Risk-sensitive choice in humans as a function of an earnings budget

Risky choice in 3 adult humans was investigated across procedural manipulations designed to model energy-budget manipulations conducted with nonhumans. Subjects were presented with repeated choices between a fixed and a variable number of points. An energy budget was simulated by use of an earnings budget, defined as the number of points needed within a block of trials for points to be exchanged for money. During positive earnings-budget conditions, exclusive preference for the fixed option met the earnings requirement. During negative earnings-budget conditions, exclusive preference for the certain option did not meet the earnings requirement, but choice for the variable option met the requirement probabilistically. Choice was generally risk averse (the fixed option was preferred) when the earnings budget was positive and risk prone (the variable option was preferred) when the earnings budget was negative. Furthermore, choice was most risk prone during negative earnings-budget conditions in which the earnings requirement was most stringent. Local choice patterns were also frequently consistent with the predictions of a dynamic optimization model, indicating that choice was simultaneously sensitive to short-term choice contingencies, current point earnings, and the earnings requirement. Overall, these results show that the patterns of risky choice generated by energy-budget variables can also be produced by choice contingencies that do not involve immediate survival, and that risky choice in humans may be similar to that shown in nonhumans when choice is studied under analogous experimental conditions.     

The structure of and changes to the life values of Japanese consumers

As the standard of living improves and the number of choices expands, consumer behavior shifts from meeting needs to realizing the specific life values of each consumer. A structural analysis of life values was performed to increase understanding of consumer behavior as a whole, so that effective marketing strategies can be prepared. The structural analysis of life values was conducted by plotting daily activities in an evaluation space, which was defined by "necessity,""attractiveness," and "ease of achievement," and also by factor analysis of these daily activities. Using this method, we measured the structure of the daily activities of Japanese consumers, and then examined the value structure of time-consuming activities, which our research suggests will be considered highly attractive in the future. Based on the results of the surveys, we discuss the development of the market for highly attractive activities and products. However, an improvement in life infrastructure is a prerequisite to realizing a market for highly attractive activities and products.     

随机对照试验与伦理学的冲突——椎管内阻滞分娩镇痛效果分析

以随机对照试验（RCT）的方法验证椎管内阻滞分娩镇痛的效果有违试验设计的伦理学要求,现有关于椎管内阻滞分娩镇痛的文献都存在着试验设计的死角,导致了医学科学试验与伦理学的水火不容。循证医学（EBM）方法为科学地解决这一问题带来了曙光。     

金钱对幸福感的影响及其心理机制

传统经济学家认为,更多的收入会导致更高的幸福水平。心理学家在这个问题上则显得谨慎一些,他们从多个方面考察了金钱与幸福感之间的关系,并从中得出了一些引人深思的结论。研究表明,金钱能够通过人格、目标、动机、社会比较、适应与压力等中介变量对幸福感产生影响。未来研究应该在研究对象和方法上加以改进,在心理机制方面进行更深入的探讨。此外,本土化研究在我国有着重要的现实意义,有待于加强     

The bonding effect of money in the workplace: priming money weakens the negative relationship between ostracism and prosocial behaviour

The feeling of being ostracized in the workplace has been associated with the withdrawal of prosocial and helping behaviours. We propose that reminders of money would moderate (weaken) this relationship. We conducted three studies with working adult participants. Results showed that activating thoughts of money, even unrelated to compensation, reduced the negative relationship between ostracism and prosocial intentions (Studies 1 and 3) and behaviour (Study 2) in the organization. Study 3 furthermore showed that this effect occurs by reinforcing organizational identification. Our research identifies a factor that is already present in the work setting that could buffer the negative psychological and behavioural outcomes associated with ostracism: cues of money. We discuss the implications for research on money, social threats, and organizational behaviour.     

Spendthrifts and Tightwads in Childhood: Feelings about Spending Predict Children's Financial Decision Making

Adults differ in the extent to which they find spending money to be distressing; “tightwads” find spending money painful, and “spendthrifts” do not find spending painful enough. This affective dimension has been reliably measured in adults and predicts a variety of important financial behaviors and outcomes (e.g., saving behavior and credit scores). Although children's financial behavior has also received attention, feelings about spending have not been studied in children, as they have in adults. We measured the spendthrift–tightwad (ST–TW) construct in children for the first time, with a sample of 5‐ to 10‐year‐old children (N = 225). Children across the entire age range were able to reliably report on their affective responses to spending and saving, and children's ST–TW scores were related to parent reports of children's temperament and financial behavior. Further, children's ST–TW scores were predictive of whether they chose to save or spend money in the lab, even after controlling for age and how much they liked the offered items. Our novel findings—that children's feelings about spending and saving can be measured from an early age and relate to their behavior with money—are discussed with regard to theoretical and practical implications. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effect of Rehabilitation on Positive Interpretations of Illness

Postoperative patients received one of the three, alternative pain-management treatments: patient-controlled analgesia (PCA); perceived PCA (PPCA without actual control) and continuous intravenous infusion of analgesics (CII). Pain reports, morphine consumption and satisfaction of the groups were compared, and influences of individual differences in preferences for control and trait anxiety were tested. The main findings were: (1) PCA patients consumed less morphine and reported more pain and somewhat higher satisfaction; (2) PPCA patients were intermediate between the other two groups in pain reports and morphine consumption and lowest in satisfaction and (3) individual differences did not moderate the effects of PCA. The findings were interpreted as indicating that the main effect of PCA is increased pain tolerance, and that a bio-psycho-social framework is most appropriate to explain these effects.     

Profit and Piety: Thomas More,John Colet,and the London Mercery

Abstract

This study offers a new comparison between Thomas More's and John Colet's ideology concerning wealth and property and their activities with the Mercers’ Company, in order to demonstrate their humanist aims of bringing virtue (pietas) and learning to society partly by means of business. It is argued that, as in the wider Church, there was a reciprocal relationship between profit and piety in the life and works of the two humanists, despite their apparent dismissive attitudes to money in their writings. As a result of their work, not only did the Mercers benefit from the two men's skills, but London gained a new school, the re-foundation of the Guild of the Holy Name of Jesus and the improvement of the hospital of St. Thomas of Acre along with More's legal and diplomatic services, which improved international trade relations, especially with the Low Countries. Their humanist philanthropy exhibited the active side of their devotional lives in their educational aims, civic service and social reform.     

资源的交换价值和工资性质对其分配公平感的影响

如何公平合理地分配有限的资源是每一个组织都要面对的基本问题。在组织资源分配中存在一个有趣的现象, 即平均分配金钱往往会比平均分配特定商品让人感到更不公平。前人研究认为, 这是因金钱较之特定的商品具有更多交换价值导致的。3个实验对这一重要的心理现象进行了重新研究发现, 不仅交换价值影响资源分配的公平感, 而且资源的工资性质对其分配的公平感也有重要影响。这一发现丰富了Adams的公平理论, 同时也为组织更好地分配资源提供重要参考。     

奖励的价值导向对绩效反馈效果的影响

本研究探讨了奖励形式启动的价值框架效应在调节绩效反馈对绩效提升与行为塑造的效果中发挥的作用。对231名大学生的问卷调查结果表明,采用金钱奖励时,接受个人绩效反馈的个体效能感更高,也有更好的绩效和合作行为表现;采用荣誉奖励时,集体绩效反馈的效果更好。即奖励形式与绩效反馈的匹配会提高组织成员绩效,增加其合作行为。基于该结果,建议管理者关注奖励体系中的价值信息与组织的管理方式相匹配,以推进组织的可持续发展。