Culture in the context of intercultural negotiation.

This study explores culture's effect on behaviors and outcomes in intercultural negotiation and examines how those effects are moderated by role. Eighty U.S. and international students took part in a previously developed negotiation task (Pruitt, 1981) and completed Hui and Triandis's (1986) individualism‐collectivism (INDCOL) scale. Negotiation interactions were coded for information sharing, offers, and distributive tactics. Findings show that a negotiation dyad's collectivism is positively associated with higher joint profit. The effects of culture on both communication behaviors and joint outcomes, however, differ by role of the negotiator. In particular, seller collectivism has larger and more consistent effects on communication behavior and joint profit than buyer collectivism. Results support a ‘culture in context’ perspective of negotiation that takes into account negotiator qualities, contextual and structural features of the negotiation, and mediating processes in addition to cultural values.     

THE CONTROL OF BIAS IN RATINGS: A THEORY OF RATING

Based on several years of research and a careful analysis of the rating process Wherry developed a theory of rating. An accurate rating is seen as being a function of three major components: Performance of the ratee, observation of that performance by the rater, and the recall of those observations by the rater. Cast in a mold of classical psychometric theory each of these components is seen as consisting of a systematic portion and a random portion. The systematic portion of each component is further broken down. The performance of the ratee is a combination of true ability or aptitude for the job and the influence of the environment. What the rater observes is a function the performance of the ratee and bias of observation and what the rater recalls is a result of those observations combined with a bias of recall. The development of the theory of rating unfolds by defining the various factors that affect each of these components in a series of linear equations. Various theorems and corollaries are proposed which should lead to a maximization of the true ability component of the ratee and minimize environmental influence and the bias and error components. The theorems and corollaries suggest testable hypotheses for the researcher in performance evaluation.     

The neural basis of cognitive development: a constructivist manifesto

How do minds emerge from developing brains? According to "neural constructivism," the representational features of cortex are built from the dynamic interaction between neural growth mechanisms and environmentally derived neural activity. Contrary to popular selectionist models that emphasize regressive mechanisms, the neurobiological evidence suggests that this growth is a progressive increase in the representational properties of cortex. The interaction between the environment and neural growth results in a flexible type of learning: "constructive learning" minimizes the need for prespecification in accordance with recent neurobiological evidence that the developing cerebral cortex is largely free of domain-specific structure. Instead, the representational properties of cortex are built by the nature of the problem domain confronting it. This uniquely powerful and general learning strategy undermines the central assumption of classical learnability theory, that the learning properties of a system can be deduced from a fixed computational architecture. Neural constructivism suggests that the evolutionary emergence of neocortex in mammals is a progression toward more flexible representational structures, in contrast to the popular view of cortical evolution as an increase in innate, specialized circuits. Human cortical postnatal development is also more extensive and protracted than generally supposed, suggesting that cortex has evolved so as to maximize the capacity of environmental structure to shape its structure and function through constructive learning.     

A WORKER MOTIVATION SCALE

A 70 item questionnaire was constructed using the rationale of several current value/expectancy theories of motivation and the results of two prior factor analyses of motivation items. It was completed anonymously by 240 employed adults in 35 organizations and the resulting factor analysis yielded a hierarchical structure of motivation and eight reliable subscales. Direct and indirect criterion measures also obtained via the questionnaire and covering job characteristics/components; satisfaction (need) levels for n ach, n affil, n power ; the four elements of Heider's attribution theory of motivation; and salary, education and job classification were used to validate the subscales. Support for the criteria was found and promising validities were indicated. Lastly, personal, job and organizational variables were included with the motivation subscales and criteria in a subsequent factor analysis to examine moderator effects of the obtained validities. Results are discussed in terms of motivation theories, validities, moderator effects in study designs, and future use of the questionnaire by other researchers with business-industrial samples.     

The constructivist brain

How do the representations underlying cognitive skills emerge? It is becoming increasingly apparent that answering this question requires integration of neural, cognitive and computational perspectives. Results from this integrative approach resonate with Piaget's central constructivist themes, thus converging on a 'neural constructivist' approach to development, which itself rests on two major research developments. First, accumulating neural evidence for developmental plasticity makes nativist proposals increasingly untenable. Instead, the evidence suggests that cortical development involves the progressive elaboration of neural circuits in which experience-dependent neural growth mechanisms act alongside intrinsic developmental processes to construct the representations underlying mature skills. Second, new research involving constructivist neural networks is elucidating the dynamic interaction between environmentally derived neural activity and developmental mechanisms. Recent neurodevelopmental studies further accord with Piaget's themes, supporting the view of human cortical development as a protracted period of hierarchical-representation construction. Combining constructive growth algorithms with the hierarchical construction of cortical regions suggests that cortical development involves a cascade of increasingly complex representations. Thus, protracted cortical development, while occurring at the expense of increased vulnerability and parental investment, appears to be a powerful and flexible strategy for constructing the representations underlying cognition.     

Autoeroticism,sexual satisfaction,and sexual adjustment among university females: Past and current patterns

A review of the research literature reveals a general paucity of rigorous scientific analyses of masturbatory behavior in adult females. The availability of a data base from a pilot study concerned with self‐perceptions of the orgasmic response during masturbation and sexual intercourse has provided the opportunity to investigate the role of masturbation in the sexual repertoire of university female students. This data base also permitted an assessment of what differences, if any, exist among those respondents who are currently masturbating, have masturbated but not currently masturbating, and have never masturbated.

Questionnaire data were obtained from 512 never‐married, female university students enrolled in lower and upper division courses in anthropology, biology, psychology, and sociology. Respondents in the currently masturbating group were more likely to have experienced their first orgasm via masturbation, to have had greater success in achieving orgasm via masturbation, and to enjoy masturbating alone more when contrasted with the not currently masturbating group. Other findings suggest that masturbating to orgasm serves as an enhancement and/or supplement to sexual intercourse. The currently masturbating respondents were more likely to have experienced sexual intercourse and those who had experienced sexual intercourse reported a greater number of sex partners than those respondents in the never masturbated group. Finally, no statistically significant differences were found in sexual adjustment, using self‐evaluations of physiological satisfaction and psychological satisfaction, between the three respondent groups.