RESISTANCE TO CHANGE AND FREQUENCY OF RESPONSE‐DEPENDENT STIMULI UNCORRELATED WITH REINFORCEMENT

Stimuli uncorrelated with reinforcement have been shown to enhance response rates and resistance to disruption; however, the effects of different rates of stimulus presentations have not been assessed. In two experiments, we assessed the effects of adding different rates of response‐dependent brief stimuli uncorrelated with primary reinforcement on relative response rates and resistance to change. In both experiments, pigeons responded on variable‐interval 60‐s schedules of food reinforcement in two components of a multiple schedule, and brief response‐dependent keylight‐color changes were added to one or both components. Although relative response rates were not systematically affected in either experiment, relative resistance to presession feeding and extinction were. In Experiment 1, adding stimuli on a variable‐interval schedule to one component of a multiple schedule either at a low rate (1 per min) for one group or at a high rate (4 per min) for another group similarly increased resistance to disruption in the components with added stimuli. When high and low rates of stimuli were presented across components (i.e., within subjects) in Experiment 2, however, relative resistance to disruption was greater in the component presenting stimuli at a lower rate. These results suggest that stimuli uncorrelated with food reinforcement do not strengthen responding in the same way as primary reinforcers.     

Exploring Temporal Progression of Events Using Eye Tracking

This study investigates the representation of the temporal progression of events by means of the causal change in a patient. Subjects were asked to verify the relationship between adjectives denoting a source and resulting feature of a patient. The features were presented either chronologically or inversely to a primed event context given by a verb (to cut: long–short vs. short–long). Effects on response time and on eye movement data show that the relationship between features presented chronologically is verified more easily than that between features presented inversely. Post hoc, however, we found that the effects of temporal order occurred only when subjects read the features more than once. Then, the relationship between the features is matched with the causal change implied by the event context (contextual strategy). When subjects read the features only once, subjects respond to the relationship between the features without taking into account the event context.     

The savings problem in the original position: assessing and revising a model

Abstract

The common conception of justice as reciprocity seemingly is inapplicable to relations between non-overlapping generations. This is a challenge also to John Rawls’s theory of justice as fairness. This text responds to this by way of reinterpreting and developing Rawls’s theory. First, by examining the original position as a model, some revisions of it are shown to be wanting. Second, by drawing on the methodology of constructivism, an alternative solution is proposed: an amendment to the primary goods named ‘sustainability of values’. This revised original position lends support to intergenerational justice as fairness.     

企业员工工作价值观与组织公民行为的关系研究

本研究旨在探讨企业员工工作价值观与组织公民行为的关系。用工作价值观调查表、中国组织公民行为量表对525名企业员工进行了问卷调查,结果发现：整体工作价值观与整体组织公民行为存在着显著性相关;工作价值观的能力警曼等璧翌组织公民行为的公司认同、个人主动性、保护公司资源因素有显著正向影响;工作价值观的地位因素对组织公民行为的公司认同、同事间的利他行为、个人主动性因素有显著正向影响。     

试论以人为本的道德价值观

以人为本的道德价值观,也就是以人的属性、人的思维和人的境界为理论出发点的道德价值观。人的属性有主体性、社会性、自然性、精神性之分。人的思维具有个体本位、社群本位、自然本位、信仰本位四个维层。人的境界有伟人、英雄、模范、先进、普通之区别。     

Stability and predictors of psychopathic traits from mid‐adolescence through early adulthood

High levels of psychopathic traits in youth are associated with multiple negative outcomes including substance misuse, aggressive behavior, and criminality. Evidence regarding stability of psychopathic traits is contradictory. No previous study has examined long‐term stability of psychopathic traits assessed with validated clinical measures. The present study examined the stability of psychopathic traits from mid‐adolescence to early adulthood and explored adolescent factors that predicted psychopathic traits five years later. The sample included 99 women and 81 men who had consulted a clinic for substance misuse in adolescence. At an average age of 16.8 years, the adolescents were assessed using the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL: YV) and five years later using the PCL‐Revised (PCL‐R). Additionally, extensive clinical assessments of the adolescents and their parents were completed in mid‐adolescence. Among both females and males, moderate to high rank‐order stability was observed for total PCL and facet scores. Among both females and males, there was a decrease in the mean total PCL score, interpersonal facet score, affective facet score, and lifestyle facet score. However, the great majority of females and males showed no change in psychopathy scores over the five‐year period as indicated by the Reliable Change Index. Despite the measures of multiple family and individual factors in adolescence, only aggressive behavior and male sex predicted PCL‐R total scores in early adulthood after taking account of PCL:YV scores. Taken together, these results from a sample who engaged in antisocial behavior in adolescence suggest that factors promoting high psychopathy scores act early in life.     

The motivation and inhibition of breaking the rules: Personal values structures predict unethicality

We theorized and tested the relationship of personal value systems with unethical attitudes and behavior. Results from three studies using 16 diverse multi-national samples (N = 107,087) demonstrated the complexity of motivations underlying unethicality. Across contexts and cultures, for attitudes (Study 1 meta-analysis) and behaviors in the lab (Study 2) and in real-life (Study 3), we consistently found that the values theory circumplex structure predicted the inhibition and motivation of unethicality. Unethicality was positively associated with self-enhancement values and negatively associated with self-transcendence and conservation values. However, self-transcendence and conservation values were associated with the inhibition of different types of unethicality. The relationship of openness-to-change values with unethicality was generally positive but the effect size varied depending on context.     

Differential attrition in health behaviour change trials: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: Attrition is a common problem in health behaviour change (HBC) trials. When the degree of attrition differs between treatment conditions, then this is called differential attrition and is regarded as a major threat to internal validity. The primary research question of this study was: how often and to what degree does differential attrition occur in HBC trials?

Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis of a random selection of HBC trials (k = 60). We meta-analysed the relative attrition rates using a random-effects model and examined the relationship between the relative attrition rates and the potential moderators: the amount of human contact in delivery and the intensity of the intervention/control condition, the type of control condition, and the follow-up intensity and duration.

Main outcome measures: Relative attrition rates.

Results: The average attrition rate was 18% (SD = .15; M = .15) in the intervention and 17% (SD = .13; M = .13) in the control conditions. The estimated average relative attrition rate was 1.10 (95% CI: 1.01–1.20, p = .02), suggesting an overall higher attrition rate of 10% in the intervention conditions. This relative attrition rate was not related to any of the potential moderators.

Conclusion: There is indication of a slightly higher amount of attrition on average in the intervention conditions of HBC trials.     

Meta-analysis of work–family conflict mean differences: Does national context matter?

Work–family conflict continues to be a topic of considerable interest to researchers and practitioners across the globe. In the current study, meta-analysis is used to compare cross-national mean differences in work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict across cultural, institutional, and economic aspects of context. No significant differences in work-to-family conflict were detected. Reports of family-to-work conflict were higher in more collectivistic versus more individualistic cultures, in countries with a higher versus a lower economic gender gap, and in countries other than the U.S. versus the U.S.     

A mediating role for anticipated regret in predicting retirement savings intention between groups with (without) past behaviour

A recent global trend has been the shifting of responsibility for retirement income planning from the public purse to individuals, with an associated encouragement to contribute more to retirement savings. This research investigated the influence of anticipated regret on the intention to make extra voluntary retirement savings. Results revealed that anticipated regret plays a powerful affective role in the formation of behavioural intention by conveying the influence of attitude and subjective norm to intention. Implications of the results with respect to possible interventions relating to behaviour change are considered.