Doing it for us: community identification predicts willingness to receive a COVID‐19 vaccination via perceived sense of duty to the community

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented huge challenges for communities across the world. Vaccines offer the best hope for controlling its deleterious effects, but not everybody is willing to be vaccinated, so it is important to explore variables that might predict vaccination willingness. The present study addressed this by drawing upon the Social Identity Approach, which posits that people’s membership of social groups is consequential for their thoughts and behaviour. Specifically, it was predicted that people’s strength of identification with their local community (a social group that came to particular prominence during the pandemic) would positively predict their willingness to engage in community-related prosocial normative behaviour (i.e., their perceived sense of duty, as a community member, to get vaccinated), and that this, in turn, would predict higher levels of vaccination willingness. Participants (N = 130) completed an online survey, which supported the hypothesised mediation model, even after controlling for subjective neighbourhood socio-economic status and age (two variables that are particularly likely to impact upon vaccination willingness). To our knowledge, this is the first study to apply Social Identity Approach principles to the study of COVID-19 vaccination willingness. The implications of the findings for governments’ efforts to boost vaccine uptake are discussed. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article’s Community and Social Impact Statement

Emotional intelligence abilities and traits in different career paths.

Two studies tested hypotheses about differences in emotional intelligence (EI) abilities and traits between followers of different career paths. Compared to their social science peers, science students had higher scores in adaptability and general mood traits measured with the Emotion Quotient Inventory, but lower scores in strategic El abilities using the emotional intelligence test MSCEIT, as well as neuroticism, and openness. Neuroticism mediated relationships between career path and El traits but not El strategic abilities. In the second study participants in science and business career paths had higher scores in positive affect and in several work-related El traits and lower scores in work-related El abilities than their science counterparts. The results raise questions about the mechanisms that may sustain the observed differences in self-perceptions and about the validity of some El measures. They also have implications for El skills assessment and training in Higher Education graduates and career starter

On the reliability and factorial validity of the assessment scale for creative collaboration

Creativity, a primary objective across academic disciplines, has received considerable attention over the past few decades. While much focus has been put on the measurement of individual creativity, a notable research gap remains regarding social collaborative creativity that occurs in blended learning settings. This work offers an initial validation of the psychometric properties of a self-reported instrument, the Assessment Scale for Creative Collaboration (ASCC) that can measure learner perceptions of creative collaboration in a team within a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) context. In this study, 236 undergraduate and graduate students rated the key variables of creative collaboration. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in a three-factor scale (21 items) measuring ‘Synergistic Social Collaboration’, ‘Distributed Creativity’ and ‘Learning Regulation and Achievement’. Cronbach’s alphas indicated good internal consistency for the subscales. An instrument with psychometric properties for the assessment of creative collaboration is much-needed for the growing community of researchers and practitioners looking into creativity in education. It is also critical in advanced technical subjects, such as Design, HCI and Engineering, where collaboration is essential in developing innovative products

Doing it for us: community identification predicts willingness to receive a COVID‐19 vaccination via perceived sense of duty to the community

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented huge challenges for communities across the world. Vaccines offer the best hope for controlling its deleterious effects, but not everybody is willing to be vaccinated, so it is important to explore variables that might predict vaccination willingness. The present study addressed this by drawing upon the Social Identity Approach, which posits that people’s membership of social groups is consequential for their thoughts and behaviour. Specifically, it was predicted that people’s strength of identification with their local community (a social group that came to particular prominence during the pandemic) would positively predict their willingness to engage in community-related prosocial normative behaviour (i.e., their perceived sense of duty, as a community member, to get vaccinated), and that this, in turn, would predict higher levels of vaccination willingness. Participants (N = 130) completed an online survey, which supported the hypothesised mediation model, even after controlling for subjective neighbourhood socio-economic status and age (two variables that are particularly likely to impact upon vaccination willingness). To our knowledge, this is the first study to apply Social Identity Approach principles to the study of COVID-19 vaccination willingness. The implications of the findings for governments’ efforts to boost vaccine uptake are discussed. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article’s Community and Social Impact Statement