Normative Beliefs (normative + belief)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Identifying and changing the normative beliefs about aggression which lead young Muslim adults to join extremist anti-Semitic groups in Pakistan

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 6 2009
Naumana Amjad
Abstract Two studies investigated the role of beliefs about the acceptability of aggression ("normative beliefs") against Jews in determining who would join an extremist group. In Study 1, students in a university in Pakistan (N=144) completed self-report attitude measures, and were subsequently approached by a confederate who asked whether they wanted to join an extremist anti-Semitic organization. Normative beliefs about aggression against Jews were very strong predictors of whether participants agreed to join. In Study 2, participants (N=92) were experimentally assigned to either a brief educational intervention, designed to improve inter-group relations, or to a control group. They also filled in self-report attitude measures pre and post intervention. Participants in the intervention group were much less likely to agree to join the extremist group, and this effect of the intervention on joining was mediated by changes in normative beliefs about aggression against Jews. The results have implications for theories of inter-group aggression and interventions to prevent people from being recruited into extremist groups. Aggr. Behav. 35:514,519, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Perceived peer smoking prevalence and its association with smoking behaviours and intentions in Hong Kong Chinese adolescents

ADDICTION, Issue 9 2004
Man Kin Lai
ABSTRACT Background Among the many personal, social and environmental risk factors of adolescence smoking, normative beliefs stand out for their potential to be modified with factual information on smoking prevalence. Aims To study the perceived peer smoking prevalence and its association with smoking behaviours in Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. Design and setting Cross-sectional territorial-wide school-based survey conducted in 64 randomly selected secondary schools in Hong Kong. Participants A total of 13 280 forms 1,3 students (equivalent to grades 7,9 in the United States) aged 12,16 years. Measurements Perceived peer smoking prevalence, smoking status, intention to smoke in future, other smoking-related factors and demographic information. Findings Overestimation of peer smoking prevalence was observed regardless of gender and smoking status, and was more common in girls (69.4%) than boys (61.0%), and in experimental (74.3%) and current smokers (85.4%) than in never smokers (60.7%). Boys who overestimated and grossly overestimated (over two times) peer smoking were more likely to be current smokers, with adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of 1.95 (1.24,3.07) and 3.52 (2.37,5.24) (P for trend <0.001). Similarly, boys who grossly overestimated peer smoking were 76% (95% CI: 41,120%) more likely to have ever smoked. Conclusion Overestimation of peer smoking prevalence was common in Hong Kong Chinese boys and girls, and was associated with current and ever smoking in boys. These findings have important implications on normative education in adolescence smoking prevention programmes. [source]


Perceptions of Body Malleability: Linkages With Body-Related Feelings and Behaviors Among Undergraduate Women and Men

FAMILY & CONSUMER SCIENCES RESEARCH JOURNAL, Issue 1 2005
Jennifer Paff Ogle
This study explored the utility of body-related behaviors, body attitudes, normative beliefs, and body mass index (BMI) in predicting perceptions of malleability and the utility of body attitude, subjective norms, perceptions of malleability, and BMI in predicting desires to change the body and attempts to change the body. Aquestionnaire was administered to undergraduates. Regression analyses suggested that female and male perceptions of malleability were predicted by attempts to change the body. Among females, body attitudes and normative beliefs about siblings and friends predicted perceptions of malleability. For both females andmales, adding perceptions of malleability to a regression model including body attitude and subjective norm increased the variance explained in desire and attempts to change the body. BMI did not predict perceptions of malleability, desire to change the body, or attempts to change the body. [source]


Exercise and Diet Beliefs of Overweight Women Participating in an Exercise and Diet Program: An Elicitation Study Using the Theory of Planned Behavior,

JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOBEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, Issue 3 2004
Rebecca Ellis Gardner
The purpose of this study was to examine the exercise and diet beliefs of overweight women using the theory of planned behavior. Participants were 104 overweight community women and university students who completed a 4-week exercise and diet program. The most salient exercise beliefs for the participants were (a) increased motivation, structure and accountability, and social support (behavioral beliefs); (b) job or school responsibilities and traveling (control beliefs); and (c) group members and the program trainer (normative beliefs). The most salient diet beliefs were (a) improved eating habits and convenience (behavioral beliefs), (b) lack of control over food preparation and inconvenience (control beliefs), and (c) family and spouse or significant other (normative beliefs). These results are discussed in comparison to beliefs held by different populations and in regard to implications for intervention design. [source]


Identifying and changing the normative beliefs about aggression which lead young Muslim adults to join extremist anti-Semitic groups in Pakistan

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 6 2009
Naumana Amjad
Abstract Two studies investigated the role of beliefs about the acceptability of aggression ("normative beliefs") against Jews in determining who would join an extremist group. In Study 1, students in a university in Pakistan (N=144) completed self-report attitude measures, and were subsequently approached by a confederate who asked whether they wanted to join an extremist anti-Semitic organization. Normative beliefs about aggression against Jews were very strong predictors of whether participants agreed to join. In Study 2, participants (N=92) were experimentally assigned to either a brief educational intervention, designed to improve inter-group relations, or to a control group. They also filled in self-report attitude measures pre and post intervention. Participants in the intervention group were much less likely to agree to join the extremist group, and this effect of the intervention on joining was mediated by changes in normative beliefs about aggression against Jews. The results have implications for theories of inter-group aggression and interventions to prevent people from being recruited into extremist groups. Aggr. Behav. 35:514,519, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Exposure to violent video games and aggression in German adolescents: a longitudinal analysis

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 1 2009
Ingrid Möller
Abstract The relationship between exposure to violent electronic games and aggressive cognitions and behavior was examined in a longitudinal study. A total of 295 German adolescents completed the measures of violent video game usage, endorsement of aggressive norms, hostile attribution bias, and physical as well as indirect/relational aggression cross-sectionally, and a subsample of N=143 was measured again 30 months later. Cross-sectional results at T1 showed a direct relationship between violent game usage and aggressive norms, and an indirect link to hostile attribution bias through aggressive norms. In combination, exposure to game violence, normative beliefs, and hostile attribution bias predicted physical and indirect/relational aggression. Longitudinal analyses using path analysis showed that violence exposure at T1 predicted physical (but not indirect/relational) aggression 30 months later, whereas aggression at T1 was unrelated to later video game use. Exposure to violent games at T1 influenced physical (but not indirect/relational) aggression at T2 via an increase of aggressive norms and hostile attribution bias. The findings are discussed in relation to social-cognitive explanations of long-term effects of media violence on aggression. Aggr. Behav. 35:75,89, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Direct and indirect bully-victims: differential psychosocial risk factors associated with adolescents involved in bullying and victimization

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 6 2006
Zopito A. Marini
Abstract The present study examined psychosocial risk factors that differentiated direct and indirect bully-victims from bullies, victims and uninvolved adolescents. A total of 7,290 (3,756 girls) students (ages 13,18,yr) from a region of Southern Ontario, Canada, completed a number of self-report measures to determine the relation between direct and indirect bullying and victimization and several psychosocial risk factors, including normative beliefs about antisocial acts, angry-externalizing coping, social anxiety, depression, self-esteem, temperament, attachment, parental monitoring and peer relational problems. ANCOVA and logistic regression analyses indicated that indirect bully-victims and victims were similar in demonstrating greater internalizing problems and peer relational problems than indirect bullies and uninvolved participants. Furthermore, adolescents involved in indirect bullying (bullies, bully-victims) reported a higher level of normative beliefs legitimizing antisocial behaviour and less parental monitoring (males only) than indirect victims and uninvolved participants. Only normative beliefs legitimizing antisocial behaviour distinguished direct bully-victims and bullies from victims and uninvolved adolescents. Results illuminate the distinct characteristics of direct and indirect bully-victims; theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 32:551,569. 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Coverage of Adolescent Substance Use Prevention in State Frameworks for Health Education

JOURNAL OF SCHOOL HEALTH, Issue 9 2001
David Wyrick MPH
ABSTRACT: Ten secondary health education state curriculum frameworks were reviewed for their inclusion of 12 mediators commonly used to prevent adolescent substance use. Specific aims of the investigation were: a) to identify the extent to which the 12 mediators were found in each framework; and b) to identify those frameworks that included Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs (ATOD) sections and determine to what extent the 12 mediators were found in those sections. A panel of three researchers independently reviewed each framework. Beliefs about consequences, decision-making skills, and stress management skills were identified most often while commitment, lifestyle incongruence, and normative beliefs were identified least often. Among states that included ATOD sections, beliefs about consequences and resistance skills were the most commonly identified mediators. Commitment, goal setting, and normative beliefs were not identified in any ATOD sections. Research in prevention and implications for health education are discussed. [source]


Perceived versus reported social referent approval and romantic relationship commitment and persistence

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, Issue 3 2008
PAUL E. ETCHEVERRY
The current study examined social network influence processes on romantic relationship outcomes by obtaining the reported opinions of social referents as well as romantic relationship members' perceptions of social network members' opinions. Participants were 254 (151 women) college students from the United States involved in romantic relationships along with a male and female friend who all completed surveys regarding the participants' romantic relationship. This work demonstrated that perceived normative beliefs of social network members significantly mediated the effects of reported social network approval on relationship commitment. Participants' reports of relationship commitment were found to mediate the effect of subjective norms on relationship persistence. Along with network members' relationship approval, participants' satisfaction was found to predict participants' normative beliefs. [source]


Subjective norms and the prediction of romantic relationship state and fate

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, Issue 4 2004
Paul E. Etcheverry
This study examined whether subjective norms are associated with commitment to a romantic relationship and with remaining in that relationship over time. Subjective norms are defined in the context of relationships as the perceived normative beliefs of a social network member regarding a given relationship weighted by the motivation to comply with that network member. In a longitudinal study of college students involved in dating relationships, subjective norms were found to be a significant predictor of romantic relationship commitment level, alone and in multiple regression analyses including satisfaction level, quality of alternatives, and investment size. Longitudinal analyses indicated that commitment mediated the effect of subjective norms on remaining in the relationship approximately 8 months later. Finally, level of dependence on a romantic relationship moderated the predictive value of subjective norms, with lower relationship dependence yielding greatest predictive value for subjective norms. [source]


III,,HOW WE KNOW WHAT OUGHT TO BE

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ARISTOTELIAN SOCIETY (HARDBACK), Issue 1 2006
Ralph Wedgwood
ABSTRACT This paper outlines a new approach to the epistemology of normative beliefs, based on a version of the claim that ,the intentional is normative.' This approach incorporates an account of where our ,normative intuitions' come from, and of why it is essential to these intuitions that they have a certain weak connection to the truth. This account allows that these intuitions may be fallible, but it also seeks to explain why it is rational for us to rely on these intuitions in forming normative beliefs,although it is also rational for us to try to correct for these intuitions' fallibility by revising our normative beliefs in such a way as to approach what Rawls called ,reflective equilibrium'. [source]


Analytics and Beliefs: Competing Explanations for Defining Problems and Choosing Allies and Opponents in Collaborative Environmental Management

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 5 2010
Christopher M. Weible
The rationale for collaborative environmental management often hinges on two factors: first, specialized training creates biased analytics that require multidisciplinary approaches to solve policy problems; second, normative beliefs among competing actors must be included in policy making to give the process legitimacy and to decide trans-scientific problems. These two factors are tested as drivers of conflict in an analysis of 76 watershed partnerships. The authors find that analytical bias is a secondary factor to normative beliefs; that depicting the primary driver of conflict in collaborative environmental management as between experts and nonexperts is inaccurate; that compared to the "life" and "physical" sciences, the social sciences and liberal arts have a stronger impact on beliefs and choice of allies and opponents; and that multiple measures are needed to capture the effect of analytical biases. The essay offers lessons for public administrators and highlights the limitations and generalizations of other governing approaches. [source]