Salesperson brand attachment: a job demands-resources theory perspective

Sales researchers have largely ignored the idea that salespeople form attachments to the brands that they sell, and that these attachments hold important consequences for sales outcomes. Drawing on job demands-resources theory, the authors suggest that salesperson brand attachment (SBA) serves as a unique psychological resource for salespeople. Using data from 154 salespeople from the beverage industry, they provide evidence that SBA increases selling effort toward the brand, and ultimately job satisfaction. In addition, they show that salesperson's brand attachment acts as a buffer against perceived job demands, including job codification and hierarchy of authority. In general, results support the job demands-resources framework and confirm that SBA is a resource that may be leveraged to offset job demands, under certain situations.     

The Impact of Spirituality on Wellness for Appalachian Older Adults

The authors examined the role spirituality can play as a protective factor in the wellness of older adults residing in the Appalachian region of the United States. Analysis of participants' interviews identified 4 themes. These themes and implications for counselors working with Appalachian older adults are discussed.     

Stress and support: The dual role of the migrant community in the acculturation of Korean migrant families in Australia

Despite recent exploration of diverse acculturation experiences, there is still limited understanding of the specific acculturation features of the migrant experience. To address this gap, the current study aimed to explore subjective acculturation experiences of Korean migrant families by focusing on the contexts of home country, migrant community, and marital relationship. Twenty‐three married South Korean migrants with young children participated in four focus groups. Thematic analysis was used to identify major themes from the discussion. Participants reported that, contrary to a stressful life in Korea, they developed premigration expectations regarding a relaxed life in Australia. However, once the participants became involved in the Korean migrant community in Australia, their expectations were mismatched by recreating their previous stressful lives in the new country. The Korean migrant community was helpful in participants' adaptation but also unhelpful in handling acculturation issues of mismatched expectations and parental stress. The study also found that although some postmigration marital conflicts arose, marital communication in the relationship may have a protective role in solving migrants' difficulties. These findings highlight the need for enhancing the traditional acculturation framework with other theoretical frameworks to capture both general and specific acculturation features of the migrant experience.     

Spousal Religiosity is Positively Associated with the Partner's Meaning in Life

Past research has established that personal religiosity is positively associated with a sense of meaning in life. However, it has largely overlooked how religious others influence one's own life meaning. Given that a marital partner may be the most influential other in a person's everyday life, this study aims to examine how the religiosity of one's spouse is associated with the sense of meaning in life of the self, regardless of the religiosity of the self. Moreover, this study assesses whether this association differs by gender. Analysis of data from the 2006 Portraits of American Life Study reveals that spousal religiosity is positively associated with the partner's meaning in life, net of the partner's own religious commitment. However, these observed patterns do not vary by gender. Overall, these observations highlight the importance of social contexts in which others’ religious attributes are related to one's own meaning in life.     

Social background,achievement motivation,optimism and health: A longitudinal study

In a longitudinal study over 4 years, the relationship between home background, achievement motivation, optimism, psychological well-being and self-rated health was investigated in 149 young adults. The participants were assessed at school at age 16 years and then at two follow up points, 2 years and 4 years later. The data produced shows that the home background variables of socioeconomic status, family size and parental employment predict psychological well-being, self-rated health, achievement motivation and optimism at subsequent stages. Achievement motivation and optimism play a mediating role between home background and the outcome measures of self-rated health and psychological well-being. Furthermore achievement motivation appears to only take on an important role in terms of the development of identity.     

A New Reformation for a 'Secularised' World? Retaining 'Tradition' while Accommodating 'Change': The Dialectics of the Ecumenical Movement in the Netherlands

Religion is an area of social life thought to be vulnerable to recent, rapid global change that may be encouraging individual independence from social institutions. It is seen as 'secularising', losing its authority, becoming differentiated; a 'market' of 'competing' religious 'truths'. Co-ordinating these 'truths' and encouraging their dialogue may be a way for religion to regain social influence. The paper explores these issues through analysing the Dutch ecumenical movement. Religion in the Netherlands has been diverse since the Reformation, with groups splitting to redefine belief. However, in recent years there has been greater interaction between Dutch churches, co-ordinated by the Raad van Kerken in Nederland (Dutch Council of Churches). Ecumenical dialogue is seen as a possible way for churches to accept and negotiate new developments while retaining the core of their beliefs, through providing a diversity of views, allowing a choice of 'solutions' to change which can then be negotiated 'in common'. The aim of the paper is to analyse whether (and if so, how) such revitalisation is possible and what possibilities or problems it might pose.     

Reference frames and haptic perception of orientation: Body and head tilt effects on the oblique effect

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of body and head tilts on the haptic oblique effect. This effect reflects the more accurate processing of vertical and horizontal orientations, relative to oblique orientations. Body or head tilts lead to a mismatch between egocentric and gravitational axes and indicate whether the haptic oblique effect is defined in an egocentric or a gravitational reference frame. The ability to reproduce principal (vertical and horizontal) and oblique orientations was studied in upright and tilted postures. Moreover, by controlling the deviation of the haptic subjective vertical provoked by postural tilt, the possible role of a subjective gravitational reference frame was tested. Results showed that the haptic reproduction of orientations was strongly affected by both the position of the body (Experiment 1) and the position of the head (Experiment 2). In particular, the classical haptic oblique effect observed in the upright posture disappeared in tilted conditions, mainly because of a decrease in the accuracy of the vertical and horizontal settings. The subjective vertical appeared to be the orientation reproduced the most accurately. These results suggest that the haptic oblique effect is not purely gravitationally or egocentrically defined but, rather, depends on a subjective gravitational reference frame that is tilted in a direction opposite to that of the head in tilted postures (Experiment 3).     

The Towers of Silence: creative and destructive issues for therapeutic teams dealing with sexual abuse

Intra-familial sexual abuse of children is a peculiarly potent area for subsequent inter-agency responses and interventions to become inappropriate, irrational, and damaging. A major component of the damaging responses by the inter-agency system is the mirroring processes which occur between that system and the family.
A case example is presented in some detail to illustrate the ways in which such mirroring processes also effect therapeutic teams dealing with such families. Some therapeutic techniques from an experiential base are described. It is argued that productive therapeutic work can only occur if the mirroring processes within the inter-agency system, and the therapeutic team system, are considered systemically.     

Ways of coping with excessive drug use in the family: A provisional typology based on the accounts of 50 close relatives

This paper outlines an eight-fold typology of coping actions based upon a qualitative analysis of the accounts provided by 50 close relatives of people with drug problems. In a number of different ways relatives draw attention to the contrasts between these distinguishable ways of coping. Emphasis is placed upon the provisional nature of this typology and upon the compromises between, and combinations of, ways of coping that are often used by relatives in practice. Different ways of coping represent alternative choices for relatives, often explicitly expressed by them as difficult dilemmas. Links are suggested between the ways of coping identified here and those discussed in the literature on coping with other disorders and disabilities in the family, with ways of coping described in the general literature on coping with stress, and with types of social action appearing in general models of interpersonal behaviour. Implications for counselling close relatives of people with drug problems are also outlined.