Most psychological studies rely on student samples. Students are usually considered as more homogenous than representative samples both within and across countries. However, little is known about the nature of the differences between student and representative samples. This is an important gap, also because knowledge about the degree of difference between student and representative samples may allow to infer from the former to the latter group. Across 59 countries and 12 personality (Big-5) and attitudinal variables we found that differences between students and general public were partly substantial, incoherent, and contradicted previous findings. Two often used cultural variables, embeddedness and intellectual autonomy, failed to explain the differences between both groups across countries. We further found that students vary as much as the general population both between and within countries. In summary, our results indicate that generalizing from students to the general public can be problematic when personal and attitudinal variables are used, as students vary mostly randomly from the general public. Findings are also discussed in terms of the replication crisis within psychology.

Digitalization of knowledge work is essential for today’s organizations, responding to diversified employee needs. Many organizations are already implementing some form of flexibility to help workers perform work and non-work duties, while maintaining high productivity. While these changes in workplaces, “New Ways of Working (NWW)”, have been discussed in the literature, a systematic appraisal of evidence of NWW has not been conducted. Relating to poor work-related mental health worldwide, this systematic review analyzed the psychological impacts of NWW, and the quality and quantity of NWW research. Following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, NWW studies targeting psychological outcomes were evaluated. Initial literature search on ProQuest, PsycINFO, Science Direct, and Google Scholar retrieved 308 titles, from which seven articles fulfilled all inclusion criteria. Our appraisal revealed that NWW research evaluated diverse psychological outcomes. While NWW can help workers’ engagement, work-related flow, and connectivity among staff, NWW can also increase blurred work-home boundary, fatigue, and mental demands. The quality of NWW research was overall medium, needing more rigorous studies. Our findings can inform decision-makers in the workplace to effectively implement NWW, and researchers to improve the quality and the usefulness of future NWW studies.

Values are often used to examine cultural variability. Yet, little research has focused on the functions that values fulfill and the implications of these functions for understanding cultural variability. This paper describes a theoretical analysis of the functions of values based on 2 widely accepted pan-cultural functions: values guide actions and express needs. The theoretical model proposes that the first function differentiates values according to the goals pursued (personal, central, or social goals), whereas the second function differentiates values according to the needs expressed (survival or thriving needs). A combination of these 2 functions yields 6 basic values (structural hypothesis) with specific marker values (content hypothesis). Support for the hypotheses was obtained in a large convenience national sample (N = 5,176) of Brazilian university students with confirmatory factor analysis and multidimensional scaling. Central values were located between personal and social values, and survival and thriving values separated into 2 regions. Theoretical and cross-cultural implications of the findings, especially the universality of the general structure of motivational aims, are discussed, along with interpretations of existing value scales from a functional perspective.Keywords: human values, functions, structure, content, Brazil Los valores se emplean para examinar la variabilidad cultural, pero ha sido escasa la investigación centrada en las funciones de los valores y sus implicaciones para comprender la variabilidad cultural. El artículo analiza teóricamente las funciones de los valores basado en 2 funciones panculturales ampliamente aceptadas: los valores guían acciones y expresan necesidades. El modelo teórico propone que la primera función distingue a los valores según las metas perseguidas (personales, centrales o sociales); la segunda función los diferencia según las necesidades (de supervivencia o crecimiento). La combinación de estas funciones arroja 6 valores básicos (hipótesis estructural) con valores marcadores específicos (hipótesis de contenido). Estas hipótesis fueron apoyadas en una muestra intencionada nacional amplia (N = 5.176) de estudiantes universitarios brasileños, por medio de análisis factorial confirmatorio y escalamiento multidimensional. Los valores centrales se situaron entre los valores personales y sociales y los de supervivencia y de crecimiento se separaron en 2 áreas. Se discuten las implicaciones teóricas y transculturales de los resultados, especialmente la universalidad de la estructura general de metas motivacionales, junto con interpretaciones de escalas de valores existentes.Palabras clave: valores humanos, funciones, estructura, contenido, BrasilResearch investigating the interplay between culture and psychology has grown markedly in the last few decades and individual and cultural values are one of the main psychological constructs used to understand and access cultural variability (Matsumoto & Yoo, 2006). In the present article we report an empirical study t...

Little research has examined mean-level change in values across the life span. Using large cross-sectional data (N = 36,845) from the five geo-social regions in Brazil, this study examines how mean levels of basic values differ as a function of age (from age 12 to 65; M = 28) and whether age effects are moderated by gender. Results show that mean-level value change is substantial throughout the life course. We observed both linear and curvilinear patterns of change as well as differential patterns by gender. The observed value change is consistent with age-related life circumstances and psychosocial development. Age effects are also value dependent, supporting the notion that values have different functions for different developmental stages.