The big carrot: High‐stakes incentives revisited

Using an international dataset of about 35 000 subjects, this paper provides an empirical example of high‐stakes incentives in relation to religious practice. First, we show that incentives (based on absolute belief) play a salient role in religious performance. Second, we find that when both positive (heaven) and negative (hell) incentives are available the former are more effective than the latter. Specifically, it is shown that beliefs in heaven are much more relevant than beliefs in hell when estimating the production of religious commodities (church‐attendance and praying equations). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When giving feels good. The intrinsic benefits of sacrifice in romantic relationships for the communally motivated

Who benefits most from making sacrifices for others? The current study provides one answer to this question by demonstrating the intrinsic benefits of sacrifice for people who are highly motivated to respond to a specific romantic partner's needs noncontingently, a phenomenon termed communal strength. In a 14-day daily-experience study of 69 romantic couples, communal strength was positively associated with positive emotions during the sacrifice itself, with feeling appreciated by the partner for the sacrifice, and with feelings of relationship satisfaction on the day of the sacrifice. Furthermore, feelings of authenticity for the sacrifice mediated these associations. Several alternative hypotheses were ruled out: The effects were not due to individuals higher in communal strength making qualitatively different kinds of sacrifices, being more positive in general, or being involved in happier relationships. Implications for research and theory on communal relationships and positive emotions are discussed.     

Impact of the effort–reward imbalance model on intent to leave among Belgian health care workers: A prospective study

The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of the effort–reward imbalance (ERI) model on intent to leave the current organization (ITL organization) and intent to leave the nursing profession (ITL profession) in a prospective way. A total of 1,531 health care workers who remained in their job filled in a self‐administered questionnaire at baseline and 1 year later. ERI was measured at baseline by a 23‐item questionnaire. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Within a population with low intent to leave at baseline, we found that an imbalance between high efforts and low rewards (extrinsic hypothesis) increased the risk of high ITL organization (OR 4.98; 95% CI 2.07–11.97) and high ITL profession (OR 1.84; 95% CI 1.03–3.30), 1 year later. A high level of overcommitment (OC; intrinsic hypothesis) was not predictive for both intent to leave outcome variables, neither was the interaction between high efforts/low rewards and a high level of OC (interaction hypothesis). Our results showed that a perceived effort‐reward imbalance (ERI) at work is a significant predictor of intent to leave among health care workers. This contribution concludes with some directions aimed at boosting nurses' retention and recommendations for future research.     

On Minimizing Guessing Effects on Multiple‐Choice Items: Superiority of a two solutions and three distractors item format to a one solution and five distractors item format

Multiple‐choice response formats are troublesome, as an item is often scored as solved simply because the examinee may be lucky at guessing the correct option. Instead of pertinent Item Response Theory models, which take guessing effects into account, this paper considers a psycho‐technological approach to re‐conceptualizing multiple‐choice response formats. The free‐response format is compared with two different multiple‐choice formats: a traditional format with a single correct response option and five distractors (‘1 of 6’), and another with five response options, three of them being distractors and two of them being correct (‘2 of 5’). For the latter format, an item is scored as mastered only if both correct response options and none of the distractors are marked. After the exclusion of a few items, the Rasch model analyses revealed appropriate fit for 188 items altogether. The resulting item‐difficulty parameters were used for comparison. The multiple‐choice format ‘1 of 6’ differs significantly from the multiple‐choice format ‘2 of 5’, while the latter does not differ significantly from the free‐response format. The lower difficulty of items ‘1 of 6’ suggests guessing effects.     

Interpersonal Relationship Orientations,Leadership, and Managerial Level: Assessing the practical usefulness of the FIRO‐B in organizations

This paper investigated whether interpersonal relationship orientation, as measured by the Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientations‐Behaviour (FIRO‐B), predicts ratings of leadership capability and managerial level of attainment. In all, 547 participants reported their managerial level in their organization, and were rated by trained consultants on their leadership capability. Results showed that several scores on the FIRO‐B positively predicted ratings of leadership capability and managerial level reached even after controlling for the effect of intelligence and demographic variables. This study provides some initial evidence for the validity of the FIRO‐B in the prediction of perceptual and objective measures of leadership capability. Implications for selection and assessment are discussed.     

Improving Prediction of Work Performance Through Frame‐of‐Reference Consistency: Empirical evidence using openness to experience

A work‐specific measure of openness to experience was compared with the general NEO PI‐R Openness scale for predicting supervisory ratings of creative performance at work. Results at the scale and facet levels indicated that the use of a consistent and criterion‐matched frame of reference improved validity of this personality construct for the prediction of work‐related creative problem solving. Scores from the Work‐specific Openness scale significantly predicted creative work performance, whereas scores from the general measure did not. Results also showed incremental validity of the Work‐specific scale over the NEO PI‐R scale. Evidence is mounting that specifying a work context for personality measures can increase validity for predicting job performance beyond that typically observed when using general scales.     

急性肺损伤生物标志物研究进展

急性肺损伤是-临床常见的呼吸系统急危重症,是多个危险因素直接或间接引起肺部损伤的连续病理过程,低氧血症为其特征,其发病机制复杂,病亡率高,目前临床上仍缺乏有效的早期诊断方法,严重影响了疾病的预后,因此需寻找一个简单有效的诊断方法,如血清生物标志物的测定等来帮助本病的诊断以取得更好的疗效.     

高青陈庄铜器铭文与城址性质考

山东高青陈庄西周城址及墓地的发现对于西周考古与历史的研究意义重大。本文根据迄今所报道的资料,对两则铜器铭文做了解读,并对陈庄城址的性质做了推考。文章认为,陈庄墓地从西周早期成王开始延续到中期的昭穆时期,其间未曾中断,与城址的存续时间相吻合。陈庄城址规模较小,不大可能是西周齐国的都城,其属于齐国贵族封邑的可能性较大;而这个封邑,应该是豐。     

简论朱子易学在元代发展的基本面貌

易学是朱熹学术体系中的重要组成部分,在易学史上产生了重大影响。元代时期,朱子易学在政府的推崇下,逐渐成为官方学术;同时学者也积极地以师徒相传、朋友讲习与读书自得等方式,传承朱子易学;此外,元代学者还通过研究朱子的易学典籍、发展与批判朱子的易学观点,以及调和朱子与程子的易说等多种途径,对朱子易学作深入探究。这三个方面即构成了朱子易学在元代发展的基本面貌。     

The dialogical self in a cultural contact zone: Exploring the perceived ‘cultural correction’ function of schooling

This paper discusses a qualitative study that explores the impact the development of a cultural contact zone has upon identity processes in the Dialogical Self. The analysis draws upon interviews with Irish nationals, immigrants and asylum seekers in a new cultural contact zone. The findings illustrate uncertainty experienced as a result of immigration, suggesting that the development of the contact zone caused cultural discontinuity. The individuals' uncertainty for their cultural identities' future viability demanded the development of identity strategies to maintain continuity with their perceived cultural future, where they were faced with cultural others. Identity repositionings and a strategy to maintain continuity will be explored in the current paper. The Irish and asylum seeker participants' unprompted focus on schooling will be explored as a continuity strategy. The participants constructed schooling as a tool for the ‘cultural correction’ of migrant children and a means for the assimilation of migrants into the Irish community. The paper discusses the function of this strategy for the two groups, and the theoretical integration of cultural level processes in the theory of the Dialogical Self. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.