Coming Out Among Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexual Individuals in Hong Kong: Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Moderating Role of Attitudinal Ambivalence

The present study applied the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to identify factors associated with disclosure intention among lesbians (n?=?236), gay men (n?=?183), bisexual women (n?=?156), and bisexual men (n?=?46) (LGBs) in Hong Kong. Past disclosure behavior and the moderating role of attitudinal ambivalence were also examined. Findings showed that perceived behavioral control predicted intention significantly in all four groups. Attitude predicted intention significantly in lesbians, gay men, and bisexual women. Subjective norm predicted intention significantly in lesbians and gay men. The moderating effect of attitudinal ambivalence was supported in lesbians. Past disclosure behavior was not significant in predicting disclosure intention. The present study showed differential utility of the TPB on LGBs’ disclosure intention in Hong Kong.     

Effects of management communication, opportunity for learning, and work schedule flexibility on organizational commitment

In the current career climate characterized by change and turbulence, employees may demonstrate limited organizational commitment to their employers. Rousseau (1998) suggests that two key ways to elicit loyalty from employees today are to reinforce perceptions of organizational membership and demonstrate organizational care and support for employees. Based on her conceptual framework, we examined the separate and synergistic effects of three valued aspects of the work environment—management communication, opportunity for learning, and work schedule flexibility—on organizational commitment. With 1770 full-time and 273 part-time workers of a large national retailer, we found that all three variables had positive main effects on organizational commitment. Also, they three-way interacted to affect part-time workers’ organizational commitment. The implications of these findings for research on organizational commitment and on comparisons of full-time and part-time workers are discussed.     

Grouping in short-term verbal memory: Is position coded temporally?

The nature of the mechanisms that code item position in serial short-term verbal recall was investigated with reference to temporal grouping phenomena--effects that arise when additional pauses are inserted in a presented list to form groups of items. Several recent models attempt to explain these phenomena by assuming that positional information is retained by associating items with contextual information. According to two of the models--the Phonological Loop model (Hitch, Burgess, Towse, & Culpin, 1996) and the OSCAR model (Brown, Preece, & Hulme, 2000)--contextual information depends critically on the timing of item presentation with reference to group onset. By contrast, according to the Start-End model (Henson, 1998) and a development from it, which we label the Oscillator-Revised Start-End model (Henson & Burgess, 1997), contextual information is independent of time from group onset. Three experiments examined whether coding of position is time dependent. The critical manipulation was to vary stimulus-onset asynchrony from one group to the next in the same list. Lists of consonants were presented visually, but with vocalization in Experiment 1, auditorily in Experiment 2, and auditorily with articulatory suppression in Experiment 3. The pattern of order errors consistently favoured the predictions of the time-independent models over those of the time-dependent models in that across-group transpositions reflected within-group serial position rather than time from group onset. Errors involving intrusions from previous lists also reflected within-group serial position, thereby extending support for the time-independent models.     

Felt obligations to reciprocate to an employer,preferences for mobility across employers,and gender: Three-way interaction effects on subsequent voice behavior

Previous research suggests that employees engage in voice behavior to reciprocate for the positive treatment they receive from employers, but less is known about individual differences in employees' willingness to engage in voice behavior to that end. The present study proposes that felt obligations to the organization relate more strongly to voice behavior when employees also have stronger preferences for job stability (rather than job mobility). We also propose that this two-way interaction will be further moderated by gender; specifically, males who feel strong obligations to reciprocate and have strong preferences for job stability are especially likely to engage in voice behavior. Data collected from 209 employees over an 8-month period support both the proposed two-way and three-way interaction effects. Thus, while the norm of reciprocity is widely held, the effects of felt obligations to employers on voice behavior also depend upon both gender differences and individual differences in preferences for job stability.     

A threshold theory account of psychometric functions with response confidence under the balance condition

The study of thresholds for discriminability has been of long‐standing interest in psychophysics. While threshold theories embrace the concept of discrete‐state thresholds, signal detection theory discounts such a concept. In this paper we concern ourselves with the concept of thresholds from the discrete‐state modelling viewpoint. In doing so, we find it necessary to clarify some fundamental issues germane to the psychometric function (PF), which is customarily constructed using psychophysical methods with a binary‐response format. We challenge this response format and argue that response confidence also plays an important role in the construction of PFs, and thus should have some impact on threshold estimation. We motivate the discussion by adopting a three‐state threshold theory for response confidence proposed by Krantz (1969, Psychol. Rev., 76, 308–324), which is a modification of Luce's (1963, Psychol. Rev., 70, 61–79) low‐threshold theory. In particular, we discuss the case in which the practice of averaging over order (or position) is enforced in data collection. Finally, we illustrate the fit of the Luce–Krantz model to data from a line‐discrimination task with response confidence.     

Reach out to one and you reach out to many: Social touch affects third‐party observers

Casual social touch influences emotional perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours of interaction partners. We asked whether these influences extend to third‐party observers. To this end, we developed the Social Touch Picture Set comprising line drawings of dyadic interactions, half of which entailed publicly acceptable casual touch and half of which served as no‐touch controls. In Experiment 1, participants provided basic image norms by rating how frequently they observed a displayed touch gesture in everyday life and how comfortable they were observing it. Results implied that some touch gestures were observed more frequently and with greater comfort than others (e.g., handshake vs. hug). All gestures, however, obtained rating scores suitable for inclusion in Experiments 2 and 3. In Experiment 2, participants rated perceived valence, arousal, and likeability of randomly presented touch and no‐touch images without being explicitly informed about touch. Image characters seemed more positive, aroused, and likeable when they touched as compared to when they did not touch. Image characters seemed more negative and aroused, but were equally likeable, when they received touch as compared to when there was no physical contact. In Experiment 3, participants passively viewed touch and no‐touch images while their eye movements were recorded. Differential gazing at touch as compared to no‐touch images emerged within the first 500 ms following image exposure and was largely restricted to the characters' upper body. Gazing at the touching body parts (e.g., hands) was minimal and largely unaffected by touch, suggesting that touch processing occurred outside the focus of visual attention. Together, these findings establish touch as an important visual cue and provide novel insights into how this cue modulates socio‐emotional processing in third‐party observers.     

Validation of the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory–II (CEI–II) Among Chinese University Students in Hong Kong

This study aimed at validating the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory–II (CEI–II; Kashdan et al., 2009 Silvia, P. J., & Kashdan, T. B. (2009). Interesting things and curious people: Exploration and engagement as transient states and enduring strengths. Social Psychology and Personality Compass, 3, 785–797.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) in a Chinese context. A total of 294 Chinese first-year undergraduate students in Hong Kong completed the CEI–II and measures of satisfaction with university life, the Big Five personality traits, and human values. The results of exploratory structural equation modeling, parallel analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis supported a 1-factor solution and did not replicate the original 2-factor structure. Time invariance of the 1-factor structure was obtained among 242 participants who completed the questionnaires again after 4 months. The latent means and correlation indicated that curiosity as measured by the CEI–II was quite stable over the period of investigation. The CEI–II was found to be positively correlated with satisfaction with university life, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience, and openness to change values, but negatively with neuroticism and conservation values. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that the CEI–II score had incremental validity above and beyond the Big Five personality traits in predicting human values and satisfaction with university life.     

Personality and Integrative Negotiations: A HEXACO Investigation of Actor,Partner, and Actor–Partner Interaction Effects on Objective and Subjective Outcomes

The present study sought to expand the literature on the relations of major dimensions of personality with integrative negotiation outcomes by introducing the HEXACO model, investigating both effects of the negotiators' and their counterparts' personality traits on objective and subjective negotiation outcomes, and investigating two interactions between the negotiators' and counterparts' personalities. One hundred forty‐eight participants completed the HEXACO‐100 measure of personality. Participants then engaged in a dyadic negotiation task that contained a mix of distributive and integrative elements (74 dyads). Measures of subjective experience and objective economic value were obtained, and actor–partner interdependence models were estimated. Personality was generally a better predictor of subjective experience than objective economic value. In particular, partner honesty‐humility, extraversion, and openness predicted more positive negotiation experiences. An actor–partner interaction effect was found for actor‐agreeableness by partner‐honesty‐humility on economic outcomes; agreeable actors achieved worse (better) economic outcomes when negotiating with partners that were low (high) on honesty‐humility. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology