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The article offers information on the 13th meeting of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS) in Bologna, Italy in 2013.

Background: Visibility of the transgender community has increased, particularly in the media. Trans teachers face a challenge, as their professional roles are both public and private. In an effort to seek personal and professional support, trans teachers have turned to social media outlets. Additionally, current research does not always encompass intersectional experiences of trans BIPOC teachers. Aim: This paper presents an autohistoria-teoría, or autoethnographical case study account of the author's experience coming out in the workplace as a trans teacher in Texas. Methods: Guided by Slavin et al. multicultural model of the stress process coupled with intersectionality, this paper attempts to describe how a trans teacher of color navigates the workplace. The data for this study are a collection of all of the author's social media posts from 2005 to 2015. Results: Findings reveal that allies provided some support, and that this trans teacher used deflection as a coping strategy in posts. Conclusion: The results suggest that administrative and peer support can impact transgender workers' mental well-being. In this paper, autohistoria-teoría is used as a powerful way for a trans BIPOC teacher's narrative to be told, which contributed to cultural healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risky alcohol use is a major public health problem globally and in Sri Lanka. While a reduction in alcohol consumption can result in physical, mental, and social benefits, behaviour change is difficult to achieve. Effective, context-adapted interventions are required to minimise alcohol-related harm at a community level. THEATRE is a complex, community-based intervention evaluating whether a promising Sri Lankan pilot study that utilised arts-based research to moderate alcohol use can be scaled up. While the scaled-up pilot study protocol is presented elsewhere, the aim of this protocol paper is to describe the intervention programme theory and evaluation design, and modifications made to the study resulting from COVID-19 and the financial crisis. Drawing on the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) and Theoretical Domains Framework, behaviour change theories are presented with potential pathways to guide implementation and evaluation. Alcohol consumption patterns and context of drinking is detailed. The multifaceted intervention targets individuals and communities using arts-based interventions. Four of nine BCW functions are employed in the design of the intervention: education, persuasion, modelling and enablement, and training. Modifications made to the study due to COVID-19 and the financial crisis are described. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Review Committee, Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka (ERC/2018/21—July 2018 and Feb 2022) and the University of Sydney (2019/006). Findings will be disseminated locally to community members and key stakeholders and via international peer-reviewed publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on various papers relating to crime and community published in the journal Sociological focus. Each of the papers published follow contributions in an important theoretical or empirical way to one's understanding of community, inequality and crime. Here, they outline the key issues addressed in the articles and offer the journal's sense of the directions for future research suggested by the papers. Observing these disparate patterns, author Jeanette Covington identifies the contradictions in the inequality-crime literature as reflecting largely a theoretical problem. She argues that underlying the Blaus' thesis is a conception of race in which the "black psyche" is considered as different in kind from that of whites. She notes, however, that there is no empirical support for either the notion that there is a distinctive black psychology, or the assumption that racial stratification is associated with a unique black psychological reaction of frustration the mechanism assumed in the inequality-crime literature to lead to greater black violence.

This paper examines some of the key factors that determine how hedonic advertising appeals influence consumption impulses. Study 1 demonstrates that when advertising appeals vividly describe the pleasures of consumption rather than the utilitarian functions of the product, message recipients are able to visualize the emotions they are likely to experience during the consumption process. These anticipated emotions, once activated, may be so overwhelming that a tug-of-war between impulse and self-restraint occurs, prompting message recipients to generate excuses to justify yielding to their consumption impulses. Study 2 replicates this process and goes further by showing how hedonic appeals influence taste anticipation and consumption impulses. Ideas for future research and implications for advertising researchers and practitioners are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper uses a game-theoretic setting to examine the interaction between strategic attackers who try to gain unauthorized access to information systems, or "targets," and defenders of those targets. Our analysis of the attacker--defender interaction shows that well-protected targets can use signals of their superior level of protection as a deterrence tool. This is due to the fact that, all other things being equal, rational attackers motivated by potential financial gains tend to direct their effort toward less-protected targets. We analyze several scenarios differing in the scope of publicly available information about target parameters and discuss conditions under which greater defenders' ability to signal their security characteristics may improve their welfare. Our results may assist security researchers in devising better defense strategies through the use of deterrence and provide new insight about the efficacy of specific security practices in complex information security environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports evidence of the development and validity of a state measure titled salespersons' information overload (SIO). SIO is defined as a state evoked by salespeople's attempts to process an amount of information that exceeds their ability to assimilate or process during a given unit of time (cf. Jacoby, Speller, and Kohn 1974). Manifestations of information overload are increasing errors and negative affect such as confusion or frustration (Jacoby, Speller, and Kohn 1974; Keller and Staelin 1987). Even though SIO originally appeared in Hunter (2004), examination of its development and validity in that article was limited. This paper builds upon the previous work of Hunter by examining the conceptual basis of the scale and its relation to other constructs. Such a deeper investigation should inform future research by clarifying the dimensions and boundaries of the construct, its theoretical basis, and its relationship to sales outcomes of interest such as sales performance and job satisfaction [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental simulation has been defined as the cognitive construction of hypothetical scenarios, which are usually in the form of stories or narratives. The experiment in this paper examines the favorable effect of ad-encouraged mental simulation on ad attitudes and brand evaluations. A model is developed wherein mental simulation persuades via narrative transportation, defined as immersion into a story (Gerrig 1994; Green and Brock 2000), Transportation includes strong affective responses and low levels of critical thought, which, in turn. affect ad attitudes and brand evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a commentary on the paper "Does Advertising Communicate Product Quality To Consumers? Some Evidence From Consumer Reports," by Raymond A. Marquardt and Anthony F. McGann. The commentator notes that the authors provided an examination of recent developments in the price/quality rating issue as well as the relationship of advertising dollars spent to product rating received. The author contends that the researchers failed to produce critical comparisons of certain product categories between previous studies.

Anonymity is a fundamental concept in group support systems (GSS) research. It is expected to reduce fear of social disapproval and of evaluation, and to lower inhibition and censorship. This is believed to create an environment that improves participation and communication, that promotes more objective and honest evaluation of ideas, and that enhances the productivity of groups and their decision-making process. However, empirical evidence about what are the effects of anonymity in GSS is inconclusive. This paper argues that there are two main reasons for the lack of consistent findings. First is the fact that anonymity has been defined too narrowly as the nonidentification of participants when, in fact, the literature in social psychology suggests that anonymity is multidimensional and subjective in nature. Second is the fact that the effects of anonymity interacts with other situational variables, making its relation to disinhibition complex. This paper argues that one critical situational variable is the importance of social evaluation of group members. A measure of the new conceptualization of anonymity and of the importance of social evaluation is proposed and the results of a preliminary test are presented. A contingency approach for studying the effects of anonymity is presented and the implications for future research and for practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1952 presidential campaign was the first in which TV spots were used by a White House hopeful. Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates and Company prepared the TV spot blitz for Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. The rival Democratic Volunteers for Stevenson organization tried to scuttle the proposed broadcast blitz by releasing a copy of the master plan for the TV campaign, charging that the Republican, planned to fill the airwaves with political soap suds and bubble gum and by asking the FCC to bar the campaign. The Republicans were undaunted. The spot blitz aired in the final weeks before the election. Saturation levels were attained in 11 states, and heavy to light schedules were aired in another 29 states. Scholarly studies of the effects of television on the outcome of the election by and large find that the TV spots had no effect on the landslide Eisenhower victory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper generally deals with the application of two-sided persuasive communication to advertising. Credibility of advertising and consumer response to present advertising practice is discussed. Theoretical considerations include expectancy theory and cognitive dissonance. Situations for which one-sided arguments are set forth, the paper includes a review of empirical research, primarily in social psychology, dealing with two-sided mass communication relevant to advertising. Credibility of the two-sided argument is discussed. The two-sided persuasive argument is proposed as a solution to the problem of increasing consumer cynicism toward advertising and as a means of enhancing the informative value of advertising communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:There are two occupational groups in Sweden that are expected to have significant impact on educational work related to children in need of special support. These two groups are special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) and special education teachers. In this paper, we use the collective name ‘special educators’ to refer to both groups. Special educators are expected to have specific knowledge regarding the identification of, and work with, school difficulties. However, there is noticeably little research concerning these occupational groups. This study was undertaken in order to further our knowledge about special educators’ work. Purpose:The overall purpose of the present paper is to provide a first overview of special educators’ work. The paper investigates these special educators’ perceptions of their occupational role, of their preparedness for the role and of how their role is practised. The paper also illuminates questions about SENCOs’ and special education teachers’ knowledge and values as well as the grounds for the occupational groups to claim special expertise related to the identification of, and work with, school difficulties. Design and method:A questionnaire was sent out in 2012 toallSENCOs and special education teachers in Sweden who received their degree from 2001 onwards and in accordance with the Swedish examination acts of 2001, 2007 and 2008 (N = 4252, 75% response rate). Results:According to the results, special educators state that they are well prepared to work with some tasks, such as counselling, leading development work and teaching children/pupils individually or in groups. Concurrently, there are tasks that the groups are educated for (e.g. school-development work), which they seldom practise in their daily work. Conclusions:Primarily using reasoning concerning jurisdictional control, we discuss SENCOs’ and special education teachers’ authority to claim special expertise in relation to certain kinds of work, clients and knowledge and thus, their chances of gaining full jurisdictional control in the field of special education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper argues that it is a mistake to define habit as behaviour or action; as a regular conjunction of actions; as a stock; as a form of automaticity (although habit is acquired and activated automatically); as a tendency, propensity or disposition (even though habit acts tendentially); as a mechanism; and as a process (even though habit is acquired and activated via several processes). A taxonomic definition is provided wherein habit is a cognitive representation of a cue-action response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the study and teaching of integrated marketing communication (IMC). The need to find ways to bring together the discipline knowledge of the social and behavioral sciences with marketing and business is emphasized. The author also feels that IMC needs to be recognized and treated as an emerging discipline. The seven areas that comprise the current view of IMC are identified as brand equity, strategic integration, message integration, multiple audiences, managing contact points, database communication, relationship building, and synergy.

It is well accepted among Institutionalist and Post Keynesian scholars that portfolio investment markets are driven by agents' expectations rather than "the fundamentals." This explains, it is argued, why asset and currency prices are so much more volatile than and often clearly out of line with what we would otherwise consider to be their underlying determinants. What is rarely addressed, however, is how those expectations are formed. This paper fills the void by proposing a specific view of agents' expectations based on the mental model they employ to understand currency movements. The paper derives this schematic by examining market participants' psychological propensities and the world view of the subculture of which they are members. It will be shown that the model is consistent with the salient features of the foreign exchange market and it is employed to explain the dollar's fall from 2001 through 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the evolution of tax morale in Spain in the post-Franco era. In contrast to the previous tax compliance literature, the current paper investigates tax morale as the dependent variable and attempts to answer what actually shapes tax morale. The analysis uses survey data from two sources: the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey, allowing us to observe tax morale in Spain for the years 1981, 1990, 1995, and 1999/2000. The study of the evolution of tax morale in Spain over nearly a 20-year span is particularly interesting because the political and fiscal system evolved very rapidly during that period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forensic psychologists' role is well established, and they are rightly well regulated because their decisions and behaviour can have a significant impact on people's rights and interests. Their ethical integrity, however, partly hinges on the psycholegal research products (data, methods and instruments) that they and others use. The ethical regulation of researchers who produce products and their research processes is, however, fragmented, limited and narrow and largely focuses on domestic research. Relatively few scholars have examined the regulation of psycholegal research or commented on the ethical implications of recent court decisions. The purpose of this paper is to start a debate about the ethical regulation of researchers in the psycholegal field and consider methods of improving it to maintain society's trust in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gambling behavior is a prevalent problem requiring the development of effective behavioral interventions targeting reductions in the behavior. Many theories of social cognition can be adopted to identify the specific psychological mechanisms interventions should target and how interventions can be designed to manipulate them. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate how the Reasoned Action Approach can be used to achieve these aims. The paper outlines the steps involved in identifying relevant psychological determinants for intervention when adopting the theory. Behavior change is then discussed and the importance of translating intentions and maintaining change is emphasized. It is hoped that the paper encourages the development of a greater number of theory-based interventions targeting reductions in gambling behavior. Doing so may lead to a reduction in the number of people participating in the behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this editorial the author reflects upon the process of publication. Writers are divided into several different categories, including those who produce numerous manuscripts for career advancement, those who write more slowly but produce flawless manuscripts, and conservators who have limited time to work on manuscripts. Also discussed is the process of editing in scholarly journals.

Development projects inevitably pose risks to the health of humans and the planet. Health impact assessment (HIA) practitioners increasingly evaluate the mental health effects of development but have rarely considered those caused by public understanding of risk ('risk perception') itself a determinant of health. This paper proposes a new psychosocial model of public understanding of risk in response to the literature on perceived high risk developments. It exemplifies the psychosocial process that occurs when people respond to industrial threats to health. In doing this, it draws upon literature from psychology, social science and public health. The model is foregrounded in the context of psychosocial health in HIA. The paper also reviews the health and well-being effects that may result. Overall, it is argued that the philosophical and moral underpinnings of HIA compel practitioners and developers to understand the formation and ongoing development of public understandings of risk in light of the cultural, demographic, temporal and other contextual factors shaping them in unique development contexts where HIAs are undertaken, and how understandings of risk actually affect community health. We encourage them to propose mitigation measures and solutions that accord with the values of Planetary Health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that a Kantian model of decision-making, one that incorporates moral duties alongside standard preferences and constraints, can account for the complexities of actual ethical choice within a model with a single (constrained) preference ranking. Multiple utilities are required only to explain the failure to make appropriate decisions. Such occasions, often referred to as cases of weakness of will or akrasia , are easily explained with this approach, which is also consistent with the recent work of philosopher John Searle on action theory and rational choice. More generally, this paper highlights the need for discussion of the will in economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares two prominent approaches to assessing Human Well-Being, the Capability Approach and the Subjective Well-Being Approach. It investigates the differences and the similarities between these approaches. An argument is made for exploring the potential synergies between them. Finally, the papers of this special edition are briefly introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of comedic violence in viral advertising is becoming widespread, but as yet no examination of what influence it may have on consumer response has been undertaken. Two experimental studies using a commercial panel sample investigate the effects of this executional cue on ad message involvement, brand memorability, likelihood of being passed on to third parties, and attitude formation. Results suggest that humorous ads that combine higher levels of violence intensity with more severe consequences appear to elicit greater involvement with the ad message, better retention of brand information, higher pass-along probability, and greater ad likability. Attitudes toward the brand remain unaffected. Furthermore, justification for the violence and relatedness to the product brand appear to be important considerations when using high intensity--severe consequence comedic violence. The paper specifies conditions under which advertisers can expect to gain maximum impact when using violent humor in viral advertising campaigns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research question examined in this paper is whether or not product price can be used as a proxy to predict how customers' trust will be influenced by different trust-assuring arguments displayed on a business-to-consumer e-commerce Web site. Drawing from the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and Toulmin's model of argumentation, we examine the effects on consumer trust of two levels of source and two levels of content factors, under two levels of product price, in a laboratory experiment with 128 subjects. Product price was predicted as a moderating factor that would influence the customer's motivation to scrutinize more closely the content of the trust-assuring arguments. The results suggest that customers are more influenced by the content of trust-assuring arguments when the price of a product is relatively high than when it is relatively low. Presumably, Internet stores employ a third party's trust-assuring arguments because customers are less likely to trust an unknown Internet store's own trust-assuring arguments. However, the results paradoxically may imply that when customers have more at stake (e.g., buying a high-price product), they do not necessarily have to rely only on an independent third-party source to form high trust beliefs about the store. When customers purchase a high-price product, they seem to form trusting beliefs by scrutinizing argument content rather than by depending on heuristic cues (e.g., an independent party's opinion) as the ELM would predict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research into open source software (OSS) developer participation has emphasized individuals' motivations for joining these volunteer communities, but it has failed to explain why people stay or leave in the long run. Building upon Lave and Wenger's theory of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP), this paper offers a longitudinal investigation of one OSS community in which sustained participation is hypothesized to be associated with the coevolution of two major elements of LPP theory: "situated learning" (the process of acting knowledgeably and purposefully in the world) and "identity construction" (the process of being identified within the community). To test this hypothesis, data were collected from multiple sources, including online public project documents, electronic mail messages, tracker messages, and log files. Results from qualitative analyses revealed that initial conditions to participate did not effectively predict long-term participation, but that situated learning and identity construction behaviors were positively linked to sustained participation. Furthermore, this study reveals that sustained participants distinguished themselves by consistently engaging in situated learning that both made conceptual (advising others) and practical contributions (improving the code). Implications and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Events, arts programs, and civic activities are often times sponsored by more than one company/brand. In contrast to the interest in multiple-brand marketing activities in other areas of research (e.g., bundling, brand alliances, cooperative advertising), multiple-brand effects in sponsorship have been the subject of neither theoretical attention nor empirical research. This paper seeks to address this gap by investigating the impact of multiple sponsors on consumer evaluations of the sponsored event. Prior attitudes toward the sponsors, the presence or absence of a controversial/stigmatized product, the sponsor's nationality (domestic versus foreign), and product complementarity are explored in an experimental setting and demonstrate a twofold effect of a controversial sponsor on attitudes toward the event. Sponsor brand nationality and complementarity of products also affect consumers' attitudes toward the event. Implications for future research on multiple-brand sponsorship and marketer intentions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Relevance-Accessibility Model provides a framework for studying advertising effects on brand choice. To do this, it shifts the focus of study from the time of advertising exposure to the time of brand choice. The model is motivationally based. Consumers' motivation to deliberate at the time of brand choice influences consumers' preferred choice process. Three choice processes; optimizing, satisficing and indifference, are associated with the preferred use of three different types of information: evidence of performance superiority, evidence of credibility and evidence of liking, respectively. The model predicts that an advertising message appeal is most likely to influence brand choice when it is both relevant and accessible. The message appeal that can most easily achieve the choice objective is the most relevant appeal. A message appeal is most likely to be accessible when consumer involvement at the time of advertising exposure leads to its efficient encoding in memory. The major contributions of this paper are the updating of the model's theoretical framework and the empirical test of the model's predictions about message appeal effectiveness in different motivational scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-known difficulty in survey research is that respondents' answers to questions can depend on arbitrary features of a survey's design, such as the wording of questions or the ordering of answer choices. In this paper, we describe a novel set of tools for analyzing survey data characterized by such framing effects. We show that the conventional approach to analyzing data with framing effects—randomizing survey-takers across frames and pooling the responses—generally does not identify a useful parameter. In its place, we propose an alternative approach and provide conditions under which it identifies the responses that are unaffected by framing. We also present several results for shedding light on the population distribution of the individual characteristic the survey is designed to measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we assess the 31 articles published in Basic and Applied Social Psychology (BASP) in 2016, which is one full year after the BASP editors banned the use of inferential statistics. We discuss how the authors collected their data, how they reported and summarized their data, and how they used their data to reach conclusions. We found multiple instances of authors overstating conclusions beyond what the data would support if statistical significance had been considered. Readers would be largely unable to recognize this because the necessary information to do so was not readily available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to apply cognitive map-related techniques to extract causal knowledge from a specific problem domain. This paper proposes to draw an average cognitive map in order to identify the failure factors of the Tunisian small investors. Our paper extends traditional and behavioral finance and previous research by proposing a new approach to building an average cognitive map for the explanation of small investors' failure in the stock market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The literature shows how gender mandates contribute to differences in exposure and vulnerability to certain health risk factors. This paper presents the results of a study developed in the south of Spain, where research aimed at understanding men from a gender perspective is still limited. Objective: The aim of this paper is to explore the lay perceptions and meanings ascribed to the idea of masculinity, identifying ways in which gender displays are related to health. Design: The study is based on a mixed-methods data collection strategy typical of qualitative research. We performed a qualitative content analysis focused on manifest and latent content. Results: Our analysis showed that the relationship between masculinity and health was mainly defined with regard to behavioural explanations with an evident performative meaning. With regard to issues such as driving, the use of recreational drugs, aggressive behaviour, sexuality, and body image, important connections were established between manhood acts and health outcomes. Different ways of understanding and performing the male identity also emerged from the results. The findings revealed the implications of these aspects in the processes of change in the identity codes of men and women. Conclusions: The study provides insights into how the category 'man' is highly dependent on collective practices and performative acts. Consideration of how males perform manhood acts might be required in guidance on the development of programmes and policies aimed at addressing gender inequalities in health in a particular local context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper investigated patients’ experiences of disease and self-care as well as perceptions of the general practitioner’s role in supporting patients with impaired self-care ability. Design: Qualitative interviews with 13 patients with type 2 diabetes, concurrent chronic diseases, and impaired self-care ability assessed by a general practitioner. We analyzed our data using systematic text condensation. The shifting perspectives model of chronic illness formed the theoretical background for the study. Results: Although most patients experienced challenges in adhering to recommended self-care activities, many had developed additional, personal self-care routines that increased wellbeing. Some patients were conscious of self-care trade-offs, including patients with concurrent mental disorders who were much more attentive to their mental disorder than their somatic diseases. Patients’ perspectives on diseases could shift over time and were dominated by emotional considerations such as insisting on leading a normal life or struggling with limitations caused by disease. Most patients found support in the ongoing relationship with the same general practitioner, who was valued as a companion or appreciated as a trustworthy health informant. Conclusion: Patient experiences of self-care may collide with what general practitioners find appropriate in a medical regimen. Health professionals should be aware of patients’ prominent and shifting considerations about the emotional aspects of disease. Patients valued the general practitioner’s role in self-care support, primarily through the long-term doctor-patient relationship. Therefore, relational continuity should be prioritized in chronic care, especially for patients with impaired self-care ability who often have a highly complex disease burden and situational context. Key points:   Little is known about the perspectives of disease and self-care in patients with a doctor-assessed impaired ability of self-care.   • Although patients knew the prescribed regimen they often prioritized self-care routines that increased well-being at the cost of medical recommendations.   • Shifting emotional aspects were prominent in patients’ considerations of disease and sustained GPs’ use of a patient-centred clinical method when discussing self-care.   • Relational continuity with general practitioners was a highly valued support and should be prioritized for patients with impaired self-care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of adaptive psychological traits on sales performance is not well understood. In spite of sound theoretical foundations, initial, research efforts have yielded inconsistent, inconclusive and generally disappointing results. In this paper, we examine how three adaptiveness traits (self-monitoring, androgyny and intrinsic reward orientation) impact sales performance. We conclude that, when sales performance is viewed as a multidimensional construct, relationships suggested by theory are revealed. In addition, the impacts of these traits are shown to differ somewhat depending on the salesperson's gender. Findings help to clarify the confusion in the literature and reveal a highly focused impact of adaptiveness on performance. Important implications for sales managers and adaptiveness research in marketing are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses influence tactics by a salesperson in a sales interaction. The study of self-presentational and attributional processes can provide important insights into personal effectiveness. It has suggested some directions that such research might take through a conceptual discussion of and propositional inventory related to the use of closed influence tactics in personal selling. The paper has argued that the presence of deception and/or manipulative intent on the part of the salesperson differentiate closed from open influence tactics. The buyer's perception of the salesperson's intent play a large role in determining the salesperson's effectiveness in sales interactions. Variables that have the effect of increasing the salesperson's status or of decreasing the salesperson's dependence on a given buyer should increase the effectiveness of closed influence tactics by decreasing the likelihood that such tactics are attributed to ulterior motives. It has posited a model that suggests characteristics of the salesperson, characteristics of the buyer and characteristics of the situation that influence the incidence and effectiveness of closed influence attempts.

Adaptive structuration theory (AST) provides a sound basis from which to study the use of group support systems (GSS). The need for a theoretical approach such as AST is especially urgent because it helps explain the process of GSS use, thereby providing insights into the reasons for inconsistent research results. This paper illustrates the development of a research model based on AST, and reports the results of a study conducted on the basis of this model. The independent variables in the study were task and technology. The model's process component was represented by the attitudes of group members toward the technology they used. The six attitude dimensions were obtained from AST as well as from other information technology researchers. The model was tested using the partial least squares (PLS) technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Database query languages constitute a subset of Fourth Generation Languages in that they primarily focus on the querying and simple modification aspects of data management. Query languages appear to benefit from recent developments in Computer Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, and Applied User Psychology. These developments, coupled with widespread use of computers by an expanding population of novice users, have resulted in the emergence of query languages which are easy to use and offer much power. The paper reviews the major query language types and examines motivations and trends in their design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conceptualization of the Personal Involvement Inventory was a context-free measure applicable to involvement with products, with advertisements, and with purchase situations. The empirical work to develop this measure was mainly validated with respect to product categories. This paper extends the construct validation of the PII to involvement with advertisements and also demonstrates that the PII may be reliably reduced from twenty items to ten items. There is some indication the revised PII may then be broken into two subscales representing a cognitive and affective grouping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces two novel concepts regarding the role of the product in an ad. One concept (focal integration) reflects the extent to which the product is depicted as a central element in the ad. The second concept (emotional integration) reflects the extent to which the product is portrayed as a causal agent to the actor's emotions. Reliable measures of both constructs are developed and shown to be discriminable from related constructs and each other. Furthermore, a sample of existing ads is shown to vary on the constructs. An exploratory study investigating their effects showed that each construct is related to relevant advertising outcomes and that their effects differ for ads using positive vs. negative appeals. When appeals are negative, both integration constructs are related to ad effects. In contrast, when appeals are positive, high emotional integration appears unnecessary for enhancing ad effects, while high focal integration may be detrimental to ad effects. Implications for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As organizations seek to communicate with consumers who are concerned about the environment, advertisements containing environmental claims are becoming more prominent. While much has been written about environmental advertising this phenomenon has seldom been examined systematically. This paper presents an empirical study which combines two classification schemes to create a matrix that identifies different types of environmental claims and the likelihood that such claims will be judged as misleading and/or deceptive. Results suggest that those claims which extol the environmental benefits of products and those that are designed to enhance the environmental image of an organization are most prone to be considered misleading and/or deceptive. Methods for improving environmental advertising are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports two exploratory studies on how seal of approval source, currentness, and longevity affect consumers' comprehension of seal meaning and how seals in general impact the perceived believability of information contained within advertisements. The results indicate that consumers do not comprehend what seals of approval represent, and in most cases, do not perceive the believability of ad claims to be enhanced by the presence of seals of approval. Implications for researchers, advertisers, and public policy makers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the tenability of a two-dimensional (tension and energy) formulation of fear arousal effects in the context of print advertising. Intuitively, stimulation of fear parallels a two-part continuum of increasing tension. This exploratory study stems from the theoretical premise that increasing tension generates energy up to a certain point, and beyond that "threshold," increasing tension arouses anxiety which begins to deplete energy. The study examines the effects of two print ad stimuli on the multidimensional structure of arousal, resulting attitude toward the ad and behavioral intention. The results indicate that print ad induced arousal effects fell short of the "threshold" point. However, a comparison between fear appeal treatment groups reveals that the stronger fear appeal resulted in arousal effects showing "progress" toward the threshold point. Thus, these results lend credibility to the idea of a "threshold" separating a two-part continuum of increasing tension. General implications of these results are discussed, and tentative suggestions in regard to the design and use of fear appeals using both print and video stimuli are furnished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two issues make advertising effectiveness difficult to assess: (1) advertising effects occur both during ad processing and when ad information is retrieved, and (2) the information that consumers derive from advertisements is likely to be some combination of explicit information and inferences. The study reported in this paper addresses these issues, examining the effects of encoding and time delay on advertising processing. Results indicate that while some types of inferences (product features) are more likely to be made under strong than weak encoding conditions, other types of inferences (consumption situation) are not affected by encoding. In addition, at the time of a decision (after a time delay), memory information use depends both upon individual brand accessibility and the relative accessibility of alternative brands in the memory set. Implications for both advertising researchers and managers are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contends that television programs generate physiological arousal and that programming induced arousal can be used as a mediating variable to explain the impact of programming on the ensuing commercials. It systematically explores how television programming induced arousal can influence the learning of, and attitudes and behavior toward, the commercials embedded in the programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the results of two empirical studies designed to assess the effectiveness of sexual embedding in advertising. In Study 1, a sample of 424 viewed and evaluated two ads with embeds or two matched ads without embeds. The results indicated that embedding was effective in raising attitudinal evaluations of a liquor ad but not a cigarette ad. In Study 2, GSR measurements were taken on a sample of 36 subjects while they viewed both versions (with and without embeds) of two ads. The results of Study 2 indicated that embedding was effective in increasing GSR measurements for the versions of the ads with embeds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an experiment on the effects of two kinds of alcohol advertising on subsequent consumption. Male passersby in a shopping mall, ascertained to be drinkers aged 19 to 45, each underwent one of three procedures: evaluation of five "lifestyle" advertisements for an imported beer; evaluation of five "tombstone" advertisements for that beer; and an interview about their evaluation of the shopping mall. As payment, they received a $5.00 voucher for immediate use at dinner in a licensed restaurant whose management provided data on subjects' alcohol consumption (n = 163). Six to twelve weeks later, 84 subjects were reached-by telephone for an ostensibly independent survey about beverage consumption, non-alcoholic and alcoholic. No evidence was found that either lifestyle or tombstone advertising had any impact, immediate or delayed, on any category of alcohol consumption. Nor did subjects' evaluations of the types of advertisements differ significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1982 two articles appeared that questioned the concept of a separate Low Involvement Hierarchy for the effects of advertising (5, 20). The Integrated Information Response Model (20) made it clear that purchase may often be an instance of information collection used to develop attitude. The single Hierarchy extended this model to include all information collection as Evaluation Behavior. Both models allowed for the possibility of advertising having a direct impact on attitude, but neither article hinted at the extent of advertising's influence. This paper explores the conditions under which advertising might or might not have this direct impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper applies Fishbein's Behavioral Intention model and path analysis to the subject of message content assessment. Using a pre-test - post-test experimental design, two groups of subjects were presented with a belief message and an evaluative message -- one message type for each group. The Fishbein model was used as a framework to measure message response. The influence of the framework components (Fishbein model) were calibrated using path analysis. The results of the study indicated that the evaluative message was the most effective and that the subjective norm component of the Fishbein model had the most influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To describe parental experiences of providing skin-to-skin care (SSC) to their newborn infants. Background: SSC care for newborn infants has been reported to have positive physiological and psychological benefits to the infants and their parents. No systematic review regarding parental experiences has been identified. Design: In this first part of a meta-study, the findings of a systematic literature review on parental experience of SSC care are presented. Data sources: Four databases were searched, without year or language limitations, up until December 2013. Manual searches were performed in reference lists and in a bibliography of the topic. Review methods: After a quality-appraisal process, data from the original articles were extracted and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The systematic and manual searches led to the inclusion of 29 original qualitative papers from nine countries, reporting experiences from 401 mothers and 94 fathers. Two themes that characterized the provision of SSC emerged: a restoring experience and an energy-draining experience. Conclusion: This review has added scientific and systematic knowledge about parental experiences of providing SSC. Further research about fathers’ experiences is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To synthesize and interpret qualitative research findings focusing on parental experiences of skin-to-skin care (SSC) for newborn infants. Background: SSC induces many benefits for newborn infants and their parents. Three meta-analyses have been conducted on physiological outcomes, but no previous qualitative meta-synthesis on parental experiences of SSC has been identified. Design: The present meta-synthesis was guided by the methodology described by Paterson and co-workers. Data sources: Four databases were searched, without year or language limitations, up until December 2013. Manual searches were also performed. The searches and subsequent quality appraisal resulted in the inclusion of 29 original qualitative papers from 9 countries, reporting experiences from 401 mothers and 94 fathers. Review methods: The meta-synthesis entails a meta-data analysis, analysis of meta-method, and meta-theory in the included primary studies. Based on the three analyses, the meta-synthesis represents a new interpretation of a phenomenon. The results of the meta-data analysis have been presented as a qualitative systematic review in a separate paper. Results: When synthesizing and interpreting the findings from the included analyses, a theoretical model of Becoming a parent under unfamiliar circumstances emerged. Providing SSC seems to be a restorative as well as an energy-draining experience. A supportive environment has been described as facilitating the restorative experience, whereas obstacles in the environment seem to make the provision of SSC energy-draining for parents. When the process is experienced as positive, it facilitates the growth of parental self-esteem and makes the parents ready to assume full responsibility for their child. Conclusion: The results show that SSC can be interpreted not only as a family-including and important health care intervention but also in terms of actually becoming a parent. The process of becoming a parent in this specific situation is influenced by external factors in three different levels; family and friends, community, and society at large. The descriptions of providing SSC are similar to what has previously been described as the natural process of becoming a mother or a father. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]