The impact of education on intergenerational occupational mobility in Spain

Intergenerational occupational mobility is a topic that has attracted considerable interest in the sociological and economic literature for developed countries. In particular, one of the central issues in political debate is the role of education on the intergenerational social mobility. The modern capitalist economies are characterised by continual technological changes which lead to the need of a highly skilled workforce. In this potentially meritocratic society, the equality of opportunities, the efficient allocation of talent and the education can be instruments that encourage the social mobility and decrease the effect of the parents' economic status on the career of their children. This paper takes into account these facts and sheds empirical evidence for Spain about the relationships between social origin, educational attainment and occupational destination. The methodology applied consists of the specification and estimation of discrete choice models, and the empirical analysis is based on data provided by the Living Condition Survey (LCS) conducted for the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE).     

The use of the occupational stress indicator (OSI) in factory workers in China

The purpose of the study was to investigate occupational stress among Chinese factory workers (N=342), from three cities of South East China, using the shortened version of the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI)-2. The results showed that the reliabilities and predictive validity of the OSI-2 subscales and other subscales used for the study were reasonably high. Quite a high percentage of workers perceived high work pressure. The main sources of stress were intrinsic to the job; and the coping strategies that were most frequently used to tackle stress were “control” methods. In addition, “satisfaction on environmental condition” seemed to be a common predictor for job satisfaction, and mental and physical well-being. The logical relationships between job satisfaction, mental well-being and physical well-being in Chinese workers have provided support to the findings obtained in Western countries.     

Support for the location of negative posttraumatic cognitions in the diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder

ObjectiveTo investigate the extent to which negative posttraumatic cognitions predict, and so can be best located within, the DSM-5 (APA, 2013) individual symptom clusters of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).MethodAn online survey of traumatic experiences, featuring 528 adults.ResultsNegative posttraumatic cognitions seem best placed within the Numbing/Detachment symptom cluster. Negative posttraumatic cognitions relating to the self predict higher levels of symptoms across the clusters. While negative cognitions relating to the world contributed to most symptom groups, self-blame cognitions did not.ConclusionsOur findings support the placement of posttraumatic cognitions as part of the Numbing/Detachment symptom cluster within the DSM-5rather than the Intrusion, Avoidance and Hyperarousal clusters.     

Predicting jet lag in long-haul cabin crew: The role of illness cognitions and behaviour

Objective: Established risk factors for jet lag are mostly physiological including circadian preference, age, gender, the number of flight zones crossed and to some extent direction of travel. Some research has also highlighted a role for psychosocial factors including sleep, diet and ‘circadian’ health behaviours and illness cognitions although this remains relatively untested. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of sleep, diet and illness cognitions in predicting perceived jet lag amongst long-haul crew.

Design: Sixty long-haul crew took part in a longitudinal study. Profile characteristics (including chronotype), preparation strategies (sleep, eating and ‘circadian’ behaviours) and illness cognitions were measured at baseline (before a trip).

Main outcome measures: Subjective jet lag (unidimensional and multidimensional) was measured on the crews’ second day off (post-trip).

Results: Hierarchical regression analyses showed that unidimensional jet lag was predicted by the belief in a cyclical timeline, whereas multidimensional jet lag was predicted by multidimensional jet lag at baseline and to a lesser extent by identity. No role was found for profile characteristics and preparation strategies.

Conclusion: Illness cognitions partly explain the experience of perceived jet lag in long-haul cabin crew indicating that jet lag is in part a psycho-social construct, not just a biological one.     

The role of occupational standards in workplace religious literacy

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the UK National Occupational Standards to identify the breadth of occupations for which it has been determined that workers need some degree of religious literacy. A total of 465 standards documents which mention religion and beliefs relating to a diverse range of occupations were retrieved, of which 13 had a primary focus on religion and beliefs. Approximately 60 percent of these standards noted the need for knowledge about religion and beliefs, though only a quarter of these specified actual performance criteria. With some exceptions, most of the standards were vague as to what is meant by religion and its proxies, with very few attempts to define their terms. A lack of specificity renders the inclusion of references to religion largely tokenistic rather than reflecting a measure of religious literacy which could be practically operationalised.     

Job emotions and job cognitions as determinants of job satisfaction: The moderating role of individual differences in need for affect

Research has shown that job satisfaction is determined by both cognitions about the job and affect at work. However, findings from basic and applied attitude research suggest that the extent to which attitudes are based on affective and cognitive information is contingent on stable individual differences, in particular need for affect. Based on current conceptualizations of job satisfaction as an attitude toward the job, we hypothesized that job satisfaction depends more on affect and less on cognitions, the higher a person's need for affect is. To test these hypotheses, we conducted two correlational studies (N = 194 university employees; N = 134 employees from various organizations) as well as an experimental study (N = 191 university employees) in which the salience of positive versus negative job cognitions was varied. Results supported our hypotheses. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of these differences in affective and cognitive underpinnings of job satisfaction.     

Fear and avoidance of driving among drivers involved in a road traffic crash. The role of traumatic fear and driving cognitions

Fear and avoidance of driving are possible consequences of involvement in road traffic crashes (RTCs). Few studies have assessed the factors associated with fear and avoidance of driving after an RTC. The aim of this present study is to investigate the relations among trauma appraisals of fear, negative driving cognitions, fear and avoidance of driving in a sample of people who experienced vehicle crashes. Further, the mediating role of negative driving cognitions in the relation between trauma appraisals, fear of driving and avoidance of driving was assessed. The sample was comprised of 116 drivers who had been involved in an RTC in the past two years. Negative driving cognitions positively predicted fear of driving and avoidance of driving. Moreover, negative driving cognitions mediated the relation among trauma appraisals of fear with fear of driving and avoidance of driving. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Organizational commitment and job performance: Examining the moderating roles of occupational commitment and transformational leadership

To address why the relationship between affective organizational commitment and job performance varies, we draw on the theorization of Meyer, Becker, and Vandenberghe to propose moderation of affective occupational commitment and transformational leadership, separately and interactively. Data collected from 398 employees and their supervisors supported our hypotheses. Specifically, affective organizational commitment was more strongly associated with job performance for employees with high occupational commitment, or when a supervisor's transformational leadership was high. Importantly, in a moderated mediation relationship, we found the effect of transformational leadership on the relationship between affective organizational commitment and job performance for employees with high occupational commitment was contrary to its effect on employees with low occupational commitment. Given the significant roles of both commitments as discussed in the present study, we offer suggestions on how to consider these factors during the assessment and selection of personnel and role assignment.     

Examining the importance of academic-specific self-compassion in the academic self-control model

ABSTRACT

The aim of this investigation was to determine whether an academic-specific self-compassion scale would share stronger bivariate relationships with academic-focused variables, act as a stronger unique predictor of university adaptation than a general measure of self-compassion, and moderate the relationship between general and academic resourcefulness. A convenience sample of 422 undergraduates completed measures assessing general learned resourcefulness, academic self-efficacy, failure attributions, academic goal focus, academic resourcefulness, academic self-compassion, and university adaptation. As hypothesized, academic self-compassion shared a stronger relationship with academic resourcefulness than a general measure of self-compassion; academic self-compassion independently predicted university adaptation along with academic resourcefulness and expected GPA; and, unlike general self-compassion, academic self-compassion did not moderate the relationship between general and academic resourcefulness, providing support for academic self-compassion being a type of academic self-control that is “emotion-oriented.” The value of using academic-specific versus global constructs when assessing academic outcomes is discussed.     

Deciding whether to work after retirement: The role of the psychological experience of aging

Due to the graying of the global labor markets, post-retirement employment is becoming increasingly important in the 21st century. To better understand older people's decisions to engage in post-retirement employment, the current study investigated the role of the psychological experience of aging. Two dimensions that capture positive aging experience (i.e., personal growth and gaining self-knowledge) and two dimensions that capture negative aging experience (i.e., physical loss and social loss) were differentiated and their relations to post-retirement employment were hypothesized. We argue that aging experience may influence the decision to work after retirement by generating both, approach and avoidance responses. Longitudinal data from the German Aging Survey (N = 551) were used to test the hypotheses. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that retirees who experienced aging as social loss and as personal growth were more likely to engage in post-retirement employment a decade later, while retirees who experienced aging as gaining self-knowledge were less likely to engage in post-retirement employment. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.     

Career behavior in the knowledge economy: Experiences and perceptions of career mobility among management and IT consultants in the UK and the USA

The traditional lifelong organizational career model no longer remains relevant for many workers, particularly those active in the knowledge economy. Instead these workers are claimed to pursue boundaryless and protean careers. This paper explores management and IT consultants’ experiences and perceptions of career mobility in the UK and the USA. The findings from this multi-level study reveal that the permeation of organizational boundaries among these workers is characterized by a somewhat segmented spectrum of boundary-crossing behavior. The exploration of this form of career mobility demonstrates that inter-organizational mobility should not be dislocated from other types of career mobility when analyzing career behavior among these workers. In addition, the findings also highlight the role that inter-organizational relations and/or national institutional context play in shaping career patterns in these contemporary forms of work.     

The role of cognitive variables in psychological functioning after the death of a first degree relative

The present study sought to explore the relationship between negative cognitions and emotional problems after bereavement, with a group of 329 adults who had suffered the loss of a first degree relative. The following cognitions were assessed: global negative beliefs, cognitions about self-blame, negative cognitions about other people's responses after the loss, and negative cognitions about one's own grief reactions. Results showed that each of these cognitive variables was significantly related to the severity of symptoms of traumatic grief, depression and anxiety, even when background and loss-related variables that were initially found to influence symptom severity, were statistically controlled. When the shared variance between the cognitive variables was controlled, it was found that global negative beliefs about life, the world, and the future, and threatening interpretations of grief reactions each explained a unique proportion of variance in traumatic grief symptom severity. Global negative beliefs about life, the self and the future, and threatening interpretations of grief explained most variance in depression, while negative beliefs about the self and threatening interpretations of grief explained most variance in anxiety. Overall, the findings are in support of cognitive theories of grief, and suggest that effective treatment of problematic grief will need to address negative cognitions.     

Examining the role of social cues in early word learning

Infants watched a video of an adult pointing towards two different objects while hearing novel labels. Analyses indicated that 14- and 18-month-olds looked longer at the target object, but only 18-month-olds showed word learning. The results suggest that different types of social cues are available at different ages.     

Encouraging Occupation: A Systematic Review of the Use of Life Review and Reminiscence Therapy for the Treatment of Depressive Symptoms in Older Adults

The present systematic review investigates the efficacy of both life review and reminiscence therapy interventions in the treatment of depressive symptoms in older adults. A systematic review of the literature was conducted using three databases: Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, and PsycINFO. Six studies met the inclusion criteria, and pertinent variables were extracted for data analysis. In all six articles, the reminiscence therapy or life review intervention was found to be effective in the treatment of depressive symptoms in older adults. These interventions are appropriate for use in occupational therapy practice, as occupational therapists are well-equipped to treat the psychosocial needs of individuals.     

Age discrimination in the workplace: Validation of the Nordic Age Discrimination Scale (NADS)

Furunes, T. & Mykletun, R. J. (2010). Age discrimination in the workplace: Validation of the Nordic Age Discrimination Scale (NADS). Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51 , 23–30.
Due to population ageing, older workers will make up a larger proportion of the workforce. However, recent reports show an increase in perceived age discrimination among older employees. Previous research found that age discrimination may result in negative feelings, such as uselessness, powerlessness and lower self-esteem. This study develops and validates a scale for monitoring age discrimination in the workplace. The validation study draws on three datasets, from Norway, Sweden and Finland respectively. The study provides a psychometric contribution to the study of the behavioral component of ageism.     

Examining the role of working memory resources in following spoken instructions

This study investigated the involvement of working memory (WM) in following spoken instructions using concurrent tasks designed to disrupt components of the Baddeley and Hitch WM model [Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. J. (1974). Working memory. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation: Advances in research and theory (Vol. 8, pp. 47–89). New York, NY: Academic Press]. In each of three experiments, participants were presented with sequences of instructions to be either verbally repeated or physically performed using relevant objects. Backward counting, articulatory suppression, and eye closure during instruction encoding all disrupted recall, and also impaired recall of the linkage between movements and objects. Recall of actions was more accurate when they were physically enacted than repeated verbally, an advantage that was not affected by concurrent tasks. These findings indicate that aspects of the recall of spoken instructions including the binding of constituent movements to objects draw on multiple WM resources. The benefits of physical enactment of the instructed sequence do not appear to depend on the components of WM investigated in these studies.     

Emotion regulation in depression: Examining the role of cognitive processes

Sustained negative affect is a hallmark feature of depressive episodes. The ability to regulate emotional responses to negative events may therefore play a critical role in our understanding of this debilitating disorder. Individual differences in cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and interpretation may underlie difficulties in emotion regulation and numerous studies have identified cognitive biases and deficits that characterise depressed people. Few studies, however, have explicitly linked these biases to the difficulties in emotion regulation that are associated with depression. In this paper we discuss relations among cognitive processes and emotion regulation and review the depression literature to identify cognitive biases and deficits that may underlie maladaptive responses to negative events and mood states. Our review suggests that difficulties in the disengagement from negative material, memory biases, and deficits in cognitive control are frequently observed in depressive disorders and may be associated with the use of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, such as rumination. These biases may also be related to difficulties implementing strategies that are effective for non-depressed people, such as recall of mood-incongruent material and reappraisal. Our review also suggests, however, that empirical studies linking cognitive biases and emotion regulation in depression are still largely missing and would present an important goal for future research in this area.     

Examining the role of moral foundations in promoting intergroup contact willingness

Improving people's motivation to seek meaningful intergroup contact is considered key to facilitating intergroup harmony. Based on moral foundations theory, this study examines how moral foundations as individual traits predict contact willingness with three minority groups (foreign domestic helpers, LGBT, and Chinese expats) and how moral emotions mediate such associations. We tested our hypotheses based on survey data across Hong Kong and Singapore. We found that care/harm foundation positively predicted contact willingness with foreign domestic helpers and LGBT people, mediated by compassion. Sanctity/degradation foundation negatively predicted contact willingness with LGBT people only in Singapore. Loyalty/betrayal foundation served as a positive predictor of willingness to contact Chinese expats. We also found care/harm foundation to be exclusively associated with compassion and promoted willingness to contact with helpers and LGBT people. Our findings highlight the influence of moral foundations, and possibly norms and intergroup dynamics at the societal level in predicting willingness to contact outgroups.     

Behavior analysts in the war on poverty: A review of the use of financial incentives to promote education and employment

Poverty is a pervasive risk factor underlying poor health. Many interventions that have sought to reduce health disparities associated with poverty have focused on improving health‐related behaviors of low‐income adults. Poverty itself could be targeted to improve health, but this approach would require programs that can consistently move poor individuals out of poverty. Governments and other organizations in the United States have tested a diverse range of antipoverty programs, generally on a large scale and in conjunction with welfare reform initiatives. This paper reviews antipoverty programs that used financial incentives to promote education and employment among welfare recipients and other low‐income adults. The incentive‐based, antipoverty programs had small or no effects on the target behaviors; they were implemented on large scales from the outset, without systematic development and evaluation of their components; and they did not apply principles of operant conditioning that have been shown to determine the effectiveness of incentive or reinforcement interventions. By applying basic principles of operant conditioning, behavior analysts could help address poverty and improve health through development of effective antipoverty programs. This paper describes a potential framework for a behavior‐analytic antipoverty program, with the goal of illustrating that behavior analysts could be uniquely suited to make substantial contributions to the war on poverty.     

Examining the role of positive and negative metacognitive beliefs in depression

Many psychological models have been developed to explain the development and maintenance of depression. The most widely evaluated model is the cognitive model of depression, and it is against this model that emerging models should be compared. Accordingly, this cross‐sectional study examined whether metacognitive beliefs, as specified in the metacognitive model of depression, would explain additional variance in depressive symptoms over dysfunctional attitudes; the core feature of the cognitive model. Moreover, mediational relationships between metacognitive beliefs, rumination, and depressive symptoms, predicted by the metacognitive model were also explored, whilst controlling for dysfunctional attitudes. A sample of 715 students completed self‐report questionnaires measuring depressive symptoms, rumination, dysfunctional attitudes, and metacognitive beliefs. Regression analyses showed that metacognitive beliefs made a significant statistical contribution to depressive symptoms, after controlling for age, gender, rumination and dysfunctional attitudes. Furthermore, as predicted by the metacognitive model, the relationship between positive metacognitive beliefs and depressive symptoms was fully mediated by rumination, whilst the relationship between negative metacognitive beliefs about uncontrollability and danger and depressive symptoms was partially mediated by rumination. The results provide further empirical support for the metacognitive model of depression and indicate that positive and negative metacognitive beliefs play an integral role in the maintenance of depressive symptoms.