Instrumental Beliefs (instrumental + belief)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Do personality characteristics and beliefs predict intra-group bullying between prisoners?

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 4 2010
Polly Turner
Abstract This study assesses how beliefs about aggression and personality can predict engagement in intra-group bullying among prisoners. A sample of 213 adult male prisoners completed the DIPC-SCALED (bullying behavior), the EXPAGG (beliefs toward aggression), and the IPIP (a five-factor measure of personality). It was predicted that bullies would hold greater instrumental beliefs supporting the use of aggression than the other categories, with perpetrators reporting lower scores on agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience, and higher scores on neuroticism (i.e. low scores on emotional stability) than the remaining sample. Bullies and bully-victims endorsed greater instrumental aggressive beliefs than the victim category. Only one perpetrator group, bullies were predicted by reduced levels of agreeableness and increased levels of neuroticism, whereas bully/victims were predicted by decreased levels of neuroticism. Limitations of this study and directions for future research are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 36:261,270, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Feedlot veterinarians' moral and instrumental beliefs regarding antimicrobial use in feedlot cattle

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
W. M. Alex McIntosh
Abstract This cross-sectional survey research study examined the role moral beliefs play in predicting behavioural beliefs and attitudes and the role that subjective norms play in predicting moral beliefs. Using a self-administered questionnaire, one hundred and three feedlot veterinarians completed measures of behavioural beliefs, referent others, perceived constraints and moral beliefs regarding recommendations to use antimicrobials in four situations (i.e. acutely sick cattle, chronically sick cattle, at-risk cattle and high-risk cattle). Regression analysis and F -tests indicate moral beliefs as contributing significant increases in R2 to models predicting behavioural beliefs regarding antimicrobial use in each situation. In addition, subjective norms contribute a significant increase in R2 in models predicting moral beliefs in each of the four situations. The results indicate the effects of moral beliefs on behavioural beliefs are somewhat contingent on the condition; that is the level of risk associated with treating cattle with antimicrobials, the level of risk of not doing so, and the effectiveness of the antimicrobial in situations such as acute illness or being at-risk of illness. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Sex differences in social representations of aggression: Men justify, women excuse?

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 2 2003
Sarah Astin
Abstract Women tend to hold an expressive social representation of aggression (as a loss of self-control) while men tend to hold an instrumental representation (as a means of imposing control over others). Because expressive beliefs correspond to excuses and instrumental beliefs to justifications, it may be a sex difference in moral acceptability of aggression that informs social representation. Participants completed the Expagg questionnaire with reference to an episode of same-sex or cross-sex physical aggression and rated the moral acceptability of their behaviour. Women scored higher on Expagg (specifically lower than men on the instrumental scale) but there was no effect of target sex or participant-by-target interaction. Contrary to expectation, women rated their own aggression as more acceptable than did men and hence this could not explain their lower levels of instrumentality relative to men. Aggr. Behav. 29:128,133, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Cultural and sex differences in aggression: A comparison between Japanese and Spanish students using two different inventories

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 4 2001
J. Martin Ramirez
Abstract Two self-report inventories developed to assess different dimensions of aggression, the Aggression Questionnaire and the EXPAGG, were administered to a sample (N = 400) of men and women undergraduates in two Japanese and Spanish universities. The factor structure of scales was assessed using exploratory factor analysis. Both questionnaires showed high correlations between their respective scales. In both cultures, males reported more physical aggression, verbal aggression, and hostility as well as higher instrumental beliefs, whereas females reported more expressive representation than males. Japanese students reported more physical aggression than their Spanish counterparts, who reported more verbal aggression, hostility, and anger and more expressive representation of aggression. Aggr. Behav. 27:313,322, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]