Search Results (11)

This study examines a theoretically revealing subtype of interrogatives in Chinese that are formulated with the first person singular pronoun wo ‘I’ as subject, termed first person formulated interrogatives. Unlike most interrogatives that are conventionally answer-seeking, first person interrogatives in Chinese are found to serve a dual function, operating either as answer-seeking or as non-answer-seeking actions. This duality raises a fundamental question for action ascription: how do participants interpret such grammatically underspecified interrogatives and respond accordingly? Drawing on 116 instances from a large corpus of Chinese telephone conversations, this study identifies the crucial role of interrogative markers and recipient-addressed terms in action ascription. Further analyses show that these two sets of morphosyntactic resources function by signaling the epistemic relationship between speakers and recipients as well as the recipient’s relevance to the matter at hand. Interrogative designs that imply low epistemic stance of speaker and high relevance of recipients are commonly treated by recipients as answer-seeking, whereas those that imply high epistemic stance of speakers are commonly treated by recipients as non-answer-seeking. These findings advance our understanding of the importance of optional, redundant linguistic resources in action ascription, highlighting that social action is not structurally pre-given but interactionally achieved through cumulative turn-design practices. Full article

Food waste poses a substantial global challenge, with intricate environmental, economic, and ethical ramifications. This study examines household food waste behaviors, emphasizing the interplay of personal responsibility, awareness of consequences, personal norms, and systemic barriers. Employing a thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with 60 households across Hungary’s Central and Western Transdanubian regions, this research explores factors influencing waste-reduction strategies across the pre-, mid-, and post-consumption phases. The thematic analysis of the interview data yielded key themes, including ascription of responsibility (AR), awareness of consequences (AC), personal norms (PN), demographic characteristics (DC), behavioral intentions (FWBI), and barriers (B). Participants identified barriers to waste reduction, such as impulse buying, poor storage practices, and limited knowledge of food rescue initiatives. Incorporating these barriers as a core variable deepens the understanding of systemic challenges, while stage-specific analysis illuminates the evolution of waste-reduction behaviors. These insights will inform targeted interventions, such as community programs, educational campaigns, and technology-driven solutions, including food rescue apps, to foster sustainable consumption. This study’s integration of behavioral theories with actionable strategies provides valuable guidance for policymakers and stakeholders seeking to reduce household food waste on a global scale. Full article

Sustainable consumer behavior encompasses any action that benefits both the environment and society. Recycling is a prime example of such behavior. However, there is a lack of research examining the connection between knowledge about recycling and recycling behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine factors associated with consumer recycling behavior under the guidance of an extended theory of planned behavior with an emphasis on the role of recycling knowledge. Using data collected from a national online survey in the U.S., results from the structural equation modeling showed that ascription of responsibility to others is negatively associated with recycling behavior, while behavior skill is positively associated with it. Also, both subjective and objective knowledge measures are positively associated with recycling behavior. In addition, subjective recycling knowledge moderates the relationships between attitude and recycling behavior. Full article

The current diverse opportunities available worldwide have caused an increase in the pursuit of changing jobs in the Philippines for greener pastures, leading to a decrease in organization efficiency due to career shifts or intentions for shifting. With the evident movement of workers, this study aimed to establish a model for determining the factors that influence job-seeking Filipino workers to shift careers and seek greener pastures by holistically analyzing variables using the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Value-Belief-Norm. A total of 210 valid responses among employees who shifted careers were collected through online surveys via social media platforms using purposive sampling. Partial least square structural equation modeling as the main multivariate tool was utilized to assess the hypothesized relationships. The findings of this study revealed that self-transcendence values in shaping personal norms and ascription to responsibility affected the intention to career shift or greener pasture-seeking behavior. In addition, subjective norms affected attitude, while organizational commitment negatively affected intention for greener pastures. It was seen that the factors that affect intention behavior the most among Filipinos were better opportunities, financial stability, workplace environment, and work–life balance—a notion that connects with the Protestant Work Ethics. It was evident that self-perception of a better career, growth, and overall profit merged to influence the intention of a career shift. It could be suggested that job rotation and job enhancement may reduce these intentions and lead to satisfaction among employees. Moreover, job roles may be reevaluated to identify (dis)satisfaction among employees, so the spearheading team may evaluate what actions are needed. Enhancement of skills and development through seminars and training may also be considered. Full article

This study takes us to the Greek diasporic community in Cairns, Far North Queensland, Australia. The data analyzed derive from audio-recorded conversations with first-generation Greek immigrants collected during fieldwork in 2013. Drawing on interactional linguistics and contact linguistics, this paper analyzes the prosody of bilingual discourse markers and bilingual repetition in Australian Greek talk-in-interaction. It is shown that the prosodic features of code switches, namely pitch, intensity and duration, shape action formation and ascription. In the case of bilingual discourse markers, pitch serves as a contextualization cue that conveys the speaker’s stance and frames the different functions of the code-switched items. In bilingual repetition, speakers mobilize duration and intensity to prosodically differentiate the first iteration delivered in English from the second iteration delivered in Greek and, thus, frame the interpretation of the code switch as participant-related. This study sheds light on the pragmatic aspects of the phonetics of the Greek variety spoken in Cairns, and demonstrates that prosody shapes the functions of language contact-induced speech behavior in specific interactional contexts. Full article

Positioning theory is a social theorization that aims to capture the dynamic analysis of conversations and discourses taking place in a social setting. Conversations as part of language assume interlocutors. As one engages in the interactive speech acts in the social setting, there comes the importance of interlocutors involved in these speech acts in creating a social reality, as language forms the knowledge of reality. Certain types of rights and duties can be observed in interactions between speakers and hearers in a social communicative context of interlocutors. The cluster of rights and duties, recognized in a certain social setting, can be termed as a position. One of the critical aspects is that positions are not always intentional or even conscious. Therefore, positioning theory has been redefined as a method of analysis with a focus on storylines. Storylines reveal implicit ascriptions and resistances of rights and duties through the performance of a variety of actions in a social setting where appropriateness of social acts are established and recognized by the participants engaged within the social situation. The education setting presents a dynamic situation where a variety of moral orders come into actions that set possibilities for different actors to engage in shifting positioning to accomplish certain educational actions. This entry presents the use of positioning theory in an educational setting. Full article

Based on norm activation theory, a research framework was built to explore the food waste reduction behavior when consumers eat out. The framework included behavior intentions and four psychological factors: awareness of consequence (persons understanding that actions have consequences), ascription of responsibility (duty to respond), self-efficacy (belief in own skills and capacity), personal norm (individuals’ values to act by socially accepted rules and reduce food waste as a code of conduct and moral obligation). A total of 514 samples from different regions of China were collected through an online survey platform, and the research framework was tested by applying structural equation modeling (SEM). This study found that ascription of responsibility and self-efficacy can effectively activate personal norm to reduce food waste. Personal norm and self-efficacy had a significant positive effect on behavior intentions to reduce food waste. Specifically, self-efficacy had the greatest effect on personal norm, followed by ascription of responsibility, and on behavior intentions to reduce food waste, followed by personal norm. Interestingly, while ascription of responsibility and self-efficacy had an impact on personal norm, awareness of consequence did not significantly influence personal norm to reduce food waste, suggesting that emotional factors are more likely to trigger personal norms that motivate consumers to take action to reduce food waste than cognitive factors. Based on the findings, several suggestions are provided for more effective interventions by restaurants to promote food waste reduction behavior, such as information intervention strategies, displaying information related to food consumption, and reducing the size of plates for some meals. Full article

The adoption of rice straw and stubble management approaches can be affected by various factors. To understand the psychological factors influencing Thai farmers’ adoption of rice straw and stubble management approaches, three integrated behavioral theories were employed: the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) and the Health Belief Model (HBM). Then, a practical communication framework was synthesized and proposed to promote rice straw utilization for social-ecological benefits to achieve more sustainable agricultural production. Through a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews with 240 local farmers, a statistical analysis was performed employing cross-tab, stepwise multiple linear regression, one-way ANOVA and descriptive content analysis using QDA lite miner software. The key results clearly showed that perceived pro-environmental personal norms, perceived cues to rice straw utilization, perceived behavioral control, perceived severity of rice straw burning, perceived ascription of responsibility, and the perceived benefits of rice straw utilization were significantly negatively influenced by burning, and that there was a significantly negative difference to non-burning approaches. Meanwhile, cost savings as perceived benefits of the current option of burning showed a significantly positive difference when compared with incorporation and free-duck grazing options. In communication strategies to promote rice straw utilization for achieving sustainable agriculture, key messages should highlight the clear steps of rice straw utilization, as well as the costs and benefits of each option in terms of economic, health, environmental and social perspectives. Moreover, messages designed to promote action knowledge and self-efficacy at the group level, to promote perceived responsibility via self-awareness and self-commitment, and convenient channels of communication to the farmers can help to achieve more effective non-burning rice straw and stubble management. Full article

We investigated the parameters of authenticity, balance, and challenge as viewed through the lens of the Kaleidoscope Career Model to discern the career motives of women who opted out and then returned to the workforce. We also were interested in comparing women and men in their leader practices. We triangulated quantitative and qualitative methods to explore these phenomena. First, in Study 1, 2009 individuals completed both the Kaleidoscope Career Self Inventory (the KCSI) as well as an abbreviated version of Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Practices Inventory (the LPI). Participants rated their needs for authenticity, balance, and challenge on the KCSI as well as their leader practices of challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, modeling the way, enabling others to act, and Encouraging the Heart. Women were found to exceed the leader practices of men, and women were most interested in authenticity. In Study 2, situational mapping and life history process was used to determine themes of eight high-achieving women who opted out. We interviewed an additional 15 women to deeply understand and assess their opt-out and re-entry experiences as well as “career shocks” they experienced upon returning to the workforce. Our second study offers a robust, deep, penetrating look into social ascription processes and endemic discriminatory social structures that hold women back from achieving advancement. To stop this “brain drain” of talent, we propose a series of actions for human resource professionals to develop the authentic leadership talent of women who reenter the workforce. Full article

An understanding of the environmental value-action gap between public servants at the central and local governments is essential for the effective implementation of environmental policies, which is limited in the extant literature. This study has adopted the norm activation model to explore the pro-environmental behaviors of public servants at the central and local governments in Taiwan. A total of 7567 valid questionnaires were collected, and significant differences were evident between public servants at the central (n = 3400) and local (n = 4167) governments in personal norms, awareness of consequences, ascription of responsibility, and pro-environmental behaviors. Findings revealed that personal norms were the key factors predicting pro-environmental behaviors of public servants at both the central and local governments. Results also indicated that the awareness of consequences by public servants at the central government had a direct effect on their pro-environmental behaviors, which in turn had a significant effect on their ascription of responsibility. In contrast, awareness of consequences by public servants at the local government had no significant direct effect on their pro-environmental behaviors and had only a weak positive effect on their ascription of responsibility. Full article

Improved perceptions towards landscape stewardship, at the local level, could help achieve more sustainable futures. However, little research has been done on the dimensions of landscape stewardship underlying such perceptions. Here we look at the perception of landscape values, place attachment, awareness of the adverse consequences human action might have on landscapes, and ascription of personal responsibility across Europe as well as how these dimensions are connected and influenced by personal capabilities and socio-cultural contexts. We conducted a cross-site comparison study, in six European municipalities, using a survey to capture residents’ levels of awareness, responsibility, and attachment as derived from a set of statements. Respondents were also asked to indicate the values they perceive in the local landscape from a given list. The data was analysed by combining frequency analysis, factor analysis, and contingency tables. In our sample of 726 respondents, stronger awareness was related to stronger ascription of personal responsibility, but a connection to place attachment was not clear. Perception of multiple landscape values was related to stronger awareness, responsibility, and place attachment. Meanwhile, awareness and responsibility were influenced by respondents’ occupation, levels of income and education, and socio-cultural context, whereas place attachment was linked to their relationship to the local area. We conclude that enhancing commitment towards landscape stewardship, at the local level, requires efforts focused on making environmental education more universal, implementing green options accessible to everyone, and people experientially engaging more actively with their local landscapes. Full article