Relationships Among Social Policy Factors,National Competitiveness,and Happiness

The aim of this study is to construct a causal relationship model explaining the relationships between social policy factors and national competitiveness and national happiness; and to analyse how the former affect the latter as final dependent variables. In doing this, the study employs data for OECD member countries. Research regarding the determinants affecting national competitiveness and people’s happiness has tended to focus mainly on personal or collective characteristics such as age, gender, economic infrastructure, etc. As a result, social policy factors, including welfare budget, unemployment support budget and income inequality, have rarely been addressed in the analysis of determinants affecting national competitiveness or happiness, which is regarded as the final policy aim to be achieved by government. In particular, there has been little academic research utilizing OECD database statistics on social policy indicators. Against this background, this study uses the Structural Equation Modeling approach (SEM) to identify the direct and indirect effects of social policy factors on national competitiveness and happiness, and puts forward policy suggestions for attaining these two great goals of social policy.     

Satsuma - 3rd Place

Journal of Medical Humanities -     

Goal-Focused Leadership,Leader-Member Exchange,and Task Performance: The Moderating Effects of Goal Orientations and Emotional Exhaustion

An important role of leaders is to foster followers’ performance through goal setting processes, which involve reciprocal interactions between leaders and followers (Locke & Latham in American Psychologist, 57, 705–717, 2002). Drawing upon the theory of role-making processes and a resource allocation framework, this study examined (a) how leaders’ goal setting activities interact with employees’ goal orientations and emotional exhaustion in predicting leader-member exchange (LMX), and (b) how LMX intervenes between goal-focused leadership and followers’ task performance. Hypotheses were tested using data collected from a sample of 187 leader-subordinate dyads from South Korea. Follower learning goal orientation (LGO) weakened the positive relationship between goal-focused leadership and LMX and, indirectly, task performance, contributing to the literature on goal orientations by revealing a “backfire effect” of LGO. Additionally, employee emotional exhaustion also reduced the positive relationship of goal-focused leadership to LMX and, ultimately, task performance. Integrating the theory of role-making processes from the LMX literature and a resource allocation perspective on self-regulation behavior, the present findings indicate that LMX is a key process through which goal-focused leadership relates to follower task performance. Furthermore, this study contributes to the goal-focused leadership literature by pointing out the importance of adopting an interactional perspective on leaders’ influence. Specifically, findings suggest that followers with divergent characteristics in terms of goal orientations and resourcefulness respond differently to leaders’ goal setting activities. This is one of the few studies that have examined the mechanisms and boundary conditions by which leaders’ goal-focused behaviors relate to followers’ task performance.     

Affective facilitation and inhibition of cultural influences on reasoning

Research in South Korea and the United States examined how affective states facilitate or inhibit culturally dominant styles of reasoning. According to the affect-as-information hypothesis, affective cues of mood influence judgements by serving as embodied information about the value of accessible inclinations and cognitions. Extending this line of research to culture, we hypothesised that positive affect should promote (and negative affect should inhibit) culturally normative reasoning. The results of two studies of causal reasoning supported this hypothesis. Positive and negative affect functioned like "go" and "stop" signals, respectively, for culturally typical reasoning styles. Thus, in happy (compared to sad) moods, Koreans engaged in more holistic reasoning, whereas Americans engaged in more analytic reasoning.     

Suicide mortality of suicide attempt patients discharged from emergency room, nonsuicidal psychiatric patients discharged from emergency room, admitted suicide attempt patients, and admitted nonsuicidal psychiatric patients

The suicide mortality rate and risk factors for suicide completion of patients who presented to an emergency room (ER) for suicide attempt and were discharged without psychiatric admission, patients who presented to an ER for psychiatric problems other than suicide attempt and were discharged without psychiatric admission, psychiatric inpatients admitted for suicide attempt, and psychiatric inpatients admitted for other reasons were examined. The records of 3,897 patients who were treated at a general hospital in Seoul, Korea, from July 2003 to December 2006 were reviewed. Forty-three of the 3,897 subjects died by suicide during the 2.5-year observation period. Compared to the general Korean population, the suicide mortality rate was 82-fold higher for suicide attempt patients, admitted; 54-fold higher for suicide attempt patients, discharged; 21-fold higher for nonsuicidal patients, admitted; and 11-fold higher for nonsuicidal patients, discharged. In all four groups, diagnosis of a depressive disorder and suicide attempt at presentation were each significant independent risk factors for suicide completion. These results highlight the need for suicide prevention strategies for depressed patients who present to the ER or are admitted to a psychiatric ward after a suicide attempt.     

Effect of a nanoporous surface on photoluminescence from nanopatterned GaN thin films fabricated by anodic alumina templates

GaN photonic crystal slabs on InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well light-emitting diodes have been formed by dry etching using nanoporous anodic alumina templates, which have a periodic lattice constant of 105 nm and a hole diameter of 45 nm. The photonic crystal slab shows an enhanced intensity of photoluminescence due to the nanohole pattern array producing Fabry–Perot like interference. A rough surface of nanoholes results in a broad spectrum with a small oscillation, and well-ordered multiple facets of nanoholes results in a relatively sharp spectrum with a large oscillation.     

Factors of regular sponsorship of African children: A cross-ethnic study

This study examined psychological well-being influences of personal factors on regular sponsorship of, or donation to, African children living in Africa. Study participants (N = 597) were 338 Koreans (50.3% female, n = 170) and 259 Chinese (56.8% female, n = 147). They responded to measures of psychological well-being, individual social responsibility, social impression management, and subjective norms. Following multiple group analyses applying structural equation modelling, subjective well-being influenced psychological well-being among the Korean donors; whereas social responsibility influenced psychological well-being among the Chinese donors. In both the Korean and Chinese groups, psychological well-being was associated with an increased regular sponsorship of African children. Latent ethno-cultural personal orientations appear to explain psychological well-being with donation activity.     

The Emergence of Student Creativity in Classroom Settings: A Case Study of Elementary Schools in Korea

This research explores the emergence of student creativity in classroom settings, specifically within two content areas: science and social studies. Fourteen classrooms in three elementary schools in Korea were observed, and the teachers and students were interviewed. The three types of student creativity emerging in the teaching and learning process found in this research were: (a) heuristic creativity when the students express their thoughts about a new concept based on their experience, (b) interpretive creativity when the students explain the meaning of materials based on students' knowledge, and (c) integrative creativity when students generate new solutions or make new products based on their internalized knowledge. The study results will challenge teachers to find instances of student creativity in their teaching and learning situations and to facilitate student creativity when the students interpret data or materials related to the contents of the curriculum.