Value systems among adolescents: Novel method for assessing level of ego‐development

Children's value systems develop through youth and influence attitudes and actions. But there is a lack of appropriate measures for children and adolescents. The objective of this study was to construct and validate a questionnaire that reveals distinct value systems among adolescents, and to evaluate the identified value systems’ relationship to degree of ego‐development and moral development. A quantitative study in a Swedish School with ages 12 through 16 (grades 6 to 9) was performed (N = 204). A set of pattern recognition statistical analyses has been used to identify different profiles of values systems and demonstrate that these systems can be arranged in a hierarchical order similar to other development. Results revealed three value systems in this sample. The identified value systems reflect different degrees of moral and ego‐development among children in the study. Three distinct value systems were identified: the first (n = 9) and the second value systems (n = 35) correspond to pre‐conventional stages, and the third value system (n = 155) corresponds to early conventional stages of ego development. Ego development scoring of test statements to assess stages. The value system was significantly related to moral development in the personal interest and the maintaining norms schemas of the Defining Issues Test (DIT). However, many students did not complete the entire DIT, so those results should be looked at with caution. It appears that this new test (Test for Adolescent Value Systems – TAVS) does relate to an established ego development rating scale.     

Toward Developing a Framework for Measuring the Business Value of Corporate Community Involvement

Business today is a key player in addressing social and environmental challenges. Every year companies contribute significant resources—cash, in-kind donations and employee volunteers—to non-profit organizations and community support initiatives. This support is critical for community development. Yet many companies have a limited understanding of the value their initiatives add to the community or to their business. In most cases they measure inputs and outputs but not actual impacts. Measuring and communicating the business value of community-focused programs, however, is critical to maintaining funding for such programs in downturns such as the recession of 2007–2009. This article provides critical analysis of existing efforts to measure the business value of corporate community involvement programs and offers guidance for developing indicators of business impact. Building on lessons learned, it identifies key criteria and makes recommendations for the development of an effective measurement framework and indicators. The article concludes with a discussion on how such a framework can lead to social change.     

Performance indicators for student services

New arrangements for funding higher education institutions promise to introduce sharper management styles. Such institutions can anticipate that much closer scrutiny will be given to the details of their activities, with value for money becoming a more prominent factor. The development of performance indicators offers management a way of evaluating effectiveness and efficiency. It may be difficult to develop valid performance indicators for many aspects of higher education, but perhaps those difficulties will be greatest in relation to services whose activities are essentially private and as such hidden. An approach to the development of performance indicators is presented which could be effective in relation to counselling services in higher education institutions.     

Value Conflict Resolution: A Training Model for Counselors of Minority Clients

It is assumed that the employment counselor controls what happens in the counseling session by virtue of position and superior knowledge of what the counseling process can and cannot provide. When employment counselors counsel individuals who have cultural and racial backgrounds different from their own, the probability of value conflict in problem solving and decision making is increased. Counselor control over the counseling process suggests that these conflicts will often be resolved according to the value preferences of the counselor. Failure to consider the value input of the client leads to the development of plans for action that don't work. The Carkhuff helping model is presented to show where counselor-client value conflicts are likely to occur, and a value conflict resolution training model is provided to help counselors assess value conflicts and resolve them in ways that promote client-counselor success.     

Value systems for developmental cognitive robotics: A survey

This paper surveys value systems for developmental cognitive robotics. A value system permits a biological brain to increase the likelihood of neural responses to selected external phenomena. Many machine learning algorithms capture the essence of this learning process. However, computational value systems aim not only to support learning, but also autonomous attention focus to direct learning. This combination of unsupervised attention focus and learning aims to address the grand challenge of autonomous mental development for machines. This survey examines existing value systems for developmental cognitive robotics in this context. We examine the definitions of value used—including recent pioneering work in intrinsic motivation as value—as well as initialisation strategies for innate values, update strategies for acquired value and the data structures used for storing value. We examine the extent to which existing value systems support attention focus, learning and prediction in an unsupervised setting. The types of robots and applications in which these value systems are used are also examined, as well as the ways that these applications are evaluated. Finally, we study the strengths and limitations of current value systems for developmental cognitive robots and conclude with a set of research challenges for this field.     

Educational Psychology Theory and the Promotion of Dental Care for Children Aged Five to Six

The aim of this article is to illustrate the value of educational psychology theory in developing an age-appropriate programme to prevent tooth decay. A theory-based approach was adopted for the programme development, and a questionnaire was used to ascertain the knowledge gaps in 52 children aged five to six years in two preschools in an urban town. The results showed that most of the children had no awareness and only a moderate knowledge of proper dental care. Piaget's cognitive development theory was applied in the planning and implementation of the activities in the programme. The developed programme was presented to educational psychologists and dentists, and their feedback was used to refine the programme. The importance of educational psychology theory was illustrated in the development of an age-appropriate preventative programme as well as in using an accessible pedagogical approach. The value of multidisciplinary colloboration was also illustrated.     

发展观的演变与“以人为本”价值目标的确立

改革开放三十年来,社会主义发展的根本价值取向逐渐明晰,即确立了“以人为本”的价值目标。这一价值目标以生产力发展为基础,以人的全面发展为目标,是对社会主义发展根本价值认识的“历史性跨越”。     

Challenges for interactivist-constructivist robotics

The interactivist-constructivist (IC) approach offers an attractive framework for the development of intelligent robots. However, we still lack genuinely intelligent robots, capable of representing the world, in the IC sense. Here we argue that the reason for this situation is the lack of learning mechanisms that would allow the components of the robotic controller to learn constructively while they direct the robot's action in accordance to its value system. We also suggest that spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) may be such a learning mechanism that operates in the brain.     

An Empirically Keyed Scale for Measuring Managerial Attitudes Toward Women Executives

A scale (MATWES) is presented providing reliability and some validity measures regarding managerial attitudes toward women executives. Methodology used demonstrates an empirical approach to scale development through the employment of a projective test for item generation and the use of a panel of women executives who served as Q-sorters to select the items. The use of the Scale as a research instrument and its value in minimizing researcher bias in its construction are discussed.     

The value of value: Further excursions on the meaning and role of customer value

Grounded on fundamental marketing principles, the concept of customer value has been revisited and refined by academicians and practitioners for the last 30 years. However, research devoted to achieving a consistent theoretical and conceptual development of value‐related concepts has proceeded apace without ever reaching full closure. The present essay seeks reasons behind remaining deficiencies in value‐related research and offers a review intended to move our understanding of customer value toward what promises to become a more enlightened future. The topic of value is approached by theoretical analysis and conceptual development. First, “the challenge” of value research is presented: the researcher faces a topic that is central to the marketing discipline but that suffers from various conceptual and methodological difficulties. Second, among the literature on value from the last three decades, two main research areas are selected: the conceptual delimitation and the methodological links between quality, satisfaction, and value. Third, as a conclusion, we identify several streams of research that promise to expand future knowledge in the area of customer value. Several tables and figures that provide a systematic and structured review of value‐related knowledge support this inventory of the state‐of‐the‐art in value research. Even the most patient theoretical development of value‐related concepts tends to resist full conceptual closure. The breadth of customer value and its richness for marketing implications encourage novel and refreshing approaches. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Chinese Notions of Harmony,With Special Focus on Implications for Cross-Cultural and Global Psychology

Harmony is a value that is frequently associated with China as much as love is with Christianity. In both cases, misconceptions abound. This article articulates the nuanced conceptualizations of harmony in classical Chinese texts for a two-fold purpose: first, to refute the tendency in cross-cultural psychology to equate harmony with uniformity and status quo; second, to derive from harmony a model of unity that has far reaching implications for the development of global psychology.     

Implications of Contemporary Social Science for the Field of Guidance

Since the mid-19th century, a dominant trend in the social sciences has been the development of a rigorous technique for devising predictive models of empirical social systems. Central to this development has been the assumption that unexplained variation is simply error in a given model, rather than the generally held view that human beings have a special capacity for acting independently of the universe of empirioals. The increasing predictive accuracy resulting from this axiom of determinism has, in turn, tended to stimulate the interest of applied fields. A predictable side-effect of such interest, however, appears to be an intra-field re-examination of its own philosophical foundations. It is suggested that the field of guidance has reached this juncture, that the resulting internal conflict has emerged, and that the strategic value of prediction will insure a continued transition from an art to an applied science.     

New Directions for Performance Appraisal: Some Findings and Observations

The changing emphasis on the aims of performance appraisal systems is discussed, with particular reference to the notion of appraisal as a motivating mechanism. The contention of the Total Quality school that the traditional focus on the assessment function of appraisal is counterproductive is supported, and some data are presented illustrating the doubtful value and accuracy of appraisal ratings, both for evaluating staff and as validation criteria for personality measures. Some implications of recent organizational changes for the development role of performance appraisal are reviewed, with particular reference to upward feedback and competency-based appraisal. Finally, the emerging shape of a new approach to meeting the purposes formerly served by appraisal systems is described.     

A Peer Advisory Consumer Program for the Elderly

A demonstration project using a volunteer peer advisory approach to consumer education for the elderly was developed. The authors describe program successes and failures, with emphasis on personnel selection, timetable for development, publicity, acceptance, and value of a peer advisory approach. Enthusiastic involvement by individuals trained indicates the possibility of using a peer advisory system for employing lifetime consumer experiences of the elderly, of providing avenues for continued societal involvement, and of extending needed consumer information to other elderly individuals.     

The ecological approach to perceiving as a foundation for understanding the development of knowing in infancy

The ecological thesis of direct realism is used as a framework for examining the development of knowing in human infancy. When information for perceiving is defined ecologically (i.e., relative to the situational context and to the physical dimensions, capabilities, and needs of the perceiver), knowing need not be construed as the act of using representations to give meaning to acts or percepts. Knowing, alternatively, is the act of noticing affordances, situation and perceiverspecific meanings of objects, according to their value to the perceiver for achieving specific goals. Changes with development in infant sensorimotor functioning may, in this view, be explained by a process of increasing economy in noticing potentially available affordances, rather than a process of constructing a representational system for making present something not present. Studies of three infant skills widely attributed to the onset of representation are examined with regard to this ecological thesis. Results indicate that the noticing of affordances is critically involved in each of these skills.     

Family therapy as a treatment for children: a critical review of outcome research.

The value of family therapy as a treatment for child psychopathology is considered by reviewing pertinent outcome research. Fourteen studies that met three criteria are included in the review: (a) a child or adolescent was the identified patient or referral; (b) therapy included at least one parent and the child; and (c) outcome was evaluated in terms of the child's symptoms. There are major shortcomings in most of the available data, with only two well-controlled studies. Some empirical evidence does exist that family therapy is an effective treatment for children; the data from studies of adolescents are especially encouraging. However, insufficient data are available for comparing the relative merits of conjoint family treatment and individual child therapy. If the value of family therapy as a treatment alternative or, ideally, as the "treatment of choice" for a referred individual child is to be established, more and better controlled comparative outcome studies will be necessary. Suggestions for future research are presented emphasizing the need for a developmental perspective by recommending, for example, the use of factorial designs in which the intervenaction of treatment and age can be analyzed.     

Mathematica: A flexible design environment for neural networks

Several neural networks were developed inMathematica in order to explore the role of “spiky” neurons in neural network memory simulations. UsingMathematica for this task confirmed its value as a powerful tool for neural network development: It exhibited distinct advantages over other environments in programming ease, flexibility of data structures, and the graphical assessment of network performance.     

The Search for a Current Mission Model in Cambodia

This paper is a contribution to the debate on the current mission model of the church in Southeast Asia. Scholars from St Elizabeth University in Bratislava, Slovakia, have performed qualitative research to examine the present mission model in Cambodia. Research was conducted on a sample of Catholic missionaries who have worked in Cambodia for a longer period of time. On the basis of this qualitative study, we have outlined and proposed some characteristics for today’s mission model in that country. Features included and emphasized dialogue with Buddhism, formation of spiritually mature people, social promotion and social inclusion, community development, the shift in inculturation regarding value systems, working in small groups, and reconciliation between ethnic communities.     

Steering a new course for deception detection research

Vrij and Granhag (2012) argue for a new direction in deception research based on structuring interviews in ways that more consistently elicit cues to deception. Although we find ourselves in general agreement, we believe there are several additional issues for researchers to consider. We emphasize the need to examine whether the proposed interview techniques lead to potential tradeoffs between information elicitation and deception detection, the importance of individual differences that may moderate previously obtained results, and the value of pursuing a goal of theoretical refinement alongside application development.     

Intelligence and maturity: meta-analytic evidence for the incremental and discriminant validity of Loevinger's measure of ego development

This review examined whether Loevinger's measure of personality (ego) development is equivalent to the measurement of intelligence. The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 52 correlations between ego level scores and intelligence test scores (retrieved from 42 studies involving 5,648 participants). The weighted average correlation between ego level and intelligence ranged from.20 to.34, depending on the intellectual ability assessed (e.g., verbal intelligence). Adjusting for measurement unreliability increased these values only minimally. The authors also reviewed 16 studies that examined the association between ego level and various criterion variables (e.g., aggressive behavior) after statistically controlling for the effects of intelligence. Ninety-four percent of the tests revealed significant relations between ego level and criterion variables after controlling for intelligence, indicating that ego development and intelligence are not interchangeable constructs. These findings do not support recent speculations concerning the limited value of stage models of maturity, social development, and moral reasoning.