Flow at Work: Evidence for an Upward Spiral of Personal and Organizational Resources*

The present 2-wave study among 258 secondary school teachers investigates the relationship between personal and organizational resources on the one hand, and work-related flow on the other hand. On the basis of Hobfoll’s (1988) conservation of resources theory, Bandura’ social cognitive theory (1997; 2001), and Fredrickson’s (1998) “broaden-and-build” theory of positive emotions, we formulated two hypotheses: (1) personal resources (i.e., self-efficacy beliefs) and organizational resources (including social support climate and clear goals) facilitate work-related flow (work absorption, work enjoyment, and intrinsic work motivation); and (2) work-related flow has a positive influence on personal and organizational resources. The results of a series of structural equation modeling analyses offer clear support for both hypotheses. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. *This research was supported by a grant from the Bancaixa Foundation (#11232.01/1) and the Spanish Ministry of Science & Technology (CICYT #SEC2000-1031).     

The parish clergy as a mental health resource

Summary This paper presents observations on the assets and liabilities of the parish clergy as a mental health resource within the community. These observations are drawn from a ten-year program of continuing education for cleargy in mental health, which focuses on daily pastoral experience. The parish setting is similar in many respects to the service area of a community mental health center. The clergy's assets often include availability, experience, tradition, and the special significance of the religious leader. Inadequate training in mental health skills and the complex demands of parish life are among the problems confronting the clergy in this area. On the whole, the pastoral role offers a unique and highly useful opportunity for positive psychological intervention.The work described in this paper has been supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health grant no. MH-11929-01 and by grants from the Cleveland Foundation and the Grant Foundation, Inc., and the Cuyahoga County Board of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.     

Diagnosis,assessment, and comorbidity in psychosocial treatment research

This paper identifies problems in prevailing terminology and conceptual models that may hinder research on treatment. To avoid the multiple meanings of diagnosis,the term assessmentis used in reference to identifying the distinguishing features of individual cases, while taxonomyis used to designate the grouping of cases according to their distinguishing features. Treatment research requires clear specification of the behavioral/emotional problems and competencies targeted for intervention. Artifactual comorbidity can be avoided by specifying treatment targets at several levels, including competencies, specific problems, syndromes, profiles of syndrome scores, and global problem scores. To select subjects for treatment research and to evaluate outcomes, multisource data can be coordinated by using a cross-informant computer program, taxonomic decision tree, and averaging of multisource standard scores. This work was supported by NIMH grant MH40305 and W. T. Grant Foundation grant 92145892.     

Children's nurturant interactions with their infant siblings: An exploration of gender differences and maternal socialization

In this study, 20 families with two parents, an infant under the age of 1 year, and one or two older siblings between the ages of 4 and 7 years, were observed in their homes. Each family was observed four times at approximately monthly intervals. Only data from the last three observations were reported. Two issues were being studied: gender differences in the interactions of the older child with the infant, and maternal socialization of the older child's nurturant interactions with the infant. Older girls interacted more with their infant siblings, particularly in a nurturant manner. There was virtually no evidence of direct maternal socialization of this gender difference.The research reported here was supported by a grant from the Purdue Research Foundation. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Atlanta, 1988. I would like to thank Cathy Fruchey, Larilynn Cole, Cheryl Kesterke and Ann Mensch for their assistance. I would also like to thank Mary Jo Rogers and Julia Haseleu for their work on the pilot project.     

Evaluation of project reentry

This report describes a project designed to return to regular classrooms a group of rural poor elementary schoolchildren who were suspected of having been misplaced in special classes for the educable mentally retarded. At the end of the 3-year project, more than half the children were returned to regular classrooms, with proportionately more boys than girls being returned. The total sample of Project students gained significantly in verbal IQ over the course of the project, compared with a sample of students who remained in special education classes. The implications of the project for research, intervention programs, and educational practices are discussed.This study was supported by a grant from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.     

Gender-related assessment of childhood play

Parent-report based scales for the assessment of sex-dimorphic behavior are an important tool in research on psychosexual differentiation and its disorders. This paper presents the factor analysis and corresponding scale development for the slightly expanded Child Game Participation Questionnaire (Bates & Bentler, 1973), based on the parents of a demographically diverse school sample of 355 girls and 333 boys aged 6 to 10 years. Evidence supporting each of three theoretical positions in gender assessment — unidimensional bipolar, two-dimensional unipolar, and multidimensional — was provided. Effect sizes were unusually large for gender, but small for age, socioeconomic level, and race/ethnicity.This research was supported in part by a NICHD postdoctoral fellowship (NRSA HD06726; sponsor: Dr. Meyer-Bahlburg) awarded to Dr. Sandberg, by grants to Dr. Ehrhardt and Dr. Meyer-Bahlburg from the Spencer Foundation, the William T. Grant Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and NIMH (center grant 2-P50-MH43520, Anke A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D., Principal Investigator), and by the NIMH Clinical Research Center grant MH-30906.We thank the children and parents who participated in the study. Dr. Jacob Cohen consulted on statistical matters. Ms. Patricia Connolly provided word processing services. A portion of this work was presented as a poster at the XIth Biennial Meeting of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 3–7, 1991 (Abstracts, p. 285).     

On the construction of weak orders from fragmentary information

An iterative method is proposed for constructing a weak order from a partial order on a set of stimuli that is based on individual pairwise comparison data. The method generalizes Duncan Luce's construction of the weak order induced by a semiorder. Various aspects of the iterative procedure are discussed, including its rationale, the number of iterations required to obtain a weak order, and the extent to which the data support additions to the initial partial order as a function of the number of iterations performed before the additions occur.This work was supported in part by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to The Institute for Advanced Study.The computer simulation programs for this study were written and run by William Gehrlein. I am grateful to him for his assistance.     

Self-control in hyperactive boys in anger-inducing situations: Effects of cognitive-behavioral training and of methylphenidate

The effects of cognitive-behavioral intervention and methylphenidate on anger control in hyperactive boys were investigated in two studies. The anger-inducing stimuli in both studies involved verbal provocation from peers. Study 1 assessed a brief intervention using self-control strategies, while Study 2 employed a longer training period and a control intervention that focused on enhancement of empathy. Both studies included methylphenidate versus placebo comparisons. Methylphenidate reduced the intensity of the hyperactive boys' behavior but did not significantly increase either global or specific measures of self-control. Cognitive-behavioral treatment, when compared to control training, was more successful in enhancing both general self-control and the use of specific coping strategies. There was no advantage for the combination of methylphenidate plus cognitive-behavioral intervention. Implications for intervention to ameliorate the social and interpersonal difficulties of hyperactive children are discussed.Major support for this study was provided by NIDA grant 01070. This research was also facilitated by a grant from the Spencer Foundation. The many training staff and raters, too numerous to mention individually here, are deserving of our special thanks. We also appreciate the cooperation of Marion Jacobs and the staff of the UCLA Psychology Clinic, where the first study was held, and of Howard Adelman and the staff of Fernald School, where the second study was housed; the clinical and administrative skills of Stephen Alkus, who organized the intervention program for the first study; the talents and diligence of David Neswald, who coordinated much of the videotape scoring; and the ever-present contributions of Doris Finck, who also edited and dubbed the video segments. Medication and placebos were supplied by CIBA-Geigy.     

Testing a simple structure hypothesis in factor analysis

It is assumed that the investigator has set up a simple structure hypothesis in the sense that he has specified the zero loadings of the factor matrix. The maximum-likelihood method is used to estimate the factor matrix and the factor correlation matrix directly without the use of rotation methods, and the likelihood-ratio technique is used to test the simple structure hypothesis. Numerical examples are presented.The work was supported by a grant (NSF-GB 1985) from the National Science Foundation to Educational Testing Service. Reproduction in whole or in part for any purpose of the United States Government is permitted.The work was carried out when the author was Visiting Research Statistician at Educational Testing Service. The author wishes to thank Dr. Frederic M. Lord for many helpful suggestions throughout the course of this study.     

Logic acquisition, usage and semantic realism

Research for this paper was supported, in part, under a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.     

Effects of positive youth development programs on school, family, and community systems

A review of efforts at social system change in 526 universal competence-promotion outcome studies indicated that 64% of the interventions attempted some type of microsystemic or mesosystemic change involving schools, families, or community-based organizations in an attempt to foster developmental competencies in children and adolescents. Only 24% of the reports provided quantitative data on the change that occurred in targeted systems. However, studies containing the necessary information produced several mean effect sizes that were statistically significant, and ranged from modest to large in magnitude. These data indicate that attempts to change social systems affecting children and adolescents can be successful. Future work should measure more thoroughly the extent to which the systemic changes that are targeted through intervention are achieved, and investigate how such changes contribute to the development and sustainability of the outcomes that might be demonstrated by participants of competence-promotion programs. The authors wish to thank David Wilson for supplying the macros used to calculate study level effect sizes and Mark Lipsey for supplying the SPSS macros used to weight effect sizes and calculate mean effects across studies. This study was supported in part by a grant from the William T. Grant Foundation (#2212) awarded to the first and last authors.     

The universality of a contempt expression: A replication

Two experiments replicated Ekman and Friesen's finding of an expression that signals contempt across cultures. The subjects, from West Sumatra, Indonesia, were members of a culture that differs in a number of ways from Western cultures. In one experiment the subjects judged photographs of Japanese and American faces, both males and females, which showed many different emotions. There was very high agreement about which expressions signaled contempt in preference to anger, disgust, happiness, sadness, fear, or surprise. In a second experiment the Indonesian subjects judged expressions shown by members of their own culture, and again there was very high agreement about which expression signals contempt.This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 41100). Paul Ekman's work is also supported by a Research Scientist Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 06092). Karl G. Heider's work was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 38221). We are grateful to Maureen O'Sullivan for her many helpful comments on this report.     

A direct method for multidimensional ratio scaling

A generalization of direct ratio scaling methods to multidimensional ratio scaling is described. This method requires an observer to report the proportion of a standard percept that is contained in a given percept and vice versa. The method was developed to meet requirements for experimentation in such areas as color vision, gustation, and olfaction.This investigation was supported by research grants from the Swedish Medical Research Council and the Wallenberg Foundation. The experimental work was carried out by Mr. G. Kylén.     

The Ethnic Context of Child and Adolescent Problem Behavior: Implications for Child and Family Interventions

This article links the empirical literature on race and ethnicity in developmental psychopathology with interventions designed to reduce adolescent problem behavior. We present a conceptual framework in which culture is endogenous to the socialization of youth and the development of specific self-regulatory strategies. The importance of cultural influence is identified at three levels: (a) intrapersonal developmental processes (e.g., ethnic identity development, development of coping modifies mechanisms and self-regulatory mechanisms), (b) family socialization processes (e.g., racial and ethnic socialization), and (c) interaction with larger societal contexts (e.g., maintenance of bicultural competence in adapting to mainstream and ethnic cultures). We discuss limitations of current assessment and intervention practices that focus on reducing adolescent problem behavior with respect to the cultural issues identified above. We propose that empirically supported adaptive and tailored interventions for adolescent problem behavior are optimal for serving multicultural children and families. To empower such interventions to better serve children and families of color, it is essential that assessments that guide the adaptation and tailoring process include culturally salient dynamics such as ethnic identity, racial socialization, and culturally informed parenting practices. This work is supported by an NRSA grant to the first author, and the following for the second author: grants DA07031, DA13773, and DA16110 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.     

An individual difference model for the multidimensional analysis of preference data

A model for the analysis of paired comparison data is presented which combines features of the BTL-model with features of the Unfolding model. The model is metric, mathematically tractable, and has an exact algebraic solution. Since it is multidimensional and allows for individual differences, it is thought to be more realistic for some choice situations than either the Thurstone model or the BTL-model. No claim is made that the present model will be appropriate for all conceivable choice situations. Rather, it is argued that the fact that it is explicitly falsifiable is a point in its favor.This work was supported by a grant of the United States Public Health Service (1 R03 MH19139 01 MSM) and a David Ross (XR) grant of the Purdue Research Foundation (PRF 2132), both of which are gratefully acknowledged. We also owe thanks to Dr. Terry Cooper, whose careful scrutiny of an earlier draft of this paper allowed us to reduce the number of errors from n to n-1.     

A double law of comparative judgment for the analysis of preferential choice and similarities data

By virtue of certain modifications in the Law of Comparative Judgment, equations are developed which (i) permit the construction of a joint scale of individuals and items, as in the case of attitude measurement, directly from their pair-comparison preferences, and (ii) take into account the variable of laterality which is significant for the construction of group preference scales.This work was supported by grant NSF-G5820 from the National Science Foundation.     

Research as a family therapy intervention technique

The utilization of the research process as an intervention has recently been described in the family therapy literature. However, it is important to draw a distinction between research as intervention and research as a unique family therapy intervention technique. From a family systems perspective, research as an intervention technique may make therapy more palatable for some families. A case study is presented in which this technique created the context for change for a family involved in a chronic illness research project.The author would like to thank Dr. Wendy L. Watson for her participation as a member of the clinical team and Drs. Fabie Duhamel and Wendy L. Watson for their helpful critiques on earlier drafts of this paper.Supported by a grant from the Albert Foundation for Nursing Research.     

Parameter estimation for the thurstone case III model

A Monte Carlo study was conducted to investigate the ability of three estimation criteria to recover the parameters of Case V and Case III models from comparative judgment data. Significant differences in recovery are shown to exist.This research was supported by grant SOC76-20517 from the National Science Foundation. The authors acknowledge with appreciation comments received on an earlier draft by Harold Lindman, Joseph Zinnes, and anonymous reviewers.     

Child witnesses to violence between parents: Critical issues in Behavioral and social adjustment

This study examined the impact of exposure to family violence on children's adjustment. Two groups of residents of shelters for battered women (current and former residents) were compared to a nonviolent control group. All three groups of mothers completed interviews and selfreport questionnaires related to both their own and their children's adjustment. Children recently witnessing violence tended to have the lowest levels of social competence ratings, and their mothers reported the most health and emotional difficulties. Former residents of shelters experienced the highest level of family/social disadvantage. The results are discussed in the context of previous research findings, and implications for intervention programs are outlined.This research was supported by a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Service and the Ontario Mental Health Foundation. The authors wish to thank the staff of transition houses in Cambridge, Catham, Guelph, Kitchener, Sarnia, and Woodstock for their generous support of this project.     

Relevant replies to questions: Answers versus evasions

A taxonomy was developed that accounts for all relevant partner responses to questions in the natural discourse of nursery school dyads. Evasive replies as well as answers must be included in such a scheme. Evasive replies are discoursally linked to questions, whereas answers are grammatically linked to questions. Nursery school children in this sample tended to inspect the nature of the relevance of a reply to a question and, at least on some occasions, to acknowledge replies to questions (explicitly or implicitly) and to respond differently to evasive replies than replies in general.This work was supported by a grant from the Spencer Foundation to the second author.