Within-culture variation in the content of stereotypes: Application and development of the stereotype content model in an Eastern European culture

There is little and unsystematic evidence about whether the content of stereotypes can vary within a culture. Using the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) as a theoretical framework, in two studies we examined the content of stereotypes in an Eastern European culture, namely Romania. Data were collected from four regions prototypical in terms of economic and social development in Romania, and we examined whether the content of stereotypes varies across these regions. As expected, the findings confirm the applicability of the SCM in Romania to reveal culture-specific stereotypes and provide initial support for within-culture variation in the content of stereotypes. We discuss, in particular, possible reasons for two main findings: a strong one-dimensional structure of stereotypes, and regional differences in stereotype content.     

The Romanian Translation of the Francis Scale of Attitude Toward Christianity: Internal Consistency Reliability,Re-test Reliability and Construct Validity Among Undergraduate Students Within a Greek Orthodox Culture

In order to contribute to a growing international research programme concerned with the correlates, antecedents and consequences of individual differences in attitude toward religion, the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity was translated into Romanian and applied within a cultural context shaped by the Greek Orthodox tradition. Data provided by a sample of 158 students (mainly in their late teens and early twenties) supported the internal consistency reliability, re-test reliability and construct validity of this instrument and commended it for further use in studies conducted in Romania. Portions of this research were conducted while the second author was at the “A.D. Xenopol” Public Library, Arad, Romania. Partial financial support was provided to the second author by the Arad County Council through the Arad County Cultural Centre. We thank Mihaela Blaga, and Carmen Ispas for their assistance in data collection and translation.     

Religious education and spiritual development as a cultural component of the lifelong learning policy in Romania. The example of orthodox Christianity

In a context of growing globalisation and European integration, Christian religious education seems to be more and more neglected within the social debate. Given the differences between European countries, the question may arise: What is the relevant situation in Romania? The article analyses the religious education and spiritual development as a cultural component of lifelong learning policy in Romania, based on more than 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with Romanian professionals, research workers, teachers and experts in education. In order to describe the role played by religious education in Romania three main aspects may be quoted: (1) Spiritual development completes the economic and social development of people; (2) The national culture and values contribute to the promotion of life models in accordance with Christian orthodox religion; and (3) The integral development of the person is part of the lifelong learning policy in Romania and includes orthodox spirituality. These aspects are analysed on the basis of the answers given by national experts in lifelong learning and religious education.     

Does Joining the EU Make You Happy? Evidence from Bulgaria and Romania

We examine the effect of joining the European Union on individual life satisfaction in Bulgaria and Romania in the context of the 2007 EU enlargement. Although EU membership is among the most important events in Bulgaria and Romania’s modern histories, there is no evidence on how it affected the subjective well-being of ordinary people in the two countries. Using a difference-in-differences strategy and Eurobarometer data, we provide some of the first evidence that joining the EU increased average life satisfaction in Bulgaria and had a positive but statistically insignificant effect in Romania. One explanation is that after both countries joined in 2007, trust towards the EU only increased in Bulgaria but not in Romania. Furthermore, Romania’s political war of 2007 may have mired the country’s positive life satisfaction experiences related to EU membership. We also show that the younger, the employed and those with a high-school education were the winners from EU integration. Our results are robust to two placebo tests, in which we use two fake entry dates to the EU, as well as an estimation using bootstrapped standard errors. Our findings have implications for EU integration policy and future enlargements.     

A note on the parallel processing of single-featured forms

Single-featured forms (vertical and horizontal lines) were presented to Ss both successively and simultaneously, the same form being presented one, two, or four times. Hit rates (HRs)for both simultaneous and successive presentations of two and four forms exceed the single-form HR. The HR for four successively presented forms (1F4) exceeds the four simultaneous form (4F) HR. The HR increases in the simultaneous conditions were not found in a previous study using single-featured forms. The discrepant results of the two studies indicate that energy level of stimulus presentation and confusability among forms affect the magnitude of HR increase in the simultaneous conditions. The finding of a greater 1F4 HR than 4F agreed with previous findings, indicating that with single-featured stimulus forms, Ss do not process simultaneous displays in parallel.     

Extending Corporate Social Responsibility Research to the Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior Domains: A Look to the Future

Although issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have become an important topic of research, there have been few studies on this topic conducted in the fields of human resource (HR) management and organizational behavior (OB). To address this gap, we edited a special issue of Personnel Psychology that explicitly focuses attention on CSR in the HR/OB domains. In this introductory editorial, we synthesize and extend the four articles published in the special issue. We also address issues relating to the conceptualization and measurement of CSR, the application of microlevel theories to CSR, and the practical and methodological implications of research in this domain. Finally, we provide suggestions for future research linking CSR with some of the most frequently studied topics in HR/OB. We propose that a focus on HR/OB will improve our understanding of the antecedents and consequences of CSR and also benefit HR/OB in terms of bridging the science–practice and micro–macro gaps.     

The miracle of Maglavit (1935) and the Romanian psychology of religion

This paper examines the debates around the “miracle of Maglavit”, a shepherd's vision of God that took place in 1935 in Romania and attracted much contemporary popular and intellectual interest. The debates drew in arguments from doctors and theologians, who discussed the psychology of divine revelation and tried to elaborate the implications that such an event could have for the life of the Romanian nation. The paper places these debates in the context of wider contemporary discussions about psychology and religion. I argue that what Maglavit shows is that, in Romania at least, public debates about visionary experience in the 1930s were not only debates about its psychology, but of a psychology thoroughly imbricated with political concerns.     

The role of JOOP (and other scientific journals) in bridging the practitioner‐researcher divide in industrial,work and organizational (IWO) psychology

Reflecting upon recent debates concerning the practitioner‐researcher divide in the field of industrial, work and organizational (IWO) psychology, Garry Gelade advocates a series of changes to the publication policy of the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (JOOP), in an attempt to increase its appeal to HR practitioners. While his overall intention ‐ the increased application of psychological knowledge, tools and techniques to the enhancement of productivity and well‐being in workplace settings ‐ is to be welcomed, unfortunately, several of his recommendations are misplaced, reflecting a number of misconceptions concerning the nature and role of scientific journals in the science and practice of IWO psychology. Taken as a whole, the package of policy changes he advocates is likely to prove counterproductive. Accordingly, modifications to his recommendations are offered, with a view to ensuring that JOOP continues to meet the needs of its prime constituents.     

Eliade on diplomatic service in London

It was in England that Mircea Eliade started writing the volume which would be published nearly a decade later as Traité d'histoire des religions (Patterns in Comparative Religion), as attested by the book's Avant-propos de l'auteur, dated ‘Oxford 1940/Paris 1948.’ Eliade also states in his autobiography (1988, p. 84) that ‘I read, took notes, and elaborated a plan of a vast synthesis of the morphology and history of religions, a synthesis I had glimpsed instantaneously in an air raid shelter during an alarm.’ In order to recreate the historical and political environment in which Eliade conceived and began to write his fundamental theoretical book, I have sketched the history of Great Britain's early involvement in World War II, the dramatic political events in Romania during Eliade's diplomatic service in London, and the British government's intrigues that held him a virtual ‘captive’ from September 1940 to February 19411     

The psychophysiology of posttraumatic stress disorder: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis of 58 resting baseline studies, 25 startle studies, 17 standardized trauma cue studies, and 22 idiographic trauma cue studies compared adults with and without posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on psychophysiological variables: facial electromyography (EMG), heart rate (HR), skin conductance (SC), and blood pressure. Significant weighted mean effects of PTSD were observed for HR (r = .18) and SC (r = .08) in resting baseline studies; eyeblink EMG (r = .13), HR (r = .23), and SC habituation slope (r = .21) in startle studies; HR (r = .27) in standardized trauma cue studies; and frontalis EMG (r = .21), corrugator EMG (r = .34), HR (r = .22), and SC (r = .19) in idiographic trauma cue studies. The most robust correlates of PTSD were SC habituation slope, facial EMG during idiographic trauma cues, and HR during all study types. Overall, the results support the view that PTSD is associated with elevated psychophysiology. However, the generalizability of these findings is limited by characteristics of the published literature, including its disproportionate focus on male veterans and neglect of potential PTSD subtypes.     

Professional Counseling in Romania: An Introduction

The formalization and professionalization processes in Romania resemble the early history of counseling in the United States, where development initially took place in the educational and career/vocational sectors. Brief accounts of the relationship between select periods in Romanian history and access to education and career/vocational support services are presented to provide a context for present‐day counseling activities. Information on the development of counseling in Romania, current practices, and future opportunities are presented as well.     

郑玄“以易笺诗”考论

在中国《诗经》学史上,郑玄的《毛诗传笺》久负盛名。尤其是他利用由古代礼义与礼例对《诗》作了制度化的研究,一直被认为是孔子以来说《诗》的重要发展。然而,作为郑玄《诗》学中不可或缺的重要组成部分学的"以易笺诗",却常为世人所忽略。本文通过对《郑笺》与《易注》的梳理与论证,指出郑玄以《周易》卦爻象与《易传》笺《诗》,虽然大多是片断的,不连贯的,有的甚至是随文引申有感而发,但是他借助《周易》话语,运用当时的社会观念和理论表述自己对《诗》的理解,丰富和深化了《诗》学的"比兴"手法、"天命"观念与讽喻功能,为我们展示了汉代《诗》学研究的新思路和新动向。     

Gender stereotypes in management: a comparative study of communist and postcommunist Romania

This study sets out to investigate the changes in the perception of women in leading positions in communist and postcommunist Romania. The study uses a noninvasive paradigm of analyzing the content of obituaries for women and men in leading positions published in a national journal, and shows that the gender gap in management widened during the postcommunist period. In postcommunist Romania, women are perceived as being less able to lead/manage and more relational in their leadership style as compared to men, while in the communist period the gender differences were not significant.     

《周易》象理无隔视野下的船山经学观

王船山学宗张载,以易学为入路构建起形上学体系。他从易学最基本的象理问题出发,提出了“《易》之全体在象, 象理一体无隔”的易学基本理念,并据此导出“即象以见理”的易学方法论。他以此象理无隔的易学视野和方法来统摄《六经》,进一步得出了“《五经》皆象,《易》统其理”的经学观,并主张治经要以训诂为根基,以义理为标的,从而使他的经学呈现出汉宋兼采并治的学术特色。     

Trace fear conditioning is reduced in the aging rat

Auditory trace fear conditioning is a hippocampus-dependent learning task that requires animals to associate an auditory conditioned stimulus (CS) and a fear-producing shock-unconditioned stimulus (US) that are separated by an empty 20-s trace interval. Previous studies have shown that aging impairs learning performance on hippocampus-dependent tasks. This study measured heart rate (HR) and freezing fear responses to determine if aging impairs hippocampus-dependent auditory trace fear conditioning in freely moving rats. Aging and Young rats received one long-trace fear conditioning session (10 trials). Each trial consisted of a tone-CS (5 s) and a shock-US separated by an empty 20-s trace interval. The next day rats received CS-alone retention trials. Young rats showed significantly larger HR and freezing responses on the initial CS-alone retention trials compared to the Aging rats. A control group of aging rats received fear conditioning trials with a short 1-s trace interval separating the CS and US. The Aging Short-Trace Group showed HR and freezing responses on the initial CS alone retention trials that were similar to the Young Long-Trace Group, but greater than the Aging Long-Trace Group. A second aging control group received unpaired CSs and USs, and showed no HR or freezing responses on CS-alone retention trials. These data show that HR and freezing are effective measures for detecting aging-related deficits in trace fear conditioning.     

iPhysioMeter: A new approach for measuring heart rate and normalized pulse volume using only a smartphone

Heart rate (HR) and normalized pulse volume (NPV) are physiological indices that have been used in a diversity of psychological studies. However, measuring these indices often requires laborious processes. We therefore developed a new smartphone program, named iPhysioMeter, that makes it possible to measure beat-by-beat HR and ln NPV using only a smartphone. We examined its accuracy against conventional laboratory measures. Mental stress tasks were used to alter HR and ln NPV in 12 participants. Bland–Altman analyses revealed negligible proportional bias for HR and ln NPV or for their change values, expressed as ΔHR and Δln NPV. However, a relatively large fixed bias did emerge for ln NPV, as well as a small one for Δln NPV, although both were within the limits of agreement. These findings suggest that iPhysioMeter can yield valid measures of the absolute level of HR and of relative changes in ln NPV.     

Teachers' work engagement: Considering interaction with pupils and human resources practices as job resources

The goal of these 2 studies was to investigate whether teachers' work engagement is related to the extent to which they experience their interactions with pupils and human resource (HR) practices within their schools as motivating. Study 1 was a qualitative study, including document analysis and interviews with 23 respondents within 4 schools to give more insight into prevailing HR practices. Study 2 was a quantitative study, in which 342 teachers in 13 schools were surveyed. As expected, the interactions with pupils were positively related to work engagement. Furthermore, HR practices were positively related to vigor and dedication. Not in line with our expectations, HR practices weakened the relationship between the interaction with pupils and dedication.     

MEASUREMENT ERROR IN RESEARCH ON HUMAN RESOURCES and FIRM PERFORMANCE: HOW MUCH ERROR IS THERE AND HOW DOES IT INFLUENCE EFFECT SIZE ESTIMATES?

Studies of the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and firm performance typically use a single respondent to assess firm level HR practices or HR effectiveness. However, previous research in other substantive areas suggests that rater differences are a potentially important source of measurement error. We demonstrate analytically the potential consequences of both random and systematic measurement error in research on HR and firm performance. However, our main focus is on random error and we show how generalizability theory can be applied to obtain better estimates of reliability by simultaneously recognizing multiple sources (e.g., items, raters) of random measurement error. These more inclusive reliability estimates, in turn, offer the possibility of more precisely quantifying substantive relationships in the HR and firm performance literature. In our sample, reliabilities (as estimated by generalizability coefficients) for single-rater assessments of HR variables were generally below .50. This degree of measurement error, if present in substantive studies on HR and firm performance, could lead to considerable bias, given that an unstandardized regression coefficient is corrected for measurement error in the independent variable by dividing by its reliability coefficient (not its square root). We also found only limited convergent validity between HR and line managers ratings of a second type of HR measure, HR effectiveness. In general, our findings suggest that future researchers need to devote greater attention to measurement error and construct validity issues. Our study provides an example of how generalizability theory can be useful in this pursuit.     

Decelerative cardiac responsiveness to acoustical stimulation in the near term fetus

Human fetal cardiac responses (36-39 weeks gestational age) to brief, repeated vocal stimuli (male or female voice uttering the same sentence), given at 90-95 dB SPL ex utero (around 20-30 dB less in utero) during a state of low fetal heart rate (FHR) variability, were examined using highly conservative statistical criteria taking into account each subject's prestimulus FHR variability. Subjects exposed to either of the two stimuli displayed significantly more decelerative heart rate (HR) changes compared to control subjects receiving no stimulation. The decelerative changes started during the first seconds following the onset of stimulation and reached their amplitude peak within 10 or 20 sec, depending on the subject. The directions—HR acceleration or deceleration—and the amplitude of the response depended on prestimulus HR variability only, not on prestimulus level. No major difference was found between the effects of the two voices. The data are compared to previous studies demonstrating fetal decelerative changes to acoustic stimuli of less than 105 dB SPL. The choice of an objective criterion to define an HR response and the possible orienting response nature of the decelerative change are discussed.     

W H R Rivers (1864-1922): the founder of research in cross-cultural perception.

This paper presents a brief review of Rivers's contribution to psychology, especially to his cross-cultural studies of the basic perceptual processes of vision, and examines the lasting influence of his findings. It reports briefly on the scientific milieu in which Rivers carried out his work and traces the growth of his interest in the psychology of perception from the early days of his medical work to his appointment as a foundation lecturer of two English universities, London and Cambridge. It is argued that Rivers's contribution has been undervalued by psychologists.