Counterfactual Evaluation of Outcomes in Social Risk Decision-Making Situations: The Cognitive Developmental Paradox Revisited

We report a study that examined the existence of a cognitive developmental paradox in the counterfactual evaluation of decision-making outcomes. According to this paradox adolescents and young adults could be able to apply counterfactual reasoning and, yet, their counterfactual evaluation of outcomes could be biased in a salient socio-emotional context. To this aim, we analyzed the impact of health and social feedback on the counterfactual evaluation of outcomes in a laboratory decision-making task involving short narratives with the presence of peers. Forty risky (e.g., taking or refusing a drug), forty neutral decisions (e.g., eating a hamburger or a hotdog), and emotions felt following positive or negative outcomes were examined in 256 early, mid- and late adolescents, and young adults, evenly distributed. Results showed that emotional ratings to negative outcomes (regret and disappointment) but not to positive outcomes (relief and elation) were attenuated when feedback was provided. Evidence of development of cognitive decision-making capacities did also exist, as the capacity to perform faster emotional ratings and to differentially allocate more resources to the elaboration of emotional ratings when no feedback information was available increased with age. Overall, we interpret these findings as challenging the traditional cognitive developmental assumption that development necessarily proceeds from lesser to greater capacities, reflecting the impact of socio-emotional processes that could bias the counterfactual evaluation of social decision-making outcomes.     

婚姻冲突与儿童问题行为关系研究的理论进展

大量研究指出婚姻冲突与儿童问题行为紧密相关,但在二者关系的解释上有不同观点。其中代表性的理论有社会学习理论、间接作用观点、认知-背景理论和情绪安全假设等。文中详细介绍了4个理论的基本观点并分析了其优缺点。综合这些理论,作者在理解婚姻冲突和儿童问题行为时应该坚持如下3个观点:第一,系统和生态的观点;第二,主客体相互作用的观点;第三,情感和认知并重的观点。     

TECHNO‐SECULARISM: COMMENTS AND REFLECTIONS

Abstract. I comment on some of the points made in John Caiazza's thesis on techno‐secularism and offer some of my own further reflections on the subject. Tertullian's rhetorical question about Athens and Jerusalem has universal relevance, not just for Western culture, and, notwithstanding the many positive contributions of science and technology to human culture and civilization, they may not take the place of religion of one kind or another in the foreseeable future. What is needed is to transform religions in ways that meet the challenges of a world drastically transformed by science and technology.     

Perspectives on consumer decision making: an integrated approach

In the consumer behaviour literature several perspectives on consumer decision making have been considered, including the ‘value perspective’, the ‘information processing perspective’, the ‘emotional perspective’ and ‘cue utilisation theory’. In this paper, a framework which integrates several perspectives on consumer decision making and hypothesises possible links between several basic constructs is developed. The framework is tested by the use of two experimental designs. The results of this study support the complexity of consumer decision making with the following findings. First, consumers do not use their cognitive and affective skills independently, rather they affect each other. Secondly, the cognitive, evaluative constructs of quality and attitude had significant direct effects on buying intention in both experiments, whereas the affective construct of emotion had no significant effects on buying intention in both experiments. Thirdly, in both experiments price affected perceived quality, which in turn affected attitude, which in turn affected buying intention. At the same time, price had no direct effect on buying intention. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two Egocentric Sources of the Decision to Vote: The Voter's Illusion and the Belief in Personal Relevance

The decision to vote in a national election requires a choice between serving a social good and satisfying one's self-interest. Viewed as a cooperative response in a social dilemma, casting a vote seems irrational because it cannot have a discernible effect on the electoral outcome. The findings of two studies with undergraduate samples suggest that some people vote not because they set aside self-interest, but because they expect their own behaviors to matter. Two psychological processes contribute to this belief: the voter's illusion (the projection of one's own choice between voting and abstention to supporters of the same party or candidate), and the belief in personal relevance (the belief that one's own vote matters regardless of its predictive value for the behavior of others). The rationality of these two egocentric mechanisms depends on the normative framework invoked. Their relevance for actual voting behavior is indicated by their ability to account for four types of variation in turnout rates.     

Replicability and randomization test logic in behavior analysis

Randomization tests are a class of nonparametric statistics that determine the significance of treatment effects. Unlike parametric statistics, randomization tests do not assume a random sample, or make any of the distributional assumptions that often preclude statistical inferences about single‐case data. A feature that randomization tests share with parametric statistics, however, is the derivation of a p‐value. P‐values are notoriously misinterpreted and are partly responsible for the putative “replication crisis.” Behavior analysts might question the utility of adding such a controversial index of statistical significance to their methods, so it is the aim of this paper to describe the randomization test logic and its potentially beneficial consequences. In doing so, this paper will: (1) address the replication crisis as a behavior analyst views it, (2) differentiate the problematic p‐values of parametric statistics from the, arguably, more useful p‐values of randomization tests, and (3) review the logic of randomization tests and their unique fit within the behavior analytic tradition of studying behavioral processes that cut across species.     

Enhancing Program Quality in a National Sample of After‐school Settings: The Role of Youth–Staff Interactions and Staff/Organizational Functioning

Using multilevel data from the national evaluation of Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), this study examined associations among programmatic structures, workplace and workforce characteristics, and relational practices of program staff as they relate to young people's ratings of their experience attending local clubs. The sample included 57,710 members and 5,231 staff members at 740 BGCA sites throughout the United States. Staff relational practices—including establishing caring relationships, setting high expectations, positive behavior management, encouraging youth input and agency, and cultural sensitivity—explained associations between staffing and organizational functioning and youths’ perceptions of the quality of their clubs. Findings suggest a central role of staff relational practices in establishing conditions that youth experience positively, and that staffing and organizational processes, including community engagement and teamwork and efficiency can be viewed as foundations for establishing a culture of positive adult‐youth interaction, which in turn can contribute to the promotion of positive youth development. Further, identification with the experiences of youth had a direct association with youths’ perceptions of club quality. These results underscore the importance of staff workforce development initiatives as key to improving youth experiences in after‐school programs.     

The semantic pointer theory of emotion: Integrating physiology,appraisal, and construction

Emotion theory needs to explain the relationship of language and emotions, and the embodiment of emotions, by specifying the computational mechanisms underlying emotion generation in the brain. We used Chris Eliasmith’s Semantic Pointer Architecture to develop POEM, a computational model that explains numerous important phenomena concerning emotions, including how some stimuli generate immediate emotional reactions, how some emotional reactions depend on cognitive evaluations, how bodily states influence the generation of emotions, how some emotions depend on interactions between physiological inputs and cognitive appraisals, and how some emotional reactions concern syntactically complex representations. We contrast our theory with current alternatives, and discuss some possible applications to individual and social emotions.     

工作投入的短期波动

随着研究取向从静态到动态、从个体间到个体内部的转变, 工作投入的短期波动开始成为研究主流。针对国内尚未涉及工作投入波动研究的现状, 将引入状态性工作投入的概念, 并分析其波动的理论和构成来源。介绍了状态性工作投入的测量工具、日记研究和经验取样方法, 以及重复测量的多层线性模型。在分析现有工作投入波动理论、相关变量和边界条件的基础上, 构建了工作投入的研究框架, 总结了工作投入波动的形式。