Patterns of interprofessional conflict resolution on school child study teams

This study proposes to investigate perceived and desired methods of conflict resolution by school psychologists, social workers, and learning disability specialists. Data were based on responses to a questionnaire which requested information on how decisions were reached or should have been reached when their child study teams were required to classify a child and there were conflicting opinions between professional groups. While majority vote and resolution by the psychologist accounted for the methods most often used in actual resolutions, there were great disagreements between professions as to how resolutions should have been made. Analysis indicates that the school psychologists are generally satisfied because they are the single group most often making final decisions, but they are generating feelings of discontent among other the other groups which suggst that team functioning and decision making, especially during voting, may be overly affected by interprofessional rivalry rather than objective data.     

The critical role of conflict resolution in teams: a close look at the links between conflict type, conflict management strategies, and team outcomes

This article explores the linkages between strategies for managing different types of conflict and group performance and satisfaction. Results from a qualitative study of 57 autonomous teams suggest that groups that improve or maintain top performance over time share 3 conflict resolution tendencies: (a) focusing on the content of interpersonal interactions rather than delivery style, (b) explicitly discussing reasons behind any decisions reached in accepting and distributing work assignments, and (c) assigning work to members who have the relevant task expertise rather than assigning by other common means such as volunteering, default, or convenience. The authors' results also suggest that teams that are successful over time are likely to be both proactive in anticipating the need for conflict resolution and pluralistic in developing conflict resolution strategies that apply to all group members.     

Standardizing management of software engineering projects

For a software engineering division of a company, the most important standards are those used for the management of the software engineering projects. While numerous, relevant, de jure, software engineering standards exist, national guidelines, such as the Department of Defense’s Capability Maturity Model, and corporate standards, such as the Microsoft Solutions Framework, exert a significant influence on the marketplace. A study of the existing standards shows significant similarity across them. Case studies of the use of the standards suggest that a major factor in determining the adoption of one standard over another is the environment of the adopter. A company that depends on Microsoft in important business ways is more likely to adopt the Microsoft Solutions Framework. Likewise a company that is a major customer of the Department of Defense may be inclined to use the Capability Maturity Model. The review of software engineering management standards also reveals the dearth of explicit guidance on the roles and processes to use in upper management. Financial process and audit practices influence the application and need for standards. An examination of the operation of a major manufacturing firm (referred to as Company X) shows again the challenge of managing software projects well and the remarkable success that can accrue from a systematic and standard approach across projects.     

Reaping the benefits of task conflict in teams: the critical role of team psychological safety climate

Past research suggests that task conflict may improve team performance under certain conditions; however, we know little about these specific conditions. On the basis of prior theory and research on conflict in teams, we argue that a climate of psychological safety is one specific context under which task conflict will improve team performance. Using evidence from 117 project teams, the present research found that psychological safety climate moderates the relationship between task conflict and performance. Specifically, task conflict and team performance were positively associated under conditions of high psychological safety. The results support the conclusion that psychological safety facilitates the performance benefits of task conflict in teams. Theoretical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The role of self-guided training in the relationship between task conflict and innovation in virtual teams

This study was conducted to evaluate the moderating role of self-guided training in the relationship between task conflict and team innovation in synchronic computer-mediated communication (SCMC) teams. For this purpose, a laboratory study was carried out in which 26 teams were assigned to the training condition and 24 to the control condition. Results confirmed that SCMC teams develop a negative relationship between task conflict and innovation, but also revealed that self-guided training may slow these counterproductive effects down. Our study provides new evidence of the linear relationship between task conflict and team innovation in SCMC teams, extending previous research findings obtained in face-to-face teams to virtual context and suggest that self-guided training can be useful for virtual team innovation.     

Role ambiguity,role conflict,team conflict,cohesion and collective efficacy in sport teams: A multilevel analysis

ObjectivesThis study examines how perceptions of role ambiguity, role conflict, team conflict, and cohesion can predict collective efficacy in sports teams.DesignWe adopted a longitudinal perspective, taking measures at the beginning, the middle, and the end of a sport season.MethodsThe participants were professional female and male football players, who participated in the First and Second Divisions in Spain. They completed a multi-section questionnaire assessing role ambiguity, role conflict, cohesion and collective efficacy.ResultsMultilevel modelling analysis showed that perceptions of team conflict and cohesion, at the interpersonal and interteam levels, can predict changes in collective efficacy. However, individual perceptions of role ambiguity and role conflict were not relevant in establishing a team's confidence.ConclusionsThese results suggest interesting practical applications for coaches and sports psychologists in the professional sphere.     

The effect of intergender conflict on sex-role attitudes

This study explored conditions under which initially multidimensional attitudes change and coalesce into unidimensionality. One hundred twenty-one college students participated in a pretest-posttest control group experimental design involving a prejudice reduction simulation. One group was exposed to overt statements and action that supported traditional male dominance. This group exhibited significantly more modern sex-role attitudes than did the other groups; and the former's attitudes shifted to unidimensionality while the others' attitudes did not. The data also suggest independence between techniques that produce racial/liberalism and sexrole attitude modernity.     

Motivating and demotivating forces in teams: cross-level influences of empowering leadership and relationship conflict

Using cross-cultural laboratory and field studies with samples of leaders, employees, and students from the United States and the People's Republic of China, we examined how team-level stimuli, including empowering leadership and relationship conflict, combine to influence individual members' motivational states of psychological empowerment and affective commitment. As predicted, we found that these motivational states are individually and jointly influenced by teams' level of empowering leadership and relationship conflict and that these motivational states mediate the relationships between team stimuli and team members' innovative and teamwork behaviors and turnover intentions. In addition, results held despite controlling for team members' nationality and collectivism. We discuss contributions of our study to the team motivation, conflict, and stress literatures.     

The effect of working memory capacity on conflict monitoring

The conflict adaptation effect, a reduced interference effect upon the detection of a conflict signal (e.g., following an incongruent trial), has been interpreted as evidence for active regulation of top-down cognitive control. We hypothesized that the extent of conflict adaptation should be related to individuals' working memory capacity (WMC), which has been repeatedly demonstrated to reflect the level of cognitive control. Using the Simon task, in Experiment 1, we quantified the conflict adaptation ratio (CAR) transiently as the ratio of the conflict effect following an incongruent trial to the conflict effect following a congruent trial, controlling for the reaction time that often correlates with WMC. We observed that the CAR varied from highly negative with low WMC scores to near-zero with high WMC scores. This result suggests that high WMC individuals, when detecting conflict, adjust the level of cognitive control optimally so that their performance is less susceptible to the presence of a distractor. In Experiment 2, we quantified the CAR in a sustained manner as the ratio of the conflict effect from predominantly incongruent blocks to the conflict effect from predominantly congruent blocks. Again, the CAR varied from negative to zero as WMC increased. These results suggest that WMC may reflect, in addition to the ability to maintain a level of control, the ability to adjust the level of control appropriately to the contextual demands.     

Evidence for task conflict in the Stroop effect

C. M. MacLeod and P. A. MacDonald (2000) suggested that congruent and incongruent Stroop stimuli cause more task conflict than neutral stimuli because the anterior cingulate cortex is more activated with these stimuli. This study investigated behavioral expression for this pattern. Experiment 1 reduced task conflict control by increasing the proportion of nonword neutrals. Additionally, half the trials had conflict or neutral cues. The control reduction revealed the task conflict. For noncued trials, response time was longer for congruent stimuli than for neutral stimuli (reverse facilitation effect). In addition, response time for congruent stimuli was longer when stimuli were uncued vs. cued. Experiment 2 increased task conflict control by changing the neutral stimuli to noncolor words. Consequently, the task conflict expression disappeared.     

Task conflict effect in task switching

A part of action preparation is deciding what the relevant task is. This task-decision process is conceptually separate from response selection. To show this, the authors manipulated task conflict in a spatial task-switching paradigm, using conflict stimuli that appeared during trials with univalent targets (affording 1 task). The conflict stimuli afforded task identity because they were used as task cues with bivalent targets (affording 2 tasks) that were intermixed with the univalent targets. Thus, for univalent targets, irrelevant stimuli either caused low task conflict or high task conflict. In three experiments, the authors found poorer performance in high task conflict trials than in low task conflict trials. Task conflict was introduced during target appearance (Experiment 1) or task preparation (Experiments 2 and 3). In the latter case, the task conflict effect decreased with increasing task preparation time showing that task preparation involves task decision.     

冲突适应效应是领域特定的

本研究采用整合的交叉任务范式,通过任务类型的操纵,对冲突适应效应是领域一般的还是领域特定的问题进行了探讨。结果发现当时,在刺激-反应集为4的字母flanker+Simon的整合交叉任务中和刺激-反应集为4的Stroop+Simon的整合交叉任务中,冲突适应效应都是仅存在于任务内,不存在于任务间。说明在控制了重复启动效应且排除了任务之间维度重叠的影响后,两种类型的整合交叉任务都只在任务内观察到冲突适应效应。这表明在控制特征整合的影响后,冲突适应效应是领域特定的,同时说明冲突监测系统不仅是对冲突进行监测,也对冲突的来源进行识别。     

The effect of dopaminergic medication on conflict adaptation in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurological disorder associated primarily with motor symptoms such as tremor, slowness of movement, and difficulties with gait and balance. Most patients take dopaminergic medication to improve their motor functions. Previous studies reported indications that such medication can impair higher cognitive functions (cf. dopamine overdose hypothesis). In the present study, we examined the effect of medication status on conflict adaptation. PD patients performed a Stroop task in which we manipulated the proportion of congruent and incongruent items, thereby allowing us to explore conflict adaptation. The use of mouse movements allowed us to examine the action dynamics of conflict adaptation in PD, and their sensitivity to dopaminergic medication. Each patient performed the same task twice: once without making changes to their regular medication regime, and once after overnight withdrawal from their medication. Results showed that medication improved mouse movements and alleviated motor symptoms. Moreover, patients' mouse movements were modulated as a function of the proportion congruency manipulation, revealing conflict adaptation in PD, which was unaffected by medication status. The present study extends earlier work on conflict adaptation in PD where reduced transient (trial-by-trial) conflict adaptation was observed ON compared to OFF medication (Duthoo et al., 2013, Neuropsychology, 27, 556). Our findings suggest that more sustained cognitive control processes may not be sensitive to dopamine overdose effects.     

The effect of visual-vestibular conflict on the latency of steady-state visually induced subjective rotation

Two experiments were carried out to test the hypothesis that the long onset latency of steady-state subjective rotation induced by rotating a tall striped drum around a stationary observer is the result of visual-vestibular conflict. A reduction of this conflict should, therefore, reduce the length of the latency period. In Experiment 1, visual-vestibular conflict was reduced by providing the observers with corroborating vestibular stimulation at the start of optokinetic stimulation. Onset latencies were found to be significantly shortened with corroborating vestibular stimulation, but to be unaffected by noncorroborating vestibular stimulation. In Experiment 2, testing was done on a group of patients with unilateral (right labyrinth) Ménière’s disease, which produces decreased vestibular sensitivity to rightward body rotation and increased vestibular sensitivity to leftward body rotation. Visual-vestibular conflict during subjective rotation to the right should therefore be decreased, while during leftward subjective rotation it should be increased. The prediction that the latency to steady-state subjective rotation should be shorter than normal with subjective rotation to the left was supported.     

Task conflict,information processing,and decision-making: The damaging effect of relationship conflict

A popular theoretical assumption holds that task-related disagreements stimulate critical thinking, and thus may improve group decision making. Two recent meta-analyses showed, however, that task conflict can have a positive effect, a negative effect, or no effect at all on decision-making quality (De Dreu & Weingart, 2003; De Wit, Greer, & Jehn, 2012). In two studies, we built upon the suggestion of both meta-analyses that the presence of relationship conflict determines whether a task conflict is positively or negatively related to decision making. We hypothesized and found that the level of perceived relationship conflict during task conflict (Study 1), and the actual presence (vs. absence) of relationship conflict during task conflict (Study 2), increased group members’ rigidity in holding onto suboptimal initial preferences during decision making and thus led to poor decisions. In both studies the effect of relationship conflict on decision making was mediated by biased use of information.     

Development of computational models of emotions: A software engineering perspective

Computational Models of Emotions (CMEs) are software systems designed to explain the phenomenon of emotions. The mechanisms implemented in this type of computational models are based on human emotion theories reported in the literature and designed to provide intelligent agents with affective capabilities and improve human-computer interaction. However, despite the growing interest in this type of models, the development process of CMEs does not seem to follow formal software methodologies. In this paper, we present an analysis of CMEs from a software engineering perspective. We aim to identify what elements of software engineering are used in the development process of CMEs and to demonstrate how some software engineering techniques may support and improve their development process. We discuss a series of challenges to be addressed in order to take advantage of software engineering techniques: (1) definition of guidelines to help decide which emotion theories should be implemented computationally, (2) homogenization of terms about human emotions, their components, phases, and cycles implemented in CMEs, (3) design of CMEs whose components can be reusable, (4) definition of standard criteria for comparative analysis between CMEs, (5) identification of software engineering principles, concepts, and design practices useful in the construction of CMEs, and (6) definition of standard frameworks to validate CMEs.     

Journeys Through the Heart: the effect of death,loss and conflict on children's worldviews

This article will present research with young children on the above topic. It will address the way in which children respond to events that demand reasoned and imaginative ontological constructions in order to reframe their sense of reality. The article identifies how these experiences trigger the development of children's thinking and assesses what provision is demanded of schools. The article will also argue that one of the greatest hindrances to children's development are the constructions of childhood we, as adults, place upon them through an analysis of the ‘culture of sentimentality’ we construct to prevent hearing the reality that they convey. As a consequence we protect ourselves from confronting issues that we find difficulty in resolving and are nervous of acknowledging as part of our pedagogical responsibility. The article will conclude by examining our understanding of the concept of liminality and the strategies that children use to ensure that relationships with significant individuals in their life continue beyond the grave