Age Differences in Visual Attention When Experiencing Workplace Conflicts

Dannii YEUNG; Derek ISAACOWITZ; Jiawen YE

Age Differences in Visual Attention When Experiencing Workplace Conflicts

Dannii YEUNG
, Derek ISAACOWITZ
, Jiawen YE

Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences

Research output: Conference Papers › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (without host publication) › peer-review

Abstract

Objectives:Nowadays, employees have plenty of opportunities to work with employees fromother age groups. The findings of past research suggest that behavioralreactions to workplace conflict may vary by age of the employee and theconflict partner. However, it remains unclear whether older and younger workershave different looking patterns when experiencing a conflict situation.Accordingly, this study makes use of the eye tracking method to objectivelycompare visual attention patterns of younger and older workers when they areexperiencing hypothetical intergenerational conflicts in the workplace.

Method:Younger (20-35 years) and older (50-65 years) Chinese workers were invited totake part in an eye tracking study. After arriving the psychology laboratory,the participants were first asked to fill in their personal information,followed by calibration using the ASL Model D6 eye tracker. Each participantwas presented with two video vignettes depicting an intergenerational conflictin the workplace. The main character in each video vignette was matched withthe age group and gender of the participant. The hypothetical conflicts wereabout dissatisfaction with the work-related behaviors of a coworker of anotherage group. The presentation order of the two videos were randomized.

Results:Visual attention patterns were compared between younger and older workers.Preliminary analyses on 61 working adults showed that the two age groups didnot vary in looking at the neutral stimuli (e.g., background objects) whenexperiencing the hypothetical workplace conflicts. However, older workersfixated less on negative facial expression of the two characters than didyounger workers [t(59) = 2.048, p = .045].

Conclusion:Findings of this study reveal that older adults are less likely to focus onnegative stimuli than younger workers when encountering an intergenerationalconflict in the workplace. These results will be discussed in relation to agedifferences in conflict management strategies.

Original language	English
Publication status	Published - 12 Jul 2017
Event	the 15th European Congress of Psychology - Amsterdam, Netherlands Duration: 11 Jul 2017 → 14 Jul 2017 http://www.psy.it/15th-european-congress-of-psychology-amsterdam-11-14-july-2017.html https://etouches-appfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/html_file_uploads/24baa8c6bb2159688564c2588f424ab7_WednesdayJuly12Poster.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3Bfilename%3D%22Wednesday%20July%2012%20Poster.pdf%22&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJC6CRYNXDRDHQCUQ&Expires=1532071316&Signature=E1FyqgxHMlzTZpitdPbno6N2d5M%3D

Conference

Conference	the 15th European Congress of Psychology
Place	Netherlands
City	Amsterdam
Period	11/07/17 → 14/07/17
Internet address	http://www.psy.it/15th-european-congress-of-psychology-amsterdam-11-14-july-2017.html https://etouches-appfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/html_file_uploads/24baa8c6bb2159688564c2588f424ab7_WednesdayJuly12Poster.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline%3Bfilename%3D%22Wednesday%20July%2012%20Poster.pdf%22&response-content-type=application%2Fpdf&AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJC6CRYNXDRDHQCUQ&Expires=1532071316&Signature=E1FyqgxHMlzTZpitdPbno6N2d5M%3D

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@conference{fe51c5829fd640128e69c17c433fe874,

title = "Age Differences in Visual Attention When Experiencing Workplace Conflicts",

abstract = "Objectives:Nowadays, employees have plenty of opportunities to work with employees fromother age groups. The findings of past research suggest that behavioralreactions to workplace conflict may vary by age of the employee and theconflict partner. However, it remains unclear whether older and younger workershave different looking patterns when experiencing a conflict situation.Accordingly, this study makes use of the eye tracking method to objectivelycompare visual attention patterns of younger and older workers when they areexperiencing hypothetical intergenerational conflicts in the workplace. Method:Younger (20-35 years) and older (50-65 years) Chinese workers were invited totake part in an eye tracking study. After arriving the psychology laboratory,the participants were first asked to fill in their personal information,followed by calibration using the ASL Model D6 eye tracker. Each participantwas presented with two video vignettes depicting an intergenerational conflictin the workplace. The main character in each video vignette was matched withthe age group and gender of the participant. The hypothetical conflicts wereabout dissatisfaction with the work-related behaviors of a coworker of anotherage group. The presentation order of the two videos were randomized. Results:Visual attention patterns were compared between younger and older workers.Preliminary analyses on 61 working adults showed that the two age groups didnot vary in looking at the neutral stimuli (e.g., background objects) whenexperiencing the hypothetical workplace conflicts. However, older workersfixated less on negative facial expression of the two characters than didyounger workers [t(59) = 2.048, p = .045].Conclusion:Findings of this study reveal that older adults are less likely to focus onnegative stimuli than younger workers when encountering an intergenerationalconflict in the workplace. These results will be discussed in relation to agedifferences in conflict management strategies.",

author = "Dannii YEUNG and Derek ISAACOWITZ and Jiawen YE",

note = "Research Unit(s) information for this publication is provided by the author(s) concerned.; the 15th European Congress of Psychology ; Conference date: 11-07-2017 Through 14-07-2017",

year = "2017",

month = jul,

day = "12",

language = "English",

url = "http://www.psy.it/15th-european-congress-of-psychology-amsterdam-11-14-july-2017.html, https://etouches-appfiles.s3.amazonaws.com/html\_file\_uploads/24baa8c6bb2159688564c2588f424ab7\_WednesdayJuly12Poster.pdf?response-content-disposition=inline\%3Bfilename\%3D\%22Wednesday\%20July\%2012\%20Poster.pdf\%22\&response-content-type=application\%2Fpdf\&AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJC6CRYNXDRDHQCUQ\&Expires=1532071316\&Signature=E1FyqgxHMlzTZpitdPbno6N2d5M\%3D",

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TY - CONF

T1 - Age Differences in Visual Attention When Experiencing Workplace Conflicts

AU - YEUNG, Dannii

AU - ISAACOWITZ, Derek

AU - YE, Jiawen

N1 - Research Unit(s) information for this publication is provided by the author(s) concerned.

PY - 2017/7/12

Y1 - 2017/7/12

N2 - Objectives:Nowadays, employees have plenty of opportunities to work with employees fromother age groups. The findings of past research suggest that behavioralreactions to workplace conflict may vary by age of the employee and theconflict partner. However, it remains unclear whether older and younger workershave different looking patterns when experiencing a conflict situation.Accordingly, this study makes use of the eye tracking method to objectivelycompare visual attention patterns of younger and older workers when they areexperiencing hypothetical intergenerational conflicts in the workplace. Method:Younger (20-35 years) and older (50-65 years) Chinese workers were invited totake part in an eye tracking study. After arriving the psychology laboratory,the participants were first asked to fill in their personal information,followed by calibration using the ASL Model D6 eye tracker. Each participantwas presented with two video vignettes depicting an intergenerational conflictin the workplace. The main character in each video vignette was matched withthe age group and gender of the participant. The hypothetical conflicts wereabout dissatisfaction with the work-related behaviors of a coworker of anotherage group. The presentation order of the two videos were randomized. Results:Visual attention patterns were compared between younger and older workers.Preliminary analyses on 61 working adults showed that the two age groups didnot vary in looking at the neutral stimuli (e.g., background objects) whenexperiencing the hypothetical workplace conflicts. However, older workersfixated less on negative facial expression of the two characters than didyounger workers [t(59) = 2.048, p = .045].Conclusion:Findings of this study reveal that older adults are less likely to focus onnegative stimuli than younger workers when encountering an intergenerationalconflict in the workplace. These results will be discussed in relation to agedifferences in conflict management strategies.

AB - Objectives:Nowadays, employees have plenty of opportunities to work with employees fromother age groups. The findings of past research suggest that behavioralreactions to workplace conflict may vary by age of the employee and theconflict partner. However, it remains unclear whether older and younger workershave different looking patterns when experiencing a conflict situation.Accordingly, this study makes use of the eye tracking method to objectivelycompare visual attention patterns of younger and older workers when they areexperiencing hypothetical intergenerational conflicts in the workplace. Method:Younger (20-35 years) and older (50-65 years) Chinese workers were invited totake part in an eye tracking study. After arriving the psychology laboratory,the participants were first asked to fill in their personal information,followed by calibration using the ASL Model D6 eye tracker. Each participantwas presented with two video vignettes depicting an intergenerational conflictin the workplace. The main character in each video vignette was matched withthe age group and gender of the participant. The hypothetical conflicts wereabout dissatisfaction with the work-related behaviors of a coworker of anotherage group. The presentation order of the two videos were randomized. Results:Visual attention patterns were compared between younger and older workers.Preliminary analyses on 61 working adults showed that the two age groups didnot vary in looking at the neutral stimuli (e.g., background objects) whenexperiencing the hypothetical workplace conflicts. However, older workersfixated less on negative facial expression of the two characters than didyounger workers [t(59) = 2.048, p = .045].Conclusion:Findings of this study reveal that older adults are less likely to focus onnegative stimuli than younger workers when encountering an intergenerationalconflict in the workplace. These results will be discussed in relation to agedifferences in conflict management strategies.

M3 - RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (without host publication)

T2 - the 15th European Congress of Psychology

Y2 - 11 July 2017 through 14 July 2017

ER -

Age Differences in Visual Attention When Experiencing Workplace Conflicts

Abstract

Conference

Bibliographical note

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