Is cognition the secret to working dog success?

Animal Cognition - Dogs’ special relationship with humans not only makes them ubiquitous in our lives, but working dogs specifically perform essential functions for us such as sniffing out...     

Is retrieval success a necessary condition for retrieval-induced forgetting?

When information is retrieved from memory, it becomes more recallable than it would have been otherwise. Other information associated with the same cue or configuration of cues, however, becomes less recallable. Such retrieval-induced forgetting (Anderson, Bjork, &; Bjork, 1994) appears to reflect the suppression of competing nontarget information, with this suppression facilitating the selection of target information. But is success at such selection a necessary condition for retrieval-induced forgetting? Using a procedure in which some cues posed an impossible retrieval task for participants, we report evidence that the attempt to retrieve, even if unsuccessful, can produce retrieval-induced forgetting. This finding, we believe, supports and refines a suppression/inhibitory account of retrieval-induced forgetting.     

What's in a grade? Academic success and political orientation

Expanding the literature on person-environment fit, the authors argue that political orientation is an important factor in shaping academic success in college. Based on social dominance theory, it was expected that academic disciplines that are more likely to provide students with future access to social and economic power tend to favor individuals who hold attitudes that strengthen the existing societal order. In a longitudinal sample of undergraduate students at a major American university (n=3,890), the authors demonstrated that student grades in these disciplines, but not in other disciplines, are positively related to a precollege measure of conservatism. This association between conservatism is consistent over time and subgroups, thus implicating higher education in the reproduction of social hierarchy. The discussion examines the causal processes underlying the relationship between political orientation and academic success in college.     

Learned helplessness and “fear of success” in college women

Anagram performance in comparison and noncomparison situations of 90 high, medium, or low fear-of-success (FOS) women was examined after these subjects had experienced conditions within the traditional triadic learned helplessness design. Low FOS women in the comparison condition proved significantly more susceptible to learned helplessness effects than high FOS women on one dependent measure (number of incorrect anagrams), though not on the other (response latency). Results are discussed with reference to the FOS construct and to Zuckerman and Allison's (1976) scale, used in the present study. An argument is made for increased attention to personality variables within the learned helplessness paradigm.     

Seeing future success: does imagery perspective influence achievement motivation?

Imagining future success can sometimes enhance people's motivation to achieve it. This article examines a phenomenological aspect of positive mental imagery--the visual perspective adopted--that may moderate its motivational impact. The authors hypothesize that people feel more motivated to succeed on a future task when they visualize its successful completion from a third-person rather than a first-person perspective. Actions viewed from the third-person perspective are generally construed at a relatively high level of abstraction--in a manner that highlights their larger meaning and significance--which should heighten their motivational impact. Three studies in the domain of academic motivation support this reasoning. Students experience a greater increase in achievement motivation when they imagine their successful task completion from a third-rather than a first-person perspective. Moreover, mediational analyses reveal that third-person imagery boosts motivation by prompting students to construe their success abstractly and to perceive it as important.     

The cumulative record of research on “fear of success”

Based on the collected findings of over 100 studies assessing “fear of success,” the following questions were addressed: (a) Do females show more “fear of success” imagery than do males? (b) Do males respond to a cue depicting an achieving female with more “fear of success” imagery than do females? (c) Have the proportions of “fear of success” imagery elicited by men and women in response to verbal cues changed over the last decade? (d) What are the correlates of “fear of success”? (e) What is the relationship between “fear of success” imagery and performance in different kinds of situations (e.g., female achievement behavior in competition with men)? The answers seemed crudely to be (a) no, (b) no, (c) decreased, (d) few, and (e) unclear due to the many differences in the designs used.     

Fear of success and failure,or norms for achievement?

Previous research has indicated that success in competitive situations is differentially perceived, considering the level of success and sex of person who succeeded. The amount of projected negative imagery of 100 college students under various degrees of a man's or woman's failure in medical school was investigated in the present study. Data indicated a pervasive tendency to downgrade unsuccessful men in relation to unsuccessful women. The possibility that subjects' responses reflect anxiety about the level of success and failure obtained, rather than anxiety about success and failure in general, is discussed.The authors thank D. F. Ricks for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. Portions of this article were presented at the 6th Annual Conference for Research on Women and Education, Pacific Grove, California, December, 1980.     

How do objective and subjective career success interrelate over time?

The present research is concerned with the direction of influence between objective and subjective career success. We conducted a prospective longitudinal study with five waves of measurement that covered a time span of 10 years. Participants were professionals working in different occupational fields (N=1,336). We modelled the changes in objective success (income, hierarchical position), in other‐referent subjective success (subjective success as compared to a reference group), and in self‐referent subjective success (job satisfaction) by means of latent growth curve analysis. Objective success influenced both the initial level and the growth of other‐referent subjective success, but it had no influence on job satisfaction. Most importantly, both measures of subjective success and both their initial levels and their changes had strong influences on the growth of objective success. We conclude that the ‘objective success influences subjective success’ relationship is smaller than might be expected, whereas the ‘subjective success influences objective success’ relationship is larger than might be expected.     

How do women account for failure when they expect success?

Recent research suggests that men and women account for failures differently. Competent, self-aware men discount failures; competent, self-aware women accept them. This style of accounting for failure outcomes in achievement has been explored in studies of attribution and, more recently, the expectancies an individual holds regarding the outcome (to fail or succeed). The theories do not predict acceptance of failure by competent, self-aware individuals. The incongruent results have been consequently explained as a sex difference. Closer evaluation of the research, however, indicates that most women expect failure rather than success, and that this is a learned expectation. This study attempted to answer whether an exposure to success experiences would alter this expectancy and, if so, whether women would then discount failures in a self-serving manner as men do. Through a manipulation of success and failure outcomes using anagram tasks, it was demonstrated that, given an expectation to succeed, women did use systematic biased attributions to account for failure. These findings have significant implications for attribution research and for our understanding of women's attitude towards achievement and ability to maintain a sense of well-being when faced with failure.     

Career transitions and career success in the ‘new’ career era

The ‘new’ career, most notably the boundaryless career, is associated with high career mobility, which is in turn associated with employability and career success of individuals. The current study examined how frequency, form (organisational, horizontal or vertical) and impact (objective career success) of career transitions have changed across two cohorts of Austrian business graduates (1970 and 1990) throughout the first 15 years of their careers (n = 291). Data for the study were collected by way of standardised questionnaires; participants' career transitions (n = 807) were plotted based on curriculum-vitae type lists of their successive jobs. This research examined two assumptions: (1) that careers have become more turbulent and complex and (2) that this is generally a positive evolution for individuals. Results indicate that overly dramatic claims about the ‘death’ of the traditional-organisational career need to be reconsidered.     

Does early-career underemployment impact future career success? A path dependency perspective

Whereas many studies have shown that underemployed people experience lower objective career success and lower subjective career success while being underemployed, little research has been done on the lasting effects of underemployment. This study addresses the role of time in career success research by examining the impact of level underemployment, content underemployment and contingent employment on subsequent objective (i.e. salary) and subjective career success (i.e. job satisfaction). Our 10-year longitudinal dataset of 335 Dutch university graduates permits us to examine the impact of preceding underemployment as well as the specific timing of the underemployment in one's career. The multilevel analysis results illustrate that level and contingent underemployment have a negative impact on future pay, whereas content underemployment negatively affects job satisfaction five years later. In addition, for level underemployment also the timing turns out to matter, suggesting that the signal that it sends to employers may differ depending on when in one's career it happened. Taken together, these findings point to the importance of using a path-dependency perspective when trying to understand people's career success.     

Choice or circumstance: When are women penalized for their success?

Past research shows that successful women in traditionally masculine roles often experience interpersonal penalties not sustained by similarly successful men. In two studies we, addressed the question of how the perceived motivation of women for counter-stereotypical positions affects whether such penalties occur. Specifically, we investigated whether women who are successful in male gender-typed roles are less likely to be penalized when their attainment of the role is due to circumstance than to focused and intentional goal pursuit. In Study 1, we compared reactions to women and men who had been successful in a leadership role on a STEM project and showed that when a woman had been arbitrarily assigned to the leadership role she incurred fewer interpersonal penalties than when she had actively pursued it. In Study 2, we replicated and extended these findings by demonstrating similar effects for a successful woman in a financial position when she had attained her position due to a series of lucky breaks rather than purposeful goal-directed efforts. The results of these studies support the idea that the perception that women have actively chosen to pursue counter-normative goals plays an important role in determining whether they are penalized for their success in traditionally male domains. It was not simply being in the role, but how she got there, that determined whether the derogation and dislike shown to be directed at successful women in past research occurred.     

Psychological mobility and career success in the ‘New’ career climate

We examined the influence of two types of psychological mobility, i.e. boundaryless mindset and organizational mobility preference, on career success. We hypothesized that this relationship would be partially mediated by physical mobility. In addition, we expected the direction of the influence to depend on the type of psychological mobility. We tested our hypotheses using data of 357 business alumni. Results showed that a boundaryless mindset related positively to wage and promotions, while organizational mobility preference led to less promotions, lower job satisfaction and lower career satisfaction. The relationship between boundaryless mindset and career success was partially mediated by functional mobility whereas organizational mobility preference impacted career success via organizational mobility. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.     

Behaviour therapy and obsessional ruminations: can failure be turned into success?

This paper considers the possible reasons for the relative failure of behavioural treatment for 'ruminations' (obsessional thoughts without overt compulsive behaviour). It is argued that this problem is due to an inadequate conceptualisation of the nature of ruminations and that as a result, exposure and response prevention have not been applied effectively. Effective treatment of ruminations requires systematically applied exposure in conjunction with the identification and prevention of covert compulsive behaviours. The practical problems of implementing 'covert exposure and response prevention' are considered and a form of habituation training is described, which is designed to overcome these inadequacies. A series of single case studies using this technique is presented.     

The benefits of frequent positive affect: does happiness lead to success?

Numerous studies show that happy individuals are successful across multiple life domains, including marriage, friendship, income, work performance, and health. The authors suggest a conceptual model to account for these findings, arguing that the happiness-success link exists not only because success makes people happy, but also because positive affect engenders success. Three classes of evidence--crosssectional, longitudinal, and experimental--are documented to test their model. Relevant studies are described and their effect sizes combined meta-analytically. The results reveal that happiness is associated with and precedes numerous successful outcomes, as well as behaviors paralleling success. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that positive affect--the hallmark of well-being--may be the cause of many of the desirable characteristics, resources, and successes correlated with happiness. Limitations, empirical issues, and important future research questions are discussed.