Are you sure about that? Thought Confidence and Romantic Conflict Interactions

The thoughts that romantic partners generate during relationship conflict can greatly influence their attitudes towards their relationship and their emotional experiences (Baucom, Epstein, Sayers, & Sher, 1989; Bradbury & Fincham, 1987). According to the self-validation hypothesis, however, a person's thoughts may be more impactful on their subsequent judgements, attitudes, and feelings when the individual is confident in these thoughts (Briñol & Petty, 2009). The present studies aimed to determine whether thought confidence moderates the relationship between thought valence (i.e., the positivity or negativity of the thought) and relationship and personal outcomes. Participants in Study 1 (N = 294) recalled a past conflict discussion in their relationship and listed the thoughts they had during the interaction. Results showed that thought confidence moderated the relationship between thought valence and perceived relationship quality, but not between thought valence and positive or negative affect. Participants in Study 2 (N = 201) thought of a current top source of conflict in their relationship and imagined having a conflict discussion with their partner about the issue. Results showed that as confidence in negative thoughts increases, negative affect also increases, and intimacy and relationship satisfaction decrease. In Study 3 (N = 101), participants were randomly assigned to write down the negative thoughts they had during their imaginary conflict discussion with either their dominant or non-dominant hand, in order to manipulate thought confidence. Participants writing with their dominant hand experienced higher levels of negative affect and lower levels of positive affect compared to those writing with their non-dominant hand. The thought confidence manipulation was not strong enough to produce any differences in perceived relationship quality. Overall, the findings of the three studies suggest that thought confidence may help explain when an individual's thoughts influence their relationship and personal outcomes, providing insight into how couples can more adaptively navigate the task of engaging in conflict interactions.College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research ScholarshipNo embargoAcademic Major: Psycholog

Impact of CSR perceptions on workers’ innovative behaviour: exploring the social exchange process and the role of perceived external prestige

The study aims to show how organisational corporate social responsibility (CSR) can influence workers’ attitudes, especially in terms of innovative behaviour (IB). A second aim is to explore the social exchange process that may underlie this relationship, by examining the mediating role of organisational trust (OT), affective commitment (AC) and happiness (HAP), and the moderating role of perceived external prestige (PEP). The authors employ structural equation modelling based on survey data obtained from 315 Portuguese individuals. The findings show that perceptions of CSR predict IB through a social exchange process which involves the mediating role of OT, AC and HAP and the moderating process of PEP. They suggest that managers should implement CSR practices because these can contribute towards fostering IB, but that they should also invest in communication and in the process of upgrading corporate image. This study enriches the existing knowledge about social exchange relationships in organisational contexts, and responds to the need to understand underlying mechanisms linking CSR with workers’ organisational outcomes, by analysing CSR practices from a holistic stakeholder perspective.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Feedback information and consumer motivation: The moderating role of positive and negative reference values in self-regulation

Marketers spend considerable resources to motivate people to consume their products and services as a means of goal attainment (Bagozzi and Dholakia, 1999). Why people increase, decrease, or stop consuming some products is based largely on how well they perceive they are doing in pursuit of their goals (Carver and Scheier, 1992). Yet despite the importance for marketers in understanding how current performance influences a consumer’s future efforts, this topic has received little attention in marketing research. Goal researchers generally agree that feedback about how well or how poorly people are doing in achieving their goals affects their motivation (Bandura and Cervone, 1986; Locke and Latham, 1990). Yet there is less agreement about whether positive and negative performance feedback increases or decreases future effort (Locke and Latham, 1990). For instance, while a customer of a gym might cancel his membership after receiving negative feedback about his fitness, the same negative feedback might cause another customer to visit the gym more often to achieve better results. A similar logic can apply to many products and services from the use of cosmetics to investing in mutual funds. The present research offers managers key insights into how to engage customers and keep them motivated. Given that connecting customers with the company is a top research priority for managers (Marketing Science Institute, 2006), this article provides suggestions for performance metrics including four questions that managers can use to apply the findings

Can Social Exchange Theory Explain Individual Knowledge-Sharing Behavior? A Meta-Analysis

Motivating people to contribute knowledge has become an important research topic and a major challenge for organizations. In order to promote knowledge-sharing, managers need to understand the mechanism that drives individuals to contribute their valuable knowledge. Several theories have been applied to study knowledge-sharing behavior. However, the research settings and findings are often inconsistent. In this study, we use the social exchange theory as our base to develop an extended model that includes IT support and organizational type as moderators. A meta-analysis on 29 reported studies was conducted to examine how different factors in the social exchange theory affect knowledge-sharing behavior. The findings confirm that the social exchange theory plays an important role underlying individuals’ knowledge-sharing behavior. The results also demonstrate that social interaction and trust derived from the social exchange theory and moderated by IT contextual factors can predict individual’s knowledge-sharing behavior

Birds of a feather: leader-follower similarity and procedural fairness effects on cooperation

The present paper examines to what extent leader-follower similarity moderates the effect of procedural justice on followers’ cooperation. Using subjective operationalizations of similarity in a vignette study, a field study and an experimental lab study, we demonstrated that the enactment of fair procedures elicits the highest levels of cooperation when followers perceive the leader as similar. This was true when similarity was framed in broad, deep-level terms (Study 1 and 2) or in terms of a single, specific characteristic, i.e., the need to belong (Study 3). In the discussion we elaborate on possible explanatory mechanisms and on the broader context of an integrative approach to leadership research

Predicting active school travel : the role of planned behavior and habit strength

Despite strong support for predictive validity of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) substantial variance in both intention and behavior is unaccounted for by the model's predictors. The present study tested the extent to which habit strength augments the predictive validity of the TPB in relation to a currently under-researched behavior that has important health implications, namely children's active school travel. Participants (N = 126 children aged 8-9 years; 59 % males) were sampled from five elementary schools in the west of Scotland and completed questionnaire measures of all TPB constructs in relation to walking to school and both walking and car/bus use habit. Over the subsequent week, commuting steps on school journeys were measured objectively using an accelerometer. Hierarchical multiple regressions were used to test the predictive utility of the TPB and habit strength in relation to both intention and subsequent behavior. The TPB accounted for 41 % and 10 % of the variance in intention and objectively measured behavior, respectively. Together, walking habit and car/bus habit significantly increased the proportion of explained variance in both intention and behavior by 6 %. Perceived behavioral control and both walking and car/bus habit independently predicted intention. Intention and car/bus habit independently predicted behavior. The TPB significantly predicts children's active school travel. However, habit strength augments the predictive validity of the model. The results indicate that school travel is controlled by both intentional and habitual processes. In practice, interventions could usefully decrease the habitual use of motorized transport for travel to school and increase children's intention to walk (via increases in perceived behavioral control and walking habit, and decreases in car/bus habit). Further research is needed to identify effective strategies for changing these antecedents of children's active school travel

Information System Quality Judgment for Continued E-Government Use: Theorizing the Role of Positive and Negative Affect

Affect and emotions play an important role in how individuals form judgments. Yet, the literature on technological judgments has primarily relied on the cognitive belief perspective. By segregating emotions into positive and negative affect, we incorporate affect in addition to cognitions to understand what drives perceptions about IS quality and, specifically, e-government website quality. Grounding our discussion in the affect infusion model (AIM) and prospect theory, we examine the mechanisms through which positive and negative affect infuse into IS quality judgments. We also theorize that both positive and negative affect have a moderating role in the relationships between cognitions and IS quality perceptions. We tested the model via surveying e-government website users and found that affect had a significant direct role in how they judged IS quality. While negative affect significantly moderated the relationship between experienced usefulness and how individuals perceived the three IS quality measures (i.e., information quality, system quality, and service quality), positive affect did not moderate this relationship. Finally, we theorize about the differential role that affect has on how individuals perceive the three IS quality measures depending on their affect infusion potential. We conclude by discussing our study’s theoretical and practical implications

What Drives Students' Loyalty-Formation in Social Media Learning Within a Personal Learning Environment Approach? The Moderating Role of Need for Cognition

Our study analyzes an educational experience based on the integrated use of social media within a higher education course under a personal learning environment approach and investigates the factors that determine students' loyalty to social media learning. We examined the moderating role of need for cognition (NFC) in students' formation of attitudes, satisfaction, and loyalty toward this learning experience. The results indicate that NFC has an influence on these variables, significantly moderating how loyalty toward social media learning is formed. For high-NFC students, satisfaction with the learning experience is the most important variable to explain loyalty; whereas for low-NFC students, attitudes have a stronger effect. Different strategies are suggested, according to the learners' NFC levels, for increasing the use of social media in personal learning environments. Practical implications for improving the integration of such informal resources into formal education are discussed.Junta de Andalucía – Programa Andaluz de I + D P12 SEJ 259

Relational discrepancies and emotion : The moderating roles of relationship type and relational discrepancy valence

Peer reviewedPostprin