Adjusting to work: Workplace mobility of young male workers in Israel

The study focuses on some of the correlates of workplace mobility of male workers aged 15 to 17, mostly apprentices, who were registered with the Skilled Department of the Youth Employment Bureau (Y.E.B.) for at least a year prior to the time of the field study. Data regarding these correlates, and longitudinal data concerning the sequence of job movements, were obtained in an interview held with a sample of those youths who resided in Tel-Aviv metropolitan area (n = 146) and from the Y.E.B.'s forms filled out in connection with their registration and job placements. Several measures of sociodemographic background, past work experience and present working conditions were included in the multiple correlation analysis. Controlling for longevity in the labor force, seniority in the first job emerged as the most efficient predictor of workplace mobility. Results suggest that the early stages of a young worker's process of occupational socialization are of importance in determining his future career decisions.     

Celibacy

Celibacy is described as a witness to the inner sanctum, the holy, empty space in human life. By making this space visible, the celibate man or woman affirms and proclaims that all human intimacy finds its deepest meaning and fulfillment when experienced and lived as a participation in intimacy with God himself. The author explores this meaning of the celibate life by discussing the world in which the celibate lives, the nature of the witness the celibate offers the world, and the way of life through which this witness is affirmed and enhanced.Henri Nouwen is Professor of Pastoral Theology at Yale Divinity School, 409 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06510. His article was first presented as a lecture at the North American College in Rome, Italy on February 10, 1978.     

The Thrill of Creative Effort at Work: An Empirical Study on Work,Creative Effort and Well-Being

The connections between creative effort at work and four measures of subjective well-being are studied using data on a sample of 922 Jewish Israeli adults who are salaried employees. The paper finds that self-reported creative effort aimed at making work more enjoyable is positively associated with global evaluation of life; with purpose and meaning in life, and with positive emotions. No significant link with negative emotions was found. This study also finds significant associations with three additional intrinsic features of work-creative tasks; independence at work and intellectual work-and various measures of subjective well-being, even when controlling for age, gender, marital status, having children, education, time worked, financial satisfaction, subjective health and religiosity. The robustness of the links between intrinsic features of work and subjective well-being demonstrate that work serves not only as a means to material ends, but also as a direct source of personal happiness, meaning and satisfaction.     

Oral Health-Quality of Life Predictors Depend on Population

In the framework of the development and evaluation of oral health interventions that take into account people’s oral health-related quality of life (OH-QoL), it is important to know what determinants and effects of OH-QoL are. Because the processes involved in the experience of OH-QoL may differ for different populations, this study mapped the relations of general health perception, social factors, dental anxiety and oral hygiene behavior on the one hand with OH-QoL on the other hand, in two different samples that mainly differed on the experience they had with dental care and dental pathology: In 112 patients of the Center for Dentistry and Oral Hygiene and in 339 first year psychology students. The relations of three of the four variables with OH-QoL differed in both samples. Although not all relations could be interpreted unequivocally in this cross-sectional design, the data illustrate that the main difference between both samples (i.e., patients indicated for oral treatment versus students outside treatment) influenced the psychological processes involved in OH-QoL. This implicates that oral health interventions directed at increasing OH-QoL may have to be adapted to populations.     

Are associative and propositional processes qualitatively distinct? Comment on Gawronski and Bodenhausen (2006)

The authors comment on B. Gawronski and G. V. Bodenhausen's (2006) associative-propositional evaluation model of implicit and explicit attitudes by examining the claims that (a) truth value is attached to propositions but not to associations; (b) pattern activation is qualitatively different from syllogistic structure of arguments; and (c) Pavlovian conditioning may be propositional, whereas evaluative conditioning is not. They conclude that despite surface dissimilarities between implicit and explicit attitudes both may be mediated by the same underlying process.     

The social cognition of immigrants' acculturation: effects of the need for closure and the reference group at entry

Three studies found support for the notion that immigrants' acculturation to the host culture is interactively determined by their need for cognitive closure (A. W. Kruglanski & D. M. Webster, 1996) and the reference group they forge on their arrival. If such reference group is fashioned by close social relations with coethnics, the higher the immigrants' need for closure, the weaker their tendency to assimilate to the new culture and the stronger their tendency to adhere to the culture of origin. By contrast, if the reference entry group is fashioned by close relations with members of the host country, the higher their need for closure, the stronger their tendency to adapt to the new culture and the weaker their tendency to maintain the culture of origin. These findings obtained consistently across 3 immigrant samples in Italy, 1 Croatian and 2 Polish, and across multiple different measures of acculturation.     

When similarity breeds content: need for closure and the allure of homogeneous and self-resembling groups

Four studies explored the relation between members' need for cognitive closure and their feelings toward groups. It was found that high (vs. low) need for closure individuals liked in-groups and out-groups more as function of the degree to which their membership was perceived as homogeneous (Studies 1-4), provided it was also self-similar (Studies 3 and 4). These results are discussed in terms of the relation between need for closure and homogeneous (vs. heterogeneous) groups' apparent potential as "closure providers."     

Priming against your will: How accessible alternatives affect goal pursuit

Four studies examined how diverse aspects of goal pursuit are influenced by the accessibility of alternative goals. It was consistently found that such an accessibility often affects the resources allocated to a focal goal, influencing commitment, progress, and the development of effective means, as well as one's emotional reponses to positive and negative feedback about one's striving efforts. Moreover, the direction of these influences was found to depend on how the alternative goals relate to the focal pursuit. Alternatives unrelated to the focal goal pull resources away from it, whereas alternatives facilitatively related to a focal goal draw resources toward it.