The Effects of repeated interviewing on children's forensic statements of sexual abuse

Multiple interviews with children alleging sexual abuse are not uncommon. Researchers expressed concern that repeated investigations may create and preserve inaccurate details. However, studies indicated that repeated open‐ended interviews are not necessarily harmful and may have advantages. Forensic interviews were conducted with 40 children, alleged victims of sexual abuse, according to the NICHD investigative protocol. The children were re‐interviewed after a short break. The information obtained in the second interview was almost 25% new. The first interview yielded a larger number of details, both central and peripheral, but the proportion of central details was larger in the second interview. The proportion of details repeated in both interviews was surprisingly low, and most of the original information was not included. Older children repeated more information than younger ones. The data suggest that a repeated forensic interview may elicit new information and preserve central details. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numbers or apologies? Customer reactions to telephone waiting time fillers

The authors examined the effect of time perception and sense of progress in telephone queues on caller reactions to 3 telephone waiting time fillers: music, apologies, and information about location in the queue. In Study 1, conducted on 123 real calls, call abandonment was lowest, and call evaluations were most positive with information about location in the queue as the time filler. In Study 2, conducted with 83 participants who experienced a simulated telephone wait experience, sense of progress in the queue rather than perceived waiting time mediated the relationship between telephone waiting time filler and caller reactions. The findings provide insight for the management and design of telephone queues, as well as theoretical insight into critical cognitive processes that underlie telephone waiting, opening up an important new research agenda.     

Translation norms for English and Spanish: The role of lexical variables,word class,and L2 proficiency in negotiating translation ambiguity

We present a set of translation norms for 670 English and 760 Spanish nouns, verbs and class ambiguous items that varied in their lexical properties in both languages, collected from 80 bilingual participants. Half of the words in each language received more than a single translation across participants. Cue word frequency and imageability were both negatively correlated with number of translations. Word class predicted number of translations: Nouns had fewer translations than did verbs, which had fewer translations than class-ambiguous items. The translation probability of specific responses was positively correlated with target word frequency and imageability, and with its form overlap with the cue word. Translation choice was modulated by L2 proficiency: Less proficient bilinguals tended to produce lower probability translations than more proficient bilinguals, but only in forward translation, from Ll to L2. These findings highlight the importance of translation ambiguity as a factor influencing bilingual representation and performance. The norms can also provide an important resource to assist researchers in the selection of experimental materials for studies of bilingual and monolingual language performance. These norms may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive.     

The Contributions of Community, Family, and School Variables to Student Victimization

An ecological perspective was used to predict school violence from a number of variables describing the students and their families based on nationally representative sample of 10,400 students in grades 7–11 in 162 schools across Israel. Self-administered anonymous questionnaires that included a scale for reporting victimization by serious and moderate physical violence, threats, and verbal–social victimization were filled out during class. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) examined the relationships between students reports of victimization and student level variables (gender, age) and the school-level variables—cultural affiliation (Jewish vs. Arab), the socio-economic status (SES) of the schools neighborhood and students families, school and class size, school level (junior high vs. high), and school climate. Variance between schools accounted for 9–15% of the variance in student victimization (major factors being school climate characteristics and percent of boys at the school). Boys reported higher victimization than girls for all forms of school violence. Students in junior high schools reported more victimization than high school students. Higher levels of victimization were reported in overcrowded classes, while school size was not associated with students reports of victimization. Although there were almost no differences between Jewish and Arab schools in students reports of victimization, the SES of the schools neighborhood and students did have a moderate effect. The discussion highlights the importance of improving school climate and the need to allocate more resources to schools in low SES contexts in order to protect students from school violence.     

Parenting anxiety and stress: does gender play a part at 3 months of age?

In this study, the authors compared 90 pairs of mothers and fathers with respect to aspects of negative emotionality experienced in the early parenting role. Mothers and fathers of 90 healthy 3-month-old infants completed questionnaires pertaining to parenting stress and separation anxiety. Mothers reported significantly higher levels of negative emotionality than did fathers. An interaction effect of parent with child gender on the level of parenting stress was indicated. Mothers of sons reported more stress than did mothers of daughters. The child's gender was not related to the level of separation anxiety expressed by mothers and fathers. The findings suggested that, at 3 months of age, the child's gender plays a role in the parenting experience, but the impact is (a) moderated by the parent's gender and (b) construct-specific (e.g., stress). These findings are in line with a multidetermined model of parenting.     

Recruiting through advertising or employee referrals: Costs,yields, and the effects of geographic focus

Research on recruiting has generally considered the effects of recruiting source on employee tenure or performance, and has argued that formal employment ads are inferior to informal sources, notably employee referrals. We test two dimensions for evaluating the effects of recruiting sources on the recruiting process—cost per new hire and yield ratio. We also suggest a new dimension for distinguishing between different types of employment ads—geographical focus—which we define as the clarity and distinctiveness of the labour market that an ad is likely to reach. Geographically focused ads are shown to cost less and yield more appropriate applicants than unfocused ads. Considering the cost, yield, and focus of ads can promote the effectiveness of recruiting processes. The study therefore has both practical applications and implications for further research on recruiting sources.     

Too much of a good thing: Stronger bilingual inhibition leads to larger lag-2 task repetition costs

Inhibitory control and monitoring abilities of Hebrew-English bilingual and English monolingual university students were compared, in a paradigm requiring participants to switch between performing three distinct tasks. Inhibitory control was gauged by lag-2 task repetition costs, namely decreased performance on the final trial of sequences of type ABA relative to CBA, due to persisting inhibition of the recently abandoned task. Bilinguals had larger lag-2 repetition costs, which reflect stronger inhibition of a no-longer relevant task to facilitate a switch into a new task. Monitoring ability was measured by the fadeout effect, which reflects adaptation to simpler task demands when a single task block immediately and unexpectedly follows mixed task blocks. Bilinguals did not differ from monolinguals in the magnitude or trajectory of the fade-out effect. Thus, results support the notion of increased bilingual inhibitory control, even when it is detrimental to performance, and do not demonstrate a specific bilingual advantage in monitoring. These findings are discussed in the context of the recent debate concerning the locus of bilingual advantages.     

The Temporal Reciprocity of Values and Beliefs: A Longitudinal Study within a Major Life Transition

Values and beliefs (or social axioms) are important personality constructs, but little previous work has examined the relationship between the two, and none has examined their real‐life longitudinal effects on one another. Major life transitions—such as moving to a new culture—can challenge existing values and beliefs and therefore provide a particularly useful context for the analysis of value and belief change. The main aim of this research was to examine whether values may predict theoretically meaningful belief change and vice versa. Polish migrants participated in the study shortly after their arrival in the UK and at two, subsequent, nine‐month intervals (N = 172). Cross‐lagged effects suggested reciprocal effects of values and beliefs, depending on the value involved. Findings are discussed in light of current debates over personality change, as well as the broader impact of significant life transitions on personality. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Change‐oriented organizational citizenship behaviour: An interactive product of openness to change values,work unit identification,and sense of power

Due to the increased frequency of organizational changes, predicting employees’ voluntary involvement in the development of organizational practices and individual work is of particular importance in organizational psychology. This study focused upon change‐oriented organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) as an expression of openness to change values, and also upon psychological factors that can moderate the value–behaviour relationship. We propose that personal values, group identification, and a sense of power interact in predicting change‐oriented OCB of employees. One hundred and eighty‐four employees rated their values, their identification with the work unit and their sense of power. In line with our predictions, the results showed that openness to change values and work unit identification interacted positively in predicting supervisor‐rated change‐oriented OCB in workers with a high sense of power, but not in workers with a low sense of power. This finding suggests that workers who have a high sense of power and are highly identified with the work unit tend to pursue their openness to change values in a way that contributes to the organization. The authors further conclude that an interactive approach, rather than one of direct effect, is advantageous when studying values as antecedents to change‐oriented OCB.     

The effect of acculturation and discrimination on mental health symptoms and risk behaviors among adolescent migrants in Israel

This study examines the role of acculturation, perceived discrimination, and self-esteem in predicting the mental health symptoms and risk behaviors among 1.5 and second generation non-Jewish adolescents born to migrant families compared with native-born Jewish Israeli adolescents in Israel. Participants included n = 65 1.5 migrant adolescents, n = 60 second generation migrant adolescents, and n = 146 age, gender, and socioeconomic matched sample of native-born Jewish Israelis. Participants completed measures of acculturation pattern, perceived discrimination, and self-esteem as well as measures of mental health symptoms and risk behaviors. Results show that migrant adolescents across generations reported worse mental health symptoms compared with native-born Jewish Israelis. However, only the 1.5 generation migrants reported higher engagement in risk behaviors compared with second generation migrants and native-born Jewish Israelis. Our findings further showed that acculturation plays an important role in predicting the mental health status of migrant youth, with those characterized with integrated acculturative pattern reporting lower mental health symptoms compared with assimilated acculturation pattern. Importantly, contextual factors, such as higher perception of discrimination in the receiving culture as well as individual factors such as lower self-esteem and female gender were strongly associated with worse mental health symptoms. The findings manifest the complex relationship between contextual factors and individual level variables in the acculturative process of migrants as well as the importance of examining the effect of migration generation on mental health outcomes.