Up or Down? How Culture and Color Affect Judgments

In the Mainland China stock market, an upmarket is represented by the color red, whereas a downmarket is represented by the color green. Elsewhere, including the Chinese Hong Kong stock market, the color representations are the opposite. Three studies were conducted to examine the red‐up–green‐down effect for Mainland Chinese as well as the green‐up–red‐down effect for Hong Kong people. Study 1 showed that Mainland Chinese tended to predict greater economic growth (study 1a) and higher growth in consumption trends (study 1b) when the experimental materials were presented in red than in green, whereas Hong Kong participants exhibited the opposite tendencies. Study 2 found that Mainland Chinese implicitly associated red and green with up and down, respectively; Hong Kong people, however, implicitly associated green and red with up and down, respectively. Study 3 further indicated that Mainland Chinese were more likely to predict good outcomes when scenarios were presented in red, whereas Hong Kong participants were more likely to predict good outcomes when scenarios were presented in green. These findings suggest that culturally specific environment cues could influence human prediction and judgment. Implications for judgment generally are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrating cognitive bias modification into a standard cognitive behavioural treatment package for social phobia: A randomized controlled trial

ObjectiveThe aim of the current study was to integrate recent developments in the retraining of attentional biases towards threat into a standard cognitive behavioural treatment package for social phobia.Method134 participants (M age – 32.4: 53% female) meeting DSM-IV criteria for social phobia received a 12-week cognitive behavioural treatment program. They were randomly allocated to receive on a daily basis using home practice, either an additional computerised probe procedure designed to train attentional resource allocation away from threat, or a placebo variant of this procedure. Measures included diagnostic severity, social anxiety symptoms, life interference, and depression as well as state anxiety in response to a laboratory social threat.ResultsAt the end of treatment there were no significant differences between groups in attentional bias towards threat or in treatment response (all p's > 0.05). Both groups showed similar and highly significant reductions in diagnostic severity, social anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and life interference at post-treatment that was maintained and in most cases increased at 6 month follow-up (uncontrolled effect sizes ranged from d = 0.34 to d = 1.90).ConclusionsThe current results do not indicate that integration of information processing-derived attentional bias modification procedures into standard treatment packages as conducted in this study augments attentional change or enhances treatment efficacy. Further refinement of bias modification techniques, and better methods of integrating them with conventional approaches, may be needed to produce better effects.     

Cooperativeness and competitiveness as two distinct constructs: Validating the Cooperative and Competitive Personality Scale in a social dilemma context

The present research validated the construct and criterion validities of the Cooperative and Competitive Personality Scale (CCPS) in a social dilemma context. The results from three studies supported the notion that cooperativeness and competitiveness are two independent dimensions, challenging the traditional view that they are two ends of a single continuum. First, confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a two‐factor structure fit the data significantly better than a one‐factor structure. Moreover, cooperativeness and competitiveness were either not significantly correlated (Studies 1 and 3) or only moderately positively correlated (Study 2). Second, cooperativeness and competitiveness were differentially associated with Schwartz's Personal Values. These results further supported the idea that cooperativeness and competitiveness are two distinct constructs. Specifically, the individuals who were highly cooperative emphasized self‐transcendent values (i.e., universalism and benevolence) more, whereas the individuals who were highly competitive emphasized self‐enhancement values (i.e., power and achievement) more. Finally, the CCPS, which adheres to the trait perspective of personality, was found to be a useful supplement to more prevalent social motive measures (i.e., social value orientation) in predicting cooperative behaviors. Specifically, in Study 2, when social value orientation was controlled for, the CCPS significantly predicted cooperative behaviors in a public goods dilemma (individuals who score higher on cooperativeness scale contributed more to the public goods). In Study 3, when social value orientation was controlled for, the CCPS significantly predicted cooperative behaviors in commons dilemmas (individuals who score higher on cooperativeness scale requested fewer resources from the common resource pool). The practical implications of the CCPS in conflict resolution, as well as in recruitment and selection settings, are discussed.     

Organizational media choice in performance feedback: a multifaceted approach

This study was designed to examine media choice in performance feedback, an organizational communication process that has been overlooked in the literature. Specifically, we adopted a multifaceted approach and examined how contextual variables in feedback, variables identified from media choice theories, and individual differences in media perception influenced selection of a medium to communicate performance information. A policy‐capturing survey was administered to 178 full‐time employees in Hong Kong. Participants read feedback scenarios and provided media preference ratings of face‐to‐face, telephone, electronic mail, and written communication. Results showed that the three facets jointly influenced media choice. Given that communication quality is partly determined by the medium selected, the present work sheds light on the understanding of initiation process in performance feedback.     

Mood in foreign exchange trading: Cognitive processes and performance

This paper examines the effects of mood on the behavior of traders or decision makers in financial markets. Based on a review of the psychological theories and empirical findings which relate mood to decision making and information processing, we derive hypotheses with respect to the impact of good, neutral, and bad moods on the behavior of traders. Two experiments (N=66 and 72) were conducted on an Internet platform which simulated foreign exchange trading based on historical market data. The first experiment manipulated mood using feedback and music whereas the second one asked subjects to read mood-laden statements. It was found that traders in a good mood had an inferior trading performance (losing money) compared to those in a neutral or bad mood (making profit). This is because traders in a good mood made less accurate decisions than those in neutral or bad moods. Those in a bad mood were the most accurate in their decisions but behaved conservatively in their trading. Subjects in a good mood tended to make less accurate decisions though they spent on average at least the same time as the other subjects on information processing and decision-making. They also were over-confident taking unwarranted risks. The studies concluded with insights concerning the effects of mood on choice of trading strategies.     

Does client self‐booking reduce ‘did not attends’ (DNAs) in a counselling service?

An important problem for our counselling service is the high number of clients who ‘did not attend’ (DNA) for their booked appointment. This paper aims to describe how we tackled this problem within our counselling service by using a Plan‐Do‐Study‐Act (PDSA) cycle (Langley, Nolan Norman and Provost, 1996). The results found that by devising a system whereby clients could self‐book their appointments we were able to reduce the DNA rate for first appointments from 31.70% to 2%. This has useful time and financial implications. We would expect that the self‐booking approach we have outlined here is adaptable for other counselling services.     

Adult Survivors of Child Abuse: An Application of John Gottman’s Sound Marital House Theory

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between child abuse and dysfunctional adult relationship patterns. John Gottman’s Sound Marital House Theory describes different dysfunctional adult relationship patterns including Negative Sentiment Override (NSO), Flooding, and the Distance and Isolation Cascade. In the present study, data analysis indicated that child abuse predicts the experiencing of NSO, NSO predicts the experiencing of flooding, and flooding predicts the experiencing of the distance and isolation cascade. Analysis showed that a subscale of child abuse, negative home environment predicts NSO, flooding, and the distance and isolation cascade.     

Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) hearing threshold for brief broadband signals

The hearing sensitivity of an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) to both pure tones and broadband signals simulating echoes from a 7.62-cm water-filled sphere was measured. Pure tones with frequencies between 40 and 140 kHz in increments of 20 kHz were measured along with broadband thresholds using a stimulus with a center frequency of 97.3 kHz and 88.2 kHz. The pure-tone thresholds were compared with the broadband thresholds by converting the pure-tone threshold intensity to energy flux density. The results indicated that dolphins can detect broadband signals slightly better than a pure-tone signal. The broadband results suggest that an echolocating bottlenose dolphin should be able to detect a 7.62-cm diameter water-filled sphere out to a range of 178 m in a quiet environment.     

Decisions to Seek Healthcare Based on Family Health History Among Urban Appalachian Women

Family health history (FHH) is a valuable health promotion tool that can be used to assess disease risk and make lifestyle and screening recommendations. However, few FHH resources exist for medically underserved populations such as the urban Appalachian community in Cincinnati Ohio. Women of Appalachian heritage with less than a college education who did and did not participate in a prior FHH education session were interviewed by phone in a semi-structured format. Interviewees were asked to discuss their understanding of FHH and the role FHH played in seeking (or not seeking) medical care. Analysis of their discussion identified four overarching themes as well as a model identifying conditions that facilitated or impeded the choice to seek medical care based on FHH. Findings from this study may be used to develop targeted FHH educational interventions in the urban Appalachian and other communities.