Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology
- P-ISSN : 1229-0653
- Publisher : Korean Social and Personality Psychological Association
- CCL :
Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology
- P-ISSN1229-0653
- KCI
Latest Articles
Vol.40 No.3
4papers in this issue.
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How Koreans Perceive “Awe”: A Comparison with Being Moved in Terms of Elicitor and Psychological Experiences
Jeong-Eun Lee ; Hoon-Seok Choi
pp.251-271
https://doi.org/10.21193/kjspp.2026.40.3.001
초록보기
Abstract
This study examined the conceptual appropriateness of gyeong-i as a Korean translation of awe and analyzed its elicitor and psychological features in comparison with a related emotion, gamdong. In Study 1, elicitors of gyeong-i were categorized and compared with elicitors of awe identified in Western research, and distinctive psychological features of gyeong-i relative to gamdong were identified. In Study 2, gyeong-i and gamdong were experimentally induced using video stimuli, and differences in the perception of a small self, a core psychological feature of awe, were tested. Results indicated that gyeong-i among Koreans is primarily elicited by vast natural environments and is accompanied by a sense of small self. These findings suggest that gyeong-i is similar to awe reported in Western literature in terms of both eliciting conditions and psychological experience. In constrast, although gamdong shares some features with gyeon-i, it is primarily experienced in interpersonal contexts. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.
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A Qualitative study on Psychological Factors Influencing the Decision to Have a First child: Focusing on Childless Married Couples in the Seoul Metropolitan Area
Jungmin Ahn ; Yei-ji Seo ; Taeyun Jung
pp.273-303
https://doi.org/10.21193/kjspp.2026.40.3.002
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Abstract
This study explored the childbearing decision-making process among 13 childless married individuals (6 males, 7 females, including 4 couples) in the Seoul metropolitan area through in-depth interviews, applying Glaser’s grounded theory. The analysis revealed that a eudaimonic perspective on happiness, which frames children as partners in psychological growth and well-being, served as the foundation for the provisional decision to have children. This provisional decision was either finalized or postponed through a dynamic process of continuously evaluating and adjusting subjective readiness for parenthood, in which childbearing facilitators and childbearing delay factors were comprehensively considered. The final confirmation of the childbearing decision was driven by marital collective efficacy as a core mechanism, referring to a future-oriented shared confidence grounded in relational competence and trust accumulated through the experience of resolving marital conflicts. This study moves beyond the focus on removing barriers to childbirth and illuminates the psychological resources and meaning-making processes that make childbearing possible. It is significant in that it inductively theorizes the dynamic psychological process through which factors across individual, relational, organizational, institutional, and socio-cultural dimensions organically interact within an individual’s internal experience to arrive at a childbearing decision, and demonstrates that this process is grounded in relational competence and subjective predictability. Finally, the study suggests directions for follow-up research on diverse groups of young adults and discusses the need to foster psyhological and social conditions that enable young adults to choose parenthood on their own.
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The severity-leniency effect in sentencing judgment: A comparison of judgments between jurors and judges in Korean lay-participant trials
Yuhwa Han ; Jinri Lee
pp.305-329
https://doi.org/10.21193/kjspp.2026.40.3.003
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Abstract
This study analyzed 202 Korean lay-participation trial cases (decided between 2019 and 2024) in which either a custodial sentence or a fine was ultimately imposed. The aims of the study were to determine whether the severity-leniency effect is also observed in the sentencing decisions of jurors and judges, and to explore its mechanisms by comparing the patterns of sentencing agreement between inter-jurors and judge-jury. The analysis revealed that, for both penalty types (imprisonment and fines), as the possible punishment increased, the severity-leniency effect-where the sentencing judgments of jurors and judges converged toward the lower limit of the standard range-was observed. Furthermore, as the possible punishment increased, both the likelihood of agreement among jurors and that of between jurors and judges decreased; moreover, as the severity of the crime increased, the variation in disagreement among jurors was greater than that of between jurors and judges. The severity-leniency effect observed in this study contradicted public opinion favoring harsher punishment. Furthermore, the results of this study contradict the logical expectation that people would conform to reduce the perceived responsibility associated with their judgment as the severity of the case increases. In the discussion, possible reasons for the results-which contradict these expectations-were presented, focusing on the procedural characteristics inherent in legal judgments in Korean lay-participation trials. The significance of this study lies in extending the severity-leniency effect to sentencing judgments using actual trial data.
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Eating Alone in Korea: An Empirical Investigation on Koreans’ Affective Experience of Solitary vs. Shared Meals
Jinseok P. Kim ; Minsung Hong ; Young Ze Kim ; Hyunbi Kang ; Juhan Park ; Jongho Heo ; Eunkook M. Suh
pp.331-343
https://doi.org/10.21193/kjspp.2026.40.3.004
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Abstract
South Korea has one of the lowest rates of shared meals across the world. This prevalence of solitary meals (commonly known as “honbap”) seems to stem from a popular belief that eating alone is more liberating, comfortable, and less emotionally draining than eating with others. The present research investigated if there is any empirical truth to this belief. We analyzed the day reconstruction method data from the “2023 Koreans’ Happiness Survey” conducted by the National Assembly Futures Institute. Participants recalled the most important activity they engaged in during a randomly assigned time block (e.g., 3 to 6 PM) the previous day. Among the 3,073 participants who selected “Eating Meals or Snacks” for this activity, those who ate alone reported lower life satisfaction than those who ate with others. More importantly, the very experience of eating alone was also associated with lower levels of positive affect (e.g., “comfortable”) and higher levels of negative affect (e.g., “tense/stressful”) than eating with others. Additional analyses revealed that the affective well-being during yesterday’s meal was the lowest when alone, compared to eating with spouse, family (excluding spouse), friends, or others (e.g., coworkers). The negative link between solitary meal and affective well-being remained robust even after controlling for several demographic and social psychological variables (e.g., baseline life satisfaction, marital status, extraversion, income). A key limitation of the present research is that it cannot rule out the possibilities that the reported experiences were emotionally salient ones and thus non-representative of everyday meals, and that the shared meal experiences predominantly involved close others, or at least neutral companions. These findings suggest that the public perception of honbap as liberating may not be supported by empirical data, and highlight the affective value of shared meals.