B2B commitment building in emerging markets: the case of Brazil

The research examines the suitability of relationship marketing paradigms to emerging markets (EMs) through the lens of communication, relationship benefits and commitment. Using the U.S. as a developed nation sample and Brazil as a proxy for EM countries like the BRIC nations, a B2B buyer–supplier commitment-building model is conceptualized and tested for context-specific boundaries. The study compares communication behaviors and relationship benefits along functional, psychological and social dimensions to discern the evaluation process and governance mechanisms influenced by an EM buyer’s institutional environment. Results showed that buyers from relation-based EMs like Brazil base their relationship commitment more on the psychological attributes of the partnership, while a buyer’s commitment-building process in rule-based, developed nations like the US is largely influenced by functional attributes.     

Resilience and Coping Intervention with Children and Adolescents in At-Risk Neighborhoods

This study evaluated the Resilience and Coping Intervention for Children (RCI), a group intervention to increase coping skills and resilience in children and adolescents. RCI was delivered to children and adolescents residing in five at-risk neighborhoods in a southern U.S. city. Children’s and adolescents’ self-report of coping strategies, strengths and difficulties with behaviors and emotions, and hope indicated decreased difficulties with behavior and emotions and increased feelings of hope postintervention. Parent report of difficulties with behavior and emotions revealed a significant decrease in children but not in adolescents. Mean scores for four coping dimensions increased, but the increase was not statistically significant.     

Stocks and losses, items and interference: A reply to Oberauer and Süß (2000)

Results of a recent study of spatial working memory are presented in support of the claim by Jenkins and her colleagues (Jenkins, Myerson, Hale, &; Fry, 1999) that secondary tasks produce larger interference effects in individuals with higher simple spans than in individuals with lower simple spans. Because spans and interference effects were assessed independently, this study refutes the claim by Oberauer and Süß (2000) that the relation between span and interference effect size is merely an artifact of regression to the mean. In contrast with the present findings, Oberauer and Süß did not find evidence of larger interference effects in higher span individuals, but the reason for this may be straightforward: The secondary tasks that they used did not produce significant interference. Recent findings by Logie and his colleagues indicate that phonological similarity and word length effects are larger in individuals with higher word spans (Logie, Della Sala, Laiacona, Chalmers, &; Wynn, 1996). These results, those of Jenkins, Myerson, et al. (1999), and the results reported here suggest that, across individuals, the absolute effect size for many manipulations that decrease memory span is an increasing function of simple span.     

Preadolescents’ Voices: A consideration of British and Canadian children’s reflections on religion,spirituality, and their sense of self

Drawing on research in Canada and the UK, this article considers how preadolescents' narratives can further our understanding of their spirituality and sense of self. Exposing the problems of identifying a 'preadolescent', this article reflects on how these often unheard voices might inform future research and education issues such as the role of teacher, pedagogy and curriculum. As well as offering two different international perspectives, this article is also boldly interdisciplinary: thus bringing to light a diverse range of concerns and themes that arise from a context which combines anthropological and psychological approaches.     

Menstrual Reactivity: The Role of Gender-Specificity,Anxiety Sensitivity,and Somatic Concerns in Self-Reported Menstrual Distress

To determine the impact of gender roles, anxiety sensitivity, and somatic concerns on self-reported menstrual distress, two studies were conducted. In the first study using 278 primarily Caucasian college females, anxiety-sensitivity level, not current menstrual cycle phase, influenced reports of menstrual symptom severity and depression. Regardless of cycle phase at the time of self-report, women high in anxiety sensitivity reported significantly more depressed mood, trait anxiety, and retrospective menstrual symptoms. In the second study of 158 primarily Caucasian college females varying in anxiety sensitivity levels, adherence to sex role stereotypes, feminist beliefs, and illness attitudes were examined. Participants also completed measures of general premenstrual, most-recent premenstrual, and current menstrual symptoms. Women high in anxiety sensitivity reported the highest levels of sex-specificity, feminist embeddedness, and illness attitudes, with sex-specificity accounting for significant variance in current menstrual symptoms. Results are discussed within the context of the menstrual reactivity hypothesis, which proposes that beliefs surrounding the menstrual cycle and body sensations expectancies contribute to self-reports of greater menstrual distress. Women high in anxiety sensitivity appear to represent one subgroup vulnerable to menstrual reactivity.     

Effects of peripheral immune activation on social behavior and adrenocortical activity in aggressive mice: Genotype-environment interactions

To explore genetic-developmental differences in the biobehavioral effects of induced illness, males from two lines of mice selectively bred for high or low levels of aggressive behavior were injected with endotoxin (Escherichia coli, LPS: 0.25 mg/kg, 1.25 mg/kg, or 2.5 mg, i.p.) or saline. Body temperature, weight, and locomotor activity were monitored immediately before and 8 and 24 hr after injection. Twenty-four hours after injection, social behaviors were assessed in a 10-min dyadic test, and hypothalamus, spleen, and serum were collected. In both lines, endotoxin treatment increased behavioral immobility ("freezing") and decreased social exploration. Other effects showed line differences: Males from the high-aggressive line had a lower threshold to endotoxin-induced effects on body temperature, weight loss, spleen weight, and corticosterone. Social reactivity (startle response to mild social investigation) increased in the high-aggressive line and decreased in the low-aggressive line after treatment. In the high-aggressive line only, endotoxin decreased attack frequency and increased latency to attack. The interactions between selected line (genotype) and endotoxin treatment (environment) demonstrate that genetic-developmental differences in social and aggressive behavior may indicate the extent to which immune stimuli (e.g., bacteria, viruses, cytokines) function as "biobehavioral stressors." Aggr. Behav. 23:93–105, 1997.© 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Words (but not tones) facilitate object categorization: evidence from 6- and 12-month-olds

Recent studies reveal that naming has powerful conceptual consequences within the first year of life. Naming distinct objects with the same word highlights commonalities among the objects and promotes object categorization. In the present experiment, we pursued the origin of this link by examining the influence of words and tones on object categorization in infants at 6 and 12 months. At both ages, infants hearing a novel word for a set of distinct objects successfully formed object categories; those hearing a sequence of tones for the same objects did not. These results support the view that infants are sensitive to powerful and increasingly nuanced links between linguistic and conceptual units very early in the process of lexical acquisition.     

The deliberate control of emotional experience through control of expressions

Recent research suggests that deliberate manipulation of expressive behaviours might self-regulate emotional experiences. Eighty people were first induced to adopt emotional expressions in a successfully disguised procedure that identified whether their feelings were affected by their expressive behaviour when they were unaware of the nature and purpose of that behaviour. They then deliberately attempted to change emotional feelings by adopting or inhibiting emotional behaviours, or by focusing on or being distracted from situational cues for emotion. Participants more responsive to their own behaviour in the disguised procedure felt more intensely when they adopted emotional behaviours, and less intensely when they inhibited those behaviours. In contrast, people identified as unresponsive to their own emotional behaviour were most affected by deliberate focus on or distraction from emotional thoughts. The effectiveness of techniques for emotional self-regulation depends on a match with characteristics of the person.