Financial stress, attitudes toward money, and scores on a Dream Inventory

During stock market losses in 2009 and high unemployment, ratings on the KJP Dream Inventory were correlated with factors of the Money Attitude Scale and items on the Contemporary Financial Stress Inventory for 71 graduate students in Counseling Psychology and Education. Correlations were significant for Retention on the Money Attitude Scale with Dissociative Avoidance (-.31), Dreams of falling (.26), Risk-taking in dreams (.24), and Dreaming of being chased (.28). Also, ratings for the Money Attitude Scale of Distrust correlated with Discontentedness in dreams (.33) and Dreams of being chased (.26), Repetitive trauma (.33), Nightmares (.30), and Recurring nightmares (.35). Concern about retention in graduate school due to finances correlated with recalled frequencies of nightmares (.27) and dreams of flying (.25).     

Effect of aspect ratio on the compressive deformation and fracture behaviour of Zr-based bulk metallic glass

The compressive deformation and fracture features of Zr₅₉Cu₂₀Al₁₀Ni₈Ti₃ bulk metallic glassy samples with aspect ratios in the range of 0.67–2.00 have been investigated. The compressive plastic strain of the glass monotonically increases with decreasing aspect ratio, but the maximum strength almost maintains a constant value of 1.77–1.88?GPa. All the compressive shear-band angles are equal to?～40° if modified by the rotation of the primary shear bands.     

Family-focused management: Treatment of choice for deviant and dependent families

Abstract

Helping professionals working with troubled families takes two approaches. One approach, noting that the identified patient's family's behavioral interactions have positive and negative effects on the patient and his symptoms, advocates involving family members in the treatment process. The other approach, noting that the identified patient alone has the power to resolve his problem, advocates treating the patient independently of the family. This latter approach, in effect, relieves family members of the painful feelings of responsibility. At first glance, these two approaches appear to be in conflict, and it is no wonder that professionals choose to remain with one or the other. Both points of view are valid, so that approaches need to be developed which incorporate both.     

The effect of receipt personalization on tipping behavior

Research has shown that personalizing receipts, such as drawing “smiley faces” and writing “thank you” notes on customer bills to express gratitude, can result in larger tips for restaurant wait staff. Although the practice of receipt personalization has been supported using field experiments, limited research has examined the effectiveness of this technique based on the level of service quality provided by restaurant wait staff. Using a scenario‐based approach, we found from this study that adding a personalized message significantly lowers tip percentages. Moreover, the negative effect is magnified when service quality fails to exceed customer expectations. Implications related to the findings are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Context and Prior Impression Effects on Attention, Judgment Standards, and Ratings: Contrast Effects Revisited

The present study extended research on contrast effects by (a) examining the effect of context performances on ratings of a target performance when a prior impression of the target performer already exists, and (b) clarifying the issue of whether contrast is caused by attention to context-discrepant behavior or shifts in judgment standards. The results demonstrated that the existence of a prior impression mitigates the influence of context performances on ratings. Judgment standards were found to be unstable and dependent on information provided to raters by the experimental manipulations. Regression analyses showed that both attention and standards of judgment mediate the relationship between context and ratings. Implications of these findings for contrast effects, performance ratings, and the importance of reliable judgment standards for real-world performance appraisals are discussed.     

Quest Religion and the Problem of Limited Compassion

Is the religious questing orientation an unprejudiced orientation that shows tolerance for people to a degree that suggests universal, rather than circumscribed, compassion? To answer this question, 90 undergraduates were given the opportunity to help either of two peers win a monetary prize. The identity of one of the peers was manipulated across two conditions: he or she was presented as holding a religious fundamentalist belief style or belief style unspecified. The purpose of the monetary prize was also varied across two conditions: an activity that either would or would not promote religious fundamentalist behavior. Participants scoring high in religious questing helped the discloser who held a religious fundamentalist belief style less than the discloser who did not, irrespective of whether they promoted religious fundamentalist behavior or not. These results suggest that the questing orientation is associated with prejudice toward the value‐violating person when the salient person value violates the open‐minded belief style of the questing orientation.     

African Americans' Educational Expectations: Longitudinal Causal Models for Women and Men

The long‐term educational development of African American adolescents was investigated using a national longitudinal sample. The dependent variable was the highest level of education that participants ever expected to achieve. These expectations were assessed when participants were 2 years beyond high school. Background variables and family variables were assessed when students were in the 8th grade. High school behavior variables were assessed when students were high school seniors. Path models revealed differing processes for women and men. Overall, effects of early academic performance variables were strongest, followed by effects of family variables and high school behavior variables. Implications for theory and practice are included.