: d = 0.13, [-0.04, 0.30]; pubescents: d = 0.48, [0.23, 0.74]; premenopausal adults: d = 0.36, [0.29, 0.42]; postmenopausal adults: d = -0.09, [-0.35, 0.16]). Consistent with the age effect, estradiol, a sex-dimorphic hormone during the reproductive life stage, was a specific mediator of the sex difference in narrative-writing fluency. This mediation effect was moderated by prenatal hormone exposure, estimated via digit ratio.
Conclusions:
When verbal fluency is assessed through narrative writing, a robust female advantage becomes evident. It is associated with the reproductive life stage and variations in current estradiol concentrations, particularly in individuals prenatally exposed to relatively more estradiol than testosterone. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
... Still, existing interindividual differences in indirectly measured traits and motives imply developmental changes (see Baumert et al., 2017 on the linkage between personality structure and development). Also, age differences in indirect measures of traits, attitudes, and motives (Denzinger et al., 2016;Nosek, Greenwald, & Banaji, 2007) point to developmental changes. However, at least for reaction-time-based indirect measures, age differences might be partly attributable to method effects, such as cognitive speed (Nosek et al., 2007;Wrzus, Egloff, & Riediger, 2017). ...
During the last decades, dual process models concerning reflective and impulsive pathways to behavior have been applied in many psychological domains, including personality psychology. In this chapter, we review the literature on dual processes approaches and models for the conceptualization and assessment of two broad domains of personality, self-concepts and motives. We first distinguish explicit and implicit constructs as assessed with direct and indirect measures, respectively. We then focus on measures to assess implicit representations of self-concepts and motives, with special attention to reliability and validity. Some advanced issues will also be examined, specifically novel assessment methods and scoring systems for indirect measures, developmental aspects of implicit personality characteristics, and interpersonal extensions of dual process approaches to personality. To conclude, we share some reflections on controversial issues in dual-process personality research, that is the convergence (or lack thereof) among indirect measures and between indirect and direct measures and the debate on unitary versus dualistic theories.
... With regard to the respondents' views and in accordance with the research of Denzinger et al. (2016), Principi and Fabbietti (2015) Every sector is specific and includes specific procedures. It can be concluded that agriculture is a sector dependent on the performance of human labour and every error then affects the final product or service quality. ...
The labour market is differentiated by age and the individual’s position in it is determined by age. Effective use of all workers’ potential should therefore be a key human resource management strategy for all businesses regardless of the sector. One of the measures is taking into consideration the workers’ age in agribusiness, i. e. applying age management. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the application of age management and to identify and evaluate its benefits for farming enterprises. The data was obtained by quantitative research at selected agribusinesses in the Czech Republic (n = 259). The research has shown that 25.1 % of the respondents applies age management and its application is influenced by the company size and the number of 50 + employees. Of this 41.5 % of agribusinesses spend 2–5 % of their costs on applying age management. The research has also identified two factors (stabilization and quality of processes) categorizing the benefits resulting from age management. It can therefore be summarised that age management is an opportunity how to effectively utilize human potential of all ages and to maintain and improve company’s performance with respect to future demographic trends.
... there may be gender differences in how the need for relatedness is satisfied is consistent with gender differences observed in patterns of socializing and stress responses, which may have evolutionary and biological underpinnings. Research reflects that women's self-concept is more strongly based on connectedness to others (Seidel et al., 2013) and that women demonstrate higher implicit motives for affiliation and intimacy than men (Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandstatter, 2016). Evidence suggests that women tend to prefer close, caring bonds and reciprocal relationships (Baron-Cohen, 2002;Baumeister, 2010). ...
Law firms continue to identify the retention of women lawyers as a major problem, but the reasons that women lawyers leave more frequently than men remain ambiguous. To understand the gender difference in turnover rates in law firms, this study draws on self-determination theory (SDT) and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory to examine how high-quality relationships with direct supervisors might boost work-related well-being (in the form of engagement) and reduce turnover intent for all lawyers, but especially for women lawyers. Specifically, the study examined whether SDT need-satisfaction and need-thwarting mediated the relationships between LMX’s communal dimension (which includes the facets of affect and loyalty) and the outcome variables of engagement and turnover intent and whether those mediated relationships were moderated by the follower’s gender. The study found that both facets of LMX’s communal dimension were significantly related to engagement and turnover intentions in the expected directions and that all relationships were mediated by SDT need-satisfaction and need-thwarting. However, those mediated relationships between the two LMX facets and the outcome variables were not moderated by the follower’s gender. This means that high-quality relationships with direct supervisors benefitted all lawyers and did not provide an added boost for women. The study’s most important findings relate to the role that the SDT needs played in lawyers’ job attitudes. Compared to LMX, SDT need-satisfaction/thwarting had larger relationships with the outcome variables. The results suggest that teaching law firm leaders to engage in behaviors that satisfy SDT needs and to avoid need-thwarting behaviors may help raise engagement and reduce turnover intent of all lawyers, not only women lawyers.
... The study was conducted as part of a large-scale research project on the impact of stress on couples' relationship development across the lifespan. Data from this multi-wave research project have been published elsewhere Denzinger, Backes, & Brandst€ atter, 2018;Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandst€ atter, 2016;Kuhn, Bradbury, Nussbeck, & Bodenmann, in press;Kuster et al., 2015;Kuster et al., 2017;Landis et al., 2014;Leuchtmann et al., 2018;Neysari et al., 2016). 1 ...
Approach relationship goals are pursued in order to achieve desired outcomes, whereas avoidance relationship goals are pursued to prevent undesirable outcomes in relationships. We investigated how partners’ approach and avoidance relationship goals are related to their nonverbal communication during conflict. A sequential analysis of observational data from 365 couples (28,470 observations) revealed that individuals with more (vs. fewer) approach goals displayed more positive involvement (e.g., head nods, smiles) and less avoidant withdrawal (e.g., shaking head, folded arms). The reverse pattern emerged for avoidance goals. Furthermore, women (but not men) matched their partner's positive involvement to a greater extent the more approach goals and the fewer avoidance goals they pursued. In contrast, approach/avoidance relationship goals were not associated with how much individuals matched their partner's avoidant withdrawal. Results suggest that relationship goals are related to partners’ nonverbal communication and the extent to which women match their partner's positive involvement during conflict.
This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... Because DTM was developed for the PSE (Lang, 2014) it is straightforward to adapt the presented DIF detection methods for the use in PSE research. Researchers have also been interested in gender (Drescher & Schultheiss, 2016) and age differences (Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandst€ atter, 2016) in implicit motives. The suggested method can be used to study DIF for those comparisons as well. ...
Researchers have long been interested in studying differences in implicit motive between different groups. Implicit motives are typically measured by scoring text that respondents have written in response to picture cues. Recently, research on the measurement of implicit motives has made progress through the application of a dynamic Thurstonian item-response theory model (DTM; Lang, 2014) that captures 2 basic motivational processes in motivational research: motive competition and dynamic
eduction of motive strength after a motive has been acted out. In this article, the authors use the DTM to investigate differential item functioning (DIF) in implicit motive measures. The article first discusses DIF in the context of the DTM. The authors then conduct a DIF analysis of data from a study that used a picture set of the Operant Motive Test (OMT; Kuhl & Scheffer, 2002) with participants from Cameroon, Germany, and Costa Rica. Results showed no evidence of DIF in 9 pictures and some evidence for DIF in 3
pictures. The authors show a partial invariance model can be specified and use this partial invariance model to study latent mean differences between Cameroon, Germany, and Costa Rica. The discussion focuses on the use of IRT DIF methods in future research on implicit motives.
... Some of the data concerning other research questions have already been published (cf. Backes et al., 2016;Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandstätter, 2016;Kuster et al., 2015;Landis et al., 2014;Neysari et al., 2016;Zemp, Bodenmann, Backes, Sutter-Stickel, & Bradbury, 2016;Zemp, Bodenmann, Backes, Sutter-Stickel, & Revenson, 2016). There is no overlap between the research question and results of the published articles. ...
Research has evidenced positive effects of dyadic similarity in various characteristics, such as values, attitudes and personality traits. Despite the well-known influence of motivational constructs on the functioning of intimate relationships, the investigation of dyadic similarity in motivational constructs has been neglected so far. We aimed to close this gap and extend existing research on spouses’ similarity in an extensive heterogeneous dyadic data set (N = 368 couples). We investigated the dyadic similarity of life goals and implicit motives, additionally examining relationship duration as an important predictor for similarity. With regard to life goals, results indicated a similarity, but no increase in similarity with longer relationship duration. With regard to implicit motives, our results showed a positive relationship between the similarity in implicit motives and relationship duration. We interpret the results concerning similarity in the context of assortative mating and convergence effects: Individuals choose a partner who has similar life goals at the beginning of their relationship, whereas spouses converge to each other in their implicit motives as they get better acquainted with each other.
... The participants constituted a sample of 36 mothers, which was part of a larger research project on the impact of stress on relationship development in 368 couples (see for example Backes et al., 2016;Denzinger, Backes, Job, & Brandstätter, 2016;Kuster et al., 2015). None of the studies published with this dataset so far examined the relationship between mothers' motives and their parenting or child outcomes. ...
The impact of motive incongruence on psychological and physical well-being has received considerable research attention during the past several years. However, little headway has been made to date in declaring the role of incongruence in the power motive for interpersonal behavior, such as parenting. Parenting is one of the most important domains of social interaction inherently related to the power motive. In this study, we examined incongruence in the implicit (nPower) and the explicit power motive system (sanPower) as predictor of inconsistent parenting in 36 mothers. The results suggest that nPower and sanPower combine to explain variance in mothers’ inconsistent parenting. Specifically, inconsistent parenting of mothers was associated with the interaction of high levels in nPower and low levels in sanPower. Given the nature of this incongruent motive base, their parenting behavior is not consistent over time and situations. The present study extends previous research on motive incongruence and provides potential implications for the family adjustment.
Social anxiety (SA) and depression are marked by enhanced avoidance motivations (apprehensions) and reduced approach motivations (aspirations). Integrating an approach/avoidance motivational model with the evolutionary-inspired motivational perspective, we examined the associations of SA and depression with apprehensions and aspirations in the domains of social status. In two cross-sectional samples of young adults (N1 = 277; N2 = 256), we found that, whereas apprehensions concerning the loss of social status contributed to both SA and depression, aspirations and apprehensions concerning social status ascendance uniquely contributed only to SA. Additionally, the effects of social-status avoidance motivations on SA were partly accounted for by social-status aspirations: enhanced apprehensions were associated with reduced aspirations, which were associated with more severe SA. Finally, partial support for gender-specific links between social status motivations and SA was obtained. Our results highlight the potential of integrating the motivational frameworks of approach/avoidance and affiliation/social status to understand shared and specific components of SA and depression.
Background:
Previous research shows that providing social support in socioevaluative stress situations reduces participants' stress responses. This stress-buffer effect, however, does not hold for everybody, and some studies even found a stress-amplifying effect of social support. Motive disposition research suggests that social motives (affiliation and power) lead to differential and sometimes even opposing affective and physiological responses to interpersonal interaction processes. We here integrate both lines of research and hypothesize that participants with strong affiliation motives benefit, while participants with strong power motives do not benefit from social support in terms of psychobiological responses to a given stressor. Further, participants with strong affiliation and power motives are expected to respond to social support with the arousal of motive-specific affects and reproductive hormone responses (affiliation: progesterone; power: estradiol and testosterone). In addition, we test sex differences in the response to social support and in the strengths of social motives.
Objective:
The main objective of this study is to test whether social motives and participants' sex moderate the effects of social support in stressful situations.
Methods:
We aim to collect data from 308 participants recruited at our local university. Participants' social motives are assessed using a standardized measure in motive research (Picture Story Exercise). Then, the Trier Social Stress Test for Groups (TSST-G) is used to experimentally induce psychosocial stress. One group of participants receives social support from an associate of the experimenter, while the control group does not receive social support. Stress responses will be assessed by a modified version of the state anxiety scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and by physiological indicators of stress (cortisol and α-amylase from saliva samples) at 7 measurement points. Reproductive hormones will be analyzed in 4 of these 7 saliva samples. Heart rate and heart rate variability will be assessed continuously. We will additionally measure participants' performance in an interview (part of the TSST-G) using a self-developed categorization system.
Results:
The Ethics Committee of the University of Constance approved the application to conduct the study on December 18, 2018. Furthermore, the study was retrospectively registered in the German Clinical Trials Register (DKRS; ID: DRKS00028503) on March 09, 2022. The start of the experiment was planned for the beginning of 2019, but was postponed to June 2021 due to COVID-19. Publication of the first results is planned for spring 2023.
Conclusions:
Our theory-driven integration of social motives in social support research and the precise analysis of sex differences might disentangle inconsistent findings in TSST research. The more faceted view on individual differences has direct implications for applied contexts as it provides a framework for tailored conceptualizations of social support programs.
Trial registration:
German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00028503; https://tinyurl.com/5a87x4da.
International registered report identifier (irrid):
PRR1-10.2196/39509.
We propose that an organizational culture where playing politics is important for advancement, compared with an organizational culture where showing competencies is important, elicits stronger lack of fit experiences for women than for men. In a pre-study, playing politics was perceived as dominant, typically male work behaviors, whereas showing competencies was perceived as competent, typically female work behaviors. We then tested in two experiments (689 individuals, integrated in a small-scale meta-analysis) the joint effect of organizational culture and gender on four lack of fit indicators (self-concept conflict, fear of backlash, intention to seek power positions, concerns about one’s skills). As expected, women indicated more lack of fit experiences than men in politics cultures, but not in competencies cultures. Our findings suggest that perceived organizational culture may play an important role in understanding the dynamics of career advancement of women and men.
Recent studies in information retrieval have shown that gender biases have found their way into representational and algorithmic aspects of computational models. In this paper, we focus specifically on gender biases in information retrieval gold standard datasets, often referred to as relevance judgements. While not explored in the past, we submit that it is important to understand and measure the extent to which gender biases may be presented in information retrieval relevance judgements primarily because relevance judgements are not only the primary source for evaluating IR techniques but are also widely used for training end-to-end neural ranking methods. As such, the presence of bias in relevance judgements would immediately find its way into how retrieval methods operate in practice. Based on a fine-tuned BERT model, we show how queries can be labelled for gender at scale based on which we label MS MARCO queries. We then show how different psychological characteristics are exhibited within documents associated with gendered queries within the relevance judgement datasets. Our observations show that stereotypical biases are prevalent in relevance judgement documents.
In contrast to the motive literature, motivational intensity theory predicts that the implicit achievement motive (nAch) should only exert an indirect impact on effort by limiting the impact of task difficulty. To contrast these two views, sixty-eight participants with a low or high nAch performed an easy or difficult arithmetic task. Effort was assessed using cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP). Supporting motivational intensity theory’s view, PEP response was low in both easy-task conditions but stronger in the high-nAch group than in the low-nAch group in the difficult task. These findings suggest that nAch exerts an indirect effect on effort investment by setting the maximally justified effort instead of directly determining the amount of effort that is invested to satisfy the motive.
Menschen in allen kulturellen Kontexten haben ein angeborenes Bedürfnis danach, Beziehungen mit anderen Menschen einzugehen und diese aufrechtzuerhalten. Die Befriedigung des Bedürfnisses nach Akzeptanz und Verbundenheit ist mit Gefühlen der Zufriedenheit, soziale Zurückweisung dagegen mit negativen Gefühlen verbunden. Im vorliegenden Kapitel werden einleitend verschiedene theoretische Positionen zur sozialen Anschlussmotivation erörtert. Der anschließende Schwerpunkt liegt auf Ansätzen aus der Persönlichkeits-/Motivationspsychologie, wobei hier sowohl zwischen verschiedenen Motivtypen (implizit versus explizit) als auch zwischen verschiedenen Facetten der Anschlussmotivation (Affiliation und Intimität) unterschieden wird. Beispielhaft werden am Ende des Kapitels neuere Befunde zur Anschlussmotivation sowie offene Fragen für zukünftige Forschung erörtert.
Regardless of their cultural background, people desire to form and maintain relationships with others. Satisfying this need for social acceptance and relatedness makes people happier, whereas social rejection elicits negative feelings. This chapter will first describe several theoretical perspectives on affiliation motivation. Its main focus is directed toward approaches of personality and motivational psychology. For this purpose, different types of motives (implicit vs. explicit) and different facets of affiliation motivation (affiliation and intimacy) will be distinguished. The chapter will close with some recent findings on affiliation motivation and open questions for future research.
Significance
We identify a profound and consistent gender gap in people’s core life goals. Across nine studies using diverse sample populations (executives in high-power positions, recent graduates of a top MBA program, undergraduate students, and online panels of working adults) and over 4,000 participants, we find that, compared to men, women have a higher number of life goals, place less importance on power-related goals, associate more negative outcomes (e.g., time constraints and tradeoffs) with high-power positions, perceive power as less desirable, and are less likely to take advantage of opportunities for professional advancement. Women view high-level positions as equally attainable as men do, but less desirable. Our findings advance the science of gender, goals, organizational behavior, and decision making.
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis plays a key role in the physiological response to stress, preparing the organism for appropriate action. While some research has examined universally relevant threats, other research has suggested that individual differences may moderate the relationship between stress and cortisol release, such that some individuals exhibit modified reactivity to personally relevant stressors or challenges. In the present study we investigated whether one individual difference—the implicit need for achievement—moderates the effect of motive-relevant challenge on salivary cortisol. Participants’ salivary cortisol and felt affect were measured before and after engagement in an achievement task. In the positive- and no-feedback conditions, individuals high in implicit achievement motiveation demonstrated increased cortisol response to the task, whereas in the negative feedback condition, individuals high in implicit achievement motivation demonstrated a dampened cortisol response. Furthermore, changes in cortisol were accompanied by changes in felt affect in the same direction, specifically hedonic tone. These results suggest that the HPA axis also responds to non-social-evaluative challenge in a personality-contingent manner.
People differ in how open-ended or limited they perceive their future. We argue that individual differences in future time perspective affect the activation of implicit motives. Perceiving the time remaining for the satisfaction of one’s motives as limited should be associated with a higher activation of these motives than perceiving one’s future as more open-ended. Given that future time perspective decreases across adulthood, older adults should score higher on implicit motives than younger adults. This hypothesis was supported in a study with young (n = 53, age M = 25.60 years) and older adults (n = 55, age M = 68.05 years). Additionally, an experimental manipulation of future time perspective showed that age-related differences in implicit motives are influenced by future time perspective. These findings demonstrate that future time perspective is an important factor to explain the strength of motives.
Whereas subjective well-being remains relatively stable across adulthood, emotional experiences show remarkable short-term variability, with younger and older adults differing in both amount and correlates. Repeatedly assessed affect data captures both the dynamics and stability as well as stabilization that may indicate emotion-regulatory processes. The article reviews (1) research approaches to intraindividual affect variability, (2) functional implications of affect variability, and (3) age differences in affect variability. Based on this review, we discuss how the broader literature on emotional aging can be better integrated with theories and concepts of intraindividual affect variability by using appropriate methodological approaches. Finally, we show how a better understanding of affect variability and its underlying processes could contribute to the long-term stabilization of well-being in old age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
p>This paper investigates women’s attitudes towards paid employment and family in relation to the share of paid and domestic workloads within a couple and in relation to the intention to have a child. We use longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel that questions both partners separately on family and work values, fertility intentions, and gender division of tasks. Our multilevel estimations confirm the important role of subjective evaluations of the couple’s roleset: being satisfied with the couple’s role set favors fertility intentions for women who are already mothers. However, for childless women, aspirations to economic independence and being employed have an independent and negative effect on fertility intentions.</p
In 1966 the first meeting of the Association for the Study of Attention and Performance was held in the Netherlands to promote the emerging science of cognitive psychology. This volume is based on the most recent conference, held in Israel thirty years later. The focus of the conference was the interaction between theory and application. The organizers chose the specific topic, cognitive regulation of performance, because it is an area where contemporary theories of cognitive processes meet the everyday challenges posed by human interactions with complex systems. Present-day technological systems impose on the operator a variety of supervisory functions, such as input and output monitoring, allocation of cognitive resources, choice of strategies, and regulation of cognitive operations. A challenge for engineers and designers is to accommodate the cognitive requirements called for by these systems.
The book is divided into four sections: the presentation and representation of information, cognitive regulation of acquisition and performance, consciousness and behavior, and special populations: aging and neurological disorders.
Contributors Nicole D. Anderson, Moshe Bar, Lynn Bardell, Alice E. Barnes, Irving Biederman, Robert A. Bjork, Richard A. Block, Fergus I. M. Craik, Heiner Deubel, John Dunlosky, Ido Erev, Ronald Fisher, John M. Flach, Barry Goettl, Morris Goldsmith, Daniel Gopher, Lynn Hasher, Okihide Hikosaka, Larry L. Jacoby, Peter Kalocsai, Colleen Kelley, David E. Kieras, Roberta Klatzky, Asher Koriat, Arthur F. Kramer, Elisabetta Ladavas, John L. Larish, Susan J. Lederman, John Long, Cynthia P. May, Guiliana Mazzoni, Brian McElree, David Meyer, Satoru Miyauchi, Neville Moray, Louis Narens, Thomas O. Nelson, Raymond S. Nickerson, Lynne Reder, J. Wesley Regian, Ian Robertson, Wolfgang Schneider, Christian D. Schunn, Wayne Shebilske, Shinsuke Shimojo, Suresh Subramaniam, Tom N. Trainham, Jehoshua Tsal, Timothy A. Weber, Christopher Wickens, Rose T. Zacks, Dan Zakay
Bradford Books imprint
TAT protocols for 237 managers obtained at the managers' entry into the American Telephone and Telegraph Company were retrieved, scored for the personality variables in question, and correlated with the levels of promotion attained after 8 and 16 yrs. As predicted, the leadership motive pattern (moderate–high need (n) for Power, low n-Affiliation, and high Activity Inhibition) was significantly associated with managerial success after 8 and 16 yrs for the nontechnical managers. Among these Ss, n-Achievement was also associated with success, but only at lower levels when individual contributions were more important than the ability to influence people. Measures of maturity were associated with success, but only within subgroups of managers. None of these measures was associated with success for technical managers with engineering responsibilities. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Ratings based on 379 mothers' reports of child-rearing practices obtained in 1951 by R. R. Sears et al (1957) when their children were 5 yrs old were correlated with social motive scores obtained from 78 of the children 26–27 yrs later. Scheduling of feeding and severity of toilet training were significantly associated with adult need for achievement (nAch) scores overall and in subsamples obtained either randomly or by sex or social class. Permissiveness for sexual and aggressive behavior in childhood was significantly associated with adult need for power (nPower) scores both among men and women and in random subsamples. No child-rearing practices were associated with adult need for affiliation or intimacy motive scores. The relations for nAch and nPower cannot readily be explained in terms of the child-rearing practices involved being part of larger child-rearing syndromes responsible for promoting motives throughout the life of the child. Rather, the findings point to attitudes or behaviors involving specific practices at certain periods in a child's life as being critical for motive development, as basic-personality theorists have argued. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Ipsative behavioral variability is defined as change in the behavior of an individual in a constant environment. Through computer simulation of the dynamics of action (J. W. Atkinson and D. Birch; 1970, 1978), one may deduce that increases in ipsative variability in the expression of motivational imagery written in response to equally cued TAT pictures will increase the construct validity of that imagery regardless of the internal consistency reliability that remains. Empirical support for this hypothesis is offered by the finding that TAT need for achievement (nAch), measured in 4 stories written in response to weakly cued pictures, showed improved construct validity for 61 male undergraduates who were high rather than low in ipsative variability. TAT nAch showed significant construct validity for the high-variability group even though the internal consistency of this group's motive measure was –2.229. Findings disconfirm the general applicability of classical reliability theory to thematic apperceptive measures. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The stability and change in four social motives (achievement, affiliation, fear of weakness, hope of power) over the adult life cycle were investigated in two surveys representative of the American population. One sample of 1,363 respondents was drawn in 1957; the other of 1,208 respondents, in 1976. Motives were assessed by established procedures that coded thematic apperceptive content for motivational imagery. Some age differences in motives were evident in both samples: Women's achievement and affiliation motives decline in older ages; men's hope of power is distinctly high at mid-life. These major age effects were found to depend on work and family patterns. By and large, however, the strength of the motives is remarkably similar over different age groups. Year and education differences moderate some of these results. Although not robust, indications of some cohort stability in certain motives emerge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Repeated attempts have been made in the past 35 years to obtain self-report measures of motives originally identified in associative thought. Measures of the same motive obtained in these two ways seldom correlate significantly with each other and relate to different classes of behavior. Recent evidence is summarized showing that implicit motives, derived from stories written to pictures, combine generally with activity incentives to affect behavior, whereas self-attributed motives, derived from self-reports, combine generally with social incentives to affect behavior. Hence, implicit motives generally sustain spontaneous behavioral trends over time because of the pleasure derived from the activity itself, whereas the self-attributed motives predict immediate responses to structured situations because of the social incentives present in structuring the situation. Implicit motives represent a more primitive motivational system derived from affective experiences, whereas self-attributed motives are based on more cognitively elaborated constructs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
50 16–31 yr old university students who participated in an experience-sampling procedure carried electronic pagers with them for 1 wk, during which time they were each paged 7 times/day. In response to each page, Ss immediately completed a self-report form designed to sample current thoughts, affects, wishes, and behavior. Both intimacy and affiliation motivation were assessed via a prior administration of the TAT. Over the course of the week, Ss high in intimacy motivation revealed more interpersonal thoughts and positive affects in interpersonal situations than did Ss low in intimacy. Both intimacy and affiliation motivation were positively related to conversations and letter writing, behaviors indicative of warm and close interpersonal relations. Intimacy motivation was negatively associated with expressed wishes to be alone when interacting with others, whereas affiliation motivation was positively associated with expressed wishes to be interacting with others when alone. Sex differences are discussed, and the implications for the measurement of motivational trends in operant thought and investigations into Person × Situation interactions are outlined. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article reviews the literature on reliability of fantasy-based achievement motivation measures. Homogeneity estimates for such measures are suggested, and some illustrative applications to data are presented. Analysis of both published and unpublished data suggests that homogeneity reliability of these measures rarely exceeds .30 to .40. The use of achievement motive measures to predict school achievement is questioned on grounds of low reliability of the measures. Previous findings in this area are interpretable in terms of failure to control on IQ and/or productivity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The authors test the assumption that the core of implicit motives is the desire for particular affective experiences and that motive satisfaction need not be tied to any particular domain. Using the context of romantic relationships, cross-sectional Study 1 and experimental Study 2 showed that people with a high affiliation motive were more satisfied when they experienced more affiliation-specific affect (calmness and relaxation). However, people with a higher power motive were more satisfied in their relationships when they experienced more power-specific affect (strength and excitement) in these relationships. The results support the idea that an implicit motive involves the desire for specific affective experiences and that frequent experiences of one's preferred affect can lead to enhanced satisfaction and well-being in a domain, even one that is not typically associated with that motive.
Multilevel modeling is a technique that has numerous potential applications for social and personality psychology. To help realize this potential, this article provides an introduction to multilevel modeling with an emphasis on some of its applications in social and personality psychology. This introduction includes a description of multilevel modeling, a rationale for this technique, and a discussion of applications of multilevel modeling in social and personality psychological research. Some of the subtleties of setting up multilevel analyses and interpreting results are presented, and software options are discussed.
An online version of a Picture Story Exercise (PSE) was administered to 180 participants to assess implicit motives for achievement,
affiliation, and power. First, data were analyzed with respect to different aspects of participant behavior (dropout, writing
time, story length, setting). Second, online data were compared with data collected in the laboratory (n=93). Results regarding motive density, internal consistency, picture profiles, and position effects were comparable among
samples and consistent with previous research (Pang and Schultheiss in J Person Assess 85:280–294, 2005; Schultheiss and Brunstein in J Person Assess 77: 71–86, 2001). In addition, online participants completed self-report measures assessing explicit motives and the Big Five personality
factors. Explicit motives showed no substantial overlap with PSE motive scores, replicating previous research. Personality
factors revealed gender differences in correlates: men with a high implicit power motive reported less agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Results suggest that administering the PSE online yields reliable and valid data.
KeywordsImplicit motives–Picture story exercise–Internet–Assessment
The aim of this article is to provide an overview and discussion of the literature from various areas of psychology on adolescent goal content and pursuit since the publication of Nurmi’s review in 1991. Ninety-four studies were identified which incorporated a measure of adolescent goal content/processes. We explore and discuss the theories employed in these studies, methods of goal measurement, and the findings presented in the studies. Adolescent goal content and pursuit appear to be influenced by various sociodemographic and psychological factors. In turn, goal content, goal pursuit and (un)successful goal attainment are related to adolescent behavior, health and well-being. Limitations and suggestions for further research are discussed.
Ninety participants completed an 8-picture picture story exercise (PSE) on two occasions spaced 2 weeks apart. Writing condition (handwrite versus type) was varied experimentally at each occasion. Stories were scored using Winter’s [Winter, D. G. (1994). Manual for scoring motive imagery in running text (4th ed.). Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, unpublished manuscript] integrated coding system for the assessment of motive imagery. Typed stories were longer by a third than handwritten stories. Word count-corrected motive scores from typed stories shared stable variance with and did not significantly differ from motive scores obtained from handwritten stories. Retest stability for word count-corrected power, achievement, and affiliation scores was .39, .37. and .61, respectively. Across all three motive measures, inter-scorer reliability was high (.70–.86), internal consistency as estimated by Cronbach’s α was low (−.02 to .43), and motive scores showed substantial ipsative stability as assessed by averaged intraindividual correlations of picture profiles across testing occasions (.21–.40). These findings are consistent with Mischel and Shoda’s [Mischel, W., & Shoda, Y. (1995). A cognitive-affective system theory of personality: Reconceptualizing situations, dispositions, dynamics, and invariance in personality structure. Psychological Review, 102, 246–268] conceptualization of personality dispositions as stable if…then contingencies between situational cues and behavioral responses.
Does personality change across the entire life course, and are those changes due to intrinsic maturation or major life experiences? This longitudinal study investigated changes in the mean levels and rank order of the Big Five personality traits in a heterogeneous sample of 14,718 Germans across all of adulthood. Latent change and latent moderated regression models provided 4 main findings: First, age had a complex curvilinear influence on mean levels of personality. Second, the rank-order stability of Emotional Stability, Extraversion, Openness, and Agreeableness all followed an inverted U-shaped function, reaching a peak between the ages of 40 and 60 and decreasing afterward, whereas Conscientiousness showed a continuously increasing rank-order stability across adulthood. Third, personality predicted the occurrence of several objective major life events (selection effects) and changed in reaction to experiencing these events (socialization effects), suggesting that personality can change due to factors other than intrinsic maturation. Fourth, when events were clustered according to their valence, as is commonly done, effects of the environment on changes in personality were either overlooked or overgeneralized. In sum, our analyses show that personality changes throughout the life span, but with more pronounced changes in young and old ages, and that this change is partly attributable to social demands and experiences.
In the present study, we investigated whether self-regulation improves across adulthood, especially regarding the mastery of setbacks and failure in an important health-related behavior, namely, staying on a low-calorie diet when overweight. Overweight women (N = 126; 19-77 years of age, M = 47.2) filled out weekly questionnaires on the outcomes of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive self-regulation during a dieting program; outcomes included deviations from the diet, weight loss, affect, and rumination. Confirming hypotheses, multilevel analyses revealed that-even after controlling for prior dieting attempts-age was associated with better self-reported self-regulation (i.e., fewer deviations from the diet, lower disinhibition and rumination after failure, and higher affective well-being) but not with more weight loss. Results suggest that self-regulation improves with age and shows positive effects on subjective indicators of successfully coping with setbacks but does not directly influence the target-outcome weight loss.
Three studies report initial findings on age-related differences in goal focus. Study 1 compared younger (n = 23, 19–25 years) to older (n = 20, 57–78 years) adults regarding their preference for representations of goals in terms of the means (process focus) or the associated outcomes (outcome focus). As expected, older adults chose process descriptors of goals more frequently than younger adults. Study 2 investigated the emotional consequences of goal focus. Whereas younger adults (n = 49, 18–25 years) reported higher negative affect when they focused on the outcomes of a goal, older adults (n = 40, 60–88 years) reported higher positive affect when they focused on the process. Study 3, a 4-month longitudinal study, applied the distinction between process and outcome focus to the context of a personal goal in everyday life (starting to exercise). Older adults (n = 46, 55–78 years) reported having a stronger process focus than younger adults (n = 55, 19–25 years). Again, older adults were more likely to adopt a process than an outcome focus. For both age groups, process focus predicted positive goal-related development and affective well-being. In contrast, outcome focus was either not or negatively related to these outcomes.
Whereas subjective well-being remains relatively stable across adulthood, emotional experiences show remarkable short-term variability, with younger and older adults differing in both amount and correlates. Repeatedly assessed affect data captures both the dynamics and stability as well as stabilization that may indicate emotion-regulatory processes. The article reviews (1) research approaches to intraindividual affect variability, (2) functional implications of affect variability, and (3) age differences in affect variability. Based on this review, we discuss how the broader literature on emotional aging can be better integrated with theories and concepts of intraindividual affect variability by using appropriate methodological approaches. Finally, we show how a better understanding of affect variability and its underlying processes could contribute to the long-term stabilization of well-being in old age.
We used meta-analysis to test for gender differences in implicit needs for affiliation/intimacy, assessed via story-coding methods. We included thirty-three effect sizes from 26 publications and 2 unpublished studies, covering a total of 5962 research participants (58% female). Across studies, women scored higher than men in measures of implicit affiliation motivation (d∗ = 0.45, 95%CI = [0.37; 0.53]). This finding was not moderated by the coding system used, gender congruence of the picture cues presented, or correction for protocol length. Men and women did not differ in their implicit needs for power (N = 2493, k = 15, d∗ = -0.19, 95%CI = [-0.44; 0.05]) or achievement (N = 2235, k = 13, d∗ = 0.14, 95%CI = [-0.03; 0.30]).
Two studies tested the hypotheses that (1) action orientation (vs. state orientation) is positively correlated with age across adulthood and (2) action orientation aids the self-regulation of one's feelings, thoughts, and behavior during the pursuit of a dieting goal. Hypotheses were partly confirmed. In Study 1, N = 126 overweight women (age: 19–77 years) intended to lose weight by means of a low-calorie diet. In Study 2, N = 322 adults (age: 18–82 years) reported on their action orientation to replicate the association of age and action orientation found in Study 1. Study 2 corroborated only the expected positive association of age and decision-related action orientation. In Study 1, decision-related action orientation predicted higher affective well-being during the diet as well as less self-reported deviations from the diet; failure-related action orientation predicted lower levels of rumination in response to dieting failures. Action orientation partially mediated the negative effects of age on deviations and rumination (see Hennecke & Freund, 2010). Weight loss was not predicted by action orientation. We discuss action orientation as one factor of increased motivational competence in older adulthood.
Social categories both create and reflect inequality. Macro, overarching forces, and individual, perceiver biases each contribute. First, we review perspectives deriving from classic sociological and prevailing psychological social psychology, including both interpersonal fluidity and cognitive economy. Social psychologists have implicated several specific categories in social inequality. We then discuss the two that have garnered the most focus (race and gender), and next the less-studied ones (age disability, sexuality, social class, and weight). Afterward, we focus on a theory that ties together all these categories, the stereotype content model. Other structural, group-based hierarchy perspectives compliment these perspectives. Broader perspectives from social cognition highlight how categories are often automatic, at times ambiguous and ambivalent, often complex, and ultimately driven by stereotype content and sociostructural forces. Clearly much remains for social psychologists interested in hierarchy. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014. All rights are reserved.
Psychoanalysis attempts to represent the underlying dynamics of personality as an interaction of forces. Each force is a need which impels the individual person to pursue a certain course of activity—a course of activity which usually involves a certain kind of object. An inhibited or repressed force with its associated impressions of objects may manifest itself in the guise of a fantasy which the subject can report on, or its presence may be inferred by the analyst on the basis of other phenomena. In the latter case the analyst is apt to speak of it as a repressed unconscious fantasy. Since the exposition of such hidden fantasies is one of the fundamental aims of analysis and since, at best, the customary technio for accomplishing it calls for a long period of watchful waiting, it seems that it would be helpful if a more expeditious method could be devised. For, if
This chapter discusses the major topics such as picture selection, administration, coding systems, and data processing that are related to usage of the Picture Story Exercise (PSE), a major content coding method for assessing implicit motives. It offers a step-by-step guide description of different aspects of preparing, administering, scoring, and processing PSE data. Included in the chapter is a discussion about developing multi- and single-motive picture sets for the PSE; such recommendations are followed by previously unpublished cue strength statistics for a PSE picture set that targets the achievement motive.
Implicit motives represent nonconsciously represented dispositions to seek specific classes of incentives and to avoid corresponding classes of disincentives. Growing evidence suggests that the implicit power motive is associated with basal levels and reactivity of the gonadal steroid hormones testosterone in men and estradiol in women. It is also associated with increased release of stress hormones (cortisol, norepinephrine) in response to dominance challenges and social defeat. The implicit affiliation motive is linked to the release of progesterone: increases in progesterone are followed by increases in affiliation motivation, and arousal of affiliation motivation is associated with concurrent or subsequent progesterone increases. There is limited evidence for a role of vasopressin in achievement motivation. These findings point to a key role of the hypothalamus for implicit motives, a role that is consistent with the existence of function‐specific nuclei within this brain area.
The present research tested the hypothesis that the implicit need for achievement (n Achievement) predicts attenuated cortisol (C) responses to difficult tasks, because it represents a propensity to view difficulty as a cue to mastery reward. In two studies, n Achievement was assessed through content-coding of imaginative stories and salivary C was assessed both at baseline and post-task. In Study 1 (N = 108 US students), n Achievement predicted an attenuated C response to a one-on-one competition in the laboratory, regardless of whether participants won or lost. In Study 2 (N = 62 German students), n Achievement predicted an attenuated C response to the Trier Social Stress Test (Kirschbaum, Pirke, & Hellhammer, 1993), but not to a non-stressful control task. In Study 2 only, the attenuating effect of n Achievement was moderated by gender, with only men showing the effect. Across both studies, the average effect size of the association between n Achievement and C responses to difficult tasks was r = −.28. These findings point to a role of n Achievement in emotion regulation.
Two core motivational systems have been conceptualized as underlying emotion and behavior. The approach system drives the organism toward stimuli or events in the environment, and the avoidance system instead deters the organism away from these stimuli or events. This approach—avoidance dichotomy has been central to theories of emotion. Advances in neuroscience complementing well-designed behavioral experiments have begun to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying approach—avoidance motivation, suggesting that these two systems exist in parallel and are lateralized in the brain. This review explores the notion of approach—avoidance and the cerebral lateralization of these motivational tendencies.
Resting anterior brain electrical activity, self-report measures of Behavioral Approach and Inhibition System (BAS and BIS) strength, and general levels of positive and negative affect (PA and NA) were collected from 46 unselected undergraduates on two separate occasions Electroencephalogram (EEG) measures of prefrontal asymmetry and the self-report measures showed excellent internal consistency reliability and adequate test-retest stability Aggregate measures across the two assessments were computed for all indices Subjects with greater relative left prefrontal activation reported higher levels of BAS strength, whereas those with greater relative right prefrontal activation reported higher levels of BIS strength Prefrontal EEG asymmetry accounted for more than 25% of the variance in the self-report measure of relative BAS-BIS strength Prefrontal EEG, however, was not significantly correlated with PA or NA, or the relative strength of PA versus NA Posterior asymmetry was unrelated to the self-report measures
In einer experimentellen Studie mit N = 88 Studierenden wurde uberpruft, wie Dispositionen des impliziten (TAT) vs. expliziten Leistungsstrebens (Fragebogen) mit individuellem vs. normativem Feedback bei der Vorhersage von Leistung und Persistenz in einem Konzentrationstest zusammenwirken. Die Aufgabenleistung wurde durch die Interaktion zwischen dem TAT-Leistungsmotiv und individuellem Feedback vorhergesagt. Probanden mit hohem Leistungsmotiv reagierten auf Ruckmeldungen, welche einen Ruckgang (im Unterschied zu einem Anstieg) ihrer individuellen Leistung anzeigten, mit einer Verbesserung ihrer Testleistung. Die Entscheidung, die Bearbeitung der Aufgaben nach einer vorgegebenen Anzahl von Durchgangen fortzusetzen oder abzubrechen, wurde demgegenuber durch die Interaktion zwischen selbst berichteter Leistungsorientierung und normativem Feedback vorhergesagt. Persistenz zeigten vor allem Probanden, die sich selbst hohe Leistungsorientierung zuschrieben, jedoch Ruckmeldungen erhielten, welche eine Verschlec...
Imaginative stories written in response to either 6 or 10 different Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) pictures by over 1,500 college students in two studies were scored for intimacy motivation (McAdams, 1980), and a subset were scored for fear of intimacy (Pollack & Gilligan, 1982). The intimacy motive is a recurrent preference or readiness for experiences of warm, close, and communicative interaction with others, and it is assessed by coding the quality of the interpersonal interaction exhibited by characters in a TAT story. Fear of intimacy, on the other hand, is assumed to reveal itself through images of violence displayed in affiliative and intimate situations in TAT stories, for example, when one lover kills another. In both studies, women scored significantly higher than men on intimacy motivation, especially with respect to the intimacy themes of Relationship Produces Positive Affect, Relationship Transcends Space-Time Limitations, Surrender of Control in Relationships, and Connection to Outside World. This sex difference in intimacy motivation was most pronounced in stories written to pictures portraying possible heterosexual romance. Contrary to findings obtained by Pollack and Gilligan, however, men did not write more stories with themes of violence in intimate relationships than did women, providing little support for Consistent sex differences in a general fear of intimacy.
Simple slopes, regions of significance, and confidence bands are commonly used to evaluate interactions in multiple linear regression (MLR) models, and the use of these techniques has recently been extended to multilevel or hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and latent curve analysis (LCA). However, conducting these tests and plotting the conditional relations is often a tedious and error-prone task. This article provides an overview of methods used to probe interaction effects and describes a unified collection of freely available online resources that researchers can use to obtain significance tests for simple slopes, compute regions of significance, and obtain confidence bands for simple slopes across the range of the moderator in the MLR, HLM, and LCA contexts. Plotting capabilities are also provided.
research involving the analysis of verbal material for content analysis and/or style involves the following steps: (1) deciding what type of verbal material (and subject population) to sample, (2) choosing a method for obtaining the material, (3) collecting the material, (4) learning a content analysis system, (5) learning how to measure intercoder agreement, (6) coding (scoring) the material, and (7) analyzing the data / this chapter presents information and recommendations regarding these steps in research (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Differentiates among indices of agreement, reliability, and non-independence in organizational multilevel research and provides an overview of what each measure reveals about the group-level properties of one's data. Particular attention is devoted to the concept of non-independence and to the relationship between one form of the intraclass correlation coefficient and eta-squared. The 2nd purpose of this chapter is to extend the discussion of agreement, reliability, and non-independence from an exclusive focus on validating one's measurement model to a broader focus that includes testing substantive models and detecting emergent phenomena. In the discussion of bottom-up processes, particular attention is paid to a category that the author defines as "fuzzy" composition processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT Motives to achieve and values associated with achievement were conceptualized as distinct and independent personality constructs, one nonconscious, the other conscious, each predictive of a different type of achievement-related behavior It was hypothesized that (a) motive and value measures would be uncorrelated, (b) motives would predict “operant” or spontaneous behaviors while values would predict “respondent” or stimulus-driven behaviors, and (c) motives and values would interact such that subjects with high values relating to achievement would perform better than those with low values, but only when their motives were also high Hypotheses (a) and (b) were strongly supported m two studies, and Hypothesis (c) was supported in Study 2 In that study, the motive for achievement was a particularly strong predictor of operant math performance among those subjects who valued achievement as opposed to affiliation The findings suggest that nonconscious (motive) and conscious (value) measures are both useful in different cases–the former for predicting “real” (doing) activity, the latter for predicting self-report (thinking) responses Questions concerning how motives and values might combine to predict different kinds of behavior are addressed
Two studies examined the role of goal imagery (i.e., the perception-like mental representation of the pursuit and attainment of a goal) in establishing congruence between individuals' implicit motives and their incli-nation to pursue explicit goals assigned to them. Study 1 found that after a goal-imagery exercise, implicit needs for power and affiliation predicted par-ticipants' affective arousal and their commitment to a social-interaction goal furnished with power-and affiliation-related incentives. In Study 2, implicit power motivation predicted the level of performance participants achieved in pursuit of a competitive performance goal after a goal-imagery exercise. Without goal imagery, however, participants' motivation to pursue an explicit goal was independent of their implicit motive dispositions in both studies. be sent via the Internet to oschultheiss@hotmail.com.
Higher levels of affiliation motivation after exposure to affiliative films are significantly related to higher dopamine concentrations in saliva in one study of 61 college students of both sexes, and in plasma in another study of 47 adults of both sexes. Individuals high in dispositionaln Affiliation, if they also reported high life stress, showed high gains in dopamine concentration in plasma after exposure to an affiliative film significantly more often than other individuals. Since aroused affiliation motivation was not associated with higher concentrations of norepinephrine, epinephrine, or cortisol in either study, it appears likely that dopamine is especially associated with arousal of affiliation motivation, just as norepinephrine has been found to be associated with arousal of power motivation. Thus, different motives may be subserved by different hormones, making it unlikely that all motives lead to the same state of physiological arousal.
A new thematic (TAT) measure of intimacy motivation was developed and cross-validated in four separate arousal studies using three different college populations. A brief sketch of the derived thematic scoring system for intimacy motivation was presented. The goal state of the intimacy motive was defined as experiencing a warm, close, and communicative exchange with another person. In a college sample, subjects scoring high on the intimacy motive were rated by friends and acquaintances as significantly more “warm,” “natural,” “sincere,” “loving,” and “appreciative” and less “dominant,” “outspoken,” and “self-centered” than subjects scoring lower. The results were discussed in terms of the theories of Sullivan on the need for interpersonal intimacy, Maslow on growth motivation and “B-love,” Bakan on communion, and Buber on the I-Thou relation. Differences between the new coding system and the need for Affiliation (n Aff) system for scoring imaginative productions were also suggested.
Although old people may seem less impulsive than adults, numerous experimental studies report that they have inhibitory deficits. Bearing in mind that there is a relationship between inhibition processes and impulsivity, age-related inhibition deficits suggest that older people could be more impulsive than adults.
The aim of the current study was to compare the functional and dysfunctional impulsivity scores obtained in a sample of elderly people (65 years old and above) with those obtained in previous studies on samples of adolescents and adults. Dickman's Impulsivity Inventory was administered to 190 individuals aged between 65 and 94 years without dementia or cognitive impairment.
Results indicated that the elderly sample showed higher dysfunctional impulsivity levels than the adult samples, which is consistent with the inhibition deficits mentioned above. There were no significant differences in functional impulsivity. Furthermore, old women had higher scores than old men on dysfunctional impulsivity.
This study provides evidence of age-related changes in dysfunctional impulsivity. Functional impulsivity did not show the same pattern as dysfunctional impulsivity, being quite stable across the age span. it seems, then, that impulsivity cannot be considered to decrease with age and dysfunctional impulsivity may even increase.
The role of endogenous sex hormones in many diseases makes understanding factors that influence levels of these hormones increasingly important. This study examined age-associated variations in total and bioavailable testosterone and estradiol levels among community-dwelling Caucasian men in Rancho Bernardo, California. Plasma samples obtained from 810 men aged 24-90 years in 1984-1987 were analyzed in 1993 using radioimmunoassay. Analyses of age-hormone associations, adjusting for weight, body mass index, alcohol ingestion, smoking, physical activity, caffeine intake, specimen storage time, and disease status, were undertaken. Bioavailable testosterone and bioavailable estradiol levels decreased significantly with age independently of covariates. Total testosterone and estradiol levels decreased with age only when analyses were controlled for confounders. The importance of the age-associated decline in endogenous sex hormone levels, particularly levels of bioavailable testosterone and bioavailable estradiol, and their relation to disease and function in men deserve further research.
Seventy-six elderly subjects aged sixty-five to eighty-seven and seventy-seven young adults aged twenty-five to forty were compared on implicit and explicit motive levels and on recall of introductions and working memory. Significantly fewer of the elderly than the young participants scored high in the implicit motives, n Affiliation and n Power, confirming results from U.S. national surveys. The surveys also demonstrated a significant decline with age in high levels of n Achievement, a decline not found here. The elderly participants showed major recall deficits on both tasks, but all three of the implicit motives studied were shown to enhance recall for the elderly, but not for the young adults. Eight elderly women scoring high on at least two of the three motives showed no recall deficits compared to the young women on two memory tasks. In old age implicit motive deficits contribute to poor memory but explicit commitments to have a good memory had no effect on recall.
Life expectancies have increased substantially in the last century, dramatically amplifying the proportion of individuals who will reach old age. As individuals age, cognitive ability declines, although the rate of decline differs amongst the forms of memory domains and for different individuals. Memory domains especially impacted by aging are declarative and spatial memories. The hippocampus facilitates the formation of declarative and spatial memories. Notably, the hippocampus is particularly vulnerable to aging. Genetic predisposition and lifetime experiences and exposures contribute to the aging process, brain changes and subsequent cognitive outcomes. In this review, two factors to which an individual is exposed, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, will be considered regarding the impact of age on hippocampal-dependent function. Spatial memory can be affected by cumulative exposure to chronic stress via glucocorticoids, released from the HPA axis, and from gonadal steroids (estrogens, progesterone and androgens) and gonadotrophins, released from the HPG axis. Additionally, this review will discuss how these hormones impact age-related hippocampal function. We hypothesize that lifetime experiences and exposure to these hormones contribute to the cognitive makeup of the aged individual, and contribute to the heterogeneous aged population that includes individuals with cognitive abilities as astute as their younger counterparts, as well as individuals with severe cognitive decline or neurodegenerative disease.