Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and Cultural Community Psychology: The Potential for Greater Commonality

Greater commonality for Cultural-Community Psychology (CC) and cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) is advocated. The potential for greater commonality is exemplified by a series of examples of the many researchers who now use concepts from both CC and CHAT, including our own career work in culture studies, community development, delinquency, and education. A centering whorl of science is observable in the density of intersections across fields, and research on common propositions, such as the current intersections of intersubjectivity and joint activity, as studied by CC, CHAT, cognitive science, psychoneurology, and intervention theories. Therein exists the promise of a new center of commonality in psychology.     

Managing by fact

Some organisations claim to have a "management-by-fact" culture, meaning that managerial decisions are based on data, rather than assumptions or opinions. Roland Caulcutt explains how an organisation can work towards this goal by using a simple graphical technique.     

The meaning of consumption

Three samples of subjects, varying in involvement in daily economic matters, were asked to rank order 32 activities according to whether each activity meant consumption. Spending activities were central in the meaning of consumption, but no major intersample difference could be obtained.Smallest Space Analysis showed that ‘expenditure vs non-expenditure’ and ‘necessity vs non-necessity’ were the most important dimensions along which people's thinking about consumption was organised. A third dimension, ‘stress vs non-stress’ had an uncertain dimensional interpretation and is only presented in a tentative way.Using Procrustean Individual Difference Scaling it was shown that the three samples did not differ in dimensional saliences, but a vector-weighting transformation indicated some structural differences in the activity space. Yet no systematic influence of the involvement in daily economics on the meaning of consumption has been found. Finally, a conceptual hierarchical model for the subjective meaning of consumption is proposed.     

Prevalence and correlates of interpersonal violence victimization in a junior enlisted Navy cohort

This study assesses the prevalence and correlates of interpersonal violence victimization in a cohort of 493 male and 220 female junior Navy personnel who participated in a cross-sectional follow-up study on health-related behaviors. Survey data were obtained during 2000 about past-year prevalence of physical violence and sexual victimization. Chi-square tests of independence and multivariable logistic regression analyses were employed to estimate prevalence rates and to assess correlates of interpersonal violence. No gender differences were found for rates of violence victimization (16.4%) or sexual victimization (4.5%). Significant correlates of interpersonal violence victimization among males were depression and tobacco use; among females, significant correlates were depression and frequent heavy drinking. Findings suggest that large numbers of young enlisted adults serving in the military may be victims of interpersonal violence.     

Reason-based judgments: Using reasons to decouple perceived price–quality correlation

Many models of consumer behaviour assume that people evaluate price and quality independently. However, evidence shows that consumers perceive price and quality as positively related even when they are weakly correlated in the real markets. This paper explores whether this perceived relationship can be cognitively de-coupled by providing explicit reasons why low price and high quality may be compatible. The participants were asked to rate existing stores and fictitious stores in a two-dimensional price–quality space. When the participants were given plausible reasons why the seemingly high quality fictitious stores could have lower than average prices, their judgement of the price–quality relationship was significantly less correlated than when these stores were judged without such reasons. Therefore, the demonstrated phenomenon of reason-based judgments can be used to attenuate the typical price–quality overestimation, or heuristic, which has important implications for decision making research and marketing practice.     

Simulation Technology: A Potential Tool for Social Work Education

After discussing the rationale and procedures by which a course in human sexuality was introduced the authors discuss some of the critical issues that developed during the teaching of the material. It was found that desensitizing became a major factor in integration of course content, and that graduate students needed time to discuss their own feelings about sexual issues. During the several times this course was taught, it became increasingly evident that students often diagnosed pathology based on their own attitudes toward specific sexual activities, and had to learn to use other criteria for more objective assessments.