The “good” professional: Effects of trait-profile gender type,androgyny, and likableness on impressions of incumbents of sex-typed occupations

Three studies utilizing an impression formation paradigm assessed perceived desirability of masculine, feminine, and androgynous trait profiles attributed to incumbents of sex-typed occupations. Participants in all three studies were predominantly upper middle class Caucasians. Approximately 60% were women and 40% were men. While a general masculinity bias was observed, several important qualifications to this bias were suggested. In Study I, trait likableness had a greater influence than did trait gender typing on impressions across occupations, suggesting the occurrence of centrality effects. Context effects also occurred in impressions of various combinations of particular masculine and feminine traits. Study 2 controlled trait likableness, and while a masculinity bias was still observed, androgynous profiles were rated as equally desirable as masculine profiles across occupations. Study 3 demonstrated that high levels of both masculinity and femininity resulted in favorable impressions, and support was obtained for an “interactive model” of androgyny, i.e., androgynous profiles were rated as more desirable than either gender-typed masculine or feminine profiles across occupations. Nonetheless, some evidence of a “matching bias” between trait gender typing and occupational sex typing was obtained in all three studies, especially for the male-typed occupation of lawyer and the female-typed occupation of nurse. The results are discussed in terms of the operation of “occupational role schemas” in perceptions of incumbents.     

In search for schemata underlying the inference of traits from interpersonal sentiment relations

Three schemata relevant to the inference of traits attributed to a and b from respectively reciprocal liking and disliking relations between a and b are derived from the research literature: (a) Homogeneity according to which likable traits would be attributed to a and b if they like each other, while dislikable traits if they dislike each other; (b) balance according to which more similarity would be attributed to a and b if they like each other than if they dislike each other, the relative similarity effect being localized on a likableness dimension; (c) positivity bias according to which favorable traits would be attributed irrespective of the stimulus information given. An experiment is reported which provides support for the three schemata with the exception that no unequivocal evidence is obtained for the restriction of the balance effect to a likableness dimension. Further, individual Ss are found not to have stable preferences for particular schemata but to switch readily from one schema to the other.     

THE PREDICTION OF OCCUPATIONAL SUCCESS AND PROFICIENCY

Neither standardized test data nor grades made in required courses in high school contribute significantly to the prediction of occupational success or proficiency. The General Aptitude Test Battery makes practically no contribution to the prediction of success although the instrument is widely used to predict trainability. Intelligence test scores are of little value in predicting success in the labor market. It may be that efforts to predict occupational success and proficiency are in reality exercises in futility since workers tend to be successful regardless of test results. Apparently workers find places where they are considered successful. Possibly new research designs will be required before success can be predicted. Success should not be considered an entity, however, because it does not lend itself to exact measurement.     

Review of three tests of motor proficiency in children

The present purpose is to provide clinicians, occupational and physical therapists, and educators with a comparative analysis of three tests of motor proficiency. The Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Movement Assessment Battery for Children, and Tufts Assessment of Motor Performance were developed to assess the motor skills of children with developmental delays. The selection criteria, interrater reliability, reproducibility, and recommended use of each test are reported here. Recommendations for use of each test include standardization of the sample population to ensure its appropriateness.     

Predicting Chinese international students’ acculturation strategies from socio‐demographic variables and social ties

Different acculturation strategies (i.e. integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization) tend to contribute to different adaptation outcomes for international students. The current study examines Chinese international students’ acculturation strategies under the influence of sociodemographic variables and social ties they developed in the host country. A group of Chinese international students in Belgium (N = 183) participated in an online survey. The results indicate that integration was the most commonly adopted strategy among Chinese international students in Belgium, followed by separation, marginalization and assimilation. The results from three separate multiple regressions show that English proficiency, local language proficiency, prior adaptation experience and female were significant predictors of Chinese students’ social ties (i.e. host‐national ties, international ties and co‐national ties). The discriminant analysis identified host‐national ties, international ties, co‐national ties, local language proficiency and prior adaptation experience as important variables that can distinguish Chinese students’ acculturation strategies.     

THE BIG FIVE PERSONALITY DIMENSIONS AND JOB PERFORMANCE: A META-ANALYSIS

This study investigated the relation of the "Big Five" personality dimensions (Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience) to three job performance criteria (job proficiency, training proficiency, and personnel data) for five occupational groups (professionals, police, managers, sales, and skilled/semi-skilled). Results indicated that one dimension of personality, Conscientiousness, showed consistent relations with all job performance criteria for all occupational groups. For the remaining personality dimensions, the estimated true score correlations varied by occupational group and criterion type. Extraversion was a valid predictor for two occupations involving social interaction, managers and sales (across criterion types). Also, both Openness to Experience and Extraversion were valid predictors of the training proficiency criterion (across occupations). Other personality dimensions were also found to be valid predictors for some occupations and some criterion types, but the magnitude of the estimated true score correlations was small (ρ < .10). Overall, the results illustrate the benefits of using the 5-factor model of personality to accumulate and communicate empirical findings. The findings have numerous implications for research and practice in personnel psychology , especially in the subfields of personnel selection, training and development, and performance appraisal.     

FIVE REASONS WHY THE "BIG FIVE" ARTICLE HAS BEEN FREQUENTLY CITED

This study investigated the relation of the "Big Five" personality dimensions (Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience) to three job performance criteria (job proficiency, training proficiency, and personnel data) for five occupational groups (professionals, police, managers, sales, and skill/semi-skilled). Results indicated that one dimension of personality, Conscientiousness, showed consistent relations with all job performance criteria for all occupational groups. For the remaining personality dimensions, the estimated true score correlations varied by occupational group and criterion type. Extraversion was a valid predictor for two occupations involving social interaction, managers and sales (across criterion types). Also, both Openness to Experience and Extraversion were valid predictors of the training proficiency criterion (across occupations). Other personality dimensions were also found to be valid predictors for some occupations and some criterion types, but the magnitude of the estimated true score correlations was small ( p <10). Overall, the results illustrate the benefits of using the 5-factor model of personality to accumulate and communicate empirical findings. The findings have numerous implications for research and practice in personnel psychology, especially in the subfields of personnel selection, training and development, and performance appraisal.     

Young Adults of Maghrebi Origin from the French Banlieues: Social Mobility in Action?

A cohort of young French adults of Maghrebi origin, aged 20 to 29, who grew up in the same banlieue neighbourhood was constructed and used to observe their labour market integration. The biographical survey reviewed the pathways of these young men and women through the prism of social mobility. On the one hand, their parents?? migration (from one of three Maghreb countries), low skills level and occupations are not conducive to upward social mobility; on the other hand, the expectation of integration, the aspiration to a better life and education in French society are potentially positive factors. After describing the fieldwork conditions, the article presents the results as a typology comprising five types of occupational integration. These are compared with the parents?? occupational status in order to define the form of social mobility. While some young adults have clearly experienced upward social mobility, others have not managed to find stable employment in the blue-collar category. This outcome can be attributed partly to the diversity of educational pathways. However, the analysis would not be complete without a discussion of the changes in the labour market, growing job insecurity and downclassing. These new trends, which affect the whole population, have a special resonance in a situation of urban segregation, generating new inequalities. The occupational statuses of these young adults highlight the deindustrialization that has taken place between their parents?? generation and their own, constraining opportunities for social mobility.     

Social Attractiveness and Blame

Blame attributions are influenced by various extralegal factors, although at present there is no compelling evidence to link what may be one of the most pervasive sources of bias in blame judgments—an actor's social attractiveness or likableness—to blame attributions. We conducted 2 studies that varied an actor's social attractiveness and assessed its influence on blame. Social attractiveness influenced blame ratings in both studies, and perceptions of the actor's likableness mediated this effect.     

Occupationally Embedded Exercise Versus Rote Exercise and Psychosocial Response in College-Aged Females

Community integration through occupational engagement is an integral tenet of occupational therapy. However, little is known about how pets may assist this process. This study explores community integration through pet ownership as a meaningful, lifelong, occupation for one person with bipolar illness receiving Assertive Community Treatment. Using a case study approach, eight qualitative interviews, as well as observation and analysis of pet photos, were conducted with the mental health consumer and also with members of her social network. Data were analyzed inductively according to the constant comparative approach. The findings reveal that pet ownership assisted the person to counterbalance and move beyond stigma through pets as enablers of: “continuity,” “belonging,” “action and self-construction,” “acceptance,” and “participation.” This process was influenced by the “severity of illness,” “view of community,” and “supports and resources.” The results contribute to our understanding of pet ownership as a means to community integration. The study indicates that to enable persons with a mental illness to engage in pet ownership, occupational scientists need to examine and understand this occupation in the broader context of recovery, health, and well-being. A perspective of pet ownership as meaningful occupation challenges occupational therapists to develop strategies to actively engage clients and their pets in their community.     

Ambiguity of acceptance,social desirability,and dating choice

Male subjects differing in social desirability (likableness, physical attractiveness) chose a date from an array of females of three levels of physical attractiveness. Choices were made under two conditions: one where acceptance was assured regardless of whom subject chose; the other where acceptance was left ambiguous. The findings were as follows: (a) subjects selected a more physically attractive female when assured of acceptance than when acceptance was left ambiguous; (b) subjects estimated that highly physically attractive females were less likely to accept them as a date than were either moderately physically attractive or physically unattractive females; (c) subjects' self-ratings of their likableness were not related to the physical attractiveness of their choices under either choice condition nor to their estimates of their chances that the females would accept them as a date; and (d) subjects' self-evaluated physical attractiveness, although unrelated to the physical attractiveness of the subjects' choices, did relate to subjects' estimates of their chances of acceptance. Highly physically attractive subjects estimated their chances of acceptance as better than did subjects who considered themselves low in physical attractiveness. The implications of the findings for the “matching hypothesis” are discussed.     

THE BIASING EFFECTS OF SUBORDINATE LIKEABLENESS ON LEADERS' RESPONSES TO POOR PERFORMERS: A LABORATORY AND A FIELD STUDY

A laboratory and a field study investigated the biasing effects of subordinate likableness on leaders' attributions for subordinate poor performance and their corrective actions toward subordinates. In the laboratory study, 96 undergraduate students served as leaders and were presented with a vignette describing an incident of poor performance committed by either a liked or a disliked subordinate. Leaders made attributions for the poor performance and then rated the appropriateness of a series of corrective actions. Analyses revealed that leaders made similar attributions for the poor performance of liked and disliked subordinates, but were more inclined to punish a disliked subordinate than a liked subordinate. A second study replicated these findings with 98 leaders in an actual organization. Implications of the results for disciplinary policies are discussed.     

Faith and Learning in Higher Education: Merging the Bible with Discipline-Specific Content

This article offers a brief history on the origin of universities, summarizes how faith shaped higher education from the European university’s advent to its Western reproduction, and presents recommendations from a contemporary faith integration method employed in many faith-based universities in the United States. Response to intervention was used to direct two examples of faith integration performed for 14 candidates enrolled in a teacher preparation program. The study advocates the instruction, modeling, and practicum elements of faith integration in curricula that provide postsecondary instructors with valuable insight to develop proficiency in the art of merging biblical content with discipline-specific content.     

The Inter-Relations of Political Attitudes: I. Attitudes toward Candidates and Specific Policies

Abstract

Australian subjects (N = 171) rated 110 personality-trait words on their desirability as personality characteristics. The rank order, mean ratings, and standard deviations of the words were tabulated and were discussed against Anderson's (1968) American list of likableness ratings.     

Psychological individual differences as predictors of refugees’ local language proficiency

Learning the local language is important for the successful integration of immigrants. Previous research has identified a number of sociodemographic factors that are associated with the effectiveness of local language acquisition among immigrants, but little is known about the influence of psychological differences on immigrants’ local language acquisition. In the present research, individual differences in general mental ability (GMA), work search intention, and personality traits Conscientiousness and Openness were studied among recently arrived Syrian (n = 1054) and Eritrean (n = 500) refugees in the Netherlands. The results revealed that in addition to the effects of age of arrival, local length of stay, premigration educational attainment, and psychological distress, GMA and work search intention were positively associated with refugees’ local language proficiency. Additionally, work search intention was found to strengthen the effect of GMA on local language proficiency. No positive linear effects were observed for Conscientiousness and Openness. Some evidence was found for curvilinear relationships between psychological predictors and local language proficiency. Implications are discussed.     

Relationship between orthographic‐motor integration and computer use for the production of creative and well‐structured written text

Background: Orthographic‐motor integration refers to the way in which orthographic knowledge is integrated with fine‐motor demands of handwriting. A strong relationship has shown to exist between orthographic‐motor integration and students' ability to produce creative and well‐structured written text (De La Paz & Graham, 1995). This relationship is thought to be due to the cognitive load resulting from lack of automaticity in orthographic‐motor integration so that writers do not have sufficient resources to accomplish the more demanding aspects of writing. Interventions to improve children's orthographic‐motor integration result in improved written text (Jones & Christensen, 1999). Aim: This study first extended findings related to handwritten text to the relationship between typing and the length and quality of computer‐based written text. Second, it examined the efficacy of an intervention to develop proficiency in typing skills on the length and quality of students' written language. Sample: Participants in the first study were 276 Grade 8 and 9 students. In the second study 35 students in Grades 8 and 9 who exhibited very low levels of proficiency in typing were the participants. Methods: In Study 1, orthographic‐motor integration related to typing as well as handwriting was assessed for all students. They were asked to complete a piece of handwritten and computer‐based text. Students in the intervention study completed the same measures as Study 1, at pre‐ and post‐test. During the intervention half the students completed a daily typed journal and half completed a program designed to facilitate their typing skills. Results: There was a significant relationship between orthographic‐motor integration — handwriting and the length and quality of handwritten text, and a stronger relationship between orthographic‐motor integration — typing and length and quality of computer‐based text. Both intervention groups in the second study showed significant differences in writing skills from pre‐ to post‐test. However, the typing skills group showed significantly better scores on typing and quality of typewritten text than the journal group at post‐test. The impact of the intervention was specific to typewritten text. There was no difference in length or quality of handwritten text. Conclusion: It is suggested that developing proficiency in orthographic‐motor integration related to typing allows writers to employ their cognitive resources more flexibly when working on a computer, so that they can devote attention to higher‐order processes involved in ideation, syntactic and semantic monitoring and pragmatic awareness.     

Development of Component Skills in Reading Chinese

Development of three component skills in reading Chinese was examined in primary school children in Hong Kong. Feature analysis skills, syntax knowledge, and semantic analysis skills were found to differ in their contribution to reading proficiency at different grades. Visual processing skill was not at all a good predictor for reading proficiency, but the phonological access skill was important in predicting children's reading proficiency before grade three. It was an ineffective predictor beyond grade three. Skill in semantic analysis, on the other hand, was insignificant as a predictor at younger grades but it became an important predictor after grade two. Syntax knowledge was an important predictor of reading proficiency in the first grade and remained a significant predictor of reading proficiency right up to grade six. The present data support the idea that some preliminary component processes of reading may become automatic with increasing experience in reading and that this automatization of component processes will leave more resource capacity for higher-order analyses. Chinese reading shares much in common with English reading in terms of the component processes involved at different stages of reading proficiency.     

Functional connectivity changes in second language vocabulary learning

Functional connectivity changes in the language network (Price, 2010), and in a control network involved in second language (L2) processing (Abutalebi & Green, 2007) were examined in a group of Persian (L1) speakers learning French (L2) words. Measures of network integration that characterize the global integrative state of a network (Marrelec, Bellec et al., 2008) were gathered, in the shallow and consolidation phases of L2 vocabulary learning. Functional connectivity remained unchanged across learning phases for L1, whereas total, between- and within-network integration levels decreased as proficiency for L2 increased.The results of this study provide the first functional connectivity evidence regarding the dynamic role of the language processing and cognitive control networks in L2 learning (Abutalebi et al., 2005, Altarriba and Heredia, 2008, Leonard et al., 2011, Parker-Jones et al., 2011). Thus, increased proficiency results in a higher degree of automaticity and lower cognitive effort (Segalowitz & Hulstijn, 2005).     

双语水平与认知控制心智转换

研究考察双语水平对认知控制心智转换的影响。通过语言转换和任务转换实验,比较两组一语水平相同而二语水平不同的“不平衡”中英双语者（40人,平均年龄20.30岁）。结果发现高水平组在语言转换中优于低水平组,但在任务转换中两组无显著差异。说明双语水平对认知控制心智转换的影响不显著。回归分析结果表明心智转换与双语水平无关,但二语使用显著预测任务转换代价,双语转换频率显著预测任务混合代价。研究表明双语水平对认知控制心智转换的促进作用不显著,但二语使用和双语转换频率可能是双语者心智转换能力增强的重要因素。研究进一步推进了双语促进认知控制的理论,明确了双语优势的具体来源及认知控制受影响的具体层面。     

Vocational Transition in Acute Care Psychiatry

The history of vocational rehabilitation in mental health occupational therapy is a sporadic one. Today, vocational integration is an essential part of holistic practice. The Vocational Transition group protocol identifies vocational services in acute care settings for psychiatric inpatients who are planning to return to work after discharge.