Standardization of the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory: The prototype standardization method and its rationale

Methods and techniques for the standardization of the Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI) are reviewed and discussed. Based on the idea of the UT transformation (Tellegen & Ben-Porath, 1992), a general method called prototype standardization is applied to the clinical scales as well as the personality scales of the CPAI. The rationale of the prototype standardization method is explained. Some variations of the basic methodology are suggested and applied to the CPAI. It is demonstrated that the prototype standardization of the CPAI yields desirable psychometric properties such as percentile comparability across scales and preservation of the correlation structures of the scales, even for the personality scales of the CPAI that do not have a homogeneous distributional shape. We conclude that prototype standardization is a useful method for standardizing all kinds of personality inventories consisting of a large number of scales.     

The role of anticipated regret in escalation of commitment

This research tests the general proposition that people are motivated to reduce future regret under escalation situations. This is supported by the findings that (a) escalation of commitment is stronger when the possibility of future regret about withdrawal is high than when this possibility is low (Studies 1a and 1b) and (b) escalation of commitment increases as the net anticipated regret about withdrawal increases (Studies 2a and 2b). Furthermore, the regret effects in the 4 studies were above and beyond the personal responsibility effects on escalation. This research indicates that people in escalation situations are simultaneously influenced by the emotions they expect to experience in the future (e.g., anticipated regret) and by events that have happened in the past (e.g., responsibility for the initiating previous decision).     

Aspectual asymmetries in the mental representation of events: Role of lexical and grammatical aspect

Temporal information is important in the construction of situation models, and many languages make use of perfective and imperfective aspect markers to distinguish between completed situations (e.g., He made a cake) and ongoing situations (e.g., He is making a cake). Previous studies in which the effect of grammatical aspect has been examined have shown that perfective sentences are often processed more quickly than imperfective ones (e.g., Chan, Yap, Shirai, & Matthews, 2004; Madden & Zwaan, 2003; Yap et al., 2004; Yap et al., 2006). However, these studies used only accomplishment verbs (i.e., verbs with an inherent endpoint, such as bake a cake). The present study on the processing of Cantonese includes activity verbs (i.e., durative verbs with no inherent endpoint, such as play the piano), and the results indicate a strong interaction between lexical aspect (i.e., verb type) and grammatical aspect. That is, perfective sentences were processed more quickly with accomplishment verbs, consistent with previous findings, but imperfective sentences were processed more quickly with activity verbs. We suggest that these different aspectual asymmetries emerge as a result of the inherent associations between accomplishment verbs and the bounded features of perfective aspect and between activity verbs and the unbounded features of imperfective aspect. The sentence stimuli from this study may be downloaded from mc.psychonomic-journals.org/content/supplemental.     

One therapist, four cultures: working with families in Greater China

Rather than addressing ethnicity through a pre–set cultural lens, I discuss how my experiences as a family therapy trainer in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Shanghai taught me to understand culture through the lens of the family. Similarities and differences among these cultural domains were reviewed. I also demonstrate how each encounter shaped my emotional responses and ways of intervention in the course of family interviews. Even though I belong to the same ethnic background, I had to interact differently in different arenas, despite my cultural values and theoretical orientation.     

Parents’ perceptions of children’s executive functions across different cities

Culture is thought to strongly influence the development of executive functions (EF), such that ethnic groups with similar cultural origins are generally assumed to exhibit comparable levels of EF performance. However, other characteristics, such as urbanization and Westernization, may also affect EF performance in societies comprising different ethnic groups, even if the ethnic groups share a similar cultural origin. The present study aimed to compare the perceptions of parents in three cities [China–Shenzhen (ZH group), China–Hong Kong (HK group), and Singapore (SG group)] regarding the EF performances of their children, all of whom share the same genetic and cultural (i.e., Chinese) origin. The study recruited 95 children aged 5–6 years (ZH group = 32; HK group = 32; SG group = 31). Their parents were invited to complete the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF). The ZH group had significantly lower BRIEF scores compared to both the HK and SG groups. However, the BRIEF scores of the HK and SG groups only differed significantly in terms of the Organization of Materials domain. The results suggest city-related differences in parents’ perceptions of their children’s EF performances, despite their similar genetic and cultural backgrounds. We additionally discuss further interpretations of our results and the limitations of this study.     

Branded entertainment: Gender differences in reactions to star ratings

The consumer behavior literature shows that men are externally focused and women are internally focused consumers. The authors conduct three studies to test gender differences in the use of media‐posted public ratings for deciding whether to recommend branded entertainment films. The Study 1 results indicate that men are more (less) likely to recommend films that have high (low) star ratings, but women are equally likely to recommend films regardless of star ratings. In an interesting twist, Study 2 results show that if women are momentarily distracted by being made more aware of their surroundings, they process information similarly to men and are more persuaded by public ratings. In Study 3, the authors replicate and extend the findings by including a no‐star control group and examining additional variables—film and brand attitudes and recommendations—with a no star rating control group. The overall results show that men (women) are more (less) likely to look to public ratings for forming film and brand attitudes and recommendations.     

Suicide Intervention Training for K–12 Schools: A Quasi‐Experimental Study on ASIST

This quasi‐experimental study investigated differences between 104 school personnel who received a standardized suicide awareness and prevention training (i.e., Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) and 45 control group participants. Pre‐ and posttraining data included experimental and control group participants' (a) suicide intervention skills; (b) attitudes toward suicide; (c) knowledge of suicide; and (d) comfort, competence, and confidence in responding to individuals at risk of suicide. Results indicated a significant positive effect for training on all measures. Implications for training of school personnel and future research are discussed.     

When Thinking Rationally Increases Biases: The Role of Rational Thinking Style in Escalation of Commitment

This paper reports three studies examining the relationship between the rational thinking style (RTS, i.e. individual differences in relying on a conscious, analytical, and relatively affect‐free information processing system) and decision quality in an escalation situation. In contrast to conventional wisdom that rational thinking increases decision quality, but consistent with the predictions derived from the cognitive dissonance theory, results of Studies 1 and 2 revealed that high scorers in Pacini and Epstein's (1999 ) rationality inventory were more likely to have escalation bias than were low scorers. The results further showed that only the ability component of rationality, not the engagement component, was positively correlated with escalating commitment. Similar patterns of results were obtained for situations when participants were personally responsible for prior decisions (Study 1) and when they were not (Study 2). Results of Study 3 showed that the underlying process responsible for the effect of RTS on the escalating tendency is that RTS increases beliefs in prior decisions, which in turn increases escalation. Implications for our understanding of escalation of commitment, rationality theory, and managerial practices are discussed. Cet article rend compte de 3 études examinant la relation entre le style de pensée rationnelle (RTS i.e. les différences individuelles reposent sur un système de traitement de l’information consciente, analytique et relativement libre d’affects) et la qualité de la décision dans une situation d’escalade d’engagement. Contrairement à l’opinion communément admise pour laquelle la pensée rationnelle accroît la qualité de la décision, mais consistante avec les prédictions découlant de la théorie de la dissonance cognitive, les résultats des études 1 et 2 indiquent que des personnes obtenant un score élevéà l’Inventaire Rationnel‐Expérientiel de Pacini et Esptein (1999) sont plus enclines à tomber dans le piège de l’escalade d’engagement que celles dont le score est bas. D’autres résultats montrent que la capacitéà la rationalité, non celle à l’engagement, est positivement corrélée avec l’escalade d’engagement. Des résultats semblables sont obtenus lors de situations où les participants sont personnellement responsables de leurs décisions antérieures (Etude 1) ou non (Etude 2). Les résultats de l’étude 3 montrent que le processus responsable de l’effet du RTS sur la tendance à s’engager est le suivant: il accroît les croyances dans les décisions antérieures qui augmentent à leur tour l’engagement. Ces résultats nous permettent de mieux comprendre l’escalade d’engagement, la théorie rationnelle et les pratiques managériales.     

A Study of Suicide and Socioeconomic Factors

The topic of suicide has long been an important socioeconomic issue studied in many countries. Suicides inject an atmosphere of unrest into society, and media attention furthers that social uneasiness. From the viewpoint of economics and management, suicide is a waste of human resource: it decreases the labor force in society and deteriorates human capital. This paper provides a series of analyses of suicide rate based on theoretical reasoning and empirical approaches. Aggregate data from G7 countries are obtained and stacked into panel data for analysis. Data are collected for different age groups. Even though suicide issues have been extensively discussed in the past, newly developed econometric tools are applied to her. Beyond previously recognized relationships between economic factors and suicide rates findings include that unemployment strikes men more than women in terms of psychological pressure: for middle age or older women, unemployment may even be positive for the entire family; and female labor force participation exerts pressure on male counterparts and increases its suicide rate. As a result, a low income family with an unemployed man and an employed woman is at high risk for adult male suicide.     

Obesity-Related Quality of Life and Distorted Self-Body Image in Adults

Quality of life (QOL) is associated with body mass index (BMI). Self-awareness of false body image may influence the behavior of weight control and QOL. This study was conducted to identify the relationships between BMI and QOL, and distortion of self-estimated body image and its impact on QOL and the general health of Korean adults. A total of 229 adults who visited two university hospitals in Seoul and Chungju cities for regular health check-up responded to a questionnaire. To assess QOL, a Korean version of the obesity-related Quality of Life Scale (KOQOL) was used. The results showed that obesity-related quality of life decreased as BMI increased and as alcohol consumption became heavier. In the low weight and normal body weight groups, a portion of the groups had a more obese self-estimated body image than their actual BMI. In the overweight and obese groups, some had a leaner self-estimated body image than their actual BMI. Persons who had a self-body image of being fat had a low QOL. For Korean adults over 20 and under 65, a higher BMI is associated with a lower obesity-related quality of life. Persons who thought themselves fat had a lower QOL, regardless of their real body type.