The two faces of conscientiousness: duty and achievement striving in escalation of commitment dilemmas.

The author proposes that 2 facets of conscientiousness, duty and achievement striving, affect decision makers in escalation of commitment dilemmas in opposing ways, thus masking the predictive ability of a broad measure of conscientiousness. It is proposed that duty is associated with an other-centered orientation and that achievement striving is associated with a self-centered orientation. Analyses of decisions from 360 respondents showed that duty was associated with a deescalation of commitment, achievement striving was associated with an escalation of commitment, and the broad measure of conscientiousness was unassociated with commitment. The author advocates the utility of understanding potential self-centered versus other-centered aspects of the criterion of interest when conducting personality-based research.     

Phonetically governed voicing onset and offset in preschool children who stutter

Phonetically governed changes in the fundamental frequency (F₀) of vowels that immediately precede and follow voiceless stop plosives have been found to follow consistent patterns in adults and children as young as four years of age. In the present study, F₀ onset and offset patterns in 14 children who stutter (CWS) and 14 children who do not stutter (CWNS) were investigated to evaluate differences in speech production. Participants produced utterances containing two VCV sequences. F₀ patterns in the last ten vocal cycles in the preceding vowel (voicing offset) and the first ten vocal cycles in the subsequent vowel (voicing onset) were analyzed. A repeated measures ANOVA revealed no group differences between the CWS and CWNS in either voicing onset or offset gestures. Both groups showed patterns of F₀ onset and offset that were consistent with the mature patterns seen in children and adults in previous studies. These findings suggest that in both CWS and CWNS, a mature pattern of voicing onset and offset is present by age 3;6. This study suggests that there is no difference between CWS and CWNS in the coordination of respiratory and laryngeal systems during voicing onset or offset.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (a) discuss the importance of investigating children who stutter close to the onset of stuttering; (b) describe the typical change in F₀ during voicing onset; (c) discuss the potential implications of these results with regard to future research.     

Genealogy of the Modern Theological Understanding of Han 恨

I provide a genealogy and critique of the Korean theological concept of suffering, han. I critique how the concept has been a formative part of the cultural-postcolonial nationalist narrative of Korean spirituality. I look at the historiography of the politicization of han and locate its current theological understanding within the colonial period of Korea (1910–1945). To argue that han forms the core of Korean spirituality is to internalize the beliefs of the colonizers that Koreans suffer from: “the beauty of sorrow” due to the unfortunate geopolitical situation of their country. This idea of sorrow as an aesthetic guiding principle for Koreans was part of the justification for colonizing Korea. This acceptance of han reinforces colonialist opinions about colonized subjects. I problematize the paradigm of han as a theological concept that is unique to Korean culture and argue for a more complex Korean theological discourse.     

Understanding the Independent Influence of Duty and Achievement Striving When Predicting the Relationship Between Conscientiousness and Organizational Cultural Profiles and Helping Behaviors

The theory that 2 facets of the factor conscientiousness, duty and achievement striving, are related to self- or other-centered motives, is supported in 2 studies. In Study 1 (N = 204 undergraduates), the self-centered facet of achievement striving was found to be the most important predictor of attraction toward organizational cultures that were outcome-based, aggressive, and emphasized rewards. Achievement strivers were less attracted to supportive and decisive organizations. In Study 2 (N = 189 part-time MBA students) the other-centered facet of duty was found to be predictive of helping behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Computational and performance aspects of PCA-based face-recognition algorithms

Algorithms based on principal component analysis (PCA) form the basis of numerous studies in the psychological and algorithmic face-recognition literature. PCA is a statistical technique and its incorporation into a face-recognition algorithm requires numerous design decisions. We explicitly state the design decisions by introducing a generic modular PCA-algorithm. This allows us to investigate these decisions, including those not documented in the literature. We experimented with different implementations of each module, and evaluated the different implementations using the September 1996 FERET evaluation protocol (the de facto standard for evaluating face-recognition algorithms). We experimented with (i) changing the illumination normalization procedure; (ii) studying effects on algorithm performance of compressing images with JPEG and wavelet compression algorithms; (iii) varying the number of eigenvectors in the representation; and (iv) changing the similarity measure in the classification process. We performed two experiments. In the first experiment, we obtained performance results on the standard September 1996 FERET large-gallery image sets. In the second experiment, we examined the variability in algorithm performance on different sets of facial images. The study was performed on 100 randomly generated image sets (galleries) of the same size. Our two most significant results are (i) changing the similarity measure produced the greatest change in performance, and (ii) that difference in performance of +/- 10% is needed to distinguish between algorithms.     

Looking forward and looking back: integrating completion and sunk-cost effects within an escalation-of-commitment progress decision

Currently, there are 2 conflicting frameworks with which to understand why decision makers might escalate their commitment to a previously chosen course of action: sunk costs and project completion. The author proposes that sunk costs and need to complete exert simultaneous pressures, both independent and interactive, on a decision maker's level of commitment. The responses of 340 participants were analyzed and supported a complementary relationship between the 2 predictors. In addition, sunk costs demonstrated a curvilinear influence on commitment and an interaction with level of completion that supported a Level of Completion x Sunk Cost moderation model. (A marginal utility model was not supported.) Results are discussed in terms of their relevance toward offering a complementary view of 2 potential antecedents to a decision maker's propensity to escalate his or her commitment to a previously chosen course of action.     

The Dependency–Counterdependency Dynamic: Interactive Effects of System Justification and Power-Distance Orientation on Radicalization against the Political System

System Justification Theory posits that individuals are less prone to engage in radical action against a system on which they depend. In the present research, we investigated how the association between system-justifying tendencies and radical intentions is moderated by individuals' orientation towards power differentials, namely their “power distance.” A stronger power distance orientation implies that individuals perceive power differentials as a fixed feature of society, curtailing prospects for change. We hypothesized that, at lower levels of power distance orientation, system-justification tendencies would be associated with reduced radical intentions. We contend this will occur because individuals feel dependent on a system perceived as malleable (dependency hypothesis). Conversely, at higher levels of power distance orientation, we expected system-justification tendencies to be associated with stronger radical intentions. We argue that this effect reflects the rejection of dependency on a system perceived as fixed (counterdependency hypothesis). This dependency-counterdependency dynamic was tested using a multigroup latent structural equation model and samples from four countries (N_Total = 2,502), South Korea, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Results were consistent with the hypothesized dynamic across all countries. Theoretical implications of the findings, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.     

Purchasing decisions,partial knowledge,and economic search experimental and simulation evidence

Several experimental studies have discovered high-performing heuristic strategies in the search for the most economic price of a good in situations where a searcher has both full prior knowledge and no prior knowledge of the underlying price distribution. This paper describes a new experiment set in a more realistic ‘partial-knowledge’ framework. Several new search heuristics are suggested which match well with observed behaviour, and which, over a large number of simulated trials, perform well in comparison with the optimal model and better than previously reported ‘no-knowledge’ rules.