Inter‐ and intrapersonal processes underlying authoritarianism: The role of social conformity and personal need for structure

Several personality constructs have been theorised to underlie right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA). In samples from New Zealand and Germany (Ns = 218, 259), we tested whether these constructs can account for specific variance in RWA. In both samples, social conformity and personal need for structure were independent predictors of RWA. In Sample 2, where also openness to experience was measured, social conformity and personal need for structure fully mediated the impact of the higher‐order factor of openness on RWA. Our results contribute to the integration of current approaches to the personality basis of authoritarianism and suggest that two distinct personality processes contribute to RWA: An interpersonal process related to social conformity and an intrapersonal process related to rigid cognitive style. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

IRTree models with ordinal and multidimensional decision nodes for response styles and trait-based rating responses

IRTree models decompose observed rating responses into sequences of theory-based decision nodes, and they provide a flexible framework for analysing trait-related judgements and response styles. However, most previous applications of IRTree models have been limited to binary decision nodes that reflect qualitatively distinct and unidimensional judgement processes. The present research extends the family of IRTree models for the analysis of response styles to ordinal judgement processes for polytomous decisions and to multidimensional parametrizations of decision nodes. The integration of ordinal judgement processes overcomes the limitation to binary nodes, and it allows researchers to test whether decisions reflect qualitatively distinct response processes or gradual steps on a joint latent continuum. The extension to multidimensional node models enables researchers to specify multiple judgement processes that simultaneously affect the decision between competing response options. Empirical applications highlight the roles of extreme and midpoint response style in rating judgements and show that judgement processes are moderated by different response formats. Model applications with multidimensional decision nodes reveal that decisions among rating categories are jointly informed by trait-related processes and response styles.

Ubiquitous Working: Do Work Versus Non-work Environments Affect Decision-Making and Concentration?

New communication technologies and mobile devices have enabled knowledge workers to work independently of location and in more than one fixed environment (ubiquitous working). Previous research shows that physical environments can influence cognition and work performance. We manipulated environment (i.e., a virtual office as a typical work environment compared to a virtual garden as a non-work environment) and time pressure (i.e., inducing time pressure vs. no time pressure) in order to investigate whether the environment influences decision-making and concentration. N = 109 students participated in this laboratory experiment. We posited (a) that a work environment would activate a work-related schema which in turn would enhance concentration performance and make decisions more risky compared to non-work environments and (b) that the environmental effect is more pronounced if time pressure is present compared to conditions where no time pressure is present. We found modest hypothesis-confirming main effects of environment on decision-making and concentration but no interaction effect with time pressure. As we used an innovative methodology that entails several limitations, future research is needed to give insights into the process and to investigate whether results hold true for all types of work settings, work demands, or work activities.

Positive fEMG Patterns with Ambiguity in Paintings

Whereas ambiguity in everyday life is often negatively evaluated, it is considered key in art appreciation. In a facial EMG study, we tested whether the positive role of visual ambiguity in paintings is reflected in a continuous affective evaluation on a subtle level. We presented ambiguous (disfluent) and non-ambiguous (fluent) versions of Magritte paintings and found that M. Zygomaticus major activation was higher and M. corrugator supercilii activation was lower for ambiguous than for non-ambiguous versions. Our findings reflect a positive continuous affective evaluation to visual ambiguity in paintings over the 5 s presentation time. We claim that this finding is indirect evidence for the hypothesis that visual stimuli classified as art, evoke a safe state for indulging into experiencing ambiguity, challenging the notion that processing fluency is generally related to positive affect.

How the Influence of Unethical Leaders on Followers Is Affected by Their Implicit Followership Theories

Our research examines the role of followers in unethical leadership. Drawing on a social–cognitive approach to leadership and recent research in the field of behavioral ethics, we focus on how leader behavior and follower information processing interact to produce unethical outcomes. In two experimental studies simulating a personnel selection context, we examine to what extent individual implicit assumptions regarding the follower role (i.e., implicit followership theories, IFTs) relate to employees’ tendency to comply with leader unethical suggestions. In Study 1, controlling for possible alternative explanations such as personal need for structure, romance of leadership, and moral disengagement, we found that the IFT Good Citizen increased and the IFT Insubordination decreased followers’ tendencies to contribute to unethical leadership. In Study 2, we varied the leader’s unethical suggestions to further investigate the conditions under which these effects occur and included authoritarianism as an additional control variable. Overall, our findings suggest that IFTs make a unique contribution to our understanding of the role of followers in unethical leadership, and that this contribution depends on the way leaders frame their unethical request. Interaction effects suggest that follower characteristics need to be considered as they are embedded in specific situational settings rather than as isolated traits.

Response style analysis with threshold and multi-process IRT models: A review and tutorial

Two different item response theory model frameworks have been proposed for the assessment and control of response styles in rating data. According to one framework, response styles can be assessed by analysing threshold parameters in Rasch models for ordinal data and in mixture-distribution extensions of such models. A different framework is provided by multi-process item response tree models, which can be used to disentangle response processes that are related to the substantive traits and response tendencies elicited by the response scale. In this tutorial, the two approaches are reviewed, illustrated with an empirical data set of the two-dimensional 'Personal Need for Structure' construct, and compared in terms of multiple criteria. Mplus is used as a software framework for (mixed) polytomous Rasch models and item response tree models as well as for demonstrating how parsimonious model variants can be specified to test assumptions on the structure of response styles and attitude strength. Although both frameworks are shown to account for response styles, they differ on the quantitative criteria of model selection, practical aspects of model estimation, and conceptual issues of representing response styles as continuous and multidimensional sources of individual differences in psychological assessment.

University and School Students’ Motivation for Effortful Thinking

Need for cognition (NFC) reflects a relatively stable trait regarding the degree to which one enjoys and engages in cognitive endeavors. We examined whether the previously demonstrated one-dimensional structure of the German NFC Scale could be replicated in three samples of undergraduates and secondary school students. Moreover, we investigated the test-retest reliability of the German NFC Scale, which has not yet been tested. Further, we investigated whether the scale would be valid in a sample of secondary school students. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses established the one-dimensional factor structure of the long form as well as the short form of the German NFC Scale for undergraduates (N = 559), students of academic track secondary schools (German Gymnasium; N = 555), and students of vocational track secondary schools (German Realschule; N = 486). The scale proved to have a high test-retest reliability in a university student sample (N = 43). For secondary school students, we again found a high test-retest reliability (N = 157), and also found the scale to be valid (N = 181).

The Personal Structure of Personal Need for Structure

Abstract. This study investigated the responses of N = 1,789 participants to a set of 12 Likert-type items for the assessment of personal need for structure (PNS). Mixture-distribution Rasch models were used to analyze the homogeneity of the response format across items and the homogeneity of the item parameters and category parameters across persons. Model selection yielded a two-class rating scale model as the favorite model. This model contains the assumptions that the Likert response scale is used in a constant way for all items but that the item or category parameters differ between two latent subpopulations. The parameter estimates revealed large differences in the threshold parameters for the response categories between the two subpopulations. While the larger subpopulation showed a tendency to avoid extreme response categories, the smaller subpopulation used the whole range of the response scale. The different response styles identified by the mixture-distribution Rasch analysis were validated by significantly higher Extraversion scores for participants in the smaller subpopulation that showed more extreme and impulsive rating behavior. The results confirmed that PNS reflects quantitative interindividual differences, and they also showed that the total score of the 12 PNS items forms a combination of the latent PNS trait and response style.

Kurz und gut: Eine deutsche Kurzskala zur Erfassung des Bedürfnisses nach kognitiver Geschlossenheit

Zusammenfassung. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Studien war die Konstruktion und Validierung einer deutschen Kurzskala zur Erfassung des Bedürfnisses nach kognitiver Geschlossenheit (need for cognitive closure, NCC). In Studie 1 (N = 122) und Studie 2 (N = 228) erfolgte die Überprüfung der Reliabilität und Validität der aus 16 Items bestehenden Skala (16-NCCS). In einer weiteren Validierungsstudie (Studie 3) wurde der Einfluss des NCC auf den Ambiguitätsaversionseffekt im Ellsberg Paradox untersucht. 82 Probanden wählten zwischen einer Urne mit bekanntem Risiko (geringe Ambiguität) und einer Urne mit unbekanntem Risiko (hohe Ambiguität). Die logistische Regression zeigt, dass NCC-Werte den Ambiguitätsaversionseffekt moderieren.