The anatomy of loneliness

Loneliness is a potent but little understood risk factor for broad-based morbidity and mortality. We review five social neurobehavioral mechanisms that may account for this association. The evidence suggests that different mechanisms explain short-term and long-term effects, and that the long-term effects operate through multiple pathways. Implications for the design of interventions are discussed.     

Eliciting salient beliefs in research on the theory of planned behaviour: The effect of question wording

The authors of the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and its extension, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) recommend that researchers who use these theories to investigate the determinants of a given behaviour should first conduct an elicitation study to identify the modal salient beliefs in the target population. In spite of the importance accorded to salient beliefs by the TRA/TPB, the elicitation stage has received little research attention. This paper reports a detailed analysis of beliefs about “being more physically active in the next 12 months.” A general population sample of 213 adults completed a questionnaire while attending a research centre for a series of tests. The findings showed that the beliefs that were elicited by questions designed to prompt affective outcomes (like or enjoy, dislike or hate) differed systematically from those that were elicited by the traditional questions designed to prompt instrumental out-comes (advantages and disadvantages). Whether this resulted in different final sets of modal salient beliefs was found to depend on the particular decision rule that was employed. An alternative decision rule is proposed, based on maximizing the degree of overlap between the modal set and the full set of salient beliefs generated by the sample. The index of overlap can be used to gauge the adequacy of using a modal set of a given size to represent the salient beliefs of the whole sample. In the current dataset, the optimal modal set for “advantages and disadvantages” was associated with only 26 percent overlap with the salient beliefs of the whole sample, which was judged to be insufficient. In such cases, a better strategy may be to ask participants to generate and rate their own beliefs.     

A Statistic Strikes Back

A recent college dropout relates her view of the pressures on students from society's Great Plan for the young, critically evaluates some of the implicit assumptions of the higher education establishment, and reacts to the three articles following on college dropouts by Williams, Leach and Goetz, and Berger. This paper enables the reader to learn not only about but from the dropout by reminding him that statistics sometimes interfere with our view of the people behind them, who are our only legitimate concern.     

Predictors of Participation in Performance Appraisal: A Voluntary System in a Blue-Collar Work Environment

Organisations have long acknowledged the value of performance appraisal in both administration decisions and in motivating employees. However, it would appear that most empirical research has focused on compulsory systems designed for use with executives and managers (Bannister and Balkin 1990; Ilgen, Fisher and Taylor 1979; Klein 1989). The reluctance to implement appraisal systems with lower level and base-grade employees may be due to several factors, including employee and union resistance to compulsory systems of appraisal (Nankervis 1990). Faced with this problem, appraisal can be viewed by appraisees and appraisers as an `innovation'. In a climate with growing emphasis on participative management styles, self-regulated or voluntary systems of performance appraisal may become increasingly prevalent and important. Thus, 476 base-grade (shop floor) employees of an Australian government business enterprise completed a survey regarding issues such as attitude to performance appraisal, source credibility, system satisfaction, anticipated feedback, perceived consequences of participation and intention to enter the system. Roger's (1983) innovation-decision model was utilised in the structure and analysis of the data and provided useful insights regarding the factors which are related to participation in a voluntary system of performance appraisal. Findings indicated that attitude towards, and support of, performance appraisal in general, perception of consequences of performance appraisal, satisfaction with the supervisor, anticipated feedback, and awareness and knowledge of the system in place in the organisation, were important in predicting the decision to adopt or reject the performance appraisal scheme.     

Surviving Abuse: Shame,Anger, Forgiveness

The issue of forgiveness affects everyone at some time or another; whether young or old, male or female, Christian or not. For the survivor of abuse, the issue of forgiveness journeys with them profoundly influencing their life, their recovery, and even their faith. Surviving Abuse: Shame, Anger, Forgiveness is an attempt to develop a theology of forgiveness from the perspective of a survivor of abuse.     

Wellbeing as a Wicked Problem: Navigating the Arguments for the Role of Government

Governments in a number of countries have shown increasing interest in seeking to elevate happiness or wellbeing as an explicit policy goal. This interest has led to fierce debates both within and, increasingly, beyond academe about the appropriate role for government in this area. It is difficult to adjudicate between the various arguments surrounding the issue as they often take very different starting points, either metatheoretical or disciplinary. In seeking to steer a course through these arguments we take the distinction between ‘wicked’ and ‘tame’ problems as a reference point, arguing that wellbeing should be categorised as the former. The seminal discussion of this distinction (Rittel and Webber in Policy Sci 4:155–169, 1973) resonates sharply with current debates on wellbeing and indeed is located within similar debates in the past. We argue that understanding wellbeing as a wicked problem steers us towards deliberation and scrutiny as central to the agenda and cautions us against expecting to find a panacea. However, this understanding can take us beyond irresolvable disputes by pointing to the need for pragmatic and legitimate government action. In developing our arguments we ground them mainly in relation to empirical research on developments in the UK, where the connection between wellbeing and public policy is seen as relatively advanced. However, we suggest these arguments apply to other contexts where wellbeing is gaining increasing traction as a potential goal of government policy.     

Addressing the cross‐country applicability of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB): A structured review of multi‐country TPB studies

The theories of reasoned action and planned behaviour (TRA/TPB) have received substantial research interest from consumer behaviourists. One important area of interest that has not been adequately researched concerns the impact of national culture on the TRA/TPB components and interrelationships. To date, no systematic assessment of the impact of culture on the TRA/TPB model relationships has been undertaken. In order to understand the potential impact of culture on the TRA/TPB model relationships, a structured review of TRA/TPB studies is undertaken. Studies that have quantitatively applied the TRA/TPB across at least two countries within a consumption domain since 2000 are reviewed. The authors propose that two of Hofstede's cultural dimensions, individualism and power distance, may moderate the TRA/TPB relationships. The review highlights that the impact of subjective norm on intention varies most across countries, with the relationship between intention and both attitude and perceived behavioural control operating more similarly across country samples. Further, a systematic assessment of variation in the TRA/TPB model relationships via multilevel modelling shows that only the subjective norm–intention relationship varies across the countries studied. The relationship between subjective norm and intention is found to be influenced by power distance, with a stronger relationship evident in high power distance cultures. This review is the first of its kind and is of significance in addressing the emic versus etic nature of the TRA/TPB. Importantly, the article outlines relevant avenues and recommendations for future cross‐national research utilizing the TRA/TPB. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Teenage Offenders' Ability to Detect Deception in Their Peers

This study investigated the deception detection abilities of teenage offenders and teenage non‐offenders who made veracity judgments about 12 videotaped interviewees and also explored the behavioural characteristics of teenage liars and truth tellers. The findings revealed that teenage offenders were significantly more accurate in their credibility judgments than teenage non‐offenders. However, the offenders' impressive accuracy rates were not as a consequence of using valid cues to deceit. The feedback hypothesis helps to explain why the offenders were more accurate in their decisions: Operating within a criminal environment may mean that teenage offenders frequently lie and are lied to. Consequently, they receive more feedback than non‐offenders regarding the effectiveness of their lies as well as how successful they are at detecting lies. As a result, their lie detection ability improves. The current study suggests moving away from individual deceptive cues as predictors of deceit towards a more intuitive and holistic approach to lie detection, such as the Brunswikian Lens Model.Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.