Reward Preferences of Salespeople: How do Commissions Rate?

Compensation plans, including salary, commissions, incentives, promotion, recognition, and rewards, are critical in motivating and influencing salespeople. While commissions are often considered a key component of companies’ compensation and reward structures, past studies have overlooked commissions when studying salespeople’s relative preferences for rewards. The present study extends Chonko, Tanner, and Weeks’s (1992) research by examining salespeople’s preferences for commissions versus other rewards. The findings of this study support the importance of increases in commissions as a reward for salespeople across different industries and different demographic profiles. Higher commission rates were the most preferred reward, followed by pay raises. Promotion and recognition were the least preferred rewards. Managers can utilize the results of this study as they design compensation plans within their companies.     

Does the Interventionist Notion of Causation Deliver Us from the Fear of Epiphenomenalism?

This article reviews the causal exclusion argument and confronts it with some recently proposed refutations based on the interventionist account of causation. I first show that there are several technical and interpretative difficulties in applying the interventionist account to the exclusion issue. Different ways of accommodating the two to one another are considered and all are shown to leave the issue without a fully satisfactory resolution. Lastly, I argue that, on the most consistent construal, the interventionist approach can provide grounds for thinking that higher-level causal notions are as legitimate as lower-level causal notions, but it does not provide grounds for postulating inter-level causal interactions.     

Do Politicians Take Risks Like the Rest of Us? An Experimental Test of Prospect Theory Under MPs

Political psychologists have been quick to use prospect theory in their work, realizing its potential for explaining decisions under risk. Applying prospect theory to political decision‐making is not without problems, though, and here we address two of these: (1) Does prospect theory actually apply to political decision‐makers, or are politicians unlike the rest of us? (2) Which dimension do politicians use as their reference point when there are multiple dimensions (e.g., votes and policy)? We address both problems in an experiment with a unique sample of Dutch members of parliament as participants. We use well‐known (incentivized) decision situations and newly developed hypothetical political decision‐making scenarios. Our results indicate that politicians’ deviate from expected utility theory in the direction predicted by prospect theory but that these deviations are somewhat smaller than those of other people. Votes appear to be a more important determinant of politicians’ reference point than is policy.     

How Does Kant Justify the Universal Objective Validity of the Law of Right?

Abstract

Since more than 50 years Kant scholars debate the question whether the Law of Right as introduced in the Metaphysics of Morals by Kant can be justified by the Categorical Imperative. On the one hand we have those who think that Kant’s theory of right depends from the Categorical Imperative, on the other hand we find a growing group of scholars who deny this. However, the debate has been flawed by confusion and misunderstanding of the crucial terms and principles. Therefore, my first task will be to clarify these terms and principles by introducing distinctions that have been neglected too often. After this I try to show a) that the Law of Right can in fact be justified by using the testing method the Categorical Imperative prescribes and b) that there is no other way to justify it. Doing this I criticize in detail the new arguments adherents of the independence thesis have recently put forward.     

Six Ways of Salvation: How Does Jesus Save?

Abstract : Using the model method for comparative analysis of theological theories, this article compares and contrasts six models of atonement: (1) Jesus as teacher of true knowledge; (2) Jesus as moral example and influence; (3) Jesus as the victorious champion and liberator; (4) Jesus as our satisfaction; (5) Jesus as the happy exchange; and (6) Jesus as the final scapegoat.     

What Does the Development of Fresh Expressions of Church in the UK Tell Us about Mission Today?

This article explores the significance of the Fresh Expressions movement in the UK since the ground‐breaking Mission‐Shaped Church report was published by the Church of England in 2004. After reviewing the background to this report, the article explores some of the report's central themes and examines some of the more recent research on the movement's impact in the UK. It then highlights six ways in which fresh expressions continue to be significant as a missionary response in a post‐Christian context. These include the movement's theological underpinnings, its reassessment of key questions in ecclesiology, its commitment to local and contextual mission, and the emergence of a predominantly lay leadership. In recognizing that the movement is still in a state of evolution, the article concludes by suggesting some areas of continuing debate and challenge for the future.     

Does Being Well-Off Make Us Happier? Problems of Measurement

The article uses General Social Survey data (GSS) collected by Statistics Canada from 1986 to 2005 and experience sampling data (ESM) collected in 1985 and 2003 at the University of Waterloo to examine relationships between economic growth, household income, and subjective sense of well-being. The article puts to a test two propositions made by Easterlin (Nations and households in economic growth: Essays in Honor of Moses Abramovitz. Academic Press, New York, NY,1974), namely that personal and household incomes correlate positively with subjective well-being, but this does not apply to the relationship between subjective well-being and societal economic growth. Analyses of GSS data reported in this article support Easterlin’s findings. They show that higher household incomes correlate positively with respondents’ retrospective assessments of life satisfaction, but economic growth has not been accompanied by a corresponding rise of subjective well-being. Analyses of ESM data suggest that when relationships between household income and subjective well-being are measured by “experiential” measures (Csikszentmihalyi and Larson in J Nerv Ment Dis 175: 526–537, 1987), these relationships are not statistically significant and subjective valuations of well-being taper off at the top of the income pyramid.     

How Does the Body Get Into the Mind?

In this article, we propose that gestures play an important role in the connection between sensorimotor experience and language. Gestures may be the link between bodily experience and verbal expression that advocates of embodied cognition have postulated. In a developmental sequence of communicative action, gestures, which are initially similar to action sequences, substantially shorten and represent actions in metonymic form. In another process, action sequences are based on kinesthetic schemata that themselves find their metaphoric expression in language. Again, gestures enact kinesthetic schemata that are correlated with verbal expressions. Examples from a large database are used to illustrate the various processes by means of which language arises when students conduct school science investigations.     

How Does It Feel? The Development of the Experience of Creativity Questionnaire

Creativity research has tended to neglect the phenomenology of the creative process. This article addresses this by describing the development of the Experience of Creativity Questionnaire (ECQ), designed to measure experiential (Part A) and existential (Part B) dimensions of artistic creativity. The questionnaire items were generated on the basis of an earlier qualitative investigation. Participants were 100 artists, from diverse fields of the creative arts. Two Maximum Likelihood factor analyses with Promax rotation were performed on the items comprising the initial ECQ, resulting in 6 factors in Part A and 3 factors in Part B. Factor analyses were then performed on a reduced number of items, providing the basis for 5 scales in Part A (labeled Distinct Experience, Anxiety, Absorption, Power/Pleasure, Clarity/Preparation) and 3 scales in Part B (Transformation, Centrality, Beyond the Personal). The scales demonstrated acceptable reliability, ranging from .82 to.60 (Guttman coefficient). Use of the ECQ in future research will facilitate further investigation of the phenomenology of the creative process and afford greater integration of research paradigms in creativity research.     

Introduction to the Technical Series: What is Science,and How Does It Help Us?*

Editor's Note: Readers trained in research have no need of a series of articles that introduce the value of the scientific method and the basic factors that comprise good research methodology. But readers who are primarily trained to do clinical work with families will find that today's healthcare environment increasingly requires that they be good consumers of research, as well as an increasing need for them to participate in studies of the models we wish to preserve. At a recent NIMH‐sponsored conference, a speaker lamented the probable demise of some of our more interesting family approaches because third‐party payers tend to support only evidence‐based interventions. Clearly, we need to be able to defend our practices, and understanding the value and essential components of scientific methodology and research studies is likely to become even more important in the future. This new series will attempt to provide an orientation for those of our readers who are interested. We welcome your response to these articles and your suggestions for future segments.     

Does Positive Perception of Oneself Boost Learning Motivation and Performance?

We examine whether core self‐evaluations (CSEs) affect learning motivation and performance beyond individual‐level established predictors of general mental ability and conscientiousness. Based on self‐regulation theories, we develop and test a process model, whereby learning motivation mediates the effects of CSE on performance. We also compare the explanatory value of single and multidimensional models of learning motivation. Using a longitudinal design and data from 631 students, we provide support for the proposed model, indicating the usefulness of CSE as another important, indirect predictor of performance in a learning setting via multiple dimensions of learning motivation: self‐efficacy, goal setting, and goal commitment. The results also indicate the superiority of the multidimensional model of learning motivation over the unidimensional model of learning motivation as a mediator. We conclude with the discussion of theoretical and practical implications of this finding for management education.     

Does Defensiveness Account for the Relationship Between Religiosity and Psychosocial Adjustment?

Religiosity has been related to positive psychosocial adjustment across a large number of studies. Some researchers question, however, whether this relationship is an accurate finding, observing that there are many potential confounds that have not been controlled for, such as defensiveness. This study examined whether defensiveness accounted for the relationship between religiosity and psychosocial adjustment. Two samples of religious individuals were assessed on religiosity (Duke University Religion Index), defensiveness (measured using the denial of distress and repressive defensiveness subscales from the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory [WAI]), and psychosocial adjustment (Depression subscale from the WAI, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Sarason Social Support Scale). In both studies it was found that religiosity was related to positive psychosocial adjustment as well as higher levels of defensiveness. Defensiveness, however, did not account for the relationships between religiosity and psychosocial adjustment. These findings add to the research literature by eliminating a potential confound of the relationship between religiosity and psychosocial adjustment.     

How Emotional Are Populists Really? Factors Explaining Emotional Appeals in the Communication of Political Parties

Are populists really more emotional than mainstream parties? The alleged link between populism and emotional communication has barely been subject to systematic empirical scrutiny. I use literature on populist communication and appraisal theory to generate expectations about which political parties use which emotional appeals. I test these claims by applying a novel emotional dictionary to a large set of text data including more than 700,000 press releases and tweets from three European countries. As expected, I find that populist parties use significantly more negative emotional appeals (anger, fear, disgust, sadness) and less positive emotional appeals (joy, enthusiasm, pride, hope) than mainstream parties. Furthermore, I find that political actors adapt the usage of emotional appeals to different purposes depending on the communication medium and the politicians' status level. This study entails important implications for the research on emotional appeals in politics and populist communication.     

Ruse's Darwin and Design: Does It Go Far Enough?

Michael Ruse's forthcoming book gives an enjoyable history of teleology in biology, philosophy, and theology. It argues that concepts of cause, final cause, purpose, teleology, function, design, adaptation, contrivance, progress, ends, and value have all been telescoped by most writers in those three disciplines but that these concepts (and especially the concept of design) are nonetheless valid, provided only that we recognize their metaphorical nature. I agree with this basic argument, and Ruse's critiques and historical summaries of these concepts are both useful and delightful. However, I also explore one major and three minor reservations. The minor reservations are that Ruse overdoes the allegation of telescoping, does not adequately explore ways to express teleology more accurately, and erroneously denies the existence of biology–based theologians who make the same point he is making. The major reservation is that, despite all the groundwork he lays, Ruse comes to a conclusion other than the one clearly suggested by his first fourteen chapters. If he followed the evolutionary story just a bit further, to include the evolution of the human brain, he would be in a position to articulate a theologically sophisticated understanding of teleology and avoid an ending that is uncharacteristically tame.     

What Kind of Theory is the Humean Theory of Motivation?

I consider an underappreciated problem for proponents of the Humean theory of motivation (HTM). Namely, it is unclear whether is it to be understood as a largely psychological or largely metaphysical theory. I show that the psychological interpretation of HTM will need to be modified in order to be a tenable view and, as it will turn out, the modifications required render it virtually philosophically empty. I then argue that the largely metaphysical interpretation is the only a plausible interpretation of HTM's central claim that desires are necessary conditions for motivation. This interpretation also fits better with the important roles that HTM plays in both moral psychological and metaethical debates. 1     

Neuroticism and Facebook Addiction: How Social Media can Affect Mood?

Abstract

Individuals high in neuroticism experience negative affect and social anxiety, therefore, they may prefer online communications where they are able to portray an idealized image of themselves to attract social support, seek validation, and enhance mood. These motivations may lead to greater social media use and addiction. In this study of Facebook users (N?=?742; 474 females, 268 males) who mostly resided in the United States, we explored the association between neuroticism, Facebook addiction, and negative affect. Our mediation model showed a partial mediating effect of Facebook addiction in predicting negative affect in individuals who were high in neuroticism. In theory, individuals who use Facebook as a tool to improve their mood may actually experience more negative affect due to social overload, jealousy, and envy. Individuals high in neuroticism, who already maintain a higher negative affect than those low in neuroticism, might be particularly inclined towards increased Facebook use, which could deteriorate their mood further. Consequently, individuals and therapists should be aware of the personality traits that could lead to greater Facebook addiction and a higher negative mood. Therapists could encourage users to engage in activities, other than social media use, that can improve mood without leading to addiction.