Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology

Abstract

Two studies were conducted to fill the lack of psychological exploration on the study of ideological topology in Korean adults and the possible psychological bases of such topology. Differential demographic effects like economic status, educational levels, gender, and age would related to liberal-conservative ideology in Korean setting compared to Western culture were examined in analysis 1. Psychological bases related on the ideological topology were probed in the analysis 2. To test the generality of the theoretical model relating personality and world views to ideological trends (conservative-liberal), prejudice (attitudes towards North Korea, rich people, and enterprisers), and life style by using structural equation modeling (SEM) with latent variables in a sample of Korean students and adults living in Cheonan and Seoul. 500 persons, 238 (47.6%) males and 262 (52.4%) females with an average age of 35 years old completed a survey questionnaire based on authoritarianism, social dominance, social conformity, life style, social attitudes and social world views. Different correlations between variables were analyzed, and the goodness of fit statistics and path coefficients for the structural equation modeling were interpreted. More conservatives evidenced in lower education, higher economics, and more liberal attitudes in females than males and married than not-married. But differential ideological configurations effects were revealed according to political, economical, and social domains. However, there was age effect, which is not for granted in Western society, which suggest there might be a cultural difference between Western countries and Korea. Generally, SEM model proposed by Duckitt, Birum, Wanger, and Plessic(2002) was supported, which means ideological trends and related social beliefs can be explained by the right wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance (SDO), which in turn connected with social conformity, dangerous world view, tough mindedness, competitive jungle world. Especially, RWA and SDO had positive, reciprocal, and causal impacts each other, path prediction from RWA to SDO than vice verse though, which suggest strong ideological orientations were established in Korea like Europe and America. More closer link political and social domains to RWA while economic domains to SDO and more strong relation between social confirmity and RWA, competitive world view and SDO. RWA than SDO can predict more conservatism but lesser RWA and SDO in females than males since more competitive world view and dangerous world view are prevalent in males than females. Finally, the limitations and future directions of the presents study were discussed.

Abstract

The present study investigated stereotypes of criminals of Koreans(Study 1) and their effect on judgement regarding the crime(Study 2). Undergraduate students(N=271) and adults(N=248) participated in Study 1 which was designed to examine the perception of the characteristics of criminals (homicide, violence, sexual offense, robbery, larceny, fraud, embezzlement and gang) in terms of the category of sex, education, social standing, urban or suburban, race, bracket and region. The result demonstrated that people perceived each crime was related to specific patterns of demographic characteristics. In Study 2, we investigated the effects of stereotypes of criminals on the judgement of the criminal acts. In half of the cases, the target's criminal act(theft or fraud) was stereotypic of the target's ethnic group(conveyed through his name), Koreans or Southeast Asians immigrants,and in the other half cases it was not. After reading the script describing either fraud or theft, subjects judged the causes of the crime, the likelihood that the crime would recur and recommended punishment for the offense. The results demonstrated that the Korean fraud (i.e., Korean stereotypic crime) in comparison with the fraud committed by Southeast Asians was attributed more to stable and persistent factors. Furthermore, male participants perceived the Southeast Asian theft as being more likely to repeat the crime than Korean theft while they perceived Korean swindler more likely to repeat the crime than the Southeast Asian swindler, as expected. Finally, the effect of the stereotype-consistency of the crime on the judgment of recidivism was mediated by the degree of internal attribution. We discussed about the theoretical as well as the practical implications of these results.

Abstract

This study examined social functions of two envy-related emotions in Korea: Buroum (benign envy) and sisem (malicious envy). Although these two emotions might share some common features as members of envy family,it was hypothesized that they are associated with solving different social problems and thus serve different social functions. The results showed that buroum was uniquely predicted by high level of social comparison orientation and low level of prevention motives. In addition, experience of being envied in terms of buroum, compared to that in terms of sisem, evoked greater eciprocal sense of closeness and desire to be close with the person who envied. These findings suggest that experience of sisem is associated with and is based on ‘separation' or ‘avoidance’ motives and serves a social function of balancing unjustified unfairness whereas the experience of buroum is associated with and is based on ‘association' or ‘approach' motives and serves a social function of managing interpersonal harmony and strengthening social ties in collectivist and interdependent cultures.

Abstract

This study aims to confirm that the mental health model divided into five types by Keyes(2002) according to the presence of mental illness and the level of mental health (subjective, psychological and social well-being) is suitable for groups of prison inmates, investigate the accuracy of classification according to models and examine whether there are differences in psychosocial functioning among those groups. To do this, the data were collected from 630 inmates of J prison using the measurements of the subjective well-being scale, list of positive emotions, psychological well-being scale, social well-being scale, SCL-90-R, psychosocial functioning scale and aggression scale, and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis, discriminant analysis and analysis of variance. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hypotheses that mental health and mental illness constituted separate latent factors, and the two latent factors were correlated. The accuracy of the 5-group classification suggested in mental health models by Keyes (2002) was confirmed through discriminant analysis. It was also confirmed that there is a significant relationship between mental health and mental illness and each subfactor of psychosocial functioning and discovered that there is a difference in psychosocial functioning among groups. Lastly, implications on mental health examination through mental health models and necessity of intervention suitable for each group were referred to and the limitations of the study and the tasks of future studies were discussed.

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to confirm the age differences of Korean women's Happiness and examine the effects of 16 happy-related factors on happiness. From twenties to sixties 656 Korean women were participated in this study. In results, there were age differences among four age groups(late adulthood > pre-adulthood > middle adulthood > early adulthood). In regard of 16 happy-related factors, they had differential effects on the happiness among four groups. Through the regression analysis we found that achievement acceptance, leisure, positive one's view of life had effects on the happiness of pre-adulthood. In early adulthood, religion, raising of children, spouse/partner, relationship, positive one's view of life, health factors and in middle adulthood, achievement acceptance and spouse/partner factors had significant effects on the happiness. In late adulthood, achievement acceptance factor was effective. The important meanings of 16 happy-related factors and differential effects on the women's happiness were discussed.

Abstract

Abstract

This study validated statement validity test tools such as CBCA, RM, and a contextual validity test of sexual molestation, used at ONE-STOP centers in South Korea Furthermore, this study attempted to search for the cutoff scores of these instruments for judicial decision making. This study applied a simulation study with two criterion groups(Smith, 1997), a real sexually victimized group and feigned group. These 재 criterion groups were compared based on the scores of three dependent measures. Total scores of items were analysed, which were proven to have good item characteristics based on the study of Choi and Lee(2009). Total scores of three scales differentiated real sexual victims from feigned subjects. The most effective cutoff scores were found to be 13 of CBCA consisted of 11 items , 9 of RM consisted of 8 items, and 9 or 10 of a contextual validity test consisted of 14 items.

Abstract

Despite the well-known effects of facial impression on social interaction, little is known about which specific facial components contribute to this process. To address this issue, we designed the present study using a trust game where trustors invest upon a presentation of only a single facial component of the trustees’ faces. 10 high and 10 low trustworthy male faces were chosen from a set of 355 faces based on their normative facial trustworthiness ratings obtained from a pilot study. For the actual experimental stimuli, we isolated three separate facial components (i.e., eyes, nose, and mouth) from each face, obtaining the final 60 images to invest on. Using a 2 × 3 repeated-measures ANOVA, we found the interaction effect of facial trustworthiness (high and low) and facial component (eyes, nose, and mouth) on the amount of investment. Post-hoc tests revealed significantly larger amount of investment for "high” vs. "low” trustworthy faces in the eye trials, but not in the other trials. The present results further confirmed that faces can contribute to the formation of initial trustworthiness, and also suggest that critical signals of trustworthiness can be effectively communicated via the eyes of the trustee and these signals can also guide decisions in situations of financial investment.

Abstract

Two experiments examine how online comments and correction messages affect individuals' judgments of a politician. The results show that individuals' judgments of a politician are dependent on the valence of online comments when the correction message is absent. That is, in the absence of a correction message, individuals made more positive judgments of the target politician when the online comments described him in a positive (vs. negative) way. Even when the online comments were invalid, individuals' judgments of the politician were heavily influenced by the online comments. However, when the correction message was present, the influences of online comments on judgments of the politician disappeared. The role of online comments and correction messages in the formation of individuals' judgments of politicians is discussed.

Abstract

SCAN(Scientific Content Analysis) is one of the most popular statement analysis techniques being used by investigators in many countries. SCAN analyzes the content and structure of statements of suspects, victims, or witnesses and evaluates their credibility. The principles of SCAN are incorporated into several criteria. The presence of each criterion is assumed to be an indication of deception and is more likely to be observed in deceptive statements rather than truthful ones. This study attempts to test the validity of SCAN in analyzing witness statements written in Korean language. Three experimental groups were manipulated. Truthful group saw a real car theft video clip and truthfully wrote about what they actually saw. False group 1 saw the same car theft video clip but intentionally described the theft scene incorrectly. False group 2, saw a non-criminal neutral video clip and wrote as if they saw a car theft crime. Two raters scored SCAN total for each subject's statement applying Smith's(2001) 13 SCAN criteria. The results showed significant differences in SCAN total scores between the truthful group and false groups, in which two false groups obtained significantly higher SCAN scores than the truthful group and there were no differences between the two false groups. Four of 13 criteria significantly differentiated between the truthful and false groups. The results of this study showed that SCAN could be applied to witness statements written in Korean language although the statements were experimentally derived. But some limitations of the current study are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.

Abstract

SCAN(Scientific Content Analysis) is one of the most popular statement analysis techniques being used by investigators in many countries. SCAN analyzes the content and structure of statements of suspects, victims, or witnesses and evaluates their credibility. The principles of SCAN are incorporated into several criteria The presence of each criterion is assumed to be an indication of deception and is more likely to be observed in deceptive statements rather than truthful ones. This study attempts to test the validity of SCAN in analyzing witness statements written in Korean language. Three experimental groups were manipulated Truthful group saw a real car theft video dip and truthfully wrote about what they actually saw. False group 1 saw the same car theft video clip but intentionally described the theft scene incorrectly. False group 2, saw a non-criminal neutral video clip and wrote as if they saw a car theft crime. Two raters scored SCAN total for each subject's statement applying Smith's(2001) 13 SCAN criteria The results showed significant differences in SCAN total scores between the truthful group and false groups, in which two false groups obtained significantly higher SCAN scores than the truthful group and there were no differences between the two false groups. Four of 13 criteria significantly differentiated between the truthful and false groups. The results of this study showed that SCAN could be applied to witness statements written in Korean language although the statements were experimentally derived. But some limitations of the current study are discussed and directions for future research are suggested.

Abstract

Culture makes an important role on psychological developments and functions. In particular, the development and enhancement of self-esteem have been influenced by the prevalent cultural characteristics in the context. The improvement of our self-esteem could relate the value of the context we live. This study examined the 4 cultural characteristics (horizontal-vertical/individualism-collectivism) from the college students in Korea and U.S., and then looked into the correlation between self-esteem and cultural characteristics. 224 Korean and 230 American college students were participated in this study. The findings demonstrated both countries showed (1) that horizontal-individualism and horizontal-collectivism had higher scores than vertical things; (2) that significant correlations between self-esteem and two horizontal factors were found; (3) that SEM from each country was confirmed appropriate goodness-of-fit structures. Research findings would enhance the understanding of self-esteem concepts and provide various perspectives of the relations between culture and self-esteem.

Abstract

The present study investigated how cooperation or competition in a mixed-motive setting affects subsequent self-regulatory performance of individuals. In so doing, the authors predicted that an individual's choice behavior in a previous mixed-motive setting (cooperation vs. competition) would have an impact upon his/her subsequent self-regulatory performance depending on the nature of the subsequent task setting. They also predicted that the presumed interaction effect would be moderated by individuals' social value orientation. Participants first performed the Ultimatum Game during which they repeatedly cooperated or competed. Participants were then given a second regulatory task which was presented as either a group task or an individual task. The main dependent variable was the level of performance on the second regulatory task. Results revealed a 3-way interaction effect. Specifically, cooperators who had competed during the Ultimatum Game performed better in the group task condition than in the individual task condition. They also reported higher levels of psychological discomfort associated with their competitive behavior in the Ultimatum Game. Interestingly, cooperators who had cooperated during the ultimatum game performed better in the individual task condition than in the group task condition. In contrast, competitors who had cooperated during the Ultimatum Game showed poor performance regardless of the nature of the second task. In addition, they performed poorly in the group task condition compared to the individual task condition. These results were discussed in light of ego-depletion in self-regulatory behavior. Implications of the study and suggestions for future direction are also discussed.

Abstract

Scientific Content Analysis(SCAN) is a technique to detecting deceptive areas in a written statements. This study was to explore the validity of the SCAN criteria detecting deceptive areas in a korean-written statements. The participants were 145 students, were divided into two groups: offender group VS victim group. Both groups were asked to write true statements about the incidents, then to make out untrue statements later about the same incidents. 92 statements written by 46 participants were analyzed. As a result, the SCAN criteria detected accurately(61%) deceptive areas in the untrue statements, and the numbers of the SCAN's specific criteria were significantly more in the untrue statements than in the true ones, no matter whether they were written by the offenders or victims. Besides, the amount of words in the untrue statement was significantly less than true statement. The implications and limitations of this study and challenges for future research were discussed.