Sunk-cost effects on purely behavioral investments

Although the sunk-cost effect is a well-documented psychological phenomenon in monetary investments, existing literature investigating behavioral investments (e.g., time, effort) has not replicated this effect except when such investments relate to monetary values. The current explanation for this discrepancy proposes that purely behavioral sunk-cost effects are unlikely to be observed because they are difficult to book, track, and balance in a mental account. Conversely, we argue that, through an effort-justification mechanism, people account for the amount of behavioral resources invested when selecting an alternative, in which case they may fall prey to purely behavioral sunk-cost effects. The results of two experiments support this prediction. Because many decisions involve behavioral investments, behavioral sunk-cost effects should be pervasive psychological phenomena.     

工作投入研究的现状

工作投入指的是一种与工作相关的积极、完满的情绪与认知状态,具有持久性和弥散性的特点。工作投入对个体的工作绩效和某些工作态度及行为变量,以及顾客满意度、生产力、利润率和单位总体绩效等组织结果变量均具有一定的影响。工作投入的影响因素包括个体特征因素、与工作相关的因素以及与家庭相关的因素等3个方面。文章在对工作投入的相关研究进行全面述评的基础上,指出未来的研究有必要进一步加强对工作投入的干预机制等五方面问题的探讨     

Type A behavior and work situation: associations with burnout and work engagement

The aim of the present study was to investigate Type A behavior as well as perceived work situation, and associations with burnout and work engagement. The associations in focus were investigated through hierarchical regressions in a sample (N= 329) of Swedish Information Communication Technology consultants. The findings indicated that both work situation and Type A behavior was correlated with work engagement and burnout; however, no interactions between Type A behavior and work situation were elicited. The main conclusion was that the achievement striving aspect of Type A behavior appears as "non-toxic" and is related only to work engagement. However, the irritability/impatience aspect appears to be responsible for burnout complaints among Type A individuals, possibly through negative effects of the mood itself than through perceived stress at work.     

Reason,Education and Liberalism: Family Resemblance within an Overlapping Consensus

This paper focuses on recent debates over the nature ofliberalism and its central feature of reason, both inside and outside ofeducational philosophy. Central ideas from Jonathan and Hirst contributeas do those from Rawls, Gadamer, Wittgenstein, Taylor, and Ackermantoward a less traditional contextualized and contingent view.     

Evaluating the predictive validity of a single stimulus engagement preference assessment.

Most preference assessments require individuals to choose among two or more stimuli. More recently, the duration of engagement with items has been used as an index of preference. In the current study, the predictive validity of a single stimulus engagement (SSE) preference assessment was evaluated with 4 individuals. Stimuli were presented singly for a brief period while engagement with that stimulus was recorded. Although SSE preference rankings closely matched paired stimulus preference assessment rankings for only 2 of the 4 participants, relative preference rankings based on duration of engagement predicted relative reinforcer effectiveness for all participants in a subsequent concurrent‐schedule reinforcer assessment. The SSE procedure took less time to administer than the paired stimulus procedure but produced less stable preference rankings across administrations. The SSE procedure may be appropriate for individuals who have difficulty selecting one stimulus from among two or more stimuli, and it may be well suited for evaluating activities that are difficult to present in a paired stimulus format.     

The effects of choice-making on the problem behaviors of high school students with intellectual disabilities

This investigation was conducted in an effort to systematically extend the emerging data base having to do with choice-making opportunities and the behavior of students with disabilities. In particular, the current analyses examined the effects of choice-making on the problem behavior and task engagement of three high school students with intellectual disabilities as the students performed domestic and vocational activities. Multiple baseline and reversal designs demonstrated that the choice conditions reduced problem behaviors and increased task engagement for all participants. Data having to do with student affect and task productivity were less consistent. The findings on the relationship between choice making and problem behavior replicate and extend a growing literature on the desirable effects of choice-making for individuals with disabilities. The results are discussed in terms of recent developments in behavioral support, as well as the need for ongoing conceptual and applied research.     

Norms for Parental Ratings on Conners' Abbreviated Parent-Teacher Questionnaire: Implications for the Design of Behavioral Rating Inventories and Analyses of Data Derived from Them

Despite the wide usage of Conners' 10-item Abbreviated Parent-Teacher Questionnaire (APTQ), normative data for parental ratings on the APTQ are rare. Moreover, its psychometric properties as a stand alone behavioral rating instrument have yet to be examined in detail. Using data from parental ratings for 6,841 children aged 5 to 14 years, this paper reports the psychometric properties of the APTQ and provides normative and prevalence estimates for four age cohorts (5 to 6, 7 to 8, 9 to 11, and 12 to 14 years) by gender. In presenting the findings, the paper highlights key methodological issues endemic to the design of behavioral rating inventories like the APTQ and the analysis of data derived from them. These issues are illustrated and discussed in terms of their implications for the measurement and determination of prevalence estimates of problem behaviors in child psychology and child psychiatry. The need to revise the design, content, and response formats of child behavior rating inventories is stressed.     

The component awareness and accuracy of dual- and single-jointed actions

The accuracy with which people execute wrist and elbow movements were measured using three main conditions: (i) single-jointed (wrist or elbow) movements to targets, (ii) dual-jointed (wrist and elbow) movements to targets, and (iii) components of dual-jointed movements to targets, when the task for the subject was to perform the elbow or wrist constituent of the action in isolation, without displacing the second joint. Elbow precision was significantly worse under component than dual conditions, which is compatible with the notion that wrist and elbow activity are conjugately, rather than independently, programmed when a dual-jointed action is performed. The pattern of wrist accuracy was divergent, but possible reasons for this were discussed. In all cases, error was measured in terms of deviation from perfect posture; using this index, the hypothesis that incorporating more moving joints into an action serves to increase movement complexity and jeopardise precision was tested, but the results were ambiguous. Discussion also centered on the problems of using performance data to infer changes in motor programming, and the need for rigorous conceptualisation and research in this area.     

Evaluation of self-contained training procedures for the Time-Sample Behavioral Checklist

The comparative effectiveness of two time-limited modes of training observers to code the behavior of clients in residential treatment programs on the Time-Sample Behavioral Checklist (TSBC) was evaluated. The susceptibility of training procedures to consensual observer drift and the predictability of TSBC mastery from trainee characteristics were also examined. Two equated groups of undergraduate students (N=15 each) participated in full-time training on the TSBC and another instrument for 27 days, followed by criterion testingin vivo and on videotapes. One group was trained by experienced personnel using procedures known to be effective but potentially subject to consensual observer drift. The other group was trained using a previously untested set of written and videotape procedures that do not rely on experienced personnel. Comparative effectiveness and observer drift were evaluated by multivariate and univariate ANOVAs on mastery scores reflecting both pattern agreement and level differences between each trainee and criterion codings. The new, more efficient training procedures were found to be as effective as the original training procedures in the degree of mastery achieved by trainees. Original training procedures were found to be resistant to consensual observer drift, with such a phenomenon appearing in only 1 instance of 156 opportunities. The high degree of mastery achieved by trainees during the time-limited training period was comparable to that previously achieved with the original training procedures. No meaningful predictions of coding mastery were found, with only one trainee characteristic being significantly related to one of six mastery criteria. The results document procedures that are both efficient and resistant to invalidity for training observers in the use of multidimensional observational systems, as well as providing guidelines for the development of standardized procedures.This article is based on a thesis submitted to the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. degree in psychology by the first author and under direction of the second author. The third and fourth authors also participated as supervisors. Appreciation is extended to other members of the thesis committee, Fred Kanfer, Ross Parke, and Julian Rappaport, and to John Gottman and W. Robert Nay for their comments and recommendations. This study was partially supported by Public Health Service Grants MH-25464 and MH-14257 from the National Institute of Mental Health and by grants from the Joyce Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Illinois Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities.