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Desirability
Kinds of Desirability Terms modified by Desirability Selected AbstractsOn implicit,explicit consistency: the moderating role of individual differences in awareness and adjustmentEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 1 2005Wilhelm Hofmann A moderated process model is presented that attempts to explain the consistency between implicit and explicit indicators as a function of awareness, i.e. the degree to which persons become aware of their implicit attitude, and adjustment, i.e. the degree to which they adjust for the explicit response. In two experiments on attitudes of West Germans toward East Germans and Turks, a number of dispositional moderators pertaining to awareness and adjustment were tested. Concerning moderators affecting awareness, no reliable first-order effects were found for Private Self-Consciousness or Attitudinal Self-Knowledge. However, Attitude Importance generated the expected effect. Concerning moderators influencing adjustment, consistent effects were obtained for Motivation to Control Prejudiced Reactions. Social Desirability and Self-Monitoring did not moderate the implicit,explicit relationship in the expected direction. Some evidence was found for a second-order moderator effect between awareness and adjustment, suggesting that adjustment effects may be more pronounced under conditions of high awareness. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Social Desirability of Earnings TestsGERMAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 2 2008Helmuth Cremer Earnings tests; social security; age-related taxation; retirement age Abstract. In many countries, pension systems involve some form of earnings test; i.e. an individual's benefits are reduced if he has labor income. This paper examines whether or not such earnings tests emerge when pension system and income tax are optimally designed. We use a simple model with individuals differing both in productivity and in their health status. The working life of an individual has two ,endings': an official retirement age at which he starts drawing pension benefits (while possibly supplementing them with some labor income) and an effective age of retirement at which professional activity is completely given up. Weekly work time is endogenous, but constant in the period before official retirement and again constant (but possibly at a different level), after official retirement. Earnings tests mean that earnings are subject to a higher tax after official retirement than before. We show under which conditions earnings tests emerge both under a linear and under a non-linear tax scheme. In particular, we show that earnings tests will occur if heterogeneities in health or productivity are more significant after official retirement than before. [source] Third-Person Effects and the Environment: Social Distance, Social Desirability, and Presumed BehaviorJOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION, Issue 2 2005Jakob D. Jensen Previous research has documented third-person effects (persons presuming that others will be more susceptible to media effects than they themselves are) and explored moderators such as social desirability (the effect reverses when the media effects are undesirable) and social distance (the effect increases as the social distance from the self increases). In a study of environmental news coverage, the authors observed the general third-person effect and the moderating role of social desirability; however, they also found that social distance affected presumed influence in complex ways reflecting varying perceptions of issue relevance for the comparison groups. A new variable, presumed behavior (the presumed effect of media coverage on others' behavior), was found to be independent of presumed influence and to offer improved prediction of perceivers' behavioral intentions. [source] On Defending Controversial Viewpoints: Debates of Sixth Graders About the Desirability of Early 20th-Century American ImmigrationLEARNING DISABILITIES RESEARCH & PRACTICE, Issue 3 2002Charles A. MacArthur Sixth-grade students with and without mild disabilities participated in an eight-week project-based investigation about immigration to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Students' investigations were designed to promote their understanding of the perspectives of immigrants and Americans who opposed immigration, as well as the "ways of life" that gave impetus to immigration and often resulted in conflict between these groups. At the conclusion of these investigations, students were assigned the role of the immigrants or opponents of immigration and were asked to debate the desirability of immigration to the United States during this historical period. The primary focus of this article is on the opportunities afforded by, and the limitations of, these classroom debates. The debates promoted high levels of engagement and equal participation by students with and without disabilities as well as by boys and girls. Analyses of content and structure showed that students' discourse was influenced by the knowledge they gained during their investigations, but the use of this knowledge was shaped by the competitive rhetorical goal of defending a particular viewpoint. Later rounds of the debates were more balanced and drew more on the breadth of available knowledge than did earlier rounds. Overall, the debates were more typical of everyday arguments than academic arguments. The implications of our findings for the design of instructional opportunities in the social studies in inclusive classrooms are discussed. [source] Utility Functions for Ceteris Paribus PreferencesCOMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, Issue 2 2004Michael McGeachie Ceteris paribus (all-else equal) preference statements concisely represent preferences over outcomes or goals in a way natural to human thinking. Although deduction in a logic of such statements can compare the desirability of specific conditions or goals, many decision-making methods require numerical measures of degrees of desirability. To permit ceteris paribus specifications of preferences while providing quantitative comparisons, we present an algorithm that compiles a set of qualitative ceteris paribus preferences into an ordinal utility function. Our algorithm is complete for a finite universe of binary features. Constructing the utility function can, in the worst case, take time exponential in the number of features, but common independence conditions reduce the computational burden. We present heuristics using utility independence and constraint-based search to obtain efficient utility functions. [source] The UN Global Compact and the Enlightenment tradition: a rural electrification project under the aegis of the UN Global CompactCORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2009Niklas Egels-Zandén Abstract Despite extensive academic debate as to what corporate social responsibility (CSR) and other related concepts ought to encompass, there is a lack of critical analysis of what CSR in practice entails, i.e., what actually constitutes CSR practices. This paper critically addresses this question by focusing on one of the most influential CSR initiatives , the UN Global Compact. We demonstrate that the principles of the Global Compact are rooted in a European Enlightenment tradition and, based on a study of an Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) CSR project in a Tanzanian village, we illustrate how these principles translate into corporate projects that challenge local institutions, while remaining unquestioned. The paper concludes by opening a space for discussing the desirability of the Enlightenment ethos manifested in Global Compact projects. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Dietary Implications of Supermarket Development: A Global PerspectiveDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 6 2008Corinna Hawkes Five decisions by supermarket operators have important dietary implications: the location of their outlets; the foods they sell; the prices they charge; the promotional strategies they use; and the nutrition-related activities they implement. These decisions influence food accessibility, availability, prices and desirability, which in turn influence the decisions consumers make about food. Based on a comprehensive literature review, this article finds that the dietary implications are both positive , supermarkets can make a more diverse diet available and accessible to more people , and negative , supermarkets can reduce the ability of marginalised populations to purchase a high-quality diet, and encourage the consumption of energy-dense, nutrient-poor highly-processed foods. Overall, the most universally applicable dietary implication is that supermarkets encourage consumers to eat more, whatever the food. [source] LAND RICH AND DATA POOR: MODELLING REQUIREMENTS IN AUSTRALIA'S FAR NORTHECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 3 2005Natalie Stoeckl Economic models have long been used as a way of organising and presenting information for policy makers interested in large regions,e.g. nations,and recent advances in information technology make the goal of developing models for decision makers in other locales a realistic one. The research on which this paper focuses was part of large project investigating the feasibility and desirability of developing a multi-disciplinary computer model of the Australian Savannas. In the large project, researchers were broken in to three teams: those considering the biophysical, demographic, and economic aspects of the modelling problem. This paper presents findings from part of the economic component of the investigation: that which sought information from key local ,stakeholders' about the type of information that would be useful to them. Responses indicate that many of Australia's existing economic models are capable of providing the ,right' type of information; but at too coarse a geographic scale for those in remote regions. Evidently, there is a need for developing other models. [source] TWO TAXATION AGENDAS: THE GALLOP GOVERNMENT'S FIRST TERMECONOMIC PAPERS: A JOURNAL OF APPLIED ECONOMICS AND POLICY, Issue 1 2005Michael McLure This essay reviews state taxation policy in Western Australia over the Gallop Government's first term of office. Two tax agendas emerged, one concerning reform of the State's tax system and the other concerning measures to increase the tax yield in response to mid-term fiscal stress from unanticipated growth in expenditure. It is suggested that the lack of integration of these two agendas represented a lost policy opportunity, as integration would have provided the potential to implement a much more ambitious tax reform program than that realised by the Government. The lack of integration is partly attributed to the unrealistically low forward estimates of public expenditure outlined in the Government's first budget, as this served to mask the need for additional taxation revenue (and the consequent desirability of an integrated whole-of-term taxation policy) at the very time that reform measures were being actively contemplated. As a consequence, the dominant feature of the Government's first-term tax policy was not reform, but the introduction of large mid-term revenue-raising measures, especially increases in the State's highly inefficient conveyance duty. [source] Test,re-test reliability of DSM-IV adopted criteria for 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) abuse and dependence: a cross-national studyADDICTION, Issue 10 2009Linda B. Cottler ABSTRACT Aims This study evaluated the prevalence and reliability of DSM-IV adopted criteria for 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) abuse and dependence with a purpose to determine whether it is best conceptualized within the category of hallucinogens, amphetamines or its own category. Design Test,re-test study. Participants MDMA users (life-time use >5 times) were recruited in St Louis, Miami and Sydney (n = 593). The median life-time MDMA consumption was 50 pills at the baseline. Measurements The computerized Substance Abuse Module for Club Drug (CD-SAM) was used to assess MDMA abuse and dependence. The Discrepancy Interview Protocol (DIP) was used to determine the reasons for the discrepant responses between the two interviews. Reliability of diagnoses, individual diagnostic criteria and withdrawal symptoms was examined using the kappa coefficient (,). Findings For baseline data, 15% and 59% met MDMA abuse and dependence, respectively. Substantial test,re-test reliability of the diagnoses was observed consistently across cities (, = 0.69). ,Continued use despite knowledge of physical/psychological problems' (87%) and ,withdrawal' (68%) were the two most prevalent dependence criteria. ,Physically hazardous use' was the most prevalent abuse criterion. Six dependence criteria and all abuse criteria were reported reliably across cities (,: 0.53,0.77). Seventeen of 19 withdrawal symptoms showed consistency in the reliability across cities. The most commonly reported reason for discrepant responses was ,interpretation of question changed'. Only a small proportion of the total discrepancies were attributed to lying or social desirability. Conclusion The adopted DSM-IV diagnostic classification for MDMA abuse and dependence was moderately reliable across cities. Findings on MDMA withdrawal support the argument that MDMA should be separated from other hallucinogens in DSM. [source] Enterprise Education: Influencing Students' Perceptions of EntrepreneurshipENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 2 2003Nicole E. Peterman This research examines the effect of participation in an enterprise education program on perceptions of the desirability and feasibility of starting a business. Changes in the perceptions of a sample of secondary school students enrolled in the Young Achievement Australia (YAA) enterprise program are analysed using a pre-test post-test control group research design. After completing the enterprise program, participants reported significantly higher perceptions of both desirability and feasibility. The degree of change in perceptions is related to the positiveness of prior experience and to the positiveness of the experience in the enterprise education program. Self-efficacy theory is used to explain the impact of the program. Overall, the study provides empirical evidence to support including exposure to entrepreneurship education as an additional exposure variable in entrepreneurial intentions models. [source] Social desirability and consensual validity of personality traitsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 7 2006Kenn Konstabel Abstract The effect of socially desirable responding (SDR) on the consensual validity of personality traits was studied. SDR was operationalized as the sum of items weighted by their respective social desirability values (Social Desirability Index, SDI), which could be computed for both self- and peer-reports. In addition, the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) was used as a measure of SDR. It was shown that both self-peer and peer-peer agreement rose significantly for most studied traits when SDI was controlled in both self- and peer-reports. BIDR was a significant suppressor variable in only one of the analyses involving Neuroticism. The SDI detected faking on personality scales somewhat better than the BIDR scales. It is argued that the SDI is a measure of evaluativeness of a person description, and that people agree more on descriptive than on evaluative aspects of a target's personality traits. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A randomized-response investigation of the education effect in attitudes towards foreignersEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 6 2009Martin Ostapczuk While negative correlations have often been found between a respondent's education and his attitudes towards foreigners, the reasons for this education effect are still under debate. We examined the hypothesis that the highly educated may not be genuinely less xenophobic, but simply more prone to give socially desirable, xenophile answers in attitude questionnaires. We therefore compared the attitudes of respondents who were either questioned directly or using a cheating detection extension of the randomized-response technique (RRT). The latter is supposed to yield more honest answers to sensitive questions by experimentally offering the interviewee a higher degree of confidentiality. Under direct questioning conditions, we replicated the education effect; 75% of the highly educated expressed xenophile attitudes, as opposed to only 55% of the less educated. Under randomized-response conditions, we obtained significantly reduced estimates of 53% for the proportion of xenophiles among the highly educated, and 24% among the less educated, indicating a strong distortion of self-reported attitudes towards foreigners in both groups. However, a significant proportion of participants disobeyed the RRT instructions regardless of education. Because the education effect was found even after controlling for social desirability, it seems to be a genuine effect, rather than an artefact of a differential response bias. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] The FLES Attitudinal InventoryFOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS, Issue 3 2000Teresa J. Kennedy The primary purpose of this study was to compare attitudinal differences between elementary students (K-5) involved in a regular Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools (FLES) program with their peers who were not provided with additive foreign language curriculum. Results from the study showed that students participating in FLES programs had positive attitudes relating to school, perceived difficulty in language acquisition, perceived desirability of foreign language study, cultural views, and student self-esteem and confidence levels in relation to their academic achievement in comparison with their non-FLES peers. The conclusions of this study suggest that FLES programs provide students with improved motivation to participate, to persist, and to succeed in second language study. [source] Quality-adjusted life years: how useful in medico economic studiesFUNDAMENTAL & CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY, Issue 6 2005Carmen A. Brauer Abstract Cost-effectiveness analysis has evolved as a practical response to the need to allocate limited resources for health care. It can be used to compare interventions whose effects on health are different if the measure of effectiveness captures all the important health dimensions of the effects of the interventions. Using the quality-adjusted life year (QALY) as the unit of effectiveness attempts to approach this ideal and is currently the approach recommended by many consensus groups. Conventional QALYs represent time spend in a series of "quality-weighted" health states, where the quality weights reflect the desirability of living in the state. Many challenges arise when preferences are incorporated into an economic analysis. The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the issues surrounding the use of QALYs and to encourage researchers to present their methodology in a clear and transparent way. [source] Longer and better lives for patients , and their centers: A strategy for building a home hemodialysis programHEMODIALYSIS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2008Melville H. HODGE Abstract Physicians should prescribe the dialysis mode most likely to result in the best outcome for the end-stage renal disease patient, not leave it to the patient or dialysis center to choose. That prescription, in order of decreasing desirability, should be for frequent home nocturnal hemodialysis, frequent home short-daily, or least efficacious, 3x in-center or peritoneal dialysis. Patient limitations may require prescribing a less than optimal mode. Physician-patient discussions should focus on expected clinical outcomes and health benefits, not patient convenience or "lifestyle." In order to overcome natural fears, qualified patients should participate in a short in-center frequent dialysis personal clinical trial to experience the benefits. The financial health of dialysis centers will be enhanced by shifting continually inflating labor costs from the center to patients and home caregivers. This shift from 3x in-center to frequent (optimally 6x nocturnal) home dialysis may reasonably be expected to enhance the survival and well-being of both the patient and the center. [source] Firm- and Individual-Level Determinants of Balanced Scorecard Usage,/DÉTERMINANTS DE L'USAGE DU TABLEAU DE BORD ÉQUILIBRÉ AU DOUBLE ÉCHELON ORGANISATIONNEL ET INDIVIDUELACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, Issue 2 2006MAJIDUL ISLAM ABSTRACT The factors influencing the organizational as well as the individual decision to utilize the balanced scorecard (BSC) approach have not been widely researched. In the first part of this paper, we study BSC adoption at the organizational level while utilizing a multifaceted perspective of socio-psychological, economic, and resource-based influences; specifically, we investigate the perceptions of desirability, urgency, and feasibility of BSC adoption. Our findings show that customer norms, competitor norms, and organizational resources are significant predictors of BSC adoption. In the second part of the paper, we discuss individual-level aspects of utilization decisions. Here, we explore the impact of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and awareness on the intentions to use the BSC approach. Our findings show that both awareness of BSC capabilities and perceived ease of use are significantly related to perceived usefulness. However, only perceived usefulness is significantly related to intentions to use the BSC. Implications for research and practice are discussed. [source] Improving Auditor Independence Through Selective Mandatory RotationINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 2 2002Miles B. Gietzmann When an auditor receives significant fee income from one client it has often been suggested that reappointment concerns may dilute auditors incentives to maintain independence from management. A possible response to this issue could be to mandate the rotation of auditors. However this is costly since new auditors must repeatedly invest in learning a new clients accounting system. In this research we build a model to formally analyze this trade-off. We find that the desirability of rotation depends critically upon characteristics of the audit market structure and to what extent an individual client dominates an auditors' client portfolio defined in terms of total fees. We show that although rotation is costly, in audit markets with relatively few large clients (thin markets), the resulting improved incentives for independence outweigh the associated costs. Our research is timely because although historically it may not have been economically desirable to adopt mandatory rotation, currently with increased corporate merger activity taking place, for instance in the oil sector, markets may now have become sufficiently thin to warrant the introduction of rotation. [source] Current Developments and Trends in Social and Environmental Auditing, Reporting and Attestation: A Review and CommentINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 3 2000Rob Gray This is a discursive paper which attempts to provide a personal review of current and recent developments in social and environmental reporting with particular emphasis on the attestation and auditing implications. The paper takes the essential desirability of social, environmental and sustainability reporting as a crucial element in any well-functioning democracy as a given. It further assumes that any civilised, but complex, society with pretensions to social justice, that seeks a potentially sustainable future and which wishes to try and rediscover some less exploitative and less insulated relationship with the natural environment, needs social and environmental reporting as one component in redirecting its social and economic organisation. With reporting being such a central issue, the paper further takes good quality attestation of that information as essential to both its reliability and its ability to fulfill its required role in developing transparency and accountability. The paper has three motifs: the need to clarify terminology in the field of social and environmental ,audits'; the current weakness of attestation practices in the area; and the significant , but unfulfilled , promise offered by professional accounting and auditing education and training. The paper concludes with a call for a substantial re-think of accounting education and training. [source] Is the Political Skill Inventory Fit for Personnel Selection?INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SELECTION AND ASSESSMENT, Issue 2 2010An Experimental Field Study The political skill inventory (PSI) assesses social effectiveness in organizations by self-reports and has demonstrated strong evidence of validity. It was the purpose of this experimental field study to investigate construct and criterion-related validity of the PSI when used under conditions of personnel selection. In the experimental group (n=102), the instructions asked job incumbents to work on the PSI, a social desirability scale, and a Big-Five personality inventory as if they took part in a personnel selection procedure for a personally very attractive position. Additionally, they were asked to report yearly income. In the control group (n=110), job incumbents were asked to answer the items honestly. As expected, in both conditions, the PSI did not correlate with social desirability, but it correlated positively with extraversion, conscientiousness, and income, and negatively with neuroticism, thus demonstrating construct and incremental criterion-related validity under both conditions. Implications and limitations are discussed. [source] Immigrant Place Entrepreneurs in Los Angeles, 1970,99INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF URBAN AND REGIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2002Ivan Light Proclamations of the death of Los Angeles' growth machine are premature. These proclamations overlook the growing role of immigrant Korean and Chinese entrepreneurs in regional property development. Since 1970, Korean and Chinese entrepreneurs have seriously restructured Los Angeles' morphology, creating hierarchically arranged residential and business clusters for co,ethnic immigrants. Koreatown and Monterey Park are the brand names most familiar to outsiders, but these prominent localities really coexist with a multiplicity of less well,known ethnic communities that owe their origins to immigrant property developers. The immigrant property developers use the classic methods of the growth machine: buy land cheaply, promote it in Chinese or Korean emigration basins, then sell it to co,ethnic immigrants at a profit. In the process, the immigrant property developers reduce the difficulty of immigration to Los Angeles at the same time that they enhance its perceived desirability. The success of the Chinese and Korean developers highlights the hazard of assuming, as is conventionally done, that ethnic residential clustering arises from leaderless social processes. In both these highlighted cases, entrepreneurial elites created residential clusters of co,ethnics from conscious, long,term plans that required political as well as economic savoir,faire. In so doing, the immigrant property developers joined the Los Angeles growth machine whose fortunes, admittedly, have been waning among the native born population of the region. La mort annoncée de la dynamique de croissance de Los Angeles est prématurée. Ce serait oublier le rôle grandissant des chefs d'entreprise immigrés coréens et chinois dans l'aménagement immobilier régional. Depuis 1970, ces entrepreneurs ont considérablement restructuré la morphologie de Los Angeles, créant des ,agglomérats' commerciaux et résidentiels hiérarchisés pour migrants de m?,me ethnie. Si Koreatown et Monterey Park sont des noms bien connus des étrangers, ces lieux dominants coexistent en réalité avec une multiplicité de communautés ethniques moins renommées qui doivent leurs origines à des promoteurs immigrés. Ces derniers appliquent les mécanismes classiques de la prospérité: acheter le terrain bon marché, le promouvoir dans des bassins d'émigration chinois ou coréens, puis le vendre à profità des immigrants co,ethniques. Ainsi, les promoteurs immigrés facilitent l'immigration vers Los Angeles tout en en accentuant l'aspect attractif. La réussite des aménageurs chinois et coréens souligne le risque qu'il y a à supposer, comme bien souvent, que tout regroupement résidentiel ethnique naît de processus sociaux non dirigés. Dans les deux cas exposés, les élites commerciales ont créé des regroupements résidentiels de m?,me ethnie selon des plans délibérés à long terme, impliquant un savoir,faire à la fois politique et économique. Ce faisant, les promoteurs immigrés ont rejoint la dynamique de croissance de Los Angeles qui, il est vrai, a vu décliner les succès au sein de sa population de souche. [source] Two Dimensions of Attachment to God and Their Relation to Affect, Religiosity, and Personality ConstructsJOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 4 2002Wade Rowatt In this study we sought to address several limitations of previous research on attachment theory and religion by (1) developing a dimensional attachment to God scale, and (2) demonstrating that dimensions of attachment to God are predictive of measures of affect and personality after controlling for social desirability and other related dimensions of religiosity. Questionnaire measures of these constructs were completed by a sample of university students and community adults (total n= 374). Consistent with prior research on adult romantic attachment, two dimensions of attachment to God were identified: avoidance and anxiety. After statistically controlling for social desirability, intrinsic religiousness, doctrinal orthodoxy, and loving God image, anxious attachment to God remained a significant predictor of neuroticism, negative affect, and (inversely) positive affect; avoidant attachment to God remained a significant inverse predictor of religious symbolic immortality and agreeableness. These findings are evidence that correlations between attachment to God and measures of personality and affect are not merely byproducts of confounding effects of socially desirable responding or other dimensions of religiosity. [source] Cooperation in the Budgeting ProcessJOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH, Issue 5 2003Qi Chen ABSTRACT In this article I analyze the role of cooperation between firm divisions in the budgeting process. I study a setting in which cooperation is a necessary condition for information sharing among division managers, which in turn benefits the principal. The results in this article can help reconcile the differing views between practitioners and academic researchers on the desirability of cooperation in the budgeting process. The results also have implications for some common budgeting processes observed in practice, including bundling budgeting and bottom-up budgeting. [source] What Matters When Deciding Whether to Participate in Colorectal Cancer Screening?JOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOBEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2010The Moderating Role of Time Perspective According to construal level theory (CLT), the more distant an event, the more likely it is to be represented in terms of abstract (e.g., desirability) versus concrete features (e.g., feasibility). This online study tested temporal distance effects in the context of colorectal cancer screening, which is desirable in terms of detecting cancer but relatively unpleasant. Consistent with CLT, participants in the distant future condition acquired more knowledge relating to the desirability of performing the test, attached greater weight to information emphasizing the long-term benefits, and exhibited stronger intentions to use the test. These findings suggest that the temporal distance between decision-making and behavioral execution plays an important role in the construal and application of central features of health actions. [source] Perceived Fitness Predicts Daily Coping Better Than Physical ActivityJOURNAL OF APPLIED BIOBEHAVIORAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2000Thomas G. Plante One hundred sixty-six participants (70 males, 96 females) completed a series of questionnaires measuring perceived fitness, social desirability, self-esteem, hope, and perceived stress levels and coping abilities. Participants were then given an activity monitoring device to wear for 1 week. Participants recorded daily measures of physical activity, perceived fitness, and perceived stress and coping over 7 days. Results revealed that although perceived physical fitness was reliably associated with coping, actual physical activity was not. These associations remained even after statistically controlling for gender, social desirability, self-esteem, hope, perceived stress, and anxiety. Findings suggest that perceived physical fitness may be a better predictor of daily coping than actual physical activity. [source] The Perils of Cognitive Enhancement and the Urgent Imperative to Enhance the Moral Character of HumanityJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2008INGMAR PERSSON abstract As history shows, some human beings are capable of acting very immorally.1 Technological advance and consequent exponential growth in cognitive power means that even rare evil individuals can act with catastrophic effect. The advance of science makes biological, nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction easier and easier to fabricate and, thus, increases the probability that they will come into the hands of small terrorist groups and deranged individuals. Cognitive enhancement by means of drugs, implants and biological (including genetic) interventions could thus accelerate the advance of science, or its application, and so increase the risk of the development or misuse of weapons of mass destruction. We argue that this is a reason which speaks against the desirability of cognitive enhancement, and the consequent speedier growth of knowledge, if it is not accompanied by an extensive moral enhancement of humankind. We review the possibilities for moral enhancement by biomedical and genetic means and conclude that, though it should be possible in principle, it is in practice probably distant. There is thus a reason not to support cognitive enhancement in the foreseeable future. However, we grant that there are also reasons in its favour, but we do not attempt to settle the balance between these reasons for and against. Rather, we conclude that if research into cognitive enhancement continues, as it is likely to, it must be accompanied by research into moral enhancement. [source] The Linguistic Territoriality Principle , A CritiqueJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 2 2008HELDER DE SCHUTTER abstract In this essay, I develop a critique of the linguistic territoriality principle, which states that, for reasons related to the value of language identity, language groups should be territorially accommodated. While I acknowledge the desirability of implementing a linguistic territoriality principle in some specific cases, I claim that this principle is in general inappropriate for the ,post-Westphalian' linguistic world in which we live. I identify, analyze and reject two distinct justifications for the linguistic territoriality principle: the Linguistic Context justification and the Language Survival justification. Finally, I argue for different means of giving political recognition to the fact that most people value their language as an importance source of identity. This alternative theory sets out to officially recognize multiple languages in a given territory. [source] The Social Networks of People with Intellectual Disability Living in the Community 12 Years after Resettlement from Long-Stay HospitalsJOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH IN INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES, Issue 4 2006Rachel Forrester-Jones Background, The social inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities presents a major challenge to services. As part of a 12-year follow up of people resettled from long-stay hospitals, the size of 213 individuals' social networks and the types of social support they received were investigated, as viewed by people with intellectual disabilities themselves. The types of support received in four different kinds of community accommodation were compared. Method, Individuals were interviewed and their social support networks mapped using a Social Network Guide developed for the study. Descriptive statistics were generated and comparisons made using generalized linear modelling. Results, The sample comprised 117 men (average age 51 years) and 96 women (average age 56 years). All but seven were White British, 92% were single and they had in general, mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. The average network size was 22 members (range 3,51). The mean density was 0.5. A quarter of all network members were other service users with intellectual disabilities and a further 43% were staff. Only a third of the members were unrelated to learning disability services. In general, the main providers of both emotional and practical support were staff, although these relationships were less likely to be described as reciprocal. Other people with intellectual disabilities were the second most frequent providers of all types of support. People in small group homes, hostels and supported accommodation were significantly more likely to report close and companiable relationships than those in residential and nursing homes, but they also reported a greater proportion of critical behaviour. Conclusions, The social networks revealed in this study are considerably larger than those of previous studies which have relied on staff reports, but findings about the generally limited social integration of people with intellectual disabilities are similar. A clearer policy and practice focus on the desirability of a range of different social contexts from which to derive potentially supportive network members is required so that people do not remain segregated in one area of life. [source] Measuring Sexism, Racism, Sexual Prejudice, Ageism, Classism, and Religious Intolerance: The Intolerant Schema MeasureJOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 10 2009Allison C. Aosved Despite similarities between sexism, racism, sexual prejudice, ageism, classism, and religious intolerance, investigators do not routinely investigate these intolerant beliefs simultaneously. The purpose of this project was to create a brief, psychometrically sound measure of intolerance reflecting these 6 constructs. Data from existing measures (Attitudes Toward Women Scale, Neosexism Scale, Modern and Old-Fashioned Racism Scale, Modern Homophobia Scale, Frabroni Scale of Ageism, Economic Beliefs Scale, and M-GRISM) and from items created by the authors were obtained from several college samples to create the Intolerant Schema Measure (ISM). Results support the internal consistency, test,retest reliability, and factor structure of the questionnaire. Expected relationships between measured concepts, social dominance, social desirability, and across key demographic groups support the validity of the instrument. [source] Let Go or Retain?JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 7 2009A Comparative Study of the Attitudes of Business Students, Managers About the Retirement of Older Workers This study's central research question is: "How do managers evaluate the desirability of early retirement of their employees, and under what circumstances and for what types of workers are they in favor of delay?" We sought to compare managers' and business students' decision making regarding older workers. We examined the extent to which student samples are appropriate to study organizational behavior. An identical factorial survey was carried out among 26 managers and 25 business school students. The results revealed that business students concentrate on performance-related individual characteristics when making selection decisions, whereas managers also recognize contextual factors (need for downsizing, tight labor market) and older workers' attitudes toward retirement. 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