Mind Over Matter? The Role of Individual Perceptions in Understanding the Social Ecology of Housing Environments for Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities

There is a disagreement in place‐based research regarding whether objective indicators or individual perceptions of environments are better predictors of well‐being. This study assessed environmental influences on well‐being for 373 individuals with psychiatric disabilities living independently in 66 neighborhoods in the southeastern United States. Three questions were examined utilizing random effects models: (1) How much variance in personal and neighborhood well‐being can be explained by neighborhood membership? (2) What is the relationship between participant perceptions of neighborhood quality and researcher ratings of neighborhood quality? and (3) What is the relative influence of individual perceptions, perceptions aggregated by neighborhood, and researcher ratings of neighborhood quality in predicting personal and neighborhood well‐being? Results indicate that individual perceptions of neighborhood quality were more closely related to well‐being than either aggregated perceptions or researcher ratings. Thus, participants’ perceptions of their neighborhoods were more important indicators of their well‐being than objective ratings made by researchers. Findings have implications for measurement approaches and intervention design in placed‐based research.     

Beyond good and evil: the time-course of neural activity elicited by specific picture content

The present study examined electrocortical evidence for a negativity bias, focusing on the impact of specific picture content on a range of event-related potentials (ERPs). To this end, ERPs were recorded while 67 participants viewed a variety of pictures from the International Affective Picture System. Examination of broad categories (i.e., pleasant, neutral, unpleasant) found no evidence for a negativity bias in two early components, the N1 and the Early Posterior Negativity (EPN), but revealed that unpleasant images did elicit a larger late positive potential (LPP) than pleasant pictures. However, images of erotica and mutilation elicited comparable LPP responses, as did affiliative and threatening images. Exciting (i.e., sports) images and disgusting images elicited smaller LPPs than other emotional images, similar to neutral images containing people-which were associated with the largest LPPs among neutral pictures. When these three anomalous categories (exciting, disgusting, and scenes with people) were excluded, unpleasant images no longer elicited a larger LPP than pleasant images. Thus, including exciting images in pleasant ERP averages disproportionately reduces the LPP. The present findings are discussed in light of the motivational significance of specific picture subtypes.     

The influence of sexual harassment frequency and perceptions of organizational justice on victim responses to sexual harassment

Organizational justice theory was used to understand the conditions that influence how women respond when sexually harassed. Specifically, this study examined whether sexual harassment frequency interacts with perceptions of four types of organizational justice (procedural, distributive, interpersonal, and informational) to predict two types of victim responses (confrontation and reporting). With data collected from 257 female employees, it was found that the interaction between sexual harassment frequency and perceptions of distributive justice and the interaction between sexual harassment frequency and perceptions of procedural justice predicted reporting, whereas the interaction between sexual frequency and perceptions of distributive justice predicted confrontation. The interaction between sexual harassment frequency and perceptions of informational justice predicted both confrontation and reporting. Implications for organizations are discussed.     

Hagiography: Current and prospective contributions

This study considers the historical development of hagiographic research, including its antecedents and contemporary motivations and intentions. As a sub-approach of psychobiographical research, hagiography's defining qualities include the venerability of the subject, the aim of edifying the reader and illustrating issues of faith and morals as taught by a given religious group. Hagiography has the unique qualities to benefit research scholarship in its exploration of the psychological aspects of a positive human experience, virtue, religion and the spiritual life. Its limitations include overly positive accounts that ignore or minimise negative experiences and weaknesses of people considered to be venerable. Studies that utilise hagiography might be enhanced by researchers prioritising literature that is objective and historically accurate, relating the choice of psychological theory to the research question, and listening to critical and sympathetic voices regarding the subject. This would enable a holistic view of the human experience – with due consideration for the legacy and posthumous extrapolations that may exist regarding the subject, as well as the need to maintain a keen sense of personal awareness throughout the research.     

Neurobiological correlates of cognitions in fear and anxiety: A cognitive–neurobiological information-processing model

We review likely neurobiological substrates of cognitions related to fear and anxiety. Cognitive processes are linked to abnormal early activity reflecting hypervigilance in subcortical networks involving the amygdala, hippocampus, and insular cortex, and later recruitment of cortical regulatory resources, including activation of the anterior cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex to implement avoidant response strategies. Based on this evidence, we present a cognitive–neurobiological information-processing model of fear and anxiety, linking distinct brain structures to specific stages of information processing of perceived threat.     

Restoring drinking water acceptance following a waterborne disease outbreak: the role of trust,risk perception,and communication

Although research shows that acceptance, trust, and risk perception are often related, little is known about the underlying patterns of causality among the three constructs. In the context of a waterborne disease outbreak, we explored via zero‐order/partial correlation analysis whether acceptance predicts both trust and risk perception (associationist model), or whether trust influences risk perception and acceptance (causal chain model). The results supported the causal chain model suggesting a causal role for trust. A subsequent path analysis confirmed that the effect of trust on acceptance is fully mediated by risk perception. It also revealed that trust is positively predicted by prior institutional trust and communication with the public. Implications of the findings for response strategies to contamination events are discussed.     

Cortical Cell Assemblies: A Possible Mechanism for Motor Programs

The concept of a motor program has been used to interpret a diverse range of empirical findings related to preparation and initiation of voluntary movement. In the absence of an underlying mechanism, its explanatory power has been limited to that of an analogy with running a stored computer program. We argue that the theory of cortical cell assemblies suggests a possible neural mechanism for motor programming. According to this view, a motor program may be conceptualized as a cell assembly, which is stored in the form of strengthened synaptic connections between cortical pyramidal neurons. These connections determine which combinations of corticospinal neurons are activated when the cell assembly is ignited. The dynamics of cell assembly ignition are considered in relation to the problem of serial order. These considerations lead to a plausible neural mechanism for the programming of movements and movement sequences that is compatible with the effects of precue information and sequence length on reaction times. Anatomical and physiological guidelines for future quantitative models of cortical cell assemblies are suggested. By taking into account the parallel, re-entrant loops between the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia, the theory of cortical cell assemblies suggests a mechanism for motor plans that involve longer sequences. The suggested model is compared with other existing neural network models for motor programming.     

Sales Training and Education: Tracking Academic Research in Selling and Sales Management: Authors,Authorships, Academic Institutions,and Journals

This study examines and tracks the extent of selling and sales management research from 1993–1997. Two hundred and sixty- six published journal articles representing sixteen journals are examined to identify where and when selling and sales management researchers received their doctoral training, their employment location at time of publication, regional trends in the location of these researchers, and a count by-journal of selling and sales management articles that have appeared during the time period. A total of 280 individual authors from 175 different colleges and universities are included in the study. Overall, the general trends for scholarly activity in selling and sales management appear to be robust when compared to prior studies of sales research productivity.     

The Impact of Territory Difficulty and Self Versus Other Ratings on Managerial Evaluations of Sales Personnel

Previous research has yielded inconclusive evidence regarding whether territory difficulty information influences evaluations of salesperson performance. Two studies were conducted to assess whether a territory difficulty bias exists. In addition, the research tested for a divergence in performance ratings depending upon whether the evaluation was completed by a salesperson or a sales manager. The results show that, given the right conditions, territory difficulty bias can be overcome, and that previous failures to find territory difficulty effects in similar studies were likely caused by Type II errors. Also, the results indicate that self-ratings do tend to exhibit an upward bias over ratings by others.