New bionic technologies and robots are becoming increasingly common in workspaces and private sph... more New bionic technologies and robots are becoming increasingly common in workspaces and private spheres. It is thus crucial to understand concerns regarding their use in social and legal terms and the qualities they should possess to be accepted as ‘co-workers’. Previous research in these areas used the Stereotype Content Model to investigate, for example, attributions of Warmth and Competence towards people who use bionic prostheses, cyborgs, and robots. In the present study, we propose to differentiate the Warmth dimension into the dimensions of Sociability and Morality to gain deeper insight into how people with or without bionic prostheses are perceived. In addition, we extend our research to the perception of robots. Since legal aspects need to be considered if robots are expected to be ‘co-workers’, for the first time, we also evaluated current perceptions of robots in terms of legal aspects. We conducted two studies: In Study 1, participants rated visual stimuli of individuals ...
European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 2019
. Need for Cognition (NFC) signifies “the tendency for an individual to engage in and enjoy think... more . Need for Cognition (NFC) signifies “the tendency for an individual to engage in and enjoy thinking” ( Cacioppo & Petty, 1982, p. 116 ). Up to now, no scale of sufficient psychometric quality existed to assess NFC in children. Using data from three independent, diverse cross-sectional samples from Germany, Luxembourg, and Finland, we examined the psychometric properties of a new NFC scale intended to fill in this gap. In all samples, across grade levels ranging from 1 to 9, confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the hypothesized nested factor structure based on Mussel’s (2013) Intellect model, with one general factor Think influencing all items and two specific factors Seek and Conquer each influencing a subset of items. At least partial scalar measurement invariance with regard to grade level and sex could be demonstrated. The scale exhibited good psychometric properties and showed convergent and discriminant validity with an established NFC scale and other noncognitive traits such as academic self-concept and interests. It incrementally predicted mostly statistically significant but relatively small portions of academic achievement variance over and above academic self-concept and interest. Implications for research on the development of NFC and its role as an investment trait in intellectual development are discussed.
Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO)
This contribution of the journal Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO) presents a study on the... more This contribution of the journal Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO) presents a study on the social perception of Embodied Digital Technologies (EDTs) and provides initial insights into social perception processes concerning technicality and anthropomorphism of robots and users of prostheses. EDTs such as bionic technologies and robots are becoming increasingly common in workspaces and private lives, raising questions surrounding their perception and their acceptance. According to the Stereotype Content Model (SCM), social perception and stereotyping are based on two fundamental dimensions: Warmth (recently distinguished into Morality and Sociability) and Competence. We investigate how human actors, namely able-bodied individuals, users of low-tech prostheses and users of bionic prostheses, as well as artificial actors, such as industrial robots, social robots, and android robots, are perceived in terms of Competence, Sociability, and Morality. Results show that individuals wit...
Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO)
ZusammenfassungDieser Beitrag der Zeitschrift „Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO)“ beschäft... more ZusammenfassungDieser Beitrag der Zeitschrift „Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO)“ beschäftigt sich mit der Prüfung und Validierung der Selbsteinschätzungsform des Deutschen Inventars Authentischer Führung.Authentische Führung hat sich in den letzten Jahren als ein zentrales positives Führungskonzept herausgebildet. Allerdings liegt im deutschsprachigen Raum bisher nur ein Instrument zur Fremdeinschätzung vor: Das Deutsche Inventar authentischer Führung (DIAF-F). In diesem Beitrag wird ein Instrument zur Selbsteinschätzung authentischer Führung (DIAF-S) mit den Komponenten Selbstbewusstheit, Transparenz in Beziehungen, ausgewogene Informationsverarbeitung und verinnerlichte moralische Perspektive vorgestellt und erprobt. Zur ersten Validierung des neuen Verfahrens wurden Daten von N = 91 Führungskräften und N = 259 Mitarbeitenden erfasst. Für die Gesamtskala und drei der vier Komponenten ergaben sich interne Konsistenzen im befriedigenden bis guten Bereich. Das DIAF‑S wies bed...
Zusammenfassung. Die vorliegende Studie prüft, inwieweit Klauersche Trainings zur Förderung des (... more Zusammenfassung. Die vorliegende Studie prüft, inwieweit Klauersche Trainings zur Förderung des (induktiven) Denkens und ihre Wirkung auf kognitive Fähigkeiten mit Need for Cognition (NFC; die Motivation und Freude, kognitive Anstrengungen zu erbringen) zusammenhängen. Es wurde bei 145 (121 final) Vorschul- und Erstklassenkindern (Alter 6 bis 7 Jahre) für das Klauersche Denktraining Keiner ist so schlau wie ich (KISSWI) untersucht, welcher Zusammenhang zwischen NFC sowie dem nachfolgenden kognitiven Trainingseffekt besteht und inwieweit sich die NFC-Ausprägung während des Trainings ändert. Insgesamt fand sich ein Zusammenhang von r = .22 zwischen der Prätestausprägung von NFC und kognitiver Fähigkeitssteigerung während des Trainings sowie ein kleiner positiver Effekt des Denktrainings auf die NFC-Entwicklung von Prä- zu Posttest ( d = 0.21). Auf Intelligenz (CFT-1) zeigte das Denktraining einen kleinen Effekt (Prä- zu Posttest d = 0.39). Die Ergebnisse liefern erste Hinweise auf Wec...
Background: Depressive symptoms compromise cognitive and self-regulating capacities. Overcoming a... more Background: Depressive symptoms compromise cognitive and self-regulating capacities. Overcoming associated deficits (e.g., attentional bias) demands cognitive effort and motivation. Previous studies on healthy individuals have found cognitive motivation to positively relate to self-regulation and negatively to depressive symptoms. A test of these associations in a clinical sample is lacking.Methods: We assessed cognitive motivation, self-regulation and depressive symptoms by means of well-validated questionnaires in N = 1,060 psychosomatic rehabilitation in-patients before and after treatment. Data were split and analyzed in two steps: We tested previously reported cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of all variables as well as their longitudinal changes in a first sample. Afterward, findings and derived hypotheses were replicated and tested in a second sample.Results: Analyses of both samples confirmed earlier reports on positive associations between cognitive motivation ...
German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung, 2021
Authentic leadership is widely considered a positive form of moral leadership that emphasizes a l... more Authentic leadership is widely considered a positive form of moral leadership that emphasizes a leader’s self-awareness, self-concordance, and modeling of self-regulatory behaviors. It is expected that authentic leaders foster moral employee behavior. However, empirical evidence for this assumption with a clear focus on the moral domain is still rather scarce. Furthermore, little is known about mediating mechanisms, especially pertaining to self-regulation of followers. Our research focused on two important facets of moral employee behavior: voice and silence. We (a) examined relationships between authentic leadership, moral voice, and two major forms of moral silence (quiescent and acquiescent) and (b) tested follower constructive cognition and moral efficacy as self-regulatory mechanisms in a serial mediation model. We conducted a cross-sectional study with employees from different organizations ( n = 295). As expected, analyses indicated that authentic leadership is positively re...
Killing people is universally considered reprehensible and evokes in observers a need to punish p... more Killing people is universally considered reprehensible and evokes in observers a need to punish perpetrators. Here, we explored how observers' personality is associated with their cognitive, emotional, and punishing reactions towards perpetrators using data from 1,004 participants who responded to a set of fifteen third-party perspective moral dilemmas. Among those, four scenarios (architect, life boat, footbridge, smother for dollars) describing deliberate killings were compared to investigate the role of the content features "motive for killing" (selfish vs. utilitarian) and "evitability of victims' death". Participants' moral appropriateness ratings, emotions towards perpetrators, and assigned punishments revealed complex scenario-personality interactions. Trait psychopathy was associated with harsher punishments in all scenarios but also with less concern about killing in general, an increased moral appreciation of utilitarian motives for killing, and a reduced concern about the killing of avoidable victims. Need for cognition was associated with considering a utilitarian motive for killing as a mitigating factor, while intuitive/authority-obedient thinking was linked to a strong focus on avoidability of harm as an aggravating factor when assigning punishments. Otheroriented empathy, trait anxiety, and justice sensitivity did not account for differences in thirdparty punishments. Our explorative findings highlight the importance of inter-individual differences for moral decision making and sense of justice.
Safeguarding the rights of minorities is crucial for just societies. However, there are conceivab... more Safeguarding the rights of minorities is crucial for just societies. However, there are conceivable situations were minority rights might seriously impede the rights of the majority. Favoring the minority in such cases constitutes a violation of utilitarian principles. To investigate the emotional, cognitive, and punitive responses of observers of such utilitarian rule transgressions, we conducted an online study with 1004 participants. Two moral scenarios (vaccine policy and epidemic) were rephrased in the third-party perspective. In both scenarios the protagonist opted against the utilitarian option which resulted in more fatalities in total, but avoided harm to a minority. The scenarios varied in whether the minority would have been harmed accidentally or deliberate. The majority of participants chose not to punish the scenarios’ protagonists at all. However, 30.5% judged that protecting the minority over the interests of the majority when only accidental harm would have occurred...
Killing people is universally considered reprehensible and evokes in observers a need to punish p... more Killing people is universally considered reprehensible and evokes in observers a need to punish perpetrators. To investigate how observers’ personality influences their cognitive, emotional, and punishing reactions towards perpetrators, we analyzed data from 1,004 participants who responded to three scenarios describing deliberate killings from a third-party perspective. Utilitarian motive of killing and inevitability of harm varied systematically between scenarios. Participants’ moral appropriateness judgments, emotions towards perpetrators, and assigned punishments revealed complex scenario-personality interactions. Trait psychopathy led to more understanding emotions but harsher punishments in all scenarios. Regarding utilitarian killings, need for cognition led to milder punishments, whereas intuitive/authority-obedient thinking led to stronger negative emotions and harsher punishments. Other-oriented empathy, trait anxiety, and justice sensitivity did not account for difference...
. Need for Cognition (NFC) as the intrinsic motivation to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive... more . Need for Cognition (NFC) as the intrinsic motivation to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors has been a useful predictor of dispositional differences in information processing and task performance in experimental settings. In order to explore the role of NFC in everyday life behavior and to further validate the NFC-IAT, we examined the effects of directly and indirectly assessed NFC on self-reported behavior in a broad variety of situations in daily life where the engagement and joy of thinking could play a role. Accordingly, 95 participants were interviewed with a structured interview about everyday life situations, and direct and indirect measures of NFC were obtained. Both, directly and indirectly assessed NFC independently predicted NFC-related behavior, indicating that the combination of both measures results in a more comprehensive prediction of self-reported behavior. Our results show that NFC can be a helpful predictor of behavior not only concerning academic performance or in experimental paradigms, but also in everyday life.
Previous research has shown that Need for Cognition (NFC), the individual tendency to engage in a... more Previous research has shown that Need for Cognition (NFC), the individual tendency to engage in and enjoy cognitive endeavors, contributes to academic performance. Most studies on NFC and related constructs have thereby focused on grades to capture tertiary academic success. This study aimed at a more comprehensive approach on NFC's meaning to success in university. We examined not only performance but also rather affective indicators of success. The current sample consisted of 396 students of different subjects with a mean age of 24 years (139 male). All participants took part in an online survey that assessed NFC together with school performance and further personality variables via self-report. Success in university was comprehensively operationalized including performance, satisfaction with one's studies, and thoughts about quitting/changing one's major as indicators. The value of NFC in predicting tertiary academic success was examined with correlation analyses and path analysis. NFC significantly correlated with all success variables with the highest correlation for study satisfaction. Path analysis confirmed the importance of NFC for study satisfaction showing that NFC had a significant direct effect on study satisfaction and via this variable also a significant indirect effect on termination thoughts. This study clearly indicates that NFC broadly contributes to the mastery of academic requirements and that it is worthwhile to intensify research on NFC in the context of tertiary education.
The investment trait need for cognition (NFC) is conceptualized as the intrinsic motivation to en... more The investment trait need for cognition (NFC) is conceptualized as the intrinsic motivation to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors. Higher NFC levels have been shown to be related to a deeper elaboration of information, better performance on cognitive exercises, and more effective complex problem solving, moreover NFC has shown only a moderate relation to (fluid) aspects of intelligence. Surprisingly, NFC has rarely been investigated in school contexts even though all of the aspects listed above are highly relevant for learning and school performance. Here, we present empirical results from a comprehensive collaborative study of 4279 Finnish students (from the 3rd, 6th and 9th grade; 10 to 16 years of age) assessed with an NFC scale for children. We observed moderate positive correlations between NFC and behavioral correlates related to learning (ability self-concept, control motivation, learning orientation) for all three grade levels. Furthermore, the analyses revealed no relations between NFC and academic achievement or potential in Grade 3, but positive relations in Grades 6 and 9. The findings accentuate the importance of NFC in educational contexts and suggest a growing influence of NFC over the school-years.
Trotz vorhandener umfangreicher Erkenntnisse und Gestaltungsempfehlungen zum Eignungsinterview ze... more Trotz vorhandener umfangreicher Erkenntnisse und Gestaltungsempfehlungen zum Eignungsinterview zeigen sich nach wie vor gravierende Mängel beim Transfer in die Praxis. Der Interviewer selbst stellt dabei einen entscheidenden Einflussfaktor auf die Güte des Interviews dar. Gerade der Aspekt der Erfahrung, der weithin als förderlich für die Qualität betrachtet wird, hat sich häufig als problematisch erwiesen. Das Wissen über die Einflüsse auf Interviews oder eine einmalige Schulung reichen nicht aus, um die Qualität des Interviewervorgehens zu sichern. Es fehlt ein kontinuierliches Feedback für den Interviewer, welches sich im Arbeitsalltag mit vertretbarem Aufwand realisieren lässt. Hier setzt das Diagnoseinstrument zur Erfassung der Interviewerkompetenz in der Personalauswahl (DIPA) an. Es ermöglicht differenzierte und konkrete Rückmeldungen zum Interviewerverhalten bei Planung, Durchführung und Auswertung von Eignungsgesprächen. Für die Beurteilung des Interviewerverhaltens stehen ...
New bionic technologies and robots are becoming increasingly common in workspaces and private sph... more New bionic technologies and robots are becoming increasingly common in workspaces and private spheres. It is thus crucial to understand concerns regarding their use in social and legal terms and the qualities they should possess to be accepted as ‘co-workers’. Previous research in these areas used the Stereotype Content Model to investigate, for example, attributions of Warmth and Competence towards people who use bionic prostheses, cyborgs, and robots. In the present study, we propose to differentiate the Warmth dimension into the dimensions of Sociability and Morality to gain deeper insight into how people with or without bionic prostheses are perceived. In addition, we extend our research to the perception of robots. Since legal aspects need to be considered if robots are expected to be ‘co-workers’, for the first time, we also evaluated current perceptions of robots in terms of legal aspects. We conducted two studies: In Study 1, participants rated visual stimuli of individuals ...
European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 2019
. Need for Cognition (NFC) signifies “the tendency for an individual to engage in and enjoy think... more . Need for Cognition (NFC) signifies “the tendency for an individual to engage in and enjoy thinking” ( Cacioppo & Petty, 1982, p. 116 ). Up to now, no scale of sufficient psychometric quality existed to assess NFC in children. Using data from three independent, diverse cross-sectional samples from Germany, Luxembourg, and Finland, we examined the psychometric properties of a new NFC scale intended to fill in this gap. In all samples, across grade levels ranging from 1 to 9, confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the hypothesized nested factor structure based on Mussel’s (2013) Intellect model, with one general factor Think influencing all items and two specific factors Seek and Conquer each influencing a subset of items. At least partial scalar measurement invariance with regard to grade level and sex could be demonstrated. The scale exhibited good psychometric properties and showed convergent and discriminant validity with an established NFC scale and other noncognitive traits such as academic self-concept and interests. It incrementally predicted mostly statistically significant but relatively small portions of academic achievement variance over and above academic self-concept and interest. Implications for research on the development of NFC and its role as an investment trait in intellectual development are discussed.
Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO)
This contribution of the journal Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO) presents a study on the... more This contribution of the journal Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO) presents a study on the social perception of Embodied Digital Technologies (EDTs) and provides initial insights into social perception processes concerning technicality and anthropomorphism of robots and users of prostheses. EDTs such as bionic technologies and robots are becoming increasingly common in workspaces and private lives, raising questions surrounding their perception and their acceptance. According to the Stereotype Content Model (SCM), social perception and stereotyping are based on two fundamental dimensions: Warmth (recently distinguished into Morality and Sociability) and Competence. We investigate how human actors, namely able-bodied individuals, users of low-tech prostheses and users of bionic prostheses, as well as artificial actors, such as industrial robots, social robots, and android robots, are perceived in terms of Competence, Sociability, and Morality. Results show that individuals wit...
Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO)
ZusammenfassungDieser Beitrag der Zeitschrift „Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO)“ beschäft... more ZusammenfassungDieser Beitrag der Zeitschrift „Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO)“ beschäftigt sich mit der Prüfung und Validierung der Selbsteinschätzungsform des Deutschen Inventars Authentischer Führung.Authentische Führung hat sich in den letzten Jahren als ein zentrales positives Führungskonzept herausgebildet. Allerdings liegt im deutschsprachigen Raum bisher nur ein Instrument zur Fremdeinschätzung vor: Das Deutsche Inventar authentischer Führung (DIAF-F). In diesem Beitrag wird ein Instrument zur Selbsteinschätzung authentischer Führung (DIAF-S) mit den Komponenten Selbstbewusstheit, Transparenz in Beziehungen, ausgewogene Informationsverarbeitung und verinnerlichte moralische Perspektive vorgestellt und erprobt. Zur ersten Validierung des neuen Verfahrens wurden Daten von N = 91 Führungskräften und N = 259 Mitarbeitenden erfasst. Für die Gesamtskala und drei der vier Komponenten ergaben sich interne Konsistenzen im befriedigenden bis guten Bereich. Das DIAF‑S wies bed...
Zusammenfassung. Die vorliegende Studie prüft, inwieweit Klauersche Trainings zur Förderung des (... more Zusammenfassung. Die vorliegende Studie prüft, inwieweit Klauersche Trainings zur Förderung des (induktiven) Denkens und ihre Wirkung auf kognitive Fähigkeiten mit Need for Cognition (NFC; die Motivation und Freude, kognitive Anstrengungen zu erbringen) zusammenhängen. Es wurde bei 145 (121 final) Vorschul- und Erstklassenkindern (Alter 6 bis 7 Jahre) für das Klauersche Denktraining Keiner ist so schlau wie ich (KISSWI) untersucht, welcher Zusammenhang zwischen NFC sowie dem nachfolgenden kognitiven Trainingseffekt besteht und inwieweit sich die NFC-Ausprägung während des Trainings ändert. Insgesamt fand sich ein Zusammenhang von r = .22 zwischen der Prätestausprägung von NFC und kognitiver Fähigkeitssteigerung während des Trainings sowie ein kleiner positiver Effekt des Denktrainings auf die NFC-Entwicklung von Prä- zu Posttest ( d = 0.21). Auf Intelligenz (CFT-1) zeigte das Denktraining einen kleinen Effekt (Prä- zu Posttest d = 0.39). Die Ergebnisse liefern erste Hinweise auf Wec...
Background: Depressive symptoms compromise cognitive and self-regulating capacities. Overcoming a... more Background: Depressive symptoms compromise cognitive and self-regulating capacities. Overcoming associated deficits (e.g., attentional bias) demands cognitive effort and motivation. Previous studies on healthy individuals have found cognitive motivation to positively relate to self-regulation and negatively to depressive symptoms. A test of these associations in a clinical sample is lacking.Methods: We assessed cognitive motivation, self-regulation and depressive symptoms by means of well-validated questionnaires in N = 1,060 psychosomatic rehabilitation in-patients before and after treatment. Data were split and analyzed in two steps: We tested previously reported cross-sectional and longitudinal associations of all variables as well as their longitudinal changes in a first sample. Afterward, findings and derived hypotheses were replicated and tested in a second sample.Results: Analyses of both samples confirmed earlier reports on positive associations between cognitive motivation ...
German Journal of Human Resource Management: Zeitschrift für Personalforschung, 2021
Authentic leadership is widely considered a positive form of moral leadership that emphasizes a l... more Authentic leadership is widely considered a positive form of moral leadership that emphasizes a leader’s self-awareness, self-concordance, and modeling of self-regulatory behaviors. It is expected that authentic leaders foster moral employee behavior. However, empirical evidence for this assumption with a clear focus on the moral domain is still rather scarce. Furthermore, little is known about mediating mechanisms, especially pertaining to self-regulation of followers. Our research focused on two important facets of moral employee behavior: voice and silence. We (a) examined relationships between authentic leadership, moral voice, and two major forms of moral silence (quiescent and acquiescent) and (b) tested follower constructive cognition and moral efficacy as self-regulatory mechanisms in a serial mediation model. We conducted a cross-sectional study with employees from different organizations ( n = 295). As expected, analyses indicated that authentic leadership is positively re...
Killing people is universally considered reprehensible and evokes in observers a need to punish p... more Killing people is universally considered reprehensible and evokes in observers a need to punish perpetrators. Here, we explored how observers' personality is associated with their cognitive, emotional, and punishing reactions towards perpetrators using data from 1,004 participants who responded to a set of fifteen third-party perspective moral dilemmas. Among those, four scenarios (architect, life boat, footbridge, smother for dollars) describing deliberate killings were compared to investigate the role of the content features "motive for killing" (selfish vs. utilitarian) and "evitability of victims' death". Participants' moral appropriateness ratings, emotions towards perpetrators, and assigned punishments revealed complex scenario-personality interactions. Trait psychopathy was associated with harsher punishments in all scenarios but also with less concern about killing in general, an increased moral appreciation of utilitarian motives for killing, and a reduced concern about the killing of avoidable victims. Need for cognition was associated with considering a utilitarian motive for killing as a mitigating factor, while intuitive/authority-obedient thinking was linked to a strong focus on avoidability of harm as an aggravating factor when assigning punishments. Otheroriented empathy, trait anxiety, and justice sensitivity did not account for differences in thirdparty punishments. Our explorative findings highlight the importance of inter-individual differences for moral decision making and sense of justice.
Safeguarding the rights of minorities is crucial for just societies. However, there are conceivab... more Safeguarding the rights of minorities is crucial for just societies. However, there are conceivable situations were minority rights might seriously impede the rights of the majority. Favoring the minority in such cases constitutes a violation of utilitarian principles. To investigate the emotional, cognitive, and punitive responses of observers of such utilitarian rule transgressions, we conducted an online study with 1004 participants. Two moral scenarios (vaccine policy and epidemic) were rephrased in the third-party perspective. In both scenarios the protagonist opted against the utilitarian option which resulted in more fatalities in total, but avoided harm to a minority. The scenarios varied in whether the minority would have been harmed accidentally or deliberate. The majority of participants chose not to punish the scenarios’ protagonists at all. However, 30.5% judged that protecting the minority over the interests of the majority when only accidental harm would have occurred...
Killing people is universally considered reprehensible and evokes in observers a need to punish p... more Killing people is universally considered reprehensible and evokes in observers a need to punish perpetrators. To investigate how observers’ personality influences their cognitive, emotional, and punishing reactions towards perpetrators, we analyzed data from 1,004 participants who responded to three scenarios describing deliberate killings from a third-party perspective. Utilitarian motive of killing and inevitability of harm varied systematically between scenarios. Participants’ moral appropriateness judgments, emotions towards perpetrators, and assigned punishments revealed complex scenario-personality interactions. Trait psychopathy led to more understanding emotions but harsher punishments in all scenarios. Regarding utilitarian killings, need for cognition led to milder punishments, whereas intuitive/authority-obedient thinking led to stronger negative emotions and harsher punishments. Other-oriented empathy, trait anxiety, and justice sensitivity did not account for difference...
. Need for Cognition (NFC) as the intrinsic motivation to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive... more . Need for Cognition (NFC) as the intrinsic motivation to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors has been a useful predictor of dispositional differences in information processing and task performance in experimental settings. In order to explore the role of NFC in everyday life behavior and to further validate the NFC-IAT, we examined the effects of directly and indirectly assessed NFC on self-reported behavior in a broad variety of situations in daily life where the engagement and joy of thinking could play a role. Accordingly, 95 participants were interviewed with a structured interview about everyday life situations, and direct and indirect measures of NFC were obtained. Both, directly and indirectly assessed NFC independently predicted NFC-related behavior, indicating that the combination of both measures results in a more comprehensive prediction of self-reported behavior. Our results show that NFC can be a helpful predictor of behavior not only concerning academic performance or in experimental paradigms, but also in everyday life.
Previous research has shown that Need for Cognition (NFC), the individual tendency to engage in a... more Previous research has shown that Need for Cognition (NFC), the individual tendency to engage in and enjoy cognitive endeavors, contributes to academic performance. Most studies on NFC and related constructs have thereby focused on grades to capture tertiary academic success. This study aimed at a more comprehensive approach on NFC's meaning to success in university. We examined not only performance but also rather affective indicators of success. The current sample consisted of 396 students of different subjects with a mean age of 24 years (139 male). All participants took part in an online survey that assessed NFC together with school performance and further personality variables via self-report. Success in university was comprehensively operationalized including performance, satisfaction with one's studies, and thoughts about quitting/changing one's major as indicators. The value of NFC in predicting tertiary academic success was examined with correlation analyses and path analysis. NFC significantly correlated with all success variables with the highest correlation for study satisfaction. Path analysis confirmed the importance of NFC for study satisfaction showing that NFC had a significant direct effect on study satisfaction and via this variable also a significant indirect effect on termination thoughts. This study clearly indicates that NFC broadly contributes to the mastery of academic requirements and that it is worthwhile to intensify research on NFC in the context of tertiary education.
The investment trait need for cognition (NFC) is conceptualized as the intrinsic motivation to en... more The investment trait need for cognition (NFC) is conceptualized as the intrinsic motivation to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors. Higher NFC levels have been shown to be related to a deeper elaboration of information, better performance on cognitive exercises, and more effective complex problem solving, moreover NFC has shown only a moderate relation to (fluid) aspects of intelligence. Surprisingly, NFC has rarely been investigated in school contexts even though all of the aspects listed above are highly relevant for learning and school performance. Here, we present empirical results from a comprehensive collaborative study of 4279 Finnish students (from the 3rd, 6th and 9th grade; 10 to 16 years of age) assessed with an NFC scale for children. We observed moderate positive correlations between NFC and behavioral correlates related to learning (ability self-concept, control motivation, learning orientation) for all three grade levels. Furthermore, the analyses revealed no relations between NFC and academic achievement or potential in Grade 3, but positive relations in Grades 6 and 9. The findings accentuate the importance of NFC in educational contexts and suggest a growing influence of NFC over the school-years.
Trotz vorhandener umfangreicher Erkenntnisse und Gestaltungsempfehlungen zum Eignungsinterview ze... more Trotz vorhandener umfangreicher Erkenntnisse und Gestaltungsempfehlungen zum Eignungsinterview zeigen sich nach wie vor gravierende Mängel beim Transfer in die Praxis. Der Interviewer selbst stellt dabei einen entscheidenden Einflussfaktor auf die Güte des Interviews dar. Gerade der Aspekt der Erfahrung, der weithin als förderlich für die Qualität betrachtet wird, hat sich häufig als problematisch erwiesen. Das Wissen über die Einflüsse auf Interviews oder eine einmalige Schulung reichen nicht aus, um die Qualität des Interviewervorgehens zu sichern. Es fehlt ein kontinuierliches Feedback für den Interviewer, welches sich im Arbeitsalltag mit vertretbarem Aufwand realisieren lässt. Hier setzt das Diagnoseinstrument zur Erfassung der Interviewerkompetenz in der Personalauswahl (DIPA) an. Es ermöglicht differenzierte und konkrete Rückmeldungen zum Interviewerverhalten bei Planung, Durchführung und Auswertung von Eignungsgesprächen. Für die Beurteilung des Interviewerverhaltens stehen ...
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