Customer-Initiated Support and Employees’ Proactive Customer Service Performance: A Multilevel Examination of Proactive Motivation as the Mediator

Drawing on the proactive motivation model and theories of motivation, the current study examined customer-initiated support as an antecedent of employees’ proactive customer service performance (PCSP) and investigated the mediating role of proactive motivations and the moderating role of serving culture. We conducted two multilevel studies to test the proposed hypotheses. In study 1, we collected diary data from 158 nurses across 10 working days, and results showed that the relationship between nurses’ daily experience of customer-initiated support and their PCSP was mediated by self-efficacy, work meaning, and positive affect. In study 2, we collected multilevel multi-source data from 373 nurses nested within 80 units and found that nurses’ experience of customer-initiated support was positively related to their supervisor-rated PCSP via role-breadth self-efficacy and work meaning, but not through positive affect. Further, team-level serving culture strengthened the positive relationship between customer-initiated support and role-breadth self-efficacy. These findings shed light on understanding the effect of customer-initiated support as an external factor on prompting service employees’ proactive behaviors, potential motivational mediators to explain the underlying mechanisms, and potential boundary conditions inside of service organizations to strengthen the positive effects of customer-initiated support.     

How Do Artificial Neural Networks Classify Musical Triads? A Case Study in Eluding Bonini's Paradox

How might artificial neural networks (ANNs) inform cognitive science? Often cognitive scientists use ANNs but do not examine their internal structures. In this paper, we use ANNs to explore how cognition might represent musical properties. We train ANNs to classify musical chords, and we interpret network structure to determine what representations ANNs discover and use. We find connection weights between input units and hidden units can be described using Fourier phase spaces, a representation studied in musical set theory. We find the total signal coming through these weighted connection weights is a measure of the similarity between two Fourier structures: the structure of the hidden unit's weights and the structure of the stimulus. This is surprising because neither of these Fourier structures is computed by the hidden unit. We then show how output units use such similarity measures to classify chords. However, we also find different types of units—units that use different activation functions—use this similarity measure very differently. This result, combined with other findings, indicates that while our networks are related to the Fourier analysis of musical sets, they do not perform Fourier analyses of the kind usually described in musical set theory. Our results show Fourier representations of music are not limited to musical set theory. Our results also suggest how cognitive psychologists might explore Fourier representations in musical cognition. Critically, such theoretical and empirical implications require researchers to understand how network structure converts stimuli into responses.     

Family Socioeconomic Status and Social Media Addiction in Female College Students: The Mediating Role of Impulsiveness and Inhibitory Control

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that low family socioeconomic status (SES) not only is a social issue, but also is a precursor to addiction to social media and other technologies. The authors investigated the relationship between family SES, stress, impulsiveness and inhibitory control, and social media addiction among Chinese female college students. The findings revealed that in lower-SES families, increased social media addiction was associated with reduced inhibitory control and increased stress and impulsiveness. A structural equation model was used to examine the mediation model hypothesis, and the results confirmed the mediating role of no-planning impulsiveness and inhibitory control between family educational level and social media addiction among Chinese female college students. These findings demonstrate the importance of reducing impulsiveness and improving inhibitory control for preventing social media addiction in female college students of low SES. Future studies are required to confirm precursors to social media addiction, elucidate causal mechanisms, and support the explanatory model of social media addiction.     

宗教社区的联合与分离——宁夏韦州哈乙寺组织的民族志研究

韦州哈乙寺组织经历了兴起、废除、重构三个阶段,其功能主要体现在组织聚礼、会礼、殡礼、念尼卡哈、决定封开斋时间、解释教法、代表穆斯林整体进行利益表达、与国家权力展开互动等方面,能够在一定程度上保持教派的稳定性,提高民间的组织化程度。这种组织是在国家权力制约之下民间对宗教事务进行自我管理过程中形成的,是对政府权力不便参与部分的补充。哈乙寺组织的特点与不同民族的传统及社区史相关。在城镇化进程中,这一组织也面临着分离的隐忧。     

明代道教医学发展新考

明代是道教医学发展成就突出的一个时期,也是道教由社会上层精英阶层向社会广大民众普及发展的一个重要时期。本文主要从明王室对道教医学的发展及明王室中普遍的外丹服食方面出发,列举明王室成员对中草药、方剂、方书及医学理论方面的发展并对其经典著作进行探讨;辩证分析明代历任帝王对外丹服食的态度并对金石丹药的服食进行论析;对道教医学在明代社会上级阶层的发展进行论证分析,得出明代王室对道教医学起到重要促进发展作用的结论。     

Dialogical Temporal Chair Technique

ABSTRACT

The Dialogical Temporal Chair Technique (DTCT) is a method based on Hermans’s dialogical self theory combined with Gestalt and cognitive–behavioural therapeutic techniques. The Dialogical Temporal Chair Technique is a method of activating temporal voices. Three chairs symbolising the past, present and future are used to help subjects create a temporal dialogue. Participants are asked to take a specific I-position and to construct a temporal self-dialogue by changing chair (and hence I-position). The DTCT can be used to solve undefined problems or to explore new ways of thinking, but it may also be used to review important life decisions or enable integration of, or detachment from, ambivalent feelings and attitudes.     

Suicide Risk across Latent Class Subgroups: A Test of the Generalizability of the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide

It remains unclear whether the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide (IPTS; Joiner, 2005 ) is generalizable to the population or holds more explanatory power for certain subgroups compared to others. The aim of this study was to (1) identify subgroups of individuals who endorsed suicide ideation in the past month based on a range of mental health and demographic variables, (2) compare levels of the IPTS constructs within these subgroups, and (3) test the IPTS predictions for suicide ideation and suicide attempt for each group. Latent class, negative binomial, linear, and logistic regression analyses were conducted on population‐based data obtained from 1,321 adults recruited from Facebook. Among participants reporting suicide ideation, four distinct patterns of risk factors emerged based on age and severity of mental health symptoms. Groups with highly elevated mental health symptoms reported the highest levels of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness. Tests of the IPTS interactions provided partial support for the theory, primarily in young adults with elevated mental health symptoms. Lack of support found for the IPTS predictions across the subgroups and full sample in this study raise some questions around the broad applicability of the theory.     

Is knowledge of family history related to psychosocial functioning? Comparison of adolescents living in institutional care and adolescents living with their biological families

We tested adolescents growing up in institutional care and adolescents living with their birth families using the ‘Do you know?’ scale and other measures of psychosocial functioning. We found that children living in group homes knew significantly less of their family history, exhibited more behavioural problems and had a more external locus of control. Moreover, the correlations between self-esteem and knowledge of family history were significantly different between the groups. This may suggest that the contribution of the knowledge of family history to self-esteem is different depending on the quality of family history. We also found a significant correlation between locus of control and behavioural problems for the children in institutional care, but not children living with their birth families, which may indicate that their behavioural problems may partially stem from the sense of lack of control over their lives.