The role of values in road safety culture: Examining the valuation of freedom to take risk,risk taking and accident involvement in three countries

National focus on individual freedom versus paternalistic values is a fundamental theme, which defines the status of traffic safety in different countries. The present study examines the role of such values in road safety culture based on survey data from car and bus drivers from three countries with distinctly different road safety records: Norway (N = 596), Israel (N = 129) and Greece (N = 386). While Norway has the highest road safety level in Europe, and Israel also performs better than the EU average, the road safety level in Greece was far below the EU average. As these positions reflect differences in policies and national regulations in drivers’ freedom to take risk, we hypothesize a higher focus on individual freedom to take risk and lower focus on paternalism among the Greek drivers. Results indicate, in accordance with our hypothesis, that the Greek drivers value freedom to take risk in traffic higher than drivers from Norway and Israel. Greek drivers also expect higher levels of risk taking from other drivers in their country, they report higher levels of risky driving themselves, and are more often involved in accidents. Thus, it seems that values have an important role in Road Safety Culture (RSC), legitimizing and motivating risky driving, which are related to accidents. We found, however, contrary to our hypotheses, that the Greek drivers also had the most paternalistic attitudes among the drivers in the three countries. In the present paper, we try to solve this Greek paradox.     

Personality and demographic differences in the perceived risks of potentially timid driving behaviours

Timid driving behaviours can be described as overly cautious and hesitant driving behaviours. Little research has examined behaviours that potentially resemble timid driving and how these behaviours are perceived by other drivers. This is despite the potential for these behaviours to be perceived in a way that leads to angry and aggressive retaliatory behaviours in some drivers (e.g., in anger-prone drivers). We conducted an online survey examining the perceived road safety risks of several behaviours that could potentially result from timid driving and their relationships with driver personality (trait anxiety, trait driving anger), behaviour (anxious driving, angry driving), and demographic (age, gender, annual mileage) background. Drivers (N = 439, M_age = 49.41 ± 5.59 years, aged 18–89) perceived excessively cautious and unpredictable braking behaviours as posing moderate levels of risk. Multiple linear regression analyses also indicated higher perceived risks of slow and excessively cautious behaviours in older, male, and anger prone drivers. No meaningful associations were found between driver characteristics and the risks of unpredictable braking behaviours. These results suggest that safety campaigns to reduce aggressive behaviour may benefit from targeting the perceptions of other drivers’ behaviours.     

Magnitude,timing and duration of mood state and cognitive effects of acute moderate exercise in major depressive disorder

BackgroundAcute exercise generally improves mood state and cognitive functioning in healthy adults. However, the impact of acute exercise on primary symptoms in adults with major depressive disorder (MDD) is poorly understood. The present randomized cross-over study evaluated the magnitude, timing, and duration of the psychological effects of 30 min of moderate-intensity cycling exercise compared to quiet rest in 30 adults (21 female) with MDD.MethodsDepressed mood state (Profile of Mood States Short Form-Depression; POMS-D), state anhedonia (anhedonia Visual Analog Scale [VAS], and Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale [DARS]), and cognition (inhibition via Stroop and working memory via the 2-back task) were assessed pre, mid, post, 25-, 50- and 75-min after each session.ResultsGeneralized estimating equations demonstrated significant session by time interactions for POMS-D and VAS indicating small-to-large improvements in mood state and anhedonia up to 75 min post-exercise (p < 0.05; Cohen’s d ranges: POMS [-0.69, -0.95]; DARS, [-0.02, 0.16]; VAS [0.33, 0.83]) with greater immediate effects that lessened somewhat across time. For cognition, Stroop reaction time improved during exercise, but was worse at 25- and 50-min post-exercise compared to quiet rest (p < 0.05); no differences were found for 2-back reaction time.LimitationsThe small sample and continued psychological effects at 75 min indicate a potentially longer-lasting response than was measured herein.ConclusionPerforming short bouts of moderate intensity exercise appears to be effective for management of key symptoms (anhedonia, depressed mood state) in adults with MDD. The time immediately post-exercise may be ideal for performing emotionally challenging tasks and/or tasks where a low symptom severity would be helpful (e.g., psychotherapy).     

Evaluating the influence of approaching vehicles on pedestrian’s visual patterns and crossing behaviors at an uncontrolled crosswalk

The visual behaviors and movement characteristics of pedestrians are related to their surrounding potential safety hazards, such as approaching vehicles. This study primarily aimed to investigate the visual patterns and walking behaviors of pedestrians interacting with approaching vehicles. Field experiments were conducted at two uncontrolled crosswalks located at the Cuihua and Yanta roads in Xi’an, China. The visual performance of pedestrians was assessed using the eye tracking system from SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI). Moreover, motion trajectories of the pedestrians and approaching vehicles were obtained using an unmanned aerial vehicle. Subsequently, the visual attributes and movement trajectories of pedestrians and motion trajectories of approaching vehicles were statistically analyzed. The results showed that approaching vehicles distracted the fixation of crossing pedestrians significantly, and occupied 29.5% of the total duration of fixation; that is, pedestrians always directed more fixation points to the approaching vehicles compared to other stimuli. As a vehicle approached, pedestrians’ fixation shifted from other areas of interest to the vehicle. Moreover, an increase in the velocity of the vehicle and a closer distance between pedestrian and the vehicle resulted in an increase in the pedestrians’ duration of fixation on the approaching vehicle, and they implemented more saccades. Furthermore, approaching vehicle’s velocity and distance between pedestrian and approaching vehicle are not significantly associated with pedestrian’s movement attributes. These findings provide insights into the crossing behavior of pedestrians during pedestrian-vehicle interactions, which could assist future researchers and policy makers.     

多元文化经历对领导者能力及发展的影响

随着全球化发展的深入, 越来越多的企业领导者具有多元文化经历。多元文化经历是指个体具有直接或间接与外国文化元素或人群进行交互的经历。拟从领导者发展(leader development)和领导力发展(leadership development)两个层面, 全面地探讨多元文化经历对企业领导者能力形成及发展的影响：第一, 探讨多元文化经历对领导者能力发展(包括个人层面、关系层面和社会层面能力)的影响及内部机制; 第二, 探讨多元文化经历对领导力发展(包括领导力涌现、领导力选拔和领导力效能)的影响及内部机制。项目成果不仅能够丰富领导者能力形成与发展等组织管理相关理论, 还能为企业的全球化管理及国际化人才培养实践提供建议。     

自我表现还是自我防卫？职场负面八卦对八卦目标行为策略的影响机制

基于社会认知自我调节理论,本研究探讨了职场负面八卦影响八卦目标行为的内在机理及边界条件,研究结果表明：八卦目标感知的关于同事的职场负面八卦弱化了八卦目标感知的关于自身的职场负面八卦对羞愧的积极影响;八卦目标羞愧对其印象管理行为和职场排斥行为均具有显著的积极影响;八卦目标感知的关于同事的职场负面八卦弱化了八卦目标感知的关于自身的职场负面八卦通过羞愧影响其印象管理行为和职场排斥行为的间接效应。     

The influence of item order on intentional response distortion in the assessment of high potentials: Assessing pilot applicants

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of item order and questionnaire content on faking good or intentional response distortion. It was hypothesized that intentional response distortion would either increase towards the end of a long questionnaire, as learning effects might make it easier to adjust responses to a faking good schema, or decrease because applicants' will to distort responses is reduced if the questionnaire lasts long enough. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that certain types of questionnaire content are especially vulnerable to response distortion. Eighty‐four pre‐selected pilot applicants filled out a questionnaire consisting of 516 items including items from the NEO five factor inventory (NEO FFI), NEO personality inventory revised (NEO PI‐R) and business‐focused inventory of personality (BIP). The positions of the items were varied within the applicant sample to test if responses are affected by item order, and applicants' response behaviour was additionally compared to that of volunteers. Applicants reported significantly higher mean scores than volunteers, and results provide some evidence of decreased faking tendencies towards the end of the questionnaire. Furthermore, it could be demonstrated that lower variances or standard deviations in combination with appropriate (often higher) mean scores can serve as an indicator for faking tendencies in group comparisons, even if effects are not significant.     

Working with Older Adults: Predictors of Attitudes Towards Ageing in Psychology and Social Work Students,Faculty, and Practitioners

The Australian population is experiencing a rapid ageing of the population, and as such, an increased need for gerontological practitioners in the helping professions will continue to grow. Terror management theory (TMT), which was used to frame this study, posits that because of the fact that humans are aware of their own mortality, they are compelled to avoid the anxiety associated with it. Personal ageing and interaction with older adults may be reminders of the unavoidable decline and death that faces us all. The purpose of this study is to examine comfort in spending time with older adults amongst students, academic teaching staff, and practitioners in the fields of psychology and social work. We sought to determine if TMT helped predict fear of being with older adults. Ageism, contact with older adults, and known demographic factors associated with attitudes towards older adults were also examined. Hierarchical multiple regression explained nearly 46% of the variance in comfort with older adults and indicated that fear of ageing, positive ageism, negative ageism, contact with older adults, and sex were significant predictors. Educational efforts aimed at addressing beliefs about ageing and older adults may contribute to further comfort in working with older adults.     

Conscious awareness of action potentiates sensorimotor learning

Many everyday skills are unconsciously learned through repetitions of the same behaviour by binding independent motor acts into unified sets of actions. However, our ability to be consciously aware of producing newly and highly trained motor skills raises the question of the role played by conscious awareness of action upon skill acquisition. In this study we strengthened conscious awareness of self-produced sequential finger movements by way of asking participants to judge their performance in terms of maximal fluency after each trial. Control conditions in which participants did not make any judgment or performance-unrelated judgments were also included. Findings indicate that conscious awareness of action, enhanced via subjective appraisal of motor efficiency, potentiates sensorimotor learning and skilful motor production in optimising the processing and sequencing of action units, as compared to the control groups. The current work lends support to the claim that the learning and skilful expression of sensorimotor behaviours might be grounded upon our ability to be consciously aware of our own motor capability and efficiency.