Hypertension reduction through forgiveness training

The objective of this study was to determine if patients with diagnosed stage-1 hypertension could benefit by a forgiveness training program to achieve measurable reductions in anger expression and blood pressure. Twenty-five participants were randomly divided into wait-listed control and intervention groups. The control group monitored blood pressure while the intervention group participated in an 8-week forgiveness training program. At the end of eight weeks, the wait listed group became an intervention group. Those who received forgiveness training achieved significant reductions in anger expression when compared to the control group. While reductions in blood pressure were not achieved by all the participants, those participants who entered the program with elevated anger expression scores did achieve significant reductions in blood pressure. It is suggested that forgiveness training may be an effective clinical intervention for some hypertensive patients with elevated levels of anger.     

Friend or foe: In enjoying playfulness,do innovative consumers tend to switch brand?

Playful consumption has been an extraordinary phenomenon in the modern era, but little attention has been paid to how likely innovative consumers are to seek to enjoy this particular experience. Using structural equation modeling and invariant tests, this article examines empirically the relationship between innovativeness, brand switching, and playful consumption, with gender and age as moderators. Innovativeness has been found to predict playful consumption, and although it also predicts brand switching, interestingly, the latter was not found to predict playful consumption. That, for innovative consumers, encountering playfulness is not enhanced by different brands suggests that being able to enjoy playful rewards requires familiarity, which is more likely to be provided by ongoing rather than by new brands. This article therefore presents a friendly message for marketers: In enjoying playfulness, innovative consumers tend not to switch brand. More theoretical and practical implications, as well as future research, are also identified. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.