Typing Speed as a Confounding Variable and the Measurement of Quality in Divergent Thinking

The need to control for writing or typing speed when assessing divergent-thinking performance has been recognized since the early ‘90s. An even longer tradition in divergent-thinking research has the issue of scoring the responses for quality. This research addressed both issues within structural equation modeling. Three dimensions of originality—uncommonness, remoteness, and cleverness—were used to derive an overall quality score. Mixed evidence was found in Study 1 for the direct effect of typing speed on fluency. In addition, indirect effects of typing speed via cognitive complexity on overall quality of ideas were uncovered but marginal in both Study 1 and Study 2. This indirect effect was also found for cleverness in Study 2. Another indirect effects of typing speed via fluency was found for cleverness and uncommonness. These findings indicate that controlling for typing speed is important in online divergent-thinking assessment. The inter-relations of various quality scores pertaining to the dimensions of uncommonness, remoteness, and cleverness were promising in terms of convergent validity. Important problems with respect to these scores were identified and discussed to guide future attempts to measure quality in DT.     

Interrelations among Regulation Focus,Authenticity and Emotional Responses to Frustration of Self-Related Experiences among University Students in Turkey

The aim of this study is to investigate the possible interrelation of regulatory focus, authenticity and negative emotional responses to the frustration that surrounds relational and independent self-aspects in Turkey, both of which are witnessing a rise among the educated-urbanized population. Previous findings show that both independent self-aspects and relational self-aspects may be experienced authentically, while authenticity of self appears to be associated more closely with promotion focus than prevention focus. We proposed a model in which authenticity mediates the relationship between promotion focus and emotional responses to independent and related self-frustration, while prevention focus directly predicts emotional responses to relational self-frustration, and promotion focus directly predicts emotional responses to independent self-frustration. The proposed model is tested on self-reported data collected from Turkish university students (N?=?317). The results reveal that promotion focus was a direct predictor of emotional responses to frustration of the independent self-aspect, while prevention focus predicted directly the emotional responses to frustration of the relational self-aspect. Authenticity was found to mediate the relationship between promotion focus and the emotional responses to frustration of the relational self-aspect. These results suggest that relational goals, such as safeguarding the interests of significant others, may be regulated not only with prevention strategies, but also with promotion strategies, through perceived authenticity.     

Show me the product,show me the model: Effect of picture type on attitudes toward advertising

We suggest that a consideration of consumer self-evaluations is fundamental to understanding the conditions under which it is more advantageous to present person or product pictures in print advertisements. We build on the basic human motives of self-enhancement and self-verification to propose that the specific self-esteem level of consumers, in the domain relevant for the category, differentially affects their responses to picture type. Specifically, for consumers with low (high) domain-specific self-esteem, depicting a product (person) in the advertisement enhances attitudes toward the advertisement more than depicting a person (product). In two studies, we demonstrate the proposed matching relationships using two different domains of consumer self-evaluation: appearance self-esteem and academic self-esteem. We also show that increased and more fluent generation of self-related mental imagery drives the observed improvement in attitudes toward the advertisement. Our findings suggest direct implications for advertising design.     

Price fairness,satisfaction, and trust as antecedents of purchase intentions towards organic food

Health and environmental issues are increasingly important in consumers' decision‐making process. Accordingly, demand for organic food is rapidly growing. In this context, the objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between price fairness, satisfaction, trust, and purchase intentions towards organic food. With this aim, empirical data were collected with self‐administrated questionnaires from a convenience sample of consumers from Sakarya, Turkey. Proposed hypotheses were tested with structural equations modeling. The results indicated positive relationships between price fairness, satisfaction, trust, and purchase intentions. At the end of this study, theoretical contributions, managerial implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Subjective Well-Being in an Era of Relentless Growth: The Case of Turkey Between 2004 and 2014

This paper analyses the subjective well-being levels in Turkey between 2004 and 2014 by relying on Turkish Statistical Institute’s Life Satisfaction Surveys. This is the first study ever suggesting an alternative well-being approach for Turkish population based on subjective measures. Inspired from the Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness and Cummins et al.’s (2003) Australian Unity Well-Being Index approaches, we constructed several subjective well-being indexes for the first time in Turkey. The main findings of this study are as follows: (1) Despite GDP per capita (in current $) doubles between 2004 and 2014 period, constructed indexes show slight increments or stagnate around some level. (2) We found a slight support for Frey and Stutzer’s (2002a) argument that GDP per capita is insensible after some threshold. (3) National well-being indicators are found to be more volatile than individual well-being indicators, which hints that individuals may be using their informal social networks as a shelter from the economic and politic fluctuations in the country. (4) Much of the volatility in subjective well-being indexes are caused by psychological well-being indicators. Previous results indicate that as basic requirements of a society are met after some level of per capita income, non-materialistic aspirations- like happiness, freedom or justice-started to surpass materialistic aspirations. Same is true for Turkey- this led us to conclude that the reductionist approach of delegating the solution of social and ecological problems to economic growth process may lie beneath this dismal outcome in Turkey in the last decade. Thus, we recommend policy-makers to upkeep with the reform process which would make economic and political system more transparent and competitive, which in turn, help to ameliorate the channels through which individuals fulfil their aspirations.