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Item Across borders and time : testing the competing perspectives of system justification : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand(Massey University, 2025-08-29) Valdes, Evan ArmandoWhy do people defend societal systems that perpetuate inequality and injustice? This question is increasingly relevant in today’s geopolitical climate, amid growing tensions between calls for progressive social change and maintenance of a traditional, sometimes polarized, status quo. System Justification Theory (SJT) posits that individuals are motivated—due to both dispositional and situational factors—to defend and justify existing social, economic, and political systems, even when doing so may conflict with their self- or group-interests. Competing theories, however, argue that system justification is largely a reflection of those interests. This thesis tests these competing perspectives on system justification across countries and time through four studies, using a consistent four-item measure of general system justification for comparability. Study 1 examined SJT’s status-legitimacy hypothesis in China and the United States, using both subjective and objective indicators of socioeconomic status (SES). Subjective SES consistently positively predicted system justification across cultures and time, aligning with self- and group-interest explanations. Objective SES, however, showed only weak and inconsistent support for SJT in China. Study 2 expanded the scope cross-culturally, comparing SJT to the social identity perspectives and Social Dominance Theory, using data from 42 countries. Results largely favored self- and group-interest explanations over SJT across cultures. Study 3 tested SJT’s claim that system justification provides psychological benefits in the form of enhanced psychological wellbeing using four waves of longitudinal data. Bidirectional cross-lagged panel modeling showed that system justification predicted greater subjective SES via increased life satisfaction over time, but not vice versa, supporting SJT’s claim that system-justifying beliefs can confer psychological benefits independent of materials self-interest. However, when assessing this model using more robust longitudinal techniques, no such effect was observed. Study 4 used a longitudinal quasi-experiment centered around New Zealand’s 2023 general election to compare SJT with the Social Identity Model of System Attitudes (SIMSA). Results showed that system justification generally coincided with self- and group-interests among electoral winners and losers in line with SIMSA. However, among disadvantaged electoral losers, perceived system threat [of SJT] better explained continued system justification than did optimism about the future [of SIMSA], providing stronger support for SJT. Overall, this thesis demonstrates that system justification arises from a complex interplay of individual, situational, ideological, and societal factors. While system justification often reflects self- and group-interests, under certain conditions it functions as an ideological mechanism that can conflict with these very interests to uphold societal structures – especially when those structures are perceived to be under threat. This supports the view of system justification as both an ideological disposition and a palliative mechanism, sustaining societal structures despite inequality. Such insights highlight the challenge of addressing systemic injustice and underscore the need to frame social change in ways that align with psychological motivation and a desire for stability.Item A validation of the workplace dignity scale : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand(Massey University, 2019) Scott-Campbell, CaseyWorkplace Dignity has long been the subject of scholarly enquiry, although until recently the body of research has been dominated by ethnographic work. Recently, Thomas and Lucas (2019) developed the first quantitative, direct measure of perceptions of workplace dignity: the Workplace Dignity Scale (WDS). Given the importance of understanding dignity in the workplace, this study sought to replicate the initial scale validation study conducted by Thomas and Lucas, so as to confirm the reliability and validity of the scale prior to its future applied and scholarly use. Moreover, the current study contributes to the ongoing methodological reform of psychology towards a transparent and rigorous science by preregistering the method and analysis script prior to collecting data. A large sample of workers (N = 853) from the United States were recruited through Prolific Academic and completed an online questionnaire that included the WDS, as well as theoretically related scales (e.g., workplace incivility). Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the model specified by Thomas and Lucas had reasonable global fit and estimates of reliability (ωt) indicated that the two main factors of the scale, Dignity and Indignity, had high internal consistency. Nomological analyses revealed that the Dignity factor of the WDS was significantly correlated in the expected directions with theoretically related variables. Furthermore, the Dignity and Indignity factors of the WDS were found to highly correlate with one another, posing questions as to whether the two factors are qualitatively different phenomena as was argued by Thomas and Lucas. It is concluded that the WDS is a promising tool for measuring workplace dignity although refinement of the proposed measurement model may be necessary.Item Challenging readers' perceptions of older women and the cultural narrative of ageism : a critical and creative thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Creative Writing, Massey University, Manawatu, New Zealand(Massey University, 2018) Allom, Marianne Barbara JaneThis Master of Creative Writing research project consists of a collection of short stories and an accompanying exegesis, “Challenging Readers’ Perceptions of Older Women and the Western Cultural Narrative of Ageism”. These works were written to explore how fiction narratives, short stories in particular, are able to portray women in Western society, past the age of fifty, in a way that reflects both the positive and negative aspects of her reality. One intention of my research is to challenge the negative cultural discourses which currently dominate the stereotypical way that younger people especially regard the older woman and her societal role. However, another intention is to challenge the older person’s internalised ageism which they have developed throughout their lives in a society that has perpetuated negative and destructive beliefs of and attitudes towards the older woman. The exegesis investigates contemporary research conducted by gerontologists, psychologists and cultural activists who expose the damaging effects on the older person and society as a whole, of the cultural narratives that exist around old age. In particular, the research indicates that current narratives have emanated from medical research which defines older age as a time of physical, mental and often emotional decline. The global conversation which began in the last fifty years after Robert Butler first used the term “ageism” in a public forum, identifies the need for change if people are to live through all the life stages with a healthier view of the culminating phases of life. At present, people’s health is compromised because they have been conditioned by society to believe that old age equals frailty, impairment and social isolation. The research reveals one of the most powerful ways of altering negative cultural narratives, is through fiction narratives in which writers imaginatively engage the reader in considering the reality of living to older age. The creative component further investigates the research in the narrative form of short stories which focus on the older woman or women as the protagonist. By championing the vitalities, complexities and intelligence of the older woman, I aim to join the global conversation which has begun and is exploring ways to challenge and adapt the societal view of older and old women.Item Parental attitudes in the play centre : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education at Massey University(Massey University, 1971) Burdon, Barry EIt is an expressed opinion of the New Zealand Play Centre Federation that parental involvement in the Play Centre will be effective in allowing husbands and wives to gain more understanding of their role as parents. If this were so it could be expected that there would be some modification of these parents' attitudes towards children and the family during the period of the association. This study was planned to examine these expectations as it was considered that the Play Centre movement would benefit from some knowledge of the parental attitudes of its members and of the effectiveness of its programmes and as well whether sex differences were apparent in parental attitudes and their modification. It was hypothesised that parental involvement would increase the accuracy of parents' understanding of Play Centre ideas and would help modify parental attitudes to become more like those of the Play Centre but that parental would neither achieve complete understanding nor completely accept Play Centre's point of view. It was also predicted that there would be sex differences in the perception and modification of parental attitudes. A modified form of the Parental Attitude Research Instrument, renamed the Parent Attitude Survey questionnaire, was administered to two groups of parents (both partners) who were matched so that a comparison of attitudes on a pre- and post-involvement basis could be made. The subjects were asked to respond to the PASQ first as though stating their own point of view and second as though stating the Play Centre's point of view. A group of Play Centre experts were asked to respond to the PASQ as though stating the Play Centre point of view, to give some measure of Play Centre attitudes. The responses of 133 subjects (including the 76 subjects of the test group) to the 128 items of the PASQ were intercorrelated and factor analysed using the principal components solution rotated to normalized Varimax structure. The ten factors were taken as the attitude factor scales. A second-order factor analysis revealed two factors, an authoritarian-restrictiveness scale and a democratic-permisseiveness scale. Mean scores of the test and expert groups on the ten-factor-scales were compared using the t-Test of significant difference but these comparisons revealed little significant difference between group mean scores except between the attitudes of parents and of the Play Centre and between parents perception of Play Centre attitudes and the attitudes of the Play Centre. In terms of the original problem this would seem to raise some doubts about the effectiveness of the Play Centre's parent education programme at least for this group, in that parents did not have a very accurate perception of the parental attitudes of the Play Centre, that there was not an appreciable shift in parental attitudes during the time of involvement in the Play Centre, that the parents' and the Play Centre's attitudes did differ significantly and that the anticipated differences in parental attitudes between husbands and Wives who are differently involved in the Play Centre, were not apparent. Caution must be expressed however as to the generalization of these comments to the total Play Centre population in view of the limitations of the investigation, the small and specialized sample and the difficulty of measuring accurately parental attitudes. Scores on four of the factor scales appeared reliable enough to give some indication of the parental attitudes of the total sample. In general these Play Centre parents were more permissive and democratic in their attitudes towards their pre-school-age children than the New Zealand literature would indicate. Suggestions for more detailed research in this area are indicated by the findings of this preliminary investigation and include the refinement of an instrument to measure parental attitudes, their relation to personality variables, marriage patterns and sex roles in marriage, and the accuracy of the transfer of Play Centre ideas and policy at a regional and local level.Item An exploratory study of consumer psychology using the process descriptive approach: a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University(Massey University, 1985) Smyth, Patrick AlfredInformation chunking under Brand Name and the ability to predict attribute preference were investigated, using a simple paired comparisons test with an expected value decision criteria, and a behavioural search process. Subjects in condition one were presented with eight different product attributes (including Brand and Manufacturer's Name), while subjects in condition two were given only six different attributes (Brand and Manufacturer's Name were unavailable). Both groups completed a simple paired comparison test and two weeks later each subject was allowed to select product information, item by item, from an information displayboard corresponding to the experimental group to which they belonged. Evidence for the chunking of information under the guise of the Brand Name attribute was found - more information was sought when Brand Name was available than when it was not. It was also found that Brand Name information was accessed more than any other type of product information, and when this information was not available, attribute preferences changed and Cents/gram information was accessed most. This caused a change in product selection. Subjects were found to adopt a satisficing approach to the information search task, accessing only a small subset of the total available information, and only a subset of the attributes presented to them. The simple paired comparison test with its expected-value decision criteria accurately predicted the order of attribute selection in the behavioural search. The results suggest the existence of choice heuristics for consumer decision making as outlined by the information processing approach to consumer psychology.Item The value of implicit measures for internet advertising : evidence of mere exposure effects and their impact on consumer preference for pop-ups and banner ads : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand(Massey University, 2009) Cheung, Kuen Fong (Jenny)Cognitive and neuropsychological research points to evidence that "repeated, unreinforced exposure to a stimulus is sufficient to enhance one's attitude toward that stimulus", referred to as the mere exposure effect. The main purpose of this study is to bring to attention sources of mere exposure effects data that, while rarely cited within the advertising literature, are highly relevant to questions of online advertising effectiveness. This study further sought to 1) investigate whether if pop-ups would be better recognised than banner ads, and 2) whether if pop-ups would be rated more favourably (due to the mere exposure effect) than banner ads (less liked due to devaluation-by-inhibition). The experiment was a 2 (Group A, Group B) x2 (Advert Type: Banner Ads, Pop-ups) x2 (Whether Seen: Seen, Not Seen) design. Twenty participants were instructed to read twelve articles on the screen, where each reading trial was presented with a banner ad located in the peripheral display of the full-screen article, and a pop-up that was sequentially displayed at the centre of the screen which would be instructed to click away. A total of 48 adverts (i.e., previously seen and not-seen pop-ups and banner ads) were then rated on each of the five affective dimensions (i.e., familiarity, eye-catching, appealing, memorable, and distinctive); followed by a recognition question as to indicate whether participants had seen the advert whilst reading the articles. As predicted, mere exposure effects occurred for all previously exposed adverts, but no difference in recognition was found between the advert types or any significant differences in the magnitude of favourability for the previously seen pop-ups and banner ads. These findings suggest that the magnitude to which favourability would be related to varying lengths of exposure durations presented with pop-ups and banner ads (i.e., brief vs. longer presentation times), and/or the level of attention guided towards pop-ups and banner ads (i.e., central, had to be clicked away vs. peripheral, could be ignored), was not supported. Practical implications and suggestions for future research regarding potential applicability of mere exposure theory in an Internet setting will be discussed.Item Japanese attitudes to women, marriage and family since the Tokugawa period and their effect on families separated by sankin kotai, dekasegi and tanshin funin : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Japanese at Massey University(Massey University, 1987) Petersen, Desley GailSome of the ideals about women, marriage and family which exist in Japan today can be traced back to the ideals of feudal society which crystallised in the 'bushi' class of the Tokugawa Period. These ideals were largely part of the Confucianism and Buddhism that were imported from China many centuries earlier and which the Tokugawa government used as the moral base by which they controlled society. The feudal view that the primary function of a woman was to produce heirs for her husband's family lowered women's status. The idea that the sole purpose of the marriage was to perpetuate the family related to the vital aspect of its economic survival. So in 'bushi' families, the relationship of the married couple was denied in favour of the hierarchical relationships through which the source of income was transmitted. The family centered on the flow of generations, at the expense of the happiness both of the current title-holder and his family, as individuals and as groups. These ideals were spread throughout society in time. Changes were made to the law after the Meiji Restoration, when the old feudal institutions were abolished. Some of these changes were the result of influences from the West, but because the new rulers came from the 'bushi' class they carried their ideals forward, especially in relation to the family, as a trusted means of social control. The greatest Western influence was felt in the Constitution of 1947 which awarded recognition to the individual and therefore to women and to married couples. These changes are only now becoming part of the consciousness of the people. As a result, the definition of "family" is in question, making it difficult to apply a precept which has been fundamental in Japan for centuries: "for the sake of the family". Under this precept people were expected to put the wellbeing of the family ahead of their own happiness. Urbanisation and industrialisation have simultaneously contributed to the pressure for change both in ideals and realities for women in particular. We can trace changes to the ideals by looking at the families caught up in 'sankin kotai', 'dekasegi' and 'tanshin funin'. The latter can be called a social problem in that these families are at the cutting edge of change. Their difficulties are forcing society at large to rethink the traditional balance of the interests of the individual and society.Item The effect of pre-information on clinical inference and nursing actions : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University(Massey University, 1979) McIntosh, Muriel JoanA study to examine the effects of pre-information (what a nurse learns about a patient before they meet) on clinical inference and nursing actions, in a simulated nurse-patient situation. It was hypothesised that the nature of the pre-information will influence the way the patient is perceived, and the resulting nursing actions. The research was conducted in an obstetrical setting. There were 55 subjects within three groups. Two groups comprised student midwives, and the third group was of second year comprehensive nursing students near the completion of clinical experience in maternal and child health nursing. A five minute videotape sequence of a role-played post-natal patient was made for use in the research. All subjects were given the same initial pre-information, viewed the videotape and gave written descriptions of what they saw on the videotape and their response (as the nurse in the situation). This data provided a base-line for each subject. Subjects were then given additional pre-information concerning the patient's physical condition, her baby's condition, or formed part of the control group (receiving no additional pre-information). The procedure was repeated. These responses were then compared with the base-line for each subject. Responses were coded by means of content analysis. Group data was analysed using a multivariate one way analysis of variance graphical display. The results indicated support of the hypothesis that the nature of the pre-information does influence the way in which a nurse perceives a patient, and resulting nursing actions. Implications of these findings for nursing are discussed.Item Predicting the cognitive correlates of sun protective behaviour : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University(Massey University, 1999) Seymour, AndreaPrevious research has explored the cognitive correlates of sun protective behaviour and has found that intention to use skin protection is likely to affect an individuals decision to use such behaviour. Other research has used social cognition models such as the Theory of Planned Behaviour to predict the use of sun protective behaviours with mixed results. The present study examined sun protective behaviour on beaches in New Zealand (n=80) and used a modified version of the Jones, Abraham, Harris, Schulz & Chrispin (1998) model of sun protective behaviour to predict sunscreen use. This modified version of the model contained variables from social cognition models, including the Theory of Planned Behaviour and Stage models of Health Behaviour such as that of Gollwitzer (1993). Knowledge, norms, threat likelihood, perceived threat, self-efficacy and motivation to prevent negative effects of sun exposure together accounted for 36.5% of the variance in intention to use sunscreen. The findings also suggest that motivation to prevent negative effects of sun exposure and threat likelihood consistently have the strongest correlational relationship (of all the prior cognitions) with both intention and sunscreen behaviour. A measure of planning did not mediate the effects of intentions on sunscreen use as was originally expected, rather, intentions had the largest effect on sunscreen use. It is reasonable to assume that planning may not always be necessary for the prediction of sunscreen behaviours. It was concluded that a modified version of the sun protective behaviour model may be useful in predicting such behaviours but refinement is required of the model and its measures. Implications for further research and model modification are noted.Item The relationship of regret and the negative impact of life events on life satisfaction : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University(Massey University, 2003) Naidu, SiddarthaThe present study provided a comparative, descriptive account, across age and gender, of the content and incidence of regret along ten domains; namely, career, finance, leisure, health, family relationships, relationships with friends, intimate relationships, sexual relations, education, and spiritual or religious life. The relationships between regret and life satisfaction, negative impact of life events and life satisfaction, and regret and negative impact of life events were also investigated. The role of negative impact of life events as a mediator and moderator of the relationship between regret and life satisfaction was also explored. The questionnaire comprised an 11-item life satisfaction scale, a modified 46-item Life Experiences Survey, a specifically developed 83-item regret scale and a 20-item regret scale validity check. One hundred and sixty-one adults, comprising 71 males and 90 females, across an age range of 22 to 82 years, completed the questionnaire. Results showed that most respondents experienced some form of regret and these tended to cluster around Family Relationships, Health and Spiritual or Religious Life. Age and gender differences were found mainly at the domain level, with female and older adults reporting regret in more domains than males and younger adults. Overall levels of life satisfaction were clustered along a narrow band ranging from equally satisfied and dissatisfied, to pleased. The level of negative impact of life events showed no age or gender differences. Individuals experiencing greater regret and negative impact of life events, also reported lower life satisfaction. Individuals who reported greater negative impact of life events also reported experiencing higher levels of regret. Negative impact of life events was found to both moderate and partially mediate the relationship between regret and life satisfaction. The study also identified age and gender to be salient to regret research, especially at the domain level. It is suggested that future research focuses its efforts at the domain level, so that the relational complexities that exist between regret and life satisfaction that have hitherto remained hidden in research conducted at a global level can be unmasked.