Search

Decisions about one's health are often accompanied by uncertain outcomes, which may be either positively or negatively valenced. The presence of this uncertainty, which can range along a continuum from risk to ambiguity (i.e., decisions in which the outcome probabilities are known or unknown), can be perceived as threatening, and individuals tend to be averse to uncertain outcomes, attempting to avoid uncertainty when possible. We proposed that one way to reduce uncertainty aversion could be to provide opportunities to affirm one's core values, or "self‐affirmation." Prior research has suggested that self‐affirmation promotes health behavior by providing a buffer against potential threats to the self. However, the degree to which self‐affirmation affects decision making is still unclear. Across two studies, we tested the effects of a self‐affirmation manipulation on risk (Study 1) and ambiguity (Study 2) preferences for both potential gains and losses. In both studies, we found that, compared to the non‐affirmed group, affirmed individuals were more accepting of uncertainty when the decision involved potential gains, but not for potential losses. Furthermore, for risky decisions, the increased acceptance of uncertainty came at the expense of making choices consistent with the expected value, such that self‐affirmed individuals made more disadvantageous choices than non‐affirmed individuals. Our results suggest both benefits and costs of self‐affirmation in the context of risky choice, an important finding has given the many applications of self‐affirmation in behavioral decision‐making contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dynamic and changing healthcare environment requires educators to prepare nurse practitioner students with more than knowledge and skills. Healthcare providers need to be prepared with enhanced skills related to critical thinking and decision making. Metacognition training has been used by many disciplines within and outside of healthcare to prepare individuals to work in an environment that has volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, and delayed feedback (VUCAD). This retrospective exploratory study uses computerized strategic management simulation (SMS) data to address the question: What parameters of metacognition do master's level nurse practitioner (NP) students excel versus underperform? Elements of Presentation: Presentation will include SMS parameters linked with the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) Core Competencies. In doing this, faculty can better assess students' individualized learning needs and tailor their academic education to address specific needs. Fifty‐nine master's level students completed SMS, measuring five unique parameters of metacognition (Crisis, Task, Strategy, People & Information Management). Students' mean and median scores were observed to be high range for crisis management; and moderate range for task management, strategy management, and people management. Conversely, mean and median scores were in the low range for information management. Knowledge gained from this study can be used for curriculum development and planning to ensure that the parameters of metacognition are demonstrated throughout the curriculum's content delivery, training exercises, and evaluation methods. Knowledge related to areas in which NP students score in the low range can be added to courses to assist students better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined whether people recognized that others might disagree with their high self-assessments of driving ability, and, if so, why. Participants in four experiments expressed a belief that others would assess them as worse drivers than they assessed themselves. This difference appears to be caused by participants' use of their own, idiosyncratic definition of driving ability. In Experiments 2 and 3, participants reported that others would supply similar assessments of their ability when the skill was less ambiguous. Results of Experiment 4 indicate that participants recognize that there may be more than one way to view driving performance. Participants appear aware that others likely disagree with their self-assessment of driving ability due to differences in how others define driving ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines the influence of ambiguity and conflict surrounding employees' job specifications on their dissatisfaction and withdrawal intentions in the workplace. A model is proposed, which introduces perceptions of organizational politics and procedural justice as key mediators in the relationship between role ambiguity and conflict, and the resulting supervisor satisfaction, pay satisfaction, and intention to quit. The model is tested using a sample of 782 full-time employees of a national retail organization. Results supported the mediating role of procedural justice and perception of politics in the relationship between role ambiguity and conflict and the three outcome measures. Implications of the findings and future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored relationships between perceptions of intra-team communication and role ambiguity within an interdependent team sport environment. Participants were 116 intercollegiate-level team sport athletes ( M age = 20.6 years). For males, the intra-team communication dimension of acceptance was found to predict the majority of role ambiguity dimensions for both performance contexts of offense and defense (.09 ≤ R2adj. ≤ .16). However, limited support for this relationship was found for females, as acceptance communication predicted only one role ambiguity dimension (evaluation of role performance on defense). These findings have implications for applied practice in terms of reducing group members’ perceptions of role ambiguity in interdependent team sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores support for hiring policies associated with affirmative action (AA) using a model including beliefs regarding the fairness of AA, merit, value of diversity, prevalence of discrimination, personal self-interest, and demographic characteristics. Participants ( n = 212) evaluated 8 hiring policies ranging from the use of strong preferential treatment to race-blind policies. Beliefs affected support for policies differently. For example, diversity valuation predicted support for policies involving preferences and recruitment, but predicted opposition to race-blind approaches, whereas support for the merit principle predicted opposition to preferences and support for race-blind approaches. Results suggest that established predictors of attitudes toward AA do not necessarily predict support for specific forms of AA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the effect of ambiguity intolerance on attitudes toward corporate diversity programs. It was found that, holding constant demographic backgrounds of age, gender, work experience, managerial position, and majority-minority status, ambiguity intolerance was negatively related to support for diversity programs. The study also replicated previous findings that women and racial minority members support diversity programs more than do men and racial majority members. This study demonstrates the importance of including personality variables in diversity research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subjects read a passage which described an interaction between a man and a woman at an office party. The woman was either sober or intoxicated, and eventually the man engaged in 1 of 3 behaviors which involved varying degrees of sexual innuendo and/or aggression: (a) verbal comment, (b) verbal request, and (c) nonverbal physical display. The results indicated that perceptions did not vary as a function of target person's intoxication in the nonverbal-display condition. On the other hand, in the verbal-comment and verbal-request conditions, subjects in the intoxicated-target-person condition perceived the initiator more favorably than subjects in the sober-target-person condition. In addition, they indicated that perceptions did not vary as a function of target-person intoxication level in the nonverbal-display condition. On the other hand, in the verbal-comment and verbal-request conditions, male subjects were more favorable toward the initiator than toward female subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This experiment examined the role that ambiguity and uncertainty play in the use of base rate and individuating information in probability judgments. Subjects responded to a number of inference problems that varied in terms of base rates and the accuracy of the source of the individuating information. The ambiguity in the decision situation was also manipulated by varying the human or technological nature of the source of the individuating information and the causal relevance of the base rate information. The results provide substantial support for the predictions derived from the ambiguity conceptualization. Several interactions were uncovered involving attributes of the base rate and individuating information suggesting complex judgmental processes similar to anchoring and adjustment. Discussion focused on the role that human versus technological sources of information may play in judgment and decision making, and the utility of the ambiguity notion for understanding the use of base rate and individuating information in probabilistic inference problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]