THE EFFECTS OF A GOOD BEHAVIOR GAME ON THE DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR OF SUDANESE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

An endemic version of the Good Behavior Game was applied in a rural Sudanese second-grade classroom. Official letters of commendation, extra time for recess, victory tags, and a winner's chart were used as backup reinforcers. The class was divided into two teams, and the teacher indicated she would place a check on the board after every rule violation. The students were also told that the team with the fewest marks would win the game and receive the aforementioned prizes. After an initial adaptation period, the rate of disruption was charted across four treatment phases: viz., baseline I, introduction of the game, baseline II, and reintroduction of the game. It was observed that the game phases were associated with marked decreases in the rate of seat leaving, talking without permission, and aggression. The teacher, principal, parents, and students were consequently individually interviewed, and their comments spoke strongly for the social validity of the game.     

Adult Intimate Relationships and Psychological Adjustment

This study explored relations among perceived acceptance and behavioral control by intimate partners, remembrances of parents’ acceptance and behavioral control in childhood, and adults’ psychological adjustment. The study was conducted on 98 American adults (50 men and 48 women) between ages 18 and 50 (mean 26 years). Measures used were the Adult version of the Parental Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire for Mothers and Fathers(Adult PARQ/Control: Mother and Father); Intimate Partner Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire (IPAR/CQ); and, the Adult version of the Personality Assessment Questionnaire (Adult PAQ). Results showed significant positive correlations between psychological adjustment and perceived partner acceptance and parental acceptance for both women and men. Results also showed significant negative correlations between psychological adjustment and perceived partner control and parental control for both women and men. Regression analyses, however, revealed a significant independent effect of only paternal acceptance (but not of maternal and partner acceptance) on the psychological adjustment of men. Regression analyses also revealed significant independent effects of both paternal and maternal acceptance (but not partner acceptance) on the psychological adjustment of women.     

The Mediating Role of Discrete Emotions in the Relationship Between Injustice and Counterproductive Work Behaviors: A Study in Pakistan

Purpose

Our study explores the mediating role of discrete emotions in the relationships between employee perceptions of distributive and procedural injustice, regarding an annual salary raise, and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs).

Design/Methodology/Approach

Survey data were provided by 508 individuals from telecom and IT companies in Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping were used to test our hypothesized model.

Findings

We found a good fit between the data and our tested model. As predicted, anger (and not sadness) was positively related to aggressive CWBs (abuse against others and production deviance) and fully mediated the relationship between perceived distributive injustice and these CWBs. Against predictions, however, neither sadness nor anger was significantly related to employee withdrawal.

Implications

Our findings provide organizations with an insight into the emotional consequences of unfair HR policies, and the potential implications for CWBs. Such knowledge may help employers to develop training and counseling interventions that support the effective management of emotions at work. Our findings are particularly salient for national and multinational organizations in Pakistan.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to provide empirical support for the relationships between in/justice, discrete emotions and CWBs in a non-Western (Pakistani) context. Our study also provides new evidence for the differential effects of outward/inward emotions on aggressive/passive CWBs.     

Limits on efficient human mindreading: Convergence across Chinese adults and Semai children

We tested Apperly and Butterfill's (2009, Psychological Review, 116, 753) theory that humans have two mindreading systems whereby the efficient‐system guiding anticipatory glances displays signature limits that do not apply to the flexible system guiding verbal predictions. Experiments 1 and 2 tested urban Mainland‐Chinese adults (n = 64) and Experiment 3 tested Semai children living in the rainforests of Peninsular Malaysia (3‐ to 4‐year‐olds, n = 60). Participants – across different ages, groups and methods – anticipated others’ false‐beliefs about object‐location but not object‐identity. Convergence in signature limits signalled that the early‐developing efficient system involved minimal theory‐of‐mind. Chinese adults and older Semai children showed flexibility in their direct predictions. The flexible mindreading system in ascribing others’ beliefs as such was task‐sensitive and implicated maturational and cultural contributions.     

Quantitative Profile of Family Acceptance of Children Special Need’s Moslem Parents (Case Study at Rumah Terapi Aura)

Abstract

This is a preliminary research in a series of studies constructing a module based on family inclusion model. Having a qualitative method based on a case study approach, the data was taken from observation, questionnaire-based survey, and Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The research was conducted in Rumah Terapi Aura (RTA), a therapy center for the children with special needs, involving 30 moslem parents. The results are a Quantitative Profile and Family Acceptance Aspects. It is concluded that parents and families awareness of acceptance children with special needs are from a lack of knowledge and spiritual understanding of God's destiny.     

Extinction-induced "despair" in aged and adult rats: links to neurotrophins in frontal cortex and hippocampus

In the search for animal models of human geriatric depression, we found that operant extinction of escape from water results in the expression of immobility in different age groups, indicative of behavioral "despair", which was also associated with the resistance-to-extinction (RTE) expressed by these animals. With respect to the neurotrophin hypothesis of depression, nerve-growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) protein levels in frontal cortex (FC) and hippocampus (HP) were examined and related to behavioral immobility and RTE in the water maze in aged and adult Wistar rats. Age-related increases in levels of NGF were found in HP and of NT-3 in FC. Indices of immobility showed relationships in the aged with NGF and, in adults, with BDNF, pointing to a dissociation of neurotrophic involvement in extinction trial-induced "despair" in aged and adult rats. The present results support the hypothesis, that extinction-induced immobility in the water maze reflects a state akin to behavioral despair and point to age-related differences of neurotrophic involvement in depressive-like symptoms. The concept of extinction-induced behavioral "despair" in the aged subsumes several aspects of human geriatric depression, such as co-morbidity of learning impairment and anxiety, and, thus could represent a useful paradigm to examine the neuronal mechanisms underlying depression, especially in aged rodents.     

The new and improved two-sample T test

Abstract This article considers the problem of comparing two independent groups in terms of some measure of location. It is well known that with Student's two-independent-sample t test, the actual level of significance can be well above or below the nominal level, confidence intervals can have inaccurate probability coverage, and power can be low relative to other methods. A solution to deal with heterogeneity is Welch's (1938) test. Welch's test deals with heteroscedasticity but can have poor power under arbitrarily small departures from normality. Yuen (1974) generalized Welch's test to trimmed means; her method provides improved control over the probability of a Type I error, but problems remain. Transformations for skewness improve matters, but the probability of a Type I error remains unsatisfactory in some situations. We find that a transformation for skewness combined with a bootstrap method improves Type I error control and probability coverage even if sample sizes are small.     

High-Risk Behavior Among Young Adolescents in The Central and Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia: Baseline Data from The MyHeART Study

The onset of high-risk behaviors in adolescents are associated with family, social and behavioral factors. This study aims to describe the prevalence of high-risk behaviors among young adolescents in Peninsular Malaysia and determine the relationship between high-risk behaviors and family sociodemographics and behaviors. The data utilized are from the Malaysian Health and Adolescents Longitudinal Research Study, a prospective cohort analysis conducted in three large states of Peninsular Malaysia: Selangor, Perak, and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. The sample included 13-year-old adolescents in their first year of secondary school. Students and parents or guardians were given separate, standardized self-administered questionnaire. A high-risk behavior variable was determined on the basis of exposure to substance use (tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs), gambling, and online pornography or violence. The exploratory variable of interest (family sociodemographics) was defined as parents’ demographics, employment status, education level, and socioeconomic status. The analysis included 1341 adolescents and 1146 parents. Of the school-going adolescents, 4.7?% (n?=?52) reported HRBs. Tobacco use (9?%, n?=?1 19) and watching pornography or violent content on the Internet (5?%, n?=?72) accounted for most of the behaviors, whereas illicit drug use contributed the least (2?%, n?=?32). More adolescents from the higher socioeconomic groups, than from the middle groups exhibited high-risk behaviors (odds ratio ?=?3.039, 95?% confidence interval?=?2.884–3.202); by contrast, the odds ratio of high-risk behavior among adolescents with a low socio-economic status was 2.246 (95?% CI?=?2.014–2.397). Future intervention programs for adolescents should focus on overcoming high-risk behaviors and sustain behavioral changes.     

The Concept of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Qailulah</Emphasis> (Midday Napping) from Neuroscientific and Islamic Perspectives

Napping/siesta during the day is a phenomenon, which is widely practised in the world. However, the timing, frequency, and duration may vary. The basis of napping is also diverse, but it is mainly done for improvement in alertness and general well-being. Neuroscience reveals that midday napping improves memory, enhances alertness, boosts wakefulness and performance, and recovers certain qualities of lost night sleep. Interestingly, Islam, the religion of the Muslims, advocates midday napping primarily because it was a practice preferred by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The objectives of this review were to investigate and compare identical key points on focused topic from both neuroscientific and Islamic perspectives and make recommendations for future researches.     

Openness to Experience,Ethical Leadership,and Innovative Work Behavior

Drawing on trait activation theory, we examine ethical leadership as a boundary condition on the relationship between openness to experience and innovative work behavior. We collected data from 291 subordinates and 51 supervisors to test our theoretical model. Our results suggest that openness to experience was positively related to innovative work behavior. Furthermore, this relationship was only significant when ethical leadership was perceived high as compared to low. Our research contributes to the literatures on innovative work behavior and ethical leadership.