Special Abstract Section: 2004 National Conference in Sales Management

Every year, Pi Sigma Epsilon sponsors a National Conference in Sales Management (NCSM) in conjunction with its annual convention. JPSSM is pleased to present a special section containing the abstracts of the papers presented at the 2004 NCSM, held April 15–17 in Reno, Nevada. The papers summarized below represent a broad collection of interesting and timely topics. Any queries regarding the papers may be sent to C. David Shepherd, NCSM Abstract Section Editor, at david_shepherd@coles2.kennesaw.edu.     

Counsellor-delivered HIV risk reduction intervention addresses safer sex barriers of people living with HIV in KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa

This study developed an HIV risk reduction intervention for people living with HIV (PLWH) obtaining care at primary healthcare clinics in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa by (1) conducting elicitation research to understand the dynamics of risk behaviour among PLWH, (2) modifying an existing HIV risk reduction intervention based on research findings and (3) conducting a pilot study to evaluate feasibility, acceptability and fidelity of the modified intervention implemented by trained lay counsellors at a rural clinic in KwaZulu-Natal. A total of 61 healthcare providers and 77 HIV+ patients from four primary healthcare clinics participated in 14 focus groups and 20 individual interviews to identify informational, motivational and behavioural skills (IMB) factors contributing to PLWH's sexual risk behaviour. Elicitation research findings were incorporated into a revised version of Options for Health, an evidence-based risk reduction intervention for PLWH in clinical care. In a 5-day training, lay counsellors learned strategies to address IMB barriers to safer sex identified in elicitation research. The revised intervention, which was implemented by six counsellors with 39 patients, was feasible to implement, acceptable to patients and counsellors, and implemented with good fidelity. This study makes an important contribution towards development of a theory-based HIV risk reduction intervention for PLWH linking prevention with treatment in South Africa.     

Religion/spirituality and quality of life of international tertiary students in New Zealand: an exploratory study

Previous research links religion/spirituality to beneficial health outcomes, but the majority of these studies used samples from populations with long-term illness or older people. The present study explored whether the links between religion/spirituality and quality of life can be observed in a sample of younger adults, and also whether religion/spirituality could function as a coping mechanism in international tertiary students who are often subjected to significant stressors related to acculturation and being away from their families. The sample consisted of 218 domestic and 164 international students at a New Zealand university who were given the quality of life inventory and the additional special module about spirituality/religion/personal beliefs, both developed by the World Health Organization in collaboration with many member states. Religion/spirituality was significantly correlated with psychological quality of life in both groups, and social quality of life in international students. The results also show that religion/spirituality might function as a coping mechanism in international students in response to stressors of acculturation.     

The Ninian Smart Archive and Bibliography

The late Professor Smart wrote extensively, at many different levels, on a wide variety of topics, with papers and articles appearing in a bewildering variety of publications worldwide. Previous bibliographies of his work have proved to be incomplete and inaccurate. An accurate, comprehensive bibliography is attempted here, along with a summary of the contents of the Ninian Smart Archive.     

Organizational Inhibitions to Addressing Occupational Fraud: A Theory of Differential Rationalization

ABSTRACT

This article examines organizational inhibitions in relation to addressing occupational fraud. The a priori assumption would be if an organization discovers occupational fraud it would deal with it. However, this research illustrates, drawing upon 24 semi-structured interviews, two case studies and participant observation, a range of avoidant rationalizations constructed by representatives of organizational victims to justify not tackling occupational fraud. These rationalizations bear great similarity to the rationalizations constructed by offenders, and the article argues they constitute a theory of differential rationalization. The research may have wider relevance to explaining why organizations fail to deal with other negative behaviors.     

The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire: Transformation from an Ordinal to an Interval Measure Using Rasch Analysis

The scientific study of happiness requires accurate measurement of the construct that satisfies assumptions of parametric statistics and thus allows both researchers and clinicians to make reliable and valid comparisons with the relevant data sources. The 29-item Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (OHQ) is a widely-used scale for assessment of personal happiness. While its psychometric properties are acknowledged to be acceptable, it presents scores on an ordinal scale and may thus not discriminate precisely between individual happiness levels. The current study aimed to improve precision and item functioning of the OHQ by applying Rasch analysis to a sample of 281 participants. To correct disordered thresholds items were rescored in a uniform fashion. Four items displayed poor relationships with the latent trait of happiness and were removed. Best fit to the unidimensional Rasch model was achieved after locally dependent items were combined into subtests and adjusted for personal differences. Using the ordinal-to-interval conversion tables published here, ordinal OHQ scores can now be transformed to interval level data and thus subjected to parametric statistical analysis without violating fundamental assumptions. The precision of the instrument can be improved significantly by these minor modifications without the need to modify the original response format.     

The role of fear in predicting sexually transmitted infection screening

Objective: This study assessed the extent to which social-cognitive factors (attitude, subjective norm and perceived control) and the fear of a positive test result predict sexually transmitted infection (STI) screening intentions and subsequent behaviour.

Design: Study 1 (N = 85) used a longitudinal design to assess the factors that predict STI screening intention and future screening behaviour measured one month later at Time 2. Study 2 (N = 102) used an experimental design to determine whether the relationship between fear and screening varied depending on whether STI or HIV screening was being assessed both before and after controlling for social-cognitive factors.

Main Outcome Measures: Across the studies the outcome measures were sexual health screening.

Results: In both studies, the fear of having an STI positively predicted STI screening intention. In Study 1, fear, but not the social-cognitive factors, also predicted subsequent STI screening behaviour. In Study 2, the fear of having HIV did not predict HIV screening intention, but attitude negatively and response efficacy positively predicted screening intention.

Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of considering the nature of the health condition when assessing the role of fear on health promotion.     

Preference for symmetry: only on mars?

Preference for symmetry is a robust bias found throughout the animal kingdom. In humans, the bias for symmetry has been documented in numerous domains, including faces and visual patterns. The function of this potent aesthetic bias still eludes us, but prominent accounts focus on its role in mate selection and perceptual fluency. Previous studies have shown that both males and females find symmetrical faces to be more attractive, but here we show that the preference for symmetry in neutral stimuli (ie everyday and meaningless visual objects) is, on the other hand, unique to male participants. Our findings indicate that symmetry preference cannot be explained exclusively by perceptual or computational efficiency, because such an account is domain-independent yet females did not show any bias for the objects tested here. Further studies are needed to elucidate the utility of the male preference for visual object symmetry.