Consumer Evaluation of Low Price Guarantees: The Moderating Role of Reference Price and Store Image

This article reports the findings of 2 studies that examined the effects of low price guarantees (LPG) in retail advertisements within the framework of signaling theory. Overall, an LPG in an ad resulted in higher value perceptions and shopping intentions. Findings also suggest that the effect of an LPG is likely to be moderated by other price cues such as reference prices and by the price image of the store. An LPG resulted in higher value perception and shopping intention when reference prices were low or absent, but lowered search intention in the presence of a high reference price. Additional findings suggest that intention to search for a better price was lower, particularly when an LPG was offered by a low price image store. For high price image stores, an LPG increased value perceptions and shopping intentions, while also increasing search intentions, indicating the possibility that LPGs can act as a double‐edged sword in certain instances. Managerial and public policy implications are also noted.     

Self-reported assertiveness in Swedish and Turkish adolescents: a cross-cultural comparison

The present cross-cultural study compared self-reported assertiveness in 652 Swedish and 654 Turkish high school students by using a multi-dimensional measure called the Scale for Interpersonal Behavior (SIB). Four hypotheses were tested in the study. First, the hypothesis that Swedish adolescents would be more assertive than their Turkish counterparts was supported by the data. Second, the expectation that Turkish boys would be more assertive than Turkish girls, while there would be no differences between Swedish girls and boys, was not confirmed. In general, girls were found to be more skilled than boys in expressing and dealing with personal limitations. Third, as expected, more assertive adolescents in both Sweden and Turkey reported having more friends and receiving more social support than their less assertive peers. Finally, the data supported the expectation that older adolescents would be more assertive than younger ones. The results are discussed in terms of cultural and gender differences.     

The role of co-regulation of stress in the relationship between perceived partner responsiveness and binge eating: A dyadic analysis

The main aim of this study is to investigate whether there are relationships between perceived partner responsiveness (PPR), co-regulation of negative affect between romantic partners and binge eating. Data were collected from 148 opposite-sex romantic partners (18–61 years old) with the mean relationship duration being 8.04 years. Dyadic data were analysed through the actor–partner interdependence model framework. We proposed a model where co-regulation between partners has indirect effects on the relationship between PPR and binge eating. Results showed that there was no direct association between PPR and binge eating scores of the participants. However, significant direct associations were found regarding both actor and partner effects of PPR on co-regulation between romantic partners. In addition, there were four significant indirect effects: Women's co-regulation had an indirect effect on the link between PPR and women's binge eating scores. Similarly, women's co-regulation had also a significant indirect effect on the link between PPR and men's binge eating. These findings are the first to illustrate a relationship between PPR and binge eating. This study is the first attempt to examine binge eating in terms of co-regulation processes.     

Spirituality and Well-Being of Children,Adolescent, and Adult Students: A Scientific Mapping of the Literature

Journal of Religion and Health - This study aims to map the selected literature on students’ spirituality and well-being to reveal the current and historical research trends in the relevant...     

Hydrothermal growth of ZnO nanoparticles under different conditions

In this study, a simple low-temperature hydrothermal method was used to synthesize ZnO nanoparticles. The structural, morphological and optical characterizations of the nanoparticles were evaluated with regard to the zinc content. To achieve this, the molar ratios of the precursors were changed from 0.05 to 0.1 M. The structural and morphological analyses showed that all samples had a polycrystalline hexangular wurtzite crystal structure and the shape of the ZnO nanoparticles changed with increasing zinc content. A possible growth mechanism of the ZnO nanoparticles is explained in terms of the zinc content. Optical measurement revealed that the shape of the nanoparticles affects the position of the band-edge emission as well as the shape of the luminescence spectrum.     

Ethical Evaluations of Business Students in an Emerging Market: Effects of Ethical Sensitivity,Cultural Values,Personality, and Religiosity

Business ethics has become a very important concern in global business and understanding the effects of various factors on ethical judgments continues to attract research and practitioner attention. Using the Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES, Reidenbach and Robin 1988) with its five generally accepted philosophical constructs, and vignettes developed by Cohen et al. (1996), current study investigates the relationship between cultural values, personality, religiosity and the ethical sensitivity of business students. We focus on a rapidly emerging country, Turkey, whose economic environment is similar to that of the most Western nations but with a significantly different background and cultural values. Data (n = 184) for the study is collected from a major university in the southeastern Turkey. Although some significant relationships are identified between ethical sensitivity and cultural values and personality, our study findings confirm that MES dimensions had the highest influence on ethical sensitivity levels of business students.     

Age-related changes in odor discrimination

Odor naming and recognition memory are poorer in children than in adults. This study explored whether such differences might result from poorer discriminative ability. Experiment 1 used an oddity test of discrimination with familiar odors on 6-year-olds, 11-year-olds, and adults. Six-year-olds were significantly poorer at discrimination relative to 11-year-olds and adults, who did not differ. Experiment 2 used the same procedure but with hard-to-name visual stimuli and compared only 6-year-olds with adults (as with the remaining experiments in this study). There was no difference in performance between these groups. Experiment 3 used the same procedure as Experiment 1 but with less familiar odors. Six-year-olds were significantly poorer at discrimination than adults. In Experiment 4 the researchers controlled for verbal labeling by using an articulatory suppression task, with the same basic procedure as in Experiment 1. Six-year-old performance was the same as for Experiment 1 and significantly poorer than that of adults. Impoverished olfactory discrimination may underpin performance deficits previously observed in children. These all may result from their lesser experience with odors, relative to adults.     

Age-related changes in discrimination of unfamiliar odors

If odor perception involves mnemonic processes, differences in olfactory experience should affect discriminative ability. This was examined here by comparing discriminative performance in children and adults. Using an oddity test of discrimination, in Experiment 1 we tested 6-year-olds (G1), 11-year-olds (G6), and adults (A) on their ability to discriminate unfamiliar odors that varied either in quality (Q) or in quality and intensity (QI). G1 participants were poorer at discriminating the QI set, relative to G6 and A. In Experiment 2, we used an analogous visual procedure and confirmed that this age-related difference was olfactory specific. In Experiment 3, we repeated Experiment 1 but used an articulatory suppression task. G1 participants were poorer than G6 and A participants for both the Q and the QI sets. The implications of these findings for experiential accounts of odor perception and olfactory working memory are discussed.     

Dissociating early- and late-selection processes in recall: The mixed blessing of categorized study lists

Two experiments are reported in which we used type-2 signal detection theory to separate the effects of semantic categorization on early- and late-selection processes in free and cued recall. In Experiment 1, participants studied cue–target pairs for which the targets belonged to two, six, or 24 semantic categories, and later the participants were required to recall the targets either with (cued recall) or without (free recall) the studied cues. A confidence rating and a report decision were also required, so that we could compute both forced-report quantity and metacognitive resolution (type-2 discrimination), which served as our estimates of early- and late-selection processes, respectively. Consistent with prior research, having fewer categories enhanced the early-selection process (in performance, two > six > 24 categories). However, in contrast, the late-selection process was impaired (24 > six = two categories). In Experiment 2, encoding of paired associates, for which the targets belonged to either two or 20 semantic categories, was manipulated by having participants either form interactive images or engage in rote repetition. Having fewer categories again was associated with enhanced early selection (two > 20 categories); this effect was greater for rote repetition than for interactive imagery, and greater for free recall than for cued recall. However, late selection again showed the opposite pattern (20 > two categories), even with interactive-imagery encoding, which formed distinctive, individuated memory traces. The results are discussed in terms of early- and late-selection processes in retrieval, as well as overt versus covert recognition.     

Different Types of Religiosity and Lay Intuitions About Free Will/Determinism in Turkey

Religiosity has been found to be positively associated with belief in free will (FW) in the Western world. In the Muslim world, however, religiosity exhibits several characteristics that set it apart from the Western world, including an overemphasis on fate or divine predestination. We, therefore, investigated FW/determinism beliefs and different types of religiosity and conservatism in two samples in Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country (N = 1,690). In Study 1, a confirmatory factor analysis showed that FAD-Plus provided good fit to the data. Study 2 revealed that FW belief is not related to any of the religiosity measures (intrinsic, extrinsic, quest), whereas fatalistic determinism is consistently related to religiosity. The unique predictor of free will turned out to be belief in a just world. Overall, these findings indicate that FW belief is not inherently related to religiosity in Turkey, whereas fatalistic determinism is central to Turkish people’s belief systems.