Motive Arousal Without Pictures? An Experimental Validation of a Hybrid Implicit Motive Test

Pictures are widely used as stimuli in implicit motive tests. Hybrid forms of such tests present pictures and declarative statements underneath pictures. Some authors have argued that explicitly declaring agreement with motive-related statements presented underneath pictures might shift the validity of such tests from capturing less implicit motives to more explicit motives. If that is the case, pictures as elicitors of implicit motives might become less relevant. Adopting the views on validity presented by Borsboom, Mellenbergh, and van Heerden (2004 Borsboom, D., Mellenbergh, G. J., &; van Heerden, J. (2004). The concept of validity. Psychological Review, 111, 1061–1071. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.111.4.1061[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Bornstein (2011 Bornstein, R. F. (2011). Toward a process-focused model of test score validity: Improving psychological assessment in science and practice. Psychological Assessment, 23, 532–544. doi:10.1037/a0022402[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), as well as item generation theory, we investigated whether the availability of pictures in hybrid motive tests causally affects test scores. To this end, we administered the Multi-Motive Grid (MMG; Sokolowski, Schmalt, Langens, &; Puca, 2000 Sokolowski, K., Schmalt, H.-D., Langens, T. A., &; Puca, R. M. (2000). Assessing achievement, affiliation, and power motives all at once: The Multi-Motive-Grid (MMG). Journal of Personality Assessment, 74, 126–145. doi:10.1207/S15327752JPA740109[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), as an example of a hybrid motive test, either with or without pictures to 108 participants. Results revealed that the availability of pictures had no effect on 3 out of 6 test scores. Furthermore, eliminating pictures had only inconsistent effects on correlations with a test of explicit motives. We conclude that pictures might not unanimously elicit motives in implicit motive tests that use declarative statements as response options.     

Selling with technology: understanding the resistance to mobile sales assistant use in retailing

The rise of online competitors and increasingly well-informed customers have spurred stationary retailers to take measures to increase the quality of face-to-face selling as a key differentiator. Mobile sales assistants (MSAs) represent an intensively discussed technological approach to address these challenges in the salesperson–customer dyad. However, in many cases, salespeople do not or only sporadically use MSAs. Prior research provides inadequate answers as to why this is the case, as extant technology acceptance and resistance theories have limited applicability to MSAs. To address these research gaps, the authors conduct a qualitative, theory-building approach and identify 21 factors associated with resistance. In a subsequent quantitative survey study, they validate these factors and refine their conceptual structure. The results show that several largely unknown factors are associated with salespeople’s resistance to MSA use: The three higher-order constructs, ‘incongruence’, ‘relationship deterioration’, and ‘operational imperfection’, are newly introduced to the literature on technology resistance. The findings extend prior technology acceptance and resistance theories and provide comprehensive insights for retail managers.     

Husserl,the mathematization of nature,and the informational reconstruction of quantum theory

Continental Philosophy Review - As is well known, the late Husserl warned against the dangers of reifying and objectifying the mathematical models that operate at the heart of our physical...     

How smart do you think you are? A meta-analysis on the validity of self-estimates of cognitive ability

Individuals' perceptions of their own level of cognitive ability are expressed through self-estimates. They play an important role in a person's self-concept because they facilitate an understanding of how one's own abilities relate to those of others. People evaluate their own and other persons' abilities all the time, but self-estimates are also used in formal settings, such as, for instance, career counseling. We examine the relationship between self-estimated and psychometrically measured cognitive ability by conducting a random-effects, multilevel meta-analysis including a total of 154 effect sizes reported in 41 published studies. Moderator variables are specified in a mixed-effects model both at the level of the individual effect size and at the study level. The overall relationship is estimated at r = .33. There is significant heterogeneity at both levels (i.e., the true effect sizes vary within and between studies), and the results of the moderator analysis show that the validity of self-estimates is especially enhanced when relative scales with clearly specified comparison groups are used and when numerical ability is assessed rather than general cognitive ability. The assessment of less frequently considered dimensions of cognitive ability (e.g., reasoning speed) significantly decreases the magnitude of the relationship. From a theoretical perspective, Festinger's (1954) theory of social comparison and Lecky's (1945) theory of self-consistency receive empirical support. For practitioners, the assessment of self-estimates appears to provide diagnostic information about a person's self-concept that goes beyond a simple "test-and-tell" approach. This information is potentially relevant for career counselors, personnel recruiters, and teachers.     

Conflict Resolution as a Dyadic Mediator: Considering the Partner Perspective on Conflict Resolution

So far, relationship research has only considered an intrapersonal perspective on links between adult attachment, conflict resolution and relationship satisfaction. This study investigated the mediating effects of partner‐reported conflict resolution styles among the attachment dimensions of avoidance and anxiety, and relationship satisfaction in a sample of 207 heterosexual couples. Dyadic and structural aspects of mediation were tested using the Actor–Partner Mediator Model with latent variables. Few significant partner‐related meditational pathways were found indicating compensating effects of positive problem solving and compliance. More frequent positive problem solving could improve relationship satisfaction, even when the partner showed higher scores on anxious attachment. In addition, the use of compliance could suppress the negative effects of attachment avoidance on partner's relationship satisfaction. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Diversity mindsets and the performance of diverse teams

Diversity can enhance as well as disrupt team performance. Diversity beliefs and climates may play an important moderating role in these effects, but it is unclear what form these should take to promote the positive effects of diversity. Addressing this question in an integration of research in team cognition and diversity, we advance the concept of diversity mindsets, defined as team members’ mental representations of team diversity. These mindsets capture diversity-related goals and associated procedural implications for goal achievement. We develop theory about the accuracy, sharedness, and awareness of sharedness of mindsets as moderators of the diversity-performance relationship. We also identify the determinants of these aspects of diversity mindsets. Finally, we discuss the implications of our model for the management of diversity.     

Applying sampling theories to attitude learning in a virtual school class environment

According to sampling theories of attitude formation, evaluative learning depends on the sampling in the environment. We investigated teachers’ student evaluations in a simulated school class. Two experiments were designed to test distinct implications of experience-sampling models. While the model advanced by Fazio, Eiser, and Shook (2004) and Denrell (2005) led to the prediction of a negativity effect through asymmetric depolarization, another model (Fiedler, 1996) suggested a positivity effect through asymmetric polarization. Findings supported the latter contention. The selective tendency to oversample good students while neglecting weaker students was not radical enough to prevent the correction of negative impressions, precluding a negativity effect. Instead, extended selective sampling led to gradually increasing polarization of positive impressions, and facilitated detection of positive performance changes. While these findings can be reconciled with the Fazio–Denrell model, they highlight the crucial role of auxiliary psychological assumptions about attitude learning, as distinguished from the formal model itself.     

Transmission electron microscopy study of a new silicon nitride phase

An abnormally large phase, which was found in the precursor-derived Si 3.0 B 1.1 C 5.3 N 3.0 ceramics after crystallization under a nitrogen pressure of 100bar at 1800C for 3h, has been characterized by means of transmission electron microscopy and electron-energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS). EELS analysis shows that this phase consists of only silicon and nitrogen, no other elements being detected. The analysis of selected-area diffraction and convergent-beam electron diffraction in conjunction with EELS reveals that the unknown phase is a variant of silicon nitride. It has a hexagonal structure with lattice parameters a =0.737nm and c =0.536nm, and the space group P62c. .     

Adaptive memory: enhanced source memory for animate entities

ABSTRACT

The animacy effect refers to enhanced memory for animate over inanimate items. In two studies, we examined whether this memory advantage generalises to source memory. A multinomial processing tree model was used to disentangle item recognition, source memory, and guessing processes. In Study 1, animate and inanimate words were presented at different spatial locations on the screen. Animacy was associated with enhanced source memory for the spatial locations of the items. In Study 2, pseudowords were associated with animate and inanimate properties. Replicating previous results, the pseudowords were better remembered when they were associated with animate properties than when they were associated with inanimate properties. What is more, participants had enhanced source memory for the association between the pseudowords and the animate properties. The results strengthen the idea that animate items are associated with richer mnemonic representations than inanimate items.     

Coping in relationships: the interplay between individual and dyadic coping and their effects on relationship satisfaction

The main aim of the present study was to determine how individual and dyadic coping efforts are related in the context of relationships. This aim was achieved by studying partners simultaneously and taking into account the interdependent nature of couple data. Specifically tested was whether dyadic coping mediates the influence of individual coping, and whether there is a mutual influence of partners' dyadic coping. Cross-sectional data of 240 German couples were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that dyadic coping is a stronger predictor of relationship satisfaction than individual coping, and that it mediates the individual coping efforts. Mutual influence could be demonstrated for pragmatic coping but not for emotional coping. This research highlights the importance of dyadic coping by focusing on the ways in which couples cope together.