Most Popular Books by Barry Schwartz

Life often feels so off Unplanned as a cough But the structure fits the stream The nightmare and the dream For years these questions gathered You''ve heard them And we''ve blathered So here is one approach Another attempt to coach Enjoy this contemplative curse

Cameron Simmons is fighting a losing battle against his own life. Divorce. Career failures. A "tortoise" of self-doubt that''s lived in his head since childhood. At sixty, this former pharmacist turned eyeglass salesman can barely get out of bed, let alone find meaning in his crumbling world. But Cameron has something they can''t kill: a stubborn refusal to give up and an inexplicable connection to something greater than himself. Then mysterious numbers-111 and 444-begin appearing everywhere. A voice whispers "Trust" in the darkness. Strange coincidences stack upon each other until Cameron can no longer deny the impossible: someone is watching over him. Until his spiritual awakening collides with crushing depression and thoughts of ending it all. Faith becomes doubt. Hope becomes despair. His journey takes him from the depths of suicidal ideation to the heights of spiritual revelation, from a failed marriage to profound love, from bitter isolation to mentoring the next generation at Rutgers University. Sometimes the most beautiful transformations come from the darkest places. A story that will make you question everything you believe about coincidence, purpose, and the invisible forces that shape our lives. You''ll never look at repeating numbers the same way again.

We conducted an analysis of the 13-item Maximization Scale (Schwartz et al., 2002) with the goal of establishing its factor structure, reliability and validity. We also investigated the psychometric properties of several proposed refined versions of the scale. Four sets of analyses are reported. The first analysis confirms the 3-part factor structure of the scale and assesses its reliability. The second analysis identifies those items that do not perform well on the basis of internal, external, and judgmental criteria, and develops three shorter versions of the scale. In the third analysis, the three refined versions of the scale are cross-validated to confirm dimensionality, reliability, and validity. The fourth analysis uses an experiment in an investment decision making context to assess the reliability and nomological validity of the refined scales. These analyses lead us to conclude that a shorter, 6-item Maximization Scale performs best and should be used by future researchers. It is hoped that clarification of the conceptual underpinnings of the maximization construct and development of a refined scale will enhance its use among researchers across several of the social science disciplines.