Exerting Self‐Control ≠ Sacrificing Pleasure

Self‐control is a prominent topic in consumer research, where it is often conceptualized as the abstinence from hedonic consumption. We examine whether this conceptualization accurately captures consumers’ experiences of self‐control conflicts/failures in light of seminal self‐control theories in economics and psychology. Rejecting that notion, we argue that self‐control failures are choices in violation of superordinate long‐term goals accompanied by anticipated regret, rather than choices of hedonic over utilitarian consumption. This conceptualization has important methodological, theoretical, and practical implications. Methodologically, it highlights the need for experimental paradigms with higher construct validity. Theoretically, it helps elucidate how self‐control is distinct from impatience and self‐regulation. Practically, it provides a rich set of implications for deducing interventions on the individual and public policy level to help consumers exert self‐control.     

大学生心理需求及其满足与网络成瘾的关系

以武汉地区1183名大学生为被试,通过问卷调查探讨大学生心理需求程度及其在现实和网络中的满足程度与网络成瘾的关系。结果表明：与非网络成瘾大学生相比,网络成瘾大学生的心理需求的网络满足更多而现实满足更低,但两组大学生的心理需求程度并无明显差异;网络成瘾大学生的心理需求与网络满足的相关高于与现实满足的相关,但非成瘾大学生不存在这种差异;心理需求现实满足高但网络满足低的大学生网络成瘾的比率最低,而心理需求现实满足低网络满足高的大学生网络成瘾的比率最高。     

The effect of friendly touch on delay-of-gratification in preschool children

Physical touch has many documented benefits, but past research has paid little attention to the effects of touch on children's development. Here, we tested the effect of touch on children's compliance behaviour in a modified delay-of-gratification task. Forty children (M?=?59 months) were randomly assigned to a touch or no touch group. Children in the intervention condition received a friendly touch on the back while being told that they should wait for permission to eat a candy. Results showed that children in the touch condition waited an average of two minutes longer to eat the candy than children in the no touch condition. This finding has implications for the potential of using touch to promote positive behaviours in children.     

Chapter 12. What I Have Learned

SUMMARY

In this chapter I revisit the goals of TANF in light of the findings of this research study and present recommendations for policy change.     

The media's presentation of human rights during the financial crisis: framing the ‘issues’

As forms of employment and migration changed, the financial crisis which began in 2007 affected the human rights of individuals, particularly those in developing countries. How the media reported on these consequences is essential in understanding how and why public and political perceptions of the importance of human rights may have changed since the crisis began. Using quantitative and qualitative analysis of major newspapers in the UK and the USA, this paper seeks to understand the ways in which the media presented the relationship between the negative changes in the economy and human rights. The analysis of the findings uses framing theory to understand how the text in news articles communicates the relevance of human rights to readers before concluding with some further avenues for research.     

The role of negative urgency impulsivity and financial management practices in compulsive buying

Previous research has shown that negative urgency impulsivity is associated with compulsive buying even after controlling for depression. The aim of the present study was to replicate this finding and to examine if financial management practices mediated this relationship. A community sample of 162 participants (34 male and 128 female), aged between 18 and 82 years, completed online self‐report questionnaire measures. As expected, results revealed (1) significant positive associations between compulsive buying and both negative urgency impulsivity (NUI) and psychological distress; and (2) a significant negative association between compulsive buying and financial management practices. We also found that after controlling for psychological distress (3) NUI was still significantly correlated with compulsive buying, and (4) financial management practices partially mediated the relationship between NUI and financial management practices. Our findings are consistent with an extension of the theory that compulsive buying is motivated by relieving negative mood states, positing both negative affect‐driven impulsivity and psychological distress as important factors in understanding compulsive buying. These findings also support current cognitive‐behavioural interventions for the treatment of compulsive buying that target psychological distress, NUI, and financial management practices.     

The Effect of Information Strength and Weight on Behavior in Financial Markets

Griffin and Tversky (1992) explain evidence of individual over- and underconfidence as resulting from attending too much to the strength (i.e., extremity) of information and not enough to the weight (i.e., statistical reliability) of information. We report two experiments that demonstrate how information strength and weight affect confidence, trading, prices, and wealth in laboratory markets. Our results indicate that information strength and weight affect individual over- and underconfidence and that market participants lack sufficient self-insight to avoid trading when they are biased. As a consequence, market prices are biased, and market participants with high-strength, low-weight information systematically transfer wealth to participants with low-strength, high-weight information.     

Competitive Dynamics in Forecasting: The Interaction of Skill and Uncertainty

The outcomes in many competitive tasks depend upon both skill and luck. Behavioral theories on risk taking in tournaments indicate that low‐skilled individuals may have incentives to take more risks than high‐skilled ones. We build on these theories and suggest, in addition, that when luck is more important in determining outcomes, the increase in risk taking is larger for low‐skilled than high‐skilled individuals. We test this hypothesis by analyzing stock analysts' forecasts of companies' earnings per share under market conditions that vary in volatility and thus imply different levels of luck in outcomes. Specifically, noting that forecasts that deviate widely from the consensus—which is observable by the analyst—potentially carry career‐related rewards but also reputational risks, we examine the degree of deviation from consensus exhibited by analysts of different skill levels (measured by both past forecasting accuracy and education) in different market conditions. We find that average deviations from consensus increase as markets become more volatile. At the same time, under conditions of high volatility, low‐skilled analysts exhibit larger increases in deviations from consensus than high‐skilled analysts. These field data results support our hypothesis based on of risk taking in tournaments. We discuss alternative interpretations such as, for example, self‐serving attributions and indicate directions for future research. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.