5papers in this issue.
The current study aimed to examine the moderated mediation effect of social comparison orientation through career exploration on the longitudinal relationship between stress-is-enhancing mindset and career commitment. To this end, a total of two surveys were conducted every six months on 215 college and graduate students, and the collected data were analyzed using SPSS Process Macro. The results of this study were as follows. First, the relationship between the change in stress-is-enhancing mindset and the change in career commitment was fully mediated by the change in career exploration, and gender and grade did not have a significant effect on these relationships. Second, the moderation effect of the change in social comparison orientation was significant in both the relationship between the change in stress-is-enhancing mindset and the change in career exploration, and the relationship between the change in career exploration and the change in career commitment. However, as a result of verifying the significance according to the level of the moderate variable, the moderated effect was not significant in the group with a significant decrease in social comparison orientation. Third, the longitudinal full mediation effect between variables was significant only in the group where the change in social comparison orientation slightly decreased or increased. These results suggest the possibility that social comparison tendencies, which have been mainly treated as risk factors for individual cognition, emotion, and behavior, can act as a resource for the development of vocational identity status if they involve changes in the stress-is-enhancing mindset. Furthermore, it emphasizes the importance of promoting career exploration for the development of vocational identity status, along with changing the attributes and perspectives of individuals’ stress. Based on the above research results, discussions on social comparison orientation and stress-is-enhancing mindset in the field of career counseling and career education were presented.
With this study, we aimed to determine the cultural appropriateness of the DIAMONDS model as a situational taxonomy within the South Korean cultural context. Using a sample from the local population, we conducted a validation of the Riverside Situational Q-Sort-8 (RSQ-8), designed for measuring the DIAMONDS model (consisting of duty, intellect, adversity, mating, pOsitivity, negativity, deception, and sociality). The study included 445 male and female adult participants aged 25 to 39. We gathered data through two distinct methods, each subjected to separate scale validation processes. The confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated an acceptable model fit. We established convergent and criterion validity through correlations with the Situation Six Questionnaires and the NEO Adult Personality Assessment System Short Form (NEO-Adult-PAS-SF). Additionally, we did not observe any differences in factor structure between the two data collection methods. Our results support the applicability of the DIAMONDS model as a situational taxonomy within the South Korean cultural context. Finally, we considered the study’s significance and limitations.
This study examined the differences in values between Koreans in their 20s(n = 228) and 50s(n = 213) in two dimensions: agency and communion. We investigated the present values of each generation, and then asked each generation what values the other generation currently seemed to pursue. In addition, those in their 20s indicated the values that they would pursue in their future 50s, and those in their 50s rated the values that they had pursued in their past 20s. We also asked participants about self-esteem and life satisfaction to see how each generation's current agentic and communal values might affect their self-esteem and life satisfaction. Results showed that those in their 20s were relatively more concerned about agentic values, while those in their 50s placed more importance on communal values. However, both generations perceived that the other generation currently held more agentic but less communal values. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the values pursued by the current 20s and those by the 50s in their past 20s. The same was true between the values pursued by the current 50s and those by the 20s in their future 50s. Finally, communal values had a positive relationship with self-esteem and life satisfaction for those in their 20s, but for those in their 50s, agentic values were only related to better life satisfaction. Implications and limitations of the study were discussed, and suggestions for future studies were made.
Despite the notion of the U-shape of happiness being frequently dealt with in the media, there is a lack of consensus among researchers on the relationship between age and happiness. In this paper we examined whether age and happiness have a U-shaped relationship among South Koreans, shedding light on the two main issues discussed in a recent line of study: control variables and effect size. Using data from the 2019 Korean Labor & Income Panel Study in Study 1 (N = 12,629) and the 2019 National Leisure Activities Survey in Study 2 (N = 10,060), we compared the age-happiness relationship with and without controlling for five sociodemographic variables (gender, household income, education, marital status, and occupational status), also examining the effect size of such relationship. We found in both Study 1 and 2 an inverted U-shape without controlling for variables, whereas a U-shape appeared when adding control variables. The analyses also demonstrate that regardless of control variables, the effect size of the happiness curve is trivial. The current contribution, using two representative data, enhances our understanding of the happiness patterns of Koreans.
The Likert scale is a measurement tool commonly used in various fields including social sciences such as psychology. Although the Likert scale is used with the assumption that the intervals between each scale point are equal, respondents may not perceive the intervals between each scale point equally, depending on the wordings used in scales (e.g., ‘slightly’, ‘very’). This can lead to systematic errors in responses and biases in analysis and estimation of results. In this study, we empirically explored and proposed anchor wordings suitable for use in each point, considering the errors induced by the wordings. Specifically, we investigated what anchor wordings have been commonly used in the Likert scale to measure ‘consent or accordance’ and ‘frequency’. We calculated and proposed what anchor wordings are most suitable for each scale point. In the preliminary survey, we collected and identified wordings of scale points used in recently published studies (January 2020 - December 2022). In the main survey, we recruited participants and had them rate the meaning of each anchor wordings obtained from the preliminary survey using slide scales. The preliminary survey found that 32 anchor wordings of consent and 26 of frequency were frequently used in recent studies. In the main survey, we proposed what anchor wordings are suitable for each scale point on the 4-, 5-, and 7-point scales based on the values that participants responded to what each wordings represent.