Franciska Krings - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Franciska Krings

Swiss Journal of Psychology, 2001

The possibility of a historically determined shift in developmental tasks of young adulthood was ... more The possibility of a historically determined shift in developmental tasks of young adulthood was investigated. Personal goals at age 25 of participants from three cohorts spanning twentieth-century Swiss history were studied in an interview combining current and retrospective measures. Members of the oldest cohort (Between the Wars) were born beween 1920 and 1925. Members of the middle cohort (Early Baby

Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 2014

Immigrants play an increasingly important role in local labor markets. Not only do they grow stea... more Immigrants play an increasingly important role in local labor markets. Not only do they grow steadily in number but also in cultural, educational, and skill diversity, underlining the necessity to distinguish between immigrant groups when studying discrimination against immigrants. We examined immigrant employees&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39; subtle discrimination experiences in a representative sample in Switzerland, controlling for dispositional influences. Results showed that mainly members of highly competitive immigrant groups, from immediate neighbor countries, experienced workplace incivility and that these incivility experiences were related to higher likelihoods of perceived discrimination at work. This research confirms recent accounts that successful but disliked groups are particularly likely to experience subtle interpersonal discrimination.

Swiss Journal of Psychology, 2014

Public Understanding of Science, 2011

Lay perceptions of collectives (e.g., groups, organizations, countries) implicated in the 2009 H1... more Lay perceptions of collectives (e.g., groups, organizations, countries) implicated in the 2009 H1N1 outbreak were studied. Collectives serve symbolic functions to help laypersons make sense of the uncertainty involved in a disease outbreak. We argue that lay representations are dramatized, featuring characters like heroes, villains and victims. In interviews conducted soon after the outbreak, 47 Swiss respondents discussed the risk posed by H1N1, its origins and effects, and protective measures. Countries were the most frequent collectives mentioned. Poor, underdeveloped countries were depicted as victims, albeit ambivalently, as they were viewed as partly responsible for their own plight. Experts (physicians, researchers) and political and health authorities were depicted as heroes. Two villains emerged: the media (viewed as fear mongering or as a puppet serving powerful interests) and private corporations (e.g., the pharmaceutical industry). Laypersons' framing of disease threat diverges substantially from official perspectives.

PLoS ONE, 2012

Background: The 2009 H1N1 pandemic left a legacy of mistrust in the public relative to how outbre... more Background: The 2009 H1N1 pandemic left a legacy of mistrust in the public relative to how outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases are managed. To prepare for future outbreaks, it is crucial to explore the phenomenon of public trust in the institutions responsible for managing disease outbreaks. We investigated the evolution of public trust in institutions during and after the 2009 pandemic in Switzerland. We also explored respondents' perceptions of the prevention campaign and the roles of the government and media.

Journal of Research in Personality, 2009

We investigate the relation between personality (Big Five) and positive and negative life events ... more We investigate the relation between personality (Big Five) and positive and negative life events as predictors of subjective well-being (SWB) in a sample of 766 young, middle-aged, and old adults. Analyses comprised data on personality, SWB, and reconstructed positive and negative life events. Results for the total sample indicate a strong relation between neuroticism and SWB, and an important influence of reconstructed life events on SWB with a stronger effect for negative as compared to positive events. Age differences in the prediction of SWB emerge for personality and life events: extraversion is only a predictor of SWB in young adults and the effect of neuroticism is more pronounced in old adults. Moreover, the influence of negative life events on SWB is stronger in young and middle-aged adults as compared to old adults. These results emphasize the need to study dispositional and situational variables across the life span in order to better understand the underlying mechanisms of SWB.

Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 2010

Integrating evolutionary and social representations theories, the current study examines the rela... more Integrating evolutionary and social representations theories, the current study examines the relationship between perceived disease threat and exclusionary immigration attitudes in the context of a potential avian influenza pandemic. This large-scale disease provides a realistic context for investigating the link between disease threat and immigration attitudes. The main aim of this cross-sectional study (N ¼ 412) was to explore mechanisms through which perceived chronic and contextual disease threats operate on immigration attitudes. Structural equation models show that the relationship between chronic disease threat (germ aversion) and exclusionary immigration attitudes (assimilationist immigration criteria, health-based immigration criteria and desire to reduce the proportion of foreigners) was mediated by ideological and normative beliefs (social dominance orientation, belief in a dangerous world), but not by contextual disease threat (appraisal of avian influenza pandemic threat). Contextual disease threat only predicted support for health-based immigration criteria. The conditions under which real-life disease threats influence intergroup attitudes are scrutinized. Convergence and dissimilarity of evolutionary and social representational approaches in accounting for the link between disease threat and immigration attitudes are discussed.

Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2012

ABSTRACT Building on an evolutionary approach to outgroup avoidance, this study shows relations b... more ABSTRACT Building on an evolutionary approach to outgroup avoidance, this study shows relations between perceived disease salience and beliefs in the efficacy of avoiding foreigners as protective measures, in the context of a real-life pandemic risk; i.e., avian influenza. People for whom avian influenza was salient and who held unfavourable attitudes toward foreigners were more likely to believe that avoiding contact with foreigners protects against infection. This finding suggests that individual differences in social attitudes moderate evolved mechanisms relating threat of disease to outgroup avoidance.

Journal of Adult Development, 2008

This study investigated the influence of changing socio-historical conditions on personal goals i... more This study investigated the influence of changing socio-historical conditions on personal goals in young adulthood. It was hypothesized that socio-historical changes related to individualization have resulted in shifts in goal pursuit. Participants from three birth cohorts reconstructed their important goals when they were 20 years old. Members of the oldest cohort were born between 1920 and 1925. Members of the middle cohort were born between 1945 and 1950. Members of the youngest cohort were born between 1970 and 1975. Goal content, the degree to which goals were perceived as being shared by members of the same cohort (social sharedness), perceived control over goal attainment, success in attainment, and life satisfaction at age 25 were measured in a retrospective study. Results show consistent shifts over time. Whereas members of older cohorts mentioned goals related to classical developmental tasks, members of younger cohorts mentioned more individualistic, self-related goals and goals related to education. The processes through which goal pursuit influenced life satisfaction also changed. Perceived social sharedness of goals was a direct predictor of life satisfaction for the oldest cohort. For the younger cohorts, perceived control over goal attainment influenced success which in turn influenced life satisfaction. These changes support the contention that developmental tasks and processes are historically variant.

Human Development, 2001

... 7. Brandtstädter, J. (1997). Action, culture and development: Points of convergence. Culture ... more ... 7. Brandtstädter, J. (1997). Action, culture and development: Points of convergence. Culture and Psychology, 3, 335352. 8. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. ... (1987). Biographie und Psychologie. [Biography and psychology]. Berlin: Springer. 31. ...

European Journal of Epidemiology, 2011

Following the recent avian influenza and pandemic (H1N1) 2009 outbreaks, public trust in medical ... more Following the recent avian influenza and pandemic (H1N1) 2009 outbreaks, public trust in medical and political authorities is emerging as a new predictor of compliance with officially recommended protection measures. In a two-wave longitudinal survey of adults in French-speaking Switzerland, trust in medical organizations longitudinally predicted actual vaccination status 6 months later, during the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 vaccination campaign. No other variables explained significant amounts of variance. Trust in medical organizations also predicted perceived efficacy of officially recommended protection measures (getting vaccinated, washing hands, wearing a mask, sneezing into the elbow), as did beliefs about health issues (perceived vulnerability to disease, threat perceptions). These findings show that in the case of emerging infectious diseases, actual behavior and perceived efficacy of protection measures may have different antecedents. Moreover, they suggest that public trust is a crucial determinant of vaccination behavior and underscore the practical importance of managing trust in disease prevention campaigns.

British Journal of Social Psychology, 2013

Much research studies how individuals cope with disease threat by blaming out-groups and protecti... more Much research studies how individuals cope with disease threat by blaming out-groups and protecting the in-group. The model of collective symbolic coping (CSC) describes four stages by which representations of a threatening event are elaborated in the mass media: awareness, divergence, convergence, and normalization. We used the CSC model to predict when symbolic in-group protection (othering) would occur in the case of the avian influenza (AI) outbreak. Two studies documented CSC stages and showed that othering occurred during the divergence stage, characterized by an uncertain symbolic environment. Study 1 analysed media coverage of AI over time, documenting CSC stages of awareness and divergence. In Study 2, a two-wave repeated cross-sectional survey was conducted just after the divergence stage and a year later. Othering was measured by the number of foreign countries erroneously ticked by participants as having human victims. Individual differences in germ aversion and social dominance orientation interacted to predict othering during the divergence stage but not a year later. Implications for research on CSC and symbolic in-group protection strategies resulting from disease threat are discussed.

Zeitschrift Fur Arbeits-und Organisationspsychologie, 2009

Academy of Management Learning and Education, The

We present an approach to teaching evidence-based management (EBMgt) that trains future managers ... more We present an approach to teaching evidence-based management (EBMgt) that trains future managers how to produce local evidence. Local evidence is causally interpretable data, collected on-site in companies to address a specific business problem. Our teaching method is a variant of problem-based learning, a method originally developed to teach evidence-based medicine. Following this method, students learn an evidence-based problem-solving cycle for addressing actual business cases. Executing this cycle, students use and produce scientific evidence through literature searches and the design of local, experimental tests of causal hypotheses. We argue the value of teaching EBMgt with a focus on producing local evidence, how it can be taught, and what can be taught. We conclude by outlining our contribution to the literature on teaching EBMgt and by discussing limitations of our approach.