Commitment and Sacrifice in Emerging Adult Romantic Relationships

The development of commitment and satisfaction with sacrifice has been associated with relationship health and stability. Given the importance of early romantic relationships, the purpose of the present study was to explore how these constructs relate and develop in an emerging adult population (n = 246). Through an initial confirmatory factor analysis, we found the two constructs can be distinct. Then, using interdependence theory and a cross-lagged model over three time points, we found support for a bidirectional relationship between commitment and satisfaction with sacrifice. In addition, we found a main effect for relationship length and instability (i.e., cycling) on Time 1 and Time 3 dedication respectively.     

A causal model for supply chain partner’s commitment

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations of information, organisation and environment on the supply chain partner’s commitment using data from the auto parts industries listed in the Taiwan External Trade Development Council. Low levels of environmental uncertainty within the context of supply chain relationships with higher levels of intraorganisational facilitators and interorganisational relationships will have influence on the level of information sharing, quality and availability. As expected, it was found that there is a positive relationship between the level of information sharing, quality and availability, and the level of trust. Additionally, it was also found that there is a positive relationship between levels of trust and commitment in supply chain relationships.     

关系收益对顾客保持的影响研究——承诺和信任的中间媒介效应

文章以关系收益和顾客保持为切入点,旨在研究关系营销投入与产出的关系,将关系收益分为经济收益、社会收益和心理收益,并构建了以关系收益为前因、承诺和信任为媒介、顾客保持为结果的结构方程模型。针对消费者市场的实证数据分析结果表明,经济收益对承诺影响显著,社会收益对信任影响显著,心理收益对承诺和信任影响均比较显著。另外,承诺和信任对顾客保持以及信任对承诺都有显著的影响。最后,根据理论框架和研究结果提出相关建议和未来研究方向。     

Dynamic Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: An Experimental Investigation of Choices Between Accumulator Gambles

This paper presents an experiment that is designed to be more effective than previous studies at reproducing in the laboratory the affective experiences of risk-taking, such as hope, fear, thrill, pain of loss, regret, disappointment or elation. The use of dynamic choice problems involving accumulator gambles, and a particular randomisation device to resolve them, are central to the design. Our results both are inconsistent with orthodox dynamic choice theory and cast doubt on the generality of effects observed in previous designs. We discuss these findings, in terms of the relative impacts on behaviour of affective experience and judgement.     

Affective lexicons and indigenous responses: therapeutic interventions in social work practice with Chinese immigrant elders

This article discusses social work practice with a group of Chinese‐speaking immigrant elders in New York City who favour the use of traditional affective lexicons that communicate distress in oblique, metaphorical and somatic forms. It examines the therapeutic values of the social workers' indigenous responses, as shaped by their intuitive understanding of the latent emotional content of communication within the cultural context. The discussion affirms the importance of the emotional connection between worker and client, invariably shaped by language, cultural norms, and individual proclivity, as the universal substrate of cross‐cultural social work practice.

本文讨论关于针对一群移居纽约市但仍然喜欢以传统中文词汇, 隐喻等沟通的华语长者的社会工作实务。本文也探索了社会工作者的本土反应包括:通过理解语言背后的文化脉络, 从而认识当事人的潜在情绪等在治疗学上的价值。本文申明了社会工作者与当事人之间情感联系的重要性, 而这种联系往往是由跨文化社会工作底下的语言和文化规范等塑造而成的。     

Reconstructing the social constructionist view of emotions: from language to culture,including nonhuman culture

The thesis of social constructionism is that emotions are shaped by culture and society. I build on this insight to show that existing social constructionist views of emotions, while providing valid research methods, overly restrict the scope of the social constructionist agenda. The restriction is due to the ontological assumption that social construction is indissociable from language. In the first part, I describe the details of the influential social constructionist views of Averill and Harré. Drawing on recent theorizing in psychology, I suggest that their fixation on language makes these approaches inadequate to the analysis of the social construction of human emotional experience. In the second part, I extend the argument to other species, suggesting that these social constructionist views are incapable of accommodating the fact, ascertained by primatologists, that animals have cultures, and that part of animal culture concerns the social molding of their emotions. I conclude that a reconstructed social constructionism should be regarded not as inimical to, but as part and parcel of, a nonreductive biology of emotions.     

Biological Underpinnings of Borderline Personality Disorder

SUMMARY

Biological understanding of a personality disorder is best achieved by examining the disorder's component dimensions, which for borderline personality disorder include impulsive aggression and affective instability. Current biological research into BPD aims to identify the neurotransmitters and brain regions implicated in each of these key domains. Because of advancing technologies and analytic strategies, structural and functional neuroimaging are at the forefront of such efforts. Structural neuroimaging, primarily in the form of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, gives information about the anatomy of the brain, while functional neuroimaging, primarily functional MRI (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans, gives information about brain activity and neurotransmitter systems at the molecular level. BPD neuroimaging studies to date have implied the involvement of several neurotransmitter systems, principally serotonin, along with dysfunction of select brain regions, including the prefrontal cortex and amygdala, suggesting a “dualbrain pathology”: “hyperarousal-dyscontrol syndrome.” However, the exact mechanisms of all these putative etiologies remain unknown.