A Theoretical Framework for Analysing the Notion of Relative Importance of Criteria

Multiple-criteria decision aid almost always requires the use of weights, importance coefficients or even a hierarchy of criteria, veto thresholds, etc. These are importance parameters that are used to differentiate the role devoted to each criterion in the construction of comprehensive preferences. Many researchers have studied the problem of how to assign values to such parameters, but few of them have tried to analyse in detail what underlies the notion of importance of criteria and to give a clear formal definition of it. In this paper our purpose is to define a theoretical framework so as to analyse the notion of the importance of criteria under very general conditions. Within this framework it clearly appears that the importance of criteria is taken into account in very different ways in various aggregation procedures. This framework also allows us to shed new light on fundamental questions such as: Under what conditions is it possible to state that one criterion is more important than another? Are importance parameters of the various aggregation procedures dependent on or independent of the encoding of criteria? What are the links between the two concepts of the importance of criteria and the compensatoriness of preferences? This theoretical framework seems to us sufficiently general to ground further research in order to define theoretically valid elicitation methods for importance parameters.     

Attitude toward rehabilitation as a key predictor for adopting alternative identities in deradicalization programs: An investigation of terrorist detainees’ profiles

Several studies have shed light on factors that contribute to radicalization. However, fewer studies have addressed the factors that contribute to deradicalization, especially with terrorist detainees as participants. The present study investigates the role of attitudes toward rehabilitation in deradicalization programs, and its role in predicting the outcome for these programs. We hypothesized that when terrorist detainees adopt alternative identities (identities alternative to their jihadist identity), their support for jihad as war will be lessened, even when they still hold jihadist ideology as their source of significance. To test this hypothesis, we obtained 89 interview profiles of actual terrorist detainees across 35 Indonesian prisons. We found that lesser support for jihad as war was predicted by a more positive attitude toward the deradicalization program, and this was mediated by the adoption of alternative identities. Further, the effect of the mediator on support for jihad as war was neither weakened nor strengthened by perceived significance of jihadist ideology. These findings suggest that even when a person possesses a strong ideological commitment to jihad, this may not manifest into violence when they adopt alternative identities and goals. These results were interpreted and discussed through goal systems theory and the multifinality account of radical behavior.     

Heart Follows Head: Influencing Violence-related Attitudes in the Classroom

We examined whether an undergraduate course on violence would influence students’ violence-related attitudes and beliefs. Students (N=145) completed the Violence-Related Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (V-RABS) at the beginning (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of the semester-long course. As expected, support for the death penalty, punishment, and catharsis decreased significantly, as did belief in an association between mental illness and violence. Acceptance of environmental influences on violent behavior increased significantly, although belief in biological influences did not change. Support for violence prevention efforts was high at both Times 1 and 2, and did not change significantly. Consistent with previous research, the results of this study confirm that college curricula may influence students’ attitudes and beliefs in addition to imparting knowledge.     

老虎保护公众意识态度变化研究

本研究以问卷调查的方式对上海市中学生,中医药大学生、和普通公众的老虎保护意识进行了对比调查和纵向调查,以评估国际野生生物保护协会亚洲保护交流项目的“拯救虎虎”公众意识宣传教育活动的效果。     

Affective responses to movie posters: differences between adolescents and young adults

Although the link between cognition and affect in the advertising context has been demonstrated in several studies, no research to date has considered adolescents’ affective responses to movie posters and their attitudes to negative and positive images. A 2 (between subjects) × 4 (within subjects) mixed‐factorial experiment design comprising two groups of subjects (80 adolescents and 80 young adults) and four advertising stimuli (two highly positive images and two highly negative images) was used to test the differences in the subjects’ attitudes to advertising, positive and negative affect, and viewing intentions. Although the adolescents, compared to the young adults, did not appear to have significantly stronger attitudes to emotional advertisements (ads), they showed a similar level of intensity of affective response when exposed to negative and positive images.     

Populism vs. elitism: social consensus and social status as bases of attitude certainty

This study examined the effects of social consensus and social status on attitude certainty that is conceptualized multi-dimensionally as perceived clarity and correctness of one's attitude. In a mock opinion exchange about a social issue, participants were either supported (high consensus) or opposed (low consensus) by most of the confederates. They were informed that their opinion (high status) or their opponents' opinion (low status) had the alleged psychological significance indicative of future success. Post-experimental attitude clarity was significantly greater when attitudinal position was associated with high rather than low status. Attitude correctness was interactively affected by social status and social consensus. Supporting the compensatory effect hypothesis, attitude correctness was comparable across the levels of social consensus as long as they were associated with high status, and across the levels of social status as long as they were associated with high social consensus.     

Associations Between Religious Behavior and Attitude to Christianity Among Australian Catholic Adolescents: Scale Validation

Abstract

In a sample of 1,166 Catholic high school students (age = 13–18 years), the author used confirmatory factor analysis to validate a 30-item instrument that assesses 6 dimensions of attitude to Christianity (viz., attitude to prayer, attitude to God, attitude to Jesus, attitude to the Bible, attitude to Christian practice, attitude to social justice). Goodness-of-fit indices for the proposed measurement model revealed that the model fitted the data very well, thus confirming the instrument's structure. A correlation analysis revealed associations between religious behavior and attitude to Christianity.     

We're Closer than I Thought: Social Network Heterogeneity,Morality, and Political Persuasion

Literature in the area of social networks indicates that increases in perceived social network attitudinal heterogeneity generate increased openness to attitude change. Recent evidence in the area of morality, however, shows that morally based attitudes are particularly resistant to persuasion and can result in the rejection of disagreeing others. Positing that considering morality would reduce network influence, an experiment varied moral cues presented along with a non‐network persuasive message while holding the actual content constant. Results demonstrate that morality and network composition interact to predict persuasion, such that when people are not cued to consider morality increased network heterogeneity predicts increased persuasion, but when identical messages are presented in a way that invokes morality the impact of network heterogeneity disappears or even reverses marginally. This interactive effect was replicated in two very different political issues: gay adoption and nationalized healthcare. Implications for persuasion by morally motivated sources independent of the effects of specific moral arguments are discussed.     

青少年时间态度与学业拖延的关系：成就动机的中介作用

采用青少年时间态度量表、成就动机量表和学业拖延问卷,对 733名中学生进行调查,旨在探究时间态度与学业拖延的关系,揭示成就动机在时间态度与学业拖延之间的中介作用机制。结果发现（1）过去消极、现在消极和未来消极与学业拖延呈显著正相关,过去积极、现在积极和未来积极与学业拖延呈显著负相关。（2）过去消极、现在消极和未来消极与成就动机呈显著负相关,过去积极、现在积极和未来积极与成就动机呈显著正相关;成就动机与学业拖延呈显著负相关。（3）成就动机在现在消极与学业拖延之间起部分中介作用,在未来积极、未来消极与学业拖延之间起完全中介作用。     

Attitudes towards seeking psychological help among a sample of Turkish university students: the roles of rumination and internal working models

The current study investigates how attitudes towards seeking psychological help relate to internal working models of attachment (self-model and other-model) and ruminative tendencies. The study includes 589 Turkish university students (278 females, 308 males and 3 unknown) by implementing a convenient sampling procedure. The average age of the participants was 22.4 years (SD = 2.2). Participants were administered the Attitudes toward Seeking Psychological Help-Short, the Relationship Questionnaire and the Rumination Scale. The results of the study indicate that the other-model and rumination have a relationship to women's help-seeking attitudes whereas the self-model has a relationship to men's help-seeking attitudes. The results are discussed in light of the related literature.