Robert J. Taormina

A new measure of adherence to traditional values was created with the objective of facilitating research within and across cultures and nations. The measure was tested in China (N = 321) and Russia (N = 314) and factor analysis of the data revealed two subscales named Personal Traditional Values (10 items) and Public Traditional Values (6 items). Empirical psychometric testing of the overall 16-item measure and the two subscales strongly supported the validity and reliability of all three measures. Means comparisons conducted to assess how well the measures could be used for cross-cultural comparisons revealed the Russians somewhat more than the Chinese living by traditional values overall, both nations about equal on living according to traditional values in their personal lives, and the Russians significantly more inclined to abide by traditional values in public. Also tested were several social and psychological variables as theoretical predictors of living by traditional values, and Life Satisfaction was tested as a possible correlate of living according to traditional values. Regression analyses on the combined data confirmed that Family Emotional Support, Conscientiousness, Collectivism, and Age were all significant positive predictors of living by traditional values. Additional regressions also found some unique predictors for each nation. These findings and the results of the parametric tests support the use of the new scales for measuring traditional values both within and across cultures.

Psychological insecurity and interpersonal trust were empirically tested in a conceptual model in relation to several personality and social measures as theoretical antecedents, and to interpersonal relationships and feelings of life satisfaction as hypothesized outcomes. Questionnaire data from 301 Chinese adults showed psychological insecurity to be significantly and positively correlated with neuroticism and dependency, while negatively related to family emotional support, emotional intelligence, openness, and agreeableness; and the regression revealed neuroticism to be the strongest predictor of psychological insecurity. The results for interpersonal trust showed a significant negative correlation with psychological insecurity, and a pattern of correlations with all the other variables that were in the opposite direction of those for psychological insecurity; and the regression revealed agreeableness to be the strongest predictor of interpersonal trust. Interpersonal trust was also a significant predictor of coworker support and life satisfaction. The research identified behaviors that should be able to reduce psychological insecurity, and others that could increase interpersonal trust, with the overall results demonstrating the importance of being emotionally supportive and honest with other people to reduce feelings of psychological insecurity and increase interpersonal trust.

This is a new theory of adult personal resilience that can apply in any society. It differs from previous theories, which are post hoc because they traditionally focus on helping victims find ways to live with trauma after the trauma occurs. The present theory is a positive psychology approach because it identifies the aspects of a person that can make him or her stronger to prevent personal problems from occurring as well as to deal with traumas and the various vicissitudes of life in general. Whereas this is a new theory, and a complete theory would require a more comprehensive monograph, this paper focuses on describing the essential features of the theory. These are to define adult personal resilience and distinguish it from general concepts of resilience, explain personal resilience as a multidimensional construct by identifying the four dimensions of adult personal resilience (Determination, Endurance, Adaptability, and Recuperability), briefly review the new theory’s advantages over previous theories of resilience, describe the new four-subscale measure of adult personal resilience, and discuss implications of the new concept for theory, research, and practice.

This study refined the concept of resilience and developed four valid and reliable subscales to measure resilience, namely, Determination, Endurance, Adaptability and Recuperability. The study also assessed their hypothesized relationships with six antecedent variables (worry, physiological needs satisfaction, organizational socialization, conscientiousness, future orientation and Chinese values) and with one outcome variable (nurses’ career success). The four new 10‐item subscale measures of personal resilience were constructed based on their operational definitions and tested for their validity and reliability. All items were included in a questionnaire completed by 244 full‐time nurses at two hospitals in China. All four measures demonstrated concurrent validity and had high reliabilities (from 0.74 to 0.78). The hypothesized correlations with the personality and organizational variables were statistically significant and in the predicted directions. Regression analyses confirmed these relationships, which explained 25–32% of the variance for the four resilience facets and 27% of the variance for the nurses’ career success. The results provided strong evidence that organizational socialization facilitates resilience, that resilience engenders career success and that identifying the four resilience facets permits a more complete understanding of personal resilience, which could benefit nurses, help nurse administrators with their work and also help in treating patients.

For each of the 5 needs in Maslow’s motivational hierarchy (physiological, safety-security, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization), operational definitions were developed from Maslow’s theory of motivation. New measures were created based on the operational definitions (1) to assess the satisfaction of each need, (2) to assess their expected correlations (a) with each of the other needs and (b) with four social and personality measures (i.e., family support, traditional values, anxiety/worry, and life satisfaction), and (3) to test the ability of the satisfaction level of each need to statistically predict the satisfaction level of the next higher-level need. Psychometric tests of the scales conducted on questionnaire results from 386 adult respondents from the general population lent strong support for the validity and reliability of all 5 needs measures. Significant positive correlations among the scales were also found; that is, the more each lower-level need was satisfied, the more the next higher-level need was satisfied. Additionally, as predicted, family support, traditional values, and life satisfaction had significant positive correlations with the satisfaction of all 5 needs, and the anxiety/worry facet of neuroticism had significant negative correlations with the satisfaction of all the needs. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the satisfaction of each higher-level need was statistically predicted by the satisfaction of the need immediately below it in the hierarchy, as expected from Maslow’s theory.

Intimate relationship satisfaction was evaluated by 258 (male and female) dating, engaged, and married Chinese individuals on four dimensions (emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and physical), which were examined in relation to several personal and social characteristics (emotional intelligence, extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, self-esteem, partner's physical attractiveness, traditional Chinese values, gender attributes, interpersonal trust, locus of control, and family emotional support) as hypothesised predictors of relationship intimacy. In turn, the four relationship dimensions were tested as predictors for satisfaction of the belongingness need. Correlations confirmed the hypothesised relationships that the personal and social variables had with the four intimate relationship dimensions, while regressions revealed different patterns of predictors across gender for each of the relationship dimensions. Also, plots of the different mean scores on the four relationship dimensions for dating, engaged, and married individuals revealed very similar patterns, with engaged persons consistently showing the highest scores on all four dimensions. In addition, overall satisfaction with one's intimate relationship proved to be a predictor of satisfaction of the belongingness need for both genders. The discussion centres on the variables that predicted the intimate relationship dimensions and on gender differences in those variables and in variables that predicted satisfaction of the belongingness need.

Actual purchases of counterfeit and legitimate (brand-name) products in China were studied, with dissimilar variables found to predict the different types of purchases. Buying counterfeits correlated positively with self-monitoring, need for dominance, face-work, risk-taking, and worry about inflation but negatively with perfectionism. Regression analysis revealed that need for dominance, risk-taking, and worry about inflation predicted purchasing counterfeits. Buying legitimates correlated positively with self-monitoring, need for dominance, self-esteem, and perfectionism, but negatively with worry about inflation. Regression analyses found that self-monitoring and perfectionism predicted purchasing legitimates. A separate regression found that purchasing counterfeits was a negative predictor of receiving esteem from others.