Faceted Classification: Management and Use

The paper discusses issues related to the use of faceted classifications in an online environment. The author argues that knowledge organization systems can be fully utilized in information retrieval only if they are exposed and made available for machine processing. The experience with classification automation to date may be used to speed up and ease the conversion of existing faceted schemes or the creation of management tools for new systems. The author suggests that it is possible to agree on a set of functional requirements for supporting faceted classifications online that are equally relevant for the maintenance of classifications, the creation of classification indexing tools, or the management of classifications in an authority file. It is suggested that a set of requirements for analytico-synthetic classifications may be put forward to improve standards for the use and exchange of knowledge organization systems.

What would you have as a last supper? Thoughts about death influence evaluation and consumption of food products

Terror Management Theory posits that after thinking about their own deaths, people take sides with and defend their culture by either increasing their support for worldview-consistent examples, decreasing support for worldview-threatening examples, or both. We tested the hypothesis that mortality salience leads to an increased preference for products from one’s own culture as compared to products from a foreign culture in terms of evaluation and consumption. In a product test, participants sampled local and foreign soft drinks (Study 1) or local and foreign chocolates (Study 2). As expected, relative to a control condition, mortality salience led to more accentuated evaluative preferences for local as compared to foreign products. Furthermore, the preference for the local product in terms of actual consumption was greater under mortality salience. Independent from cultural worldview defense effects mortality salience led to more impulsive behavior as indicated by an increased correspondence between eating behavior and an implicit measure tapping into impulsive processes in Study 2.     

Military Ethics of Fighting Terror: A Response to Kasher and Yadlin

Asa Kasher and Amos Yadlin’s article is a penetrating and well argued presentation of the Israeli perspective on the military ethics of terror. It does not claim to be official Israeli policy. Yet, its philosophic theoretical exposition is evident in the Israeli practice of fighting terror. On this basis it is a practical guide to action inspired by a lucid, coherent and compelling theoretical argumentation.     

The life and death of creativity: The effects of mortality salience on self versus social-directed creative expression

Research in terror management theory suggests that our connections to others function, in part, to provide protection from the anxiety associated with the awareness of inevitable death. The individuating nature of creative expression can potentially undermine these connections, making creativity particularly problematic when one is dealing with mortality concerns. Consistent with this, a number of findings have elucidated emotional consequences associated with creativity when mortality concerns are active. However, to date, research has not focused on how mortality awareness may impact levels of creativity. The present study assessed the hypothesis that mortality concerns will inhibit creative behavior that threatens social connections but will not undermine and may even facilitate creative behavior that bolsters social connections. The results showed that amplified concerns about mortality decreased creativity when the act was self-directed but not when it was community-directed. Theoretical implications and future directions are discussed.     

行为决策理论在能源节约管理中的应用

能源短缺是人类面临的重要课题,节约能源是人类需要采取的刻不容缓的行动。仅仅依赖金钱刺激很难解决能源浪费问题,而心理与行为科学可以发挥重要作用。本文梳理了应用行为决策的经典理论(如,安于现状偏差、决策双系统模型、参照点效应、框架效应和社会规范等)促进节能行为的研究成果,同时总结了诸如情绪、认知对象特点、信息呈现等影响个体节能行为的因素,最后从开展本土化研究、研究方式改进和拓展应对措施的角度对未来研究提出建议。希望本文能给心理学研究者一定的借鉴和启发,在节能管理领域做出更有价值的研究,以最终提高民众节能意识、增加民众节能行为。     

国内外职涯资本的研究述评与展望

埃森哲调查显示,全球89%的员工认为职涯资本是职场成功的关键,但职涯资本的相关研究却刚起步。本文从职涯资本（Career Capital）的内涵入手,梳理了职涯资本的定义及理论模型,并整理了相关维度的划分。然后,笔者从跨文化管理、职涯资本三维度重要性、职涯资本的前因变量和结果变量角度对相关研究进行整理。最后,针对目前研究的不足,本文提出未来研究的方向和管理实践中的应用建议,希冀对职业生涯管理的理论研究和实践提供新思路。     

大学生自我同一性、时间管理倾向和网络成瘾的相关关系研究

目的探讨大学生自我同一性、时间管理倾向与网络成瘾之间的相关,分析前两者是否能够显著地影响和预测后者。方法采用《中文网络成瘾量表》、《自我同一性地位量表》、《大学生时间管理倾向》对当前在校大学生自我同一性发展、时间管理倾向、网络成瘾状况进行调查研究。结果自我同一性三个维度与网络成瘾均成显著负相关(p<0.01);时间管理倾向各维度得分及总分与网络成瘾呈显著的负相关(p<0.01);自我同一性中的三个维度和时间管理倾向三个维度及总分均有非常显著的正相关(p<0.01)。通过分层回归分析发现,自我同一性对网络成瘾的影响是受时间管理倾向的中介作用。结论自我同一性与时间管理倾向对网络成瘾有一定的预测力,而且自我同一性会通过时间管理间接影响网络成瘾。     

Evidence for the specificity of control motivations in worldview defense: Distinguishing compensatory control from uncertainty management and terror management processes

Research inspired by the compensatory control model (CCM) shows that people compensate for personal control threats by bolstering aspects of the cultural worldview that afford external control. According to the CCM these effects stem from the motivation to maintain perceived order, but it is alternatively possible that they represent indirect efforts to bolster distally related psychological structures described by uncertainty management theory (self-relevant certainty) and terror management theory (death-transcendence). To assess whether compensatory control processes play a unique role in worldview defense, we hypothesized that personal control threats would increase affirmation of cultural constructs that specifically bolster order more so than constructs that bolster distally related structures. The results of 5 studies provide converging support for this hypothesis in the context of attitudes toward diverse cultural constructs (Study 1: national culture; Studies 2 and 3: consumer products;  and : political candidates). Also supporting hypotheses, uncertainty salience and mortality salience elicited greater affirmation of identity- and immortality-conferring targets, respectively, compared to order-conferring constructs. Discussion focuses on the value of different perspectives on existential motivation for predicting specific forms of worldview defense.     

Turn-frogs and careful-sweaters: Non-conscious perception of incongruous word pairings provokes fluid compensation

The meaning maintenance model (MMM) maintains that violations of expectations can elicit compensatory behavior. When anomalies are encountered, people may compensate either by affirming an intact schema or by abstracting new, meaningful connections. Past research has shown that implicitly perceived events can be threatening, and can cause changes to behavior that were not consciously intended. However, no research has yet explored whether fluid compensation responses can occur implicitly, in response to an implicit threat. This paper introduces a novel meaning threat and provides evidence that both threat and response can happen entirely outside conscious awareness. Two studies present participants with subliminally incoherent word pairs (e.g., turn-frog). Study 1 finds that these subliminal presentations enhance the ability to implicitly learn new patterns. Study 2 finds that these same presentations lead to the affirmation of an unrelated moral schema, and to the same extent as a subliminal mortality salience manipulation.     

The appeal of vague financial forecasts

Prior findings suggest managers often choose ranges to communicate uncertainty in future earnings. We analyzed earnings forecasts over 11 years and find higher earnings uncertainty firms are more likely to choose range estimates. We study investors’ attitudes to forecast precision and argue investors’ evaluations of forecasts can be explained by a sequential non-compensatory two-stage process – First, investors determine whether a point or a range estimate is more appropriate for a particular domain based on the congruence principle. Then, they seek the most precise reasonable range to maximize informativeness. Results from three experiments indicate the preference for (im)precision is non-monotonic – it peaks for low levels of imprecision and diminishes when the range gets wider, and is consistent with participants’ desire for congruent and informative estimates, and supports the claim that investors favor forecasts that are as precise as warranted by the information available, but not more precise.