ISSN : 1229-0653
The present study examines how negativity and positivity biases affect the impression formation of groups. The results show that in the morality domain negative behaviors are given more weight in information integration, thus yielding negativity biases. In the intellectual competence domain, however, positive behaviors are given more weight in information integration, thus yielding positivity biases. The effects of negativity and positivity biases in the impression formation of groups occurred only when the amount of information given was large enough. The roles of negativity and positivity biases in real life such as political campaign are discussed.
This study examined psychological and criminal characteristics as well as demographical features of 119 sex offenders who were classified based upon their recidivism and diagnoses which were made upon their pre-trial evaluation. No significant differences were found in their demographical data between first-offense and re-offense groups, but there was significant difference in their types of sex offenses. Significant differences were found in MMPI-2 scales such as F, FB, FP, K, S, F-K, Pa, and Sc. Re-offense group scored significantly high on scales of D, Pa, Pa, Pt, and Sc; they also scored significantly higher on SCL-90-R scales such as SOM, OC, IS, DEP, ANX, HOS, PSY, GSI, PSDI. Groups who were classified on the basis of diagnosis showed significant differences in gender of the victims, age of the victims, and alcohol intake at the time of offense. Significant differences were found in MMPI-2 scales such as D, Hy, Pd, and PSDI of SCL-90-R among these groups. The results of the study indicate that re-offense group reported significantly more psychopathological symptoms than first-offense group, which suggests that sensitive measures to rule out malingering should be developed and utilized, and that counter plans for recidivism prevention should take into consideration the offense-related characteristics of sex offenders to be effective.
The present study was to explore whether the difference and misunderstanding on psychological needs between married couples are related to their marital conflicts. 223 married couples living in three different areas responded to the scale so as to measure couple's three basic psychological needs(relationship, autonomy, and capability) developed by Han and Shin(2006). The difference in needs between husband and wife is operationally defined as the difference between husband's self-perceptions and wife's need, and the misunderstanding is defined as the difference between one's perception to spouse and spouse's self-perception. The results of this study are as follows:First, it is shown that the couple's needs were not complementary but similar to each other. Second, the more differences between husband's and wife's needs were, the higher their marital conflict was. Especially the difference between couples' needs of relationship was related to their conflict. Third, the more misunderstanding of his(and her) spouse's relationship need, the higher conflict. Above results suggest that the accurate understanding of spouse's relationship need has a critical role in quality of marriage.
This study examines the mind-reading ability of juvenile offenders in jail. Their mind-reading ability was measured by the ability to understand other's thinking, ability to read the emotional states through facial expressions, and ability to detect intentionality in animated shapes. A total of 35 male juvenile inmates' performance was compared with those of normal male students (40 undergraduate students, 38 junior high school students, and 35 elementary school students). The results indicate that juvenile offenders have a deficit in understanding of others' thinking and emotions. More specifically, they cannot uncover the hidden meaning of white-lies and recognize others' facial expressions of anger. However, it was found that their ability to detect intentionality was intact and that the level of their emotional empathy was normal. These results imply that juvenile offenders' anti-social behaviors are associated with the impairment in their mind-reading.
This study examined individual differences in emotional processing patterns by multiple emotional variables:Affect intensity (AI), emotional attention (EA), emotional clarity (EC), and Ambivalence over Emotional Expressiveness (AE), and their characteristics in emotion regulation and psychological adjustment. The combination of the four emotional variables drawn from 363 college students (193 female) formed four clusters. The ‘Hot & Clear' group with high AI, EA, and EC, but low AE was the least avoidant in emotion regulation and adaptive. In comparison, the ‘Repressed' group with low AI, EA, and EC, but high AE was the most avoidant and maladaptive. The ‘Calm and Clear' group with low AI, EA, and AE, but high EC was relatively adaptive. However, the ‘Conflicting' group with high AI, EA, and AE was found to be avoidant and maladaptive. The result indicates that a crucial variable that predicts psychological adjustment seems to be the AE and EC. This also sheds light on the inconsistent findings of the previous studies on the functions of affect intensity and emotional attention. It is discussed that suppression and repression could be distinguished by the combination of the aforementioned emotional variables, and that the roles of low affect intensity combined with low emotional attention in emotional processing should be more highlighted.
This study explores differences in racial attitudes between Korean and foreign college students who are staying in Korea. To examine implicit racial attitudes as well as explicit ones, Implicit Association Tests and the Questionnaires including Explicit Preference Test, Rating Scales for group attitudes and the shortened Authoritarian Personality Scale were used for 121 Korean and 55 foreign participants(22 whites, 11 blacks, 22 asians). The results show that Korean students reveal robust in-group preference both implicitly and explicitly; unfavorite attitudes toward Blacks and Southeast Asians; similarity between explicit and implicit attitudes patterns. On the other hands, foreign students show dissimilarity between explicit and implicit attitudes patterns; they show white preference implicitly but not explicitly; different patterns are shown according to racial groups and levels of measurement. The results were discussed in terms of multicultural viewpoints.
Based on the Regulatory Focus Theory, this study investigated the possibility that neuroticism could prompt one's career exploration behavior under a certain circumstance. For the purpose, this study examined the model fit of the path model driven by the hypothesis that perceived anxiety about career exploration behavior will enhance performance by providing positive motivational cues to an individual who is high in neuroticism while self-efficacy will impede performance. 223 college students(93 men and 130 women) completed measures of neuroticism, career exploration self-efficacy, state anxiety, career exploration behavior, and regulatory focus strategies. This survey was designed as having two types, one including the instruction about positive role models, the other having negative role models. Then in order to classify the participants according to contextual conditions, we randomly assigned the participants to these two types. The results revealed that career exploration anxiety positively mediated the relationship between neuroticism and career exploration behavior while career exploration self-efficacy negatively mediated that relationship. This study also looks into whether relevant variables vary depending on different regulatory focus mechanisms, and whether accordance/discordance between dispositional regulatory focus and situational regulatory focus affects the suitability of this study’s path model. When one was more prevention focused, the extension of neuroticism and perceived anxiety was higher. But when one was more focused on promotion, he had higher career exploration self-efficacy. And when the dispositional and situational regulatory focus were correspondent, the path model could be applied. Explanations for unexpected outcomes and suggestions for future research are also discussed.
In this study, a translated Korean version of Shapiro Control Inventory (SCI) originally developed by Shapiro (1993) was applied in an effort to investigate its psychometric properties. To do this, the exploratory factor analysis and item analysis were performed with data from 565 college and/or graduate students, completing Korean-SCI. The result of psychometric property test showed acceptable reliability and the factor structure confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis was found to be same as the original scale. In general domains of control, the K-SCI was found to be constructed with the positive sense of control, the desire for control and the negative sense of control. As to control modes, four factors were extracted; the positive assertiveness, the positive yielding, the negative assertiveness, and the negative yielding. The convergent-discriminant validity test and incremental validity were also tested with various variances; locus of control, mindfulness, acceptance and action, depression, anxiety, and well-being related scales. The clinical application of the K-SCI were also discussed.
The present study was conducted to (1) investigate the role of gender social identity in the prediction of gender equality attitude, (2) examine the effect of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavior control, and moral obligation in explaining gender equality intention, and (3) propose and test the research model which integrate of social identity theory and theory of planned behavior in explaining gender equality action intention of Korean male adults. A nationwide sample of 1,016 Korean male adults participated in the survey. The results from stepwise regression analyses indicated that the gender equality attitude was explained 13.6% by gender social identity and gender social identity was explained 15.4% by status, legitimacy, stability. Gender equality action intention was explained 44.8% by variable of planned behavior theory. The results from the LISREL supported the research model proposed in this study with reasonable goodness of fit. Finally, the implications and limitations of the present study as well as the future directions of this area were discussed.
The purposes of the present study were to develop a basic psychological needs scale based on the Self-determination Theory (SDT) for Korean adolescents and to examine its construct validity. Ryan and Deci's basic psychological needs scale was used as the basis for this Korean version of the scale. Translation and back translation procedures were used along with the qualitative analysis of the results from interview and open-ended questions to modify original items and to construct new items that properly represent Korean concept of the basic psychological needs. The adapted and newly constructed items were administered to 1591 middle and high school students from 10 different schools in Korea. The item and scale base analyses resulted in 18 items (6 items each for the sub-scale of autonomy, competence, and relatedness) as the final version for the Basic Psychological Needs Scale for Korean adolescents. An evidence of construct validity was obtained from a confirmatory factor analysis. The internal consistency of the three sub-scales were relatively high (α=.70, .75, and .79 for the autonomy, competence, and relatedness sub-scales, respectively) considering the number of the items included in each scale. The evidences of concurrent validity were obtained from correlation analyses using students' academic self-regulation scale scores, academic self-efficacy scale scores, and school adjustment scale scores as the criterion measures for autonomy, competence, and relatedness sub-scales, respectively. The evidences of predictive validity were obtained from correlation, simple regression, and standard multiple regression analyses using students' psychological well-being scale scores as the criterion. In conclusion, the results showed that the Basic Psychological Needs Scale based on the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) for Korean adolescents properly measured the theory-consistent construct and significantly predicted external criterion variables. Results were also discussed in relations to the potential utility of the scale.
Three studies examined how different purposes of punishment affect peoples' punitive judgment. Korean college students assigned an appropriate sentence to a hypothetical perpetrator whose crime was varied with respect to the key components of three punishment purposes:retribution, general deterrence and incapacitation. Study 1 compared retribution and general deterrence purposes and showed that the sentence judgments were highly sensitive to retribution-related factors (magnitude of harm, extenuating circumstances, criminal intent) but were insensitive to factors associated with general deterrence (frequency, detection rate, publicity). Study 2 compared retribution and incapacita- tion purposes and revealed that both the retribution factors and incapacitation-related factors (criminal record, impulsiveness, recidivism) had a significant, but independent impact on sentence judgments. These findings were replicated in Study 3 which included all three punishment purposes in a single experimental design. Mediational analyses revealed that effects of the retribution factors were mediated by moral outrage. They also revealed that effects of the incapacitation factors were mediated by dispositional inference about the perpetrator and the perceived need for protecting the society from the perpetrator. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.