Hope grounded in belief: Influences of reward for application and social cynicism on dispositional hope

Social Axioms Mediate Gender Differences in Gender Ideologies Among Guatemalan University Students

Gender role ideologies are embedded in cultural values and assumptions about life. Women’s greater endorsement of egalitarian beliefs may stem from gender differences in world views as indexed by social axioms. The purpose of this study was to examine potential mediators of gender differences in gender ideologies among university students in Guatemala, a country where traditional views are prevalent. Participants, 2,134 university students from nine campuses in different regions of Guatemala (43% male, 85% emerging adults), completed a Social Axioms Scale, along with three culturally relevant measures of gender ideology: the Historic-Sociocultural Premises Scale (HSCP) and the Machismo Measure that taps both traditional machismo and caballerismo (gentlemanliness). Consistent with previous research in other countries, men held more traditional attitudes about gender and the family than did women on all measures. Gender differences on all scales were mediated by cynicism and religiosity. Fate control mediated the gender differences in traditional machismo and the HSCP. These findings suggest that Guatemalan women and men through socialization, cultural demands, and life experiences develop gender-specific ways of viewing the world, and their attitudes about gender roles are shaped by those worldviews. The achievement of gender equality, a U.N. sustainable development goal, may require attention to the underlying world views of women and men.

Is It Helpful to Believe That Efforts Will Lead to Positive Outcomes? Two Cross-Lagged Panel Investigations among Adolescents and Young Adults

Over the past few decades, the role of self-views in life satisfaction has been extensively investigated. Recently, growing attention has been directed to the question of whether an optimistic worldview, termed "reward for application", helps boost life satisfaction. Conceptually, the association between reward for application and life satisfaction can be paradoxical. Due to various methodological and theoretical shortfalls, previous investigations were unable to draw a robust conclusion on this association. To address these shortfalls, two cross-lagged panel studies were conducted with different time lags. Over and above the potential confounds of self-views (namely, self-esteem and self-rated personality traits), reward for application had a positive effect on lagged life satisfaction among both adolescents and young adults, while the reverse effect was not found. Moreover, we found support for the multiplicative effect between worldviews and self-views, in which the positive effect of reward for application on life satisfaction was attenuated by high self-esteem.

Testing the Associations among Social Axioms, School Belonging, and Flourishing in University Students: A Two-Year Longitudinal Study

BACKGROUND

This longitudinal study investigated the temporal stability of social axioms, which are generalised social beliefs, and tested their prospective effects on individuals' flourishing, among students, as well as the extent to which they can be potentially mediated by perceived sense of belonging at school.

METHODS

Participants were 195 Chinese university students, who voluntarily completed a questionnaire measuring social axioms (at baseline, 1-year follow-up, and 2-year follow-up studies), school belonging (at 1-year follow-up study), and flourishing (at baseline and 2-year follow-up studies).

RESULTS

Results showed supportive evidence for five types of social axioms being generally stable across these time intervals. After controlling for baseline flourishing, high baseline social cynicism significantly predicted a lower level of follow-up flourishing, whereas high baseline reward for application predicted a higher level of follow-up flourishing. Furthermore, higher levels of social cynicism predicted lower levels of school belonging, and the latter partially mediated the effect of social cynicism on follow-up flourishing.

CONCLUSIONS

All social axioms are relatively stable across time. Social cynicism, reward for applications, and school belonging are the most salient predictors for flourishing among Chinese university students.

Describing Spirituality at the End of Life

Spirituality is salient to persons nearing the end of life (EOL). Unfortunately, researchers have not been able to agree on a universal definition of spirituality reducing the effectiveness of spiritual research. To advance spiritual knowledge and build an evidence base, researchers must develop creative ways to describe spirituality as it cannot be explicitly defined. A literature review was conducted to determine the common attributes that comprise the essence of spirituality, thereby creating a common ground on which to base spiritual research. Forty original research articles (2002 to 2012) focusing on EOL and including spiritual definitions/descriptions were reviewed. Analysis identified five attributes that most commonly described the essence of spirituality, including meaning, beliefs, connecting, self-transcendence, and value.