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Two experiments (ns = 98 and 193 college students) were conducted to examine how news stories highlighting either the positive or negative qualities displayed by in-group members during a natural disaster might affect people's group-serving attribution and prosocial intentions towards those affected by the disaster, and the roles of group identification and independent self-construal played. In both experiments, Chinese participants were asked to recall news featuring positive or negative qualities during the Sichuan earthquake in 2008. The results revealed that participants in the positive news condition reported more external attribution for the losses suffered in the Earthquake and higher prosociality toward the sufferers. Additionally, we found that (a) ingroup identification mediated the effects of news on both outcomes (Studies 1 & 2) and (b) the mediation only worked for those who had a lower level of independent self-construal (Study 2). The roles of identity processes involved in the consumption of news were discussed., Author(s): Jay Yijie Zhu [sup.1] , Chin-Ming Hui [sup.2] , Sylvia Xiaohua Chen [sup.1] , Yanjun Guan [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.16890.36, 0000 0004 1764 6123, Department of Applied Social [...]

In today's diverse and mobile world, it is common for people to engage in different roles, which make their self-concept more complex and layered, hence enriching their cognitive and behavioural repertoires. Given the importance of the self-concept, it is worthwhile to further understand the process and condition of the self on psychological functioning. The present research aims to investigate the effect of multiple identities on life satisfaction and identify the mechanism underlying this linkage and its boundary condition. We hypothesised a moderated mediation model with multiple identities predicting life satisfaction through identity integration, and the development of a cohesive self-concept depends largely on people's holistic thinking, a cognitive tendency to attend to the linkages among objects and orient towards the context or field as a whole, instead of focusing on the unique properties of discrete objects. Results converged from Study 1 (N = 383) and Study 2 (N = 210) to support the mediating effect of identity integration on the association between multiple identities and life satisfaction. Moreover, we found in Study 2 that the relation between multiple identities and life satisfaction was significant when holistic thinking was high or moderate, but not when holistic thinking was low. In sum, the present research provided empirical evidence that identity integration represents the key mechanism, whereas holistic thinking represents the key condition in determining how multiple identities can be associated with life satisfaction., Author(s): Hilary K. Y. Ng [sup.1] , Sylvia Xiaohua Chen [sup.2] , Jacky C. K. Ng [sup.3] , Ting Kin Ng [sup.4] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.10784.3a, 0000 0004 1937 0482, [...]

Advancements in vaccination technologies mitigate disease transmission risks but may inadvertently suppress the behavioral immune system, an evolved disease avoidance mechanism. Applying behavioral immune system theory and utilizing robust big data analytics, we examined associations between rising vaccination coverage and government policies, public mobility, and online information seeking regarding disease precautions. We tested whether cultural tightness–looseness moderates the relationship between mass immunization and disease prevention vigilance. Comprehensive time series analyses were conducted using American data (Study 1) and international data (Study 2), employing transfer function modeling, cross‐correlation function analysis, and meta‐regression analysis. Across both the US and global analyses, as vaccination rates rose over time, government COVID‐19 restrictions significantly relaxed, community mobility increased, and online searches for prevention information declined. The relationship between higher vaccination rates and lower disease prevention vigilance was stronger in culturally looser contexts. Results provide initial evidence that mass immunization may be associated with attenuated sensitivity and enhanced flexibility of disease avoidance psychology and actions. However, cultural tightness–looseness significantly moderates this relationship, with tighter cultures displaying sustained vigilance amidst immunization upticks. These findings offer valuable perspectives to inform nuanced policymaking and public health strategies that balance prudent precautions against undue alarm when expanding vaccine coverage worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global consciousness (GC), encompassing cosmopolitan orientation, global orientations (i.e. openness to multicultural experiences) and identification with all humanity, is a relatively stable individual difference that is strongly associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, less ingroup favouritism and prejudice, and greater pandemic prevention safety behaviours. Little is known about how it is socialized in everyday life. Using stratified samples from six societies, socializing institution factors correlating positively with GC were education, white collar work (and its higher income) and religiosity. However, GC also decreased with increasing age, contradicting a 'wisdom of elders' transmission of social learning, and not replicating typical findings that general prosociality increases with age. Longitudinal findings were that empathy-building, network-enhancing elements like getting married or welcoming a new infant, increased GC the most across a three-month interval. Instrumental gains like receiving a promotion (or getting a better job) also showed positive effects. Less intuitively, death of a close-other enhanced rather than reduced GC. Perhaps this was achieved through the ritualized management of meaning where a sense of the smallness of self is associated with growth of empathy for the human condition, as a more discontinuous or opportunistic form of culture-based learning. This article is part of the theme issue 'Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two studies were conducted to validate the Chinese version of the Career Decision-Making Profiles (CDMP) questionnaire, a multidimensional measure of the way individuals make career decisions. Results of Study 1 showed that after dropping 1 item from the original CDMP scale, the 11-factor structure was supported among Chinese college students (N = 334). Results of Study 2 (N =372) replicated this factor structure and revealed that the CDMP accounted for 25% and 32% of the variances in participants' career decision-making efficacy and career decision-making difficulties, respectively, across a time lag of 2 months. Among the CDMP dimensions, comprehensive information gathering, analytic information processing, greater speed of making the final decision, internal locus of control, and less dependence on others were the most significant predictors of positive career-related outcomes. These findings carry implications for career decision-making research and counseling practices in different cultural groups.

Past research has shown that worldviews can influence coping strategies but coping is often regarded as a stable person-based behavioral characteristic. The present research aims to examine how one component of worldviews – social complexity – influences the flexibility of coping strategies across situations. In two cross-sectional studies and one prospective study, we tested a mediation model in which the perceived complexity of the social world (i.e., social complexity) predicted coping flexibility through dialectical thinking. Across three studies, social complexity consistently facilitated dialectical thinking, which in turn fostered the cross-situational flexibility of coping strategies at a single time point and over 12 months. Believing in complex causes of phenomena and multiple solutions to problems facilitates a cognitive style of viewing issues from multiple perspectives and tolerating contradictions, which are conducive to the flexible evaluation and implementation of effective strategies to cope with problems. Theoretical and practical implications of the present research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study developed a measure to assess citizenship behavior in educational settings and examined its antecedents and consequences in the cultural context. The results of this study provided discriminant validity for the newly extracted two-factor structure, that is, self-regulation and other-orientation. The authors identified both factors' motivation and personality correlates and added self-construals to predict citizenship behavior. Self-regulated citizenship behavior was positively related to intrinsic motivation and conscientiousness but negatively related to amotivation, whereas other-oriented citizenship behavior was significantly related to interdependent self-construal. Their differential effects on predicting life satisfaction showed that citizenship behavior has its own specific characteristics in educational contexts compared with industrial and organizational settings. Our findings also demonstrated the importance of cultural self-views in understanding communal behavior. (Contains 4 tables.)

To explore the cultural mechanisms underlying the distress experience among Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese, Chinese Americans, and European Americans, this investigation examined the role of face concern in psychological distress through a series of studies in both college students and community samples. Face concern refers to one's concern over maintaining or enhancing one's social position and worth that are earned through the fulfillment of specific social roles. Study 1 confirmed the single-factor structure of face concern among Chinese Americans and European Americans. Face concern was significantly and positively related to distress above and beyond age, gender, and ethnicity. Study 2 deconstructed face concern into a two-factor model among Hong Kong Chinese and Mainland Chinese university students (self-face and other-face) with discriminant predictive power. In Study 3, the two-factor model of face concern was further supported in the community samples of Hong Kong Chinese and Mainland Chinese. Self-face was found to be positively associated with distress. These findings highlighted the importance of attending to specific cultural dynamic of face concern in counseling services. (Contains 5 tables and 3 notes.)

In the present study, the authors examined the contributions of cultural beliefs about the etiology of mental illness to the seeking of help from mental health professionals among college students in 4 cultural groups, European Americans, Chinese Americans, Hong Kong Chinese, and Mainland Chinese. Group differences were found in help-seeking history and likelihood, with European and Chinese Americans being more likely to seek help than Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese. Multiple-group path analysis showed that lay beliefs about causes of mental illness and prior help-seeking history significantly predicted help-seeking likelihood, which was related positively to environmental/hereditary causes but negatively to social-personal causes. Our findings demonstrate the importance of understanding help-seeking patterns within specific cultural contexts and the effects of Western influences on shaping help-seeking propensities. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)