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The study of arms control and disarmament is a subject of renewed interest in the United States. The attention of academicians, politicians, and average citizens, focused by a fear of nuclear holocaust, has turned to questions of how best to seek peace and safety in the nuclear age. Courses and programs devoted to arms control and disarmament and methods of achieving peaceful resolution of conflicts in today's world are offered at all educational levels, and the general public, aware of the necessity of being well‐informed on such an important topic, is looking for ways to obtain factual and reliable information to help sort out the conflicting claims of political spokespeople. Such material does exist and should be available to researchers, professors, students, and citizens, so that they can form opinions and attempt to influence policy on the basis of a sound understanding.

This study aims to unbundle the materialism construct into its three facets – centrality, success and happiness – to provide a fine-grained model that delineates the relationship between some of its antecedents (i.e. depression, anxiety, self esteem and affect) and consequences (life satisfaction, innovativeness, time spent shopping and environmentalism).

Using a convenience sample of 568 adult consumers, this study tests a model in which a set of psychological variables serve as antecedents of materialism and its three facets, which in turn affect a set of cognitive, psychological and behavioral consequences.

Results indicate that specific facets have more weight than others, depending on the nature of the needs individuals seek to fulfill through possessions, or their resulting behaviors and cognitions. Results validate the view of materialism as a coping mechanism, but also show that the consequences of materialism can be both positive and negative depending on their underlying facet.

This study used a convenience sample, which might affect the generalizability of its findings. The materialism centrality subscale showed a lower than desirable level of reliability. Future research might consider using the longer, 6-item version of this sub-scale.

This study helps marketers identify the circumstances under which materialism can lead to negative or positive consequences. Marketers should be careful when designing messages that make unrealistically strong associations between consumption and happiness, positive emotions, self-worth and satisfaction with life.

The negative social and personal consequences of materialism call for the formulation of policies designed to reduce them, and marketers’ responsibility to consumers’ well-being, especially among potentially vulnerable segments of the population.

This study provides an in-depth analysis of the materialism construct, its antecedents and outcomes. It advances our understanding of how materialism works by examining each facet separately and how it is related to the various psychological antecedents and consumer behavior outcomes.

The classics will circulate wrote a public librarian several years ago. She found that new, attractive, prominently displayed editions of literary classics would indeed find a substantial audience among public library patrons.

The manipulation of fears generated by 9/11 resulted in restrictions of civil liberties. Although this danger to freedom has been descriptively addressed, its deeper causes and dynamics have not received extensive treatment. This article reassesses the political reaction to 9/11 in terms of economic theory and evolutionary biology. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The explanatory framework is drawn from findings in the economics of war and the biological evolution of war-like behavior in the human species.

The fact that war and its threat were ever-present in human evolution resulted in two social propensities that render society vulnerable to political manipulation. External threats dramatically heighten social cohesion as well as loyalty to leaders. In pre-state societies, all members could clearly witness and judge the nature of an external threat, and because leaders led responses, they were vulnerable to injury or death. In modern highly complex societies, by contrast, the nature of threats is less transparent, and leaders can command far from immediate danger. Consequently, in modern times, leaders can be tempted to generate, especially in times of economic dysfunction, fear of an external threat to rally support and detract attention from otherwise inadequate leadership.

This article presents a deeper analysis, grounded in economics and evolutionary biology, of the manner in which political leaders can exaggerate the dangers of foreign threats to enhance their power at the cost of civil liberties.

The purpose of this study is to examine the nature of the relationship between emotional intelligence and materialism by exploring how subjective well-being mediates this link.

Data was collected from surveying 1,000 Lithuanians within random sampling, and structural equation modelling (SEM) techniques using SmartPLS were used to analyze the data.

The results show that emotional intelligence not only has a negative indirect effect on materialism but also a positive impact on both dimensions of subjective well-being (satisfaction with life and affect balance). In addition, the findings indicate that both satisfaction with life and affect balance predict a decrease in materialism. Finally, the SEM analyzes show that the path between emotional intelligence and materialism is partially mediated by both satisfaction with life and affect balance.

The results of this study expand the understanding to what extent and how emotional intelligence is able to assist in adjusting materialistic attitudes, which have become more prevalent with the respective growth of consumerism and consumer culture worldwide. In the light of unsustainable consumption patterns threatening the survival of humankind and nature, the opportunities that could reverse this trend are presented for marketers and policy makers. This study gives insight into the potential pathways for diminishing consumer materialism, which is considered detrimental to subjective well-being and mental health.

The relationship between emotional intelligence and subjective well-being has been well documented, as has the link between materialism and subjective well-being. However, the simultaneous examination of the relationship between emotional intelligence, subjective well-being and materialism is lacking. The current study adds to the understanding of materialism not only by examining the effect of under-researched antecedent such as emotional intelligence but also by explaining the underlying mechanism of subjective well-being by which emotional intelligence connects to materialism.

Quality audits are prominent and proven management tools for assessing compliance and effectiveness of quality systems. They are commonly used in the effort to improve overall business performance. However, similarly to any other physical or conceptual system, they may fail to achieve objectives set forth, raising concerns among auditees and clients alike. Argues for the provision of adequate confidence to various interested parties in the quality of auditing services. A quality audit is conceptualized using the systems approach. Subsequently, a quality assurance framework based on the application of the 1994 and 2000 versions of the ISO 9001 standard in auditing is presented. Audit system effectiveness is modeled using the concepts of audit reliability, availability and suitability. Audit failures, risks and maintainability are addressed in detail. It is concluded that audit managers must ensure appropriate levels of quality and effectiveness of quality audit systems.