Work style preferences among medical specialties

Strong Interest Inventory Personal Style Scales (SII-PSS) assess people's preferences for work style, learning environment, leadership style, and risk taking. We examined whether the SII-PSS predict medical specialty choice for college students. We administered the scales to 355 students when they began a combined Bachelor of Science/Doctor of Medicine program during the 2003–2005 academic years. Specialty choice was obtained when these students graduated from medical school during 2009–2011 academic years. In the end, 120 students (34%) provided useable data and were included in the analysis. The remaining students either did not graduate from the 6-year BS/MD program or entered preliminary or transitional specialties. Specialties included in the analysis were internal medicine, family medicine, psychiatry, surgery, pediatrics, emergency medicine, anesthesiology, and obstetrics/gynecology. Work style was the only PSS variable that showed differences across various specialties. A MANOVA showed that the work style scale was significantly different across various specialties (p < .05, Bonferroni correction p < .006). Students who went into internal medicine scored significantly higher on working with people rather than ideas or things (X = 53.08, SD = 8.90) compared to students who went into surgery (X = 46.25, SD = 7.44, F = 6.83) or anesthesiology (X = 42.38, SD = 5.15, F = 10.70). Students who entered obstetrics/gynecology also scored significantly higher on working with people (X = 54.25, SD = 7.62) than students who entered anesthesiology (X = 42.38, SD = 5.15, F = 12.13). In the realm of medical specialties, preferences for working with people versus things may underlie choices between the group of medical specialties categorized as primary-care versus those categorized as surgical and as technical specialties.     

Leadership style and role differentiation as determinants of group effectiveness

All-male and all-female groups discussed a case history and provided a statement of their analysis of the case The relationship between leadership style, as measured by Fiedler's Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) instrument, and task effectiveness (quality of the statement) was investigated for both the top task contributor and the best-liked member of the group LPC of the top task contributor did not relate to task effectiveness. In the role-differentiated groups, LPC of the best-liked member related positively to task effectiveness in the male groups (p < .05) and negatively in the female groups (p < .01) For the male groups, questionnaire data were consistent with the interpretation that the relationship between LPC of the best-liked member and task effectiveness was mediated by the ability of the high-LPC best-liked member to reduce interpersonal tension that interfered with task effectiveness. LPC of die best-liked member of the female groups was related to intermember attraction LPC did not affect role recruitment.     

Reliability of perceptual learning style preferences of chronically mentally ill adults.

36 chronically mentally ill adults were administered the perceptual learning style items (auditory, visual, kinesthetic) from the Productivity Environmental Preference Survey. A retest was given 6 months later. Analysis showed that, although the instrument can be reliably scored, content and time sampling error more than account for the variance in these subtests. Self-reported perceptual learning style appears to be a transient phenomenon of limited practical utility in this population.     

Assessment of thinking style preferences and language proficiency for South African students whose native languages differ

The language proficiency of first-year students at the University of Pretoria (56 men and 59 women, M age=19.40 yr., SD=.80, range from 18.00 to 20.70) was assessed by means of the English Language Skills Assessment. More than one-third of the students did not show proficiency at Grade 10, as expected. This language assessment was not correlated with academic achievement equally well for students in a group. The diversity of thinking style preferences of the students enrolled in a language development course was also assessed on the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument. Scores indicated a range of thinking style preferences but the group's overall mean scores represented detail-oriented and feeling-based modes of thinking processes. These preferences were correlated with academic achievement and learning of languages. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that thinking styles could be a focus of educational strategies in South Africa, using the perspective that qualitatively different approaches to teaching might be associated with students' qualitatively different approaches to learning.     

Personality links to anger: Evidence for trait interaction and differentiation across expression style

Anger is a commonly experienced emotion, although marked individual differences in the expression of anger are observed. Basic dimensions of personality (e.g., Big Five traits) have been shown to predict the experience of trait anger; however, little work has addressed the personality correlates of broader conceptualisations of trait anger (e.g., inward or outward expressions). Additionally, while some recent work has suggested that basic personality traits may show interactive influences on anger expression this work has yet to be independently confirmed. In a large sample of adults we examined, firstly, how Big Five traits associated with several components of anger as measured by the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory. Secondly, we examined whether these associations were further qualified by interactions between Big Five traits. Results indicated neuroticism and, to a lesser extent, (low) agreeableness, were the traits most associated with components of trait anger. Conscientiousness and extraversion were also noted to show links to more focal components of anger. Moderation was observed: conscientiousness moderated neuroticism’s relationship with anger control, and agreeableness and conscientiousness, in a three-way interaction, moderated neuroticism’s relationship with trait anger. These observations help to further clarify the role of Big Five personality traits as a foundation for the experiences of anger, demonstrating how anger style varies across personality configuration.     

Love: American style,Russian style,and Japanese style

This study was undertaken to examine young women's and men's orientations toward love in three very different cultures: Japan (N = 223), Russia (N = 401), and the United States (N = 1,043). The love variables examined were: frequency of lore experiences, attachment types, love styles, love as a basis for marriage, romantic attitudes, and predictors of falling in love. Many cultural differences were found in the love variables, but the effect of culture was not always in the expected direction. We also examined how the pattern of gender differences in love variables differed across the three societies. Some of the gender differences and similarities found in previous love research and also in the U.S. sample of this study were not replicated in the Japanese and/or Russian samples. We discuss the importance of studying love and other aspects of close relationships with data collected from more than one culture.     

College students' role models, learning style preferences, and academic achievement in collaborative teaching: absolute versus relativistic thinking

Based on the perspective of postformal operations, this study investigated whether college students' role models (technical teachers vs. lecturing teachers) and preferred learning styles (experience-driven mode vs. theory-driven mode) in collaborative teaching courses would be moderated by their cognitive development (absolute thinking vs. relativistic thinking) and examine whether academic achievement of students would be contingent upon their preferred learning styles. Two hundred forty-four college students who have taken the technical courses with collaborative teaching participated in this study. The results showed that those participants with absolute thinking perceived the modeling advantage of technical teachers was greater than that of lecturing teachers, preferred the experience-driven mode over the theory-driven mode, and displayed differential academic achievement between technical courses and general courses. On the other hand, the students with relativistic thinking revealed no difference in perceived modeling advantage of role models, learning styles preferences, and academic achievement between two categories of courses. In addition, this research indicates that college students' preferred learning styles would interact with course category (technical courses vs. general courses) to display differential academic achievement. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

Personality and art preferences

This study examined the relationship between sensation seeking and preference for paintings. Twenty paintings were classified into four categories: simple/complex and representational/abstract. It was hypothesized that total sensation seeking score and subscales scores would be positively correlated with preferences for simple and, especially complex, abstract art, and negatively correlated with simple, and, especially complex, representational art. Alpha coefficients demonstrated that satisfactory classification of the paintings into four groups. As hypothesized, high scores on total sensation seeking and subscales were positively correlated with abstract art preferences and negatively correlated with representational art preferences. The results are discussed in terms of the major determinants of preferences for art of different types.     

Pattern preferences at birth and their interaction with habituation-induced novelty preferences

Three experiments are described which relate to models of infant visual preferences, and to the ways in which preferences can be modified or created by habituation. In all experiments newborn babies were used as subjects. In Experiments equated 1 and 2 infants were presented with pairs of stimuli that were equated for contour density but which differed in spatial frequency components. The preferences obtained give support to Banks and Salapatek's (1981, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 31, 1-45) model of infant preferences which predicts that the maximally preferred stimulus will be that which contains high amplitude spatial frequency components falling within the age group's peak contrast sensitivity. In Experiment 3 an infant-controlled habituation procedure was used. The results obtained suggest that strong natural preferences based on the infants' peak contrast sensitivity cannot be changed by habituating infants either to the preferred or to the nonpreferred member of a stimulus pair. However, where no prior preference exists between two stimuli that are perceptually highly discriminable, very strong novelty preferences are found after habituating newborns to either stimulus. The results suggest that the contrast sensitivity model can be a powerful predictor of preferential looking in newborns, and in addition are further evidence that preferences based on experience can be found from birth.     

Editing in style: A style sheet for conforming to APA editorial style

A computer program is reviewed that allows the creation of a file of formatting characteristics, a style sheet, for modifying the appearance of text. By applying different style sheets to a paper, the writer is able to change instantly the style of the paper. Most importantly, once a style sheet has been created, the writer need not be concerned with formatting, because the paper can be reformatted according to the predefined parameters contained in the style sheet. Both an unfinished style and a finished style sheet conforming to APA editorial style are provided as examples.     

Negative cognitive style and looming cognitive style synergistically predict stress generation

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that cognitive vulnerabilities to depression or anxiety may lead individuals to generate negative interpersonal life events. However, there has been no study to date that examines the effects of co-occurring vulnerabilities to depression and anxiety. In a sample of 304 participants, we examined the potential interaction of co-occurring negative cognitive style, a vulnerability to depression and looming cognitive style, vulnerability to anxiety. Results indicate that co-occurring cognitive vulnerabilities synergistically predict higher levels of negative interpersonal life events six weeks later, even when controlling for initial levels of stressful life events and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Thus, co-occurring vulnerabilities may have stronger stress generating effects than would be expected from the additive effects of each vulnerability considered separately. This finding highlights the importance of examining cognitive vulnerabilities as interactive effects rather than as individual vulnerabilities.