Paweł Jurek

Self-Presentation Strategies, Fear of Success and Anticipation of Future Success among University and High School Students

The backlash avoidance model (BAM) suggests women insufficiently self-promote because they fear backlash for behavior which is incongruent with traditional gender roles. Avoiding self-promoting behavior is also potentially related to associating success with negative consequences. In two studies we tested whether self-promotion and fear of success will be predictors of lower salaries and anticipation of lower chances of success in an exam. In study 1, prior to the exam they were about to take, we asked 234 students about their predictions concerning exam results and their future earnings. They also filled scales measuring their associations with success (fear of success) and tendency for self-promotion. The tested model proved that in comparison to men, women expect lower salaries in the future, anticipate lower test performance and associate success with more negative consequences. Both tendency for self-promotion and fear of success are related to anticipation of success in test performance and expectations concerning future earnings. In study 2 we repeated the procedure on a sample of younger female and male high school pupils (N = 100) to verify whether associating success with negative consequences and differences in self-promotion strategies are observable in a younger demographic. Our results show that girls and boys in high school do not differ with regard to fear of success, self-promotion or agency levels. Girls and boys anticipated to obtain similar results in math exam results, but girls expected to have higher results in language exams. Nevertheless, school pupils also differed regarding their future earnings but only in the short term. Fear of success and agency self-ratings were significant predictors of expectations concerning future earnings, but only among high school boys and with regard to earnings expected just after graduation.

Evaluations of Men in Domestic Roles in Canada, Norway, Poland, and India

When a man decides to take a parental leave and become a “stay-at-home dad,” by focusing on domestic duties and parenting, he may risk penalization of stereotype-disconfirming behaviors. However, the degree at which men are allowed to violate gender norms varies from country to country. Our study sought to analyze cross-country differences in perception of men who resign from their professional career and focus on domestic duties. Canadian (N = 120), Norwegian (N = 97), Polish (N = 103), and Indian (N = 109) students were asked to evaluate agency and communality of men and women in domestic roles. The obtained results indicate that in Canada and Norway, men and women in domestic roles were judged similarly, whereas Polish and Indian students favored women over men in domestic roles, thus implying that domestic roles are perceived through the lens of gender stereotypes in these two countries.

A test of construct isomorphism of the Belief in a Zero-Sum Game scale: A multilevel 43-nation study

Background We examined the equivalence of the individual and the country-level factor structure of the Belief in a Zero-Sum Game (BZSG) scale, a tool designed to measure antagonistic beliefs about social relations (i.e., perceived social antagonism) in the struggle for limited resources. Aims In this article we focused on a test of construct isomorphism in a multilevel modeling approach. It was hypothesized that the BZSG measure satisfies all requirements for a strong level of configural isomorphism, and thus that it is useful to investigate BZSG at both the individual and the country levels. The relationships between the BZSG at a country level with other macro-socio-economic indicators were also investigated. Method Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA) was carried out on a cross-country sample composed of 11,368 participants from 43 different countries. We also used the country-level latent BZSG factor in each country as an indicator of a property that we attributed to a particular culture: cultural dimension (collectivism-individualism), macroeconomic indicators (GDP per capita and GNI per capita) and macrosocial indicators (Human Development Index and Democracy Index) describing societies. Results The results revealed an isomorphic factor structure of perceived social antagonism (measured by BZSG scale), defined in terms of the equivalence factor structure at the both individual and country levels. Furthermore, the relationship between the perceived social antagonism, gross national income per capita, and collectivism were confirmed. Conclusions Our study supports the usefulness of the BZSG scale for cross-cultural comparison, in the case of its isomorphic structure. At the country level, antagonistic beliefs emerge in hierarchical collectivist societies with lower income. The main contribution of this article is the presentation of the test of construct isomorphism. We made an effort to present a full perspective on construct isomorphism putting together two different but very recent approaches.

Gender and Body-Fat Status as Predictors of Parental Feeding Styles and Children’s Nutritional Knowledge, Eating Habits and Behaviours

The home food environment is critically important for the development of children’s health-related practices. By managing dietary restrictions, providing nutritional knowledge and demonstrating eating behaviours, parents contribute to children’s food preferences and eating patterns. The present study examined nutritional knowledge, eating habits and appetite traits among 387 Polish five-year-old healthy and overfat boys and girls in the context of parental feeding styles and body-fat status. We observed that girls presented healthier eating habits than boys; however, overfat boys had better nutritional knowledge. Children’s body-fat percentage (%BF) was found to be linked with eating behaviours such as low satiety responsiveness and increased food responsiveness in girls as well as low emotional undereating and increased emotional overeating in boys. Our results revealed that overfat mothers, who were more prone to use the encouragement feeding style, rarely had daughters with increased %BF. Parents of overfat girls, however, were less likely to apply encouragement and instrumental feeding styles. Contrary to popular belief and previous studies, overfat women do not necessarily transmit unhealthy eating patterns to their children. Parents’ greater emphasis on managing the weight and eating habits of daughters (rather than sons) probably results from their awareness of standards of female physical attractiveness.

Bilingual advantage? Literacy and phonological awareness in Polish-speaking early elementary school children learning English simultaneously

In most studies, paired bilingual programs turned out to be more effective in L2 (usually English) literacy acquisition than other types of programs. L1 reading proficiency was shown to foster second language reading acquisition across many languages. However, little is known about L1 reading acquisition in bilingual programs. The study examines the effect of a paired-bilingual education program conducted in Polish (L1) and English (L2) on word reading fluency in Polish as L1 after an average of 1 and 2.5 years of literacy training. 61 Polish children obtaining Polish-only literacy training and 54 children obtaining the paired-bilingual Polish-English literacy training completed word and pseudoword reading and onset-rhyme (rhyme production) and phoneme awareness (phoneme deletion and phonemic differentiation) tasks in Polish. Also Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) and English (L2) word fluency were tested. A strong main effect of the literacy level was observed, pointing to a progressive tendency in reading efficiency in both groups of children. Moreover, a significant interaction between the group and literacy level was documented. Beginner readers (after one year of literacy instruction) from the monolingual literacy group showed a higher word reading proficiency than students from the paired-bilingual. However, after two and a half years of literacy training children from the paired-bilingual group achieved significantly higher results in Polish word reading than their peers from the monolingual group. Phonological awareness predicted reading fluency in both groups, but no significant differences between the groups were found suggesting other predictors to be responsible for the bilingual group’s advantage. This study showed that in a longer perspective, extensive literacy training in two different languages not only does not cause a delay in literacy development but may also be beneficial for reading efficiency. The paired-bilingual literacy training proved to be beneficial in terms of reading efficiency in L1, with the advantage found only in the older group of children.

Measurement invariance of the Belief in a Zero-Sum Game scale across 36 countries: BZSG across 36 countries

In this paper, we examined the psychometric properties of cross-cultural validation and replicability (i.e. measurement invariance) of the Belief in a Zero-Sum Game (BZSG) scale, measuring antagonistic belief about interpersonal relations over scarce resources. The factorial structure of the BZSG scale was investigated in student samples from 36 countries (N = 9907), using separate confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) for each country. The cross-cultural validation of the scale was based on multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (MGCFA). The results confirmed that the scale had a one-factor structure in all countries, in which configural and metric invariance between countries was confirmed. As a zero-sum belief about social relations perceived as antagonistic, BZSG is an important factor related to, for example, social and international relations, attitudes toward immigrants, or well-being. The paper proposes different uses of the BZSG scale for cross-cultural studies in different fields of psychology: social, political, or economic.

Adaptation of the Four Forms of Employee Silence Scale in a Polish sample

background Silence is understood as a decision not to speak up in situations of observed irregularities both in productivity and ethics. The study examined the validity of the Four Forms of Employee Silence Scale (FFESS) in the Polish population. The scale is a four-factor measure designed to capture differently motivated tendencies to be silent in organizations. The scale distinguishes acquiescent, quiescent, prosocial and opportunistic silence. Employee silence has been linked to many important individual outcomes: failure to react to ethical transgressions, stress and depression, and lower creativity and productivity.

Zastosowanie skali poczucia rozszerzenia Ja w miejscu pracy w warunkach polskich

This article presents the Polish adaptation of the Workplace Self-expansion Questionnaire (Workplace SEQ), a self-reported measure for assessing the degree to which the motivation to expand the boundaries of self-concept is satisfied by the work environment. The study was conducted on two samples of employees, diverse in terms of gender, work experience, position, and the type of work ( N = 647). Statistical analysis confirmed the single-factor structure of the questionnaire and the high reliability of this measure. As expec-ted, the Polish version of the Workplace SEQ correlated positively with job satisfaction, organization commitment, and work engagement, which thus verifies its construct validity. The results support this version of the Workplace SEQ as a useful tool for studying self-expan-sion among people engaged in various professions.