Individual Attributes (individual + attribute)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Dyadic Characteristics of Individual Attributes: Attachment, Neuroticism, and Their Relation to Marital Quality and Closeness

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 4 2005
Adital Ben-Ari PhD
The present article focuses on couple types based on 2 personality traits, attachment security and neuroticism, as they relate to 2 facets of the marital relationship,a global evaluation of relationship quality and dyadic closeness,distance. The sample consisted of 248 married couples who completed measures of attachment anxiety and avoidance, neuroticism, and marital quality, as well as levels of closeness reported over 7 consecutive days. Cluster analyses yielded 3 types of dyadic attachment configurations (secure, fearful avoidant, and insecure-mixed) and 4 types of dyadic neuroticism (low couple neuroticism, high couple neuroticism, wife neuroticism, and husband neuroticism). Significant differences were found among attachment and neuroticism dyadic types in marital quality. The findings are discussed in terms of the viability of dyadic types based on individual traits, implying that attachment security yields itself to dyadic conceptualization more than neuroticism. [source]


Multilevel Social Dynamics Considerations for Project Management Decision Makers: Antecedents and Implications of Group Member Tie Development

DECISION SCIENCES, Issue 3 2010
Elliot Bendoly
ABSTRACT Successful projects represent the effective culmination of management skills, planning, and individual project member strengths. In operations management, such strengths are often viewed predominantly from the perspective of skill base. However, it has become increasingly evident that behavioral traits associated with individuals play a very significant, if not ultimately dominating, role in the effectiveness of certain group projects. Our aim in this study is to look into how certain individual attributes viewed as relevant to these project contexts may lead to social networking decisions that have impacts spanning multiple levels of analysis. Such insights are likely to prove valuable to decision makers managing project teams as well. We employ a controlled 4-month investigation of multiple projects, for which we are able to consider both objective, and subjective pre-, in situ, and postproject data. Our results demonstrate that the issues of perceived control, confidence, and conscientiousness are relevant not only in driving individual perceptions of the value of within-group interactions, and hence the development of associated ties, but are also ultimately relevant in helping to drive higher levels of group performance. [source]


Self-rated importance of religion predicts one-year outcome of patients with panic disorder

DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY, Issue 5 2006
F.R.C.P.(C.), Rudy Bowen M.D.C.M.
Abstract Cognitive-behavioral therapy and medication are efficacious treatments for panic disorder, but individual attributes such as coping and motivation are important determinants of treatment response. A sample of 56 patients with panic disorder, treated with group cognitive-behavioral therapy, were reassessed 6 months and 12 months after initial assessment. We studied the effect of self-rated importance of religion, perceived stress, self-esteem, mastery, and interpersonal alienation on outcome as measured by the General Severity Index of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI.GSI). Importance of religion was a predictor of BSI.GSI symptom improvement at 1 year. Over time, improvement was seen for the religion is very important subgroup in the BSI.GSI and Perceived Stress Scales. This study suggests that one mechanism by which high importance of religion reduces psychiatric symptoms is through reducing perceived stress. Depression and Anxiety 23:266,273, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Ethical evaluations and behavioural intentions of early career accountants: the impact of mentors, peers and individual attributes

ACCOUNTING & FINANCE, Issue 3 2009
Lisa McManus
I20; M40; M41 Abstract This study examined how mentoring support, peer influence and individual attributes of early career accountants (ECA) influence their ethical evaluations and behavioural intentions. Respondents indicate that their evaluation of the seriousness of the ethical conflict is affected by the perceived standard of ethical conduct of their peers, their personal ethical orientation, the extent of ethics education at university, and gender. ECAs' evaluation of a senior colleague's unethical behaviour is affected by mentoring support and the perceived standard of ethical conduct of peers. In terms of ECAs' willingness to contact accounting professional bodies for ethical advice, the size of the accounting firm and the extent of their ethics education at university are significant factors. Furthermore, the likelihood of respondents choosing a more ethical decision is correlated with his or her individual ethical orientation and the extent of ethics education at university. [source]


Persistent Policy Effects on the Division of Domestic Tasks in Reunified Germany

JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY, Issue 4 2007
Lynn Prince Cooke
We are only beginning to unravel the mechanisms by which the division of domestic tasks varies in its sociopolitical context. Selecting couples from the German SocioEconomic Panel who married between 1990 and 1995 in the former East and West regions of Germany and following them until 2000 (N= 348 couples), I find evidence of direct, interaction, and contextual effects predicting husbands' hours in and share of household tasks but not child care. East German men perform a greater share of household tasks than West German men after controlling for individual attributes and regional factors. Child care remains more gendered, and the first child's age proves the most important predictor of fathers' involvement. These findings further our understanding of how the state shapes gender equity in the home. [source]


Utility transversality: a value-based approach

JOURNAL OF MULTI CRITERIA DECISION ANALYSIS, Issue 5-6 2005
James E. Matheson
Abstract We examine multiattribute decision problems where a value function is specified over the attributes of a decision problem, as is typically done in the deterministic phase of a decision analysis. When uncertainty is present, a utility function is assigned over the value function to represent the decision maker's risk attitude towards value, which we refer to as a value-based approach. A fundamental result of using the value-based approach is a closed form expression that relates the risk aversion functions of the individual attributes to the trade-off functions between them. We call this relation utility transversality. The utility transversality relation asserts that once the value function is specified there is only one dimension of risk attitude in multiattribute decision problems. The construction of multiattribute utility functions using the value-based approach provides the flexibility to model more general functional forms that do not require assumptions of utility independence. For example, we derive a new family of multiattribute utility functions that describes richer preference structures than the usual multilinear family. We also show that many classical results of utility theory, such as risk sharing and the notion of a corporate risk tolerance, can be derived simply from the utility transversality relations by appropriate choice of the value function. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Influence of facial skin attributes on the perceived age of Caucasian women

JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ACADEMY OF DERMATOLOGY & VENEREOLOGY, Issue 8 2008
A Nkengne
Abstract Background and objective, The facial appearance of a person does not always reflect the chronological age; some people look younger or older than they really are. Many studies have described the changes in skin properties (colour, wrinkles, sagging, micro relief, etc.) with age, but few of them have analysed their influence on the perceived age. The primary objective of this study was to assess the contribution of individual skin attributes of the face on the perceived age of Caucasian women. Secondary objectives were to assess the influence of age and gender of graders with regard to the age perception. Subjects and method, A random sample of 173 subjects of 20 to 74 years of age was taken from a database of more than 5000 healthy Caucasian women. A trained grader performed visual assessment of facial skin attributes (using a visual analogue scale), and a front face photograph was taken from each subject. Photographs were shown to 48 graders (20 men and 28 women, aged 22,64 years) who were asked to estimate the age of the subjects. Graders were classified as young (less than 35 years), middle age (35,50 years) and seniors (older than 50 years). Partial Least Square regression models were built to predict the chronological and the perceived age from the measured facial individual attributes. The contribution of each attribute within the regression model enabled to measure the relevance of this attribute with regards to age prediction. Results, The eye area and the skin colour uniformity were the main attributes related to perceived age. For age prediction, older graders' estimations were more driven by lips border definition shape and eyes opening, whereas younger graders' (older than 50 years) estimations were more driven by dark circles, nasolabial fold and brown spots. There were statistically significant differences in graders' age perception between gender and among age ranges. Our findings suggest that female graders are more accurate than male, and younger graders (under 35 years) are more accurate than older (over 50 years) to predict Caucasian women age from facial photographs. Conclusions, Different skin attributes influence the estimation of age. These attributes have a different weight in the evaluation of the perceived age, depending on the age and of the observer. The most important attributes to estimate age are eyes, lips and skin colour uniformity. [source]