Psychology

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/handle/10012/9892

This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of Psychology.

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

Waterloo faculty, students, and staff can contact us or visit the UWSpace guide to learn more about depositing their research.

Browse

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Exploring the utility of state-level wise reasoning: New assessment and facilitation methods
(University of Waterloo, 2017-08-11) Brienza, Justin Peter; Bobocel, D. Ramona; Grossmann, Igor
Wisdom is considered the apex of human development, exemplified in various cultural traditions by optimal, balanced judgment and decision making that benefits others and the self. Contemporary psychological accounts suggest that practicing wisdom through reasoning (i.e., intellectual humility, recognition of uncertainty and change, consideration of the broader context at hand and perspectives of others, integration of these perspectives/compromise) can help people to adaptively navigate everyday social challenges, yet large-scale empirical investigation on this topic is lacking. In this dissertation, I introduce and validate a new method to assess situation-specific wise reasoning. To encourage future research on the topic, I establish an initial nomological network of individual differences around wise reasoning and show its relations to fundamental constructs, including increased cooperation and reduced bias. I also show that experimentally enhancing wise reasoning can result in more cooperative, balanced attitudes and emotions (e.g., reduced attitude polarization; greater tolerance for outgroups). The findings presented in this dissertation suggest that wise reasoning can help people to navigate everyday social challenges. Implications for theory, future research, and practical applications for wise reasoning are discussed.
Gender Stereotypes and the Relational Consequences of Interpersonal Justice Violations
(University of Waterloo, 2020-10-30) Mu, Frank; Bobocel, D. Ramona; Shen, Winny
A large body of organizational justice research has demonstrated that manager-subordinate relationships are damaged when managers violate justice rules. Yet, this relational damage may be unequal across managers. In the present research, we integrate research on organizational justice and gender stereotypes to examine how gender role prescriptions surrounding agency and communality may bias employee responses to interpersonal justice violations from female as compared to male managers. Across four studies using employee samples (total N = 1300), relational damage from interpersonal justice violations is exacerbated for female relative to male managers. Namely, employees were less trusting and committed to female managers who treat them disrespectfully during decision-making processes, but male managers did not suffer such relational damage (Studies 1 & 2). Moreover, moderated mediation analyses indicate that employees perceive interpersonal justice violations from female managers to be incongruent with low agency prescriptions for women, but not incongruent with high communality prescriptions (Studies 3 & 4). Taken together, our results reveal that female managers suffer more relational consequences for violating interpersonal justice rules than male managers because their behaviors are perceived as being excessively agentic. Our findings emphasize the importance of connecting organizational justice scholarship with the literature on gender stereotypes. More broadly, our research indicates that immaterial information about managers, such as their social category membership, can bias employee reactions to managers’ justice-related behaviors.
Goal-setting and unethical behavior: The journey toward the goal matters
(University of Waterloo, 2018-04-30) Nishioka, Midori; Beck, James; Bobocel, D. Ramona
Unethical behavior in the workplace causes harm to organizations and has a widespread impact on society. Recent studies show that difficult and specific goals can lead to unethical behavior. Specifically, studies show that individuals are more likely to lie about their performance when they receive a difficult and specific goal compared to when they receive an easy or vague goal. Moreover, they are more likely to do so when they miss the goal by a small margin compared to when they miss the goal by a large margin. However, decades of research has demonstrated that assigning a difficult and specific goal to employees leads to higher performance than assigning an easy or vague goal. This poses a dilemma regarding the use of difficult and specific goals: How can organizations improve employees’ performance without also increasing unethical behavior? Drawing on Control theory (Carver & Scheier, 1998) and Gestalt framework of dynamic experiences (Ariely & Carmon, 2003), we predicted that among individuals whose goal progress decelerates, missing the goal by a small margin (compared to a large margin) would have a weak effect on the extent to which they lie about their performance. On the other hand, we predicted that among individuals whose rate of goal progress is constant or accelerates over time, individuals who miss the goal by a small margin would be more likely to lie than individuals who miss the goal by a large margin. In two experimental studies, we found some support for our hypotheses.
The Role of Psychological Distance in Forgiveness
(University of Waterloo, 2016-01-20) Rizvi , Sana; Bobocel, D. Ramona
My aim in the present research was to expand the literature on how to promote forgiveness by considering the role of psychological distance. Participants responded to interpersonal conflict vignettes in six experiments. In Experiment 1, using a measurement-of-mediation design, I found that participants were more motivated to forgive when the transgression was temporally distant versus near to them. Furthermore, high-level construal mediated the positive effect of temporal distance on forgiveness. Experiment 2a demonstrated that physically distancing a transgression resulted in high-level construal, and Experiment 2b showed that individuals primed with a high-level construal versus a low-level construal were more motivated to forgive their transgressor. Together, Experiments 2a and 2b confirmed a causal chain between physical distance, construal level, and forgiveness. In Experiment 2c, I found that participants were more forgiving when the transgression was physically distant rather than near to them. In Experiment 2d, I replicated the direct effect of physical distance on forgiveness, and ruled out alternative explanations for the effect. In Experiment 3, using a measurement-of-mediation design, I found that reduced memory of event details, lower perceptions of event severity, and lower attributions of blame towards the offender mediated the effect of construal level on forgiveness. Taken together, my research demonstrates that increasing the psychological distance between the transgression and the victim promotes forgiveness due to high-level (versus low-level) construal. Furthermore, construal level has an effect on forgiveness by altering perceptions and judgments that people have about transgressions. My research has implications for literatures on construal level theory and forgiveness.
Why Did I Apologize? Apology Motives and Offender Perceptions in the Aftermath of Workplace Conflicts
(University of Waterloo, 2016-08-29) Mu, Xiao Qi; Bobocel, D. Ramona
Despite an abundance of research demonstrating the importance of apologies in restoring damaged relationships, relatively little is known about the offender perspective after apologizing. Recent research on apology suggests that for offenders, apologizing may be an aversive experience, and refusing to apologize can provide psychological benefits (i.e., power, control, self-worth). In contrast, the present research seeks to explore why individuals do apologize after harming co-workers. Using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, four apology motives were identified: (1) Self-Censure, (2) Relational Concerns, (3) Expedience, and (4) Fear of Sanctions. Then, we drew on Motivated Action Theory to examine the relationship between apology motives and offender perceptions in the reconciliation process. Results indicate that apology motives influenced offender perceptions of victim forgiveness and relational reconciliation. Those who apologized to preserve valued relationships, to correct the wrongdoing, and to resolve the conflict quickly perceived their apologies to be effective in eliciting forgiveness and reconciliation. Paradoxically, those who apologized to avoid further conflict perceived their apology to be ineffective in promoting forgiveness and reconciliation. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.

Browse

Browsing Psychology by Author "Bobocel, D. Ramona"