Ethnicity,Life Satisfaction,Stress, Familiarity,and Stigma Toward Mental Health Treatment

The authors examined the relative contribution of ethnicity, life satisfaction, level of stress, familiarity with mental health treatment, and self- and public stigma on attitudes toward mental health treatment among a diverse sample (N = 632) of adults. Results indicated that ethnicity, stress, familiarity, and self-stigma of mental illness were significant predictors of attitudes. Additionally, familiarity with mental health treatment moderated the relationship between public stigma and attitude.     

Individual and group advice taking in judgmental forecasting: Is group forecasting superior to individual forecasting?

We examined how individuals and groups behave in making judgmental forecasts when they are given external forecast advice. We compare individual and group advice-taking behavior under different conditions: (a) when advice quality is fixed, (b) when advice quality is randomly varied, and (c) when there is feedback on advice quality or not. Participants in Study 1 received fixed advice of either reasonable or unreasonable quality while making their decisions. Participants in Study 2 randomly received both reasonable and unreasonable advice. We found in both studies that groups feel more confident than individuals. This greater confidence decreased the groups' reliance on advice. We also found that groups are better than individuals at discerning the quality of advice. In the group treatment, the group's reliance on advice increased according to the degree of disagreement with the initial decisions of the group members. In Study 3, participants randomly received both reasonable and unreasonable advice, and in addition, they received feedback on actual realizations that enabled them to learn about the quality of advice. In the presence of feedback on random advice quality, groups are no longer less receptive to advice than individuals; with feedback, both individuals and groups discount advice more than they do without feedback. Nevertheless, groups are still better than individuals at discerning the quality of advice. We conclude that group forecasting is better than individual forecasting across various conditions that we investigate except when advice quality is known to be consistently reliable.     

Evidencefor implicitscaling in comparative judgment

In two experiments, we examined the effects of manipulating the density of stimuli on comparison difficulty in a comparative judgment task. In Experiment 1, subjects were slower at judging the relative size of a pair when the members were adjacent items in the linear order than when the members were separated by items of intervening magnitudes. In Experiment 2, the advantage of choosing the larger rather than the smaller of two large-stimuli (e.g., the congruity effect) increased when the linear order included many small items. In contrast, the advantage of choosing the smaller of two small items increased when the linear order included many large items. The applicability of the range-frequency theory (Parducci,1965) to these results is discussed.     

The Chinese in Canada: a study in ethnic change with emphasis on gender roles

The authors investigated the impact of ethnic change experienced by Chinese Canadian couples on gender-role attitude, household task-role expectations and performance. The authors presented acculturation and Chinese ethnic identification as the two discriminant facets of ethnic change. Results indicated a nonsignificant role of acculturation in bringing about modifications of the gender-role attitudes of husbands and of their household task-role expectations. In contrast, the acculturation of Chinese Canadian wives proved to be a significant factor in promoting more modern (less traditional) gender-role attitudes, which in turn led to role expectations that they should contribute less to the performance of the tasks that traditionally fall in the female domain whereas their husbands should contribute more. Subsequent results also revealed that the acculturation of wives was directly linked to the role expectation that they should assume a greater share of responsibility in taking care of the traditionally husband-responsible tasks whereas their husbands should contribute a smaller share. Moreover, Chinese ethnic identification emerged as a significant determinant of husbands' gender-role attitudes and influenced their role expectation that husbands should contribute more to the performance of the tasks that traditionally fall in the male domain whereas their wives should contribute less.     

Vanishing time in the pursuit of happiness

Happiness can be conceptualized as a positive affective state or as a goal whose pursuit ironically pulls the pursuer away from achieving it (Mauss, Tamir, Anderson, & Savino in Emotion, 11(4), 807–815, 2011). But how do people think about time during this latter, never-ending pursuit of happiness? The present investigation asks how seeking happiness influences perceptions of time availability. Four studies demonstrated that trait-level happiness seeking (Study 1) as well as direct manipulation of happiness seeking (Studies 2, 3, and 4) consistently reveal the same pattern: reduced feelings of time availability while pursuing happiness. This negative effect on time availability is mitigated when happiness seems like it has been achieved (Study 2) or seems quick to achieve (Study 3). In addition, pursuing happiness can ultimately decrease happiness, in part, by reducing perceptions of time availability (Study 4), extending theories on happiness, goal pursuit, and perceptions of time.     

What Are Quantities?

This paper presents a view of quantities as ‘adverbial’ entities of a certain kind—more specifically, determinate ways, or modes, of having length, mass, speed, and the like. In doing so, it will be argued that quantities as such should be distinguished from quantitative properties or relations, and are not universals but are particulars, although they are not (Fregean) objects, either. A main advantage of the adverbial view over its rivals will be found in its superior explanatory power with respect to both certain fundamental principles of quantity and ordinary quantitative reasoning involving quantitative relations like three times as long as and 2 metres longer than.     

Form ‘defines’ function: Neural connectivity between aesthetic perception and product purchase decisions in an fMRI study

In the aesthetics literature, object beauty has been emphasized for its non‐instrumental benefits, in other words, beauty that is ‘rewarding’ in itself, without functional considerations. In the context of consumer products, this study examines the influence of aesthetic perceptions on purchase decisions based on integrating both reward (hedonic) and functional value attribution mechanisms. Brain connectivity analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data sheds light on the neural route for the influence of product beauty on purchase. Notably, a significant directional connectivity from brain networks mediating ‘aesthetic perception’ to ‘functional value’ to ‘purchase decision’ shows that the left Amygdala, an emotion‐related region of the aesthetic network, influences all five regions in the functional network, which then influences the purchase network of the brain, thus supporting the utilitarian goals of aesthetic appraisals and the Antonio Damasio's somatic/emotional marker hypothesis. Further, we find clear evidence that the reward (hedonic) network, which also influences the purchase network, receives information from the functional network of the brain, integrating both the non‐instrumental and instrumental value of the product. In other words, beauty in consumer products influences purchase decisions by evoking emotions that importantly define the functional value of products, in addition to their hedonic/reward value uncovered in previous literature. In light of the novel findings, the authors discuss important implications for marketing theory, methodology, and practice. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Child care before 6 months of age: a qualitative study of mothers' decisions and feelings about employment and non‐maternal care

Employment of women while their children are infants has increased in the UK in the last decade. This study of 57 employed mothers of infants less than seven months old examined their retrospective reports of planning child care and their contemporaneous feelings about the child care they were using, based on qualitative interviews. Issues addressed included mothers' reasons for returning to employment at that time, their theoretical preferences among a range of child care types and providers and the process of making actual choices, including the range and types of advice received and the involvement of fathers. Mothers were also encouraged to discuss their feelings about how child care was working out once the infant was settled. Continuing concerns expressed by mothers included the importance of open communication with caregivers, their desire to keep control over infants' daily lives and upbringing, worries about infants' safety and concerns about the levels of cognitive stimulation they received. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Apes communicate about absent and displaced objects: methodology matters

Displaced reference is the ability to refer to an item that has been moved (displaced) in space and/or time, and has been called one of the true hallmarks of referential communication. Several studies suggest that nonhuman primates have this capability, but a recent experiment concluded that in a specific situation (absent entities), human infants display displaced reference but chimpanzees do not. Here, we show that chimpanzees and bonobos of diverse rearing histories are capable of displaced reference to absent and displaced objects. It is likely that some of the conflicting findings from animal cognition studies are due to relatively minor methodological differences, but are compounded by interpretation errors. Comparative studies are of great importance in elucidating the evolution of human cognition; however, greater care must be taken with methodology and interpretation for these studies to accurately reflect species differences.