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Essay, Pages: 3, Psychology

Potential Moderator and Mediator

Potential Moderator and Mediator

In social and political sciences and social psychology, knowing the contributing factors to a range of consequences is significant for developing effective interventions and policies. Scholars in these and adjacent subjects regularly investigate two categories of factors that can affect a relation between an independent variable and a dependent variable: a mediator and a moderator. A mediator explains a mechanism through which one variable affects a second variable, in a manner of speaking, describing “how” or “why” a relation is obtained: Potential Moderator and Mediator.

A moderator, in contrast, affects a relationship’s intensity or direction between two factors, in a manner of speaking, describing “when” or “for whom” a relation obtains (Baron & Kenny, 1986). This paper discusses potential mediators and moderators in four disparate study findings, with definitions and supporting evidence.

Scenario 1: High Satisfaction with One’s Direct Supervisor Leads to Lower Levels of Employee Turnover

A potential mediator in such a scenario is organizational commitment. Organizational commitment is a reflection of workers’ level of emotional affiliation with an organization, and such can cause workers to work for or leave an organization. Satisfaction with a direct supervisor can cause an individual to become even more committed to an organization, and in such a scenario, an individual will be less likely to have a propensity for turnover. High supervisor satisfaction will make a work environment positive, and such a positive work environment will make workers loyal and part of a family.

Empirical studies have confirmed that supervisor satisfaction will contribute positively to organizational commitment (Meyer et al., 1993). As workers become increasingly attached to a company through a positive working relationship with a supervisor, such workers will be less likely to leave an organization.

On the other hand, a potential moderator for such a relationship can be an individual’s personality traits, such as neuroticism. As studies show, neuroticism tends to make an individual have a negative outlook and become sensitive toward work-related factors (Judge et al., 2002). In such a case, neuroticism can serve as a moderator for the role of supervisor satisfaction in terms of turnover.

High neuroticism in an individual can cause the individual to leave even when satisfied with a supervisor, for possibly becoming sensitive toward getting stressed out or disliking any other work-related factors. Neuroticism can also make an individual with less satisfaction toward a supervisor less willing to leave, even when not satisfied with a supervisor.

Scenario 2: High Levels of Parental Reading Are Associated with Faster Cognitive Development in Young Children

The mediator in this scenario will be parental-child interaction quality. Interaction between parents and children during reading sessions can become a significant activity for clarifying parental reading and its contribution toward cognitive development. As parents read with children, they will most likely have a discussion, pose questions, and make clarifications challenging and enhancing thinking and learning in a child.

All such interactions will contribute to language development, reading, and critical thinking capabilities. High-quality reading sessions have been proven to promote cognitive development in children (Lanjekar et al., 2022). Thus, such high-quality interactions can serve as a mediator between parental reading and cognitive development.

A potential moderator for such a relationship can include early cognitive abilities in a child. Children with early higher cognitive abilities can benefit most from parental reading compared to children with early lesser cognitive abilities. Empirical studies have confirmed that cognitive abilities in children can modulate a child’s capacity for information gained in its environment, including educational interventions such as reading (Tucker-Drob et al., 2013).

In such a case, such children with early high cognitive abilities can understand and consolidate information acquired through reading in parents at a rapid pace in relation to children with early lesser capacities, and in turn, modulate parental reading’s impact on cognitive development.

Scenario 3: Being Socially Excluded Leads to Increases in Aggressive Behavior

The mediator in such a scenario is feelings of frustration and/or humiliation. On social exclusion, one can develop feelings of anger, frustration, and humiliation. These feelings can then manifest in forms of aggressivity, with individuals acting out in a desperate attempt at regaining a semblance of mastery or in a search for retribution for having been wronged through exclusion.

In a study conducted by Twenge et al. (2001), social exclusion generates heightened negativity in terms of emotion, and such negativity can engender heightened aggressivity in behavior. Hence, frustration derived through exclusion works to act as a mediator between exclusion and aggressivity.

Conversely, social support could be a potential moderator for such a relationship. With high social support, one could possibly not respond with aggression when socialized out. Social support yields emotional assets, and such can serve to act as a buffer for social exclusion, and one can respond in a healthy state.

For example, one with a best friend or a family member in whom one can confide could possibly have an easier time controlling one’s feelings and not respond with aggression. Social support has been proven to serve a role to counteract social exclusion, reducing one’s aggression propensity (Baumeister & Leary, 2017). Social support could, therefore, serve to act in a moderation role for social exclusion and aggression through a protective barrier.

Scenario 4: Defendants Who Wear Glasses Are Less Likely to Be Convicted by Juries as Being Guilty of Committing Violent Crimes

A potential mediator in such a scenario is intelligence or trustworthiness in terms of perception. Wearing glasses tends to stereotype an individual as smarter, responsible, or reliable. Perceptions such as these could influence character judgments about a defendant and, in the long term, about innocence or guilt.

Empirical studies have confirmed that people perceive positive personality traits such as intelligence when looking at an individual with glasses, and such an individual could, therefore, gain a positive perception in a jury’s eyes (Hellström & Tekle, 1994). Perceiving an individual with intelligence or trust, therefore, could serve as a mediator between wearing glasses and a reduced probability of a conviction.

A potential moderator for such a relation could be the jury’s pre-conceived dispositions and biases toward looks. Some jurors will have a strong bias toward disliking individuals who do not resemble traditional conceptions of trust and professionalism, and yet others will value a defendant’s looks less in deciding a case. For instance, jurors who value looks much will pay a lot of regard to having glasses and will possibly not convict a defendant who is wearing one.

On the other hand, less appearance-conscious jurors will not allow such a consideration in deciding a case. Empirical studies have confirmed that individual biases and dispositions of a jury can have a strong impact on shaping trials, including a determination of a defendant’s culpability (Young et al., 2014). Hence, a jury bias could modulate the impact of wearing a frame in terms of the proportion of convictions.

Conclusion

In this paper, four scenarios for potential mediators and moderators have been considered: a mediator is a variable explaining a variable’s impact via a specific mechanism, and a moderator is a variable that affects a relation’s direction and/or intensity. For each scenario, a mediator and moderator have been postulated and backed with academic evidence. It is significant in developing an awareness of mediator and moderator in research output in terms of contributing toward an improvement in social and psychological sciences, in that it aids in explaining when and in what manner specific variables affect an outcome.

References

Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(6), 1173–1182.

Baumeister, R. F., & Leary, M. R. (2017). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Interpersonal Development, 57–89. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351153683-3

Hellström, Å., & Tekle, J. (1994). Person perception through facial photographs: Effects of glasses, hair, and beard on judgments of occupation and personal qualities. European Journal of Social Psychology, 24(6), 693–705. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420240606

Judge, T. A., Erez, A., Bono, J. E., & Thoresen, C. J. (2002). Are measures of self-esteem, neuroticism, locus of control, and generalized self-efficacy indicators of a common core construct? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(3), 693–710. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.3.693

Lanjekar, P. D., Joshi, S. H., Lanjekar, P. D., & Wagh, V. (2022). The effect of parenting and the parent-child relationship on a child’s cognitive development: A literature review. Cureus, 14(10), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.30574

Meyer, J. P., Allen, N. J., & Smith, C. A. (1993). Commitment to organizations and occupations: Extension and test of a three-component conceptualization. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(4), 538–551. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.4.538

Tucker-Drob, E. M., Briley, D. A., & Harden, K. P. (2013). Genetic and environmental influences on cognition across development and context. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22(5), 349–355. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721413485087

Twenge, J. M., Baumeister, R. F., Tice, D. M., & Stucke, T. S. (2001). If you can’t join them, beat them: Effects of social exclusion on aggressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(6), 1058–1069. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.6.1058

Young, D. M., Levinson, J. D., & Sinnett, S. (2014). Innocent until primed: Mock jurors’ racially biased response to the presumption of innocence. PLoS ONE, 9(3), e92365. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0092365

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Question

Describe a potential mediator and moderator that could apply to each research finding below.

Clearly explain the concept of mediator and moderator before you begin describing a potential mediator and moderator in each research scenario. Defining mediators and moderators is a separate grading criterion on the grading rubric.

In each research scenario below, define the mediator and moderator. Include evidence in your narrative to support your definitions of the mediator and moderator for each research situation.

  1. High satisfaction with one’s direct supervisor leads to lower levels of employee turnover. In other words, employees who are highly satisfied with their direct supervisor are less likely to leave an organization than employees who are dissatisfied with their direct supervisor (DeConinck, 2009).
  2. High levels of parental reading are associated with faster cognitive development in young children. In other words, children whose parents read to them more show faster cognitive development than children whose parents read to them less often (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2007).
  3. Being socially excluded leads to increases in aggressive behavior. Research has found that when people are excluded by others, they are more likely to behave aggressively, even to people who did not initially exclude them (Twenge et al., 2001).
  4. Defendants who wear glasses are less likely to be convicted by juries as being guilty of committing violent crimes (Brown et al., 2008).

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Potential Moderator and Mediator

Potential Moderator and Mediator

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