Use of the test scoring machine and the graphic item counter for statistical work

The graphic item-counter is described and its use as a statistical device is explained. Procedures are presented for obtaining Pearson product-moment correlations by means of the graphic item-counter.     

Take a break! Benefits of sleep and short breaks for daily work engagement

The current study investigates the benefits of a good night’s sleep and short work breaks for employees’ daily work engagement. It is hypothesized that sleep and self-initiated short breaks help restore energetic and self-regulatory resources which, in turn, enable employees to experience high work engagement. A daily diary study was conducted with 107 employees who provided data twice a day (before lunch and at the end of the working day) over 5 workdays (453 days in total). Multilevel regression analyses showed that sleep quality and short breaks were beneficial for employees’ daily work engagement. After nights employees slept better, they indicated higher work engagement during the day. Moreover, taking self-initiated short breaks from work in the afternoon boosted daily work engagement, whereas taking short breaks in the morning failed to predict daily work engagement. Taking short breaks did not compensate for impaired sleep with regard to daily work engagement. Overall, these findings suggest that recovery before and during work can foster employees’ daily work engagement.     

You get what you give: children's karmic bargaining

Do children believe in karma – the notion that life events occur to punish or reward our moral behavior? In three experiments, we investigate 4–6‐year‐old children's willingness to endorse and engage in the practice of performing good acts in order to secure an unrelated future desired outcome, so‐called ‘karmic bargaining’. Most children agreed that performing a morally good social behavior, but not a morally negative or morally neutral non‐social behavior, would increase the chances that future desired outcomes would occur, in both first‐party and third‐party contexts. About half of children also engaged in karmic bargaining behavior themselves. We conclude that a belief in karma may therefore reflect a broad, early‐emerging teleological bias to interpret life events in terms of agency, purpose, and design.     

Does Corporate Sponsorship of a Socially‐Oriented Message Make a Difference? An Investigation of the Effects of Sponsorship Identity on Responses to an Anti‐Drinking and Driving Message

The sponsorship of social messages is becoming increasingly popular among corporations. Despite the growing involvement of corporations in the marketing of causes, little research has been done to guide these initiatives. Before corporations become more actively involved in the sponsorship of social messages, it is important to understand whether sponsor identity impacts the effectiveness of these messages. This article presents a preliminary investigation into the differences created by corporate versus nonprofit sponsorship of a social message. Results from two experiments suggest that consumers process socially‐oriented messages differently based on the identity of the sponsor. Participants who viewed an anti‐drinking and driving message sponsored by the nonprofit organization, MADD, tended to infer more positive, society‐serving motives of the sponsor, whereas those who viewed the same ad sponsored by Budweiser, a corporation, inferred more negative, self‐serving (ulterior) motives of the sponsor. However, neither message affected the participant's attitude toward the sponsor of the message.     

Back and forth and in between: returning albanian migrants from Greece and Italy

On the basis of findings from a sample of Albanian migrants who have returned to their country of origin from Greece and Italy, we highlight that Greece attracts less skilled and less well off categories of migrants compared to Italy. However, the integration patterns tell a different story. In spite of the fact that Greece does not represent the first choice of Albanians seeking to migrate, and although those who go to Greece are not among the most qualified, nevertheless, they tend to adjust better to their host society and labour market. Furthermore, returning migrants from Greece seem to be better equipped and more likely to utilize the skills and knowledge acquired through migration compared to those returning from Italy.     

Migrant Entrepreneurship in Greece: Diversity of Pathways for Emerging Ethnic Business Communities in Thessaloniki

This paper examines aspects of immigrants’ entrepreneurship in Greece, focusing on the emergence of distinct ethnic business communities by migrants from China, Nigeria, Albania and the former USSR. Beginning from a literature review, it overviews the policy context and official statistics in Greece and discusses recent fieldwork findings in Thessaloniki. The diversity of entrepreneurial strategies and practises is explained through a typology based on the prevailing characteristics of immigrant businesses. We suggest that the entrepreneurship of migrants is embedded within the dynamics of immigrants’ integration and the broader factors on which this depends. This has important implications, calling for a realistic, coherent, inclusive and long-spanning migratory policy.     

Preschoolers' perspective taking in word learning: do they blindly follow eye gaze?

When learning new words, do children use a speaker's eye gaze because it reveals referential intent? We conducted two experiments that addressed this question. In Experiment 1, the experimenter left while two novel objects were placed where the child could see both, but the experimenter would be able to see only one. The experimenter returned, looked directly at the mutually visible object, and said either, "There's the [novel word]!" or "Where's the [novel word]?" Two- through 4-year-olds selected the target of the speaker's gaze more often on there trials than on where trials, although only the older children identified the referent correctly at above-chance levels on trials of both types. In Experiment 2, the experimenter placed a novel object where only the child could see it and left while the second object was similarly hidden. When she returned and asked, "Where's the [novel word]?" 2- through 4-year-olds chose the second object at above-chance levels. Preschoolers do not blindly follow gaze, but consider the linguistic and pragmatic context when learning a new word.     

Social and Economic Exchange: Construct Development and Validation

This study examined the economic and social exchanges between employee and employer within a model in which perceived organizational support and affective and continuance commitment served as predictors and performance, altruism citizenship behavior, absence, and lateness served as outcomes. Two samples were used. 384 master of business administration students participated in Study 1, and Study 2 consisted of 181 aerospace employees and their managers, working for a single organization. Both studies supported the distinctiveness between economic and social exchanges. Study 2 showed the overall fit of the proposed model was adequate, though only social exchange, and not economic exchange, directly predicted the performance outcomes. These results suggest the importance of perceived exchanges between employee and employer.     

Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 with athletes

The aim of this work was to develop a Spanish adaptation of the Revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2. The scale was translated and its psychometric properties were analyzed with data from a sample of 149 athletes. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed which supported a 16-item CSAI-2R assessing the three hypothesised dimensions of anxiety: Somatic anxiety, Cognitive anxiety, and Self-confidence. Overall fit of the model was good with a value of .97 for Comparative and Non-Normed Fit Indexes, and .045 for Root Mean Square Error of Approximation. Cronbach alpha coefficients for the factors ranged from .79 to .83. It is concluded that this version shows adequate properties, in terms of its dimensionality and internal consistency. Guidelines are also provided for future research on its validity as a measure of state anxiety in competitive situations.