Using Latent Profile Analysis to Understand Health Practitioners' Attitudes Toward Voluntary Assisted Dying.

Prior work has documented considerable diversity among health practitioners regarding their support for voluntary assisted dying (VAD). We examined whether their attitudes are characterised by different combinations of personal support, normative support by other health practitioners, and whether they are predisposed to vicariously experience others' emotions (i.e., empathy). We also examined whether these profiles experienced different mental health outcomes (i.e., burnout and posttraumatic stress) in relation to VAD. To test this, 104 Australian health practitioners were surveyed after VAD was legalised in Victoria, Australia in 2019. Results indicated that practitioners' attitudes were characterised by three profiles: 1) strong personal and normative support (strong VAD supporters), 2) moderate personal and normative support (moderate VAD supporters), and 3) lower personal and normative support (apprehensive practitioners). However, each profile reported similar mental health outcomes. Findings suggest that the normative environments in which health practitioners operate may explain their diverse attitudes on VAD.

Attitudes Toward and Experience With Assisted-Death Services and Psychological Implications for Health Practitioners: A Narrative Systematic Review.

A narrative systematic review was conducted to review studies that examine mental health implications of involvement in assisted-death services among health practitioners. Qualitative and quantitative studies were included to understand health practitioners' attitudes and experiences with assisted dying services, as well as to identify the mental health consequences. We identified 18 articles from 1591 articles drawn from seven major scientific databases (i.e., PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus). Two raters independently evaluated the exclusion and inclusion decisions of the articles and examined methodological flaws in the selected articles. We found that engagement in assisted death services were not reliably associated with mental health outcomes such as anxiety and moral distress. Both positive and negative outcomes were reported, and psychological outcomes for practitioners were shown to vary based on factors including social support for health practitioners' views; their perceived capacity to care for the patients; and legislation.

How Collective-Action Failure Shapes Group Heterogeneity and Engagement in Conventional and Radical Action Over Time.

Extensive research has identified factors influencing collective-action participation. However, less is known about how collective-action outcomes (i.e., success and failure) shape engagement in social movements over time. Using data collected before and after the 2017 marriage-equality debate in Australia, we conducted a latent profile analysis that indicated that success unified supporters of change (n = 420), whereas failure created subgroups among opponents (n = 419), reflecting four divergent responses: disengagement (resigned acceptors), moderate disengagement and continued investment (moderates), and renewed commitment to the cause using similar strategies (stay-the-course opponents) or new strategies (innovators). Resigned acceptors were least inclined to act following failure, whereas innovators were generally more likely to engage in conventional action and justify using radical action relative to the other profiles. These divergent reactions were predicted by differing baseline levels of social identification, group efficacy, and anger. Collective-action outcomes dynamically shape participation in social movements; this is an important direction for future research.

The power of norms to sway fused group members.

Whitehouse adapts insights from evolutionary anthropology to interpret extreme self-sacrifice through the concept of identity fusion. The model neglects the role of normative systems in shaping behaviors, especially in relation to violent extremism. In peaceful groups, increasing fusion will actually decrease extremism. Groups collectively appraise threats and opportunities, actively debate action options, and rarely choose violence toward self or others.

The Multicultural Identity Integration Scale (MULTIIS): Developing a comprehensive measure for configuring one's multiple cultural identities within the self.

OBJECTIVES: The research investigating how one's multiple cultural identities are configured within the self has yet to account for existing cultural identity configurations aside from integration, and for identifying with more than 2 cultural groups at once. The current research addresses these issues by constructing the Multicultural Identity Integration Scale (MULTIIS) to examine 3 different multicultural identity configurations, and their relationship to well-being based on Amiot and colleagues' (2007) cognitive-developmental model of social identity integration (CDSMII). METHOD: Diverse samples of multicultural individuals completed the MULTIIS along with identity and well-being measures. (Study 1A: N = 407; 1B: N = 310; 2A = 338 and 2A = 254) RESULTS: Reliability and confirmatory factorial analyses (Studies 1A and 2A) all supported the factorial structure of the MULTIIS. Regression analyses (Studies 1B and 2B) confirmed that the integration subscale of the MULTIIS positively predicted well-being, whereas compartmentalization negatively predicted well-being. Categorization was inconsistently related to well-being. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the CDSMII and the usefulness of the MULTIIS measure, and suggest that each identity configuration is uniquely related to well-being outcomes.

The influence of group membership and individual differences in psychopathy and perspective taking on neural responses when punishing and rewarding others.

Understanding how neural processes involved in punishing and rewarding others are altered by group membership and personality traits is critical in order to gain a better understanding of how socially important phenomena such as racial and group biases develop. Participants in an fMRI study (n = 48) gave rewards (money) or punishments (electroshocks) to in-group or out-group members. The results show that when participants rewarded others, greater activation was found in regions typically associated with receiving rewards such as the striatum and medial orbitofrontal cortex, bilaterally. Activation in those regions increased when participants rewarded in-group compared to out-group members. Punishment led to increased activation in regions typically associated with Theory of Mind including the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior superior temporal sulcus, as well as regions typically associated with perceiving others in pain such as the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, anterior insula and lateral orbitofrontal cortex. Interestingly, in contrast to the findings regarding reward, activity in these regions was not moderated by whether the target of the punishment was an in- or out-group member. Additional regression analysis revealed that participants who have low perspective taking skills and higher levels of psychopathy showed less activation in the brain regions identified when punishing others, especially when they were out-group members. In sum, when an individual is personally responsible for delivering rewards and punishments to others, in-group bias is stronger for reward allocation than punishments, marking the first neuroscientific evidence of this dissociation.

Exploring the role of our contacts with pets in broadening concerns for animals, nature, and fellow humans: a representative study.

While pet ownership is normative in many occidental countries, whether humans' proximal contacts with pets have implications for attitudes and behaviors toward other (non pet) animals, nature, and fellow humans, has received limited empirical attention. In a large representative sample, we investigate whether pet ownership and positive contact with pets are associated with more positive attitudes and heightened concerns for non-pet animals, nature, and human outgroups. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among Canadian adults (619 pet owners, 450 non-pet owners). Pet owners reported more positive attitudes toward non-pet animals (e.g., wild, farm animals), higher identification with animals, more positive attitudes toward human outgroups, higher biospheric environmental concerns, higher human-environment interdependence beliefs, and lower usual meat consumption. Positive contact with pets was also associated with most of these outcomes. Solidarity with animals, a dimension of identification with animals, emerged as a particularly clear predictor of these outcomes and mediated the associations between positive contact with pets and positive attitudes toward non-pet animals, biospheric, egoistic, and altruistic environmental concerns, human-environment interdependence beliefs, and diet. Our results provide support for the capacity of pets to shape human consideration for a broad range of social issues, beyond the specific context of human-pet relations.

What Comes First, Acculturation or Adjustment? A Longitudinal Investigation of Integration Versus Mental Resources Hypotheses.

A focal point in the acculturation literature is the so-called "integration hypothesis," whereby integration (high mainstream cultural engagement and heritage cultural maintenance) is associated with higher psychosocial adjustment, compared to other strategies. Yet, the vast majority of this literature is cross-sectional, raising questions about how best to understand associations between integration and adjustment. Does greater integration lead to greater psychosocial adjustment, as proposed by the integration hypothesis? Or is it the other way around, with more adjustment leading to greater integration, consistent with what we name the "mental resources hypothesis?" This study tests these 2 competing hypotheses in a 4-wave longitudinal study of 278 international students in their first weeks and months in Canada. The results replicate well-documented cross-sectional acculturation-adjustment associations. They also show that baseline adjustment is prospectively associated with later integration and mainstream acculturation, but not vice versa, supporting the mental resources hypothesis but not the integration hypothesis.

Investigating the impact of eating norms and collective autonomy support vs. collective control on unhealthy eating and its internalization.

Our eating behaviors are highly influenced by those of individuals surrounding us and the groups we belong to. The first goal of this experiment was to determine how social norms that encourage (pro-) vs. discourage (anti-) unhealthy eating influence people's intentions and motivations to eat unhealthily. Since these norms can be conveyed by one's group in a manner that either promotes group members' autonomy (i.e., collective autonomy support), or pressures them into eating certain foods (i.e., collective control), the experiment also tests which of these types of messages promotes the highest conformity to group norms. Hence, the second goal of this experiment was to investigate this synergetic effect of pro- vs anti-unhealthy eating norms and of collective autonomy support vs. collective control on participants' unhealthy eating intentions and their motivations for unhealthy eating. An experimental study (N = 341) using a 2 (eating norm: pro-unhealthy eating norm vs. anti-unhealthy eating norm) x 3 (type of group support: collective autonomy support vs. collective control vs. no support) design was conducted. Results showed that pro-unhealthy eating norms increased participants' intentions to eat salty and fatty food, but also their amotivation (i.e., lack of motivation) for unhealthy eating relative to anti-unhealthy eating norms. In addition, when pro-unhealthy eating was encouraged in a controlling (vs. in an autonomy supportive) manner, participants reported higher intentions to eat tofu tacos. Finally, when pro-unhealthy eating was promoted by supporting group members' autonomy, participants reported higher integrated regulation, i.e., a highly internalized motivation, for unhealthy eating. These results demonstrate that eating norms do not impact all types of unhealthy food consumption in the same manner, and that collective control may be motivating in uncertain contexts; furthermore, when individuals' autonomy is supported and promoted by other group members, they are more susceptible to integrate unhealthy eating in their life.

Pet ownership and psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The question of pet ownership contributing to human well-being has received mixed empirical evidence. This contrasts with the lay intuition that pet ownership contributes positively to wellness. In a large representative sample, we investigate the differences that may exist between pet vs. non-pet owners in terms of their well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, and examine among different sociodemographic strata, for whom pet ownership can be more vs. less beneficial. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among Canadian adults (1220 pet owners, 1204 non-pet owners). Pet owners reported lower well-being than non-pet owners on a majority of well-being indicators; this general pet ownership effect held when accounting for pet species (dogs, cats, other species) and number of pets owned. Compared to owners of other pets, dog owners reported higher well-being. When examining the effect of pet ownership within different socioeconomic strata, being a pet owner was associated with lower well-being among: women; people who have 2 + children living at home; people who are unemployed. Our results offer a counterpoint to popular beliefs emphasising the benefits of pets to human wellness during the COVID-19 pandemic and confirm the importance of accounting for sociodemographic factors to further understand the experience of pet ownership.

Toward more equal and mutual human-pet relations: Insights and possible solutions based on social psychological theories.

Human-pet relations are imbued with power imbalances, with many pets depending on humans for food and water, shelter, health care, and sheer survival. A majority of people report loving their pets and consider them to be integral family members; however, the care provided to pets varies widely and can be, in some cases, suboptimal. Yet, building more equal relations between humans and their pets could provide benefits to both parties. To achieve this increased equality and mutuality, the current paper proposes theory-based solutions. Specifically, and building on established social psychological theories, namely theories of intergroup relations and of human motivation, the current paper identifies both social and relational factors which, if socially and individually promoted, could trigger more equal and possibly mutually beneficial relationships with pets. We provide concrete examples illustrating how these factors can be maximized and promoted.

Perceiving societal pressure to be happy is linked to poor well-being, especially in happy nations.

Happiness is a valuable experience, and societies want their citizens to be happy. Although this societal commitment seems laudable, overly emphasizing positivity (versus negativity) may create an unattainable emotion norm that ironically compromises individual well-being. In this multi-national study (40 countries; 7443 participants), we investigate how societal pressure to be happy and not sad predicts emotional, cognitive and clinical indicators of well-being around the world, and examine how these relations differ as a function of countries' national happiness levels (collected from the World Happiness Report). Although detrimental well-being associations manifest for an average country, the strength of these relations varies across countries. People's felt societal pressure to be happy and not sad is particularly linked to poor well-being in countries with a higher World Happiness Index. Although the cross-sectional nature of our work prohibits causal conclusions, our findings highlight the correlational link between social emotion valuation and individual well-being, and suggest that high national happiness levels may have downsides for some.

Social mindfulness predicts concern for nature and immigrants across 36 nations.

People cooperate every day in ways that range from largescale contributions that mitigate climate change to simple actions such as leaving another individual with choice - known as social mindfulness. It is not yet clear whether and how these complex and more simple forms of cooperation relate. Prior work has found that countries with individuals who made more socially mindful choices were linked to a higher country environmental performance - a proxy for complex cooperation. Here we replicated this initial finding in 41 samples around the world, demonstrating the robustness of the association between social mindfulness and environmental performance, and substantially built on it to show this relationship extended to a wide range of complex cooperative indices, tied closely to many current societal issues. We found that greater social mindfulness expressed by an individual was related to living in countries with more social capital, more community participation and reduced prejudice towards immigrants. Our findings speak to the symbiotic relationship between simple and more complex forms of cooperation in societies.

The Role of Dynamic Social Norms in Promoting the Internalization of Sportspersonship Behaviors and Values and Psychological Well-Being in Ice Hockey.

Conducted among parents of young ice hockey players, this field experiment tested if making salient increasingly popular (i.e., dynamic) social norms that promote sportspersonship, learning, and having fun in sports, increases parents' own self-determined endorsement of these behaviors and values, improves their psychological well-being, and impacts on their children's on-ice behaviors. Hockey parents (N = 98) were randomly assigned to the experimental condition (i.e., presenting dynamic norms that increasingly favor sportspersonship, learning, and fun) vs. control condition (i.e., presenting neutral information). Parents' motivations for encouraging their child to learn and to have fun in hockey were then assessed. Score sheets for the games that followed the study provided access to their children's on-ice behaviors (i.e., penalties), as indicators of sportspersonship. Parents in the experimental condition reported higher self-determination for encouraging their child to learn and have fun in hockey compared to parents in the control condition. Furthermore, children of parents in the experimental condition had more assists. A mediation model revealed that the dynamic norms manipulation increased parents' self-determined motivation for encouraging their child to learn and to have fun in hockey, which in turn, predicted higher psychological well-being (i.e., lower anxiety, more vitality). Together, these results provide support for the contention that highlighting increasingly popular social norms that promote sportspersonship, learning, and fun in sports, represents a promising strategy for creating positive social change in this life context.

Changes in social identities over time: the role of coping and adaptation processes.

The present studies investigated the processes by which group members integrate a new social identity. Based on a newly developed theoretical model, we anticipated that social factors (social support and need satisfaction) would be facilitators of this change process and should have an impact on the coping and adaptation strategies group members use to deal with the membership in a new group. These strategies, in turn, should predict intra-individual changes in level of identification with the new group, which should then predict enhanced psychological adjustment over time. The proposed associations were tested among university students over the course of their first academic year (Study 1) and among on-line gamers joining a newly established on-line community (Study 2). Path analyses provided support for the hypothesized associations. The results are discussed in light of recent theoretical developments pertaining to intra-individual changes in social identities.

Social identification with animals: Unpacking our psychological connection with other animals.

Our relations with other animals are ubiquitous in human life, yet the psychological structure of our connection with animals is just beginning to receive empirical attention. Drawing on theories of social identification and intergroup relations, we investigate the various ways that people identify with animals. Across 7 studies, we introduce the Identification with Animals Measure (IWAM) and uncover 3 dimensions by which humans identify with animals as a group: solidarity with animals, animal pride, and human-animal similarity. First, we establish the reliability, factorial structure, and predictive validity of the 3-factor IWAM. Next, we find that these factors predict a distinct set of attitudes and behaviors toward animals. Solidarity with animals is defined by feeling connected to other animals and is associated with more contact with animals (i.e., pets) and a greater desire to help animals and to engage in collective actions on their behalf, even if this implies withdrawing privileges to humans. Human-animal similarity is defined by the perception that animals share similarities with humans; this dimension is associated with increased moral concern for their welfare and a greater attribution of typically human traits to other animals. Finally, animal pride is defined by a direct recognition and positive endorsement of the social category that includes all animals, and is associated with viewing humans as more animal-like, and with more competitive and instrumental intergroup relations. The findings confirm that identification with animals is a multidimensional construct that is colored by the unique and complex nature of our relations with nonhuman animals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Trajectories of affective states in adolescent hockey players: turning point and motivational antecedents.

This study examined longitudinal trajectories of positive and negative affective states with a sample of 265 adolescent elite hockey players followed across 3 measurement points during the 1st 11 weeks of a season. Latent class growth modeling, incorporating a time-varying covariate and a series of predictors assessed at the onset of the season, was used to chart out distinct longitudinal trajectories of affective states. Results provided evidence for 3 trajectories of positive affect and 3 trajectories of negative affect. Two of these trajectories were deflected by team selection, a seasonal turning point occurring after the 1st measurement point. Furthermore, the trajectories of positive and negative affective states were predicted by theoretically driven predictors assessed at the start of the season (i.e., self-determination, need satisfaction, athletic identity, and school identity). These results contribute to a better understanding of the motivational, social, and identity-related processes associated with the distinct affective trajectories of athletes participating in elite sport during adolescence.

Testing a novel multicomponent intervention to reduce meat consumption in young men.

Both epidemiological studies and randomised controlled trials have shown that meat-eating can be harmful to human health. Meat-eating is also considered to be a moral issue, impacting negatively on the environment and the welfare of animals. To date, very little scientific research has aimed to reduce this dietary behavior. Therefore, the current research tests the effectiveness of a 4-week multicomponent intervention designed to reduce meat-eating. Using a randomised controlled trial procedure, thirty-two young men (mean age: 23.5 ± 3.1 years old) were randomly assigned into two equal groups, the intervention vs control group. Based on research in social and health psychology, the intervention was composed of five components expected to reduce meat consumption: a social norm component; an informational/educational component; an appeal to fear; a mind attribution induction; and a goal setting/self-monitoring component. Measures of different types of meat intake (using dietary journals) were taken at baseline (Time 1) as well as 2 (Time 2) and 4 weeks later (Time 3). Emotions and attitudes toward meat-eating and animals were also assessed at Time 3. Significant reductions in total and weekend red meat consumption as well as cold cuts consumed on the weekend were observed in the intervention condition from Time 1 to Time 3. Moreover, reduced positive emotions toward eating meat mediated the reduction in red meat consumption. The component of the intervention that participants most often perceived as having led to a reduction in their meat consumption was the informational component. In conclusion, results provide support for the effectiveness of the multicomponent intervention and for the mediating role of positive emotions when predicting behavioral changes in meat consumption.

Status, equity and social identification during an intergroup merger: a longitudinal study.

Using an intergroup perspective, this longitudinal study (N=215) examined the adjustment patterns of employees from low vs. high status pre-merger organizations. The first questionnaire was distributed 3 months after the implementation of the merger, whereas the second was completed 2 years later. As predicted, members of the low status group perceived the merger to be implemented in a less fair manner at the start of the merger and reported a decreased adjustment to the merger over time. Members of the high status group showed an increase in adjustment over time, lower in-group bias and a stronger identification with the new merged organization. Path analyses further confirmed that identification with the new merged organization mediated the associations between perceptions of fairness and in-group bias as well as changes in adjustment over time. With its longitudinal design, this study replicates and extends past results by revealing the predictors of adjustment for members of low vs. high status groups involved in an intergroup merger.

Solidarity with Animals: Assessing a Relevant Dimension of Social Identification with Animals.

Interactions with animals are pervasive in human life, a fact that is reflected in the burgeoning field of human-animal relations research. The goal of the current research was to examine the psychology of our social connection with other animals, by specifically developing a measure of solidarity with animals. In 8 studies using correlational, experimental, and longitudinal designs, solidarity with animals predicted more positive attitudes and behaviors toward animals, over and above existing scales of identification, and even when this implied a loss of resources and privileges for humans relative to animals. Solidarity with animals also displayed predicted relationships with relevant variables (anthropomorphism, empathy). Pet owners and vegetarians displayed higher levels of solidarity with animals. Correlational and experimental evidence confirmed that human-animal similarity heightens solidarity with animals. Our findings provide a useful measure that can facilitate important insights into the nature of our relationships with animals.