Bases of social power,leadership styles,and organizational commitment

Affective organizational commitment reflects the extent to which organizational members are loyal and willing to work toward organizational objectives (Meyer & Allen, 1997). In particular, affective organizational commitment holds very important implications at all organizational levels (e.g., turnover rates, performance, and citizenship behavior). Whereas previous research has evinced the positive influence of transformational and charismatic leadership styles on affective commitment toward the organization (Bass & Avolio, 1994), little is known with regard to the nature of this relationship. In line with the interpersonal power/interaction model, the present investigation aimed to investigate the mechanism at play between transformational leadership style and affective organizational commitment. Specifically, we hypothesized that transformational leadership style would increase affective organizational commitment through its effect on willingness to comply with soft bases of power. In two studies, we subjected the foregoing hypotheses to empirical scrutiny. In Study 1, the proposed mediation model was empirically supported with Italian employees in the public sector. Attesting to the robustness of our findings, Study 2 replicated the findings of Study 1 with Italian employees from the public and private sectors. In addition, Study 2 replicated Study 1 using a different measure of transformational leadership. Both Study 1 and Study 2 provided results consistent with our hypotheses. Specifically, the present paper reports empirical evidence that (1) the more participants report having a transformational leader, the more willing they become to comply with soft (but not harsh) power bases, (2) in turn, greater willingness to comply with soft (but not harsh) power bases increases one's affective organizational commitment. These findings provide additional support for the interpersonal power/interaction model and pave the way for new research directions.     

Psicología Diferencial, ¿Ciencia o Tecnología?

RESUMEN

En este trabajo Antonio Caparrós analiza, desde el punto de vista de la historia y epistemología de la psicología, el enfoque de Royce, Forteza y Prieto acerca del “status” científico de la Psicología Diferencial. El autor sintetiza en nueve puntos sus reflexiones, manifiestando que el proyecto completo de la Psicología Diferencial debe situarse más en el marco de las necesidades tecnológicas, cuyos fines específicos no son como los de los paradigmas explicativos de la ciencia en sentido estricto. Los dos últimos puntos se reservan al análisis de las interacciones entre ciencia y tecnología a lo largo de la historia, que contribuye a aclarar las relaciones entre algunos de los modelos de la psicología general y/o experimental y otros diferenciales.     

Esfuerzo y decremento de vigilancia en tareas de discriminación sucesiva y simultánea

Resumen

El objetivo del experimento presentado en este artículo fue probar la hipótesis de que el decremento de sensibilidad en tareas de atención sostenida, ocurre porque los recursos atencionales o esfuerzo que demanda la tarea no pueden matenerse durante un tiempo prolongado. Comparamos dos tareas que diferían en carga de memoria y registramos tres grupos de índices de esfuerzo o gasto atencional: rendimiento en una tarea secundaria concurrente, esfuerzo subjetivo y actividad cardiovascular (IBI medio y amplitud espectral del componente 0.10 Hz). En ambas tareas observamos un declive significativo a lo largo del tiempo en eficiencia o ritmo de procesamiento, indicado por la razón entre la precisión y la velocidad. Los datos acerca del esfuerzo subjetivo y el rendimiento en la tarea secundaria no parecen apoyar la hipótesis original. El principal hallazgo fue que la actividad cardiovascular al comienzo de la tarea, medida por la amplitud del componente 0.1 Hz, era un predictor significativo del decremento de eficiencia en ambas tareas de vigilancia. Si esta amplitud es un índice fisiológico fiable de atención, nuestro resultado sugiere que un procesamiento controlado, con esfuerzo, al comienzo de la tarea previene el decremento de vigilancia.     

Dominant achievement goals and different profiles among secondary students / Dominancia de metas de logro y perfiles específicos en enseñanza secundaria

Abstract

Spanish adolescents’ dominant achievement goals and their specific profiles were explored in a physical education context. A sample of 385 students (207 males and 178 females, M = 14.2 years) completed a questionnaire that included 2x2 achievement goals (AGQ-PE), dominant achievement goals, affectivity (PANASN), perfectionism (IPI) and outcome variables such as satisfaction with life (SLS), and intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and amotivation (PLOC). Eighty-seven percent of participants showed dominant achievement goals, the highest percentage was mastery-approach (66%). Patterns found were consistent with the theoretical framework. Students that showed dominant mastery-approach achievement goals had a positively valenced profile. Those that showed performance-approach dominance had a positive and negative valenced profile. The ones that showed performance-avoidance had a negative valenced profile. Finally, subjects that showed mastery-avoidance dominance had a neutral valenced profile.     

Facilitation and interference of behavioral responses by task-irrelevant affect-laden stimuli

Emotional interference on behavior is commonly observed when task-irrelevant negative stimuli appear before behavioral targets. One explanation postulates that affect-laden stimuli readily capture attention, interfering with the processing of the upcoming target. Emotional stimuli might also preactivate motor programs incompatible with the demanded response. Using a cued go/no-go procedure we showed that task-irrelevant unpleasant stimuli cause interference or facilitation depending on their onset asynchrony relative to the target. We observed interference with short (200 ms) stimulus-target asynchronies and facilitation for longer ones (600 ms), both for key press (Experiment 1) and key release (Experiment 2) responses. The interference effect is compatible with an attentional explanation, but the behavioral facilitation is hard to accommodate within either attentional or motor accounts. This interference-facilitation pattern can be explained assuming that once the attentional effect subsides, emotional processing may enhance the perceptual processing of the stimuli, or lower the decision threshold, thereby facilitating the response selection process.     

A longitudinal study of temperament continuity through IBQ,TBAQ and CBQ

The aim of this work was to study the continuity of temperament in a Spanish sample (n = 60), covering the developmental stages of infancy, toddlerhood and childhood. Temperamental dimensions showed, with few exceptions, as much homotypic as heterotypic continuity as was to be expected. At the level of latent superconstructs continuity, we found that Anger and Fear followed different developmental paths and showed continuity over all the periods evaluated. Positive Affect/Regulation superconstruct showed continuity from infancy to toddlerhood. From toddlerhood, Positive Affect/Regulation showed continuity with the superconstruct of Effortful Control but not with the superconstruct of Surgency/Extraversion. At an ipsative level, we found two groups of subjects, labeled ‘nonexpressive/controlled’ and ‘noncontrolled/expressive’. Generally, these results confirm the stability of temperament in the periods analyzed and underline the importance of toddlerhood as a transitional period in the maturity of self-regulatory capabilities shown in childhood.     

Memory for symmetry and perceptual binding in patients with schizophrenia

The present study investigated the use of perceptual binding processes in schizophrenic (SC) patients and matched healthy controls, by examining their performance on the recall of symmetrical (vertical, horizontal and diagonal) and asymmetrical patterns varying in length between 2 and 9 items. The results showed that, although SC patients were less accurate than controls in all conditions, both groups recalled symmetrical patterns better than asymmetrical ones. The impairment of SC patients was magnified with supra-span symmetrical arrays, and they were more likely to reproduce symmetrical patterns as asymmetrical, particularly at medium and high length levels. Hierarchical regression analyses further indicated that the between-group differences in the recall of supra-span vertical and horizontal arrays, which require a greater involvement of visual pattern processes, remained significant after removing the variance associated with performance on asymmetrical patterns, which primarily reflects intrafigural spatial processes. It is proposed that schizophrenia may be associated with a specific deficit in the formation and retrieval of the global visual images of studied patterns and in the use of the on-line information about the type of symmetry being tested to guide retrieval processes.     

Some recommended statistical analytic practices when reliability generalization studies are conducted

Precursors of the reliability generalization (RG) meta‐analytic approach have not established a single preferred analytic method. By means of five real RG examples, we examine how using different statistical methods to integrate coefficients alpha can influence results in RG studies. Specifically, we compare thirteen different statistical models for averaging reliability coefficients and searching for moderator variables that differ in terms of: (a) whether to transform or not the coefficients alpha, and (b) the statistical model assumed, distinguishing between ordinary least squares methods, the fixed‐effect (FE) model, the varying coefficient (VC) model, and several versions of the random‐effects (RE) model. The results obtained with the different methods exhibited important discrepancies, especially regarding moderator analyses. The main criterion for the model choice should be the extent to which the meta‐analyst intends to generalize the results. RE models are the most appropriate when the meta‐analyst aims to generalize to a hypothetical population of past or future studies, while FE and VC models are the most appropriate when the interest focuses on generalizing the results to a population of studies identical to those included in the meta‐analysis. Finally, some guidelines are proposed for selecting the statistical model when conducting an RG study.