Equity,equality, and the protestant ethic: Allocating rewards following fair and unfair competition

Female undergraduates scoring high and low on the Mirels-Garrett Protestant Ethic (PE) Scale divided a fixed reward between themselves and a co-worker following competition on a clerical task. Half the subjects were told that they had either won or lost in fair competition. The remaining subjects were told they had either won or lost because of an error that gave a favorable advantage to one of the performers. When the competition was fair, high PEs distributed the rewards available according to an equity norm, keeping more than half when they won and less than half when they lost. When the competition was unfair, high PEs attempted to reestablish fairness by compensating the performer with the unfair disadvantage. However, low PEs kept approximately half the reward regardless of fairness and regardless of whether they won or lost.     

Do Temporary Workers Always Lower Workgroup Effectiveness? The Moderating Effect of Job Similarity in Blended Workgroups

Workgroups containing both permanent and temporary workers are often referred to as being ‘blended’. There exists a general view in the literature that workgroups blended in this way function less well with greater rather than fewer temporary workers. However, this notion has received little direct testing. Drawing on social identity theory and the input-process-output model of group effectiveness, this study examines the performance of 131 workgroups containing varying proportions of temporary agency workers, along with the proposed group processes: distributive justice climates reported by permanent and temporary workers and altruistic behaviors from permanent to temporary workers and vice versa. We find that blended workgroups with a greater proportion of temporary workers do not exhibit poorer justice climates, altruism, or performance; the hypothesized negative effects only emerge when jobs performed by temporary and permanent workers within the workgroup are highly similar. Counter to expectations, a positive indirect effect between proportion of temporary workers to workgroup performance via altruism from permanent to temporary workers was found when job similarity is low. Theoretical and practical implications are considered, focusing on the importance of managing social identity threat in blended workgroups.     

Pentecostal Affiliation

Although Pentecostal Protestants are often included under the broad term “evangelical Protestant,” research suggests that Pentecostals are distinct from other evangelical Protestants in their religious and secular beliefs and activities. In this research note, we demonstrate the practicality and effectiveness of a religious classification that accounts for differences between affiliates of Pentecostal denominations and affiliates of other Protestant denominations. Analysis of nationally representative survey data shows that affiliates of evangelical Protestant and Pentecostal Protestant denominations differ in their levels of education, religious beliefs, attitudes on social issues, and political ideology. These differences are largely congruent with theoretical expectations of differences among Protestant subgroups. The classification of Pentecostal denominations presented in this research note is an important tool for researchers, which can be applied to a wide range of social scientific inquiries.     

Beyond visual fixations and gaze behaviour. Using pupillometry to examine the mechanisms in the planning and motor performance of a golf putt

The present study assessed the potential value of using pupillometry to explore skill level differences in the allocation of attention during planning and performance of a golf putt across three putting conditions of varying complexity. Although numerous studies have reported on skill level differences in performers' visual search behaviours, performance accuracy and quiet eye duration (QE) across a range of performance settings, few have provided an objective measure of the allocation of attention during task performance. Fourteen participants were assigned to two groups [low handicap (LHG) and high handicap (HHG)] completing ten putts in three conditions; right to left (RL), left to right (LR) and straight (ST) from 1.75 m while wearing a mobile eye tracker. Skill based differences in the allocation of attention during green exploration and skill execution were observed. Pupil constriction observed for both groups during the QE period provides evidence of increased workload directly related to the increased motor task precision required in the physical performance of the putt. LHG had significantly more fixations of longer duration than their HHG counterparts. Distinct differences were also evident between skill levels in relation to number of fixations, fixation duration and QE duration on each putting condition. The significantly longer QE duration and larger pupil constrictions exhibited by skilled performers offer evidence of a distinctive concentration of cognitive activity characterised by highly automated processes.     

The Political Attitudes and Activities of Mainline Protestant Clergy in the Election of 2000: A Study of Six Denominations

This study examines clergy across six mainline Protestant denominations in terms of their social characteristics, their theological positions, and their political attitudes and behavior. The analysis is based on data collected through random surveys of clergy in each denomination conducted in 2001 using the same instrument. The predominant focus of the article is on the nature and level of political activities exhibited by mainline Protestant clergy in the election year of 2000. The analysis revealed that mainline Protestant clergy are indeed relatively active politically, but that, despite their commonality of belonging to the same broad religious tradition, the nature and level of such political activities varies across the six denominations. Variation in the level of political activity is related to a number of different variables. And, while multivariate analysis reduces the number of significant factors that account for such differences, the remaining significant factors are associated with each of the major theoretical approaches that have been advanced to account for differences in participation levels.     

The Vanishing Protestant Majority

Since colonial times, the United States has been a majority Protestant nation. But the proportion Protestant in the population has been falling for over a decade, and Protestants are poised to lose their majority status. This decline results from a decline in the intergenerational retention rate for Protestants and from the attrition of Protestants among the youngest cohorts. Shifts in immigration also contribute to the Protestant decline. We also consider the role of an increasing share of people identifying as generic Christians and as inter- or nondenominational.     

Self-other differences in children's perceptions about the causes of important events

Three studies examined differences between children's (ages 8-15) beliefs about the effectiveness of multiple internal and external causes for producing outcomes in their own lives versus in those of their peers. Differences specific to the school domain were found: Starting at age 11 or 12, children perceived internal causes as more important for others than for themselves; and only beliefs about the self related to perceived control. More strikingly, a sample of gifted children, who presumably receive social feedback that they are different from their peers, reported that (a) they exerted more control and possessed more ability than their peers and (b) other children knew less about the causes of school performance and had to rely more on effort and powerful others; only beliefs about the self correlated to cognitive performance. These results suggest that self-other differences are produced by both developmental change and environmental opportunities.     

拖延对工作绩效的影响——压力偏好与任务类型的调节作用

本研究探索了压力偏好和任务类型在拖延行为对绩效产生作用过程中的调节作用。用问卷调查的方法对155人进行调查。结果发现：相比偏好压力者,厌恶压力者的工作绩效更容易受到拖延行为的影响;对于复杂任务,拖延对偏好压力者的绩效影响显著低于对厌恶压力者;而对于简单任务,两种类型人的绩效的差别并不明显。结论是,偏好压力者能够减弱拖延行为对其工作绩效的影响,尤其对于复杂任务,这种影响更加明显。     

When does being paid an hourly wage make it difficult to be a happy volunteer?

When people willingly volunteer their time, how does the salience of the opportunity costs of their time influence their experience of the activity? Study 1 uses the American Time Use Survey Well-Being module to examine whether the subjective experience of happiness while volunteering is influenced by how people are paid and the opportunity costs of their time spent volunteering. Among hourly paid workers for whom there is a salient heuristic for the opportunity costs of time, we found that higher opportunity costs of time as indicated by income and duration of the activity were associated with diminished happiness experienced during volunteering. No differences across income and duration emerged among non-hourly workers for whom there was not a salient heuristic for the opportunity costs of time. Using a student population who all volunteered for the same charity activity, Study 2 tested whether making the opportunity costs salient caused less happiness to be reported from the activity than those in the control condition. These studies contribute to our understanding of the psychological consequences of thinking about time in terms of money and how it may influence the hedonic experience of activities people choose to undertake in the applied context of volunteering.     

Perceptions of organizational politics as a moderator of the relationship between conscientiousness and job performance

Meta-analytic studies of the relationships between the five-factor model of personality constructs and job performance indicate that conscientiousness has been the most consistent predictor. Recent research has sought to identify situational factors that may explain additional variance beyond what has been reported by simple bivariate relationships. The authors hypothesized that perceptions of organizational politics would moderate the relationship between conscientiousness and job performance. Data collected from 234 male and 579 female workers in 4 organizations indicated that conscientiousness was related to job performance among workers perceiving average to high levels of organizational politics but unrelated to performance among workers perceiving low levels of organizational politics. Moreover, perceptions of organizational politics were negatively related to job performance only among workers of average to low levels of conscientiousness.     

Personality and performance: A comparative analysis of workers in transition economies

We use data collected from employees in five transition economies to study whether locus of control and preference for challenge versus affiliation are positively related to worker performance. We find that earnings are positively related to the internal locus of control and preference for challenge among participants of the Armenian and Serbian surveys. In the Russian sample, earnings tend to be higher among workers with a more internal locus of control. Earnings are not systematically related to personality in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. For most countries, self-reported performance tends to be significantly higher among workers with preference for challenge. Generally, the size of the personality effect on performance is at least as great as the effect of experience or education. Although more research needs to be done before final conclusions about the causes of cross-country differences can be made, we argue that variation in personality effects across countries may be influenced by level of economic development, degree of market-orientation, and cultural diversity.     

Relationships between Protestant Work Ethic and Work Effort in a Field Setting

Soixante-huit étudiants ont relevé leurs activatés quotidiennes pendant sept journées consécutives. Ils ont ensuite passé l'échclle de Mirels et Garrett, le "Protestant Work Ethic" datant de 1971 (P.W.E.). Les sujets qui présentent un score élevé au P.W.E. consacrent plus de temps a leurs etudes et moins à leurs loisirs (par comparaison avec ceux dont le résultat au P.W.E. est faible). Ces différences existent pour les jours ouvrés, mais pas pour le week-end.
Sixty-eight student subjects recorded their daily activities for seven consecutive days, and afterwards completed Mirels and Garrett's (1971) Protestant work ethic (PWE) scale. Compared to low PWE scorers, high PWE scorers worked longer hours on their study and spent less time on leisure. These differences occurred during weekdays but not at the weekend.     

Causal uncertainty,claimed and behavioural self‐handicapping

Background: Causal uncertainty beliefs involve doubts about the causes of events, and arise as a consequence of non‐contingent evaluative feedback: feedback that leaves the individual uncertain about the causes of his or her achievement outcomes. Individuals high in causal uncertainty are frequently unable to confidently attribute their achievement outcomes, experience anxiety in achievement situations and as a consequence are likely to engage in self‐handicapping behaviour. Aims: Accordingly, we sought to establish links between trait causal uncertainty, claimed and behavioural self‐handicapping. Sample: Participants were N=72 undergraduate students divided equally between high and low causally uncertain groups. Method: We used a 2 (causal uncertainty status: high, low) × 3 (performance feedback condition: success, non‐contingent success, non‐contingent failure) between‐subjects factorial design to examine the effects of causal uncertainty on achievement behaviour. Following performance feedback, participants completed 20 single‐solution anagrams and 12 remote associate tasks serving as performance measures, and 16 unicursal tasks to assess practice effort. Participants also completed measures of claimed handicaps, state anxiety and attributions. Results: Relative to low causally uncertain participants, high causally uncertain participants claimed more handicaps prior to performance on the anagrams and remote associates, reported higher anxiety, attributed their failure to internal, stable factors, and reduced practice effort on the unicursal tasks, evident in fewer unicursal tasks solved. Conclusions: These findings confirm links between trait causal uncertainty and claimed and behavioural self‐handicapping, highlighting the need for educators to facilitate means by which students can achieve surety in the manner in which they attribute the causes of their achievement outcomes.     

Canada's Mythical Religious Mosaic: Some CensusFindings

Extensive world-wide emigration to Canada has resulted in the widely-held perception that this self-declared, "multicultural"country is characterized by considerable religious diversity. National census data, however, suggest that such a religious mosaic is largely a myth. The proportion of Canadians who identify with Christianity remains high, while those who adhere to Other Faiths has risen only slightly over time. To the extent that religious intermarriage takes place—primarily with Catholics and Protestants—the tendency is for Other Faith women and men to raise their children in their partner' tradition. As a result of such assimilation patterns, Christianity continues to enjoy a significant numerical monopoly in Canada.The census further reveals that smaller new religions are also having difficulty making inroads. In short, Canada is characterized by an extremely tight "religious market" that continues to be dominated by Catholic and Protestant "companies."     

Psychologists' and social workers' self-descriptions using DSM-IV psychopathology

There is limited information on mental health of psychologists and social workers despite their rendering mental health services, so their subjective perception of mental disorder was explored via a self-evaluation survey in which they self-diagnosed the presence of DSM-IV disorders within themselves. The sample of 128 professionals included 63 psychologists and 65 social workers. The presence of Axis I traits was reported by 81.2%, the three most frequent traits being mood, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and eating disorder. Axis II traits were reported by 73.4% of subjects, the three most frequent conditions being narcissistic, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive personality traits. While a high percentage of subjects reported the presence of either an Axis I or Axis II disorder, the average severity reported was low. More psychologists reported on mood, social phobia, and eating problems than social workers, while the latter reported more on psychotic problems. Psychologists reported more Axis II traits, especially paranoid, narcissistic, and avoidant subtypes. More women than men reported eating problems, while more men reported schizoid and avoidant personality traits. In conclusion, manifestations of subthreshold psychiatric conditions were prominently reported. These findings suggest encouraging mental health care professionals to explore treatment for problems if present.     

MODESTY BIAS IN SELF-RATINGS OF PERFORMANCE: A TEST OF THE CULTURAL RELATIVITY HYPOTHESIS

Although self-ratings of performance are usually higher than ratings obtained from supervisors, Farh, Dobbins, and Cheng (1991) found that Taiwanese workers exhibited modesty bias (i.e., self-ratings that were lower than supervisory ratings). They explained their findings in terms of broad cultural differences between Taiwanese and Western workers. To test this cultural relativity hypothesis, we replicated their study using data from several organizations in mainland China. As is typically found in Western research, Chinese workers showed leniency in self-ratings (i.e., self-ratings that were higher than supervisor or peer ratings), which suggests that broad cultural factors do not explain the modesty bias reported by Farh et al.     

Factors Influencing the Inflation of Task Performance Ratings for Workers With Disabilities and Contextual Performance Ratings for Their Coworkers

Contrary to many myths regarding their potential performance, workers with disabilities generally receive performance ratings similar to their nondisabled coworkers. However, their ratings possibly may be inflated above their actual performance levels. In a laboratory experiment, we constrained the performance of a worker with a disability to an extremely low level and assessed the effects of helping behavior, presence and type of disability in the worker, and the perceived attributions of controllability of the disability on task performance ratings for the workers with disabilities and on contextual performance ratings for their coworkers. We found that the perception that a worker is not responsible for the onset of a disability and that having any disability, regardless of type, artificially inflates task performance ratings. We also found inflated contextual performance ratings for coworkers who work with persons who are perceived as being responsible for the onset of their own disability.     

Responses to Successful and Unsuccessful Performance: The Moderating Effect of Self-Efficacy on the Relationship between Performance and Attributions

This paper reports on two experiments which explore how individuals with high and low self-efficacy differ in the way they interpret performance feedback and make causal attributions to sustain their self-efficacy perceptions for subsequent performance attempts. The results from Study 1 show that high self-efficacy people make self-serving attributions for unsuccessful performance, while low self-efficacy individuals make self-effacing attributions for unsuccessful performance. In Study 2, these attribution patterns were replicated and shown to combine with past performance, to account for 53% of the variance in subsequent self-efficacy. The implications for improving training interventions, and for understanding the causes of poor performance, are discussed.     

Effect of color schemes and environmental sensitivity on job satisfaction and perceived performance

Effects of interior office color and individual stimulus screening ability, i.e. instinctive perceptual filtering of irrelevant stimuli, on perceived performance and job satisfaction were examined on various outcome measures over a 4-day work week in a laboratory setting. Workers performed specific tasks and worked regular hours for 4 consecutive days in the same office. They were separated into three groups according to their ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli in the interior space. Those in the white and predominantly blue-green offices reported higher perceived job performance and satisfaction than those in the predominantly red office regardless of stimulus screening ability. Workers with high to moderate stimulus screening ability indicated greater perceived performance and job satisfaction than did workers with low stimulus screening ability. Results for color schemes are discussed in terms of preference and social expectations.     

The role of delay of gratification,substance abuse,and violent behavior on academic achievement of disciplinary alternative middle school students

Disciplinary alternative education programs are academic environments where students are detained for 45 days by the county or court for delinquent and/or deviant behavior in their traditional schools. This study examined individual differences in academic performance, violence, willingness to delay gratification, and substance abuse of 391 students enrolled in a disciplinary alternative middle school program. Results revealed that students who reported a high propensity to delay gratification and low tendencies towards violent behavior and substance abuse obtained high math scores on the state standardized test. In addition, the negative association between violent behavior on math scores was attenuated by race/ethnicity status. Socio-economic status was not significantly associated with math test scores. Implications for further studies and educational implications are discussed.