贪婪:态度、动机与决策机制

贪婪是人性的重要特点之一,也是哲学、经济学等领域经常讨论的话题.本文首先梳理了贪婪的概念,并将问题聚焦在对于物质的贪婪上.然后总结了贪婪的特点,并提出贪婪的定义.接着阐述了情境因素如何影响个体对贪婪的态度,以及贪婪动机如何影响自利行为.贪婪决策是个体决定是否做出贪婪行为的心理过程,受到自我意识和情绪的影响.贪婪决策过程模型整合了控制性、自动化两类加工方式,阐释了自利倾向与道德自觉相互作用的机制.本文对以上内容逐次进行讨论,并提出了未来研究的方向.     

幸福的体验效用与非理性决策行为的偏差机制

基于体验效用的幸福包括预期幸福、即时幸福和回忆幸福,这三者有极其重要的本质差异,导致决策偏差和非理性。本研究运用行为科学和认知神经科学相结合的研究方法,首次从行为层次—信息加工层次—脑神经层次三个层面,立体地开展幸福感的体验效用与非理性决策行为研究。研究计划分为三个部分:(1)预期幸福、即时幸福和回忆幸福的本质特点和行为规律;(2)三种体验效用产生偏差的认知心理机制;(3)体验效用与非理性决策偏差的脑神经机制。通过系列研究,拟解决三个关键问题:(1)在人类判断与决策过程中,预期、即时和回忆三种效用是如何影响人们的判断与决策?(2)三种体验效用出现偏差的信息加工特点和脑神经机制究竟是什么?(3)三种效用的偏差规律及对政府公共政策的启示。对这些问题的深入探讨,不仅对决策理论研究的发展是一个贡献;对政府管理制定有效的公共政策,避免"牺牲体验追求指标",解决"幸福悖论",同样有很强的实践指导意义。     

Innovative Approaches to Child Custody and Domestic Violence in New Zealand

Summary

In 1995, as part of a major review of domestic violence law, the New Zealand Parliament amended the legislation under which disputes about custody of and access to children are determined by the Court. Specifically, the amendment introduced a rebuttable presumption that a parent who had used violence against a child or against the other parent would not have custody of, or unsupervised access to the child unless the Court could be satisfied that the child would be safe during visitation arrangements. Three years after the implementation of this legislation, it is timely to reflect on the impact of this major domestic violence law reform initiative. Our findings indicate that there are indeed advances. Psychological violence is now clearly being considered when Courts are assessing the issue of children's safety. As well, the delineation of mandatory risk assessment factors has led many judges to see a continuum of power and control tactics as relevant in domestic violence related visitation proceedings; the previous emphasis on physical violence has given way to an analysis which more closely reflects accords with women's and children's realities of the abuse they are exposed to. Some of the old problems continue to exist despite the law changes. There are still recent cases where perpetrators of serious violence are awarded unsupervised access and where their violence continues to be construed as “out of character,” arising because of the perpetrator's “despair” about the breakdown of his relationship. These and other issues are discussed.     

Risk,religiosity, and emerging adulthood: description of Christian,Jewish, and Muslim university students at entering the freshman year

American students transitioning to university are at an increased risk for behaviours such as binge drinking, depression and suicidality. Despite the proliferation of prevention and intervention programs, rates remain high. Although religiosity is known to confer a protective effect in this population, it remains largely untapped as a resource because, among other reasons, it is poorly understood, poses ethical challenges, and exposes areas of distrust between the religious and medical establishments. This report describes the findings of a survey that examined possible factors explaining the relationship between religiosity, risky behaviours and emotional extremes in students as they transitioned into their first year of university. This study accounted for the religious diversity of the US by surveying Christian, Jewish, Muslim and religiously unaffiliated students. Findings indicated that religiosity was consistently and negatively correlated to risky behaviours across all faith groups. Interestingly, unique patterns in levels of religiosity emerged among the various faith groups. Similarly, patterns of engagement in risky behaviours demonstrated variation among religious groups. Our findings add to the body of evidence that suggests university-based professionals take into consideration student religiosity when creating prevention intervention programs for students.     

Adult age differences in subjective and objective measures of strategy use on a sequentially cued prediction task

Differences in strategy use are thought to underlie age-related performance deficits on many learning and decision-making tasks. Recently, age-related differences in learning to make predictions were reported on the Triplets Prediction Task (TPT). Notably, deficits appeared early in training and continued with experience. To assess if age differences were due to early strategy use, neural networks were used to objectively assess the strategies implemented by participants during Session 1. Then, the relationship between these strategies and performance was examined. Results revealed that older adults were more likely to implement a disadvantageous strategy early in learning, and this led to poorer task performance. Importantly, the relationship between age and task performance was partially mediated by early strategy use, suggesting that early strategy selection played a role in the lower quality of predictions in older adults.     

Why do people disagree with a statement they do not understand? Relations between comprehension and evaluation of a simple assertion

This article presents the results of a quasi-experimental study that examined the relation between the metacomprehension (i.e., understand/do not understand) and evaluative (i.e., agree/disagree) response to a simple one-sentence statement to compare the relative timing in which these two responses are generated in the course of sentence processing. In the study, participants were asked to provide metacomprehension and evaluative judgements to simple one-sentence assertions, and their response times were measured. Two of the main findings are: first, the response time for the evaluative judgement is faster than the response time for the metacomprehension judgement and, second, the faster response time of the evaluative judgement relative to the metacomprehension judgement is more pronounced either when they are not sure about whether they understand a statement or when they feel they do not understand a statement. The findings are analysed in relation to a multiple constraint satisfaction model of sentence comprehension to generate a possible processing model of a simple one-sentence assertion underlying the generation of metacomprehension and evaluative responses.     

Self-Other Discrepancies in Waiting Time Decisions

Both anecdotal evidence and recently reported research suggest that people are risk-averse when faced with waiting time decisions. Four studies investigate whether there is a self-other discrepancy in how people make waiting time decisions themselves and how they predict others will make similar decisions. People are found to believe that others have valuations of time similar to their own. However, when faced with alternatives that involve risk in the duration of the wait, the results point to a self-other discrepancy, in that people report greater risk-aversion themselves than they think others would. Further, when faced with waiting time gains, people are themselves more risk-averse than they think others would be. Conversely, when faced with waiting time losses, people are themselves more risk-seeking than they think others would be. Overall, the results are consistent with the recently proposed risk-as-feelings hypothesis.     

Risk perception and risky choice: Situational, informational and dispositional effects

We investigated how situational (gain–loss), informational (opportunity–threat framing) and dispositional (achievement motive and avoidance motive) variables affected opportunity–threat perception and risky choice in managerial decision-making contexts. In Study 1, the risk preference of the participants showed a reflection effect due to situational differences (gain or loss) and a partial framing effect caused by presenting the same choice information in terms of either opportunities or threats. However, both effects were in the opposite direction of predictions from prospect theory. Gains and positive framing enhanced risk-seeking preference whereas losses and negative framing augmented risk-averse preference. Risk-seeking choices were mediated by opportunity perception whereas risk-averse choices were mediated by threat perception. In Study 2, the participants high in achievement motive perceived greater opportunities in a negative situation, and the participants high in avoidance motive perceived greater threats in a positive situation, suggesting that ambition (achievement motive) operates more significantly in the face of adversities whereas cautiousness (avoidance motive) functions more significantly in prosperity.     

Risk preferences in young children: early evidence of individual differences in reaction to potential gains and losses

New methods were developed for studying risky decision making in children as young as age five. Each child was given a block of ‘gain’ trials, for example, a choice between a sure gain of one prize and a 50:50 chance of gaining either two prizes or no prize, and a block of ‘loss’ trials, for example, a choice between a sure loss of one prize and a 50:50 chance of losing either two prizes or no prize. We were thus able to compare risky choice for gains and losses at the level of the individual child. In each of two experiments a variety of individual difference variables were measured, including in Experiment 2, the child's parent's scores on the same task. Across experiments, the preponderance of choices was of the risky option. However, most children and adults made more risky choices in the domain of losses than in the domain of gains. Predictors of individual differences in children included shyness, impulsivity, and the risk taking of the child's parent. We suggest that methods are now in place to encourage further studies of decision processes in young children. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychological Interventions and Genetic Testing: Facilitating Informed Decisions About BRCA1/2 Cancer Susceptibility

Genetic testing for inherited cancer susceptibility, based on the recently identified. BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, will soon be available on a large scale. However, at present, genetic test results do not lead to clearly indicated diagnostic or preventive measures, and the nature of the psychological impact of BRCA1/2 testing is still largely unknown. This uncertainty, combined with preliminary evidence suggesting significant individual differences in reactions to genetic susceptibility feedback, constitutes a unique challenge for any individual contemplating such testing. We outline the nature of this challenge and then propose an intervention strategy designed to help individuals make deeply processed and psychologically well-informed decisions with regard to their genetic susceptibility. The intervention is guided by recent research findings and theory on the cognitive–emotional processing of cancer-risk information. Specifically, the goal is to prepare the individual for genetic testing by (1) cognitively and emotionally activating, or preliving, the individual's potential reactions to testing feedback; (2) facilitating accurate appraisal of the individual's cognitive–emotional reactions; and (3) enabling the individual to process these reactions through the use of well-established clinical techniques.