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In a survey of Canadian university students (N = 205), the relationship between majoring in an outdoor recreation university program and environmental concern, cooperation, and behavior were examined. Stepwise linear regression indicated that enrollment in outdoor recreation was predictive of environmental behavior and ecological cooperation; and these results held independently of age and gender. We then examined the possibility that environmental concern may mediate these relationships. Inclusion of ecocentrism as a mediating variable indicated that environmental concern partially accounted for the relation between outdoor recreation and self-reported environmental behavior, and fully mediated (reduced to nonsignificance) the relationship between outdoor recreation and ecological cooperation. Results are discussed in the context of education, and more specifically experiential outdoor education as promoting environmental behavior through greater concern for the ecosystem. (Contains 2 figures and 4 tables.)

Researchers have shown that bicultural individuals, including 2nd-generation immigrants, face a potential conflict between 2 cultural identities. The present authors extended this primarily qualitative research on the bicultural experience by adopting the social identity perspective (H. Tajfel & J. C. Turner, 1986). They developed and tested an empirically testable model of the role of cultural construals, in-group prototypicality, and identity in bicultural conflict in 2 studies with 2nd-generation Asian Canadians. In both studies, the authors expected and found that participants' construals of their 2 cultures as different predicted lower levels of simultaneous identification with both cultures. Furthermore, the authors found this relation was mediated by participants' feelings of prototypicality as members of both groups. Although the perception of cultural difference did not predict well-being as consistently and directly as the authors expected, levels of simultaneous identification did show these relations. The authors discuss results in the context of social identity theory (H. Tajfel & J. C. Turner) as a framework for understanding bicultural conflict. Keywords: acculturation, bicultural conflict, immigration, social identity, WITH APPROXIMATELY 200,000 IMMIGRANTS arriving yearly in Canada and another million receiving permanent residency in the United States, immigration is important to policy and society in both countries. Immigrants today [...]

Women face both traditional and nontraditional standards for gender-appropriate behavior, and society values neither set of standards wholly. In the present study, the author defined this paradox as the Conflicting Standards Dilemma (CSD). Female participants (N = 255) provided descriptions of the levels of femininity and masculinity expected of them by 3 specific others (mother, father, partner) and 3 generalized others (men, women, society), completed a mood questionnaire, and completed a scale assessing 4 proposed coping styles. The results supported the existence of a CSD and partially supported an hypothesized association with negative affect. The author also found support for a mediational model in which coping style mediated the emotional impact of conflicting standards. The results indicated that societal expectations of women are complex and contradictory, and that this situation has a negative impact on women who have not developed adaptive coping styles. Key words: conflict, gender, self, society, standards, INVESTIGATORS typically represent the self-concept as a collection of specific elements, rather than as a unidimensional entity (Baumeister, 1998). One of these many elements is social identity, which is one's [...]

Systems thinking is a cognitive style involving an implicit tendency to perceive the social‐ecological world as a multitude of interconnected complex adaptive systems. Previous research has shown that systems thinkers value and care for entities that transcend the self, such as other human beings and nature, signalling a more expansive self‐concept. Similarly, individuals high in empathy have an inclusive self‐concept, a stronger proenvironmental identity and value entities beyond themselves. The present study examined the hypothesis that systems thinking would share a positive relation with components of cognitive and affective empathy. Results from an online survey of 135 undergraduate students demonstrated that systems thinking shared significant positive correlations with perspective taking, empathic concern and fantasy. However, only perspective taking and empathic concern emerged as unique significant positive predictors of systems thinking. Results suggest that systems thinkers express an elevated capacity for the allocentric components of cognitive and affective empathy. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many of the greatest challenges in society have emerged as a result of humans acting within complex systems without fully understanding how they work. To address this problem, scholars from diverse fields have appealed to systems thinking. To date, a psychological perspective has been conspicuously absent from scholarship on this topic-a gap that the present paper seeks to fill by situating an individual difference measure of systems thinking in relation to well-studied constructs (e.g. holistic and relational thinking) and decision-making tasks in the psychological literature. Results indicate that the measure of systems thinking captures peoples' tendency to represent and reason about complex systems. The paper helps to validate a novel measure of an individual's tendency to engage in systems thinking and to provide a conceptual foundation for the thinking about the psychological underpinning of a systems thinking mindset. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the present research was to examine the relationship between the cognitive paradigm systems thinking and an ecologically informed worldview, specifically the New Ecological Paradigm. One hundred and fifteen psychology undergraduate students completed an online questionnaire assessing systems thinking, ecological worldview, environmental value-orientation, connectivity to nature, and environmental behaviors. Results demonstrated that systems thinkers possess a stronger ecological worldview and sense of connectivity with nature, harbour biospheric environmental values, and engage in more pro-environmental behaviors than those scoring low on systems thinking. Furthermore, it was found that systems thinking both uniquely predicted and was predicted by the New Ecological Paradigm. Moreover, results demonstrated that systems thinkers are better able to acknowledge 'system membership' and possess a greater understanding of the characteristics of complex ecological systems and their mutual influence on social-economic domains. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores addiction through the lens of complex adaptive systems theory, as an emergent, non-linear phenomenon that undergoes cyclical patterns of stability and change. Particularly, an addiction is a behavioural pattern that emerges through the dynamic interactions of numerous variables operating both within the individual and in the environment. Furthermore, we argue that an addiction moves through the four phases of the adaptive cycle and exists at a given scale nested within a panarchy of other complex systems. Each of these complex adaptive systems is moving through its own adaptive cycle at faster and slower rates, affecting the course of addiction in various ways. We conclude this work by suggesting that forthcoming addiction interventions and research may benefit from the consideration that addiction is a function of three separate, but related, adaptive cycles; the addiction cycle itself; a transitory cycle, and a final cycle in which the individual is actively responsible for the maintenance of his or her own recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a tension between enhancing vulnerable people's access to local nutritious food and ensuring viable incomes for local farmers. This tension arises as a result of interactions and processes scaling outward to the broad level of economic and political ideologies (Ikerd, 2005; 2012). We suggest that by conceiving of this tension as a wicked problem and employing complex adaptive systems theory, we create space in which community members are empowered to share existing knowledge and develop new knowledge as they innovate potential solutions and discuss constructive change. We introduce this space as the beginnings of a dialogue-driven, shared journey through four features of the back loop of the adaptive cycle. Drawing on this theoretical foundation as well as Block's (2009) structure for creating a community of belonging, we hosted two one-half-day-long events for 90 community members, including farmers, foodinsecure people, government representatives, and public agencies. This bottom-up, emergent approach to developing new system patterns may ultimately transform the domain of the problem and present viable alternative futures, which then may be adapted to the local reality and enhance community well being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the range and complexity of pressures on food systems across the globe, we suggest that future research on sustainable food systems can be clustered under three broad topics: the need for integration across multiple jurisdictions, and disciplines that includes different models of food systems and community visions of an integrated food system; the need for focus on tensions and compromises related to increased numbers and reach of sustainable food systems by scaling out and up; and the need for appropriate governance structures and institutions. Comparative research that works directly with communitybased organizations to co-create and apply shared research tools and then engage in common assessment projects offers ways to develop more connected scholarship. More extensive work using concept maps, participatory action research, lifecycle analysis, and urban/rural metabolic flows may help to develop, animate, and answer future research questions in more integrated ways, and will build on opportunities emerging from more inclusive, connected, and multidisciplinary approaches. Work in Ontario helps to illustrate research exploring the three themes through embedded connections to communities of food in the ongoing research project Nourishing Communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to further investigate the convergent validity of the recently-proposed metapersonal model and measure of self-construal, and to emphasize the discriminant validity of the metapersonal self-construal as a distinct construct, capturing a unique aspect of self-construal separate from either interdependent or independent aspects. The study looked at two questions: (1) Does the metapersonal self-construal predict higher emotional intelligence? (2) Do those who have higher metapersonal self-construal scores also report greater well-being? A group of 212 undergraduate students was assessed using a self-construal scale that includes the new measure of metapersonal self-construal, along with scales measuring emotional intelligence and well-being. The metapersonal self-construal predicted higher emotional intelligence scores and greater well-being than either the independent or interdependent self-construals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]