It is for you,or it is for me: How relationship dependence affects gift image consistency in romantic relationships

Recently, consumer behavior research has been focusing on decision‐making in relationships. This research considers an important context, romantic gift giving, in which givers choose gifts that are perceptually consistent with both their own self‐image and the recipients' self‐image. Based on interdependence theory, we investigate how the relationship dependence between romantic couples can affect gift image consistency. According to the results, the giver's level of dependence plays a positive role in the consistency between the recipient's self‐image and the gift image (gift‐recipient consistency) and plays a negative role in the consistency between the giver's self‐image and the gift image (gift‐giver consistency). The mutuality of dependence could strengthen or weaken the effect of the giver's level of dependence on gift image consistency, and this effect is carried through the giver's relationship power.     

Cross-cultural differences in the refusal to accept a small gift: the differential influence of reciprocity norms on Asians and North Americans

Asians are more likely than North Americans to refuse a small gift that is offered to them by a casual acquaintance. Five experiments confirmed this difference and explored the reasons for its occurrence. Asians, who are inclined to think of themselves in relation to others, are more likely than North Americans to invoke a reciprocity norm in exchanging gifts with casual acquaintances, and they refuse a gift in order to avoid the feeling of indebtedness they would experience if they cannot reciprocate. North Americans, however, who are inclined to think of themselves independently of others, are more likely to base their acceptance of the gift on its attractiveness without considering their obligation to reciprocate. These cultural differences are not evident when the gift is offered by a close friend with whom individuals have a communal relationship. Implications of our findings for miscommunication between members of different cultures are discussed.     

Amazing grace: The near-death experience as a compensatory gift

This paper illustrates the apparently providential timing and the healing character of near-death experiences (NDEs) and NDE-like episodes, through four case histories of persons whose lives, prior to their experiences, were marked by deep anguish and a sense of hopelessness. Spiritually, such case histories suggest the intervention of a guiding intelligence that confers a form of amazing grace on the recipient. Methodologically, these reports point to the importance of taking into account the person's life history as a context for understanding the full significance of NDEs and similar awakening experiences. The article ends with a retrospective account of a childhood NDE in which the big secret of these experiences is disclosed.We who are about to die demand a miracle. W. H. Auden (cited in Grosso, 1985)     

To whom and when to give: Effects of intimacy and obligation on expressive motives,gift choice,and information search in gift giving

When consumers purchase gifts for others, their behaviors are different from those when they buy something for themselves. The present study aims to understand the entire gift purchase process including perception of the recipient and occasion, formation of motives, gift type choices, and information search. For this purpose, an expressive motive (motive to express the relationship or givers' self through a gift) was introduced and hypotheses were developed on how perceived intimacy and obligation influence expressive motives and how these motives affect consumers' choice of gift types (hedonic vs. utilitarian) and information search modes (online vs. offline). A memory‐based survey involving a student sample (n = 355) was conducted, and three major findings were revealed. First, more intimacy and less obligation increased expressive motives. Second, expressive motives influenced the giver's choice of a gift type. More specifically, givers with high expressive motives tended to choose a gift with a high level of hedonic quality and a low level of utilitarian quality. Finally, gift types that givers intended to purchase influenced information search. Givers searched for information online more when they purchased gifts with high utilitarian quality whereas they searched for offline information more when they purchased gifts with high hedonic quality. Results have practical implications for manufacturers and retailers whose businesses involve gifts.     

Alignment errors in Poggendorff-like displays when the variable segment is a dot,a dot series,or a line

In the standard Poggendorff figure, the abutting tip of the upper right transversal appears more misaligned than its distal tip. This appears paradoxical, since dot alignment errors increase with line-to-dot separation. To attempt a resolution of the paradox, four experiments were conducted in which single dots, series of dots, and lines were adjusted to be apparently collinear with a standard line segment, with neither, one, or both vertical inducing lines present. The results, taken together, suggested an explanation of the paradox and also that the standard Poggendorff display may result in alignment errors which represent a compromise judgment, based on conflicting cues to collinearity. In particular, the fourth experiment showed that line-to-line alignment errors could be made to resemble dot-to-line alignment errors by instructional variables. It was suggested that the effect was produced by forcing observers to process asymmetrically rather than symmetrically (Krantz & Weintraub, 1973).     

Looking a gift horse in the mouth as a defense against increasing intimacy

The authors hypothesize that people who fear dependence evidence a particular defensive bias by perceiving benefits received to have been less voluntarily given, which justifies not depending upon their partner. In Study 1, both members of married couples completed daily diaries regarding benefits they gave and received and the extent to which each was given involuntarily versus voluntarily. Avoidant attachment measured before marriage predicted perceiving one’s spouse to have given benefits less voluntarily, controlling for that spouse’s reports of how voluntarily benefits had been given. In Study 2, participants identified three specific benefits received from a friend. Days later, participants were primed with avoidant feelings or not before reporting the extent to which the benefits identified earlier had been given voluntarily. Participants primed to feel avoidant perceived their friend to have given them benefits less voluntarily than did the remaining participants.     

The act of death and the gift of suffering: a response to Breck, Amundsen, and Bresnahan.

This response to the articles by Breck, Amundsen, and Bresnahan is argued from a traditional Orthodox point of view, which accepts the historical Tradition of the Church and recognizes the relevance of this Tradition in the modern world. Traditional Orthodox ethics is grounded in a radical perception of the Resurrection of Christ. Many Western and Eastern commentators on Orthodox religion and spirituality have noted the centrality of the Resurrection to all facets of our Tradition. Thus the discussion of euthanasia should be seen in the light of the Resurrection of Christ.     

A vehicular theory of corporeal qualia (a gift to computationalists)

I have argued elsewhere that non-sentential representations that are the close kin of scale models can be, and often are, realized by computational processes. I will attempt here to weaken any resistance to this claim that happens to issue from those who favor an across-the-board computational theory of cognitive activity. I will argue that embracing the idea that certain computers harbor nonsentential models gives proponents of the computational theory of cognition the means to resolve the conspicuous disconnect between the sentential character of the data structures they posit and the nonsentential qualitative character of our perceptual experiences of corporeal (i.e., spatial, kinematic, and dynamic) properties. Along the way, I will question the viability of some externalist remedies for this disconnect, and I will explain why the computational theory put forward here falls quite clearly beyond the useful bounds of the Chinese-Room argument.