Psychological Aspects Of Social Axioms

Description: While value-based frameworks have offered revealing insights about culture, other conceptual tools need to be explored and deployed for a comprehensive understanding of both culture and individuals and how culture shapes individual processes and outcomes. To achieve this end, the authors and editors of 'Psychological Aspects of Social Axioms' propose the construct of social axioms to augment values in interpreting culture and the behavior of individuals in their cultural contexts. Social axioms are defined as generalized beliefs about oneself, other people, the social environment, or the spiritual and physical world, and are central to a person's belief system. Their function is to enhance the survival and functioning of the person in his/her social and physical environment.The editors identify five axiom dimensions that form the construct: social cynicism, defined as a negative assessment of human nature and a mistrust of social institutions; social complexity, which is a belief that there are multiple ways of achieving a given outcome and that a given person's behavior may be inconsistent from situation to situation; reward for application, which is the expectation that effort, knowledge, careful planning and the investment of these and other resources will lead to positive results; religiosity, the belief of the existence of a supernatural being and the beneficial social functions of religious institutions and practices; and, fate control, the idea that life events are pre-determined by grand external forces, but that there are some ways for people to influence the impact of these forces. Table of Contents: Introduction.- Section A: Integrative Reviews and Basic Issues.- The Mileage from Social Axioms: Learning form the Past and Looking Forward.- Social Axioms and Organizational Behavior.- Structural Equivalence and Differential Item Functioning in the Social Axioms Survey.- Exploring Ethnic Group and Geographic Differences in Social Axioms in the USA.- Social Axioms among Malay, Chinese, and Kadazan Students in Sabah, Malaysia: Differences in Gender and Ethnic Groups.- Section B: Transmission of Social Axioms.- Are Parents Decisive? The Intergenerational Transmission of Social Axioms Under Conditions of Rapid Social Change.- Processes of Transmission and Change of Social Axioms and their Behavioral Influence in Spanish Culture.- Section C: Nomological Network of Social Axioms.- Linking Social Axioms with Behavioral Indicators and Personality in Romania.- Exploring the Links between Social Axioms and the Epistemological Beliefts about Learning held by Filipino Students.- An Examination of Proactive Coping and Social Beliefs among Christians and Muslims.- Social Axioms in Greece: Etic and Emic Dimensions and their Relationship with Locus of Control.- Do General Beliefs Predict Specific Behavioral Intentions in Indonesia? The Role of Social Axioms within the Theory of Planned Behavior.- Cynicism in Love and in Politics.- Social Axioms in Italian Culture: Relationships with Locus of Control and Moral Development.- Social Axioms and Individualistic-Collectivist Orientations in Indian College Students.- Explaining Individuating Behavior Across Cultures: The Contributions of Values and Social Axioms.- Believing in Beliefs: A Scientific but Personal Quest. Author Biography: Kwok Leung is professor and Head of Management at City University of Hong Kong. He received his doctorate in social and organizational psychology at the University of Illinois. He is Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Journal of International Business Studies and senior editor of Management and Organization Review. His research areas include justice and conflict, cross-cultural psychology and research methods, and international business. Michael Harris Bond is Professor of Psychology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He graduated from Stanford University, where he began his study of person perception, subsequently broadened to include research into the areas of justice, aggression, and impression management.