Determinants of help seeking behaviour: The effects of helper's similarity,task centrality and recipient's self esteem

The present experiment was concerned with the way in which the characteristics of the helper the task and the recipient affect the willingness to seek help. In line with past theory and research it was reasoned that seeking help would be most threatening when one needs help on an ego - central task, and the helper is perceived as similar to oneself. Consequently, individuals were expected to seek least help under these conditions. Further it was expected that individuals who enjoy a high self esteem would be more sensitive to this self threat and seek less help under these self threatening conditions than would individuals who have a low self esteem. The experiment consisted of a 2 (similar versus dissimilar helper) times 2 (ego-central versus non central task) times 2 (high versus low self esteem subjects) between subjects design. Subjects worked on a difficult anagram task, and their actual help seeking behaviour served as a dependent measure. The findings support the experimental hypotheses. The conceptual and applied implications of these findings are discussed.     

The cold glow of success: Responses to social rejection as affected by attitude similarity between the rejected and chosen individuals

Studied the effects of attitudinal similarity between two males on reactions to social rejection by a female. Sixty-five male undergraduate students had met an attitudinally similar or dissimilar male confederate. Later a female confederate either chose or did not choose the male confederate as a work partner. Following that, measures designed to tap subjects affective state and self evaluations were administered. Two way interactions for affect and self evaluations (p < 0.01 and p 7lt; 0.05 respectively) indicate that, relative to a control group, only subjects whose similar male partner was chosen expressed unfavorable affect and self-evaluations. The relevance of these findings for the affective consequences of social comparison processes is discussed.     

The effects of extrinsic incentive on some qualitative aspects of task performance1

Thirty two subjects of high school age were tested under two experimental conditions on a variety of tasks. Subjects in the extrinsic-incentive condition were promised a reward for their participation in the experiment No mention of reward was made in the no-incentive condition. Consistent with die experimental hypothesis, it was found that subjects in the latter as opposed to the former condition exhibited superiority in creativity of performance and task recall. In addition, they manifested a stronger Zeigarnik effect, and reported greater enjoyment of the experiment The data were discussed in reference to the idea that the degree of intrinsic motivation for a task is determined by the actor's self-attributed cause for its performance     

Review

I argue in this paper that anyone who accepts the ontology of scientific realism can only accept a pragmatic theory of truth, i.e., a theory on which truth is what it is epistemically right to believe. But the combination of realism with such a theory of truth is a form of internal realism; therefore, a scientific realist should be an internal realist. The strategy of the paper is to argue that there is no adequate semantic or correspondence theory of truth compatible with a realist ontology, that a redundancy theory cannot account for the value of truth, and that the only kind of truth theory which can account for the value of truth, and is compatible with a realist ontology, is a pragmatic theory. The kind of truth theory I wish to defend is objective and naturalistic, and the ontology is realistic. My position is, therefore, one of objective, naturalistic realism.     

Entanglement of Imaging and Imagining of Nanotechnology

Images, ranging from visualizations of the nanoscale to future visions, abound within and beyond the world of nanotechnology. Rather than the contrast between imaging, i.e. creating images that are understood as offering a view on what is out there, and imagining, i.e. creating images offering impressions of how the nanoscale could look like and images presenting visions of worlds that might be realized, it is the entanglement between imaging and imagining which is the key to understanding what images do. Three main arenas of entanglement of imag(in)ing and the tensions involved are discussed: production practices and use of visualizations of the nanoscale; imag(in)ing the future and the present; and entanglements of nanoscience and art. In these three arenas one sees struggles about which images might stand for nanotechnology, but also some stabilization of the entanglement of imag(in)ing, for example in established rules in the practices of visualizing the nanoscale. Three images have become iconic, through the combination of their wide reception and further circulation. All three, the IBM logo, the Foresight Institute’s Nanogear image, and the so-called Nanolouse, depict actual or imagined technoscientific objects and are thus seen as representing technoscientific achievements – while marking out territory.     

Follower need for cognitive closure as moderator of the effectiveness of leader procedural fairness

Leader procedural fairness is an important factor in leadership effectiveness, but the study of the contingencies of its influence is still in its infancy. Addressing this issue we focus on the moderating role of follower need for cognitive closure, the disposition to reduce uncertainty and swiftly reach closure in judgement and decision. We propose that need for closure captures followers sensitivity to the uncertainty-reducing influence of leader procedural fairness. Across three studies designed to yield complementary evidence (two surveys and a scenario experiment), we find support for the hypothesis that perceived leader procedural fairness has a stronger (positive) relationship with leadership effectiveness for followers higher in need for closure. This support is found across a variety of indicators reflecting different aspects of leadership effectiveness: effort and performance, social identification, job satisfaction, and leader evaluations. We discuss how these findings advance our understanding of the uncertainty-reducing role of leader fairness.     

On the psychology of time in action: regulatory mode orientations and procrastination

Six studies explored the relations of the regulatory modes of locomotion and assessment to individuals' tendency toward procrastination. Across academic and organizational contexts, and a variety of ways of assessing procrastination, the authors found assessment to be positively related to procrastination and locomotion to be negatively related to procrastination. Discussion considered implications of these findings to task environments that may instill the tendencies toward locomotion or assessment and to task requirements where timeliness and punctuality are (or are not) prioritized.     

Relevance override: on the reduced impact of "cues" under high-motivation conditions of persuasion studies

This research addressed the reduced impact of cues under high processing motivation of persuasion experiments. The results of 3 studies suggested that such reduced impact is due to a relevance override whereby any more subjectively relevant information swamps the effects of any less subjectively relevant information, given the recipient's sufficient motivation to process both. Because, in much persuasion research, cues may have been perceived as less relevant to the attitudinal judgments than message arguments, the relevance override hypothesis provides a general explanation of the reduced cue effect.