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Volume 7, Issue 1 (March 2017)

Announcements

Professor David Chan has been re-appointed as Co-Chairman of the International Advisory Panel for the National Addictions Management Service (NAMS) and National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG).
 
BSI Outreach
 
Professor David Chan was a member on the panel for Singapore Review 2016, a televised discussion that reviewed some of the major events in 2016. He highlighted the need to link the development of a child with holistic education and the child's well-being, and also the development of skills with job requirements and the changing economy.
[Link to news report in Channel NewsAsia Online]
 
Highlights of Recent BSI Seminars
 
17 January 2017
William Tov, Associate Professor of Psychology, SMU, presented a seminar titled “Meaning and Satisfaction in Everyday Life”. He discussed how positive and negative emotional experiences could affect individuals’ daily perception of  satisfaction and meaning. In addition, experiences with implications to the future affects perception of meaning more than satisfaction.
     
24 January 2017
Devasheesh Bhave, Associate Professor of OBHR, SMU, presented a seminar titled “It Can’t Be All Bad: Can Workplace Interactions Improve Well-Being at Work and the Work-Home Interface?”. He shared how workplace interactions could enhance employee well-being both at work and at home.
     
31 January 2017
Bobby K. Cheon, Nanyang Assistant Professor of Psychology, NTU, presented a seminar titled “Avoiding Hunger or Attaining Fullness? Implicit Theories of Satiety Guide Portion Selection and Food Intake Patterns”. He discussed the personal meaning of satiety which varies across individuals and how this can affect their portion selection and food intake patterns.
     
7 February 2017
Evelyn Au, Assistant Professor of Psychology, SMU, presented a seminar titled “Reconciling an Apparent Contradiction: How do Asians Maintain Motivation While Making External Attributions?”. She shared a theoretical model to explain how Asians could maintain self-motivation in response to failures despite attributing outcomes to external factors beyond their locus of control.
     
14 February 2017
Verlin B. Hinsz, Professor of Psychology, North Dakota State University, presented a seminar titled “Motivating Safety and Security Behaviours:  An Illustration of Personal Factors that Contribute to Food Safety”. He discussed how organisations can motivate their staff to engage in safety and security behaviours to counter potential threats, using food safety in food processing plants as examples.
     
7 March 2017
Kenneth Tai, Assistant Professor of OBHR, SMU, presented a seminar titled “When and Why Envious Leaders become Laissez-faire Leaders: The Moderating Role of Envied Follower’s Benevolence”. He discussed the consequences of workplace envy and how these consequences can have an effect on leaders’ leadership style.
     
21 March 2017
Tsai Ming-Hong, Assistant Professor of Psychology, SMU, presented a seminar titled “How Can We Change Others' Preferences Effectively?”. He shared a series of studies that explored the impact of anger and fatigue on an individual’s willingness to accommodate others’ preferences, as well as the practical implications from the findings.
     
BSI Research
 
Professor David Chan is co-author of an article titled “Longitudinal Research: A panel discussion on conceptual issues, research design, and statistical techniques” published in the journal Work, Ageing and Retirement in January 2017. [Link to paper]
 
The findings from two research projects supported by BSI, led respectively by SMU Associate Professors Angela Leung and Cheng Chi-Ying, have been accepted for presentation at the International Convention of Psychological Science in Vienna, Austria.
 
Leung, A. K.-y., Liou, S., Miron-Spektor, E., Koh, B., Chan, D., Eisenberg, R., & Schneider, I. (2017). Creative Benefits of Paradox: Middle Ground vs. Integration Approach. International Convention of Psychological Science 2017, Vienna, Austria.
 
Cheng, C.-Y., & Wu,T.-Y. (2017). Too Happy to Be Creative: The Emotional and Cognitive Routes Underlying the Multiculturalism–Creativity Link. International Convention of Psychological Science 2017, Vienna, Austria.
 
Insights from Behavioural Sciences
 
In this regular section on Insights from Behavioural Sciences, we feature the views shared by Professor David Chan in two television documentaries, one on the history of innovation in Singapore and another on the future of cyber world, as well as in an invited commentary on research findings on power and their practical implications.
 
 
Applications from Behavioural Sciences
 
In this regular section on Applications from Behavioural Sciences, we feature the views shared by Professor David Chan in a television programme on the SG Secure Initiative and in an invited commentary on unintended policy consequences.
 
Some issues in this commentary were discussed in Professor Chan’s keynote address at BSI Conference 2017, reported in the Asian Scientist [Link]

About BSI
 
The Behavioural Sciences Institute (BSI) is a multi-disciplinary research institute for creating, disseminating and applying scientific knowledge about human behaviours in various social, organisational and cultural settings. For more information on BSI, please refer to our website. Should you have any further enquiries, do contact us with the email or phone contact details provided below.
 
:http://bsi.smu.edu.sg
:bsi@smu.edu.sg
:+65 6828 0300