Lynn R. Kahle

Predicting Vacation Activity Preferences on the Basis of Value-System Segmentation

Personal values have long been considered an important variable for market segmentation. Single values may be grouped on the basis of their importance ratings into higher-order value domains, and the differential weighting of these domains represents an individuals value system. Value systems serve to maintain an individuals self-esteem and consistent behavior in those situations where one or more values may be in conflict. Thus, value-system segments derived from the rating of personal values reflect the fact that multiple values affect behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine whether vacation activity importance ratings differed across segments comprised of tourists homogeneously grouped on the basis of personal value systems. The sample included 394 English-speaking tourists visiting Scandinavia. Four mutually exclusive higher-order value-system segments were identified and found to differ on activity importance ratings. Implications for tour ism marketers are discussed.

Values, Susceptibility to Normative Influence, and Attribute Importance Weights: A Nomological Analysis

It is argued that the construct of individual susceptibility to normative influence (SNI) needs to be put into a wider nomological framework, with antecedents and consequences. Based on prior literature, a causal sequence is hypothesized in which values are antecedent to SNI, which itself shapes the importance placed by the individual on different attributes. It is further suggested that the relation between values and SNI is strongest for “external” values, and that high SNI leads to greater importance for attributes that provide “socially visible” benefits. Data from a national field survey (N= 663) on consumer preferences are analyzed to test these hypotheses, using confirmatory factor analysis via LISREL 8.30 (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1993). The analysis finds support for most of the hypothesized structural relations.

Performance congruence and value congruence impact on sales force annual sales

The separate and joint impact of performance congruence (similarity between salespeople and their sales managers) and value congruence on annual sales are investigated in a field study. Two hundred thirty-nine salespeople and their sales managers from several industries participated in the study. A significant association was found for separate and joint associations between performance congruence and value congruence and annual sales. More specifically, the more similar salespeople and their sales managers are regarding performance congruence measures, “identifying new prospects” and “setting up an initial appointment” and personal values, “warm relationships with others,” and “sense of belonging,” the higher annual sales.

Personalization of the Outside Envelope in Mail Surveys

DILLMAN and his collaborators (1972; 1974) have proposed a method for eliciting high response rates in mail surveys. They attribute their success to personalization, which involves a number of different procedures.1 Which combination of these procedures (and others) is necessary to achieve optimal personalization and thereby to elicit high response rates, or whether all are necessary in combination, is as yet not clearly established. The experiments reported here tested whether increased postage and individually addressed letters are necessary components of personalization when the other aspects of personalization are present.

Comparison of Four Methods of Measuring Self-Esteem

Several scholars (e.g., Wylie, 1974) have proposed that examination of the results from studies of self-esteem would be facilitated if more information were available about the relationships among various methods of measuring self-esteem. Four methods particularly useful for researchers because of the ease with which they can be administered and scored are: (1) Eaglys version of the Janis-Field Feelings of Inadequacy Scale, (2) Diggorys version of Cuticks Self-description Inventory, (3) Rosenbergs Self-esteem Scale, scored as a Likert-type scale, and ( 4 ) Rosenbergs Self-esteem Scale, scored as a Guttman scale. These measures, as presented in Robinson and Shaver (1973). were administered to 194 male and 248 female introductory psychology smdents in order ro selecr individuals for future research. Irem order from Measure 1 was randomized.

The Impact of Moral Theories on Cheating: Studies of Emotion Attribution and Schema Activation

This research series began as a test of an emotion-attribution approach to moral behavior. However, in the early studies, college students who read about morality were subsequently more likely to cheat on a vocabulary test than were control subjects who read materials irrelevant to morality. We hypothesized that resentment toward the test constructors interacted with the moral schemas activated by the reading task. To reduce resentment, in Study III the vocabulary test was presented as the experimenters doctoral research. As predicted, compared to controls, those subjects who read about morality cheated less. Study IV was a quasi-experiment that confirmed the hypothesized resentment differences between Study III and the earlier studies. In Study V, while two groups read about morality, one group read an internal emotion-attribution passage and the other read an external version; less cheating was observed in the internal condition than in the external or control conditions. The results indicate that even when moral schemas are elicited under conditions favoring moral behavior, those schemas will lead to reduced cheating most effectively under conditions in which subjects attribute their emotional arousal to their own behavior rather than to external causes. Issues of moral schema activation and emotion-attribution in moral behavior are discussed.

On Unicorns Blocking Commitment Law Reform

Four surveys of the attitudes of psychiatrists toward issues related to involuntary civil commitment law are reviewed. This article shows that, contrary to popular opinion, psychiatrists favor increased due process of law protections and rights for patients both during and after commitment proceedings. These attitudes have been relatively stable over the past decade. In contrast with other groups, psychiatrists may be less emphatic in their support of rights, but the attitudes of psychiatrists when examined on an absolute scale clearly favor increased rights.

Dissonance and Impression Management as Theories of Attitude Change

Summary Differences between two theories of attitude change, dissonance and impression management, are examined. Ninety-six men and 105 women from an introductory psychology class completed three measures of self-esteem and wrote prosmoking essays for an E who did or did not agree with smoking. They were promised either

The Deprivation-Satiation Effect in Attitude Conditioning Without Deprivation but with Demand Characteristics

2 or

A structural equation test of the value-attitude-behavior hierarchy.

10 if selected to read their essay to junior high students. The significant main effect for E attitude and the significant self-esteem x pay interaction indicate that dissonance and impression management theories are complementary, not contentious, accounts of attitude change. Both theories can account for only some of the effects obtained. Neither theory can account for effects due to sex. An interpersonal simulation failed to replicate the main experiment.