Measurement Issues in Human Behaviour Theory

Abstract

This paper provides a brief introduction to the use of standardized measurement scales in behavioural theory, discusses some of the limitations of the domain sampling model of measurement for behavioural scientists and practitioners, and identifies central measurement issues in behavioural theory that are germane to all measurement tools. The ever popular and useful behavioural checklist is used to introduce the domain sampling model of measurement and to describe how it can be treated as a standardized measurement tool.     

A Comparison of Sexual Behaviors and Attitudes,Self-Esteem,Quality of Life,and Drug Use Among Pornography Actors and a Matched Sample

ABSTRACT

The present study compared the self-reports of 105 porn actors to a sample of men matched on age, ethnicity, and marital status. Comparisons were conducted on sexual behaviors and attitudes, self-esteem, quality of life, and drug use. Porn actors’ first sex was at an earlier age, they had more sexual partners and a higher enjoyment of sex, they were more concerned about catching a sexually transmitted disease, and they were less likely to use a condom during a first-time sexual encounter compared with the matched sample, although there were no differences in incidence of childhood sexual abuse. In terms of psychological characteristics, porn actors had higher levels of self-esteem and quality-of-life indicators. Lastly, male performers were more likely to have used five different types of drugs compared with the comparison group during their lifetime and were more likely to have used marijuana during the past 6 months. These findings provide mixed support for stereotypes concerning male porn actors.     

Exploiting one’s power with a guilty conscience: An experimental investigation of self-serving biases

In our experimental investigation powerful managers use their discretion power to their own advantage and admit that their behavior is unfair. This contradicts studies stressing self-serving biases. Self-serving biases are often identified by asking people what fairness standards apply in situations with alternative income distributions. Nevertheless, when the response to a question is connected with a distributional decision, only the reply, but not necessarily the fairness standard, is biased. Social preference models envisage decisions as a compromise between self-interest and social concerns (norms). A model-based estimation of social concerns, as provided by this paper, is capable of identifying different sorts of self-serving biases. Higher income triggers higher fairness scores, but there are no indications that a relatively higher income compared to the peers is generally perceived as fairer than a relatively lower income.     

The Effects of Contingent Caregiver Imitation of Infant Vocalizations: a Comparison of Multiple Caregivers

The present study replicated and extended the Pelaez et al. (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 44:33–40, 2011) study, which examined the reinforcing effects of mothers’ contingent imitation of their infants’ vocalizations. Three infants aged 7–12 months who could vocalize sounds but not words participated with two caregivers for each infant (i.e., triads). During the intervention phase, the caregivers were asked to immediately imitate all vocalizations emitted by the child for a 3-min period. During the yoked control phase, the caregivers listened to an audio recording from the preceding condition and provided vocalizations non-contingently on the infants’ responses. The procedures yielded different results across participants; one infant emitted a higher frequency of vocalizations during the contingent imitation phases over the control phases, and the other two infants showed higher rates of responding during the control phases. However, all infants emitted more imitative return vocalizations during contingent reinforcement conditions compared with the yoked control condition.     

Exploring the underpinnings of impaired strategic decision-making under stress

The present study sought to examine the underpinnings of impaired strategic decision-making under stress. In contrast to previous laboratory-based research, we conducted a quasi-experiment in a real life stress situation. Specifically, we used the beauty contest game and compared the performance of a group of participants who were exposed to a real-life stressor (waiting to attend an exam at a university class) with a control group of participants who were not exposed to stress (waiting to attend a regular lecture at a university class). Furthermore, about half of the participants were instructed to write down what they believed another participant had assumed the average number in the beauty contest game to be and which target number she (or he) had chosen accordingly. The results showed that stress impaired strategic reasoning in the beauty contest game. Importantly, even when only including participants who understood the rules of the game in the analyses, stress still increased the numbers chosen in the beauty contest. Furthermore, we found that participants in the stress condition were significantly less likely to base their chosen number on their belief about other players’ choices. Hence, stress not only impairs understanding of the math behind the beauty contest game but also the degree of strategizing per se.     

“统合治理”： 地方政府经营行为的一种理论解释

“统合治理”是指地方政府在城市化过程中利用公司化平台进行经营性运作的治理模式。“统合治理”模式下,政治机制、行政机制与公司化经营机制的联结成为地方政府权力运行模式的主要特征,项目平台公司成为承载权力运行的典型组织化治理工具,并进而实现了外部资源汲取能力的提升及内部资源整合能力的强化这两方面的权力扩张。我国地方政府普遍采用“统合治理”模式推动开发区建设和城市基础设施建设,并取得了显著绩效。但这种治理模式也面临着权力冲突与合法性问题,其未来走向取决于地方政府在集权权力结构下对中央绩效压力回应策略的选择。     

从生育行为看农村妇女的家庭地位——基于江西X村的研究

通过对农村妇女生育行为及其家庭地位的个案访谈,发现从农村妇女的生育行为,主要是生育孩子的数量和性别,已经无法准确判断她们的家庭地位.即生育行为与妇女的家庭地位之间的联系正在弱化甚至消失,取而代之的是包括妇女的性别意识、经济独立性、知识水平等多方面因素.因此,提高农村妇女家庭地位的途径也变得多样化,其中,增强农村女性自身素质显得尤为重要.     

新生代农民工市民化意愿心理影响因素的理论框架

心理因素是影响新生代农民工市民化意愿的重要方面。以多维视角的人类行为理论与迁移心理学为理论依据,影响新生代农民工市民化意愿的心理因素由动机、态度、情感、参照点依赖、风险偏好与从众心理构成。从理论上来看,动机、对城市的态度与对相关制度的态度、公平感、风险偏好对新生代农民工市民化意愿存在正向影响,对流动的态度、相对剥夺感与从众心理对新生代农民工市民化意愿存在负向影响,参照点依赖对新生代农民工意愿的影响方向取决于新生代农民工与参照点在收入与权益方面差距的变化趋势。     

Disasters,donations, and tax law changes: Disentangling effects on subjective well-being by exploiting a natural experiment

This study investigates (i) whether an increase in donations in the aftermath of disasters can mitigate the negative effects on subjective well-being (SWB), and if so, (ii) whether policy measures, such as tax law changes, can amplify this mitigating effect by providing further incentives for donations. To analyze these questions, we use data on the recent, impactful triple disaster on March 11, 2011 in Japan (3–11). Coincidentally, only three months after the disaster, a long-planned change in tax law was put into effect that allows higher tax deductions for charitable donations. Applying a moderated mediation analysis to a unique dataset, we are able to disentangle the total rise of donations into positive effects that are caused by the disaster itself and positive effects that are caused by the recent change in the Japanese tax law. The results of our study are as follows: First, we show that about 30% of the direct negative effect of 3–11 on SWB is mediated and mitigated by donations. Second, we show that the change in taxation law could have further mitigated the negative SWB effects of 3–11, if more people had been aware of it. However, since a large majority of the Japanese public had not even been aware of the tax law change, potential mitigating effects by increased donations have not been realized. As for policy implications, our results show that governments can create incentives for donations that not only support disaster reconstruction, but also mitigate the negative SWB effects of disasters.     

引入总部监督对内部资本市场效率的影响

内部资本市场的运作效率在一定程度上决定了企业集团优势的发挥。企业总部依据分部经理提供的私人信息,通过内部资本市场(ICM)对资金进行重新配置,而利己的分部经理会利用自身的信息优势,通过实施机会主义行为干扰总部的配置决策,因此分部经理的这种异化行为是影响ICM配置效率的关键因素。已有文献的研究主要集中在总部如何设计对分部经理的激励机制上,而较少关注监督对分部经理投机行为的影响。本文引入总部监督机制,考虑分部经理情绪敏感性因素,建立总部监督与分部经理行为之间的博弈模型,认为总部监督可以降低信息租金的支付,部分替代激励功能;总部监督可能造成分部经理消极怠工和出工不出力等现象,导致资金产出折损,即存在"负激励"效应;"替代"效应、监督成本效应与"负激励"效应共同决定ICM效率。