When proactivity produces a power struggle: how supervisors’ power motivation affects their support for employees’ promotive voice

Previous research informs us about facilitators of employees’ promotive voice. Yet little is known about what determines whether a specific idea for constructive change brought up by an employee will be approved or rejected by a supervisor. Drawing on interactionist theories of motivation and personality, we propose that a supervisor will be least likely to support an idea when it threatens the supervisor’s power motive, and when it is perceived to serve the employee’s own striving for power. The prosocial versus egoistic intentions attributed to the idea presenter are proposed to mediate the latter effect. We conducted three scenario-based studies in which supervisors evaluated fictitious ideas voiced by employees that – if implemented – would have power-related consequences for them as a supervisor. Results show that the higher a supervisors’ explicit power motive was, the less likely they were to support a power-threatening idea (Study 1, N = 60). Moreover, idea support was less likely when this idea was proposed by an employee that was described as high (rather than low) on power motivation (Study 2, N = 79); attributed prosocial intentions mediated this effect. Study 3 (N = 260) replicates these results.     

Level of service of pedestrian facilities: Modelling human comfort perception in the evaluation of pedestrian behaviour patterns

The paper presents a new methodology for evaluating the quality of operation of pedestrian facilities: the methodology is based on the individual level of comfort perceived by each pedestrian that moves in the area.At each time instant, each pedestrian perceives a comfort level which is a function of the space they feel currently available and of his required space. The required space depends on the subject’s walking direction as well as on physical and psychological factors. The available space depends on the current positions of pedestrians. The proposed methodology quantifies the current discomfort due to pedestrian interactions as a continuous function of the interpersonal distances.The proposed methodology has been applied to empirical data. The experimental data are presented, discussed and compared with widely accepted level of service assessment methods.     

Generating keywords improves metacomprehension and self-regulation in elementary and middle school children

The ability to monitor understanding of texts, usually referred to as metacomprehension accuracy, is typically quite poor in adult learners; however, recently interventions have been developed to improve accuracy. In two experiments, we evaluated whether generating delayed keywords prior to judging comprehension improved metacomprehension accuracy for children. For sixth and seventh graders, metacomprehension accuracy was greater when generating keywords. By contrast, for fourth graders, metacomprehension accuracy did not differ across conditions. Improved metacomprehension accuracy led to improved regulation of study. The delayed keyword effect in children reported here is discussed in terms of situation model activation.     

视觉表象产生加工的可塑性水平研究

采用标准化的视觉表象产生任务,以经过系统训练以及三个不同年龄阶段被试为研究对象来研究视觉表象产生加工时所表现出的可塑性水平。研究结果表明,视觉表象产生加工水平会因外界系统训练而发生功能增强的练习效应,也表现出随着个体的发展所呈现出的年龄效应,年幼儿童还不能产生空间表征,9岁左右可能是儿童类别表象产生能力发展的一个重要时期,也是个体视觉表象产生加工能力可塑性最高的时期。说明由于受大脑神经细胞活动特性改变的影响,视觉表象产生能力具有相对较高的可塑性和易变性特点。     

Asymmetric prefrontal cortex functions predict asymmetries in number space

Little is known about the neuropsychological factors that contribute to individual differences in the asymmetric orientation along the mental number line. The present study documents healthy subjects’ preference for small numbers over large numbers in a random number generation task. This preference, referred to as “small-number bias” (SNB), varied with prefrontal functional lateralization: it was larger in participants with over-proportionately better performance in design fluency compared to letter fluency than in participants with over-proportionately better performance in letter fluency when compared to design fluency. Asymmetries in learning and memory tasks (verbal vs. non-verbal) were not related to direction or size of the SNB. We conclude that hemispheric asymmetries of specifically prefrontal executive functions are predictive of an individual’s lateral orientation bias along the mental number line. Therefore, the focus on parietal contributions to spatial-numerical associations may not be justified. Random number generation may be a helpful method to further explore these associations uncontaminated by the asymmetric involvement of response effectors.     

先秦法律观念的德治特色

德治观念是中国早期国家的主要观念,浸染于其中的法律观念也带上了浓郁的德治特色,先教后刑、“刑期于无刑”、“以伐辅德”均是这一特色的体现。此外,伦理观念与法律的结合及对德、刑的灵活运用,也是先秦法律观念的重要特点,而这一特色最终也影响了民族性格的形成。     

中和思想与可持续发展的普遍和谐观

中和思想博大精深,作为中国古人调节人与自然、人与社会、人与他人及自身内部各种矛盾关系的高级哲理,与可持续发展有共同的哲学根据,与可持续发展所揭示的动态平衡与协调发展不谋而合。     

论“以善为本”的出版理念

出版理念是指出版主体关于出版价值的根本性的判断 ,“以善为本”就是以促进社会公益和精神文明的发展为核心 ,它不仅为出版活动提供道德理想 ,而且为出版活动提供良好秩序。     

When Problems Lead to Ideas: The Roles of Daily Vigor and Social Interactions

In this study, we investigate idea generation by conducting a diary study. We hypothesized that idea generation depends on problem identification, and that this relation is moderated by two factors: (a) the number of social interactions an individual has with “non‐redundant” network connections, and (b) an individual's level of vigor. The hypotheses were tested by making use of a diary study among 31 employees of a Dutch applied university over a period of 2 weeks. Results showed that idea generation results from the identification of problems that require new ideas to solve them. An individual's number of social interactions and the level of redundancy of these social interactions moderated this relation. The level of vigor of an individual did not predict idea generation, but results suggest that vigor is needed for interacting with others. Furthermore, this study contributes to the creativity research using a new approach to look at the effects of social interactions by relating them to the overall structure of social networks.