Double Reference Points: the Effects of Social and Financial Reference Points on Decisions Under Risk

The existing literature is inconsistent about how social comparison affects risk attitudes. We propose a framework where the total utility is composed of the social and financial utilities. The financial utility is consistent with prospect theory (i.e., an S‐shaped utility function with a financial reference point), whereas the social utility is affected by both social and financial reference points. Therefore, social risk attitudes are determined by interaction between gains/losses in both social and financial contexts. On the basis of safety‐first principle, we propose that when experiencing financial gains, individuals tend to seek upside potential and take social risks (i.e., a convex social utility function). In contrast, when facing financial losses, people would be more risk seeking in social gains but more risk averse in social losses to maximize security (i.e., an inverse S‐shaped utility function). We also propose that the relative importance of financial and social utilities depends on the saliency of the reference points and size of stakes. Studies 1 and 2 showed that individuals were risk seeking in both social gains and losses with social reference points alone. Studies 3 and 4 demonstrated that when both financial and social reference points were salient, participants were risk averse in both social gains and losses when facing financial gains, but risk seeking in social gains and risk averse in social losses when facing financial losses. The hypotheses derived from the theoretical framework were in general supported by our experiments. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

‘I Can't Go Back Because If I Go Back I Would Die’: How Asylum Seekers Manage Talk about Returning Home by Highlighting the Importance of Safety

Asylum seekers living in the UK have been shown to have fled danger in their countries of origin, only to face hardship and the threat of deportation once there. This paper draws on the discursive psychological approach to address the way in which asylum seekers in the UK manage questions about returning to their country of origin. Interviews were conducted with nine asylum seekers in a refugee support centre in the Midlands. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using discourse analysis. The analysis showed that participants drew on the notion of safety to counter suggestions that they should return to their country of origin and to manage their identity as legitimate asylum seekers in need of support. The use of this strategy and the use of interviews for discursive analysis are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using modeling and rehearsal to teach fire safety to children with autism

We evaluated the efficacy of an instructional procedure to teach young children with autism to evacuate settings and notify an adult during a fire alarm. A multiple baseline design across children showed that an intervention that included modeling, rehearsal, and praise was effective in teaching fire safety skills. Safety skills generalized to novel settings and maintained during a 5‐week follow‐up in both training and generalization settings.     

Servant Leadership and Follower Outcomes: Mediating Effects of Organizational Identification and Psychological Safety

This study investigated the mediating role of organizational identification and psychological safety in the relationship between servant leadership and two employee outcomes: employee voice and negative feedback seeking behavior. The sample for this study comprised of 174 full-time employees drawn from a large food company based in Pakistan. Results showed that organizational identification and psychological safety partially mediated the effects of servant leadership on voice and negative feedback seeking behavior. The theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.     

Speech pathology student clinician attitudes and beliefs towards people who stutter: A mixed-method pilot study

PurposeStuttering is a disorder of fluency that extends beyond its physical nature and has social, emotional and vocational impacts. Research shows that individuals often exhibit negative attitudes towards people who stutter; however, there is limited research on the attitudes and beliefs of speech pathology students towards people who stutter in Australia. Existing research is predominantly quantitative; whereas this mixed-method study placed an emphasis on the qualitative component. The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes and beliefs of final year Australian speech pathology students towards people who stutter.MethodsThis mixed-method study applied the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes – Stuttering (POSHA-S) and semi-structured interviews to gather data from final year speech pathology students from a major university in Australia.Principal resultsThe overall qualitative findings identified that final year Australian speech pathology students exhibit positive attitudes towards people who stutter. The results also illustrated the role of education in influencing attitudes of students as well as increasing their confidence to work with people who stutter.Major conclusionThis research revealed that Australian final year speech pathology students exhibit positive attitudes towards people who stutter. They displayed an understanding that people who stutter may have acquired traits such as shyness as a response to their personal situation and environment, rather than those traits being endemic to them. Results also suggested that education can play a role in creating confident student clinicians in their transition to practice, and positively influence their attitudes and beliefs.     

Engagement of secondary school teachers in Namibia: Relational context effects

The aim of this study was to investigate relational antecedents of work engagement for secondary school teachers and to determine whether specific psychological conditions mediate the effects of relational factors on work engagement. A cross-sectional survey was used. The participants were 502 secondary school teachers in Namibia (females = 64.7%, Afrikaans-speaking = 49%). They completed the following measuring instruments: Co-worker and Supervisor Relationships Scales, Emotional Exhaustion Scale, Perceived Organizational Support Scale, Psychological Conditions Scale and the Work Engagement Scale. Data were analysed using Mplus 7.3. The results showed that low emotional exhaustion and high psychological meaningfulness and availability explained work engagement. Relational factors (i.e. co-worker relations, supervisor relations, and emotional exhaustion) influenced psychological meaningfulness and safety strongly, and psychological availability moderately. Supervisor relationships and emotional exhaustion indirectly influenced work engagement via psychological meaningfulness. Co-worker relationships and emotional exhaustion indirectly affected work engagement via psychological availability. The results provide support for a relational model of work engagement.     

Public health consequences of road traffic injuries – Estimation of seriously injured persons based on risk for permanent medical impairment

Despite the fact, that Sweden has one of the safest traffic environments in the world, a large number of people are still injured in road traffic accidents in Sweden. The core concept of the Vision Zero that was adopted by the Swedish parliament in 1997 is to decrease the number of deaths and serious injuries caused by traffic. The vision has been followed-up in terms of decreased mortality, but there was not a consensus on how the concept “seriously injured” should be measured at that time. The aim of this paper is to describe how to develop a measure to estimate the number of seriously injured people in Sweden. The results show that it is possible to estimate the health impact of road traffic accidents based on the definition of medical impairment. According to the results, 8389 people were seriously injured (permanently medical impaired more then 1%) in the road transport area in Sweden in 2013. If the number of people who had slipped or fallen down without any vehicle being involved is excluded, the number of seriously injured was around 4700. The result of the study has been included in the road safety goal for Sweden with the aim to have 25% less seriously injured people in 2020 than the average for the years 2006–2008. The results also showed that 91% of the seriously injured were transported by car, bike or by foot. The relatively high proportion of pedestrian fall accidents happening within the transport system irrespective of whether a vehicle was moving or not raises the question whether these types of accidents should be included in the reporting of formal road traffic accidents.     

The effectiveness of road safety interventions using three different messages: Emotional,factual or a combination of both messages

The present study is an evaluation of a road safety intervention programme dealing with alcohol in traffic. The intervention was based on a programme developed by the Swedish Road Administration using three different messages. The aim of the study was to evaluate which message (emotional, factual or a combination of both messages) had the largest effect on the variables included in the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Of the 930 Senior High School Students who took part in the study 265 received an emotional message, 251 received a factual message, 254 received a combination of both messages and 160 were assigned to a control group who did not receive any message. Two scenarios were used describing situations where the participants would receive a lift from someone who had drunk two ‘strong’ beers and was either someone they did not know very well or their best friend. The results showed that the intervention combining the emotional and the factual message had the largest effect on the variables included in the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Attitude was affected the most by the interventions while further activities need to be taken in order to better target perceived behavioural control and especially subjective norm and thereby also intention.     

The electric vehicle: A new driving experience involving specific skills and rules

The arrival of the electric vehicle (EV) on the market is one consequence of government measures to improve air quality and reduce CO² emissions. However, the EV has specific properties of use associated with its limited range and relative silence compared to normal vehicles, influencing the mobility behaviours of drivers and requiring them to develop some new driving abilities. This paper examines the behavioural modifications brought about by daily use of an electric vehicle at three different levels of driving activity: strategic, tactical and operational. The study collected and analyzed the self-reported behaviours (via questionnaires and travels dairies) of 36 Parisian private drivers, each of whom drove for six months an electric MINI E prototype. The results of the study show that driving an EV requires a learning phase to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to operate the vehicle. At the strategic level of driving, drivers take into account the restricted range of the EV, implement a daily charge process, and develop new behaviours related to trip planning. The study also examines driver behaviour at the tactical level, in terms of driver interactions with other road users to deal with the silent nature of the EV, and at the operational level of driving, in terms of braking behaviour to master the regenerative braking function of the EV. The paper discusses the interactions between these three levels of driving activity.