La Bella Figura: The role of a cultural philosophy on Italian consumerism

The La Bella Figura concept extends to many Italian cultural dimensions including physical appearance, perception of self, and behaviours. La Bella Figura plays an essential role in shaping Italian consumer behaviour and consumerism. The current study sought to understand how women living in Italy conceptualize La Bella Figura and how it affects their day‐to‐day lives, attitudes, and consumption behaviours. This research extracted concepts from Consumer Culture Theory to construct a qualitative codebook and structure thematic data analyses. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 30 women aged 18–50 years living in Florence, Italy. Participants were recruited through study flyers, social media, and snowball sampling. Open and axial coding were facilitated by HyperRESEARCH 4.0.1 software to generate key themes. Data were collected and analyzed by trained researchers living in Florence, Italy, who utilized grounded theory techniques to identify emergent themes. Results indicated various components of La Bella Figura contributed to consumer behaviour, namely its influence on identity (i.e., appearance, confidence), lifestyle goals (i.e., health, consumerism), and social norms (i.e., perceptions of others, media). Findings offer practical recommendations for marketers and retailers to appeal to the Italian market through effective and informed mediums.     

Examining the narrative roles in suicide notes

The present study examines suicide notes, using a sample of suicide notes from published corpora (N = 50), combined with a sample of recent suicide notes from a suicide website (N = 50). The present study proposes a model of differentiation in completed suicides. The characteristics of the suicide notes were analysed using a content dictionary developed by Giles in 2007, and the data subjected to smallest space analysis. Four themes of suicide completer were discovered: Egoistic Victim, Anomic Hero, Altruistic Professional and Fatalistic Revenger. The implications of these findings and the potential use in therapy work with suicide survivors and those with suicidal ideation are discussed, as well as suggestions for the direction of future research.     

Toward a social psychophysiology of vagally mediated heart rate variability: Concepts and methods in self‐regulation,emotion, and interpersonal processes

Theory and research on self‐regulation, emotional adjustment, and interpersonal processes focus increasingly on parasympathetic functioning, using measures of vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) or respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). This review describes models of vmHRV in these areas, and issues in measurement and analysis. We propose a framework organizing theory and research as examining (a) vmHRV as an individual difference or a situational response, and (b) resting, reactive, or recovery levels. Evidence supports interpretation of individual differences in resting vmHRV as a broad biomarker for adaptive functioning, but its specificity and underlying mechanisms require elaboration. Individual differences in vagal reactivity (i.e., trait‐like differences in vmHRV decreases during challenge or stress) are less commonly studied in adults and results are mixed. Many stressors and challenges evoke temporary decreases in vmHRV, and in some research self‐regulatory effort evokes increases. In a smaller literature, positive interpersonal experiences and some restorative processes increase resting vmHRV, whereas depletion of self‐regulatory capacity through related effort decreases it. Greater attention to conceptual distinctions regarding vmHRV constructs and several methodological issues will strengthen future research. Importantly, researchers should exercise caution in equating vmHRV with specific psychosocial constructs, especially in the absence of converging assessments and precise experimental manipulations.     

矛盾年龄偏见量表在中国大学生群体中的修订及信效度检验

目的：修订矛盾年龄偏见量表(the Ambivalent Ageism Scale, AAS),并在中国大学生群体中进行信、效度检验。方法：对1182名大学生施测AAS中文翻译版,探索并验证其因子结构,分析信、效度和测量等值性。其中347人还完成老化知识量表(FAQ)和容纳他人量表(AOS),用以检验AAS中文版的校标关联效度。另有74人在4周后重测AAS中文版。结果：AAS中文修订版包含认知帮助/保护、不想要的帮助和敌意年龄偏见三因子,总量表和各维度的Cronbach’s α系数依次为0.83、0.80、0.85、0.76,重测信度依次为0.78、0.62、0.78、0.71。AAS中文修订版及各维度与FAQ和AOS负相关(r=-0.23～-0.48,ps<0.001)。验证因素分析表明AAS中文修订版的拟合良好(χ²/df=3.51,CFI=0.96,TLI=0.94,RMSEA=0.07,SRMR=0.05)。且该量表跨性别形态、弱等值、部分强等值和部分严格测量等值成立。结论：修订后的矛盾年龄偏见量表(AAS)中文版的信、效度良好,具备跨性别的测量部分...     

Job Insecurity Spillover to Key Account Management: Negative Effects on Performance,Effectiveness, Adaptiveness,and Esprit De Corps

Most of the existing research on outcomes of job insecurity has identified individual-level burdens such as reduced attitudinal attachments toward work and well being. Far fewer studies have examined work-related outcomes that are of substantial concern to organizational success. In this paper, we investigated four new work-related outcomes of job insecurity that are part of the literature on key account management (KAM): customer performance, effectiveness with customers, adaptiveness to changing competitive conditions, and esprit de corps. A total of 353 U.S. based employees participated. The findings of this research suggest that job insecure workers perceive their organizations to be ineffective in delivering on all four KAM outcomes.     

Eye movements and the identification of spatially ambiguous words during Chinese sentence reading

Readers of Chinese must generally determine word units in the absence of visually distinct inter-word spaces. In the present study, we examined how a sequence of Chinese characters is parsed into words under these conditions. Eye movements were monitored while participants read sentences with a critical four-character (C1234) sequence. Three partially overlapping character groupings formed legal words in the ambiguous condition (C12, C23, and C34), two of which corresponded to context-consistent words (C12 and C34). Two nonoverlapping groupings corresponded to legal words in the control conditions (C12 and C34). In two experiments, readers spent more time viewing the critical character sequence and its two center characters (C23) in the ambiguous condition. These results argue against the strictly serial assignment of characters to words during the reading of Chinese text.     

Body image perceptions among Chinese children and adolescents

In order to investigate the body image self-perception and the prevalence of body dissatisfaction among Chinese children and adolescents, 9100 children aged 3-15 years living in four cities completed a questionnaire assessing body image self-percepts and ideals by figural stimuli. The results indicate that (1) children's body ratings started to be significantly related to their BMIs at age 5 and correlations increased with age; (2) a wide range of current body sizes was chosen by Chinese boys and girls; (3) the ideal body sizes of boys and girls selected by boys and girls, respectively, were "boys by boys">"boys by girls">"girls by boys">"girls by girls" and (4) the satisfaction, mild dissatisfaction, and moderate dissatisfaction rates were 40.1%, 36.4% and 23.5%, respectively. Differences as a function of gender and age were identified. It was concluded that the prevalence of body dissatisfaction among children and adolescents of urban China was striking, and that the Chinese boys were not immune to body dissatisfaction.