When do procedural fairness and outcome fairness interact to influence employees’ work attitudes and behaviors? The moderating effect of uncertainty.

Prior research has shown that procedural fairness interacts with outcome fairness to influence employees’ work attitudes (e.g., organizational commitment) and behaviors (e.g., job performance, organizational citizenship behavior), such that employees’ tendencies to respond more positively to higher procedural fairness are stronger when outcome fairness is relatively low. In the present studies, we posited that people’s uncertainty about their standing as organizational members would have a moderating influence on this interactive relationship between procedural fairness and outcome fairness, in that the interactive relationship was expected to be more pronounced when uncertainty was high. Using different operationalizations of uncertainty of standing (i.e., length of tenure as a proxy, along with self-reports and coworkers’ reports), we found support for this hypothesis in 4 field studies spanning 3 different countries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of authority power in explaining procedural fairness effects.

Building on fairness heuristic theory, fairness theory, and trust development models, we argue that unfairly enacted procedures decrease followers' trust in the authority particularly when authorities have high power over their followers. Moreover, we expected trust to mediate procedural fairness effects on followers' attitudes (authorities' legitimacy and charisma attributed to authorities) and organizational citizenship behavior. Procedural fairness effects on these variables, as mediated by trust, should therefore also be stronger when authority power is high. The results of a single- and multisource field study and a laboratory experiment supported these predictions. These studies support the role of authority power as a theoretically and practically relevant moderator of procedural fairness effects and show that its effectiveness is explained through trust in authorities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The domestic assault of women: Psychological and criminal justice perspectives.

Reviews the book, The domestic assault of women: Psychological and criminal justice perspectives by Donald A. Dutton (1988). This book provides a comprehensive analysis of battered women and their husbands by integrating current theories and research on violence and victimization within a social psychological perspective. The book is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter outlines the current data on the incidence of wife assault and proposes a theoretical framework for understanding the problem. The next two chapters outline the theory and research available on men who assault their partners. Chapter four details the impact of violence on victims and provides some explanations for battered women becoming "prisoners" in their own home. Chapter five details the shortcomings of the criminal justice response to battered women. Chapter six provides some more optimistic information on treatment programs for violent husbands. The book ends with a section on future trends, including current research programs on children who witness violence in their homes. Overall, the book is well written and demonstrates Dutton's excellent analytical skills. He has an ability to integrate diverse theoretical models on family violence with current research studies in the field. His understanding of battered women and their husbands flows dramatically into the dismal record of the criminal justice system in providing a meaningful response to the problem. His analysis of current treatment programs offers some valuable insight to the reader on the most effective strategies for this population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Not yet human: Implicit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and contemporary consequences.

Historical representations explicitly depicting Blacks as apelike have largely disappeared in the United States, yet a mental association between Blacks and apes remains. Here, the authors demonstrate that U.S. citizens implicitly associate Blacks and apes. In a series of laboratory studies, the authors reveal how this association influences study participants' basic cognitive processes and significantly alters their judgments in criminal justice contexts. Specifically, this Black-ape association alters visual perception and attention, and it increases endorsement of violence against Black suspects. In an archival study of actual criminal cases, the authors show that news articles written about Blacks who are convicted of capital crimes are more likely to contain ape-relevant language than news articles written about White convicts. Moreover, those who are implicitly portrayed as more apelike in these articles are more likely to be executed by the state than those who are not. The authors argue that examining the subtle persistence of specific historical representations such as these may not only enhance contemporary research on dehumanization, stereotyping, and implicit processes but also highlight common forms of discrimination that previously have gone unrecognized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Melba J. T. Vasquez: Award for Distinguished Senior Career Contributions to the Public Interest.

Announces Melba J. T. Vasquez as a recipient of the Award for Distinguished Senior Career Contributions to the Public Interest for 2002. A biographical statement is included, along with major works and contributions for the field. Vasquez received this award for scholarship, teaching, service delivery, and professional leadership activities which reflect commitment to issues of empowerment, justice, and equality for all members of society. Vasquez has been involved in promoting the increase of ethnic minority and gender representation in all aspects of psychology. Her work has been in the areas of ethnic minority psychology, psychology of women, professional ethics, and teaching and training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Judgments of the lucky across development and culture.

For millennia, human beings have believed that it is morally wrong to judge others by the fortuitous or unfortunate events that befall them or by the actions of another person. Rather, an individual's own intended, deliberate actions should be the basis of his or her evaluation, reward, and punishment. In a series of studies, the authors investigated whether such rules guide the judgments of children. The first 3 studies demonstrated that children view lucky others as more likely than unlucky others to perform intentional good actions. Children similarly assess the siblings of lucky others as more likely to perform intentional good actions than the siblings of unlucky others. The next 3 studies demonstrated that children as young as 3 years believe that lucky people are nicer than unlucky people. The final 2 studies found that Japanese children also demonstrate a robust preference for the lucky and their associates. These findings are discussed in relation to M. J. Lerner's (1980) just-world theory and J. Piaget's (1932/1965) immanent-justice research and in relation to the development of intergroup attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Developing conceptual understanding and procedural skill in mathematics: An iterative process.

The authors propose that conceptual and procedural knowledge develop in an iterative fashion and that improved problem representation is 1 mechanism underlying the relations between them. Two experiments were conducted with 5th- and 6th-grade students learning about decimal fractions. In Experiment 1, children's initial conceptual knowledge predicted gains in procedural knowledge, and gains in procedural knowledge predicted improvements in conceptual knowledge. Correct problem representations mediated the relation between initial conceptual knowledge and improved procedural knowledge. In Experiment 2, amount of support for correct problem representation was experimentally manipulated, and the manipulations led to gains in procedural knowledge. Thus, conceptual and procedural knowledge develop iteratively, and improved problem representation is 1 mechanism in this process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Those who were born poor: A qualitative study of Philippine poverty.

This qualitative study investigated the psychological experience of poverty among 2 groups of Filipinos who were interviewed about the effects of being raised poor, 12 who became rich, and 13 who remained poor. Using constructivist and critical theories as research paradigms and grounded theory as methodology, the results of the study illustrated perceived causes, coping mechanisms, and cultural factors. Surprisingly, both groups were very similar in their experiences of not having basic needs met, of negative emotions, and of generally attributing their poverty to familial circumstances. The ways of coping with poverty, such as receiving and giving assistance and imploring God for help, and the cultural features of perseverance (pagpupunyagi) and reliance on others (pakikipagkapwa) were similarly influential in both groups. Because the main difference between both groups is the occurrence of chance events that provided access to education and opportunities to emigrate for those who have become rich, the oppressive structures of a society that perpetuate poverty are discussed. In developing countries such as the Philippines, the psychological experience of poverty is characterized by the impossibility of upward mobility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

食品安全执法过程中刑事司法与行政执法的衔接

危害食品安全的犯罪行为严重损害了人民群众的生命安全与健康。执法机关在打击危害食品安全犯罪的执法活动中出现了许多问题,严重影响了行政执法与刑事司法的衔接机制。如何从刑事司法与行政执法衔接的角度出发,理顺两法衔接机制,提高执法机关打击危害食品安全犯罪的效率,彻底根除食品安全问题,为中国的经济建设和社会的和谐稳定打下坚实的基础,已成为当务之急。     

我国高等教育资源配置中的政府干预：范围、问题与对策

高等教育资源配置中的政府干预。是指国家通过政府职能的发挥与转化．制定相关法规,建立相应的高等教育投入机制,施行一定改革措施等途径,对高等教育投入机制与资源配置进行优化。其范围包括建立法律法规,平衡效率与公平的关系,保证教育投入,提供教育服务等方面。目前的问题是,资源配置的法律法规薄弱,资源配置重效率轻公平,教育投入有待进一步提高,教育服务职能有待进一步发挥等。优化我国高等教育资源配置的对策包括：干预的目标取向由重效率向兼顾效率与公平转变;干预的理念从经验治理向法律治理转变：干预的行为由管制型向服务型转变;干预中的教育投入方式兼顾计划与市场的平衡。