Humanism and Normativism Two Fundamental Aspects of the Personal Worldview

1. Humanism and Normativism Two Fundamental Aspectsof the Personal Worldview Artur Nilsson Lund University, Sweden The 13th European Congress ofPsychology, July12th, 2013, Stockholm, Sweden

2. The studyworldviews: What is it and why do weneed it? The studyofworldviews addresses the person’s most basic constructs, assumptions, and scripts for understanding the world Specificbeliefs, attitudes, and valuesareembeddedwithinbroader systems ofmeaning Worldviewsprovidethe sourcesofsubjectivemeaning in personality, and, as such, needto be studied in theirown right The studyofworldviews and the studyoftraitsaremutuallyirreducible and equallybasictopersonalitypsychology

3. How do westudyworldviews? The most basic constructs, assumptions, and scripts are likely to be manifested in different domains of the worldview (e.g. view of human nature, moral convictions, epistemological orientations) If wecanfind broad worldview patterns, wecaninferbasicsourcesofmeaning Butprevious research on worldviewstendsto a priori segregate different domainsof the worldview withoutjustification Thereareexceptionstothisrule, mostnotably Silvan Tomkins’ theoryofHumanism and Normativism

4. Humanism: “Is man the measure, an end in himself, an active, creative, thinking, desiring, loving force in nature?” Normativism: “Or must man realize himself, attain his full stature only through struggle toward, participation in, conformity to a norm, a measure, an ideal essence basically prior to and independent of man?” Silvan Tomkins, 1963 Human nature: Basically good and valuable Basically bad and worthless Interpersonal: Affect: Epistemology: Society:

5. Goalsof the current research • Improving and evaluating the measurementof Humanism and Normativism • Betterunderstandingtheirorigins and explanatory power in relation tootherpsychological constructs and phenomena

6. How do wemeasure Humanism and Normativism? Tomkins (1964): ThePolarityScale– 59 item-pairs (118 items) Stone & Schaffner (1988): ThePS40 – 40 item-pairs (80 items) de St. Aubin (1996): The ModifiedPolarityScale– 80 likert items Nilsson (2013): Humanism-Normativism FacetScales– 60 likert items • Twolevelsofanalysis (cf. The Big Five) • Increasedcontent-validity • Increasedreliability

7. A key issue: Do humanism and normativism form (a) one bi-polar dimension, (b) two negatively correlated dimensions, or (c) two unrelated dimensions? Low correlations in previous research Sweden (MPS): N = 531, Chi2(29) = 180.9, p < .001, CFI = .91, RMSEA = .099 USA (HNFS): N = 491, Chi2(29) = 132.3, p < .001, CFI = .93, RMSEA = .085

8. Humanism and Normativism are distinct, hierarchically structured, and negatively related (across some facets)! They seem to, at least partly, represent different psychological systems ..although they often evoke opposing attitudes with regard to culturally situated ideological issues and clash with each other, thus molding each other, within cultural discourses But if they represent distinct systems, they should differ in their origins and explanatory power, as expressed in their relations to other relevant psychological constructs 1. Worldview constructs, 2. Political ideology, and 3. The Big Five

9. 1. Relations to other worldview constructs Normativism: mechanism, positivism, essentialism, static-world beliefs, certain knowledge epistemology, moral convictions emphasizing loyalty, authority, and purity, cynicism, and conservatism… Humanism: organicism, constructionism, transcendentalism, experientialist epistemology, spiritualism, moral convictions emphasizing care and fairness, preference for equality, and trust…

10. Hypothesized normativistic correlates Note: # p < .10, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

11. Hypothesized humanistic correlates Note: # p < .10, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

12. Howcan the uniqueaspectof normativism be explained? Onefunctionthatworldviews serve is toprovide a sense ofmeaning, stability, and self-esteemthatassuagesexistentialfears and anxietiesregardingdeath, uncertainty, change, meaninglessness, etc. (Becker, 1973; Berger & Luckmann, 1966; Dilthey, 1890; Jaspers, 1919; Jost et al., 2003; Greenberg, Pyszczinski, & Solomon, 1986; Proulx & Heine, 2006) Perhapsthey serve thisfunctionthrough normativism Becker (1973) on the need to feel significant (self-esteem): [the human being] must desperately justify himself as an object of primary value in the universe, he must stand out, be a hero, make the biggest possible contribution to world life, show that he counts more than anything or anyone else [..] The hope and belief is that the things that man creates in society are of lasting worth and meaning, that they outlive or outshine death and decay, that man and his products count.

13. 2. Relation topoliticalideology (with John Jost) Normativism is relatedto (right-wing) politicalidentitythroughresistanceto change, toleranceofinequality, system justification, lack ofopenness, moral concernwithloyalty, authority, and purity, and lack ofconcernwith harm and rights Humanism is relatedto (left-wing) politicalidentitythroughpreference for equality, emotionality, honesty-humility, and moral concernwith harm and rights

14. USA, N = 212, Chi2(7) = 6.65, p = .47, CFI = 1.00, RMSEA = .000 Sweden, N= 332, Chi2(7) = 6.70, p = .15, CFI = .997, RMSEA = .045

15. 3. Relation to the Big Five Aspects (mixed online sample, N = 183) Note: * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001

16. Futuredirections • Evaluate the humanism and normativism scales in different cultures • Investigate the psychologicaloriginsof humanism and normativism • Furtherinvestigatetheir explanatory power, e.g. ideologicalphenomena, clinicalpsychology, educationalpsychology • Investigate the causal relations betweentraits and worldviews • Studyworldviewsmoresystematically in general, going beyond humanism and normativism

17. Thankyou for your attention! Contact: artur.nilsson@psy.lu.se