Bayesian generalized structured component analysis

Generalized structured component analysis (GSCA) is a component-based approach to structural equation modelling, which adopts components of observed variables as proxies for latent variables and examines directional relationships among latent and observed variables. GSCA has been extended to deal with a wider range of data types, including discrete, multilevel or intensive longitudinal data, as well as to accommodate a greater variety of complex analyses such as latent moderation analysis, the capturing of cluster-level heterogeneity, and regularized analysis. To date, however, there has been no attempt to generalize the scope of GSCA into the Bayesian framework. In this paper, a novel extension of GSCA, called BGSCA, is proposed that estimates parameters within the Bayesian framework. BGSCA can be more attractive than the original GSCA for various reasons. For example, it can infer the probability distributions of random parameters, account for error variances in the measurement model, provide additional fit measures for model assessment and comparison from the Bayesian perspectives, and incorporate external information on parameters, which may be obtainable from past research, expert opinions, subjective beliefs or knowledge on the parameters. We utilize a Markov chain Monte Carlo method, the Gibbs sampler, to update the posterior distributions for the parameters of BGSCA. We conduct a simulation study to evaluate the performance of BGSCA. We also apply BGSCA to real data to demonstrate its empirical usefulness.     

Getting Even or Getting Equal? Retributive Desires and Transitional Justice

This article examines the effect that different policy interventions of transitional justice have on the desires of the victims of human rights violations for retribution. The retributive desires assessed in this article are conceptualized as individual, collective, and abstract demands for the imposition of a commensurate degree of suffering upon the offender. We suggest a plausible way of reducing victims' retributive desires. Instead of "getting even" in relation to the suffering, victims and perpetrators may "get equal" in relation to their respective statuses, which were affected by political crimes. The article hypothesizes that the three classes of transitional justice: (1) reparation that empowers victims by financial compensation, truth telling, and social acknowledgment; (2) retribution that inflicts punishment upon perpetrators; and (3) reconciliation that renews civic relationship between victims and perpetrators through personal contact, apology, and forgiveness; each contributes to restoring equality between victims and perpetrators, and in so doing decreases the desires that victims have for retribution. In order to test our hypotheses, we conducted a survey of former political prisoners in the Czech Republic. Results from the regression analysis reveal that financial compensation, social acknowledgement, punishment, and forgiveness are likely to reduce victims' retributive desires.     

Stepwise contouring of efficient criterion vectors for large-scale MOLP

In this paper a new method of presenting the overall (focused) structure of the efficient criterion vectors (N) for large-scale MOLP is proposed. The proposed algorithm ASEOV (approximation of the set of efficient objective vectors) determines the representative subset of N and ensures full coverage of N , with corresponding coverage precision indicated. ASEOV works in objective space directly and eliminates unnecessary computational effort at the collapsing extreme points of X , which are transformed to non-extreme points in objective space. The Tchebycheff metric is employed to measure the coverage precision. ASEOV allows a decision maker (DM) to control the determination procedure by assessing the coverage allowance for each criterion. When the DM's preference is available, ASEOV can focus contouring on the subset of N which fits with the extracted preference. Combined with proper interactive methods, this focused contour over N can reduce the DM's burden, inconsistency or cognitive bias in assessing his preference from which to derive the final best-compromise solution. An illustrative example is presented.     

Effects of group experiential cognitive therapy for the treatment of panic disorder with agoraphobia.

A treatment protocol, called experiential cognitive therapy (ExCT), was developed. It integrated traditional cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) with virtual reality exposure for the treatment of panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA). The objective of this study was to test the efficacy of short-term (four sessions) ExCT compared with a traditional 12-session panic control program (PCP) for the treatment of PDA. Forty patients diagnosed as having PDA by the diagnostic criteria of DSM-IV were randomly assigned to ExCT and PCP groups of 20 patients each. The treatment effects were measured with self-report questionnaires, including the BDI, STAI, ASI, PBQ, ACQ, and BSQ. The authors also assessed high end-state functioning (HES), including the success rate of stopping or reducing medication at post-treatment and 6-month follow-up. In all ratings, both ExCT and PCP groups showed significant improvement post-treatment compared with pre-treatment scores. There were no significant differences between the two treatment groups in HES and medication discontinuation at post-treatment, but there was a significant difference in medication discontinuation at 6-month follow-up. These results suggested that although short-term effectiveness of ExCT might be comparable to the effectiveness of PCP, long-term effectiveness of ExCT might be relatively inferior to the effectiveness of PCP.     

The Accuracy of Self-Reports of Condom Use and Sexual Behavior

In a study of the accuracy of self-reports of sexual behavior and condom use, 285 single, young adults in a large metropolitan area were interviewed once a week for 52 weeks, reporting on their sexual behavior each week. At 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month intervals, the individuals also provided self-reports of the number of times they had engaged in sex and the number of times they had used condoms since they began participating in the study. These self-reports were compared with aggregates of the weekly data, which served as a comparison standard for accuracy evaluation. The results indicate a fairly high level of accuracy in self-reports, but with 2% to 5% outliers who are highly inaccurate. The results tend to favor the assessment of sexual behavior over moderate time durations (3 or 6 months) rather than short or long durations (1 month or 12 months) when trying to maximize self-report accuracy. Accuracy was attenuated for individuals who tended to engage in sex frequently, especially at the 12-month time durations.     

A social dilemma perspective on recycling

Recent research on social responsibility has largely focused on firms, with only limited research into individual behavior. Recycling is socially responsible behavior which poses a difficult choice for consumers because it benefits society as a whole in the long term but involves a personal cost and does not benefit the individual consumer directly. Previous studies of recycling, however, have only partly explained consumers’ recycling choices. Addressing this gap, this research applied a social dilemma perspective in qualitative and quantitative consumer studies. The findings from the studies demonstrated a positive relationship between a consumer's expectation that others will recycle and his own participation. A social value orientation was found to have a significant moderating effect on this relationship.     

From uncertain boundaries to uncertain identity: Effects of entitativity threat on identity–uncertainty and emigration

When people feel uncertain about their national identity, they may want to emigrate from their nation. This uncertainty can arise when people are exposed to an alternative historical narrative about their own national (ingroup) origins promoted by a neighboring nation (outgroup). Drawing on uncertainty–identity theory we propose that the conditions that promote this process would include when: (a) a revised history threatens the entitativity of national identity, (b) people identify strongly with their nation, (c) a neighboring nation is numerically large enough to transform its own view into a new shared reality, and (d) a new interpretation of history is considered credible. We conducted an experiment in the context of historical disputes between China (outgroup) and Korea (ingroup) (N = 160). We measured Korean identification and manipulated a type of identity threat (valence threat vs. entitativity threat), relative group size (not salient vs. salient), and source credibility (low vs. high). Then, we measured identity–uncertainty and emigration as dependent variables. As predicted, hierarchical regression analyses yielded a significant four‐way interaction on identity–uncertainty. Simple slopes analyses revealed that entitativity (vs. valence) threat significantly increased identity–uncertainty among high identifiers when the outgroup's relative size was salient and its view was credible. Further, the elevated identity–uncertainty strengthened intentions to emigrate from the ingroup. Implications for intergroup communications and identity validation are discussed.     

The structure of trust as a reflection of culture and institutional power structure: Evidence from four East Asian societies

Using the Global Trust Inventory, an integrated measure of trust toward 21 relationships and institutions, the structure of trust was explored in four East Asian societies (Mainland China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan). The Western model, in which trust is distributed among seven factors representing different branches of society, did not generalize to these East Asian societies, perhaps due to differences in culture and institutional power structures. Instead, two unique structures of trust were identified. Mainland China had a top‐down structure of trust (the China model), in which trust is hierarchically separated between the central government and subordinate implementing bodies. The other three democratic East Asian societies shared a hybrid structure of trust (the Democratic East Asian model) that has a degree of similarity to both the China model and the Western model. Having established two similar, but still distinct models, a cross‐cultural comparison was made on the proportions of trust profiles generated by latent profile analysis. Mainland China had the largest proportion of people with a high propensity to trust, followed by Japan and South Korea, and Taiwan was the least trusting. Implications of the structure of trust and this alternative approach to conducting cross‐cultural comparisons are discussed.     

Quality of Olympics opening ceremony: Tourism behavioural intention of international spectators

This study assessed the impact of the artistic program of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony event on international spectators’ national image branding of the host country and their intention to visit the host nation. We surveyed a total of 600 international spectators of the South Korea PyeongChang Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony (150 Filipino, 150 Americans, 150 British, and 150 South Africans; 50% female) on their perceptions of quality of the opening ceremony, national image branding, and their intention to visit the host country. Results from hierarchical analysis indicated that the quality of the artistic program of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics opening ceremony (content of expression, form of expression, and narrative of nation) predicted perceptions of host country national image and behavioural intentions to visit. From these findings, we conclude that the artistic program of the opening ceremony of an Olympic event is a valuable opportunity to help international spectators to better understand the host country culture, and for influencing their tourism intentions.