Financial literacy is essential for every individual concerned with public welfare and household portfolio choices. In this study, we investigate the impact of household financial literacy on individuals’ financial behavior using the China Household Financial Survey Data of 2015 and 2017. The results show that financial knowledge has significant current, long-term, and dynamic effects on financial behavior. This finding suggests that financial literacy is an important factor in shaping and improving financial behavior. Second, financial literacy can improve residents’ limited attention, (...) and residents with high attention tend to have formal bank accounts, participate in the stock market, and engage in financial behaviors in situations such as risky financial markets. High attention also helps to improve residents’ financial behavior. This relationship suggests that financial literacy positively impacts formal bank account holding, participation in financial markets, participation in commercial insurance, participation in pension plans, and credit card holdings through limited attention channels that facilitate access to specific financial information. In addition, heterogeneity analysis showed that the impact of financial literacy on financial behavior differs significantly between urban and rural households, between men and women, and between high and low education levels. The study provides valuable insights for policy implications to enhance financial literacy, such as carrying out financial training to improve residents’ knowledge about financial aspects, which further helps to optimize household financial decision-making. (shrink)

This paper argues that the form of explanation at issue in the hard problem of consciousness is scientifically irrelevant, despite appearances to the contrary. In particular, it is argued that the 'sense of understanding' that plays a critical role in the form of explanation implicated in the hard problem provides neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition on satisfactory scientific explanation. Considerations of the actual tools and methods available to scientists are used to make the case against it being a (...) necessary condition, and work by J.D. Trout that exploits psychological research on the hindsight and overconfidence biases is used to show that it is not a sufficient condition. It is argued, however, that certain intellectual and moral concerns give us good reason to still try to meet the hard problem's explanatory challenge, despite its extrascientific nature. (shrink)

This paper is based on my M.Sc. dissertation: ‘The Origins of Numerical Taxonomy’ 1985, submitted to the University of Leicester during the tenure of a D.E.S. State Studentship. For this work I drew extensively on interviews with Professors A. J. Cain, G. A. Harrison, R. R. Sokal and P. H. A. Sneath. I am very grateful to them for their time, interest and encouragement. Without the indefatigable assistance of Jon Harwood, this paper would never have been finished.

In the present work we investigated distinct sources of construct-relevant psychometric multidimensionality in two sport-specific measures of coaches’ need-supportive (ISS-C) and controlling interpersonal (CCBS) styles. A recently proposed bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) framework was employed to achieve this aim. In Study 1, using a sample of floorball players, the results indicated that the ISS-C can be considered as a unidimensional measure, with one global factor explaining most of the variance in the items. In Study 2, using a sample (...) of male ice hockey players, the results indicated that the items in the CCBS are represented by both a general factor and specific factors, but the subscales differ with regard to the amount of variance in the items accounted for by the general and specific factors. These results add further insight into the psychometric properties of these two measures and the dimensionality of these two constructs. (shrink)

This research presents the development of a measure of religiosity that includes social intrinsic religiosity as distinct from extrinsic religiosity and from the typical conceptualization of intrinsic religiosity as an individual orientation. Study 1 developed the measure using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis; the results confirmed two intrinsic identity factors and two extrinsic benefit factors. Correlations with previously established religiosity measures demonstrate the scales construct validity and that social intrinsic religiosity is independent from extrinsic religiosity. In Study 2, differential responding (...) by Christian and Jewish participants was consistent with these religions’ reputed cultural-theological approaches and confirmed the independence of social intrinsic religiosity. Furthermore, social intrinsic religiosity was positively correlated with prejudice towards value-violating outgroups, as would be expected from an intrinsic religiosity. These results unconfound social and extrinsic religiosity and provide empirical evidence that intrinsic religiosity can be socially as well as individually oriented. (shrink)

The purpose of the study is to empirically examine moral ideology, ethical beliefs, and moral intensity in the context of Pakistan. Jones (Academy of Management Review, 16(2), 366–395, 1991) model and Muncy and Vitell (Journal of Business Research, 24, 297–311, 1992) have extensively been investigated and validated in west for examining ethical decision-making process. This study examines and validates these models in a collectivist cultural settings, i.e., Pakistan. A self-administered online survey technique using convenience sampling technique was used to gather (...) data from a sample of 1000 consumers in Pakistan. Final analysis was carried out on 338 valid responses. Data was analyzed using from descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and model estimation carried out AMOS. Cronbach’s α was used to test the reliability of the instrument. A majority of the consumers were high on idealism and low on relativism. Consumers dejected questionable activities that have harmful outcomes more than ones that have harmless outcomes. Both idealism and relativism are found to significant predict moral intensity. However, no relationship has been found between moral ideology and ethical beliefs. Consumer’s ethical beliefs are found to significantly affect moral intensity and behavioral intention. Social moral intensity is found to mediate the relationship of relativism and harmful ethical beliefs. The study is among the pioneer studies in Pakistan that examines the link of moral ideology, moral intensity, and ethical beliefs. The study provides an Urdu version of scales that can be utilized for further exploration and validation. (shrink)

Realism is generally assumed as the correct position with regards to psychological research and the measurement of psychological attributes in psychometrics. Borsboom et al., 203–219 2003), for instance, argued that the choice of a reflective measurement model necessarily implies a commitment to the existence of psychological constructs as well as a commitment to the belief that empirical testing of measurement models can justify their correspondence with real causal structures. Hood :739–761 2013) deemphasized Borsboom et al.’s position and argued that the (...) choice of a reflective measurement model does not necessarily require ontological commitments, though, in his view, it does necessitate a commitment to minimal epistemic realism. Although these arguments are formulated with regard to psychological research, they can actually be generalized to other disciplines in social sciences that use similar methodologies and statistical techniques. In Hood’s opinion, empiricism does not suffice to provide an adequate account of the choice of reflective measurement models given that this choice requires an appeal to causal explanations. In this paper, we argue against Hood and answer this challenge, providing epistemic foundations for social science research that do not appeal to realism. (shrink)

Exploratory factor analysis is a statistical method widely used in quantitative psychology for the construction of scales and measurement instruments. It aims to reduce the complexity of a data set and explain the common and unique variance using latent variables. In introductory textbooks, exploratory factor analysis is generally presented in contrast to confirmatory factor analysis as a theory- or a hypothesis-generating process that does not require prior background, theory or hypothesis to be performed. The aim of the present paper is (...) to analyze this claim and clarify in which sense exploratory factor analysis is theory-laden. We provide a careful examination of the concepts it involves and thereby establish a clear limitation of the epistemic scope of exploratory factor analysis. (shrink)

In psychology, measurement instruments are constructed from scales, which are obtained on the grounds of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Looking at the literature, one can find various recommendations regarding how these techniques should be used during the scale construction process. Some authors suggest to use exploratory factor analysis on the entire data set while others advice to perform an internal cross-validation by randomly splitting the data set in two and then either perform exploratory factor analysis on both parts or (...) exploratory factor analysis on the first part and confirmatory factor analysis on the other. In spite of all these divergent recommendations, there is no consensus on which method yields the best result. In this paper, we analyze this issue in light of the prediction versus accommodation debate and argue that the answer to this question depends on one’s conception of the criteria that should be used to achieve the goals of the scientific enterprise. (shrink)

Some limitations of ‘category work’ in the history of psychiatry are illustrated via the example of attempts within US alienism and psychiatry since 1889 to identify psychosis and its prodromes. A slowly evolving acceptance of the need for specifiable biological disease concepts, distinct diagnostic categories and defined boundaries of the ‘before and after’ of psychosis among some elite physicians challenged widespread vernacular methods of diagnosis expressed as intuition, feelings or scent as well as local practices of creating novel placeholder terms (...) ‘as needed’ or using question marks to express liminality or confusion. When ‘error of diagnosis’ emerged as a concern circa 1909, the professional transformation of this ‘scientific self of subjectivity’ of the psychiatrist into a ‘scientific self of objectivity’ eventually resulted in the turn to numerical judgments based on rating scales for psychotic symptoms. However, rating scales do not ‘count’ anything at all and exist as instruments of liminality between subjective clinical opinion and the affection of objectivity that quantification symbolizes. (shrink)

Model simplicity in curve fitting is the fewness of parameters estimated. I use a vector model of least squares estimation to show that degrees of freedom, the difference between the number of observed parameters fit by the model and the number of explanatory parameters estimated, are the number of potential dimensions in which data are free to differ from a model and indicate the disconfirmability of the model. Though often thought to control for parameter estimation, the AIC and similar indices (...) do not do so for all model applications, while goodness of fit indices like chi-square, which explicitly take into account degrees of freedom, do. Hypothesis testing with prespecified values for parameters is based on a metaphoric regulative subject/object schema taken from object perception and has as its goal the accumulation of objective knowledge. (shrink)

Assuming it rational to treat other persons' probabilities as epistemically significant, how shall their judgements be weighted (Barnes [1998])? Several plausible methods exist, but theorems in classical psychometrics greatly reduce the importance of the problem. If scientists' judgements tend to be positively correlated, the difference between two randomly weighted composites shrinks as the number of judges rises. Since, for reasons such as representative coverage, minimizing bias, and avoiding elitism, we would rarely employ small numbers of judges (e.g. less than 10), (...) the difference between two weighting systems becomes negligible. Suggestions are made for quantifying verisimilitude, identifying 'types' of scientists or theories (taxometrics), inferring latent factors, and estimating reliability of pooled judgements. (shrink)

Religious-commitment signaling is thought to indicate willingness to cooperate with a religious group. It follows that a desire to signal affiliation and reap concomitant benefits would lend itself to acting in socially desirable ways. Success or failure in such areas, especially where there is conscious intent, should correspond to proximal indicators of well-being, such as psychosocial or biological stress. To test this model, we assessed religious-commitment signaling and socially desirable responding among a sample of Pentecostals with respect to salivary biomarkers (...) of stress and arousal. Results indicate that cortisol levels on worship and non-worship days were significantly influenced by religious-commitment signaling when moderated by impression management, a conscious form of socially desirable responding. No significant influences on salivary alpha-amylase were detected. These findings are important for understanding how religious-commitment signaling mechanisms may influence stress response when moderated by socially desirable responding and the role of communal orientation to psychosocial health. (shrink)