Explicit and Implicit Basic Human Motives, and Public Service Motivation

Relationships between professional identity, motivation, and innovative ability among nursing intern students: A cross-sectional study

Objective

To explore the relationships among motivation, professional identity, and innovative ability of nursing intern students.

Background

Professional identity and innovative ability are important for nursing students' core competitiveness and care quality. During the internship, nursing students integrate theoretical knowledge and practice, and have a rapid growth. Motivation is positively associated with professional identity and innovative ability. However, there are limited studies examining the professional identity, motivation, and innovative ability of nursing intern students.

Design

A descriptive cross-sectional online study.

Methods

Students in the nursing schools in southwest and central of China were included in this study and conducted from June to July 2022. A total of 474 nursing intern students were recruited from 16 nursing schools. Research data were collected with "Participants' Demographics Form", "the Professional Identity Questionnaire for Nursing Students", "the Revised Life Goals Questionnaire", and "the Revised Multidimensional Innovative Questionnaire". Independent-sample t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, correlation coefficients, and structural equation modeling were used in data analysis. This study adhered to the STROBE guidelines.

Results

A significantly positive correlation was determined among the professional identity (67.55 ± 8.42), motivation (53.38 ± 5.54), and innovative ability (47.99 ± 5.46) of nursing students (r > 0.4, P < 0.001). Motivation had a mediating effect on professional identity and innovative ability (P = 0.003), accounting for 10.9% (0.075/0.689) of the total effect.

Conclusions

There was a positive correlation among professional identity, motivation, and innovative ability. Developing motivation and professional identity can enhance nursing intern students' ability to innovate.

Can local People's Congress supervision improve the expenditure behavior of local governments? Evidence from provincial budget review

The Local People's Congress budget review and supervision is an important measure to "effectively safeguard and improve people's livelihood" under the changes of the current major contradictions. Using the multi period DID method, we found that after the revision of the regulations, the local people's livelihood public service expenditure bias and expenditure efficiency were significantly improved. This conclusion is still valid after considering a series of robustness tests and possible explanations. The specific ways for it mainly include the constraint on the opportunistic behavior of local governments and the signal transmission function of the LPC's supervision. Further research shows that more effective media attention, more open and transparent rule of law environment, greater financial pressure and regional differences can all affect the effect of LPC's supervision of spending behavior. The research conclusion shows that the role of LPC supervision should be further played to ensure the development of local people's livelihood and promote the construction of government revenue and expenditure management system.

Scientific Research Conformity of University Teachers: Role of Incentives and Internal Attribution

Background: Conformity is a process by which a person changes his original idea and attitude in response to group pressure and chooses to be consistent with the majority. The study was undertaken to explore university teachers’ scientific research conformity (SRC), the psychological process of information processing and the types of internal attribution in SRC, and the relationship between SRC incentives and types of internal attribution. Method: A survey of 349 teachers from seven universities was conducted. We employed the mixed-method approach; data was collected through in-depth interviews and were analyzed using AMOS. Results: In-depth interviews revealed that the basic principle of human organizational behavior is conformity with incentive, and conformity is a motivational behavior produced through psychological processing of social information. Factor analysis results revealed that teachers’ SRC is characterized by abidance, compliance, and obedience. The internal incentives mainly affect abidance, and have a significant impact on obedience and compliance; the environmental incentives mainly affect abidance, and have a significant impact on obedience. Family and social relationship incentives mainly affect compliance, but social relationship incentives also have a significant impact on obedience. Additionally, policy incentives have a highly significant impact on obedience. Conclusions: This study provides first-hand empirical data for studies pertaining to research motivation and SRC behavior of Chinese university teachers. It also provides a theoretical basis for subsequent research on conformity behavior.

Aging, testosterone, and neuroplasticity: friend or foe?

Neuroplasticity or neural plasticity implicates the adaptive potential of the brain in response to extrinsic and intrinsic stimuli. The concept has been utilized in different contexts such as injury and neurological disease. Neuroplasticity mechanisms have been classified into neuroregenerative and function-restoring processes. In the context of injury, neuroplasticity has been defined in three post-injury epochs. Testosterone plays a key yet double-edged role in the regulation of several neuroplasticity alterations. Research has shown that testosterone levels are affected by numerous factors such as age, stress, surgical procedures on gonads, and pharmacological treatments. There is an ongoing debate for testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) in aging men; however, TRT is more useful in young individuals with testosterone deficit and more specific subgroups with cognitive dysfunction. Therefore, it is important to pay early attention to testosterone profile and precisely uncover its harms and benefits. In the present review, we discuss the influence of environmental factors, aging, and gender on testosterone-associated alterations in neuroplasticity, as well as the two-sided actions of testosterone in the nervous system. Finally, we provide practical insights for further study of pharmacological treatments for hormonal disorders focusing on restoring neuroplasticity.

Bribery and the Role and Social Value Orientation: A Multi-Site Experimental Study in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands

Bribery is a complex phenomenon rooted in both individual motives and the greater institutional context. Experimental research into causal mechanisms that drive bribing behavior is still scarce. To date, there is no empirical evidence on how the society-regarding motivational survey measure of Public Service Motivation (PSM) and the other-oriented motivational measure of Social Value Orientation (SVO) can help explain why some people are more susceptible to engage in the act of bribing than others. Based on a multi-site triple-replication, and a vignette-based research design, quasi-experimental evidence from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands shows that both measures interact and that-paradoxically-people with higher SVO are more likely to be willing to engage in bribery.