Humanness in times of uncertainty: On the link between perceived job insecurity,self-objectification and well-being

The current work scenario is pervaded by widespread perceptions of job insecurity, which is one of the main stress factors for workers and their well-being. This article aims to investigate the link between these perceptions and a most inner dimension, that is, people's tendency to self-objectify (i.e., self-viewing as objects rather than fully human beings). Furthermore, we aim to verify the role of this self-objectifying process in explaining the well-established relation between perceived job insecurity and well-being. Across four studies and a single-article meta-analysis (total N = 684), we show that perceived job insecurity is consistently linked with self-objectification. Furthermore, this objectifying self-perception is associated with decreased well-being and plays a mediational role in the link between perceived job insecurity and this latter variable.     

Value-based adoption of augmented reality: A study on the influence on online purchase intention in retail

The increasing use of digital technology-based retail services provides new opportunities for digital marketing. In this paper, we investigate how augmented reality (AR) technology can be leveraged as part of the firm's strategy. We explore the online purchase intention through AR smart glasses (ARSG), considering consumers' value assessment through a cost–benefit analysis and the influence of technical, experiential and social AR value drivers. We develop an augmented value-based adoption model addressing four main objectives: (1) Evaluate the effect of the perceived value of ARSG, (2) Evaluate the effect of immersion (experiential dimension), (3) Evaluate the effect of AR devices and technical complexity (technical dimension) and (4) Evaluate the importance of subjective norms (social dimension) on the online purchase intention through AR technology. Based on an ESIC Tech Lab experiment with two types of ARSG from market leaders and AR retail apps, the study uses survey data from 253 participants. The results suggest that the technical dimension has an ambiguous effect, with tech-complexity enhancing directly the perceived value of ARSG for online purchase while reducing the net value of consumers' economic cost–benefit analysis. We find strong evidence that the experiential and social AR dimensions (in the form of immersion and subjective norm) have a significant positive influence on consumers' purchase intention online, which are better predictors than the pure economic cost–benefit assessment (through usefulness and difficulty). Furthermore, the technical innovativeness of consumers is found to increase directly the online purchase intention through ARSG.     

自闭症谱系障碍社交动机理论：机制及干预探索

自闭症谱系障碍(Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD)表现为社会交往困难以及重复刻板兴趣或行为。社交动机理论提出ASD个体是由于社交动机缺乏导致的社交障碍。目前该理论缺乏理论元素及结构关系的系统论证, 及基于此理论的低龄ASD儿童群体的研究证据。本研究拟采用心理实验法、眼动及近红外脑成像技术, 探索低龄ASD儿童早期社交奖赏、社交定向异常眼动标记及眶额叶脑区活动的神经机制。此外, 通过音乐奖赏强化学习的干预方式改善该理论的核心元素(社交奖赏), 观测能否改善ASD儿童的社交动机。本研究的开展有望对该理论进行系统验证, 并形成改善社交行为的潜在干预方案。     

Irrelevant behaviour,information processing and arousal homeostasis

Summary This paper expands a new hypothesis on the causal mechanisms underlying irrelevant behaviour. It begins with a critical summary of earlier theories which attempted to explain displacement activities, but failed to predict the consistency with which certain types of behaviour are shown in stressful situations by a variety of species. Behavioural and physiological studies suggest that these behaviour patterns are closely associated with the incipient activation of sleep. The functional significance of this link and some of the causal processes which may be responsible for it are discussed. Paradoxically, however, displacement activities occur when animals are in a state of high arousal. The concept of arousal is reconsidered in the light of information theory and assumed to be closely correlated with the information processing rate in the nervous system. The relationships between neural and autonomic arousal are considered in this context. It is argued that over-arousal may occur when information handling exceeds the limited channel capacity of the system, with a consequent loss of efficiency. It is pointed out that there are mechanisms capable of controlling the information influx into the brain, and it is hypothesized that they are tied up in a feedback mechanism which regulates arousal and which involves the activation of a de-arousal system, corresponding to the neurological sleep mechanism. Displacement activities are viewed as consequences of this regulatory activation of the sleep system. This hypothesis is then compared with existing theories of displacement and its relationship with them is discussed.

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Zusammenfassung Die Arbeit erweitert eine neue Hypothese über die kausalen Mechanismen, die dem übersprungverhalten zugrunde liegen. Sie beginnt mit einer kritischen Übersicht der früher vorgeschlagenen Theorien und zeigt auf, daß diese nicht die Beständigkeit, mit der gewisse Verhaltensweisen von einer Anzahl von Tierarten in Stress-Situationen gezeigt werden, erklären. Verhaltens- und physiologische Studien deuten an, daß diese Verhaltensweisen in einem engen Zusammenhang mit einer partiellen Schlafaktivierung stehen. Die funktionelle Bedeutung dieses Zusammenhanges und die möglichen physiologischen Mechanismen, die dafür verantwortlich sein könnten, werden diskutiert. Paradoxerweise werden aber Übersprungsverhalten dann gezeigt, wenn sich Tiere in einem gesteigerten Wachzustand befinden. In diesem Zusammenhang wird das Arousal-Konzept im Lichte der Informationstheorie neu beleuchtet und es wird angenommen, daß der Arousal-Zustand eines Tieres im engen Zusammenhang mit der jeweiligen Informationsverarbeitungsrate im Nervensystem steht. Die Verhältnisse zwischen neuralem und autonomischen Arousal werden diskutiert. Es wird vorgeschlagen, daß sich Überarousal dann einstellt, wenn die Informationsverarbeitungsrate die Kanalkapazität des Systems übersteigt mit einem sich daraus ergebenen Wirkungsgradverlust. Es wird darauf hingewiesen, daß es Mechanismen gibt, die den Informationsfluß in das Gehirn regeln und angenommen, daß diese innerhalb eines Rückkopplungssystems funktionieren, welches Arousal reguliert. Diese Regelung benötigt die Aktivierung eines Arousal herabsetzenden Systems, das in den neurologischen Schlafmechanismen besteht. Das Auftreten von Übersprungsverhalten wird als eine Konsequenz dieser regulatorischen Aktivierung des Schlafsystems angesehen. Die Hypothese wird dann mit den vorhandenen Übersprungsverhaltenstheorien verglichen.

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The research underlying this paper has been supported by grants from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research through the European Office of Aerospace Research, the Science Research Council and the Royal Society to Professor N. Tinbergen, F. R. S. and myself. It was partly carried out at the Department of Zoology, Oxford. I am grateful to Dr. S. A. Hillyard who by revising an earlier version contributed much to whatever merits this paper has.     

A near-death experience among the Mapuche people

This paper describes a possible near-death experience (NDE) among the Mapuche people of Chile. The individual reporting the experience was in a cataleptic-like state for two days, the experience itself occurring at the end of this period. Some common features of NDEs, such as encounters with deceased people and being sent back, are present, together with clear evidence that past and present cultural environment shape in part the content of mental experiences.This work was funded in part by the University of Chile (DTI Project Q-3064).The author thanks Editorial Andrés Bello for permissionto translate the near death account into English.     

Psychotherapy with families of psychosomatic patients

Paradigmatic complexes in family psychotherapy have been indicating a revolutionary change and the creation of new paradigms for the past thirty years. Starting with the application of the general systems theory and the development of those concepts that have been emerging regarding psychosomatic illnesses we discuss the epistemological confusion created, the methodological problems and the dissociation between theory and practice. We suggest a double process of investigation of the family structure using a knowledge of the basic attitudes and the development of a psychotherapy programme within the family of the psychosomatic patient.     

Relation of parental support and control to adolescents' externalizing symptomatology and substance use: A longitudinal examination of curvilinear effects

Past research has generated inconsistent findings regarding the relation of parental control and support to adolescent problem behaviors. Using two waves of data collected 1 year apart, the current study examined the influence of parental control and support on adolescents' externalizing symptoms, alcohol use, and illicit substance use. A sample of adolescents and their parents (@#@ N =454) was studied, within which approximately half of the adolescents were at high risk because of parental alcoholism. Multipleregression analyses of crosssectional data showed a negative quadratic relation between parental control and adolescent externalizing symptomatology, and between parental control and adolescent illicit substance use. Parental control had a negative linear relation to adolescent alcohol use. Parental support showed a negative quadratic relation to adolescent illicit substance use, and negative linear relations to adolescent alcohol use and externalizing symptoms. Although longitudinally adjusted contemporaneous results were consistent with crosssectional findings, parental support and control were prospectively related only to adolescent alcohol use. The quadratic relations suggest that adolescents who receive either extreme of parental support or control are at risk for problem behaviors.     

On becoming a leader: Effects of gender and cultural differences on power distance reduction

The present research focused on power processes in a simulated organizational structure consisting of three hierarchical levels occupied by different numbers of mules and females. Subjects were presented with a chart showing the organizational hierarchy of which they were a member placed at the lowest level, and asked to nominate any person for the leader position vacated by the current incumbent. The results of Experiment I (n = 88 Dutch male and female university students) showed that male subjects strongly overnominated themselves, whereas a majority of the female subjects nominated either self or another female. Of the others that were nominated by both males and females, almost all were occupants of positions immediately below the leader position, indicating the normative influence of a bureaucratic rule of leader succession. Experiment 2 was a replicational study carried out in a different culture (n = lOl Polish male and female university students). Polish subjects adhered to the bureaucratic rule more strongly than their Dutch counterparts, and both females and males nominated mostly males. Results are discussed with reference to gender self-stereotypes and cultural differences.     

Effects of parental alcoholism and life stress on hispanic and non-hispanic caucasian adelescents: A prospective study

Investigated ethnicity and parental alcoholism as factors that might influence the stress vulnerability of adolescents. It extended an initial cross-sectional study of this same sample by adding two annual assessments which allowed for additional cross-sectional analyses and longitudinal tests. Hispanic and Caucasian adolescents (N=306 at Time 1) completed measures of their own life stress, family conflict, and alcohol use. Their parents reported on adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Cross-sectional analyses at Time 2, and prospective analyses involving Time 1 and Time 2 measures were, for the most part, consistent with the original study's results. Caucasian adolescents and children of alcoholic parents appeared to be more vulnerable to stress than Hispanic adolescents and children of nonalcoholic parents. Family conflict was a partial explanation for this increased vulnerability. This research was supported by National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant DA05227 to Laurie Chassin (pricipal investigator) and Manuel Barrera, Jr. (coprincipal investigator). Susan Li was supported by an American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship Award. Portions of this research were presented at the conference, “Resiliency in Families: Racial and Ethnic Minority Families in America” that was held at the University of Wisconsin, May 31–June 2, 1994.