Are smokers interested in genetic testing for smoking addiction? A socio-cognitive approach

Genetic advances have made genetically tailored smoking cessation treatments possible. In this study, we examined whether smokers are interested in undergoing a genetic test to identify their genetic susceptibility to nicotine addiction. In addition, we aimed to identify socio-cognitive determinants of smokers' intention to undergo genetic testing. Following the protection motivation theory (PMT), we assessed the following constructs using an online survey among 587 smokers: threat appraisal (i.e. susceptibility and severity), fear, coping appraisal (i.e. response efficacy and self-efficacy), response costs and intention. In addition, knowledge, social norms and information-seeking behaviour were measured. Mean intention rates were 2.57 on a 5-point scale. Intention was significantly associated with threat appraisal and coping appraisal, as predicted by the PMT. Fear of the outcome was negatively associated with the intention to undergo genetic testing, but response costs, knowledge and social influence were not. Intention to undergo genetic testing in turn was positively related to seeking information about genetic testing and genetically tailored smoking cessation treatments. Smokers seem ambivalent or 'on the fence' with regard to undergoing a genetic test for smoking addiction. Socio-cognitive concepts such as susceptibility, severity, response efficacy and self-efficacy may be used to inform or educate smokers about the value of genetically tailored smoking cessation treatments.     

Are we documenting performance validity testing in pediatric neuropsychological assessments? A brief report

A 2016 survey of pediatric neuropsychologists found that 92% of clinicians reported use of “at least one” performance validity test (PVT) in each assessment. The present investigation sought to verify documented PVT use among clinicians by review of actual reports. A convenience sample of pediatric neuropsychological reports of children ages 6–17 were reviewed over an 24-month period (January 2015–January 2017); reports were those seen as part of our routine practice, including reports on children we were reevaluating, cases that we consulted on, or cases evaluated elsewhere presenting to our centers that required record review for clinical decision making (e.g., presurgical epilepsy evaluations). A total of 131 reports, from 102 unique neuropsychologists were reviewed. PVT usage was documented in only six reports, from six unique clinicians, representing only 4.58% of the reports (or 5.88% of clinicians), far below expectations recent survey results. Though sampling differences and documentation factors may account for some of this disparity, a “social desirability bias” on surveys is likely a major factor in explaining these discordant findings.     

Do smokers have a negative implicit attitude toward smoking?

Swanson, Rudman, and Greenwald (2001 Swanson, J. E., Rudman, L. A. and Greenwald, A. G. 2001. Using the Implicit Association Test to investigate attitude-behavior consistency for stigmatised behaviour. Cognition and Emotion, 15: 207–230. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) used an Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure attitudes toward smoking and found that smokers have negative implicit attitudes toward smoking. In a first experiment, we replicated the results of Swanson et al. but showed that scores on an attitude IAT do discriminate between smokers and nonsmokers to the same extent than scores on an IAT that is designed to measure associations between smoking and approach or avoidance. In a second experiment, we did find positive implicit attitudes toward smoking in smokers when we used a personalised version of the IAT that was designed to be less susceptible to effects of societal views. Our results indicate that implicit attitudes should not be dismissed as a causal factor in the maintenance of smoking behaviour.     

Are we pushing the limits of public health interventions for smoking cessation?

The phenomenon of smoking cessation that takes place outside formal programs, which serve a small proportion of smokers, is an important public health issue. Self-help strategies represent an approach to potentially cost-effective smoking intervention that can be conveniently used by large groups of smokers. In this issue of Health Psychology, Gritz, Berman, Bastani, and Wu (1992) demonstrate that the mailing of self-help smoking cessation materials to nonvolunteer women in a health maintenance organization, without any personal contact, produces little behavior change beyond what occurs in the environment without such distribution. This outcome is not surprising and does not illiminate the possibility of efficacious use of self-help materials with a nonvolunteer population. An essential question is: Could these materials have been distributed in such a way as to increase their use and eventual efficacy? Efforts to attract more smokers to use existing materials are an essential element of self-help strategies. An effective public health approach is a comprehensive one that successfully engages the individual and, through multiple channels in the community, provides reinforcement, supports, and norms for not smoking.     

Are you interested? A meta-analysis of relations between vocational interests and employee performance and turnover

A common belief among researchers is that vocational interests have limited value for personnel selection. However, no comprehensive quantitative summaries of interests validity research have been conducted to substantiate claims for or against the use of interests. To help address this gap, we conducted a meta-analysis of relations between interests and employee performance and turnover using data from 74 studies and 141 independent samples. Overall validity estimates (corrected for measurement error in the criterion but not for range restriction) for single interest scales were .14 for job performance, .26 for training performance, -.19 for turnover intentions, and -.15 for actual turnover. Several factors appeared to moderate interest-criterion relations. For example, validity estimates were larger when interests were theoretically relevant to the work performed in the target job. The type of interest scale also moderated validity, such that corrected validities were larger for scales designed to assess interests relevant to a particular job or vocation (e.g., .23 for job performance) than for scales designed to assess a single, job-relevant realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, or conventional (i.e., RIASEC) interest (.10) or a basic interest (.11). Finally, validity estimates were largest when studies used multiple interests for prediction, either by using a single job or vocation focused scale (which tend to tap multiple interests) or by using a regression-weighted composite of several RIASEC or basic interest scales. Overall, the results suggest that vocational interests may hold more promise for predicting employee performance and turnover than researchers may have thought.     

Are they really interested but concerned? A mixed methods exploration of the Geller bicyclist typology

The Geller typology, which categorizes the population into four types of bicyclists (strong and fearless, enthused and confident, interested but concerned, and no way no how) has gained considerable popularity amongst researchers and planners. One large U.S. study used a survey-derived approach to categorize respondents into Geller’s typology, and found the majority of Americans were “interested but concerned”. While the U.S. findings are widely cited in planning documents, there has yet to be an assessment as to whether this indirect survey-derived categorization into Geller’s typology corresponds with how bicyclists perceive themselves. Using a mixed methods approach, we explored the Geller typology from the view of bicyclists themselves. Our specific objectives were to assess whether the survey-derived categorization method aligned with bicyclists’ perceptions, and to also examine bicyclists’ interpretations of Geller’s typology. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of bicyclists (n = 281) and interviews with a subset of participants (n = 25). According to the survey-derived categorization, the distribution of the sample (n = 25) was: 4% strong and fearless, 12% enthused and confident, and 84% interested but concerned. In the interviews we learned there was only a match between survey-derived and self-perceived bicyclist type for seven of twenty-five (28%) participants. When asked, participants were more likely to categorize themselves to strong and fearless (24% overall) or enthused and confident (52% overall). Our findings suggest that the category titles are intuitive, however, the survey-derived categorization does not necessarily match with how bicyclists perceive themselves. This suggests that, at least for those who currently bicycle, a direct approach of asking people which type of bicyclist they identify with may be preferable.     

Are people excessive or judicious in their egocentrism? A modeling approach to understanding bias and accuracy in people's optimism

People are often egocentric when judging their likelihood of success in competitions, leading to overoptimism about winning when circumstances are generally easy and to overpessimism when the circumstances are difficult. Yet, egocentrism might be grounded in a rational tendency to favor highly reliable information (about the self) more so than less reliable information (about others). A general theory of probability called extended support theory was used to conceptualize and assess the role of egocentrism and its consequences for the accuracy of people's optimism in 3 competitions (Studies 1-3, respectively). Also, instructions were manipulated to test whether people who were urged to avoid egocentrism would show improved or worsened accuracy in their likelihood judgments. Egocentrism was found to have a potentially helpful effect on one form of accuracy, but people generally showed too much egocentrism. Debias instructions improved one form of accuracy but had no impact on another. The advantages of using the EST framework for studying optimism and other types of judgments (e.g., comparative ability judgments) are discussed.     

Does social support predict smoking abstinence in dual-smoker couples? Evidence from a dyadic approach

Background and Objectives: Romantic partners have a significant influence on their health behaviors. Evidence for the effectiveness of social support for smoking abstinence, however, is mixed and the role of social support for smoking abstinence in dual-smoker couples is understudied.

Design: 77 dual-smoker couples were assessed 30 days after a joint quit attempt using a dyadic approach.

Methods: Received and provided support, self-reported and objectively measured smoking abstinence were assessed from both partners. Actor and partner effects of received and provided support on self-reported and objectively measured smoking abstinence and their difference for men and women were investigated with the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model using multilevel modeling.

Results: A significant actor effect emerged: Higher reports of received emotional support were related to an increased likelihood of objective smoking abstinence for men and women alike. For men only, partner effects of women’s received emotional and instrumental support emerged (p?<?.10): Higher reports of women’s support receipt were associated with an increased likelihood of men’s self-reported abstinence.

Conclusion: Received emotional support seems to play a key role in dual-smoker couple’s abstinence, whereas provided support does not seem to make a difference in successful quitting in dual-smoker couples.     

Are assessment center behaviors' meanings consistent across exercises? A measurement invariance approach

To examine the appropriateness of a Multi‐Trait–Multi‐Method framework for testing construct validity of Assessment Centers (ACs) and get practical implications for the improved AC design, degree to which the AC dimension‐related performance behaviors consistently manifest across multiple AC rating situations was investigated. The present study used a large sample (N = 5,006) to apply a measurement invariance analysis. AC rating situations generally produced consistent factor loadings for items on AC dimensions, item residuals, dimension factor variances, and covariance between dimensions. The AC rating situation of interview tended to produce higher ratings and less item residuals. These findings support the consistency in constructs assessed across different AC rating situations, while some exercises may be better for teasing apart particular dimensions than others.     

Disengagement beliefs in smokers: Do they influence the effects of a tailored persuasive message advocating smoking cessation?

Disengagement beliefs function to reduce cognitive dissonance and a number of predictions with regard to disengagement beliefs have been tested and verified. However, the influence of disengagement beliefs on persuasion has not been studied yet. In a field-experiment, 254 smokers were randomly assigned to a persuasive message condition or a no-information control condition. First, it was assessed to what extent disengagement beliefs influenced persuasion. In smokers with low adherence to disengagement beliefs, quitting activity (attempting to quit) in the control condition was high, but this was not further increased by persuasive information on the negative outcomes of smoking. In contrast, smokers who strongly adhered to disengagement beliefs showed low quitting activity in the control condition, but significantly more quitting activity when they received the persuasive message. Second, it was studied what smokers do when they experience negative affect caused by the persuasive message. The results show that in smokers who strongly adhered to disengagement beliefs, negative affect was associated with less quitting activity. Although these results show that quitting activity as assessed at 2 and 8 months follow-ups was influenced by disengagement beliefs, point prevalence seven-day quitting was not. This study shows that adherence to disengagement beliefs is a relevant individual difference in understanding effects of smoking cessation interventions.     

Are You Ready for Some Football? A Monday Night Documentary?

According to three of the most prominent contemporary theories of documentary—those of Gregory Currie, Noël Carroll, and Carl Plantinga—live televised sports broadcasts like Monday Night Football count as members of that category. I begin this article by explaining how each of these theories encompasses live televised sports. Next, I argue that this inclusion is a serious mistake. Attention to it reveals that any adequate account of documentaries must include a condition that Currie, Carroll, and Plantinga ignore. After considering some candidates for this condition, I develop a technical notion of “account” and defend the proposal that documentaries are primarily accounts. Any theory of documentary that incorporates this insight will fit more comfortably with the standard categorical distinctions made in critical and everyday practice.     

Is there any Proffitt in stair climbing? A headcount of studies testing for demographic differences in choice of stairs

The apparent slope of a hill, termed geographical slant perception, is overestimated in explicit awareness. Proffitt (2006) argued that overestimation allows individuals to manage their locomotor resources. Increasing age, fatigue, and wearing a heavy back pack will reduce the available resources and result in steeper reports for a particular hill. In contrast, Durgin and colleagues have proposed an alternative explanation for these effects based on experimental design—particularly, the potential effects of experimental demand. Proffitt’s resource-based model would predict that pedestrians with reduced resources should avoid climbing a hill that would further deplete their resources if the opportunity arose. Within the built environment, stairs are the man-made equivalent of relatively steep hills (20°–30°). In many public access settings, pedestrians can avoid climbing the stairs by opting for an adjacent escalator. Observations of pedestrian behavior in shopping malls reveal that 94.5 % do so. This article summarizes the effects of demographic grouping on avoidance of stairs in public health research. Observations in shopping malls (n = 355,069) and travel contexts (n = 711,867) provide data consistent with Proffitt’s resource model. Women, the old, and those carrying excess body weight or large bags avoid the stairs more than do their comparison groups. Discussion focuses on differences in physiology that may underlie avoidance of stair climbing in order to highlight the pedestrian behavior that psychology needs to explain.     

Are organisational politics responsible for turnover intention in French Firefighters?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of different facets of perceived organisational politics and workplace attitudes onto turnover intention in the French Fire and Rescue service.MethodologyAn electronic survey was administered to fire department employees (n = 255) to investigate the effects of different forms of perceived organisational politics (POP) onto turnover intention, and test for mediation by affective organisational commitment and job satisfaction with structural equation modelling (Lisrel 8.80).FindingsBoth pay-and-promotion and general perceived organisational politics indirectly predicted turnover intention in French firefighters, although the total effect of pay-and-promotion politics was greater than general politics. Affective organisational commitment and job satisfaction mediated the effect of perceived organisational politics onto turnover intention.Practical implicationsPublic organisations, which have recently undergone reorganisations, should monitor perceptions of organisational politics to better understand the association with attitudes (such as affective organisational commitment and job satisfaction), as well as to predict turnover intention.Originality/valueThe study goes expands on the identification of various turnover intention's antecedents to contribute to consider understanding of its reasons, such as perceived organisational politics, where pay-and-promotion politics appears to be more salient factor than general politics. Affective organisational commitment and job satisfaction mediate the effects of POP onto turnover intention with nuanced effects. We also generated support for the order of factors in the model, where job satisfaction is a first-order predictor of turnover intention and organisational commitment second-order one. The POP Scale (Kacmar & Ferris, 1991) was validated in French.     

What Are Gay Men for?

Abstract

The question asked in the title is one that Mark Vernon takes from Michael Vasey's own writings on sexuality. Vernon notes that Vasey presents a clearly constructavist account of sexuality in which the nature and meaning of homosexuality will change with historical and social circumstances. This raises the question of what gay men might be for in contemporary society. In order to explore this question Vernon looks at the literature on friendship, drawing on the work of Aristotle and others. He aims to show that the kind of friendship experienced by and shown to others through gay men, is of a particular, perhaps disturbing, kind. It is from this position that Vernon answers Vasey's question by suggesting that gay men may be able to offer a prophetic message to contemporary society about the nature of friendship beyond, and within, the family structures of society.     

Are attentional resources a mediator for sex differences in memory?

The divided attention paradigm was used to investigate sex differences in encoding and retrieval processes of memory. Participants performed a memory and reaction time (RT) task under full attention and two divided attention conditions, that is, at encoding and retrieval. Results revealed that females recalled significantly more words than males under the full attention and divided attention at encoding conditions. Results further showed that secondary task costs were larger for males than females during divided attention at retrieval. Furthermore, regardless of sex, recall was best under full attention and worst under divided attention at encoding conditions. In relation to the RT task, RTs were shorter under full attention and longer under the divided attention at retrieval condition. Overall, these results show that females recall more words than males possibly due to a more severe effect of reduced attention during encoding than retrieval for males. The current findings thus suggest that a reduction in attentional resources may mediate sex‐related decreases in word recall.