Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Ostracism (i.e., the phenomenon of being rejected or neglected by an individual or a group) brings suffering to individuals. Mindfulness is conducive to emotional regulation and coping with stress, which may play a beneficial role in alleviating ostracism. From three perspectives (target, source, and observer) and three time points (before, during, and after the occurrence of ostracism), a series of questions about whether, when, and how mindfulness can play a role in ostracism were analyzed in detail and summarized as a model relating mindfulness and ostracism. This model demonstrates that before ostracism occurs, from the perspective of the source, awareness of the present may help to reduce the ostracism caused by the neglect of an individual. Some ostracism is aimed to express aggression towards the relationship. The effective emotional management and good communication brought about by mindfulness may help to deal with interpersonal relationships in a less exclusive way. From the perspective of the target, mindfulness may alleviate anxiety and overreaction to potential rejection. After ostracism occurs, mindfulness may not only reduce the rumination of ostracism but also may promote positive reappraisal, which help to alleviate the pain due to being ostracized. From the perspective of the observer, paying attention to the present may help the individual to identify the occurrence of ostracism and to provide helpful behaviors. Increasing the level of empathy and positive emotions may also be the mechanism by which mindfulness promotes prosocial behaviors. During the occurrence of ostracism, mindful targets are more likely to have high-quality communication with the source, which may reduce the possibility of exacerbation. Although the current research was rich in content, there were still some limitations. First of all, relatively few studies from the perspective of the target were identified. Future research needs to consider creating new paradigms or measurement methods to record ostracism behaviors objectively and to examine whether trait mindfulness and mindfulness intervention can reduce ostracism behaviors, which will reduce the negative impact of ostracism from the root cause. In addition, relevant research on the dynamic interactions between the target and the source during ostracism is scarce. Second, from the perspective of research quality, the current research methods mainly involve cross-sectional questionnaires, which lack objectivity and can only make relevant inferences. At the same time, there are relatively few randomized controlled intervention studies, and it is difficult to clarify the magnitude of the benefits of mindfulness on ostracism. Third, the boundary conditions for the benefits of mindfulness on ostracism need to be further clarified. Research on individual differences and negative outcome categories is an entry point for future studies related to mindfulness and ostracism. In summary, many studies have explored the role of mindfulness in stressful situations, but its role in ostracism has only just begun to be investigated. More research in the future is needed to help understand the relationship between mindfulness and ostracism more comprehensively.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Schadenfreude is a social emotion involving feelings of satisfaction or joy arising from learning about other people’s misfortunes. Although it is regarded as universally prevalent there has been very little research about it. While it used to be posited immoral, recent scholars have considered it to be meaningful and have undertaken research about it. In this essay, Chinese and international studies were reviewed, concepts and measurements of Schadenfreude were summarized, and an interactive process model (IPM) was proposed. The strength of the model lies in that it integrated factors of both parties in interaction (the self and the others) based on an interactive perspective and it clarified the process of and the changes after the occurrence of Schadenfreude based on a process perspective. According to the model, researchers should pay attention to the contexts and interactions before and after the occurrence of Schadenfreude. The model may also assist our understanding of studies on other social emotions.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： Employee proactive behaviors have so many benefits for the actors and their organizations that it has received extensive attention from scholars and practitioners. Previous studies on the consequences of proactive behavior mainly explored it from different levels (individual, team or organization) or the direction of influence (positive vs. negative), and left the psychological and behavioral reactions of leaders underexplored. Enlightened by the followership research, which highlights the important and active role of employees in actively shaping leaders’ mind and behavior, and wise proactive behaviors, which call on scholars to do more comprehensive exploration about the consequences of proactive behaviors to provide more effective practical guidance and achieve optimal results, we thus believe that to review and summarize leaders' psychological and behavioral responses to employees' proactive behavior has great theoretical values and practical implications. Because of different orientations, the same form of proactive behavior (e.g., promotive voice vs. prohibitive voice; positive feedback seeking vs. negative feedback seeking) will lead to leaders’ different attitudinal (likes vs. dislikes) and behavioral responses (support vs. opposition), and the influence process will be shaped by many factors from different aspects. In specific, at present, scholars have made preliminary exploration on the function mechanisms how subordinate proactive behavior affects leaders’ psychological and behavioral reactions based on attribution theory, implicit following theory, self-other rating agreement theory and other explanatory theories. The results found that when facing subordinate proactive behaviors, leaders will experience a series of cognitive appraisal process, then determine their attitude according to the behavioral intention of focal subordinates and the potential benefits and costs of such behavior, and further take action to promote or restrain the development of the proactive behavior and strengthen or break their current relationship simultaneously. In addition, the factors from employees, leaders and situations will affect the leaders’ cognitive evaluation and attribution process about subordinate proactive behaviors, and enhance or weaken the leaders’ various psychological and behavioral responses. Specifically, the factors from employees, such as employees’ demographic characteristics, personal traits and some abilities, will affect the attribution process of leaders, which will lead to different coping responses of leaders. As for the factors from leaders’ side, for example, leaders' traits and resources will affect leaders' internal expectations of employees' behaviors. When employees' proactive behaviors conform to or deviate from such expectations, leaders' cognitive evaluation and behavioral responses will change accordingly. The situations, like organizational goals, atmosphere and other situational factors, may reflect leaders' work demands or orientation, and whether employees' proactive behavior is helpful to the realization of leaders' such goals will determine the nature of leaders' responses. Focusing on the perspective of leaders, this study reviewed and summarized the literature about effect of employees' proactive behaviors on their leaders. We found that scholars had explored the attitudinal and behavioral reactions of leaders toward employees' proactive behaviors, but the research on leaders’ emotional reactions and other psychological states was insufficient, which will limit our understanding about proactive behaviors. Besides, most extant studies inferred leaders’ internal responses from their behaviors or performance evaluations about the focal employees, which indicated the deficiency of straightforward and deep exploration about leaders’ internal responses. Therefore, future research can (1) refine the extant explorations about the relationship between subordinate proactive behaviors and leaders’ attitudes, examine leaders’ responses directly and deepen the research on its influence mechanism; (2) further explore the potential psychological and behavioral responses of leaders induced by subordinate proactive behavior, such as leaders’ self-efficacy; (3) explore the bi-directional causal relationship between employee proactive behaviors and leadership style, and development trend of such bi-directional relationship; (4) expand the multi-level research on leader's responses to employee proactive behaviors.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： As an important form of employee engagement in organizational decision-making, voice has an unignorable influence on employees themselves, managers and organizations. Since Hirschman raised the concept of voice, scholars have contributed to exploring the antecedents and consequences of employee voice, managerial evaluation and endorsement, as well as voice solicitation. Moreover, accumulating attention has been paid to the managerial roles in promoting employee voice and amplifying the positive effects of voice. However, research on managerial roles in voice remains unsystematic and leaves lots of issues to be addressed. Based on Input-Process-Output (IPO) model, we summarize managerial roles in the voice process, as well as their premises and outcomes. At first, we integrate voice solicitation, employee voice, and managers’ reactions toward voice (i.e., managerial endorsement and voice/voicer evaluation) into a comprehensive concept, entitled as voice behavior chain. Voice behavior chain reflects the Process component of the IPO model and portraits managerial roles in the voice contexts. In the voice behavior chain, as initiators, managers consult employees about their work-related ideas and opinions, which can facilitate employee voice. Then, as reactors, managers would decide whether to endorse employee voice or not, and meanwhile, they also evaluate voice and corresponding voicers. However, it is notable that voice behavior chain could be incomplete; that is, except for employee voice, neither of the managerial roles is a must to constitute the chain. The order of the elements within the behavior chain may also change under certain circumstances. Moreover, we provide fine-grained arguments about the distinctiveness and connections between voice solicitation and employee voice and between managerial endorsement and voice/voicer evaluation. We also conclude that in the IPO model, voice behavior chain shares similar Input and Output components (i.e., similar antecedents and consequences), which are across individual-level, team-level and organizational-level. Regarding the Input component, managers’ affective states, openness toward change, motivations, self-regulatory resources, self-efficacy, and face threat directly influence their performance in voice behavior chain. Managerial endorsement and evaluation also depend on employees’ communication skills, credibility and expertise. Team-level (e.g., power distance, leader-member exchange, goal consistency and the involvement of third party) and organizational-level factors (e.g., change climate and voice norms) can also activate voice behavior chain. Since researchers tend to adopt self-regulatory theory or image/ego threat theory to trace the sources of voice behavior chain, we call for further studies to consider other potential theoretical explanations and input factors, such as managers’ attributions. Regarding the Output component, voice behavior chain may have effects on individual perceived organizational support, organizational commitment, performance and promotion. It also serves as a catalyze to promote team performance and problem-solving skills and to build organizational creative climate. However, the managerial roles cannot be limited in strengthening the effects of employee voice. For instance, managerial solicitation may induce managers’ emotional exhaustion if their proactive behaviors aren’t followed by employee voice and support. Drawing on the IPO model in the voice context, we emphasize the managerial roles in voice behavior chain. Thereby this study comprehensively incorporates the existing literature, identifies important issues neglected by previous research and sheds light on future studies. Researchers need to be more scrupulous of the application of the related theory when conducting cross-cultural research. Also, the constructs and dimensions of the behavior elements can be explored furtherly, and we are looking forward to more objective measurements of managerial roles. Last but not least, the research on managerial roles in voice behavior chain can be enriched by investigating spillover effects and corresponding mechanisms. We hope this review can make theoretical and practical contributions by integrating those scattered topics and guiding managers to facilitate and respond to employee voice efficiently.
Subjects: Psychology >> Other Disciplines of Psychology submitted time 2023-01-29
Abstract：
The rapid and global expansion of the Internet has significantly changed the way psychologists conduct research and revolutionized the field of psychology. Traditionally, researchers invite subjects to the lab and run experiment on specialized equipment. Now researchers can test online subjects from anywhere and accumulate data through the internet any time. The outbreak of COVID-19 further manifests the advantages of web-based research over traditional lab-based approach and demonstrate great promises. In this article, we discussed the past, present and future of online research in psychology. We provided a comprehensive overview of the literature and explored on how to systematically promote and develop this field in China. We firstly introduced the definition and scope of online research, considering four broad domains of research (e.g., web-based survey/experiments, big data methods, real-time interactive games, and mobile experience sampling). The pros and cons of each research domain was outlined and summarized. Next, we reviewed the history of internet research by highlighting key milestones from computer sciences and psychological sciences in the past 50 years and envision the future from both sides. We summarized the methodological issues when conducting research via online and suggested best practical recommendations collected from the literature. Although online psychological research comes with technical challenges, the opportunities far outweigh the costs. Every subfield in psychology has now begun to leverage online approach and many traditional lab-based paradigms have been adapted to the online version, so it is becoming a fundamental part of psychological research. We provided abundant empirical evidence supporting its reliability and suggested that the online data quality can be as precise and robust as traditional lab experiments. In addition to its methodological advantages, we particularly elaborated the conceptual advantages of internet research. It has profound benefits on open science, citizen science, and big team science and can be used to address replication crisis, generalization crisis, ecological validity problem, and WEIRD problem. In the second part of this paper, we focused on the online research community in China and discussed its future development. We pointed out its undeveloped status in China by surveying the scarcity of online studies published, and online research tools and platforms developed by Chinese researchers. By analyzing different factors that could impede the spread and development of online research in China, we offered a couple of suggestions and solutions. We advocate that Chinese psychologist should warmly embrace online research by actively learning the latest literature and technology and seize the opportunities for better science, education, and clinical use. Benefits of doing so became increasing apparent, including the improved efficiency and accuracy of data collection, the ability to target massive and diverse Chinese participants (both healthy and clinical populations), implementation of both data-driven and hypothesis-driven research, the opportunity to address imbalanced teaching and research resource across universities and provinces, and ultimately increase the impact of psychological research on society and common people. To achieve this goal, we proposed a public digital infrastructure framework for online research in China. It will serve as a multifunctional ecosystem for participant recruitment (via shared pool crowdsourcing), online tool development (mobile app, smart wearable device), open science practices (data sharing, code and stimuli database), scientists forum (collaboration and Q&A), digital mental health services and popular science on psychology (videos, articles, wiki). The entire idea has now been implemented in NaoDao website (www.naodao.com), an online empirical research platform with a strong emphasis on sharing, transparency, and usability. Finally, we highlight novel methods, emerging trends and new research directions for future studies.
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