Papers by Lars-Eric Petersen
Personal Relationships, 2024
Self-compassion means being supportive and kind to oneself when experiencing failure or inadequac... more Self-compassion means being supportive and kind to oneself when experiencing failure or inadequacies. It is associated with adaptive intrapersonal and relational outcomes for individuals. This evidence was extended by using an Actor-Partner Interdependence framework. Other-sex couples (N = 209) completed measures of self-compassion, relationship-specific self-compassion, and relationship satisfaction. Both self-compassion measures were related to global relationship satisfaction and facets thereof (e.g., sexuality, engagement, trust) for actors. Relationship-specific self-compassion was also positively related to the partner's relationship satisfaction (particularly for men). It is suggested that researchers (a) consider the interdependence of the partners when analyzing self-compassion in relationships and test for partner effects and (b) use finegrained and domain-specific measures to develop a more complete understanding of self-compassion's associations with criterion variables.
PLoS ONE, 2024
Power can increase overconfidence and illusory thinking. We investigated whether power is also re... more Power can increase overconfidence and illusory thinking. We investigated whether power is also related to the illusion of explanatory depth (IOED), people’s tendency to think they understand the world in more detail, coherence, and depth than they actually do. Abstract thinking was reported as a reason for the IOED, and according to the social distance theory of power, power increases abstract thinking. We linked these literatures and tested construal style as a mediator. Further, predispositions can moderate effects of power and we considered narcissism as a candidate because narcissism leads to overconfidence and may thus increase the IOED especially in combination with high power. In three preregistered studies (total N = 607), we manipulated power or measured feelings of power. We found evidence for the IOED (regarding explanatory knowledge about devices). Power led to general overconfidence but had only a small impact on the IOED. Power and narcissism had a small interactive effect on the IOED. Meta-analytical techniques suggest that previous findings on the construal-style-IOED link show only weak evidential value. Implications refer to research on management, power, and overconfidence.
ESC Heart Failure, 2022
Aims: Implantation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is an established treatment option ... more Aims: Implantation of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is an established treatment option for patients with advanced heart failure. However, apart from its challenging medical management, it comes with serious psychological implications. Empirical evidence suggests that self-compassion, a self-regulation strategy for countering negative self-directed emotions, might be a promising approach in facilitating psychological adjustment also in LVAD patients. The aims of the present study were to investigate self-compassion as a protective factor for anxiety and depressive symptoms, to test whether taking a decentred perspective mediates these effects, and to explore whether self-compassion predicts the clinically rated functional health status. Method and results: A sample of N = 45 patients (36 male) with a mean age of 60.5 years (SD = 10.8) from the outpatient department for terminal heart failure at the University Medical Center in Kiel, Germany, participated in the study. Patients completed self-report measures for psychological adjustment (HADS), self-compassion (SCS), and decentring (EQ). Functional health status was determined by the NYHA classification. The more patients were self-compassionate, the less they reported anxiety (r = -0.28) and depressive symptoms (r = -0.34). Decentring mediated both effects. Moreover, self-compassion predicted the functional health status, even when controlling for anxiety (odds ratio [OR] = 0.09) and depressive symptoms (OR = 0.11). Conclusions: This study provides the first evidence for a significant interrelation between self-compassion and common adverse psychological conditions in LVAD patients. Longitudinal data and the evaluation of interventions to strengthen self-compassion are needed to further validate the beneficial effects of self-compassion in LVAD patients in the future.
Current Psychology, 2021
The aim of the present studies was to investigate how high and low power posing influence self-es... more The aim of the present studies was to investigate how high and low power posing influence self-esteem. High power posing is understood as the nonverbal expression of power through open, expansive body postures, whereas low power posing is marked by contractive and closed body postures. We conducted three studies with different methodological designs to test the effects of power posing. In Study 1, we randomly assigned 120 students to one of two power posing groups or a control group. All participants completed the State Self-Esteem Scale before and after the intervention. In Study 2, we examined effects outside the laboratory in a natural environment. We asked 49 participants to engage in high power posing in their homes. In Study 3, a total of 98 participants took part in an independent-groups posttest design (low power posing vs. high power posing). We also controlled for participants’ awareness of the research hypotheses. Consistent with our hypotheses, high power posing significantly affected self-esteem in all three studies. Contrary to our expectations, low power posing had no effect on self-esteem in Study 1. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.
Journal of Individual Differences, 2021
Self-compassion promotes the idea of accord oneself the necessary warmth and understanding when e... more Self-compassion promotes the idea of accord oneself the necessary warmth and understanding when encountering uncontrollable life events, inadequacies, or failure. When in conflict with a romantic partner, we expected self-compassion to be associated positively with functional (positive problem solving) and negatively with dysfunctional styles (conflict engagement, withdrawal, compliance). Adult individuals (n = 163) involved in a serious romantic relationship for at least two years responded to a questionnaire that assessed self-compassion, personality factors, conflict resolution styles, and relationship satisfaction. High self-compassionate partners reported more functional and less dysfunctional styles when statistically controlling for demographics, neuroticism, and agreeableness. Conflict resolution styles fully mediated the significant path between self-compassion and relationship satisfaction.
Current Psychology, 2020
Self-compassion promotes well-being and positive outcomes when encountering negative life events.... more Self-compassion promotes well-being and positive outcomes when encountering negative life events. The current study investigates the relation between self-compassion and romantic jealousy in adults’ romantic relationships, and the possible mediation effects of anger rumination and willingness to forgive on this relation. Romantic jealousy was conceptualized as reactive, which is a more emotional type, and as anxious, which is a more cognitive type. We hypothesized a negative association between self-compassion and romantic jealousy. In the present study 185 German adults (64 men, 121 women) participated, aged between 18 and 56 years (M = 32.28, SD = 12.14) who were in a romantic relationship. The participants completed the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS, Neff in Self and Identity, 2, 223–250, 2003a), a reactive and anxious jealousy scale (Buunk in Personality and Individual Differences, 23(6), 997–1006, 1997), a willingness to forgive scale (TRIM, McCullough et al. 2000) and the Anger Rumination Scale (ARS, Sukhodolsky et al. in Personality and Individual Differences, 31, 689–700, 2001). Supporting our hypotheses, hierarchical regression analyses showed that self-compassion predicts reactive and anxious jealousy when controlling for age and gender, suggesting that high self-compassionate people are less prone to experience romantic jealousy. Multiple parallel mediation analyses revealed that the effects on reactive jealousy were partially mediated by willingness to forgive, while no significant mediation was found for the effects on anxious jealousy. Additionally, we report the results of exploratory analyses testing the associations of the self-compassion subscales with romantic jealousy. We discuss theoretical conclusions for jealousy and self-compassion research and practical implications for couple’s therapy.
Buchkapitel, 2020
In diesem Beitrag wird die Bedeutung des Persönlichkeitsmerkmales Autoritarismus für diskriminier... more In diesem Beitrag wird die Bedeutung des Persönlichkeitsmerkmales Autoritarismus für diskriminierendes Verhalten erörtert. Dabei werden zunächst vier theoretische Ansätze zur autoritären Persönlichkeit vorgestellt. In der Theoriebildung unterscheiden sich die vier Theorien in ihrer Anbindung an verschiedene Erklärungsansätze, die von der Psychoanalyse (Adorno et al., 1950), dem kognitiven Ansatz (Rokeach, 1960) über die Lerntheorie (Altemeyer, 1981, 1988) bis zur Kontrolltheorie (Oesterreich, 1996) reichen. Allen gemeinsam ist jedoch, dass sich aus ihnen für Personen mit einer hohen Autoritarismusausprägung eine Neigung zu vorurteilsbehaftetem und diskriminierendem Verhalten ableiten lässt. Anschließend wird ein Überblick über die Ergebnisse von Studien gegeben, die den postulierten Zusammenhang empirisch überprüft haben.
Buchkapitel, 2020
Die Theorie der sozialen Identität wurde von Tajfel (1978) und Tajfel und Turner (1979; 1986) als... more Die Theorie der sozialen Identität wurde von Tajfel (1978) und Tajfel und Turner (1979; 1986) als theoretisches Rahmenkonzept zur Analyse von Intergruppenprozessen konzipiert. Diese Theorie, zunächst CIC (categorisation, identity, comparison) benannt, dann in Theorie der sozialen Identität umbenannt (SIT, social identity theory) und ist mehrere Male modifiziert worden (Kite & Whitley, 2016). Anfänglich war die Entwicklung der Theorie eng mit den in den Experimenten mit dem Paradigma der minimalen Gruppen erzielten Ergebnissen verbunden. In diesen Experimenten konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Kategorisierung in Eigen- und Fremdgruppe der Ausgangspunkt für die Entwicklung einer sozialen Identität ist und dass der Wunsch nach einer positiven sozialen Identität zur Bevorzugung von Eigengruppenmitgliedern und zur Abwertung von Fremdgruppenmitgliedern führen kann. Mittlerweile geht die Aussagekraft und Bedeutung weit über die Erklärung der mit dem Paradigma der minimalen Gruppen erzielten Ergebnisse hinaus. Die Kernstruktur und die Hauptannahmen der Theorie sind allerdings über die Zeit gleich geblieben, und diese sollen nachfolgend kurz zusammenfassend angeführt werden. Die Darstellung wird dabei durch vier verschie-dene Konzepte, die die Theorie der sozialen Identität in ihrem Kern ausmachen, strukturiert: das Konzept der sozialen Kategorisierung, das Konzept der sozialen Identität, das Konzept des sozialen Vergleichs und das Konzept der sozialen Distinktheit.
Buchkapitel, 2020
Die fortschreitende Globalisierung des Handels, demografische Trends in der Be-völkerung sowie Ge... more Die fortschreitende Globalisierung des Handels, demografische Trends in der Be-völkerung sowie Gesetze und öffentlicher Druck führen dazu, dass Unternehmen immer häufiger eine heterogene Mitarbeiterstruktur aufweisen (Aretz, 2006). Zu-nehmend befinden sich so heute mehr Menschen verschiedener Herkunft, Kultur, Rasse, Weltanschauung, mit unterschiedlichem Alter und Geschlecht in demselben Betrieb, in derselben Abteilung oder in demselben Arbeitsteam. Diversity Manage-ment zielt auf die systematische Nutzung der Unterschiedlichkeit von Individuen zur Realisierung der vielfältigen Unternehmensziele, wie z.B. der Verbesserung der Marktposition, der Bindung von Kunden und Mitarbeitern an das Unternehmen oder der Schaffung einer Unternehmenskultur, die Lernen und Innovationen fördert (Dietz, Kleinlogel & Chui, 2012). Um die Zielsetzung der fairen Behandlung aller Mitarbeiter zu betonen, wird neuerdings statt „Diversity Management“ auch häufig der Begriff „Inklusives Management“ verwendet (O’Donovan, 2017). Diversity Management ist notwendig, da ein diversifiziertes Personal neue Her-ausforderungen in Bezug auf Kooperation und Arbeitsfrieden mit sich bringt. Zwei fundamentale psychologische Phänomene, die verhindern, dass Menschen unter-schiedlicher Gruppenzugehörigkeit reibungslos miteinander interagieren, sind dabei Stereotype und Vorurteile, auf die wir uns in diesem Beitrag konzentrieren. Nach-folgend soll zunächst kurz beschrieben werden, welche Stereotype und Vorurteile in Bezug auf verschiedene in der Arbeitswelt vertretene Gruppen bestehen. An-schließend wird dargestellt, welche negativen Effekte in der Arbeitswelt auf Stereo-type und Vorurteile zurückgehen. Schließlich werden Vorschläge für ein Diversity Management als Management von Stereotypen und Vorurteilen unterbreitet.
Buchkapitel, 2020
Das Paradigma der minimalen Gruppen war seit der Entwicklung der Theorie der sozialen Identität d... more Das Paradigma der minimalen Gruppen war seit der Entwicklung der Theorie der sozialen Identität das dominierende Forschungsparadigma in der Forschung zum Phänomen „soziale Diskriminierung“. Zunächst werden die Grundidee des Forschungsparadigmas und die klassische erste Untersuchung von Tajfel et al. (1971) beschrieben. Es folgen ein Überblick über Ergebnisse von Nachfolgestudien und eine Darstellung verschiedener auf das Paradigma bezogener Kritikpunkte. Schließlich werden das konkrete experimentelle Vorgehen bei Untersuchungen mit dem Paradigma der minimalen Gruppen und traditionelle und neuere Auswertungsverfahren der erhobenen Daten vorgestellt.
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Buchkapitel, 2020
Eine substanzielle Theorie über den Zusammenhang von Vorurteilen und sozialer Diskriminierung ist... more Eine substanzielle Theorie über den Zusammenhang von Vorurteilen und sozialer Diskriminierung ist bislang noch nicht formuliert worden. Allerdings ist sehr vielen Arbeiten zur Diskriminierungsproblematik die Annahme inhärent, dass es eine enge Ursache-Wirkungs-Relation zwischen Vorurteilen und diskriminierendem Verhalten gibt. Dieser enge Zusammenhang konnte jedoch zunächst in einer Vielzahl von Un-tersuchungen, die sich mit der Relation von Vorurteilen und diskriminierendem Verhalten beschäftigt haben, nicht festgestellt werden. Jüngere Studien liefern je-doch empirische Evidenz für den Zusammenhang von Vorurteilen mit diskriminierendem Verhalten und geben auch Hinweise, durch welche Variablen dieser Zusammenhang vermittelt wird. In diesem Kapitel wird ein historischer Überblick über Studien zur Ursache-Wirkungs-Relation zwischen Vorurteilen und diskriminierendem Verhalten gegeben.
Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 2017
Our research examines the role of followers in unethical leadership. Drawing on a social-cognitiv... more Our research examines the role of followers in unethical leadership. Drawing on a social-cognitive approach to leadership and recent research in the field of behavioral ethics, we focus on how leader behavior and follower information processing interact to produce unethical outcomes. In two experimental studies simulating a personnel-selection context, we examine to what extent individual implicit assumptions regarding the follower role (i.e., implicit followership theories, IFTs) relate to employees’ tendency to comply with leader unethical suggestions. In Study 1, controlling for possible alternative explanations such as personal need for structure, romance of leadership, and moral disengagement, we found that the IFT Good Citizen increased and the IFT Insubordination decreased followers' tendencies to contribute to unethical leadership. In Study 2, we varied the leader’s unethical suggestions to further investigate the conditions under which these effects occur and included authoritarianism as an additional control variable. Overall, our findings suggest that IFTs make a unique contribution to our understanding of the role of followers in unethical leadership, and that this contribution depends on the way leaders frame their unethical request. Interaction effects suggest that follower characteristics need to be considered as they are embedded in specific situational settings rather than as isolated traits.
Journal of Business Ethics, 2009
This study examined the influence of two organizational context variables, codes of conduct and s... more This study examined the influence of two organizational context variables, codes of conduct and supervisor advice, on personnel decisions in an experimental simulation. Specifically, we studied personnel evaluations and decisions in a situation where codes of conduct conflict with supervisor advice. Past studies showed that supervisors’ advice to prefer ingroup over outgroup candidates leads to discriminatory personnel selection decisions. We extended this line of research by studying how codes of conduct and code enforcement may reduce this form of discrimination. Eighty German managers evaluated and selected candidates from an applicant pool including Germans (ingroup members) and foreigners (outgroup members). Supervisor advice to prefer ingroup members lowered suitability ratings of outgroup members as well as their chances to be selected for an interview. Ethical codes of conduct referring to equal opportunities limited this form of discrimination, but only when codes were enforced by sanctions and integrated into organizational every-day practice. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2000
Social discrimination in a personnel-selection context was studied using an in-basket exercise. W... more Social discrimination in a personnel-selection context was studied using an in-basket exercise. West German participants had to select personnel from an applicant pool that included West German applicants (in-group members) and East German applicants (out-group members). As predicted, we found a main effect for an authority's instruction to discriminate against out-group members. This main effect was, as predicted, qualified by an Instruction Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) interaction effect. Only high scorers on RWA discriminated against out-group members when instructed to do so.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2015
Psychology, 2012
This study assesses the ethnic identity and ethnicity-related stress for adolescent immigrants ac... more This study assesses the ethnic identity and ethnicity-related stress for adolescent immigrants accompanied by their families, for unaccompanied adolescent immigrants and for native (German) adolescents. Seventy adolescents completed the Ethnic Group Membership Questionnaire and the Perceived Ethnic Discrimi-nation Questionnaire. Results show that unaccompanied adolescent immigrants (n = 20) report more negative private feelings about their own ethnic identity, lower beliefs about the public's regard for their ethnic group and more ethnicity-related stress in the dimensions "perceived ethnic discrimination", "stereotype confirmation concern" and "own-group conformity pressure" than accompanied adolescent immigrants (n = 25) and German adolescents (n = 25). Accompanied adolescent immigrants revealed higher scores than German adolescents only in the dimension "perceived ethnic discrimination". Results support the hypothesis derived from the theory of social capital that for the accompanied adolescent immigrants, the family works as social capital, reduces ethnicity-related stress, and promotes the development of a positive ethnic identity.
European Psychologist, 2002
A select group of managers in the private and public sector working in the new and old German fed... more A select group of managers in the private and public sector working in the new and old German federal states were administered the German version of the Pressure Management Indicator (PMI; Williams, Kirkcaldy, & Cooper, 1999). Twenty-four scale scores were assessed encompassing diverse aspects of occupational stress, individual differences (type A, locus of control, and coping), and outcome variables (work satisfaction, physical and psychological health). Several differences were observed between those managers reared and educated in the former East Germany and those from the former West Germany. East-German managers, for example, were characterized by an external locus of control with regard to their jobs and revealed higher type A scores compared to their West-German counterparts. Furthermore, although there were no differences in the evaluation of working climate nor in subjectively perceived occupational stress, specific outcome variables such as self-reported physical and psychological health did differ between West- and East-German managers. The implications of these findings are discussed.
Stress Medicine, 2000
In a large survey of medical practitioners and their auxiliary personnel, significant differences... more In a large survey of medical practitioners and their auxiliary personnel, significant differences were observed in the job stress profiles of individuals from the new (former East Germany) and old Federal States (former West Germany). Self-reported occupational stress was perceived higher among those from the new vs old Federal States, and this was particularly pronounced for those States with their borders in close proximity to the former West Germany. Satisfaction at work was no different for the new and old Federal States, although the evaluation of working climate was deemed more favourable in the newer Federal States. Moreover, the new Federal States were more inclined to adopt low risk-taking and more safety-oriented attitudes than their counterparts in the older Federal States. Conversely, there were no significant differences in accident rate (either at work or whilst driving) between the two categories (new vs old Federal States). Overall, the study shows that subjective experiences of psychological and social processes in the working context remain pronounced 10 years after reunification.
Zeitschrift für Medienpsychologie, 2005
This study examined if men and women realize alterations in their body image when they are confro... more This study examined if men and women realize alterations in their body image when they are confronted with models posing for commercial advertizement. 124 female and male participants (mean age: 30 years; range: 18-60 years) were exposed to ads without models (control condition) , to ads with male and female models (experimental group 1), or to ads with models only of their own sex (experimental group 2). Results showed that women of both experimental groups revealed a larger discrepancy between their actual and ideal body sizes (preferring a thinner body) and believed that other women preferred a thinner ideal body size than women in the control condition. Men exposed to ads presenting models judged their actual and ideal body sizes in the same way as men in the control condition. Discussion focuses on the differences between the current results and the results of an actual American study as well as on implications for the society
In der vorliegenden Studie wurde die Effektivität von furchterregenden Warnhinweisen bei jugendli... more In der vorliegenden Studie wurde die Effektivität von furchterregenden Warnhinweisen bei jugendlichen Rauchern und Raucherinnen analysiert. 336 Raucher/-innen (Durchschnittsalter: 15 Jahre) wurden schriftliche oder graphische Warnhinweise auf Zigarettenpackungen präsentiert (Experimentalbedingungen; n = 96, n = 119), oder sie erhielten keine Warnhinweise (Kontrollbedingung; n = 94). Anschließend wurden die Modellfaktoren des revidierten Modells der Schutzmotivation (Arthur & Quester, 2004) erhoben. Die Ergebnisse stützen die Hypothese, dass die Faktoren «Schweregrad der Schädigung» und «Wahrscheinlichkeit der Schädigung» die Verhaltenswahrscheinlichkeit, weniger oder leichtere Zigaretten zu rauchen, vermittelt über den Mediator «Furcht» beeinflussen. Die Verhaltenswahrscheinlichkeit wurde dagegen nicht von den drei experimentellen Bedingungen beeinflusst. Auch konnten die Faktoren «Handlungswirksamkeitserwartungen» und «Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen» nicht als Moderatoren des Zusammenhangs zwischen Furcht und Verhaltenswahrscheinlichkeit bestätigt werden.
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Papers by Lars-Eric Petersen
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