Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Theory of Reward Stability and Group Cooperation

南卡罗来纳大学的David Melame Hyomin Park，这项研究调查了团队合作奖励的稳定性。公正理论表明，公正评价在群体成员的情绪和行为反应中起着关键作用。然而，很少有人注意到奖励随时间的稳定性在产生其知觉、情感和行为后果中的作用。然而，在现实世界中，大多数人属于一个群体，反复进行交换关系。为了理解公正评价，重要的是调查奖励在较长一段时间内稳定性的影响。负面偏向解释了负面事件比同等规模的正面影响对人们的评价有更大的影响。本研究将公平理论与消极偏差随时间变化的原理相结合，检验了报酬稳定性对公平评价和后续行为后果的影响。具体地说，该理论认为，一次过低的奖励不能在另一次用同样大小的过高奖励来补偿。相反，随着时间的推移，报酬的波动将减少对团队成员的公正评估。这预计会影响合作和其他与群体相关的行为。第一项研究测试了不稳定的奖励对公正评估的影响。这是第一个检验报酬一致性与公平评价之间关系的实证研究。第二项研究将测试不稳定奖励产生的公正评价如何产生情绪困扰，从而减少团队合作。通过这种方式，调查人员希望理解奖励制度的稳定性如何促进团队合作。这些发现将拓宽我们对群体过程的认识，并为未来关于公平理论和群体合作的研究奠定理论和实证基础。更广泛的影响这项研究对社会正义理论以及认知心理学和组织行为学都有社会学意义。结合这些不同领域的文献，这些发现有望促进对司法程序的跨学科研究。在社会层面上，研究结果与组织决策过程和政府政策相关。这项研究预测，不稳定的奖励制度将增加组织维持员工对团队承诺的额外成本。这项研究还表明，随着时间的推移，一项政策的不一致将使人们不仅认为政府不可靠，而且认为政府不公平。第三，研究为本科生提供了第一手的研究培训。

David Melamed Hyomin Park The University of South Carolina This research investigates the stability of rewards on group cooperation. Justice theory has shown that justice evaluations play a key role in producing emotional and behavioral reactions among group members. However, little attention has been paid to role of the stability of rewards over time in producing its perceptual, emotional, and behavioral consequences. In the real world, however, most people belong to a group and conduct exchange relations repeatedly. To understand justice evaluations, it is important to investigate the effects of the stability of rewards over an extended period of time. Negativity bias explains that a negative event has a stronger effect on people's evaluations than a positive effect of the same size. Combining justice theory with the principle of negativity bias over time, this research tests the effect of reward stability on justice evaluations and subsequent behavioral consequences. Specifically, the theory suggests that an under-reward at one time cannot be compensated for by the same size over-reward at another time. Rather, the fluctuation of rewards over time will reduce justice evaluations of group members. This is predicted to effect cooperation and other group-related behaviors.The first study tests the effect of unstable rewards on justice evaluations. This is liely the first empirical study which tests the relationship between reward consistency and justice evaluations. The second study will test how the justice evaluations generated by unstable rewards can produce emotional distress and consequently reduce group cooperation. In this way, the investigators expect to comprehend how the stability of a reward system facilitates group cooperation. These findings will broaden our knowledge of group processes and lay a theoretical and empirical foundation for future research regarding justice theory and group cooperation. Broader ImpactsThe research has sociological implications for social justice theory as well as cognitive psychology, and organizational behavior. Combining literatures across those diverse fields, the findings are expected to facilitate interdisciplinary research on justice processes. At the societal-level, the research results are relevant to organizational decision making processes and government policy. This study predicts that an unstable reward system will promote extra costs for the organization to maintain people's commitment to the group. The research also suggests implications for government policy that inconsistency of a policy over time will make people regard the government not only as unreliable, but also as unfair. Third, the research provides undergraduate students with first hand research training.