DOING GOOD,FEELING GOOD: EXAMINING THE ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP BEHAVIORS IN CHANGING MOOD

This study investigates whether the altruism and courtesy dimensions of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) regulate mood at work. Social psychological theories of mood regulation suggest helping behaviors can improve individuals’ moods because helping others provides gratification and directs attention away from one's negative mood. We capture mood states prior to and following the enactment of OCBs using experience sampling methodology in a sample of managerial and professional employees over a 3‐week period. Results suggest altruism shows a pattern consistent with mood regulation; negative moods during the prior time period are associated with altruism and positive moods in the subsequent time period. The pattern of results for courtesy behaviors is only partially consistent with a mood regulation explanation. Consistent with theories of behavioral concordance, interaction results suggest individuals higher on Extroversion have more intense positive mood reactions after engaging in altruistic behaviors. Interactions with courtesy were not significant.     

CHANGING PROTECTIVE AND RISKY BEHAVIORS TO PREVENT CHILD-TO-PARENT TRANSMISSION OF CYTOMEGALOVIRUS

Child-to-parent transmission of cytomegalovirus may be reduced by increasing protective behaviors (handwashing and glove use) and decreasing risky behaviors (intimate contact between child and parent). This study showed that an educational intervention resulted in increases in reported and objective measures of protective behaviors and decreases in reported risky behaviors. Further study must determine if changes in protective and risky behavior are maintained and prevent cytomegalovirus transmission.     

THE CHANGING CRITERION DESIGN

This article describes and illustrates with two case studies a relatively novel form of the multiple-baseline design called the changing criterion design. It also presents the design's formal requirements, and suggests target behaviors and circumstances for which the design might be useful.     

AFFIRMATION AND DENIAL IN EVALUATIVE DESCRIPTIONS

Children made a series of evaluative judgements of 20 nonsense words, which they were told to imagine were people's names. Each subject judged half the names in terms of two-category rating scales containing an affirmative (A) response category which was evaluatively positive (E +) and a negative (n) category which was evaluatively negative (E -), e.g. ‘happy-not happy’, the other half were judged in terms of scales where the A category was E -, and the N category E +, e.g. ‘rude - not rude’. The main finding was a highly significant tendency for subjects to give more A than N responses, irrespective of evaluative content: in addition, a tendency for subjects to give more E - than E + responses, irrespective of grammatical form, approached significance.     

ELECTROCORTICAL DIFFERENTIATION OF EVALUATIVE AND NONEVALUATIVE CATEGORIZATIONS

Abstract— The evaluative categorizations that underlie affective and attitudinal judgments have often been equated with non-evaluative categorizations despite the central importance of evaluative processes for survival In the present experiment, a late positive potential (LPP) of the event-related brain potential elicited when participants evaluatively categorized food items as positive or nonpositive was compared with the LPP elicited when participants semantically (i e., nonevaluatively) categorized food items as vegetable or nonvegetable Results revealed that evaluative categorizations evoked an LPP that was relatively larger over the right than the left scalp regions compared with the LPP evoked by nonevaluative categorizations. This finding provides evidence regarding the differences in neural and cognitive processes involved in evaluative and nonevaluative categorizations.     

CHANGING THE STRUCTURE OF INTUITIVE ESTIMATES OF TIME-SAVINGS

SVENSON, O. Changing the structure of intuitive estimates of time-savings. Scand. J. Psychol. , 1971, 12, 131–134.–Estimates of time saved when increasing an original assumed mean speed to a higher one were collected for different distances and combinations of velocities. Following each answer in five learning phases one group of subjects was given information about the correct time-gain. A control group taking part only in the ten test phases of the experiment gave estimates systematically differing from real time-gains following a previously suggested relation. The estimates given by the experimental group were improved to the same degree as the control group's estimates were gradually better approximated by the previously found relation.     

AN EVALUATIVE REVIEW OF FAMILY INTERACTION RESEARCH

This article will review in detail the current status of quantifiable family interaction research. It will concentrate on the work done since 1960. An extensive reference list and glossary covering key workers and their concepts are appended.     

A WARNING REGARDING THE SIMPLIFIED APPROACH TO THE EVALUATION OF TEST FAIRNESS IN EMPLOYEE SELECTION PROCEDURES

In evaluating the fairness of personnel selection tests, the Ceary model (Cleary, 1968) is the most widely used and accepted method. Recently, a simplified approach to applying the Cleary model has been recommended (Lawshe, 1983; Reynolds, 1980, 1982). Analysis of this new method revealed that under certain circumstances it can produce misleading results. Recommendations were made for avoiding this problem.