Cross-National Analysis of the Influence of Cultural Norms and Government Restrictions on the Relationship Between Religion and Well-Being

This study examines the interaction between cultural religious norms and governmental restrictiveness as country-level moderators of the relationship between individual religiousness and well-being, including both happiness and physical health. Data come from five waves of World Values survey data from 221 separate surveys conducted in 88 countries, with data from 317,109 individuals. Three dimensions of individual religiousness were assessed, along with corresponding country-level norms aggregated from these measures. Three-way cross-level interactions were tested to examine whether the extent of government restriction modified the relationship between national religious norms and the individual-level association between religious factors and well-being outcomes. Results supported the hypothesis that self-reported religion is most strongly related to greater happiness and better self-reported health in societies where it is freely and widely practiced. In contrast, religiousness may be harmful when it is relatively deviant, and restrictions of freedom may serve to further exacerbate this effect. These results suggest that the positive association between religion and well-being is not universal, but depends upon the right to express religion freely and the opportunity to practice with like-minded others.     

Foreign brands in local cultures: A socio‐cultural perspective of postmodern brandscapes

The aim of this paper is to explore how the consumption of foreign brands may operate in a local culture (specifically, the consumption of Western luxury fashion brands among Muslim women in Kuwait). Field observations were conducted in Kuwait, and a qualitative questionnaire was administered to 50 Muslim female consumers. Although not a common method for qualitative research, the benefits of using a qualitative questionnaire are highlighted. The findings show that the socio‐cultural dynamics in Kuwait (mainly religion and tradition) may restrict the expression of certain behaviour (such as female sexuality and dating). However, Muslim women make use of Western luxury fashion brands as postmodern brandscapes (fragmented and constantly negotiated use of a symbolic brand to actively construct lifestyle orientations and personal meanings among one's neo‐tribe) to manifest their expressions of sexuality in alternative ways. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development of an Attitudes and Intentions Scale for Construction Skills Training Programs

Attrition is a major problem in construction skills training programs for young adults, with dropout rates ranging between 45% and 65%. Training resources could be used more efficiently if trainees' completion rates were increased. Understanding and measuring the psychological characteristics contributing to attrition allows training practitioners to implement interventions to reduce dropout. This article reports the development of an instrument designed to measure constructs that inform participants' performance and success within the construction training domain. Instrument reliability and validity as well as areas of further research are discussed.     

Procedural learning in perceptual categorization

In two experiments, observers learned two types of category structures: those in which perfect accuracy could be achieved via some explicit rule-based strategy and those in which perfect accuracy required integrating information from separate perceptual dimensions at some predecisional stage. At the end of training, some observers were required to switch their hands on the response keys, whereas the assignment of categories to response keys was switched for other observers. With the rule-based category structures, neither change in response instructions interfered with categorization accuracy. However, with the information-integration structures, switching response key assignments interfered with categorization performance, but switching hands did not. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that abstract category labels are learned in rule-based categorization, whereas response positions are learned in information-integration categorization. The association to response positions also supports the hypothesis of a procedural-learning-based component to information integration categorization.     

The one-target advantage: a test of the movement integration hypothesis.

Two experiments were conducted to compare the temporal structure of single aiming movements to two-component movements involving either a reversal in direction or an extension. For reversal movements, there was no cost associated with the movement time for the first segment of the movement. However, regardless of movement direction, initiation instructions, handedness or effector, two-component extension movements were always associated with a longer movement time for the first movement segment. This disadvantage for extension movements, but not reversal movements, is consistent with the notion that there is interference between the execution of the first movement and implementation of the second movement. By contrast, because the muscular force used to break the first movement is also used to propel the second movement, reversal movements are organised as an integrated unit.     

Religiosity and Self-Rated Health: A Longitudinal Examination of Their Reciprocal Effects

While religiosity tends to be favorably associated with physical health, further research is needed to assess the causal directions between religiosity and health. This study examined reciprocal pathways between them with a three-wave panel dataset (General Social Survey, 2006–2010). Among Christians (N = 585), religious activities were associated with improved self-rated health, while conservative religious beliefs were associated with worsened health over time. Additionally, worse health was associated with increased engagement in religious activities and greater endorsement of conservative religious beliefs over time. Results highlight the need for additional research and theory to map the complexity of the religion–health connection.     

The impossibility of a satisfactory population prospect axiology (independently of Finite Fine-Grainedness)

Philosophical Studies - Arrhenius’s impossibility theorems purport to demonstrate that no population axiology can satisfy each of a small number of intuitively compelling adequacy conditions....