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Volume 1, Issue 1 (March 2011)

Events

Upcoming:

BSI Seminar 4 (08 April)

Fold'em!: The Effect of Physical Enclosure on Goal Pursuits

Recent:

BSI Seminar 1

Longitudinal Assessment of Changes in Performance and Attitudes: Conceptual and Methodological Issues

BSI Seminar 2

Fast and Frugal Decisions about Food

BSI Seminar 3

The Interest Indicator Model of Humor: The Role of Wit in Assessing Potential Relationships
 

BSI in the News

SMU Press Releases

Media Highlights

 

About BSI

Our Vision, Mission & Values

The BSI Logo

Our Key Activities

BSI Website

 

Contact Us

Should you have any queries, suggestions or comments,
please send us an e-mail at bsi@smu.edu.sg or call us at 
DID: 6828 0300.

 

Greetings from the Director

 

Welcome to the first issue of BSI-News, a quarterly newsletter from the Behavioural Sciences Institute (BSI)!

Read more...

 

Announcements

 •  Appointment of the BSI Business Advisory Board

 •  Appointment of the BSI International Scientific Advisory Panel

 

Research Programmes in 2011

BSI has identified the following four major research programmes which will begin in 2011. The Institute will collaborate with several agencies to implement these programmes. Each research programme will consist of a series of studies and employ multiple research methodologies. Read more about our research programmes here.

 

Insights from Behavioural Sciences

In many areas of decision making in businesses, interventions in organisations or public policy formulation in governments, the focus is explicitly on understanding factors influencing human behaviour such as what affects the choices that individuals make, what drives individuals to act in particular ways or how individuals will respond to certain incentives. Even when the concept of human behaviour is less explicit, some form of folk theory or assumption of human behaviour is often implicit when decision makers make judgments and inferences for the purpose of making decisions. Because understanding human behaviour is fundamental in almost all decisions in businesses and governments, it is important that we possess a sound working knowledge of the basics of human behaviour when approaching critical issues involving people. Established concepts and research findings in the behavioural sciences offer insights into human behaviour that are scientifically defensible, and they provide a good basis for developing relevant working knowledge. In each issue of the BSI-News, we will feature insights from behavioural sciences by introducing a scientific concept or an area of research that helps us better understand human behaviour.

In this issue, we feature a short article that introduces the concept of person-environment fit and relate it to understanding of human behaviours. Click [here] to read the article.

 

Applications from Behavioural Sciences

Research in the behavioural sciences examine how humans think, feel and act in various situations and contexts, including individual, social, organisational and cultural settings. Hence, findings from behavioural sciences provide good conceptual and empirical bases for understanding, predicting and influencing behaviours and outcomes across a range of policy domains or organisational contexts and practices. In each issue of the BSI-News, we will feature an area of application of behavioural sciences by explicating practical implications of research findings or reporting keynotes or lectures delivered by BSI as part of our outreach efforts.

In this issue, we feature an article on the application of behavioural sciences to the area of Organisational Development (OD), where organisations are increasingly realising the need for more evidence-based approaches to their initiatives and efforts at improving the organisational culture and climate with a focus on increasing employee engagement. Click [here] to read the article.