Measuring meaning in life

The present studies addressed the need for a comprehensive, economical, and psychometrically adequate measure of existential meaning. In Study 1, principal-axis factor analysis of participants’ responses to popular meaning measures identified five latent constructs underlying them, labelled purposeful life, principled life, valued life, exciting life, and accomplished life. These dimensions resonate with the meaning in life concept as= understood by Frankl (1963) and the panoply of subsequent theoretical definitions (e.g. Battista and Almond 1973). Study 2 used these results as a foundation for developing a psychometrically satisfactory self-report questionnaire of each of these aspects of meaning in life. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) validated a five-factor structure, with each factor loading on a common second-order factor. Study 3 provided evidence for this new measure’s convergent validity and economic property. The final Meaningful Life Measure is reported and provides comprehensive but differentiated measurement of the meaning in life construct

The Pub, the People, the Place, the Passions, and the Principles: The Social and Personal Context of Engagement in a Collective Action

Towards the end of 2006 the owners of a small, historic public house withdrew from sale the locally produced beer that had been sold there for many years. Pub regulars instigated a boycott in an attempt to have the beer reinstated. Following a four-month widely supported boycott and considerable media coverage, the pub company owners returned the local beer to the pub. This paper reports on a selection of the experiences of some of those taking an active role in the boycott. Following intensive semi-structured interviews, we extracted a number of themes from participants’ accounts. We identify potentially important factors in the “causal net,” explaining their involvement in the boycott. Affective experience, collective interests, and deontological considerations [the obligation to do the right thing even if doing so could be personally damaging] emerge as important dimensions of people’s discussion of their participation. The findings are discussed in relation to theoretical perspectives bearing on an understanding of action choices

Buried in bullshit

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Consent in body donation

This article explores potential threats to the valid-ity of consent in body donation and potential re-sponses to such threats. To minimize abstract generalizations, the article draws particularly on United Kingdom regulations but each of the issues it explores is applicable in many countries. Meth-ods used were searches of relevant (e.g., medical ethical) literatures using pertinent search terms (e.g., consent) and discussions with multiple stake-holders (e.g., family members of body donors). The main threats identified were: (1) failing to ade-quately acknowledge relatives’ roles in donation, particularly as donation often cannot be completed without relatives’ active participation; (2) failing to ensure that donors are informed enough to be able to give valid consent, especially given ‘specification’ and ‘temporality’ problems inherent in establishing consent for body donation; and (3) failing to genuinely prioritize donors’ motives and concerns during and after obtaining their consent. Possible ways of countering these threats include layering information given and made available to potential donors and having donors consent not to ‘donation and anything that might follow’, but in-stead to ‘relative-acknowledged donation, selective explicit consent, and delegated decision-making’. The latter involves donors specifying and relatives acknowledging donors’ key preferences and prohi-bitions, among which is nomination or acceptance of specified proxies who may make decisions on donors’ behalf after their death. By making such changes, the validity of consent for body donation could be substantially improved in ways that also increase respect for both donors and their autono-my. These changes may also increase the number of completed donations

Brief loving-kindness meditation reduces racial bias, mediated by positive other-regarding emotions

The relationship between positive emotions and implicit racial prejudice is unclear. Interventions using positive emotions to reduce racial bias have been found wanting, while other research shows that positive affect can sometimes exacerbate implicit prejudice. Nevertheless, loving-kindness meditation (LKM) has shown some promise as a method of reducing bias despite increasing a broad range of positive emotions. A randomised control trial (n = 69) showed that a short-term induction of LKM decreased automatic processing, increased controlled processing, and was sufficient to reduce implicit prejudice towards the target’s racial group but not towards a group untargeted by the meditation. Furthermore, the reduction in bias was shown to be mediated by other-regarding positive emotions alongside increased control and decreased automaticity on the IAT. Non-other-regarding positive emotions conversely showed no correlation with bias. The study is the first to show that a short-term positive emotional induction can reduce racial prejudice, and aids the understanding of how positive emotions functionally differentiate in affecting bias

Self-reported reasons for moral decisions

Many investigations of moral decision-making employ hypothetical scenarios in which each participant has to choose between two options. One option is usually deemed “utilitarian” and the other either “non-utilitarian” or “deontological”. Very little has been done to establish the validity of such measures. It is unclear what they measure, let alone how well they do so. In this exploratory study, participants were asked about the reasons for their decisions in six hypothetical scenarios. Various concerns contributed to each decision. Action decisions occurred when utilitarian concerns dominated. Bystanding decisions resulted from different concerns or combinations of concerns dominating in different situations, with utilitarianism usually among participants’ concerns. None of the labels usually used for either decision therefore seems entirely appropriate. Five concerns were identified as necessary and sufficient to predict over 85% of participants’ decisions. This suggests great promise for future research, particularly in investigation of real-world moral decisions

Moral licensing, moral cleansing and pro-environmental behaviour: the moderating role of pro-environmental attitudes

The present study examined the conditions under which highlighting past pro-environmental behaviour produces a “license” to engage in less pro-environmental behaviour: a phenomenon known as moral licensing. It also examined whether highlighting a lack of past pro-environmental action would lead to moral cleansing, where people engage in moral behaviour to maintain a positive moral self-image. It extends the existing literature on moral licensing and moral cleansing by exploring environmental attitudes as a moderator of the effect of people's past pro-environmental behaviour on their subsequent actions. Participants (N = 213) completed the Environmental Attitude Scale and were then exposed to either a stronger green credentials manipulation, or a weaker green credentials manipulation, or they took part in a control group. As a key dependent variable, they were then provided with an opportunity to find out about their personal carbon footprint, with their responses being interpreted as possible evidence of moral licensing/cleansing. There was evidence that participants with more pro-environmental attitudes who were reminded of frequent previous pro-environmental behaviour were less likely to seek information about their carbon footprint (consistent with a moral licensing effect) and that participants with less positive environmental attitudes who were reminded of infrequent previous pro-environmental behaviour were more likely to seek such information (consistent with to moral cleansing). The findings are discussed in relation to spillover effects

100% Giving - What makes donors open their wallets in 2011?

Background: The foremost psychological theory for explaining and predicting peoples planned behaviours has been very widely supported, including in various charitable and helping areas. It has never been used to investigate British attitudes to charity. Objective: To use an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to systematically investigate drivers and inhibitors of peoples intentions to regularly donate money to charity in 2011. Design: A questionnaire was completed by a nationally representative sample of 1030 British adults. It included reliable and valid Theory of Planned Behaviour measures of peoples intentions, attitudes, social norms, perceived control, and beliefs about the likelihood and attractiveness of 12 possible consequences of them regularly donate money to charity in 2011. Results: Use of the extended Theory of Planned Behaviour was strongly supported. Intentions to regularly donate money to charity in 2011 were very well explained by a combination of attitudes to that behaviour and beliefs about how easy or difficult it would be to engage in it. Social norms fell just short of making an independent contribution to that explanation. Peoples beliefs about 7 possible consequences of regularly donating money to charity in 2011 combined to strongly explain their attitudes towards doing so. Of these possible consequences, 3 unambiguously charitable concerns (helping people, helping charities, making the world a better place) encouraged positive attitudes. Particularly relevant in the economic context of 2011, attitudes were negatively affected if people thought that donating regularly to charity in 2011 would leave them personally worse off financially or if they thought that a significant part of their donation would not reach those it was intended for. Conclusions: Despite the current economic climate, peoples intentions to contribute regularly to charity in 2011 are predominantly driven by charitable motives and expectations. Even the charitable will not donate come what may, though. People give for a specific reason; to improve the welfare of particular others without themselves incurring excessive personal costs. People want to be charitable, not foolish. If the personal cost of giving rises or the charitable effectiveness of doing so falls, intentions to give regularly to charity will dip as will actual donations

Cognitive mapping: generating theories of psychological phenomena from verbal accounts and presenting them diagrammatically

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Perceived responsibility to act: an investigation with respect to registering willingness to become a posthumous organ donor

Two questionnaire studies (Ns=238 and 497) were guided by the original theoretical specification of the triangle model of responsibility. These investigated the relationship between perceived responsibility to register willingness to posthumously donate one's organs and people's self-reported actual and intended registration behaviour. Exploratory factor analyses suggested that various responsibility-related constructs could be differentiated, several of which explained unique variance in participants' registration status. Although predominantly derived from it, these constructs provided little support for the specific manner in which the triangle model has previously been conceptualized and operationalized. Implications for theoretical development, future empirical research, and organ procurement are discussed