Is 7300 m Equal to 7.3 km? Same Semantics but Different Anchoring Effects

Anchoring effect (AE) refers to a phenomenon that an arbitrary number (i.e., the anchor) biases a subsequent numerical judgment. Three experiments were conducted to examine how the anchor is represented in short-term memory. Experiment 1 showed that despite the semantic equivalence of two anchors, the anchor with a larger absolute value (i.e., 7300 m) induced a greater numerical estimate than did the anchor with a smaller absolute value (i.e., 7.3 km). Experiment 2 showed that an anchor 228 could serve as both a high and a low anchor, depending on the absolute value to be judged in the numerical judgment. By including anchors with negative signs, Experiment 3 further demonstrated that it was the absolute value but not the semantics of the anchors that exerted an effect on the subsequent numerical estimate. The three experiments provided converging support for the hypothesis that an anchor is superficially represented as absolute value plus affix in short-term memory. The processes leading to AE and the practical implications are discussed.     

Acceptance in Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapies: Different or the Same?

Acceptance is a key construct in both rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). The objectives of this study were to assess and compare the properties of ACT acceptance with those of REBT acceptance in predicting emotions. A sample of 112 subjects, comprising different educational and occupational status, completed three measures of acceptance (REBT and ACT), two of mindfulness, as well as completing depression and anxiety scales. Both ACT acceptance as process and REBT acceptance could predict significant ACT acceptance as outcome. Mindfulness as a trait also predicted the level of ACT outcome acceptance as well as the level of REBT acceptance, but mindfulness as process predicted only ACT outcome acceptance. The results show that REBT acceptance, ACT acceptance and mindfulness can explain anxiety and depression in different ways. The results show that the difference between ACT acceptance and REBT acceptance primary concern the process of acceptance, most likely due to the underlying cognitive processing. The outcome acceptance and emotional level are similar in the two conditions. Future research should employ multiple cognitive measurements.     

Same same but different!? The differential influence of smilies and emoticons on person perception

Emoticons (ASCII-based character strings) and smilies (pictograms) are widely used in computer-mediated communication as substitutes to compensate for the absence of nonverbal cues. Although their usage has been investigated in numerous studies, it remains open whether they provoke differential effects and whether they lead to person perception patterns similar to what is known from face-to-face interactions. Based on findings from research about person perception and nonverbal communication, we investigated the differential effects of smilies and emoticons with regard to recipients' mood, message evaluation, and person perception in an experimental online study (n=127) with a 2(smiley/emoticon) by 2(positive/negative) between-subjects design (with an additional control condition). Results generally support earlier findings, indicating that the valence of the cue (smiley or emoticon) affects the corresponding impression formation. Further, findings concerning the differential influence of both forms of cues show that there are no differences with regard to message interpretation, whereas smiling smilies have a stronger impact on personal mood than smiling emoticons. The perception of a writer's commitment was only altered by smilies, suggesting that they elicit a stronger impact than emoticons.     

Same Game, Different Rules? Gender Differences in Political Participation

We investigate gender gaps in political participation with 2004 ISSP data for 18 advanced Western democracies (N: 20,359) using linear and logistic regression models. Controlling for socio-economic characteristics and political attitudes reveals that women are more likely than men to have voted and engaged in ‘private’ activism, while men are more likely to have engaged in direct contact, collective types of actions and be (more active) members of political parties. Our analysis indicates that demographic and attitudinal characteristics influence participation differently among men and among women, as well as across types of participation. These results highlight the need to move toward a view of women engaging in differing types of participation and based on different characteristics.     

Wanna trade? Product knowledge and the perceived differences between the gains and losses of trade

We examine the effect of ownership on behavioural decision making in the context of trade. Based on the notion that traders may experience loss aversion, and that this is negatively related to willingness to trade, we reason that willingness to trade is a function of perceived similarities between the gains and losses of a trade. More specifically, we predicted that willingness to trade is a function of the characteristics of the trader: The traders' product knowledge about the objects involved in the trade may affect willingness to trade by affecting the differences traders perceive between the objects involved. In two experiments, participants endowed with a bottle of wine were offered the opportunity to trade their wine for another wine. Results of Experiment 1 indicated that the more knowledgeable participants were about wine, the more reluctant they were to trade, irrespective of what wine they possessed. The results of Experiment 2, in which we manipulated product knowledge, corroborated these findings. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contemporary Title VII Enforcement: The Song Remains the Same?

Equal employment opportunity (EEO) law is constantly evolving and many changes can happen in 50 years. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has always been the most comprehensive law related to workplace discrimination. Like all laws, Title VII has matured over time, including amendments by Congress, refinement by the courts, and creation and updates of regulations by enforcement agencies. However, there are several controversies that have endured during this maturation process, and this article focuses on four of them: (1) adverse impact theory, (2) reverse discrimination, (3) sexual harassment, and (4) retaliation. There are common issues across these controversies. However, for purposes of exposition, each one is treated as a separate entity. For each of the four controversies, we review historical context, recommend compliance strategies and share best EEO practice recommendations for practitioners and employers.     

Computationalism,The Church–Turing Thesis,and the Church–Turing Fallacy

The Church–Turing Thesis (CTT) is often employed in arguments for computationalism. I scrutinize the most prominent of such arguments in light of recent work on CTT and argue that they are unsound. Although CTT does nothing to support computationalism, it is not irrelevant to it. By eliminating misunderstandings about the relationship between CTT and computationalism, we deepen our appreciation of computationalism as an empirical hypothesis.     

Counseling and Consulting: Separate Processes or the Same?

This article examines the theoretical similarities and differences between the counseling and consulting processes and finds that differences between the two processes are reflections of the differences found among the counselors who use them.     

Parental Influence on Students' Educational Choices in the United States and Germany: Different Ramifications—Same Effect?

Despite the historical trend in all Western societies to increase educational participation irrespective of students' social origin, the correlation between parents' education and socio-economic status and the educational outcomes of their offspring remains a rather universal phenomenon. Although comparative studies have consistently found this association in various nations which differ in many ways in their educational systems, little is known about the mechanism behind this effect. Drawing on the assumption that career decision points are the major gateway for social background influences, we assume that similarities, as well as differences in the structure of the correlation between parents' socioeconomic background and students' school success, can be explained. Using two longitudinal data sets from the United States (N=1425) and Germany (N=1755) covering the school careers from Grade 7 to Grade 10, the analyses supported the hypothesis that (a) achievement information is the best predictor of career relevant decisions in both nations, (b) parents' background variables are independent additional predictors of career decision but not for actual learning progress, and (c) the assumed accumulation process of social background influences is more pronounced in the German than in the U.S. school system.     

Different Religions,Different Politics? Religion and Political Attitudes in Argentina and Chile

Various theories attempt to explain political outcomes. One of the most bitterly contested schools of explanation deals with culture, attitudes, and values. In the broadest sense, this tradition argues that political and social outcomes are determined in large part by the shared beliefs and values of the populace or a subgroup thereof. Thus, Stephen White (1984) has defined political culture as “historically formed beliefs and behavior,” recognizing that one's political attitudes and behavior are usually formed by inherited values as well as life experience. Moreover, scholars of political culture expect continuity of values over time and therefore are intrigued by cases of changing beliefs and attitudes. Thus, the explosive growth of evangelical and Pentecostal Protestantism in Latin America, where Protestants have grown from a handful to 20–30 percent of the population in a single generation, provides a unique opportunity for study. This rapid shift to Protestantism and its consequences for democracy have been fiercely debated in recent years. Max Weber's Protestant ethic thesis suggests that Protestantism may provide a catalyst for the establishment of democratic norms. However, many contemporary scholars argue that evangelical Protestantism is conservative, authoritarian, and politically passive. Do different religions result in different political attitudes? Does religious devotion, as distinguished from denomination, affect one's politics? This article evaluates political attitudes among Protestants and Catholics in Argentina and Chile to examine the claims of recent political culture arguments that modern Latin American Protestantism is resistant to democratic values. Survey data indicate that religious intensity (“devout‐ness”), rather than religious affiliation, does influence political attitudes, and that demographic and political engagement variables also influence democratic values.     

The Beavers-Timberlawn Model of Family Competence and the Circumplex Model of Family Adaptability and Cohesion: Separate,but Equal?

An empirical examination of the association between instruments measuring the Beavers-Timberlawn Model of family competence and the Circumplex Model of adaptability and cohesion is presented. Even when triangulated measures were utilized to control for the divergent methods of data collection traditionally employed to operationalize these models of family health, family competence as measured by the Beavers-Timberlawn Family Evaluation Scales was either minimally (mothers) or not associated at all (fathers and children) with balanced and thereby optimal dimensions of adaptability and cohesion as measured by the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales. Methodological and substantive explanations for the surprising lack of association between measures of these two prominent family assessment models are explored and short- and long-range implications for the growth and practice of family therapy are discussed.     

Do We Feel the Same Way If We Think the Same Way? Shared Attitudes and the Social Induction of Affect

Drawing on the literature on emotional mimicry, we argue that attitude similarity between a sender and a receiver influences the social induction of affect. Studies 1, 2, and 3 supported this reasoning by showing that similarity fostered, whereas dissimilarity blocked concordant reactions to a happy sender (but not to a sad sender). We also examined the mechanism behind these effects and found that similarity influenced liking of the happy sender but did not affect liking of the sad sender. Study 4 provided causal evidence for this idea by showing that similarity influenced the induction of positive affect through liking.     

Tosh Demands and Generative Thinking: What Changes and What Remains the Same?

Generative thinking can be characterized as the development of novel instantiations of existing concepts. Using this framework, the present study examined the impact of three conditions on the way subjects generated ideas about imaginary extraterrestrials. Control subjects developed alien animals but were given no special instructions. Those in the Wildly Different Condition were asked to generate creatures that were as wildly different from Earth animals as they could be. Both groups were highly and equally likely to imagine creatures that were symmetric and possessed standard senses and appendages, but the latter introduced significantly more novel variations, particularly on the number of sense organs and appendages. A third group was asked to imagine and describe things that might live on another planet, but were not initially instructed to provide drawings or limit themselves to considering living things that would be considered to be animals. This last group also preserved symmetry, but was significantly more likely to develop creatures without standard senses and appendages. Even so, 75% of this group developed creatures with standard senses and appendages. The results are discussed in terms of constraints on innovation, ways of overcoming those constraints, and the general tendency for new ideas to preserve many of the central properties of existing concepts.     

When Is a Parent Out of the Picture? Different Custody,Different Perceptions

This study investigated how 200 children from mother-, father-, or joint-custody arrangements perceived their divorced families. The authors argue that it is not the type of custody that shapes the child's view of whether one parent is peripheral but, rather, the nature of relationships within the various custody arrangements.     

Hope and General Self-efficacy: Two Measures of the Same Construct?

The aim of this study was to test the extent to which hope measure is equivalent to general self-efficacy measure. Questionnaire data on these two constructs and other external variables were collected from 199 Chinese college students. The factor analytic results suggested that hope and self-efficacy items measured the same construct. The unidimensional model combining hope items and GSE items fit the data as well as the bidimensional model, indicating that their corresponding items measured the same underlying construct. Further analyses showed that hope and GSE did not correlate with external variables differently in a systematic manner. Most of these correlational differences were non-significant and negligible. These findings suggested that the literatures studying GSE and hope could be considered to be integrated and that researchers need to recognize and acknowledge the conceptual and operational similarities among these constructs in the literature.