Mental Health and Employment Status: A Preliminary Study

Nearly 200 people were administered the Langner-22 index of mental health. They were divided into five groups depending on their employment status: full-time employed, part-time employed, unemployed, retired, and students. Although there were no age or sex differences in the total mental-health score, there was a significant difference between the five employment groups' total score, with full-time employed people having the lowest score and unemployed people the highest score. There was, however, no significant difference between the scores of the part-time employed and unemployed, which were moderately high, and of students and retired people, which were intermediate. The results are discussed in terms of the nature of employment in relation to mental health, and in terms of the nature of part-time employment.     

Older people's well‐being as a function of employment,retirement, environmental characteristics and role preference

The life satisfaction and affective well‐being of employed, unemployed and retired men and women aged between 50 and 74 were examined as a function of characteristics of their environment and the degree to which their current role was personally preferred. Early‐retired and late‐employed individuals had particularly high affective well‐being. Role preference (e.g. to be in a job) was significantly associated with both indicators, with better well‐being in those individuals who wanted to be in their current role. Both forms of well‐being were a function of the features experienced in a role (opportunity for control, clarity, etc.), over and above the identification of role membership on its own, with the relationship between older people's role occupancy (employed, unemployed or retired) and well‐being being mediated by perceived environmental characteristics.     

A quantitative synthesis of literature on work status and subjective well being

Metanalytic techniques were used to synthesize results of studies on the relation of work status (retired, employed part time, employed full time) and subjective well being (SWB). The weighted mean of the work status/SWB relation across all studies was .18. When zero-order associations between work status and SWB were used as dependent variables, significant predictors of that relation were the way in which work status was operationalized, ratings of quality of study, year of publication for studies, and age midrange of samples. Gender was not a significant predictor of the work status/SWB relation.     

Balancing Elder Care Responsibilities and Work: The Impact on Emotional Health

The current study investigated the effects of balancing elder care and work on emotional health. Responses from 43 retired caregivers, 211 not retired caregivers, 49 retired non-caregivers, and 224 not retired non-caregivers, who had participated in the national Health and Retirement Study, served as the data base. Results indicate that Caregiver Status (Caregiver vs. Non-caregiver) and Retirement Status (Retired vs. Not Retired) interact, depending on the measure of emotional health. The relationship between the number of depression symptoms reported and Caregiver Status depended on whether the respondent was also retired or employed; a significant interaction was not found when emotional health was measured with one overall item. A significant difference was not found between employed caregivers and employed non-caregivers, in terms of emotional health. Employed caregivers who gave more caregiving hours did report poorer emotional health than employed caregivers who gave fewer hours. Female caregivers reported more depression symptoms than male caregivers. The results suggest that employers may need to develop interventions which may help caregivers who are highly involved with caregiving responsibilities.     

Type A behavior and its relation to personality variables in Swedish male and female university students

A questionnaire based on the Jenkins Activity Survey (JAS), given to 181 male and 280 female Swedish university students, showed that females had significantly higher Type A scores than males. Three factors were extracted by factor analysis, two of which, "speed and impatience" and "hard-driving", corresponded to two of the factors obtained by JAS in an American population of employed men (Zyzanski & Jenkins, 1970). The third factor was tentatively termed "engagement-involvement". Twelve male and 12 female subjects from opposite ends of the distribution were compared in terms of 22 personality variables measured by questionnaires. It was found that Type A subjects of both sexes scored higher on scales measuring anxiety-proneness, aggression-hostility, extraversion and neuroticism.     

行动控制在农村教师工作压力与工作倦怠中的作用:PSI理论的分析视角

采用logistic回归分析,考察了322名农村中小学教师的人口学变量和工作压力、行动控制风格、行动控制策略对其工作倦怠的风险预测能力,并借助结构方程模型进一步分析了各心理变量间的关系,从PSI理论角度诠释了倦怠形成的机制。结果发现:中专、高级职称、中高压力水平、低行动控制策略和状态导向是导致中小学教师工作倦怠的危险性因素;行动导向者的工作压力、工作倦怠及行动控制策略运用水平显著好于状态导向者;工作压力、行动控制风格对工作倦怠的直接效应显著;行动控制风格和行动控制策略在工作压力和工作倦怠间起中介作用。因此,PSI视角下的工作压力-工作倦怠模型能够更有效地解释工作倦怠的形成机制;借助PSI理论构建的干预训练,有助于预防和缓解工作倦怠。     

The positive and negative framing of affirmative action: a group dominance perspective

Using a sample of 328 White, Latino, and Black Los Angeles County adults, the authors examined the tendency to employ various affirmative action "frames" (e.g., affirmative action as a "tie-breaking" device or as a quota-based policy). All three groups agreed about which frames cast affirmative action in a positive light and which cast it in a negative light. Although minorities had a tendency to frame affirmative action in terms that most people find morally acceptable, Whites had a tendency to frame affirmative action in terms most people find unacceptable. In addition, compared to minorities, Whites were less supportive of affirmative action regardless of how it was framed. LISREL modeling also was employed to test two competing models regarding predictors of the tendency to use frames that one personally finds to be relatively negative versus positive. Consistent with the expectations of social dominance theory and a motivated cognition perspective, the authors found that social dominance orientation (SDO) had significant net direct and indirect effects on one's framing of affirmative action.     

The Separation of Action and Perception and the Issue of Affordances

Michaels's (2000) reassessment of the relation between action and perception is endorsed. In alignment with Milner and Goodale (1995), she proposed a separation between action (i.e., control of movement) and perception (i.e., the explicit knowledge of environmental properties, including animal-referential ones), the separation being based on the reliance on different optical variables. However, how should the concept of affordances be incorporated into this scheme? We present data showing that affordances, both when perceived and acted on, are not susceptible to optical illusions. Because action and perception are distinguished on the basis of information used, but are also proposed to interact, it is hypothesized that, dependent on the task goal, "information for action" may be used in perception, and "information for perception" may be used in action. Participants may become more attuned to information for action when perception serves to acquire explicit knowledge about what the environment affords for action.     

Acute Aerobic Exercise Enhances Students’ Creativity

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an aerobics games class on creativity in children during the school day. Participants were 96 students (age = 9.84 ± 1.12 years), 48 girls and 48 boys. The students were randomly assigned to the experimental group (EG, n = 48) or the control group (CG, n = 48). The Prueba de Imaginación Creativa-Niños (PIC-N) test was employed to assess narrative and graphic creativity. The EG took part in an aerobic games session lasting 45 min; the CG did not take part in a physical education class on that school day. As for group × time interaction, the EG experienced significant improvements in all creativity variables except in graphic originality, graphic titles, and graphic details. The CG did not improve any creativity variables. The findings suggest that acute aerobic exercise can enhance students’ creativity, which could be important for academic achievement.     

从视觉知觉与行为的分离看行为的计划-控制模型

知觉与行为的分离现象最早是从临床病例中发现的,以后研究者在正常人身上利用错觉实验范式继续探索该现象,并由此发展了4个模型进行解释。其中,计划-控制模型得到了众多实验事实的支持。该模型认为：行为分为计划和控制两个阶段,每个阶段都有独立的加工模块,每个模块使用不同的视觉表征;错觉影响计划阶段,但是不影响在线控制阶段。本文重点回顾了动态错觉效应对计划-控制模型的实验验证,并进行了评价和展望     

Methylphenidate in hyperactive children: Differential effects of dose on academic,learning, and social behavior

Methylphenidate (Ritalin) has been shown to have differential effects on hyperactive children's behavior as a function of dose level. In the present investigation, a triple-blind, placebo-control, within-subject (crossover) experimental design was employed in which 12 hyperactive boys between 6 and 10 years received three different dosages of methylphenidate (5, 10, and 15 mg) in a randomly assigned sequence. Dosage effects were assessed on clinic(PAL-Paired Associates Learning test) and school-(percent on task, teacher ratings, work completion rates, and accuracy) related behaviors. For 10 of the children, classified as responders to medication by the PAL using the criteria of Swanson, Kinsbourne, and colleagues, a series of ANCOVAs with repeated measures showed significant dosage effects on teacher ratings (p 01), percent on task (p 01), academic accuracy (p 05), and assignment completion rates (p 05). PAL performance was also significantly enhanced (p 01) after optimal dose levels were considered. Subsequent trend analysis showed a significant positive linear relationship between dose and each of the dependent variables. A comparison of fixed-dose and miligram-per-kilogram plots showed that children's performance across the different dosages were clearly individualistic and task-specific, even when similar body weights were compared. The implications of using clinic-based testing to determine optimal medication responsivity were discussed.We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the following pediatricians for their valuable assistance: W. H. McDermott, D. J. Chronley, R. B. Trivett, F. J. Jehle, P. M. Small, and F. T. Leong. Grateful acknowledgement is also extended to the two anonymous reviewers whose comments contributed to the content of this paper, and to the undergraduate and graduate student members of the Children's Learning Clinic.     

The influence of the feminist subculture in changing sex-role attitudes

A recent analysis of longitudinal data indicates that protest participation does not explain the modernization of sex-role attitudes which has occurred on campus during the past decade. As an alternative, it is suggested that the consciousness raising (CR) groups that have characterized the subcultural phase of the women's movement are partially responsible for these dramatic changes. To test this hypothesis, changes in the sex-role attitudes of 66 students in a 10-week introductory women studies class were analyzed. While a comparison group of 121 students in an introductory sociology class showed no change in attitudes toward the female sex role, the women studies students significantly increased in sex-role modernism. Female students showed significantly greater increases than males. These findings support the subcultural thesis that sex-role modernism, a subcultural value of the feminist movement, has been successfully promoted through the mechanism of CR groups, such as the one studied here. While other factors undoubtedly have affected this change in sex-role attitudes, the spread of CR groups in the 1970s must be give a prominent role.The author would like to express appreciation to Christine Bose for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of this article.     

When celebrities talk,children listen: An experimental analysis of children's responses to TV ads with celebrity endorsement

Two studies tested the effects of TV ads with celebrity endorsement on the product preference and understanding of 8- to 14-year-old boys. Study 1 compared two ads for a model racer. One had celebrity endorsement (by a famous race driver) and footage of real automobile racing featuring the celebrity (live action); the second had neither feature. Study 2 employed one ad for a different brand of model racer edited to generate a 2 (endorser presence) by 2 (inclusion of live racetrack action) factorial design. A total of 415 boys were exposed to one of the experimental ads or a control ad, embedded in a new animated children's adventure program. Preference for the advertised brand of model racer (pre- and postviewing) and a number of cognitive variables were assessed. Exposure to endorsement led to increased preference for the toy and belief that the celebrity was expert about the toy. Live action led to exaggerated estimates of the physical properties of the toy and the belief that the ad was not staged. The 8- to 10-year-olds associated the glamour of the endorser with the toy and were more reliant on his advice than were 11- to 14-year-olds. However, the two age groups were not differentially affected by the ads. Contrary to the speculation of many researchers, understanding about advertising intent and techniques and cynicism about ads had almost no influence on product preference after viewing.     

The relaxation word of the day: A simple technique to measure adherence to relaxation

A new procedure of assessing adherence to home practice of relaxation is presented. The technique involved the subject identifying one of four possible relaxation words of the day at the end of a taped relaxation session. The method was employed to assess the relationship between adherence to relaxation and decline of blood pressure during a 10-session/8-week relaxation program involving 17 hypertensive subjects. No statistically significant relationship was found on either a short-term or a long-term basis. An advantage of the assessment technique is that it appears easily integrated into the overall therapeutic objective for relaxation therapy; a disadvantage is that the subject needs to comply not only with the relaxation schedule but also with the monitoring procedure.This research study was funded by NIH Grant HL27159.     

Instructional ecology and academic responding time for students at three levels of teacher-perceived behavioral competence

Thirty third and fourth grade students, ages 8-10 years, were observed systematically over two entire school days to examine the nature of instruction and academic responding time for students at varying levels of teacher-perceived behavioral competence. Data were recorded on six categories in 10-sec intervals. While the amount of time spent in active academic responses (about 45 min in a typical school day) did not differ significantly between groups, it was found that students perceived to be lower in behavioral competence spent more time engaged in certain inappropriate behaviors and received more teacher disapproval. Yet, students grouped on the basis of teachers' perceptions of their behavioral competence did not differ on the majority of instructional or student responding variables. Findings related to the relationship between responding times and achievement also are presented. Implications of findings for understanding the classroom ecology for students exhibiting behavior problems are discussed.     

中国城镇低龄退休老年人工作与幸福感的关系

为探讨老年人工作与幸福感的关系,并对其机制作出解释,本研究利用中国家庭追踪调查(CFPS)数据,选取具有城镇户籍、60~69周岁的男性和50~69周岁的女性,形成3406人的样本,通过独立样本t检验和回归发现,我国城镇低龄退休老年人工作与幸福感负相关;交互效应分析指出这种关系随着老年人社会地位的提高逐渐弱化;工作对幸福感的中介效应分析结果显示,经济收入、人际交往、积极心态中介效应不显著,闲暇活动中介效应显著。因此,由前三者构成的工作对幸福感的正效应无法抵消因为闲暇损失所造成的负效应。     

Gender differences in personality: Biological and/or psychological?

The results of three empirical studies are reported in which the hypothesis is tested that differences in personality variables between the morphophenotype sexes can be explained by psychological sex-role orientation variables. Furthermore, it was expected that normative sex-role orientations (measured with the SRO-S and the AWS-S Scales) and gender-related self-concepts (femininity, masculinity, and androgyny measured with a modified BSRI) explain more variance in personality variables than morphophenotype sex. Besides these sex-role orientation variables, test and questionnaire data on verbal fluency, spatial reasoning, self-concept, anxiety, and aggressiveness were obtained in Study I from 50 young adults and their same-sex parents; in Study II, data on verbal fluency, spatial reasoning, self-concept, anxiety, and neuroticism were obtained from 120 university students; and in Study III, data on anxiety, locus of control, and Machiavellianism were obtained from 226 university students. The results confirm both hypotheses for the two aspects of intelligence studied, domain-specific self-concepts, different aspects of anxiety and aggressiveness, neuroticism, powerful others' externality in locus of control, and Machiavellianism. For all these personality variables the effect sizes of the psychological gender variables were larger than those of morphophenotype sex and reached medium to large values.     

A Dispositional Approach to Work�CSchool Conflict and Enrichment

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate a dispositional model of the work?Cschool interface. In particular, we examined the relationship between core self-evaluations (CSEs) and proactive personality with both work?Cschool conflict (WSC) and work?Cschool enrichment (WSE) as well as a variety of work and school outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

314 employed college students were surveyed about their experiences managing work and school roles.

Findings

Structural equation modeling showed that CSEs were related to both WSC and WSE as well as school outcomes, whereas proactive personality was related to WSE and job and school outcomes but not WSC. WSC was negatively related to school performance, whereas WSE was positively related to school and job satisfaction as well as school performance.

Implications

Organizations, universities, and researchers should be aware that dispositional variables influence perceptions of work and school roles as well as important outcome variables, and that further intervention efforts may be needed to help students manage work and school roles.

Originality/Value

Past studies have demonstrated that job characteristics influence the work?Cschool interface, but this study is among the first to demonstrate that dispositional factors also relate to WSC and WSE.