Do We Know Where We Stand? Neighborhood Relative Income,Subjective Social Status,and Health

Bridging research on relative income and subjective social status (SSS), this study examines how neighborhood relative income is related to ones' SSS, and in turn, physical and mental health. Using a survey sample of 1807 U.S. adults, we find that neighborhood median income significantly moderates the relationship between household income and self‐reported physical and mental health. Low‐income individuals living in high‐income neighborhoods (i.e., relative disadvantage) report better physical and mental health than low‐income individuals living in low‐income neighborhoods. In addition, high‐income individuals living in low‐income neighborhoods (i.e., relative advantage) report higher SSS (relative to neighbors), whereas low‐income individuals living in high‐income neighborhoods (i.e., relative disadvantage) also report higher SSS. We draw from social comparison theory to interpret these results positing that downward comparisons may serve an evaluative function while upward comparisons may result in affiliation with better‐off others. Finally, we demonstrate that SSS explains the relationship between neighborhood relative income and health outcomes, providing empirical support for the underlying influence of perceived social position.     

Are go/no-go tasks preferable to two-choice tasks in response time experiments with older adults?

Recent research has shown that, in response time (RT) tasks, the go/no-go response procedure produces faster (and less noisy) RTs and fewer errors than the two-choice response procedure in children, although these differences are substantially smaller in college-aged adults. Here we examined whether the go/no-go procedure can be preferred to the two-choice procedure in RT experiments with older adults (i.e. another population with slower and more error-prone responding than college-aged individuals). To that end, we compared these response procedures in two experiments with older adults (M_age?=?83 years): a visual word recognition task (lexical decision) and a perceptual task (numerosity discrimination). A group of young adults (M_age?=?31 years) served as a control. In the lexical decision experiment, results showed a go/no-go advantage in the mean RTs and in the error rates for words; however, this was not accompanied by less noisy RT data. The magnitude of the word-frequency effect was similar in the two response procedures. The numerosity discrimination experiment did not reveal any clear differences across response procedures, except that the RTs were noisier in the go/no-go procedure. Therefore, we found no compelling reasons why the go/no-go procedure should be preferred over the two-choice procedure in RT experiments with older adults.     

No Lake Wobegon in Beijing? The impact of culture on the perception of relative ranking

A prominent example in the literature on relative ranking is the “better‐than‐average” effect: that people have a general tendency to view themselves in a positive light and think they are above average. The current paper evaluates whether such biases are specific to culture. In Experiment 1, Americans exhibited a larger better‐than‐average effect than Chinese. In Experiment 2, the study was designed to understand what drives this cultural difference. Estimates of relative standing for Americans relied more on perceptions of their own ability compared to those for Chinese participants. Relatively structured questions (experimental manipulation of the question frame) facilitate Americans making better judgments but not Chinese, supporting the hypothesis that relative‐ranking estimates are influenced by the degree to which other (vs. self) information is used cross‐culturally.     

Perfectionism and Self‐conscious Emotions in British and Japanese Students: Predicting Pride and Embarrassment after Success and Failure

Regarding self‐conscious emotions, studies have shown that different forms of perfectionism show different relationships with pride, shame, and embarrassment depending on success and failure. What is unknown is whether these relationships also show cultural variations. Therefore, we conducted a study investigating how self‐oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism predicted pride and embarrassment after success and failure by comparing 363 British and 352 Japanese students. Students were asked to respond to a set of scenarios where they imagined achieving either perfect (success) or flawed (failure) results. In both British and Japanese students, self‐oriented perfectionism positively predicted pride after success and embarrassment after failure, whereas socially prescribed perfectionism predicted embarrassment after success and failure. Moreover, in Japanese students, socially prescribed perfectionism positively predicted pride after success and self‐oriented perfectionism negatively predicted pride after failure. The findings have implications for our understanding of perfectionism, indicating that the perfectionism–pride relationship not only varies between perfectionism dimensions but may also show cultural variations. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Body Temperature Influence on Time Perception

The chemical clock hypothesis implies a causal link between body temperature and the perception of duration. A strict interpretation of this construct requires a common slope value in an Arrhenius plot that relates time to temperature for every individual tested. Previous studies testing this proposition have confirmed a general relationship for data summed across multiple subjects. However, the same studies raise doubts as to whether this relationship holds for each and every individual tested. Unfortunately, these investigations have been limited by methodological constraints, thus, one could argue that the strong isomorphism intrinsic to the chemical clock hypothesis has yet to be fairly tested. In the present experiment, I sought to distinguish the effects of selective head temperature changes on the estimation of duration. Nonlinear decreases in estimated duration were observed with ascending deep auditory canal temperature. These findings support the contention of a thermally stable region of temporal perception bounded by conditions in which temporal estimates directly depend on body temperature. In contradicting physiological adequacy as an explanatory construct, the present results suggest a direct relationship between time perception and the homeothermic platform. I compare these results with earlier findings concerning the chemical clock concept and examine respective discrepancies as a basis for a fuller understanding of a temporal phenomenon that is frequently referred to as me internal clock.     

Identity Horizons Among Finnish Postsecondary Students: A Comparative Analysis

This article examines the identity horizons of postsecondary students in Finland—a country in which social welfare provisions buffer education-to-work transitions—comparing their identity horizons to those previously reported for U.S. and Japanese students. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed scalar invariance of the Finnish version of the Identity Horizons Scales with the English and Japanese versions. Latent mean comparisons found that Finnish students had the broadest educational and work horizons, and the lowest education-to-work identity anxiety. Finnish men reported lower levels of educational horizons and higher levels of identity anxiety than Finnish women, replicating previous findings. Social class differences were also detected, with higher levels of identity anxiety and narrower educational horizons among those whose parents had no postsecondary education. Based on the apparent impacts on identity development of the different educational policies in the three countries, results are discussed in terms of policy implications supporting more effective education-to-work transitions.     

Cross‐Linguistic Differences in Digit Memory Span

This study investigated whether the better performance of the Chinese in digit memory span tasks was due only to the shorter pronunciation duration of Chinese digit names, or to enhanced visuospatial sketchpad abilities, or to both. Results of the experiment showed that the Chinese outperformed their Malay counterparts in digit memory span tasks because Chinese digit names had shorter pronunciation durations than Malay digit names and not because the Chinese had better visuospatial sketchpad abilities than the Malays. The results thus support Baddeley's phonological loop hypothesis as an account for cross‐linguistic differences in digit memory spans. Because memory traces are subject to decay and the phonological store is temporally limited, the shorter the pronunciation duration of digit names in a language, the more digits one can rehearse within a limited time period, and therefore the larger is one's short‐term digit span in that language.     

RISKY CHOICE IN PIGEONS AND HUMANS: A CROSS‐SPECIES COMPARISON

Pigeon and human subjects were given repeated choices between variable and adjusting delays to token reinforcement that titrated in relation to a subject's recent choice patterns. Indifference curves were generated under two different procedures: immediate exchange, in which a token earned during each trial was exchanged immediately for access to the terminal reinforcer (food for pigeons, video clips for humans), and delayed exchange, in which tokens accumulated and were exchanged after 11 trials. The former was designed as an analogue of procedures typically used with nonhuman subjects, the latter as an analogue to procedures typically used with human participants. Under both procedure types, different variable‐delay schedules were manipulated systematically across conditions in ways that altered the reinforcer immediacy of the risky option. Under immediate‐exchange conditions, both humans and pigeons consistently preferred the variable delay, and indifference points were generally ordered in relation to relative reinforcer immediacies. Such risk sensitivity was greatly reduced under delayed‐exchange conditions. Choice and trial‐initiation response latencies varied directly with indifference points, suggesting that local analyses may provide useful ancillary measures of reinforcer value. On the whole, the results indicate that modifying procedural features brings choices of pigeons and humans into better accord, and that human—nonhuman differences on risky choice procedures reported in the literature may be at least partly a product of procedural differences.     

组织行为与领导力研究的进展与前沿

本文首先简要介绍了组织行为和领导力的研究特色和该领域国内外的研究现状。从中可以看出, 在过去的10多年中, 中国学者在该领域中进步快速, 并蕴含巨大的潜力。随后, 比较了国际和国内学术界的研究话题和采用的方法, 指出国内目前研究存在的问题。文章的第三部分介绍了当今组织行为和领导力领域在理论、方法和研究范式上的创新。针对当前中国经济和社会发展的现状, 文章指出了学者可以重点关注的领域。学者可以借鉴学术界已有的理论和方法, 选择恰当的角度对这些问题进行深入而系统的探索。为此, 本文第三部分还介绍了几项近年来具有重大影响的研究, 旨在启发学者关注中国社会的重要现象, 敏锐地发现适合本学科研究的问题, 并以严谨且有创造力的方式去开展研究, 进而对国际学术界做出贡献。