Joyce S Pang

• PhD, University of Michigan
• Professor (Associate) at Nanyang Technological University

Previous research has shown that employees tend to react more positively to corrective feedback from supervisors to the extent they perceive that they were treated with empathy, respect, and concern towards fair interpersonal treatment in receiving the feedback information. Then, to facilitate effective supervisory feedback and coaching, it would b...

Test anxiety refers to a specific type of anxiety that is experienced in tests, exams, and other similar testing situations that evaluate one’s achievement. Research in test anxiety has been pursued under two traditions—the test anxiety and achievement motivation research traditions—more or less independently. The test anxiety research tradition is...

Goal complexes, which are formed by pairing standards of competence strivings with their underlying reasons, are essential to an understanding of achievement goal regulation. This paper examines goal complexes that cross other-approach and other-avoidance goals with the approach-avoidance dimensions of Big Three motives as underlying reasons. 220 u...

Implicit motives are key drivers of individual differences but are time-consuming to assess, requiring many hours of work by trained human coders. In this paper we report on the use of machine learning to automate the coding of implicit motives. We assess the performance of three neural network models on three unseen datasets in order to establish...

Objective: To assess the frequency and intensity of arts engagement inclusive of active and passive engagements in arts, culture and heritage activities among Singaporean adults aged 50 and above, and examine the relationships between participatory art and holistic well-being. Design: Cross-sectional stratified household survey. Setting: All resid...

Objectives Study 1 investigated if the elderly’s perception of experiencing life problems moderates the effect of spousal living arrangements on their mental health, while study 2 first assessed loneliness as a mediator on the spousal living arrangements and mental health relationship, and then tested 2 moderated-mediation models whereby perceived...

This study attempts to map an identified set of factors to two groups of violent extremists who have been influenced by radical propaganda materials online and made the travel to join a foreign conflict: individuals who have travelled to join ISIS, and individuals who have travelled to join kurdish militia groups. The aim is to understand the diffe...

Given the current difficulties in countering radicalisation (e.g., limited manpower, difficulty in identifying and tracking person of interest by authorities), community reporting of suspected radicalisation to violence is an utmost necessity. This would facilitate the early identification of radicalised individuals, which involves procedures to as...

The chapter aims to provide an opinion on major challenges for ongoing personality research on cyber security, especially in the area of insider threat. While research on the prevention and perpetuation of insider threat activity within cyberspace has grown substantially in the recent decade, there remain many unanswered challenges and unchartered...

This study will attempt to map a set of personality and psycho-social factors to the social media postings of two groups of individuals who were influenced by propaganda material about or from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The aim of this study is to see if – and how – the social media postings of the individual actor can be used to d...

We examined indirect health-related social control and the underlying mechanisms of its association with psychological functioning in patients with type 2 diabetes. Singaporean late middle-aged and older adults (N = 199) completed questionnaires measuring indirect social control, self-efficacy, internal diabetes locus of control, and psychological...

This study aimed to examine the effects of gambling motives and competitive gambling outcomes on opponent likeability and targeted physical aggression. We hypothesized that (a) losers would perceive their opponents to be less likeable and (b) would be physically more aggressive toward their opponents. Opponent likeability was proposed to mediate th...

This cross-sectional study examined the role of family members’ use of persuasion versus pressure as distinct forms of social control by which family members attempt to encourage better diabetes management among older adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). The study also examined how self-efficacy might moderate the relationship between persu...

While there is evidence from the self-determination perspective for the mediation of basic needs satisfaction in the materialism–well-being link, no research to date has attempted to examine the relative contribution of the three needs to the mediating effect. Given that the predictive value of psychological needs on well-being depends upon the mat...

The study examined the mechanisms underlying the link between socioeconomic status and subjective well-being and explored the role of social activities using a representative sample of older adults (N = 2773) in Shanghai, China. Results show that frailty mediated the relationship between socioeconomic status and subjective well-being, and social ac...

Abstract This study examined the relationship between 4 conceptions of happiness and life satisfaction in a sample of 2715 university students across 14 national groups. The 4 conceptions were self-transcendence, self-directed hedonism, conservation, and self-enhancement, which emerged from a principal component analysis of a 19-item scale generate...

The scale can be downloaded below ...original articles on fear of happiness-> https://bit.ly/3inxHeM ------ https://rb.gy/rqyjro

Previous research has indicated robust relationships between implicit motives and various indices of career preference and performance, with the implicit need for power (nPow) and the implicit need for achievement (nAch) found to associate with leadership and entrepreneurship, respectively. However, relatively little work has examined the relations...

Religious priming has been found to have both positive and negative consequences, and recent research suggests that the activation of God-related and community-related religious cognitions may cause outgroup prosociality and outgroup derogation respectively. The present research sought to examine whether reminders of God and religion have different...

Vignettes presented to male and females participants in study 2. (PDF)

Essays used in the essay evaluation task in study 1. (PDF)

Immigration is a global phenomenon, yet comparatively few psychological investigations of anti-immigrant prejudice have been conducted in East Asia, a region of high economic growth that is set to become a leading destination for international migrants. Over two studies, we examined Singaporean attitudes towards four prominent immigrant groups: C...

The chapter aims to provide an opinion on major challenges for ongoing personality research on cyber security, especially in the area of insider threat. While research on the prevention and perpetuation of insider threat activity within cyberspace has grown substantially in the recent decade, there remain many unanswered challenges and unchartered...

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis plays a key role in the physiological response to stress, preparing the organism for appropriate action. While some research has examined universally relevant threats, other research has suggested that individual differences may moderate the relationship between stress and cortisol release, such that so...

The belief that happiness is fragile—that it is fleeting and may easily turn into less favourable states—is common across individuals and cultures. However, not much is known about this belief domain and its structure and correlates. In the present study, we use multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel modelling to investigate the mea...

Theories of implicit motivation generally assume that motivationally-relevant situations contain affectively-rewarding incentives or affectively-aversive disincentives, and that motivated action elicits anticipatory as well as consummatory affect. Additionally, McClelland (1975) hypothesized that each of the Big Three motives is linked to a specifi...

A survey of the cultural notions related to happiness and the existing empirical evidence indicate that some individuals endorse the belief that happiness, particularly an immoderate degree of it, should be avoided. These beliefs mainly involve the general notion that happiness may lead to bad things happening. Using multigroup confirmatory factor...

Ingroup religious priming has been shown to increase prejudice in American Christians, but it is currently unknown whether this effect can be generalized to other religions and cultures. The present research assessed the effects of religious priming on attitudes toward religious and cultural outgroups in Christian and Buddhist students at a Singapo...

The picture story exercise (PSE), in which participants write imaginative stories in response to motivationally-arousing images, is the most commonly-used tool for the assessment of implicit motives. Despite decades of research into the qualities of effective individual picture cues, much less is known about the desirable properties of overall pict...

The authors investigated the patterns of reactive and proactive aggression exhibited by young male (N = 604) and female (N = 544) adolescents in Singapore. Self-report measures of reactive and proactive aggression, behavioral and emotional adjustment, parenting styles, and delinquency were administered to students aged 13–14. Using cluster analysis...

Previous research has indicated that both cognitive and behavioral variables mediate the positive effect of optimism on quality of life; yet few attempts have been made to accommodate these constructs into a single explanatory framework. Adopting Fredrickson's broaden-and-build perspective, we examined the relationships between optimism, self-rated...

The study tested a moderated mediation model to examine the mechanisms underlying the link between media exposure and adolescent smoking intention by utilizing a modification of cultivation theory. A total of 12,586 non-current smoker adolescents in California were included in the analysis. Results showed that media exposure was positively related...

Background: College drinking is a global health concern. However, most studies originate from countries with high alcohol consumption. In the United States, college students overpour a standard alcoholic drink, yet it is unclear if this remains true in countries with low alcohol consumption. Additionally, in college, peer influence is the greatest...

Objective: This study examined the psychometric properties of the Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT) in 844 Hong Kong Chinese adolescents (37.7% boys) with mean age of 15.9 (standard deviation = 3.5) years. Methods: Demographic items, Internet use habits, IAT, and the Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale (CIAS-R) were administered. 3 percent...

This study investigates the processes through which achievement motivation guides the selection of coping strategies which in turn affects environmental mastery post-failure feedback. Seventy-six college students received failure feedback after completing a professional aptitude test. Findings showed that gender moderated the relationship between H...

This study examined the associations of body esteem with gender, age, and Body Mass Index (BMI) among 905 Hong Kong adolescents using the Body-Esteem Scale (BES). Older age, male gender and lower BMI were associated with better body esteem. Multiple regression analyses indicated significant main effects of gender, age and weight on BES-Total. Signi...

Achievement Need (nAch) is a recurrent concern to excel or to do better at a task for the intrinsic satisfaction of doing better. It is measured using nondeclarative measures such as the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), or more commonly using the Picture Story Exercise (PSE; McClelland, Koestner, & Weinberger, 1989). McClelland, Atkinson, Clark, a...

This chapter discusses the major topics such as picture selection, administration, coding systems, and data processing that are related to usage of the Picture Story Exercise (PSE), a major content coding method for assessing implicit motives. It offers a step-by-step guide description of different aspects of preparing, administering, scoring, and...

This chapter discusses major theoretical and methodological landmarks concerning n Achievement, such as behavioral and psychological characteristics of achievementmotivated individuals, developmental considerations, motivational incentives, and assessment paradigms. The chapter also discusses the development of a content-coding measure of hope of s...

The authors examined relations between implicit and explicit Hope of Success (HS) and Fear of Failure (FF) and memory and liking for successful and unsuccessful peers. Implicit motives were expected to predict memory and explicit motives to predict liking of peers. Results from 106 American and 79 Singaporean students supported the implicit–explici...

Psychologists know a lot about the political and ideological correlates of people scoring high on authoritarianism. However, psychologists have less knowledge about such people's everyday pursuits. In the present study, the authors examined authoritarian interest in film, live events, music, and reading. A predictable pattern of correlates emerged....

The authors build an integrated model of the process by which academic sexual harassment undermines women's well-being; also examined is harasser power as a potential moderator of this process. Data from 1,455 college women suggest that sexual harassment experiences are associated with increased psychological distress, which then relates to lower a...

The aim of this research is to develop and validate a thematic apperception-based, content-coding measure of hope of success (HS) and fear of failure (FF) motivation. In study 1, ninety-six participants completed pre- and post- administrations of the Picture Story Exercise (PSE) after HS or FF was aroused by experimental manipulation of performance...

We assessed implicit needs for power, achievement, and affiliation in 323 U.S. college students using a Picture Story Exercise (PSE; McClelland, Koestner, & Weinberger, 1989) consisting of 6 picture cues and Winter's (1994) content coding system. Picture cues differed markedly in the amount of motive imagery they elicited and picture motive profile...

Participants (N = 216) were administered a differential implicit learning task during which they were trained and tested on 3 maximally distinct 2nd-order visuomotor sequences, with sequence color serving as discriminative stimulus. During training, 1 sequence each was followed by an emotional face, a neutral face, and no face, using backward maski...

Two studies examined interactions of implicit power motivation and experimentally varied victory or defeat in a contest on implicit learning of a visuomotor sequence associated with the contest outcome and changes in testosterone and self-reported affect. In men and women, power motivation predicted enhanced learning (sequence-execution accuracy) a...

Past research shows that authoritarian individuals hold strong opinions about a variety of political and social issues, such as race relations and military conflict. What has not been established, though, is the amount of general political knowledge that authoritarians possess. In this study, three groups of college students were administered Altem...