Key Accounts and Team Selling: A Review,Framework, and Research Agenda

As sales organizations increase their reliance on sales teams, they must learn how organizational and interpersonal relationships influence sales teams, how sales teams play a learning role for organizations, and what makes sales teams effective. Presenting a model of interrelationships among members of the selling firm and between the selling and buying firms, we identify five key team selling relationships between (1) members of the same team, (2) members of different teams within the firm, (3) the selling team and the buying center, (4) the selling team and other groups in the selling firm, and (5) the selling team and the firm’s strategy. This model leads to a conceptual framework highlighting relationship drivers, factors, and outcomes instrumental to team selling success. After presenting propositions for future research, theoretical and methodological suggestions are included to facilitate research in this area. We conclude with perspectives on the future of research and practice in key accounts and team selling.     

Variation in Social Facilitation of Eating Behavior in Puppies

Observations of the play behavior of same-sex, same-age dyads of preschool children were made during 10-minute play sessions. Each of the 48 children participated both with a familiar peer and with an unfamiliar peer. The hypothesis that both boys and girls would show more interaction with familiar peers than unfamiliar peers was supported for younger girls and older boys. Younger boys seemed little influenced by the familiarity of their play companion, while older girls showed more social interaction with unfamiliar peers. Results were compared with studies that used projective techniques, and it was suggested that the effects of peer familiarity may appear earlier in actual behavior than through these techniques.     

Action mechanisms for social cognition: behavioral and neural correlates of developing Theory of Mind

Many psychological theories posit foundational links between two fundamental constructs: (1) our ability to produce, perceive, and represent action; and (2) our ability to understand the meaning and motivation behind the action (i.e. Theory of Mind; ToM). This position is contentious, however, and long‐standing competing theories of social‐cognitive development debate roles for basic action‐processing in ToM. Developmental research is key to investigating these hypotheses, but whether individual differences in neural and behavioral measures of motor action relate to social‐cognitive development is unknown. We examined 3‐ to 5‐year‐old children's (N = 26) EEG mu‐desynchronization during production of object‐directed action, and explored associations between mu‐desynchronization and children's behavioral motor skills, behavioral action‐representation abilities, and behavioral ToM. For children with high (but not low) mu‐desynchronization, motor skill related to action‐representation abilities, and action‐representation mediated relations between motor skill and ToM. Results demonstrate novel foundational links between action‐processing and ToM, suggesting that basic motor action may be a key mechanism for social‐cognitive development, thus shedding light on the origins and emergence of higher social cognition.     

A Seat at the Table: Using Social Media as a Platform to Resolve Microaggressions Against Transgender Persons

Transgender, gender variant, and/or gender nonconforming persons are marginalized and pathologized in society and communities. The advent and widespread use of social media introduce an entirely new avenue of expression where cyber bullying and verbal assaults are common. Yet, social media also has the capacity to reach more people in more places, thus presenting a potentially powerful platform for advocacy. Grounded in digital critical participatory action research, the authors present a multimedia advocacy project that highlights advocacy strategies in which counselors can utilize social media to raise awareness, promote inclusion, and resolve microaggressions toward transgender persons.     

An fMRI investigation of a novel analogue to the Trail-Making Test

The Trail-Making Test (TMT) is a widely used neuropsychological measure that assesses visuomotor abilities and cognitive flexibility. For the TMT-A condition participants are required to locate and connect numbers (i.e. 1-2-3…) while in the TMT-B condition participants perform the set-shifting task of locating and connecting numbers and letters (i.e. 1-A-2-B…). The TMT-B condition has shown impairments in many clinical populations, particularly schizophrenia patients, but the neurobiological underpinning of the task can be difficult to discern given pragmatic obstacles in adapting the task for neuroimaging. In a behavioural testing experiment we demonstrated a close correspondence between performance on the standard TMT and a novel, computer programmed adaptation of the TMT (pcTMT). The pcTMT was designed for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) administration and neuroimaging data for this task were obtained in. A whole brain analysis revealed significantly greater activation during the pcTMT-B relative to the pcTMT-A in right inferior/middle frontal cortices, right precentral gyrus, left angular gyrus/left middle temporal gyrus. These results identify the regions that most likely underlie cognitive flexibility during the TMT and are candidate regions underlying the impairment of groups with poor set-shifting abilities.     

Maternal gatekeeping, coparenting quality, and fathering behavior in families with infants

The present study examined the role of maternal gatekeeping behavior in relation to fathers' relative involvement and competence in child care in 97 families with infant children. Parents' beliefs about fathers' roles were assessed prior to their infant's birth. Parents' perceptions of maternal gatekeeping behavior (encouragement and criticism) and coparenting relationship quality were assessed at 3.5 months postpartum. The authors assessed fathers' relative involvement and competence in child care using a combination of parent report and observational measures. Results suggest that even after accounting for parents' beliefs about the paternal role and the overall quality of the coparenting relationship, greater maternal encouragement was associated with higher parent-reported relative father involvement. Moreover, maternal encouragement mediated the association between coparenting quality and reported relative father involvement. With respect to fathers' observed behavior, fathers' beliefs and parents' perceptions of coparenting relationship quality were relevant only when mothers engaged in low levels of criticism and high levels of encouragement, respectively. These findings are consistent with the notion that mothers may shape father involvement through their roles as "gatekeepers."     

Regulation of Peripheral Catecholamine Responses to Acute Stress in Young Adult and Aged F-344 Rats

Young adult (3-month-old) and aged (24-month-old) Fischer-344 male rats received i.v. infusions of 3H-labeled norepinephrine (NE) and epinephrine (EPI) to examine the effects of aging on the neuronal uptake of NE and sympathoadrenal release of NE and EPI. Spillovers of NE and EPI into plasma and their clearance from the circulation were estimated from plasma concentrations of endogenous and 3H-labeled NE and EPI. The efficiency of neuronal uptake was assessed from changes in plasma clearance of NE and concentrations of its intraneuronal metabolite, dihydroxyphenylglycol (DHPG), during immobilization stress or neuronal uptake blockade with desipramine. Stress-induced increases in plasma NE and higher plasma NE concentrations in aged compared to young adult rats were due to both decreases in NE clearance and increases in NE spillover. EPI spillover and clearance were reduced in aged compared to young adult rats, so that plasma EPI levels did not differ between groups. Young adult and aged rats had similar desipramine-induced decreases in NE clearance, whereas desipramine-sensitive decreases and stress-induced increases in plasma DHPG were larger in aged rats. This indicates that neuronal uptake is intact and that increased NE spillover at rest and during stress in aged rats reflects increased NE release from sympathetic nerves. The results show that aging is associated with divergent decreases in EPI release from the adrenal medulla and increases in NE release from sympathetic nerves. Increased plasma concentrations of NE in aged compared to young adult rats also result from decreased circulatory clearance of NE, but this does not reflect any age-related impairment of NE reuptake.     

The structure and correlates of kanashibari.

The present research is an examination of the parameters and correlates of kanashibari, operationally defined as being unable to move upon awakening or before falling asleep. Nonclinical Japanese individuals (N = 720), 34% of whom reported an experience of kanashibari at least once, were administered D. I. Templer's (1970) Death Anxiety Scale, R. Brown's (1990) Locus of Control Scale, and a questionnaire devised by the authors to collect information about kanashibari. The results showed that the kanashibari experience was positively correlated with death anxiety, with being a woman, and with external-other locus of control; this last measure assessed the extent to which these individuals felt that their lives were determined by fate, good luck, or chance.     

Neurodevelopmental influences in the genesis and epigenesis of schizophrenia: An overview

The classical view of schizophrenia as a dementing disorder has recently been challenged by several findings pointing to a prenatal/perinatal origin of at least some of the brain abnormalities seen in these patients. This article reviews evidence from a number of different fields, including postmortem neuropathology, in vivo neuroimaging, developmental neuropsychology, and obstetric epidemiology in assessing the viability of a neurodevelopmental perspective of schizophrenia. Although the case for viewing schizophrenia as a neurodevelopmental condition is still circumstantial, and several gaps in this model remain, evidence from these diverse lines of inquiry converge to indicate at least a partial role of disturbances of brain development in the disorder's genesis and epigenesis.