Children's ideas about the bank: A new zealand replication

A Hong Kong study by Ng (1983) showed that the development of the understanding of bank interest and profit was essentially similar to that of a Scottish sample reported by Jahoda (1981). It also uncovered two minor stages in addition to Jahoda's six. The present study confirmed the presence of these two stages as well as the others; and, like the Scottish sample, showed a New Zealand ‘lag’ behind Hong Kong.     

Equity,Intergroup bias and Interpersonal bias in Reward allocation

Decisions to allocate rewards to ingroup and outgroup members are under the dual pressures of equity and intergroup bias. This study examined variations in equity and bias resulting from the incongruity and salience of intergroup status. Incongruity arose from a mismatch between high subjective and low accorded status. Congruity occurred when subjective status and accorded status were both high or both low. By pairing school classes with known subjective and accorded statuses, an incongruous and a congruous status setting were derived naturally. The setting was made either salient or nonsalient experimentally. It was hypothesized that bias would progressively increase, and equity would progressively decrease, with incongruity and salience. Each set of hypotheses was partially supported. Further data analysis showed a robust tendency to under-reward both ingroup and outgroup members. This interpersonal negativity bras was shown by incongruous status allocators either when rewarding superior performance or in the salient condition. Apparently, it served to safeguard personal rather than social identity. The implications for equity and social identity theories were discussed.     

On becoming a leader: Effects of gender and cultural differences on power distance reduction

The present research focused on power processes in a simulated organizational structure consisting of three hierarchical levels occupied by different numbers of mules and females. Subjects were presented with a chart showing the organizational hierarchy of which they were a member placed at the lowest level, and asked to nominate any person for the leader position vacated by the current incumbent. The results of Experiment I (n = 88 Dutch male and female university students) showed that male subjects strongly overnominated themselves, whereas a majority of the female subjects nominated either self or another female. Of the others that were nominated by both males and females, almost all were occupants of positions immediately below the leader position, indicating the normative influence of a bureaucratic rule of leader succession. Experiment 2 was a replicational study carried out in a different culture (n = lOl Polish male and female university students). Polish subjects adhered to the bureaucratic rule more strongly than their Dutch counterparts, and both females and males nominated mostly males. Results are discussed with reference to gender self-stereotypes and cultural differences.     

Departure from the onset-onset rule

Using a signal-detection task, the generality of Turvey’s (1973) onset-onset rule was tested in our experiments. After seeing, in succession, (1) one or two letters (target display), (2) a multiletter detection display, and (3) a mask display, subjects decided whether or not the letter or letters in the target display reappeared in the succeeding detection display at different levels of detection-display duration in various situations. The subjects’ sensitivity was inconsistent with the onset-onset rule. More specifically, sensitivity increased with increases in display duration within a fixed stimulus onset asynchrony of 150 msec. Display duration, however, had no effect on response bias. Nor was there any interaction between display duration and display size in terms of either sensitivity or response bias. The more complicated relationship between display duration and display size does not invalidate the departure from the onset-onset rule.     

Sensory modality and the word-frequency effect

Two experiments were conducted to examine whether the word-frequency effect in recognition memory is primarily a modality-dependent phenomenon. In the first experiment, the presentation modality of a target word was varied orthogonally during the input of the test phases. In the second, the subjects were forced to process each input word at the letter-byo letter level, thus minimizing the orthographical differences between the high- and low-frequency words. The word-frequency effect was found in every experimental condition and should be considered a modality-independent phenomenon. A semantically based interpretation of this effect was proposed.     

Attributional Style and Engagement/Disengagement Responses in the Chinese Workforce

Internal attribution for bad events, along with stable and global attributions, has been regarded as a component of pessimism, a precursor of negative work outcomes. Most evidence in support of this conceptualisation has come from research conducted in individualist cultures. We questioned if internal attribution has the same pessimistic implication in a collectivist culture. Findings from two studies conducted on Chinese employees supported our expectations that the stability and globality dimensions (but not the internality dimension) would predict disengagement responses (such as quitting and being neglectful at work) and lack of engagement responses (such as voicing suggestions and being loyal to the organisation). A reconceptualisation of pessimism in the workplace is therefore necessary. A dimensional, rather than a composite, scoring method is proposed for maintaining the predictive and construct validities of attributional style as an indicator of pessimism.     

The Frege-Geach Problem and Blackburn’s Expressivism

Philosophia - Blackburn has outlined a formal account for moral expressivism, and we argued that the moral Frege-Geach problem can be solved formally by appending two rules for the boo-operator...     

READING INTERESTS OF CHINESE ADOLESCENTS: EFFECTS OF PERSONAL AND SOCIAL FACTORS*

The relation of the reading interests of Chinese adolescents to their personality (introversion), values (intellectualism and academic achievement), and the reading interests of their family members and peers was studied. A total of 2,114 secondary school students participated in the study. The hypothesized relationship was found to be positive. Specifically, the more introverted students were attracted to more literary materials, whereas the less introverted were fond of more action type of materials. Students high on the value of intellectualism were found to read in general more than those low on the value in almost any kind of materials. Compared to the low ones, students high on the value of academic achievement tended to read more but the differences were not extensive; their interest seemed to focus more on the literary and curriculum-related materials. With respect to family and peer influences, students with parents, siblings, classmates, and friends who read tended to read more and have wider reading interests.     

Employees' Well-being in Greater China: The Direct and Moderating Effects of General Self-efficacy

This study investigated the direct and moderating effect of general self-efficacy on the relationship between stressors and well-being in Chinese societies. Survey data were collected from 386 and 306 employees in Hong Kong and Beijing, respectively. The results consistently showed that general self-efficacy was positively related to mental well-being and physical well-being. A series of hierarchical regressions revealed that general self-efficacy moderated the relationship between stressors and mental well-being, yet did not moderate the relationship between stressors and physical well-being. Results verified that general self-efficacy plays an important role in employees' well-being in the collectivist society of China.
Cette recherche porte sur l'effet direct et régulateur de l'auto-efficience générale sur la relation entre les facteurs de stress et le bien-être dans les sociétés chinoises. Les données d'enquête ont été obtenues auprès de 386 salariés de Hong-Kong et 306 de Pékin. Les résultats montrent régulièrement que l'auto-efficience générale est positivement corrélée avec le bien-être physique et mental. Une succession de régressions hiérarchiques a révélé que l'auto-efficience générale régulait la relation entre les facteurs de stress et le bien-être mental, mais pas celle entre les facteurs de stress et le bien-être physique. Les résultats vérifient l'hypothèse selon laquelle l'auto-efficience générale joue un rôle important pour le bien-être des salariés dans la société collectiviste chinoise.