Workplace Perceptions of Veterans and Nonveterans in the Department of Veterans Affairs

Much has been written about veterans and their reintegration into civilian society, but little or no information is available about veterans’ workplace perceptions and how these might differ from those of nonveterans. The authors compared veterans’ and nonveterans’ attitudes about work (including job satisfaction aspects, perceptions of coworker interactions, supervisory support, and others) in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) based on responses to the organizational census, VA All Employee Survey (AES; N = 179,271). Based on differences in crude (unadjusted, but controlling for location) item odds ratios (range 0.65–1.08), compared to nonveterans, veterans scored modestly lower on most AES items. The authors show how controlling for demographics changes the relative size and, in some cases, the direction of the differences. This current study is 1 of only 2, to our knowledge, large-scale assessments of veterans’ workplace perceptions and the only 1 which controlled the results for demographic characteristics.     

Empty Depth,Empty Breadth,and the Forging of a Therapeutic Alliance

This paper describes a case in which analyst and analysand became interlocked in battles that drew out the 'mad' parts of each other. It explores how the extreme conflict may have actually been an integral part of what has become a truly therapeutic process for both. Theoretically, the dialectical movement of becoming through contradiction is used to help explicate how mutually destructive enactments were necessary building blocks of genuine intimacy.     

Client Perceptions of the Impact of Genetic Counseling: An Exploratory Study

Twenty-eight former genetic counseling clients seen at a major Midwestern university were recruited to be interviewed about their genetic counseling experiences, including most and least helpful aspects, what they learned, how this information impacted their decision-making, and their perceptions of their genetic counselors' behaviors. Responses were inductively analyzed, and several themes were identified, including: Clients sought genetic counseling to obtain genetic-medical information; a majority accurately recalled this information; genetic counseling influenced decisions for about 50% of the sample; decision-making was affected by several extra-session factors; a majority experienced distress during the session; most perceived genetic counselor responses as nondirective and liked this approach; counselor behaviors regarded as directive involved discussion of pregnancy termination; participants disagreed about the need for and provision of genetic counselor support; most regarded the session as helpful and stated that they would seek genetic counseling again. Suggestions for addressing these issues in practice and research are given.     

Mapping Residents' Perceptions of Neighborhood Boundaries: A Methodological Note

Neighborhood influences on children and youth are the subjects of increasing numbers of studies, but there is concern that these investigations may be biased, because they typically rely on census-based units as proxies for neighborhoods. This pilot study tested several methods of defining neighborhood units based on maps drawn by residents, and compared the results with census definitions of neighborhoods. When residents' maps were used to create neighborhood boundary definitions, the resulting units covered different space and produced different social indicator values than did census-defined units. Residents' agreement about their neighborhoods' boundaries differed among the neighborhoods studied. This pilot study suggests that discrepancies between researcher and resident-defined neighborhoods are a possible source of bias in studies of neighborhood effects.     

Contemporary Myths, Sexuality Misconceptions, Information Sources, and Risk Perceptions of Bodabodamen in Southwest Uganda

This article reports findings from a study conducted among 212 private motorbike–taxi riders, locally called bodabodamen, from two study sites—a slum area and the urban center of Masaka town. Qualitative and quantitative methods were triangulated; a questionnaire, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, case studies, and interactive workshops were all used. There were high levels of awareness of HIV, much more than sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), because many participants had closely experienced HIV/AIDS. Knowledge about sexual health contained several misconceptions, misinformation, and myths rooted in both the historical and contemporary social cultural context. Due to high illiteracy levels, bodabodamen cannot access many standard health education materials issued by government and private health organizations through the print and electronic media, as well as those published in languages other than the local vernacular. These (and possibly other) disadvantaged groups remain at risk of HIV and STDs. Especial efforts need to be made to provide appropriate health education.     

Workplace violence and workplace aggression: Evidence on their relative frequency and potential causes

Recent news reports have focused attention on dramatic instances of workplace violence—extreme acts of aggression in work settings. It is suggested here that such actions, while both tragic and frightening, are only a small part of a much larger problem of workplace aggression—efforts by individuals to harm others with whom they work or the organizations in which they are employed. The present study investigated two major hypotheses with respect to such aggression: 1) contrary to what media reports suggest, most aggression occurring in work settings is verbal, indirect, and passive rather than physical, direct, and active; 2) recent changes in many organizations (e.g., downsizing, increased workforce diversity) have generated conditions that may contribute to the occurrence of workplace aggression. A survey of 178 employed persons provided partial support for both predictions. Verbal and passive forms of aggression were rated as more frequent by participants than physical and active forms of aggression. In addition, the greater the extent to which several changes had occurred recently in participants' organizations, the greater the incidence of workplace aggression they reported. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Rape Perceptions, Gender Role Attitudes, and Victim-Perpetrator Acquaintance

The connection between rape perceptions, gender role attitudes, and victim-perpetrator acquaintance was examined. One hundred fifty Israeli students rated their perceptions of the victim, the perpetrator, the situation, and the appropriate punishment, after reading scenarios in which rape was committed by a neighbor, an ex-boyfriend, and a current life partner. Significant negative correlations were found between gender-role attitudes and four measures of rape perceptions. “Traditionals” minimized the severity of all rapes more than “Egalitarians” did. As the acquaintance level increased, there was a greater tendency to minimize the severity of the rape, in the perceptions of the victim, the situation, and the punishment; the situation was characterized less as rape, and was perceived as less violating of the victim's rights and less psychologically damaging. Women tended to have more egalitarian attitudes than men did, and women were less likely to minimize the severity of the rape in the measures of perceptions of the situation and the appropriate punishment.     

Perceptions of Overt and Personality-based Integrity Tests

Differences in test-taker perceptions between overt and personality-based integrity tests were examined. Following administration of both types of integrity tests, 255 undergraduate students provided ratings of perceived face validity and perceived predictive validity. Following receipt of actual test scores, 126 test takers participated in a second phase of the study in which they reported perceptions of distributive justice. Test takers perceived overt integrity tests as having greater face validity and predictive validity than personality-based integrity tests. Perceptions of job-relatedness were not strongly related to test performance on either test type. Distributive justice perceptions were related to test performance, but not type of integrity test.     

Development of the Injury Perceptions Questionnaire (InjPQ)

Objectives: Injuries are major causes of morbidity and mortality in the population. Given the central role of perceptions in self-regulation of health conditions, it is important to investigate how they are perceived. This article describes the development of the Injury Perceptions Questionnaire (InjPQ).

Methods: A concurrent study in a diverse sample of injured individuals (n = 333). The internal structure and the reliability (Cronbach’s α) of InjPQ sub-scales were explored by factor analyses. Relationships between injury perception dimensions and equivalent illness perception scales and outcome measures (self-assessed health; physical, emotional and social functioning; depression, anxiety and somatisation; satisfaction with life) were investigated.

Results: The InjPQ was found to represent the following perception scales: injury identity composed of social and body part components, PTSD symptoms, Injury event, Injury specific emotions, Injured self-image, Positive consequences, Responsibility/guilt, Coping, Time distance, Dependency, Healthy self, External attributions and Injury risk factors. The reliability and construct validity of the scales were found adequate.

Conclusions: Injury perceptions can be reliably measured. While partly overlapping with equivalent illness perception scales, the InjPQ depicts cognitive dimensions unique to injury that add significantly to explaining variance in outcomes. The InjPQ is recommended for research and clinical use as a measure of injury perceptions.     

虚拟现实购物网站的等级深度与宽度关系研究

为研究虚拟现实表征方式下,网上购物系统等级结构的宽度与深度特征对用户信息行为的影响,本文在实验室环境下研究了三种结构方式(8 6 1、16 3 1、4 4 3 1),结果初步发现:对于虚拟现实购物网站(或系统的虚拟现实表征方式),宽度的增加所带来的对用户信息搜索速度的损害大于深度的增加对用户信息搜索速度的损害,这与对二维表征方式下的既有研究结果相反;而且虚拟现实系统的8 6 1结构方式更容易带来用户的迷失。     

Illness Perceptions,Coping, Benefit Finding,and Adjustment in Individuals with Hepatitis C

Objective

To investigate the ability of illness perceptions, adaptive, and maladaptive coping strategies, and benefit finding to predict physical and psychosocial adjustment among individuals diagnosed with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), within an expanded self‐regulatory model of illness (SRM).

Method

A total of 126 participants with HCV completed an online questionnaire assessing illness perceptions, coping, benefit finding, and four adjustment outcomes, depression, physical functioning, life satisfaction and positive affect.

Results

Illness perceptions made significant contributions to the variance in adjustment outcomes across the four psychosocial and physical adjustment areas. At an individual level, personal control, identification with HCV symptoms, perceptions related to illness duration, illness coherence, and emotional responses to HCV made significant contributions to the prediction of adjustment. Similarly, the combined contributions of adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies explained significant variance across the four adjustment areas. Greater adoption of maladaptive coping strategies predicted poorer physical health, higher reported depression, greater life satisfaction, and positive affect outcomes, while increased engagement with adoptive coping strategies predicted higher positive affect. Increased benefit finding predicted greater positive affect, life satisfaction, and higher depression.

Conclusion

Results demonstrate the ability of the SRM features of illness perceptions and coping, and benefit finding to predict physical and psychosocial adjustment outcomes within the context of HCV.     

Entropy,Visual Diversity,and Preference

The author reports relationships between subjective impressions of visual diversity or pleasure with statistical entropies of stimuli. The stimuli were 34 rows of houses that varied in color, scale, and shape, or in shape and articulation. Entropies ranged from 0.0 to 5.6 bits. Fifty-seven participants rated the stimuli on scales of pleasant/unpleasant and uniform/diverse. The relationship between rated diversity and entropy was strong and linear. The relationship between rated pleasure and entropy was either linear or asymptotic, but no evidence was found for an inverted U relationship.     

Knowing Versus Caring: The Role of Affect and Cognition in Political Perceptions

This paper examines the importance of political knowledge in shaping accurate perceptions of the political world—specifically, how levels of general political knowledge influence the accuracy of specific political judgments, how those judgments might also be shaped by "wishful thinking," and how political knowledge attenuates the impact of wishful thinking on political judgments. Predictions of who would win the U.S. presidential election in 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1996, as surveyed in the National Election Studies conducted in those years, were used as a measure of the accuracy of political perceptions. Analysis of these data reveals that both political knowledge and wishful thinking are important determinants of the accuracy of people's perceptions; in addition, the impact of wishful thinking on perceptions is attenuated by political knowledge.     

Educators' Perceptions of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: An Exploratory Study

The study investigated the perceptions of educators about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, specifically their views on its incidence, causes and appropriate interventions in school settings. Five purposively selected educators from a private school participated in the study. Ethnographic interview was used to collect and analyze the data. The results revealed that the educators considered ADHD mainly a physiological disorder with primarily genetic and environmental causes. Regardless the educators preferred medication as the intervention method despite being aware of additional intervention methods.     

Academic Achievement of African American Preadolescents: The Influence of Teacher Perceptions

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors associated with the academic success of predominantly, middle-class African American preadolescent students. This study proposed an ecological model that considered the interaction of family environment, teacher perceptions of social skills, and student characteristics. The estimated model explained 58% of the variance in grade point average. Path analysis revealed three direct effects on grade point average, (a) grade level (negative), (b) teacher perceptions of social skills, and (c) academic ability. Findings revealed that teacher perceptions of social skills was a stronger predictor of grade point average than academic ability. Two indirect effects on grade point average were found. The first indirect effect was negative: gender predicted academic ability, which predicted teacher perceptions of social skills, which predicted grade point average. The second indirect effect was positive and it was from ability to teacher perceptions to grade point average. Implications for policy and practice are made that suggest a collaborative model of school counseling designed to promote the social and academic competence of African American students. Interventions that enhance teacher practices are also suggested.     

Public Perceptions of Sexual Harassment: An Empirical Analysis in Israel from Consensus and Feminist Theoretical Perspectives

Sexual harassment (SH) includes men as harassers and women as victims. It is defined in many Western countries as a criminal offense. However, the social response to SH may be characterized by clear leniency toward harassers. The present study investigated the roots of such response. Respondents from a large, representative, random, Israeli sample (630) were asked to evaluate hypothetical short crime scenarios, constructed by the factorial-survey approach, representing cases of sexual harassment and other offenses. The study hypothesized that respondents’ perceptions of SH scenarios will be affected significantly by their gender-role attitudes to women. The findings indicate that such criminal acts are perceived as serious by the whole public, challenging the consensual basis of the lenient approach to harassers.