Reconsidering the Use of Autoregressive Latent Trajectory (ALT) Models

The simultaneous estimation of autoregressive (simplex) structures and latent trajectories, so called ALT (autoregressive latent trajectory) models, is becoming an increasingly popular approach to the analysis of change. Although historically autoregressive (AR) and latent growth curve (LGC) models have been developed quite independently from each other, the underlying pattern of change is often highly similar. In this article it is shown that their integration rests on the strong assumption that neither the AR part nor the LGC part contains any misspecification. In practice, however, this assumption is often violated due to nonlinearity in the LGC part. As a consequence, the autoregressive (simplex) process incorrectly accounts for part of this nonlinearity, thus rendering any substantive interpretation of parameter estimates virtually impossible. Accordingly, researchers are advised to exercise extreme caution when using ALT models in practice. All arguments are illustrated by empirical data on skill acquisition, and a simulation study is provided to investigate the conditions and consequences of mistaking nonlinear growth curve patterns as autoregressive processes.     

Are emotional intelligent workers also more empathic?

This paper analyzes whether emotional intelligence and self‐monitoring are related to empathy among a sample of workers in both the public and private employment sectors. Two hundred and forty‐two employees (42.5% men and 57.5% women) with a mean age of 35.21 years (SD = 10.07, range 18–61) completed a questionnaire that measured the variables of interest. The results showed that emotion regulation, a dimension of emotional intelligence, accounts for most of the variance of empathy, followed by the ability to understand emotions and the management of others' emotions. Furthermore, gender did not yield any moderator effect on the relations among emotional intelligence, self‐monitoring and empathy. We conclude that the intrapersonal aspects of emotional intelligence, in particular, emotion regulation, help explain the empathy of workers. The implications of these findings are discussed herein.     

Can the eyes reveal a person’s emotions? Biasing role of the mouth expression

In this study we investigated how perception of the eye expression in a face is influenced by the mouth expression, even when only the eyes are directly looked at. The same eyes appeared in a face with either an incongruent smiling, angry, or sad mouth, a congruent mouth, or no mouth. Attention was directed to the eyes by means of cueing and there were no fixations on the mouth. Participants evaluated whether the eyes were happy (or angry, or sad) or not. Results indicated that the smile biased the evaluation of the eyes towards happiness to a greater extent than an angry or a sad mouth did towards anger or sadness. The smiling mouth was also more visually salient than the angry and the sad mouths. We conclude that the role of the eyes as a “window” to a person’s emotional and motivational state is constrained and distorted by the configural projection of an expressive mouth, and that this effect is enhanced by the high visual saliency of the smile.     

Judicious Self-Disclosure by the Psychoanalyst

One of Sándor Ferenczi's greatest contributions to clinical theory and method is his pioneering concept of analyst self-disclosure. First introduced in his famous paper ?The elasticity of psycho-analytic technique? (1928), analyst self-disclosure changed the nature of clinical interaction between analyst and analysand, from the Freudian model of a surgeon to the responsiveness of an empathic mother. Ferenczi's clinical work with the so-called ?difficult cases? (narcissistic, borderline and psychotic disorders) moved him to discover the ethos of activity within an empathic method. Analyst self-disclosure is one of those responsive measures he developed to address the deficits in communication and interpersonal functioning in trauma survivors. An outline is presented of the ?Confusion of Tongues? which is the model from which self-disclosure is derived. A contemporary extension of this idea is offered in the clinical and theoretical distinction between judicious vs. conspicuous self-disclosure.     

A Compendium of Sales-Related Literature in Customer Relationship Management: Processes and Technologies with Managerial Implications

This paper presents the first comprehensive and systematic review of the sales-related customer relationship management (CRM) literature. Specifically, from a narrowed sample of 253 CRM-related articles, 38 were qualified as the juxtaposition of CRM strategies and technologies with sales relevance. Themes found within this literature include the evolving nature of channel functioning and interfirm relationships, the strategic organizational processes involving the sales function, the evolving nature of the sales role, and both salesperson and customer adoption of CRM technology. Contributions were derived from the extant literature for both theory and practice. The meager number of published works with direct relevance to sales management along with the practicality of the topic suggests that additional CRM research, both conceptual and empirical, would be beneficial.     

The impact of information about the prevalence of AIDS-Preventive behavior among men and women: The mediating role of social norms

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine the effect of information about the high prevalence of safe sex on condom use intention, and to investigate the possible mediating role of the perceived social norm of friends, and the perceived social norm of future. sexual partners. Participants were provided with gender specific prevalence information, that is with the information that most men have exclusively safe sex, or with the information that most women exclusively engage in safe sexual behavior. The results show some gender differences. Information about the high prevalence of safe sex among men tends to increase women's condom use intention, and this effect seems to be mediated by the paceived social norm of future sexual partners. Men's intention, on the other hand, seems to be unaffected by high prevalence information of safe sex. Implications for research and prevention are discussed     

Environmental sound recognition by timbre in children with Williams syndrome

Anecdotal reports have described children with Williams syndrome (WS) as presenting outstanding skills for recognizing environmental sounds by their timbre. This has led to suggest that the skills for environmental sound recognition by timbre are highly developed in WS. Furthermore, the term hypertimbria has been proposed to refer to this feature. However, no academic research has assessed these skills in WS. This study therefore aimed to contrast the reports on the highly developed skills for environmental sound recognition by timbre in children with WS. An environmental sound recognition task was administered to children with WS, children with Down syndrome of the same chronological age and cognitive level, and chronological age-matched typically developing children. Participants with WS performed significantly lower than their typically developing peers and no significant differences were found between the WS and Down syndrome groups. Unlike previous reports, this study points out that in WS environmental sound recognition by timbre does not constitute a phenotypic strength either in absolute or relative terms. Results suggest that children with WS do not present hypertimbria or preserved skills for timbre recognition. We discuss the implications of these results for theories of cognitive modularity.     

Monitoring and meta-metacognition in the own-race bias

Although there is a great deal of research focused on identification issues related to own-versus other-race faces very few experiments have explored whether metacognitive monitoring contributes to the own-race bias. In the current experiment the typical own-race bias paradigm was modified so that type-2 signal detection measures (e.g.  and ) could be used to directly measure metacognitive monitoring at retrieval. A second goal of the experiment was to explore whether self-reported confidence ratings differed depending on whether they were directed at answer accuracy (e.g., judging a face as “studied”) versus at decisions about that answer (e.g., volunteering vs. withholding that answer). Overall the results demonstrated that monitoring does contribute to the own-race bias, in that participants were better at monitoring their memory for own-race faces. Further, there was a significant difference between the two confidence measures, and the pattern of this difference depended on whether responses had been volunteered or withheld.     

Some Evidence is False

According to some philosophers who accept a propositional conception of evidence, someone's evidence includes a proposition only if it is true. I argue against this thesis by appealing to the possibility of knowledge from falsehood.