Is Quantitative Research Ethical? Tools for Ethically Practicing, Evaluating, and Using Quantitative Research

This editorial offers new ways to ethically practice, evaluate, and use quantitative research (QR). Our central claim is that ready-made formulas for QR, including 'best practices' and common notions of 'validity' or 'objectivity,' are often divorced from the ethical and practical implications of doing, evaluating, and using QR for specific purposes. To focus on these implications, we critique common theoretical foundations for QR and then recommend approaches to QR that are 'built for purpose,' by which we mean designed to ethically address specific problems or situations on terms that are contextually relevant. For this, we propose a new tool for evaluating the quality of QR, which we call 'relational validity.' Studies, including their methods and results, are relationally valid when they ethically connect researchers' purposes with the way that QR is oriented and the ways that it is done—including the concepts and units of analysis invoked, as well as what its 'methods' imply more generally. This new way of doing QR can provide the liberty required to address serious worldly problems on terms that are both practical and ethically informed in relation to the problems themselves rather than the confines of existing QR logics and practices.cited By

Are Attitudes Towards Economic Risk Heritable? Analyses Using the Australian Twin Study of Gambling

This study employs multiple regression models based on DeFries and Fulker (1985), and a large sample of twins, to assess heritability in attitudes towards economic risk, and the extent to which this heritability differs between males and females. Consistent with Cesarini, Dawes, Johannesson, Lichtenstein and Wallace (2009), it is found that attitudes towards risk are moderately heritable, with about 20 percent of the variation in these attitudes across individuals being linked to genetic differences. This value is less than one-half the estimates reported by Zyphur, Narayanan, Arvey and Alexander (2009) and Zhong, Chew, Set, Zhang, Xue, Sham, Ebstein and Israel (2009). While females are more risk averse than males, there is no evidence that heritability in attitudes towards risk differs between males and females. Even though heritability is shown to be important to economic risk taking, the analyses suggest that multivariate studies of the determinants of attitudes towards risk which to not take heritability into consideration still provide reliable estimates of the partial effects of other key variables, such as gender and educational attainment.risk, heritability, gender

A Critique and Reframing of Personality in Labour Market Theory: Locus of Control and Labour Market Outcomes

This article critically examines the theoretical arguments that underlie the literature linking personality traits to economic outcomes and provides empirical evidence indicating that labour market outcomes influence personality outcomes. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we investigated the extent to which gender differences occur in the processes by which highly positive and negative labour market outcomes are determined and in the processes underlying the development of one particular aspect of personality, locus of control. Gender differences were more pronounced in the results for years in managerial/ leadership positions than for locus of control. Negative labour market states were also marked by gender differences. We conclude by arguing that an explicitly value-laden analysis of the rewards associated with personality within the labour market could expose areas where the gendered nature of rewards by personality serves to perpetuate power relationships within the labour market.

Work well-being and prosocial behavior in a sample of Brazilian workers

Prosocial voice is as a proactive and positively oriented verbal behavior that the worker emits with the intent of promoting transformation that benefits the group or organization. Despite being a phe-nomenon widely studied in other countries, in Brazil there are few researches dedicated to this phe-nomenon. Supported by the literature gap and driven by the Positive Psychology perspective, the aim of this study was to describe how prosocial voice behaviors (PSV) are manifested in different Brazili-an workers. Additionally, we sought to analyze the predictive power of well-being at work on these behaviors. From the application of scales to a sample of 360 Brazilian workers, descriptive, correla-tion and linear regression analyzes were conducted. Results shows that some occupational variables, as well as individual variables interfere with the frequency of PSV issuance. Besides, the better a worker feels about his work, the more likely he is to engage in PSV behaviors.La voz prosocial es un comportamiento verbal proactivo y positivamente orientado que el trabaja-dor emite con la intención de promover transformaciones que benefician al grupo u organización. A pesar de ser un fenómeno ampliamente estudiado en otros países, en Brasil hay pocas investiga-ciones dedicadas a este fenómeno. Apoyado por la brecha de la literatura e impulsado por la perspectiva de la Psicología Positiva, el objetivo de este estudio fue describir cómo se manifiestan los comportamientos de voz prosocial (PSV) en diferentes trabajadores brasileños. Además, bus-camos analizar el poder predictivo del bienestar en el trabajo sobre estos comportamientos. A partir de la aplicación de escalas a una muestra de 360 trabajadores brasileños, se realizaron aná-lisis descriptivos, de correlación y de regresión lineal. Los resultados muestran que algunas varia-bles ocupacionales, así como variables individuales, interfieren con la frecuencia de emisión de PSV. Adicionalmente, lo mejor que un trabajador se siente acerca de su trabajo, lo más probable que tenga comportamientos de PSV

A Critique and Reframing of Personality in Labour Market Theory: Locus of Control and Labour Market Outcomes

This article critically examines the theoretical arguments that underlie the literature linking personality traits to economic outcomes and provides empirical evidence indicating that labour market outcomes influence personality outcomes. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we investigated the extent to which gender differences occur in the processes by which highly positive and negative labour market outcomes are determined and in the processes underlying the development of one particular aspect of personality, locus of control. Gender differences were more pronounced in the results for years in managerial/ leadership positions than for locus of control. Negative labour market states were also marked by gender differences. We conclude by arguing that an explicitly value-laden analysis of the rewards associated with personality within the labour market could expose areas where the gendered nature of rewards by personality serves to perpetuate power relationships within the labour market.labour market theory, power, gender, personality traits, locus of control, SOEP

A Critique and Reframing of Personality in Labour Market Theory: Locus of Control and Labour Market Outcomes

This article critically examines the theoretical arguments that underlie the literature linking personality traits to economic outcomes and provides empirical evidence indicating that labour market outcomes influence personality outcomes. Based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we investigated the extent to which gender differences occur in the processes by which highly positive and negative labour market outcomes are determined and in the processes underlying the development of one particular aspect of personality, locus of control. Gender differences were more pronounced in the results for years in managerial/ leadership positions than for locus of control. Negative labour market states were also marked by gender differences. We conclude by arguing that an explicitly value-laden analysis of the rewards associated with personality within the labour market could expose areas where the gendered nature of rewards by personality serves to perpetuate power relationships within the labour market.