Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology
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- P-ISSN1229-0653
- KCI
ISSN : 1229-0653
Vol.37 No.3
Abstract
This study provides an overview of the East-West (Western vs. East Asian) differences in creativity by analyzing relevant research on 1) explicit and implicit theories of creativity, and 2) individualism-collectivism cultural dimensions. We also reviewed comparative studies on creativity (divergent thinking) level, and examined the impact of cultural orientations(or dimensions) on creativity and innovation at the individual, organizational, and national levels. It also discussed the “creativity problem” in East Asian countries. Finally, we suggest directions for future cross-cultural research on creativity.
Abstract
This study investigated personal and socio-cultural factors that influence gratitude experience (Study 1), identified different types of gratitude experiences in everyday life, and whether there are differences in gratitude experience based on life, Korean social satisfaction, and personal and socio-cultural characteristics (Study 2). In Study 1, 314 participants (127 men, 186 women, 1 anonymous; age M = 24.38, SD = 5.52, range: 18-49) completed tests to assess life and Korean social satisfaction, gratitude disposition (tendency), personal and societal gratitude, personality (Big Five), individualism-collectivism, and analytical-integrated thinking. Amos was then used to perform a structural model analysis. As a result, both life and Korean social satisfaction influenced personal and social gratitude positively. Among the five personality characteristics, extroversion had a negative impact on social gratitudes and emotional stability had a negative impact on personal gratitudes, with gratitude disposition having a static impact on both. The greater the collectivism, the greater the personal and Korean social satisfaction and the greater the integrated thinking tendency, the greater the personal appreciation. In Study 2, 65 participants (male = 31; female = 34; age M = 23.02, SD = 3.15) were asked to keep a diary on their gratitdude experience for two weeks. As a result, gratitude experiences were classified as personal, social, or transcendent. Overall, the ‘upper’ group had a higher frequency of gratidue experience than the ‘lower’ group due to higher variable scores. Regardless of the degree of factors, however, the frequency of social gratitudes was quite low. When the forms of gratitude experiences in everyday life are considered together, the influence of variables by dimension varies depending on the type of gratitude. These findings imply that multimodal psychosocial intervention is required to increase gratitude, which is linked to both social and personal well-being.
Abstract
South Korea has experienced enormous changes through colonization, the Korean War, the division of Korea, industrialization, democratization and so on over the past 80 years. The present study aimed to track how individualism in South Korea has changed. To this end, I used demographic characteristics (divorce rate, average household size, percentage of people living alone, percentage of elderly people living alone, ratio of single-generation to multi-generation households) and cultural products (the usage of first-person pronouns in popular song lyrics, the uniqueness of baby names) that have been widely used as indices of individualism. The results showed that over time the divorce rate, the percentage of living alone, the percentage of elderly people living alone, and the ratio of single-generation to multi-generation households, and the usage of first-person singular pronoun in popular song lyrics have increased, whereas average household size has decreased. However, the uniqueness in baby names has rather decreased and the usage of first-person plural pronouns has remained stable, suggesting that the temporal changes in individualism in Korea are complex. The present study has implications for tracking long-term shifts in individualism in Korea using non-self-report measures.
Abstract
This study aims to compare the risk factors and effect sizes of emotional, behavioral, physical, and cognitive difficulties among disaster survivors and exploratively examine whether there are differences in risk factors by type of disaster. To this end, a multivariate analysis of variance was conducted using data from 2000 disaster survivors. The results showed that among the risk factors common to emotional, behavioral, physical, and cognitive difficulties after a disaster, the most influential factors with a medium effect size or higher were “perceiving the disaster as a life-changing event” and “the extent of economic and physical damage”. Comparing the relative effect sizes of these factors, “perceiving the disaster as a life-altering event” and “level of economic damage” had the largest effect on emotional distress after the disaster, and “level of physical damage” had the largest effect on physical distress after the disaster. In terms of risk factors that differed by disaster type, there were significant differences in behavioral and physical difficulties based on age for those who experienced natural disasters, and significant differences in physical difficulties based on gender rather than age for those who experienced social disasters. As the duration of the disaster increased, physical difficulties increased among natural disaster survivors and emotional difficulties increased among social disaster survivors, while the presence of legal proceedings made a significant difference only for cognitive difficulties among social disaster survivors. The findings of this study are significant in that they provide useful information for establishing risk criteria for screening assessments for post-disaster psychological support and providing a basis for diversifying intervention strategies.
Abstract
The global pandemic of COVID-19 clearly showed that successful implementation of government policies depends not only on the effectiveness of the policies but also on the cooperation of citizens. In the present study, we investigated the influence of political orientation, utilitarian propensity, and use of new media on individuals’ agreements for government policies. We recruited 1,232 participants representing the South Korean population based on their demographics (i.e., gender, age, and area of residence). Participants indicated how strongly they agreed with COVID-19 prevention polices which differ in whether they are consistent with the government policies (government-consistent vs. government-inconsistent) and whether they reflect utilitarian or non-utilitarian moral stance. First, political orientation significantly predicted the relative preference for the government-consistent to government-inconsistent policies such that more liberal individuals were more likely to agree with the prevention policies consistent with the government’s position. Second, liberals agreed more to utilitarian vs. non-utilitarian polices than conservatives regardless of their utilitarian propensity, whereas conservatives’ preferences for utilitarian vs. non-utilitarian policies varied as a function of their utilitarian propensity. Lastly, the effect of political orientation on the policy attitude was modulated by the frequency of new media usage. Political orientation had greater influence among the participants who use new media more frequently. Our findings demonstrate that political orientation and utilitarianism influence policy preference, and new media, which is characterized by selective exposure, can amplify the effect of political orientation.
Abstract
The present study aimed to examine the relations between employees’ perceived value congruence and work-related variables (job satisfaction, work engagement, and intent to quit) and to test the indirect effects of identity fusion between the two. Value congruence was assessed by two ways: employee-organization value congruence and employee-coworker value congruence. In Study 1, 150 full-time employees responded to the batteries of measures including value congruence, identity fusion, organization identification, and work-related variables. The results showed that perceived employee-organization value congruence was positively related to job satisfaction and work engagement and negatively related to intent to quit via identity fusion. A significant indirect effect of identity fusion was also present between employee-coworker value congruence and work-related variables. Although both employee-organization and employee-coworker value congruence were positively related to job satisfaction and work engagement via organizational identification, the path to intent to quit was not significant. In Study 2, 148 employees who worked in a major company in South Korea completed the same measures as in Study 1. It was found that employee-organization and employee-coworker value congruences were positively related to job satisfaction and work engagement, and negatively related to intent to quit through identity fusion. In contrast, the indirect effects of organization identification between value congruence and job-related variables were not significant except for the path between employee-organization value congruence and job satisfaction. Taken together, regardless of the size and type of organization, those who perceived their values to be congruent with those of the organization and their coworkers were more likely to be satisfied with and engaged in their jobs, and less likely to have intents to quit due to high identity fusion with their organizations.
Abstract
This research aims to examine the differences of value priorities between South Korean and Canadian university students. 385 South Korean and 349 Canadian undergraduate students (age 18∼25) completed self-report measures. Multidimensional scaling was analyzed in order to confirm that their values are divided by the circular motivational continuum equal to the Schwartz et al. (2012)’s theory of values. The unpaired two-sample t-test was analyzed after comparing differences of value priorities between groups. The values of the Korean and Canadian undergraduate students were classified into the circular motivational continuum by three principles such as the Schwartz’s theory. While the Korean university students were more immersed in self-enhancement values, they lacked a tendency to pursue altruistic motivations. In addition, the opposite characteristics of individualism and collectivism culture were coexisted in openness to change and conservation values of the Korean undergraduate students. In other words, the Korean students had a stronger tendency to pursue individualistic and independent autonomous behavior than the Canadian students, the Korean students also had a stronger tendency to pursue interdependent and interpersonal conformity value. Moreover, the Korean students considered stimulation value for novelty and change less important than the Canadian students, whereas the Korean students regarded hedonism value pursuing pleasure and sensory satisfaction as more important. Based on these results, we discussed the role of socio-cultural characteristics that could influence the formation of value priorities for the university students.
Abstract
In this study, we examined whether estimating pain on victims of the same disaster differs depending on the description of the type of disaster (human vs. natural disaster) and whether the differences can be explained by the perceived controllability of the disaster. According to a pre-registered procedure and method of study, participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (disaster type: human vs. natural × victim gender: male vs. female), received a scenario, and responded to a manipulation check item. Next, participants answered the questions about the perceived controllability, perceived victim’s emotional/physical pain, attention check, demographic variables, and disaster-related experiences. The results showed that participants in the human disaster condition evaluated the victim’s emotional pain higher than those in the natural condition, but no difference was found in estimating the victim’s physical pain depending on the type of disaster. In addition, participants perceived higher controllability of the human disaster compared to the natural disaster. Contrary to our hypothesis, the relationship between disaster type and estimating pain was not explained by the perceived controllability of the disaster. Additional analyses were conducted by using each item of measuring pain as the dependent variable. We found that the relationship between disaster type and estimating victim’s anger was mediated by the perceived controllability of the disaster. Participants perceived a higher (vs. lower) controllability of human (vs. natural) disaster and it led to the higher (vs. lower) estimation of victim’s anger. This study implies that there is a bias in estimating disaster victims’ pain, depending on whether the disaster is described as a human or natural disaster.
Abstract
The current investigation examined whether socioeconomic status (SES) would moderate the relation between unfair treatments and the system-justifying beliefs (SJB). A sample of 335 Korean adults completed questionnaires assessing unfair treatments, system-justifying beliefs, and subjective SES. The results revealed that the association between unfair treatments and system-justifying beliefs varied according to participants’ SES. That is, among participants with higher SES, SJB decreased as they experienced more unfair treatments. In contrast, the pattern was reversed for participants with lower SES such that unfair treatments were positively associated with SJB. Moreover, we also investigated how the predicted SES differences in the association between unfair treatments and SJB would be related to one’s metal health, in order to examine the adaptive function of SJB. We found a significant moderated mediation effect. Specifically, unfair treatments were associated with decrease in SJB, which, in turn, were associated with decrease in mental health among higher SES participants. Conversely, for lower SES participants, unfair treatments were positively associated with mental health, indirectly through increase in SJB. We also note that the direct association between unfair treatments and mental health was stronger (compared to indirect effect) and negative regardless of participants’ SES in spite of positive indirect effect among lower SES participants. These results suggest that the relation between unfair treatments and system-justifying beliefs varies as a function of one’s SES and moreover, such SES differences could indirectly impact their well-being.