Assessing the Impact of Relative Social Position and Absolute Community Resources on Depression and Obesity Among Smokers

We tested two competing hypotheses-relative social position and community resources-in regards to their effect on two co-occurring health problems (depression, and obesity) in a sample of smokers participating in an online smoking cessation intervention. Income and education data at the zip code level from the 2000 Census was linked with individual level data. Logistic regression models were used for each co-occurring problem to determine how each SES variable (individually and interactively) was associated with the presence of co-occurring health problems. We found that lower individual education was related to poorer health for all outcomes (Depression: OR = 1.25; Obesity: OR = 1.24; Both: OR = 1.46), lower community education was only related to obesity (OR = 1.20). Lower individual income was related to higher rates of depressive symptoms (OR = 1.64) and both health problems (OR = 1.55); a significant interaction of individual and community income (Wald = 6.13, p < .05) revealed that high income individuals were less likely to be depressed if they lived in lower-income communities and became more likely to be so as community income increased. Relative social position was confirmed for depression, whereas community resources were prominent only for obesity. Higher individual education most consistently predicted positive health outcomes, making it a potentially powerful target to reduce health disparities.     

绝对的公平和相对的公平

效率和公平是经济伦理的两大原则 ,也是制定和衡量经济政策的价值依据 ,但大部分经济学家都认为 ,效率和公平存在着不可调和的矛盾 ,使得人们在指导经济行为和制定经济政策时处于两难境地。本文通过对自由主义、平等主义和功利主义公平观的批判 ,试图说明 ,从历史唯物主义的立场出发 ,抛弃绝对的公平观 ,主张相对的公平观 ,便能够解决这个难题。     

个体与群体情境下幼儿延迟策略的实验研究

采用实验法以90名3～5岁的儿童为被试，探讨其在个体和群体情境中延迟策略的使用状况。研究结果表明：在注意转移策略的使用上，存在着显著的年龄差异；在被动策略的使用上4岁组的幼儿具有显著差异；在个体与群体情境下，除了寻求帮助策略上有显著的差异外，其他延迟策略上均无显著差异；在延迟策略的使用上没有显著的性别差异。     

Effects of an Auditory Model on the Learning of Relative and Absolute Timing

The effects of an auditory model on the learning of relative and absolute timing were examined. In 2 experiments, participants attempted to learn to produce a 1,000- or 1,600-ms sequence of 5 key presses with a specific relative-timing pattern. In each experiment, participants were, or were not, provided an auditory model that consisted of a series of tones that were temporally spaced according to the criterion relative-timing pattern. In Experiment 1, participants (n = 14) given the auditory template exhibited better relative- and absolute-timing performance than participants (n = 14) not given the auditory template. In Experiment 2, auditory and no-auditory template groups again were tested, but in that experiment each physical practice participant (n = 16) was paired during acquisition with an observer (n = 16). The observer was privy to all instructions as well as auditory and visual information that was provided the physical practice participant. The results replicated the results of Experiment 1: Relative-timing information was enhanced by the auditory template for both the physical and observation practice participants. Absolute timing was improved only when the auditory model was coupled with physical practice. Consistent with the proposal of D. M. Scully and K. M. Newell (1985), modeled timing information in physical and observational practice benefited the learning of the relative-timing features of the task, but physical practice was required to enhance absolute timing.     

Correlates of Satisfaction with a Peer Evaluation System: Investigation of Performance Levels and Individual Differences

The present research examined the effects of performance level and individual differences on participants' satisfaction with a peer evaluation system. One hundred and fifty-three individuals working in groups completed a questionnaire assessing self-monitoring, self-esteem, and individualism. A peer evaluation system was used at the end of the project. Subjects indicated their satisfaction with and reaction to the peer evaluation system. The findings demonstrated that performance level, individualism, self-esteem, and self-monitoring helped to understand and to predict group members' reactions to the peer evaluation system. Implications for future research and implementation of peer rating systems are discussed.     

Absolute and Relative Decision Processes in Eyewitness Identification

A prominent and long-standing theory of eyewitness identification decision making distinguishes between absolute judgments, based on the lineup members' match to the witness's memory of the perpetrator, versus relative judgments, based on match values relative to other lineup members. This distinction was implemented in a computational model and simulations showed that the model predicts an accuracy advantage for absolute judgments over relative judgments under some conditions. The present experiment tested this prediction by evaluating the accuracy of witnesses instructed to use relative or absolute rules. Contrary to predictions, the overall analysis did not show an absolute advantage. Additional exploratory analyses showed a relative advantage when the suspect was surrounded by high-similarity foils. These results are consistent with a model that assumes that side-by-side comparisons of lineup members increase diagnostic accuracy by allowing witnesses to give greater weight to more diagnostic features and less weight to less diagnostic features.     

The Effect of Relative Income Concerns on Life Satisfaction: Relative Deprivation and Loss Aversion

Journal of Happiness Studies - Income comparisons are important for individual well-being. We examine the shape of the relationship between relative income and life satisfaction, and test...     

Development Projects and Life Satisfaction: An Impact Study on Fair Trade Handicraft Producers

Is there a correspondence between subjective and objective wellbeing indicators in development programs? We investigate this question by evaluating the impact of Fair Trade affiliation on the subjective wellbeing of a sample of Peruvian (treatment and control) producers from two different Fair Trade projects in two socioeconomic environments, one relatively poorer (Juliaca) and the other relatively more affluent (Chulucanas). We find a direct and an indirect effect. The direct effect acts positively via affiliation years in the poorer project and via trade diversification in both projects. The indirect effect acts through the reduction of poverty and relative income. Consistently with the concave income-happiness assumption, the variables generating the indirect effect have a much weaker impact for producers living in the relatively better-off socioeconomic environment, net of the lower FT economic impact in this area.     

Consistent and Variable Practice Conditions: Effects on Relative and Absolute Timing

The authors conducted the present experiments to resolve the discrepancy between studies in which relative-timing learning has been found to be enhanced by consistent practice conditions and contextual interference experiments in which relative-timing learning has been found to be enhanced more by random practice than by blocked practice. There were 40 participants in Experiment 1 and 48 in Experiment 2. The results of Experiment 1 extended previous findings: The learning of the relative-timing pattern was systematically enhanced by the degree to which the practice conditions promoted movement consistency (constant > blocked > serial > random). Experiment 2 provided evidence that the discrepancy between the relative-timing effects in the 2 groups of studies was a product of the way in which relative-timing goals and feedback were presented. When the feedback was presented as segment times, random practice resulted in generally more stable relative-timing patterns during acquisition than blocked practice did. Thus, in both experiments, the learning of the relative-timing pattern was enhanced by more stable relative-timing conditions during acquisition. Absolute-timing learning, as indexed by the transfer tests, was enhanced by serial or random practice as compared with constant or blocked practice, and was relatively unaffected by feedback conditions directed at the relative-timing pattern. In terms of motor programming theory, those findings are taken as additional evidence for the disassociation of memories supporting generalized motor program (GMP) performance, as indexed by relative timing, and parameter performance, as indexed by absolute timing.     

Pornography's Impact on Sexual Satisfaction1

Male and female students and nonstudents were exposed to videotapes featuring common, nonviolent pornography or innocuous content. Exposure was in hourly sessions in six consecutive weeks. In the seventh week, subjects participated in an ostensibly unrelated study on societal institutions and personal gratifications. On an especially constructed questionnaire, subjects rated their personal happiness regarding various domains of experience; additionally, they indicated the relative importance of gratifying experiences. Exposure to pornography was without influence on the self-assessment of happiness and satisfaction outside the sexual realm (e.g., satisfaction deriving from professional accomplishments). In contrast, it strongly impacted self-assessment of sexual experience. After consumption of pornography, subjects reported less satisfaction with their intimate partners—specifically, with these partners' affection, physical appearance, sexual curiosity, and sexual performance proper. In addition, subjects assigned increased importance to sex without emotional involvement. These effects were uniform across gender and populations.     

An Experimental Investigation of Election Promises

We analyze the effect of election promises on electoral behavior in a laboratory experiment. In the experiment, politicians can make nonbinding election promises about how to split an endowment between themselves and the group. We find that promises affect both voting and voter beliefs about how much the politician will contribute to the public fund. The relationship is inverted U‐shaped with decreasing credibility of higher promises. Contributions of politicians are correlated with their promises in a similar pattern. The election promises are generally credible unless particularly high. Politicians keep promises more often if a reelection is possible and if the politician came into power by vote rather than by random draw. Voters reward high contributions in the previous period and punish promise breaking even after controlling for the contribution in the previous period or voters' beliefs about future contributions. By controlling for voters' beliefs, we distinguish retrospective from prospective voting. Our results suggest that voters both use promises for prospective voting and retrospectively punish broken promises.     

An Experimental Investigation of Cognitive Defusion

The current study compared cognitive defusion with other strategies in reducing the impact of experimentally induced negative emotional states. Sixty-seven undergraduates were assigned to one of three conditions (cognitive defusion, thought suppression, or control) and instructed in standardized approaches relevant to each condition before viewing film clips intended to elicit fear, sadness, and disgust. Participants then rated their experience of each emotion and completed a Stroop task intended to indirectly measure emotional arousal. While participants did not show any differences in their experience of emotions through self-report, significant differences on the Stroop task provided evidence of varying degrees of arousal between participants using defusion, suppression, and control strategies, with thought suppression and defusion showing the greatest reduction in arousal. These findings were retained after controlling for individual differences in negative affect and suggest that defusion is an effective strategy for reducing emotional distress but raise questions about the specific mechanisms involved in the process.

     

Absolute and Relative Biases in Estimations of Personal Risk1

Two studies examined the accuracy of personal risk estimates, as determined by comparing mean estimates made by college students with population statistics for college-educated individuals. Study 1 suggested that optimistic biases (the tendency for people to think they are less at risk than the average person) arise more because people overestimating the average person's risk than because they underestimate their own risk. In Study 2, subjects rated their risk after being presented with risk statistics that were 150%, 100%, or 50% of the true values. Subjects' estimates decreased with decreases in the comparison statistics, as if subjects attempted to preserve their “below-average” status, but they changed less than did the statistics and were actually pessimistic in comparison to the 50% values. Implications for interventions designed to influence risk perceptions are discussed.     

An Examination of the Relative Impact of Assigned Goals and Self-Efficacy on Personal Goals and Performance Over Time

A model of goal-setting processes was developed that depicted the influence of previous performance, assigned goals, and self-efficacy on personal goals and performance. Three levels of assigned goals were manipulated in a counterbalanced fashion across two performance trials. Assigned goals were hypothesized to have a greater influence than self-efficacy on personal goals for the first trial, whereas efficacy was hypothesized to have a stronger influence than assigned goals on Trial 2 goals. Although the hypothesized model fit fairly well overall, the specific results concerning the relative impact of assigned goal and self-efficacy were not supported. In general, the observed trends indicated the effects were the opposite of what was expected. Potential explanations for these results and recommendations for future research are offered.     

医务人员工作满意度调查研究

通过对医务人员工作满意度进行调查,结果显示医务人员总体工作满意度不高,其中后勤、行政管理人员相对高于医生、护士和医技人员;领导与管理、工作本身、报酬与福利、人际关系、工作条件是医务人员工作满意度的主要影响因素。提高工作满意度应考虑这些因素和注意不同群体的差异。