Between- and within-person level motivational precursors associated with career exploration

Career exploration is a critical process for child and adolescent development leading people toward suitable work and developing a vocational identity. The present study examined the role of motivational precursors, namely work valences and personal agency beliefs, in explaining in-breadth and in-depth career exploration. Given the dynamic nature of motivation, we teased apart the between-person differences and within-person variabilities in motivational precursors to examine how they are independently associated with career exploration. Two hundred one high school students comprised the sample and were surveyed three consecutive years. Results revealed that work valences and agency beliefs were associated with career exploration at both the between- and within-person level. Further, when individuals exhibited greater level of agency beliefs and positive valences, they were more likely to exhibit more in-depth exploration one year later. Implications for career guidance are discussed.     

Latent profiles of work motivation in adolescents in relation to work expectations,goal engagement,and changes in work experiences

Motivation plays a key role in successful entry into working life. Based on a cross-sectional and a one-year longitudinal study, we used a person-centered approach to explore work-related motivation (i.e., autonomous goals, positive affect, and occupational self-efficacy) among 577 students in 8th grade (Study 1) and 949 adolescents in vocational training (Study 2). Based on latent profile analysis, in both studies we identified four groups that were characterized by different levels of overall motivation and one group characterized by low positive affect and mean levels in autonomous goals and self-efficacy. Profiles characterized by high levels of motivation showed the highest levels of positive work expectations and goal engagement and the lowest levels of negative work expectations in Study 1 and the highest levels of person-job fit, work engagement, and job satisfaction in Study 2. Moreover, latent difference score analysis showed that motivational profiles predicted changes in person-job fit and work engagement across one year but not in job satisfaction. The results imply that career counselors should be aware of characteristic motivational patterns of clients that may require specific counseling approaches.     

The ecological validity of the autonomic-subjective response dissociation in repressive coping

Background and Objectives: Repressive coping has been associated with elevated cardiovascular reactivity and diminished self-reported negative affect (so-called autonomic-subjective response dissociation, ASRD) in response to laboratory stressors. However, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the ecological validity of this response pattern. Design: An ambulatory assessment strategy was applied in order to analyze associations between ASRD and repressive coping throughout a day. Methods: A sample of 114 individuals was recruited. Heart rate was recorded via ECG and subjective reports of negative affect as well as the experience of demand and control (as indicators of stress) and situational characteristics were assessed several times a day via mobile electronic devices. Results: Repressive coping relative to other coping dispositions was accompanied by elevated ASRD during stressful episodes in daily life, thus supporting previous laboratory research. Conclusions: The findings suggest that repressive coping is associated with a discrepancy between subjective reports of negative affect and autonomic responding to stressful encounters in everyday life, which might impact health.     

Learning where to feed: the use of social information in flower-visiting Pallas’ long-tongued bats (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Glossophaga soricina</Emphasis>)

Social learning is a widespread phenomenon among vertebrates that influences various patterns of behaviour and is often reported with respect to foraging behaviour. The use of social information by foraging bats was documented in insectivorous, carnivorous and frugivorous species, but there are little data whether flower-visiting nectarivorous bats (Phyllostomidae: Glossophaginae) can acquire information about food from other individuals. In this study, we conducted an experiment with a demonstrator-observer paradigm to investigate whether flower-visiting Pallas’ long-tongued bats (Glossophaga soricina) are able to socially learn novel flower positions via observation of, or interaction with, knowledgeable conspecifics. The results demonstrate that flower-visiting G. soricina are able to use social information for the location of novel flower positions and can thereby reduce energy-costly search efforts. This social transmission is explainable as a result of local enhancement; learning bats might rely on both visual and echo-acoustical perception and are likely to eavesdrop on auditory cues that are emitted by feeding conspecifics. We additionally tested the spatial memory capacity of former demonstrator bats when retrieving a learned flower position, and the results indicate that flower-visiting bats remember a learned flower position after several weeks.     

Withdrawing Versus Withholding Freedoms: Nudging and the Case of Tobacco Control

Is it a stronger interference with people's freedom to withdraw options they currently have than to withhold similar options they do not have? Drawing on recent theorizing about sociopolitical freedom, this article identifies considerations that often make this the case for public policy. However, when applied to tobacco control, these considerations are shown to give us at best only very weak freedom-based reason to prioritize the status quo. This supports a popular argument for so-called “endgame” tobacco control measures: If we believe that cigarettes would and should be withheld from entering markets in hypothetical scenarios in which they do not yet exist, then we also have reason to seek their abolition in situations, such as ours, in which cigarettes do exist—if necessary by banning their sale. The same considerations are then used to disarm objections that have recently been raised to using nudges in public policy.     

Pathologisches Glücksspiel und Delinquenz

Pathological gambling is characterized by excessive gambling behavior which influences the life and well-being of a person in a dysfunctional way. It often leads to severe consequences in social and family life, career and material matters. This can also include illegal acts. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM-IV) excessive gambling was classified under impulse-control disorders but was renamed as gambling disorder (GD) and reclassified under the category “substance-related and addictive disorders” in DSM-5, due to parallels to substance use disorders in the clinical characteristics as well as genetic and neurobiological factors. In Germany, approximately 0.5?% of the adult population suffer from GD. Especially gambling machines are associated with an increased risk of gambling-related problems. Common comorbidities are substance-related and affective disorders. The most important risk factors are young age, male gender, a history of migration, gambling-related problems in the family, unemployment, a low educational level and low household income. Delinquent behavior was not considered to be a sufficiently discriminative factor for GD, although there is a correlation between delinquency and gambling behavior. In addition, those GD subjects who show delinquent behavior also show a specific risk profile. Thus, mental health professionals should be aware of possible psychosocial consequences in GD, such as illegal acts, and this should be addressed in the effective treatment strategies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy. Moreover, it is necessary to improve the access routes for affected people into healthcare system in order to ensure early detection and treatment of the disease.     

Personality Disorders in Older Adult Inpatients with Chronic Mental Illness

It has been hypothesized that some types of personality disorders tend to remit with age whereas others may become more prominent. The present study determined the prevalence and nature of 13 personality disorders with a self-report inventory (Coolidge Axis II Inventory) in an older group of chronically mentally ill inpatients (N = 30, mean age = 63 years) and a younger group of similar patients (N = 30, mean age = 39 years). All patients met DSM-IV criteria for either Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, or recurrent severe Major Depression with psychotic features. The prevalence rate of personality disorders was high for both groups: 58% for the older sample and 66% for the younger group. The younger group was more likely to be diagnosed Antisocial, Borderline, Passive-Aggressive, Sadistic, and Schizotypal, but the groups were not different in the rates of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. This study supports the hypothesis that some personality disorders remit with age. However, no evidence was found to suggest that other personality disorders become more prominent in older adult psychiatric populations. Suggestions for future research are offered.     

Les nouveaux «Gastarbeiter»? Les réfugiés sur le marché du travail suisse

With about 28,000 asylum requests a year since 1990, Switzerland is one of the western countries with the highest inflow of refugees. The aim of this article is to answer two questions: What is the role of refugees in the Swiss economy? and what are the factors influencing their incorporation into the labour market? The research is based on the multivariate analysis of an individual database of 110,000 asylum seekers and refugees, in-depth interviews and 174 questionnaires to refugees and employers.