Balance Theory Applied to Service Quality: A Focus on the Organization, Provider, and Consumer Triad

As quality experts have focused primarily on manufacturing, theoretical frameworks for examining quality in the service sector are lacking. In order to fill this gap, Heider's (1958) balance theory is applied to explain how service organization, service provider, and consumer interrelationships influence service quality. Propositions are offered pertaining to: (a) how and why positive or negative relationships among the parties in this triad are developed, and (b) the consequences of these relationships on service quality, affective outcomes, and withdrawal behaviors. Examination of the service triangle within this framework can enhance understanding of quality service delivery and guide future research efforts in the continuous improvement domain.     

Self-Efficacy Relationships With Affective and Exertion Responses to Exercise1

This study examined the relationship of preexisting efficacy for exercise with perceptions of effort expenditure and in-task affect during exercise testing. Subjects comprised sedentary, middle-aged adults participating in a submaxi-mal cycle ergometer-graded exercise test. Perceptions of efficacy were assessed prior to and following exercise testing while perceptions of effort expenditure and in-task affect were assessed at 70% of predicted maxim heart rate. Highly efficacious subjects had lower perceptions of effort expenditure and reported more positive affect during exercise than did their less efficacious counterparts. Affective responses during exercise were in turn significant predictors of posttest self-efficacy. These results are discussed in regard to the importance of examining the role of personal efficacy in the formation of exercise-related affect and affective responses as sources of efficacy or competence information in exercise.     

The justification of paternalistic actions in psychotherapy

This article defines the nature of paternalistic interventions in psychotherapy and discusses reasons why the client's right to consent to treatment is important. We describe a reasoning process developed by Culver and Gert (1982) that can be used to determine when paternalistic actions are and are not ethically justifiable in mental health practice. We demonstrate how this procedure may be applied to psychotherapy by using a number of case illustrations.     

The duration and generalization of attraction

Tested in the present study were the propositions that attraction toward others is lasting and that liked and disliked individuals serve as a basis for liking others. On the first day, subjects received interpersonal evaluations (e.g., judging the intelligence of others) which supposedly had originated with an anonymous person. Following a delay of 1 to 3 days, the attraction of some of the subjects toward the anonymous person was assessed while the attraction of other subjects toward a second anonymous person, who presumably had also evaluated the subjects, was also assessed. These latter subjects were never exposed to the alleged evaluation by the second person. Attraction toward the first person tended to endure and to generalize to the second person.     

Constraints on spontaneous transfer in problem-solving tasks

In three experiments, we investigated the conditions under which relevant knowledge is spontaneously transferred to problem-solving tasks. Subjects were presented with key concepts that could help them solve problems presented at a later time in the experiment. The key concepts were embedded in statements that had surface structures similar or dissimilar to those of the problems and that emphasized relevant or irrelevant properties of the key concepts for the problemsolving task (contextual relevance). The results indicated that the spontaneous transfer of clue information to subsequent problem-solving tasks is affected by the contextual relevance and the surface-structure similarity of the clue statements to the problems. The findings also suggested that the surface-structure similarity and the contextual relevance of clue statements differentially affect the accessibility and appropriate application of key concepts in problem-solving tasks. The implications of these results for understanding the transfer of knowledge in problem-solving tasks are discussed.     

The role of enactment in prospective remembering

This study investigated, in a laboratory setting, whether prospective memory (remembering to perform intended actions in the future) would be improved by self-enactment of the to-be-remembered tasks. The subjects, 45 university students, were asked to remember later to perform five tasks that they initially enacted themselves, watched the experimenter perform, or had described to them. These tasks were to be performed, ostensibly in preparation for the next subject, at the end of 30 min of filler activity, which was presented as the experimental task. Surprisingly, self-enactment produced the poorest prospective remembering. Speculative explanations are offered in terms of both metacognitive expectations about memory and output-monitoring deficiencies.     

Not so far from home: How family characteristics predict child care quality

This study examined the relationship between family background and child care quality for 636 children enrolled in 120 day care centres in three states in the US with widely varying regulations for child care centre quality. Family characteristics accounted for a substantial portion of the variance in day care quality. Mother' attitudes towards child-rearing and parent' education were the most potent family-level predictors of quality. State child care policy variables were also strong predictors of quality. Findings also suggest that the influence of environment on children's development cannot be partitioned simply into family and out-of-home child care effects; rather, the child care environment is an extension of the family environment, with parents determining characteristics of both.     

The perception of speaking rate using visual information from a talker’s face

It has been well documented that listeners are able to estimate speaking rate when listening to a talker, but almost no work has been done on perception of rate information provided by looking at a talker’s face. In the present study, the method of magnitude estimation was used to collect estimates of the rate at which a talker was speaking. The estimates were collected under four experimental conditions: auditory only, visual only, combined auditory-visual, and inverted visual only. The results showed no difference in the slope of the functions relating perceived rate to physical rate for the auditory only, visual only, and combined auditory-visual presentations. There was, however, a significant difference between the normal visual-only and the inverted-visual presentations. These results indicate that there is visual rate information available on a talker’s face and, more importantly, suggest that there is a correspondence between the auditory and visual modalities for the perception of speaking rate, but only when the visual information is presented in its normal orientation.     

The impact of salient self-identities on relative deprivation and action intentions

Salient self-identities and their impact upon feelings of relative deprivation (RD) and subsequent action intentions were examined. Eight experimental conditions (Personal/Group Salience × Large/Small Intragroup Inequalities × Large/Small Intergroup Inequalities) were created utilizing a role-play design. Significant main effects for both salience and social inequalities were found to influence both RD and action intentions. In accordance with self-categorization theory, when group compared to personal identities were made salient, stronger feelings of group RD and greater likelihood of collective action intentions were reported. Alternatively, when personal compared to group identities were made salient, greater likelihood of individual actions were reported. In accordance with relative deprivation theory, when intergroup inequalities were large compared to small, stronger feelings of group RD and less likelihood of collective action were reported. Alternatively, when intragroup inequalities were large compared to small, stronger feelings of personal RD were reported.