TITLE: THE SOUND OF MUSIC: THE INFLUENCE OF EVOKED EMOTION ON RECOGNITION MEMORY FOR MUSICAL EXCERPTS ACROSS THE LIFESPAN Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carstensen, 1999) posits that as people age, they selectively focus on positive aspects of emotional stimuli as opposed to negative as a way of regulating emotions. Thus, older adults remember positive information better than negative. This hypothesis has been tested extensively with visual stimuli, but rarely with auditory stimuli. Findings from this study provide support in the auditory domain. In this study, 135 younger, middle-aged, and older adults heard consonant (pleasant) and dissonant (unpleasant) musical excerpts. Participants were randomly assigned to either a Study Only condition, in which they heard excerpts and studied them for later recognition, a Rate Only condition, in which they rated the excerpts and were tested later in a surprise recognition test, or a Rate and Study condition, in which they rated and studied the excerpts for later recognition. Results indicated that younger, middle-aged and older adults remembered consonant (pleasant) musical excerpts better than dissonant (unpleasant) musical excerpts overall and provide support for the hypotheses of the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory.

The transition from high school into college is a critical period in the life course, reflecting past history and forecasting future prospects. How this transition unfolds can influence who persists in college and who does not, as it is a time of socioemotional vulnerability as well as a foundation of the highly cumulative path through higher education. The aim of this study was to look at variation in emotional adjustment during the transition from high school into college and how relates to the match/mismatch of academic context and pathways from high school to college as well as parental support. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), latent growth curve and growth mixture modeling were used to estimate trajectories of emotional distress and identify basic categories of trajectories among college goers. Aspects of high school and college context and performance variables—as well as combination among them—were then used to predict the types of trajectories individual college students followed. The results revealed significant heterogeneity in how college-goers fared emotionally, with some experiencing increased depressive symptomatology and others experiences declines. Those who appeared to fare the worst emotionally during the transition to college had consistently low academic demands from high school into college and lacked support social support from their parents. / text

Global warming imposes significant physical, regulatory and reputational risks to listed corporations. Consequently, climate-related issues have recently received increased attention from investors, creditors and stock market regulators. In February 2010, The United States (US) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an interpretative guidance requiring publicly listed firms to disclose material climate change risks (CCR) in their annual securities filings (10Ks). However, considering the level of enforcement and managerial discretion in the definition of materiality, market participants raised concerns about the lack and quality of CCR disclosure. This research explores the effects of family control as an important determinant of CCR disclosure strategies. Family firms are the world’s most common form of economic organizations, dominating the global economy. The socioemotional wealth (SEW) theoretical perspective argues that family firms behave differently from their nonfamily counterparts and exhibit significant heterogeneity depending on the level of family control and involvement. Using a sample of S&P 500 companies, I examine whether family firms differ from their non-family peers in their climate change disclosure strategies. Additionally, I further explore the effects of two dimensions (i.e. family control and influence, family identity) of socioemotional wealth on CCR disclosures. Overall, I find that family ownership has no impact on CCR disclosure decisions, but is negatively related to CCR disclosure quality. Moreover, I find a positive relationship between family firms prioritizing family identity and CCR disclosure quality. The findings of this research have implications for regulators, investors, and academic researchers.

Remarriages have been increasing over the last several decades, yet little has been done in establishing theories and interventions specific to remarried couples and stepfamilies. Fine and Kurdek proposed a model specific to individuals in a remarriage situation. In an effort to validate their model, this study tested a key tenet, the tenet of consistency in cognitions, across spouses. Data were analyzed from the "Relationship Quality and Stability in Utah Newlywed Remarriages" study. With a sample of 449 couples, a series of correlations and backward regressions were completed. The results indicate that individual perceptions are more predictive of remarital quality than is consistency of cognitions. A critique of the Multidimensional Cognitive-Developmental Model is discussed. Limitations are addressed and recommendations for future research are given.

Family businesses, in the process of internationalization, beyond the consideration of the economic aspects of international expansion, may take into account non-economic factors and goals aimed at benefiting the family. These non-economic aspects are referred to as socioemotional wealth (SEW). The main question raised in this dissertation is: how does SEW impact the internationalization in family firms? The SEW construct has been considered in previous theoretical and empirical research but, to date, an instrument allowing direct measurement of this phenomenon has not be developed. Therefore, part of this dissertation is dedicated to the development of a measurement instrument allowing for the direct assessment of SEW in terms of its importance to the family firm decision-maker. The scale development procedure is described and the final version of the developed three-dimensional SEW Importance scale is presented. Further, this dissertation includes the development and statistical testing of the model of the impact of SEW on the extent of family firm internationalization, as well as the moderating effect of environmental munificence on the above relationship. This is followed by the discussion of the results, limitations of the study, its contributions and the implications for future research and family firm practice. The aim of this dissertation is to develop a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the importance of SEW in family firms, as well as to further the understanding of the impact that SEW may have on internationalization decisions in family enterprises.

No / The differences between family firms and nonfamily firms have gained increasing scholarly attention in the field of management, and socioemotional wealth has been argued as the main source of family firm distinctiveness. However, previous researchers have paid little attention to the heterogeneity in socioemotional wealth across family firms. Moreover, little is studied about the generational differences between founder-led family firms and descendant-led family firms. In this study, we address this gap by focusing on how these differences in family leadership are reflected in the gap between firms’ rhetorical CSR policies (CSR talk) and their substantive CSR implementation (CSR walk), which we refer to as CSR decoupling. We argue that the founders of family firms are distinct from descendants regarding three aspects: affective attachment, cognitive identification, and social concern. Our findings reveal that the relationship between socioemotional wealth and CSR decoupling is contingent on family generations. Family ownership decreases CSR decoupling only in founder-led family firms, while it increases CSR decoupling in descendant-led family firms. We discuss our contributions to research at the interaction of family business and CSR.

As the number of cancer survivors continues to rise, there is an increasing need for psychological research to better understand and help individuals cope with their cancer journey. According to Socioemotional Selectivity theory (SST), shortened time perspective and mortality awareness heighten the importance of social and emotional goals. In the present analysis, SST is applied to the unmet needs of cancer survivors. This is done to provide a better understanding of the association between unmet needs of cancer survivors and the impact of such needs on the survivors' psychological well-being, especially in the case of survivor’s awareness of his/her mortality. In keeping with SST theory, we anticipated that for those with higher mortality awareness (e.g., recurrence of cancer, older age, greater mortality ratio), high unmet social and emotional needs, above else, will be associated with lower psychological well-being. Partial support was found for these hypotheses and results are discussed in terms of their contribution to a better understanding of the nature of psychological well-being of cancer survivors.

As the number of cancer survivors continues to rise, there is an increasing need for psychological research to better understand and help individuals cope with their cancer journey. According to Socioemotional Selectivity theory (SST), shortened time perspective and mortality awareness heighten the importance of social and emotional goals. In the present analysis, SST is applied to the unmet needs of cancer survivors. This is done to provide a better understanding of the association between unmet needs of cancer survivors and the impact of such needs on the survivors' psychological well-being, especially in the case of survivor’s awareness of his/her mortality. In keeping with SST theory, we anticipated that for those with higher mortality awareness (e.g., recurrence of cancer, older age, greater mortality ratio), high unmet social and emotional needs, above else, will be associated with lower psychological well-being. Partial support was found for these hypotheses and results are discussed in terms of their contribution to a better understanding of the nature of psychological well-being of cancer survivors.

The concept of socioemotional wealth (SEW) seeks to present an independent paradigmatic basis for family-firm research, and in doing so aims to establish a sound basis for the scientific legitimacy of family-firm research. Establishing that legitimacy requires scholars to demonstrate that SEW is based on coherent assumptions on several theoretical levels. This paper uses the problematization methodology to challenge the coherence of the theoretical assumptions underpinning SEW and to advance theory development. The results of this problematization show that SEW is built on a theoretical level close to the object of research (in-house assumptions), but that more deeply-rooted theoretical levels (e.g. paradigmatic assumptions) are not sufficiently elaborated. Moreover, the original conceptualization is based on a positivist-mechanistic view, which hinders SEW reflecting the complex reality of family firms. Based on the results of this problematization, new systems theory is applied to reframe SEW's theoretical grounding. Thereby the main contribution of the paper is a critical reflection on the theoretical underpinnings of SEW (in particular root-metaphor and paradigmatic assumptions), serving as the basis for advancing a coherent theoretical understanding of this important concept in family business research.

Children who have developmental disorders that involve memorial deficits and impairments in social interaction and communication, such as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), can present challenges to professionals seeking their testimony when they are victims or witnesses of a crime. Most forensic interviews involve long delays after an event, underscoring the importance of conducting experimental studies which consider the effect of delay on children's memory. In this research, fifty-nine children (age 6-15 years) with ASD (N=27) and without disabilities (N=32) were questioned about their participation in a set of activities after a two-week delay and again after a two-month delay, using the Revised National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Investigative Interview Protocol. A detailed coding scheme was designed to code and analyse the interviewers' utterances and the children's responses in 118 interviews. Transcripts were coded for completeness (with respect to the gist of the event), amount of narrative details, and accuracy. Results indicated that autistic children did not differ from typically developing (TD) peers on any dimensions of memory after both delays. Specifically, both groups of children provided equivalently complete accounts on both occasions. However, children in both groups provided significantly fewer narrative details about the event in the second interview, and the accuracy rates were lower. Recall prompts elicited more detailed and more accurate responses from children in both groups than recognition prompts. Although autistic children recalled fewer correct narrative details than TD peers when questioned using open-ended recall prompts, they were as accurate as TD peers in response to recognition prompts. The informativeness and accuracy of children's reports remained unchanged over time. Finally, social support was beneficial when children were interviewed for the first time but not after a longer delay. The findings indicate that autistic children can provide meaningful and reliable testimony about an event they personally experienced, but several aspects of their memory reports deteriorate over time.