Overpredicting and Underprofiting in Pricing Decisions

This research examines sellers' price‐setting behavior and discovers a naturally occurring mismatch between sellers and buyers: Sellers who make a price decision often consider alternative prices and engage in the joint evaluation mode, whereas buyers who make a purchase decision see only the finally set price and are in the single evaluation mode. This mismatch in evaluation modes leads sellers to overpredict buyers' price sensitivity and underprice their products. However, these effects apply only to products unfamiliar to buyers and without salient reference prices and can be alleviated if sellers are encouraged to mimic single evaluation when making pricing decisions. These propositions are empirically tested and verified. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Testing an interactionist perspective on the relationship between personality traits and performance under public pressure

Objectives

The interactionist principle of trait activation [Tett & Gutermann (2000). Situation trait relevance, trait expression, and cross-situational consistency: testing a principle of trait activation. Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 397-423.] explains human behavior through the stimulation of traits by trait-relevant situational cues (i.e., situation-trait relevance). In applied (real-world) high-pressure situations, audiences provide the situational demand of public evaluation. Therefore, traits that are related to public evaluation are appraised as situation-relevant. The purpose of the current study was to test if situation-relevant traits (i.e., narcissism, public self-consciousness) predict performance in applied high-pressure situations, while situation-irrelevant traits (i.e., private self-consciousness) do not contribute to the performance explanation.

Design/Method

Experienced handball players (N = 55) completed personality questionnaires and performed a throwing task in low and high-pressure conditions, whereby the high-pressure condition involved 1500-2000 spectators during halftime breaks of professional handball games.

Results

Findings supported the assumptions about situation-trait relevancies and indicated that narcissism and public self-consciousness were relevant to high-pressure performance (i.e., positively associated), whereas private self-consciousness was found to be irrelevant. No predictors were correlated to low-pressure performance.

Conclusions

Results emphasize that trait activation is a promising explanation for the relevance of personality characteristics to performance under pressure. A systematic consideration of situational demands of high-pressure situations will result in adequate appraisals of situation-trait relevance and help predict performance with trait scores.     

Stopping dead in one’s tracks: Motor inhibition following incidental evaluations

Motivational theories of affect contend that negative stimuli should slow motor behavior. However, this claim has been supported mainly by animal research. The current investigation establishes, perhaps for the first time, that incidental negative primes slow subsequent motor behavior among humans. In addition to examining choice reaction time (Studies 1 and 2), we introduce a method for examining the speed of continuous motor behavior (Study 3). In all studies, we found that behavior was slowed following, or in the context of, negative stimuli. It is concluded that, in certain situations, the mere presence of negative stimuli inhibits the speed of subsequent motor behavior.     

研究生临床技能测试制度与临床决策能力培养

医学研究生的生源不同、学制不同和培养方式等的差异,导致医学研究生毕业时的临床技能和临床决策能力参差不齐。建立医学毕业研究生临床技能测试制度,合理地评价医学研究生毕业时的实际临床能力,从而制定针对个体的临床技能培养方案,为快速培养和提高青年研究生的临床决策能力提供有力的措施。     

IMPROVING RESIDENTIAL TREATMENT SERVICES: IMPLEMENTATION AND NORM-REFERENCED EVALUATION OF A COMPREHENSIVE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Ensuring effective service delivery by direct-care personnel in institutional living units for persons with developmental disabilities historically has been a difficult process, despite considerable attention from researchers, service providers, and governmental regulatory agencies. In this investigation, we conducted a normative evaluation of the extent and quality of treatment services currently provided in residential living units (Experiment 1) and evaluated a comprehensive management system designed to improve such services (Experiment 2). Results of the first experiment, encompassing 22 living units in three states, indicated that on the average two thirds of observed resident behavior did not involve any therapeutic activity. The results also provided social validity for the criteria used to evaluate the quality of treatment provision based on opinions of mental retardation professionals. Results of the second experiment indicated that a behavioral management program implemented during 23 separate time periods across five living units was accompanied by consistent and durable decreases in resident nontherapeutic activity as well as increases in specifically designated habilitative activity. The results provide support for the successful incorporation of behavioral management technology into human service settings on a large-scale, long-term basis.     

APPLICATIONS OF A SEQUENTIAL ALTERNATING TREATMENTS DESIGN

We propose the use of a combined version of the alternating treatments and multiple baseline designs in situations in which a traditional baseline (no treatment) condition either does not provide an adequate contrast condition or is not feasible or practical due to clinical constraints. We refer to this design as a sequential alternating treatments design because two treatments are initially implemented in a random or counterbalanced fashion and are followed by a sequential change in one or both treatments across settings, subjects, or tasks. The effects of the independent variables are assessed first by analyzing the two series of data points representing the different treatments (relative effects) and then by assessing changes in one or both series, as application of the alternative treatment is introduced sequentially. The sequential application of treatment provides an analysis of control in the same manner as the multiple baseline design; the initial alternating treatments phase provides a contrast condition in much the same manner as a baseline condition. Applications of this design to the assessment of peer training and self-injurious behavior are described.     

Fear questionnaires for simple phobias: Psychometric evaluations for a Norwegian sample

The present study presents psychometric data for four different phobic fear questionnaires in a Norwegian sample of 284 subjects. The questionnaires concerned fear of flying, snakes, spiders and a questionnaire of general phobic complaints. The results showed a high estimate of internal consistency, and a very high test-retest reliability for all questionnaires. A low to moderate degree of intercorrelation between the questionnaires appeared. A clear sex difference emerged in responding to all four questionnaires. In addition, a clinical sample of phobics with fear of flying as the main symptom was compared to the larger sample on a fear of flying scale. The results showed a clear difference in responding between the samples. The present study concludes that the four different fear questionnaires yielded a high degree of reliability, and their use in clinical practice is encouraged.     

PROGRAM EVALUATION RESEARCH: AN EXPERIMENTAL COST-EFFECTIVENESS ANALYSIS OF AN ARMED ROBBERY INTERVENTION PROGRAM

An armed robbery alarm system was implemented in 48 different stores in two separate geographical areas for 6 months and 12 months, respectively. The alarms were placed in the two separate areas at different times and all alarms were eventually removed. Thus, multiple baseline and reversal strategies were used to evaluate program impact. A device planted in a cash drawer was triggered whenever “bait” money was removed from the drawer sending an alarm signal directly to police cars and headquarters. Onscene apprehensions of armed robbers within target stores were greatly increased even though the armed robbery systems did not deter robbery incidents nor influence the court disposition of the cases. There was also no crime deterrence, crime displacement, or increased apprehensions in either the immediate neighborhoods of target stores or on a city-wide basis. The cost effectiveness of the program was calculated to be poor even though the program is being maintained because of the absence of an alternative robbery apprehension technology.     

Use of normative peer data as a standard for evaluating classroom treatment effects

This study illustrated the use of normative behavioral observation data as a standard for evaluating the practicality of treatment effects produced in other settings. Three groups of eight subjects each, displaying relatively low proportions of appropriate classroom behavior when compared with regular classroom peers, were selected for treatment within an experimental classroom setting. The three groups were exposed to intervention procedures designed to reinforce either direct academic performance and/or facilitative nonacademic classroom responses. The treatment was effective in changing levels of appropriate behavior (1) above baseline levels in the experimental classroom, and (2) to within normal peer-defined limits when reintegrated into the regular classroom. Further, the data reflect successful maintenance of these effects for a seven- to 12-week follow-up period. Several applications of a normative model for evaluating treatment, generalization, and maintenance effects were presented and discussed.     

AN EVALUATION OF TEACHING-FAMILY (ACHIEVEMENT PLACE) GROUP HOMES FOR JUVENILE OFFENDERS

Juvenile crime is a serious problem for which no treatment approach has been found to be reliably effective. This outcome evaluation assessed during and posttreatment effectiveness of Teaching-Family group home treatment programs for juvenile offenders. The evaluation included the original Achievement Place program, which was the prototype for the development of the Teaching-Family treatment approach, 12 replications of Achievement Place, and 9 comparison group home programs. Primary dependent measures were retrieved from court and police files and included number of alleged offenses, percentage of youths involved in those alleged offenses, and percentage of youths institutionalized. Other dependent measures were subjective ratings of effectiveness obtained from the program consumers, including the group home residents. The results showed difference during treatment favoring the Teaching-Family programs on rate of alleged criminal offenses, percentage of youths involved in those offenses, and consumer ratings of the programs. The consumer ratings provided by the youths and their school teachers were found to be inversely and significantly correlated with the reduction of criminal offenses during treatment. There were no significant differences during treatment on measures of noncriminal offenses (e.g., truancy, runaway, and curfew violations). In the posttreatment year, none of the differences between the groups was significant on any of the outcome measures. The results are discussed in terms of measurement and design issues in the evaluation of delinquency treatment programs and in relation to the evaluation of Teaching-Family group homes by Richard Jones and his colleagues.