Robust realism for the life sciences

Synthese - Although scientific realism is the default position in the life sciences, philosophical accounts of realism are geared towards physics and run into trouble when applied to fields such as...     

Role of the striatum and the cerebellum in motor skill acquisition

Motor skill acquisition was investigated in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) or cerebellar dysfunction using two sensory-guided tracking tasks. The subjects had to learn to track a visual target (a square) on a computer screen by moving a joystick under two different conditions. In the unreversed task, the horizontal target movements were semi-predictable and could be anticipated. In the reversed task, the horizontal movements of a pointer which had to be kept within the target square were mirror-reversed to the joystick movements. PD patients showed intact learning of the semi-predictable task and reduced learning of the mirror-reversed task; patients with cerebellar dysfunction showed the opposite pattern. These findings are discussed in relation to the differential contribution of the cerebellum and the striatum to motor skill acquisition: the cerebellum appears to participate in the implementation of anticipatory movements, whereas the striatum may be critically involved in types of motor learning which require a high degree of internal elaboration.     

Examining Individual Differences in Interpersonal Influence: On the Psychometric Properties of the Generalized Opinion Leadership Scale (GOLS)

Opinion leadership describes an individual's tendency to informally influence others’ attitudes and overt behaviors. In contrast to contemporary views of opinion leadership as a highly domain-specific trait, this paper introduces a multi-faceted personality trait, generalized opinion leadership (GOL) that characterizes exceptionally influential individuals independent of a specific subject area. Two studies report on the psychometric properties of a scale to assess GOL. Study 1 is based on three independent samples (N = 1,575, N = 1,275, and N = 231) and demonstrates the factorial structure of the instrument and its measurement invariance across sex, age, and educational levels. Study 2 (N = 310) analyzes multitrait-multiinformant data to highlight the scale's discriminant validity with regard to innovativeness and trendsetting.     

The impact of surface acting on coworker-directed voluntary workplace behaviours

The effects of emotional labour, that is, managing one’s emotions for work, not only predict a range of intrapersonal and organizational outcomes but can also spillover to affect non-work relationships. Despite this, relatively little is known about whether the performance of surface acting affects behaviours towards more proximal organizational members, how this occurs, and the role of supportive relationships in influencing this relationship. In this article, we examine the relationships between surface acting, state positive and negative affect, and co-worker support on co-worker-directed interpersonal behaviours in the workplace. Survey data collected at multiple time points suggest a moderated mediation model, in which surface acting interacts with co-worker support to influence employees’ voluntary behaviours through state affect. Specifically, our findings suggest that surface acting increases subsequent engagement in deviance behaviours by increasing the experience of negative affective states, especially when co-worker support is low. Surface acting also decreases the subsequent engagement of organizational citizenship behaviour through decreasing the experience of positive affective states. We conclude with a discussion of how surface acting can consequently lead to negative spirals in the organization and the implications of this for practice.     

Direct Democracy and Institutional Trust: Relationships and Differences Across Personality Traits

Direct democracy plays a prominent role in the explanation of institutional trust. To date, however, empirical findings on the effects of direct democracy remain inconclusive. In this article, we argue that this inconclusiveness can be partly ascribed to the diverse effects direct democracy has on individuals. In other words, direct democracy influences institutional trust, but how and to what degree depends on individuals’ personality traits. Running hierarchical analyses of unique survey data from a random sample of eligible Swiss voters, we document three findings: First, we show that the number of ballot measures is not directly associated with institutional trust. Second, we demonstrate that the Big Five personality traits affect the propensity to trust. Third, some of these traits also alter the relationship between direct democracy and institutional trust, suggesting that certain personality types are more likely to be sensitive to popular votes than others and that not everyone is equally likely to respond to political stimuli, even in highly democratic environments.