From body motion to cheers: Speakers’ body movements as predictors of applause

Appearance cues and brief displays of behavior are related to people’s personality, to their performance at work and to the outcomes of elections. Thus, people present themselves to others on different communication channels, while their interaction partners form first impressions on the basis of the displayed cues. In the current study we examined whether people are able to read information from politicians’ body motion. For a rating experiment we translated short video clips of politicians giving a speech into animated stick-figures and had these animations rated on trustworthiness, dominance, competence and the Big Five personality dimensions. Afterwards we correlated the ratings with the applause and the hecklings that the speakers received throughout their entire speech. This revealed that speakers whose body movements were perceived as high on dominance, as high on extraversion and as low on agreeableness received more applause. Although the results obtained need support from additional studies they indicate that body motion is an informative cue in real life settings.     

Explanatory factors of distorted perceptions of travel time in tram

This study has two aims. The first is to research the factors that influence deviations in perceptions of travel time with respect to actual travel time by analyzing distorted perceptions of travel time in tram. The second aim is to find out whether these explanatory factors are different for the two segments of users according to the sign of errors in their travel time perceptions, i.e. those who overperceive and those who underperceive travel time.This work is based on an internet survey carried out on students from the University of La Laguna, Spain, in May 2009, using revealed preference data. Several linear regression models were estimated using the backward elimination method of selecting variables. The variable called “perception error rate” is proposed as a measure of distorted perceptions of in-vehicle travel time and is explained as a function of actual in-vehicle travel time and a series of other novel variables, such as the perception of other travel time components (access, waiting, egress), as well as certain characteristics of the trip and traveler. The results obtained provide evidence that some of the variables that explain the distorted perceptions of travelers are different between the overperceiving and underperceiving samples. This finding shows that estimating just one model with a total sample could lead to erroneous conclusions. Since travelers make decisions based on their perceived travel times, transport policy should focus on overperceiving travelers, and specifically on those who travel frequently. According to our results, policies should be aimed at facilitating access to stops, increasing frequency of service to reduce waiting time and decreasing the relative advantages associated with the use of private vehicles. This last point is because travelers overperceive travel time by tram more when accessing tram stops by car.     

Children's hostile intent attributions and emotional distress: What do parents perceive?

Traditionally, assessments of social information processing and associated emotional distress have used children's self‐reports. We posit that additional informants, such as parents, may help illuminate the association between these variables and aggression. Our sample was composed of 222 dual‐parent families of fourth‐grade children (103 boys; 119 girls). Children responded to instrumental and relational provocations and their parents read the same scenarios and responded the way they believed their child would. Peer nominations provided aggression scores. We explored how means differed by provocation type (relational vs. instrumental), informant (mother, father, and child), and gender of child. The results also suggest that parent perceptions may effectively predict children's participation in relational and physical aggression, above and beyond the child's self‐reports.

     

The Construction of Imaginaries of the Public as a Threat to Synthetic Biology

Discipline &; Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution, by Peter Dear, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995, 290 pp., $24.00 pb; $60.00 hb

Mathematics, Science, and Postclassical Theory, edited by Barbara Herrnstein Smith and Arkady Plotnitsky, Durham: Duke University Press, 1997, 279 pp., $12.00 pb     

The inaccuracy of nurses' perception of elderly patients' well-being

Abstract

Thirty elderly day hospital patients rated two aspects of their well-being: life-satisfaction and depression. The key-nurse estimated these values for each patient, using the same, validated scales. Patients' ratings of life-satisfaction and depression intercorrelated. as did the nurses' estimates, but the nurses' scores were unrelated to those of the patients. Patients' well-being correlated with their estimates of the time they spent in solitary activity, whereas nurses' estimates correlated with overt engagement and behavioural dependency. It is likely that general nurses' lack of perception of their elderly patients' well-being arises, in part, because their assessments are based on aspects of their patients' overt behaviour which are unrelated to actual well-being.     

Cognitive predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms six months following acute coronary syndrome

This study examined patients’ illness representations assessed shortly after an acute coronary syndrome (ACS) as predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms six months later. Illness representations were assessed in ACS patients using standard measures at a home visit three weeks after discharge from hospital. Posttraumatic stress symptoms were assessed at the same time, and again six months later. Patients were aged 61 years on average, the majority being men (89.8%) of white European decent (89%). Greater posttraumatic symptoms at six months were associated with beliefs that the illness would last a long time (timeline), that it had an unpredictable time course (timeline – cyclical), greater consequences, less personal and treatment control, poorer illness coherence and stronger negative emotional representations (emotional upset relating to the illness; p?<?0.05). In multiple regression analyses, controlling for demographic, clinical and psychological factors (age, gender, ethnicity, social deprivation, ACS severity, negative affectivity and cardiac symptom recurrence), more intense emotional representations (β?=?0.146, p?=?0.041) and reduced illness coherence (β?=??0.133, p?=?0.029), emerged as independent predictors of posttraumatic symptom severity at six months. There was a near significant effect for personal control (β?=??0.113, p?=?0.058). These results demonstrate the importance of illness representations of ACS in predicting longer-term posttraumatic stress symptoms.     

Use of correlational data to examine the effects of risk perceptions on precautionary behavior

Abstract

The idea that perceptions of high personal risk lead people to adopt precautionary behavior (the “motivational hypothesis”) is mainly tested with correlational data. A review of studies from selective journals reveals a high proportion with methodological and conceptual problems that make them invalid as tests of this hypthesis. Three problems arc emphasized: (1) the misinterpretation of correlations from cross-sectional studies as testing the motivational hypothesis when they actually indicate the accuracy of risk perceptions; (2) the failure to control for prior behavior in prospective studies; and (3) the we of prospective studies in situations of little behavior change. Path models are used to help explain these problems. Recommendations for selecting research designs and for calculating the least problematic correlations are given, along with warnings about the many assumptions needed to interpret even these correlations.

Summary

Overall, 27 of the 61 cross-sectional analyses listed in Tables 2 and 3 were conducted using clearly inappropriate variables. The appropriateness of the remaining correlations rest on one or two rather questionable assumptions: (1) that people do not distort their risk perceptions to justify their behavior or intentions and (2) that negative screening results a problem like breast cancer do not affect perceptions of future risk. The correlations preferred for testing the motivational hypothesis are listed in Table 4.

Summary

When the amount of precautionary behavior in a population has become relatively stable and behavior at time t+1 is well-predicted from behavior at time t, no independent variable other than B_t will have much predictive value in a prospective design. To avoid this problem, research should be conducted at a time when a substantial change in behavior is occurring, such as soon after the risk is recognized. If this is not possible, interventions that lead people to change their behavior (e.g., by raising risk perceptions or by lowering barriers to action) are required. In effect, they remove the system from equilibrium and allow one to watch what happens as people seek a new equilibrium. The least satisfactory choice is to use a cross-sectional correlation, such as R _H?B, that represents a summation over previous changes in behavior. The assumptions required to interpret such a correlation have been discussed earlier.     

Ethics in the Pulpit?

Abstract: What is the place of ethics and politics in the pulpit—especially in the post September 11th United States? This article argues that preachers must learn to bring the deepest wisdom of the biblical texts to bear on the most intractable issues of the present. Scripture gives preachers insight into the “ethics of God” and empowers them to step beyond a hermeneutics of narcissism. Silence and Attention prepare the preacher to hear the Word of God, and prayerful listening is crucial to seeing and hearing where God may be working in the present moment. In this way preachers help facilitate the conversation between the congregation and God and this conversation continues after the sermon. Politics should not take over the pulpit or be entirely absent from it. Discernment is the key. Regardless of political standing, all preachers have the obligation to bring the Word of God to bear on the problems of the world.     

Perceived organizational support as a mediator of the relationship between politics perceptions and work outcomes

The present study investigates the mediating potential of perceived organizational support (POS) on politics perceptions-work outcomes relationships. Consistent with previous research, individuals were able to discriminate political activity at more than one level (i.e., at the highest level in the organization, one level up from one’s current level, and at one’s current level). Further, politics perceived at one level up from one’s current level and politics at the highest levels in the organization were negatively related to perceived organizational support. In addition, POS was related to job satisfaction, performance, affective commitment and job-induced tension providing support for mediation. Implications of these findings, strengths and limitations, and potential avenues for future research are provided.     

Primary school teachers’ perceptions of school children coping with changing family situations – a hybrid Hong Kong experience

The personal beliefs of teachers and the cultural traditions of society can have significant effects on the adjustment of children in changing family situations. This paper explores primary school teachers’ perception of children coping with difficult family situations and family changes in the hybrid context of Hong Kong, where Westernization meets with Chinese culture. A qualitative case study methodology was used. Thirty one teachers of different ages, experience, and roles at school were interviewed. The finding shows that teachers were on the whole quite traditional in their perception of children in difficult family situations despite the co-existence of modern ideas of marriage with traditional family values. Implications of the study for teacher education are discussed.