Research Question

1. The Psychological Impact of Transition: Shifts toward Independent Theory of Agency in Post-Communist Central Europe Michael E. W. Varnum, Nicholas A. Bowman, & Richard E. Nisbett Department of Psychology, University of Michigan Freedom of choice and control over time Study 2 - Age divided into same 6 groups as in study 1; 3 x 6 ANOVA - Main effect of region, F(2, 6294) = 137.1, p < .001 - Age had no significant effect, F(5. 6294) = 1.8, p = ns - Interaction between region and age, F(10, 6294) = 5.85,p < .001 (see figure 1) Study 3 -same age groups as study 1, except youngest group included 15-24 year olds 2 (time) x 3 (region) x 6 (age) ANOVA -Main effect of region: North America had highest levels of internal control, Western Europe in between, Central Europe had lowest levels, (2,27079) = 740.01, p < .001 -Main effect for time: F(2,27079) = 740.01, p < .001 -Main effect for age: F(5,27079) = 28.96, p < .001 -no age x time interaction, F(5,27079) < 1 -Region x age interaction: Age associated with lower levels of internal control in CE, this effect larger than in NA or WE, F(2,27079) = 2.56, p < .005 -Time x region interaction: Largest increase in internal control in CE, smaller increase in NA, no change in WE, F(2,27079) = 37.86, p < .001 (see figure 2) -Age x region x time interaction: age differences in internal control increased slightly over time in CE but remained stable in NA and WE, F(10,27079) = 1.79, p < .06 (see figure 3) Mean Freedom of Choice and Control by Age and Region Research Question What has been the impact of the transition from Communism toward more open societies in Central Europe? Materials and Methods Study 1 - N = 1003 Slovak adults, nationally representative (participants who did not answer any of the 16 questions on the attribution instrument were excluded from analysis for a final N of 910) - participants read 4 vignettes in which protagonist commits a pro-social or anti-social behavior - participants complete 4 7-pt Likert scales per vignette - Example of scales: Study 2 -Secondary analysis of Pew Global Attitudes Project data -All countries from among the 44 in the sample that belonged to each region of interest were included -Data from 3 regions was examined: North America (US & Canada) (N = 2053), Central Europe (Slovakia, Czech Rep., Poland, Ukraine) (N =1882), & Western Europe (UK, Germany, Italy, France) (N = 2321) -DV: response to the question: “Some say that most people who don’t succeed in life fail because of society’s failures. Others say that those who don’t succeed do so because of their own individual failures. Which comes closer to your view?” (“1” = “society’s failures”, “2” = “individual failures”) Study 3 -Secondary analysis of World Values Survey -Data from: Slovakia (N = 3916), Czech Rep. (N = 5996), Slovenia (N = 2937), Hungary (N = 2,586), Canada (N = 3,636), US (N = 3,021), France (N = 2,570), UK (N = 2,418), West Germany (N =3,083) -DV: response to the question: “How much freedom of choice and control do you have?” (“1” = “none at all”, “10” = “a great deal”) Results Study 1 - Means were taken for each participant for each of the 4 questions (dispositional attribution, situational attribution, dispositional counterfactual, and situational counterfactual) across the 4 vignettes - Age divided into 6 groups: 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, and 65 + - No effect of age on dispositional attributions or either counter-factual - Age explained a significant amount of the variance in situational attribution avg., F(5, 903) = 3.34, p = .005, with younger Slovaks giving less weight to situational factors in explaining others’ behaviors than older Slovaks • Background • Central European societies have undergone dramatic economic, political, institutional, and social changes since the Communist period • Since Communism there has been a shift toward: • More individualistic social norms • Greater incentive for individual initiative • Increased freedom of speech • Greater sense of self-efficacy due to electoral revolutions and other revolutions involving mass protest • Greater influence of Western popular culture and the individualistic values it promotes • These changes seem likely to have led to a more independent Theory of Agency in CE since the collapse of Communism • Theory of Agency = tendency to explain behaviors of others in dispositional or situational terms & sense of internal/external control • Independent ToA = dispositional attributions for behaviors of others and internal sense of control • External ToA = situational attributions for behaviors of others and external sense of control • Previous research has found: • Shift toward greater self-reliance and individualism among youth in Croatia from 1986-1999 (Spajic-Vrkas & Ilisin, 2005) • Shift toward more internal locus of control in Ukraine from 1994-2005 (Panina, 2005) • Slovaks show increased locus of control and belief that failure is due to individual rather than society from 1991-2002 (Votruba, 2007) • Increase in Internality of political locus of control among Polish students from 1986-1991 (Tobacyk, 1992) • Younger adolescents in Hungary & Czech Republic show greater belief in importance of individual initiative for success (Macek et al., 1998) • Younger Ukrainians have more internal locus of control than older Ukrainians (Razumov Centre, 2007) • If a shift in ToA has occurred than we should see younger adults demonstrating more independent ToA than older adults as well as society-wide shifts over time • Predictions: • Study 1: Younger Slovaks will give less weight to situational factors in explaining others’ behaviors than older Slovaks • Study 2: Younger Central Europeans will explain others’ failures in more internal terms relative to older Central Europeans, this pattern will be reversed for North Americans and West Europeans • Study 3: Younger Central Europeans will have more internal control than older Central Europeans, while in North America and Western Europe this effect will be smaller; Over time there will be a greater increase in internal control in Central Europe than in North America or Western Europe. Attributions for people’s failures Fig 3. Study 3 Freedom of choice and control “1” = “none at all” “10” = “a great deal” “1” = society’s failures “2” = individuals’ failures • Conclusions • In 3 studies we found support for our hypothesis that the Transition has indeed led to a more independent Theory of Agency in Central Europe • Studies 1,2, and 3 demonstrated age differences suggestive of a cohort effect in Central Europe, such that younger adults have a more independent Theory of Agency than older adults, since such an effect does not appear in Western or East Asian samples, (see study 2 as well as Blanchard-Fields et al., 2007 & Ishii, 2006) nor does the opposite effect appear in samples from East Asia (Blanchard-Fields et al., 2007), study 3 also provided evidence of a shift toward a more independent ToA over time (which was smaller or non-existent in North America and Western Europe • Our data indicate that society level changes in Theory of Agency can occur rapidly in response to large scale political and economic change • It may also be that patterns of cross-cultural psychological difference are not necessarily stable over time (especially in conditions of rapid cultural change) • Future research will attempt to assess the impact of Communism and Transition more directly through the use of priming; initial studies indicate that Slovaks primed with images of the Communist period show more external locus of control and make more situational attributions than those primed with the Post-Communist period (Varnum & Bowman, 2007) Figure 1. Study 2 attributions for failure Age Literature Blanchard-Fields, F., Chen, Y., Horhota, M., & Wang, M. (2007). Cultural differences in the relationship between aging and the correspondence bias. Manuscript submitted for publication. Ishii, K.(2007). Aging and Attribution Biases. Unpublished data, University of Michigan, U.S. Macek, P., Flanagan, C., Gallay, L., Kostron, L., Botcheva, L., & Csapo, B. (1998). Postcommunist societies in times of transition: Perceptions of change among adolescents in Central and Eastern Europe. Journal of Social Issues, 54, 547-561. Panina, N. (2005). Ukrainian society: 1994-2005: Sociological monitoring. Kyiv: Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Razumov Centre. (2007). Unpublished data. Kyiv, Ukraine. Spajic-Vrkas, & Ilisin, V. (2005). Youth in Croatia. Zagreb, Croatia: Filozofski Fakultet Press, 2005. Tobacyk, J. (1992). Changes in locus of control beliefs in Polish university students before and after democratization. Journal of Social Psychology, 132, 217-222. Varnum, M.E.W. & Bowman, N.A. (2007). Shifts in Theory of Agency in Post-Communist Central Europe. Manuscript submitted for publication. Votruba, Martin. (2007). The mind of the Slovak: The interminable slump. Unpublished analysis. University of Pittsburgh, US. Fig 2. Study 3 Freedom of Choice and Control “1” = “none at all” “10” = “a great deal” For further information Contact Michael E. W. Varnum, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan 530 Church St., Ann Arbor, MI mvarnum@umich.edu (2008) Poster to be presented at the 9th annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Albuquerque, NM.