Organizational Commitment in the Sales Force

Abstract

Research concerning the determinants of salesperson performance has emphasized expectancy theory. While results of such studies have added greatly to our understanding of sales force behavior, the expectancy theory approach has been questioned concerning its ability to explain consistency in behavior. A potential alternative explanation for behavioral consistency lies in the concept of organizational commitment. This paper explores organizational commitment in a sales setting, discussing research findings from other disciplines and providing a conceptual framework to help guide future research in sales management.     

An analysis of recent meditation research and suggestions for future directions

Abstract

Meditation offers a rich and complex field of study. Over the past 40 years, several hundred research studies have demonstrated numerous significant findings including changes in psychological, physiological, and transpersonal realms. This paper attempts to summarize these findings, and to review more recent meditation research. We then suggest directions for future research, emphasizing the necessity to continue to expand the paradigm from which meditation research is conducted, from a predominantly re‐ductionistic, biomedical model to one which includes subjective and transpersonal domains and an integral perspective.     

The Pediatric Neuropsychologist Introduction to the Special Section

Abstract

The rapid expansion of clinical neuropsychology during the past decade has fostered increasing specialization in the practices of neuropsychologists. Recent surveys indicate that a small but significant number of neuropsychologists devote most of their professional activities to children and adolescents. The growing interest in pediatric and child-clinical neuropsychology is reflected most recently in the formation of the Pediatric Neuropsychology Interest Group (PNIG) in August 1995 and the subsequent establishment of an internet mailing list devoted to pediatric neuropsychology in October 1996. This new special section of Child Neuropsychology was created to foster increased communication and opinion exchange among the community of pediatric and child-clinical neuropsychologists regarding research, training, and clinical issues. In this inaugural section, we present a thoughtful discussion of training issues in pediatric neuropsychology. Future sections that are already planned will discuss the reporting of neuropsychological evaluations, and graduate and postdoctoral preparation for specializing in child neuropsychology. As Editors of the special section, we welcome and encourage additional contributions from readers regarding these or any other issues as they pertain to the growth and development of the profession of pediatric neuropsychology.     

Multimethod Assessment of Depression in Sexually Abused Girls

This study measured depression in sexually abused Black girls using the Children's Depression Inventory (Kovacs & A. T. Beck, 1977), the Internalization scale of the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983), and the Rorschach Depression Index (Exner, 1986). There were no significant correlations between these self-report, behavior observation (by parental report), and projective measures. The abused subjects had high scores on the behavior observation and Rorschach scales. Consistent with past research, negative results were obtained with the self-report instrument. We suggest that the low scores on self-report measures of distress produced by sexually abused children may be the result of guardedness or defensiveness rather than a genuinely low level of dysphoria in this population. There were no significant relations between abuse characteristics and scores on the depression measures. Scores on Rorschach measures of organizational activity (Zf) and available coping resources (EA) were generally positively related to depression within the abuse group and negatively related to depression within the control group.     

Grasping spheres,not planets

Memory for objects helps us to determine how we can most effectively and appropriately interact with them. This suggests a tightly coupled interplay between action and background knowledge. Three experiments demonstrate that grasping circumference can be affected by the size of a visual stimulus (Experiment 1), whether that stimulus appears to be graspable (Experiment 2), and the presence of a label that renders that object ungraspable (Experiment 3). The results are taken to inform theories on conceptual representation and the functional distinction that has been drawn between the visual systems for perception and action.     

Think and act globally, think and act locally: Cooperation depends on matching construal to action levels in social dilemmas

The authors proposed and tested hypotheses that cooperation in social dilemmas depends on matching construal to action levels. Using a computerized resource dilemma that modeled fishing the oceans, when motives were framed at abstract levels, in terms of values (e.g., cooperation vs. competition), high construal levels produced more cooperativeness and competitiveness, respectively. Conversely, when motives were framed at concrete levels, in terms of actions (e.g., returning vs. taking), low construal levels produced more cooperativeness and competitiveness, respectively. Implications for integrating and extending research on construal levels in social dilemmas and increasing cooperation are discussed.     

Metalinguistic Filters Within the Bilingual Language Faculty: A Study of Young English-Chinese Bilinguals

This study reports two metalinguistic parameters that constitute the schematic control of lateral inhibitory links between translation equivalents within the bilingual lexico-semantic system of Green’s (Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 1:67–81, 1998a, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 1:100–104, 1998b, The bilingualism reader, Routledge, London, 2007) inhibitory control (IC) model. Building on Green’s postulation that the bilingual lexico-semantic system is controlled by a hierarchy of schemas under a supervisory attentional system, the bilingual unconsciously filters activated lemmas during fluent spontaneous codeswitching, such that lemmas that are semantico-syntactically versatile or morphosyntactically transparent are likely to reach a threshold of activation first while other lemmas are inhibited. To investigate the issue, we collected code-paired naturalistic and elicited data with a focus on code-switched determiner phrases from 140 Mandarin-English simultaneous bilinguals who were post-secondary students in Singapore. We found that the semantico-syntactic and morpho-syntactic dissimilarities between Mandarin and English activated both filters. As most Mandarin determiners are economical vis-à-vis their English counterparts, their lemmas were selected frequently while English lemmas were largely inhibited. It was also found that our participants preferred English nouns in filling the lexical category for their interpretable feature of number, a feature that is normally absent in Mandarin nouns.