An Exploratory Study of Perceived Career Change and Job Attitudes Among Job Changers

The study examined the effects of job change characteristics on perceived career change and attitudes toward the new job. The job change characteristics examined were content of change, magnitude of change, direction of change, volitionality of job choice, and duration of the unemployment period between the two jobs. The subjects were 222 university educated men and women. It was found that perceived career change was firmly related to job change characteristics reflecting both "internal" and "external" career perspectives. After controlling for the direction of change, the magnitude of change had a negative impact on satisfaction with the new job, while the volitionality of job choice and the duration of unemployment were positively associated with job satisfaction. Contrary to expectation, the volitionality of job choice and the duration of unemployment did not increase the commitment to continue in the new job.     

Gender roles,biological sex,and predisposition to conflict management

The Bem Sex-Role Inventory and the Communication-Conflict Instrument were administered to 182 husbands and wives. Results suggest that gender-role classification is a more significant discriminator of communication behavior than is biological sex. Androgynous spouses, more than feminine though not significantly more so than masculine spouses, reported themselves to be the most disposed to handle conflict constructively. On the subscales of the conflict instrument, androgynous persons had significantly more positive feelings scores than either masculine or feminine persons, plus higher task energy and desire-for-control scores than feminine persons. Similarly, masculine persons reported a significantly greater predisposition to manage conflict constructively than did feminine persons, having higher task energy and desire-for-control scores. Undifferentiated persons reported the lowest scores for conflict management.     

Achromatic color categories

Sternheim and Boynton’s (1966) continuous judgmental color-naming technique was used to assess the elemental nature of achromatic colors. Results from three subjects indicate that the names “black” and “white” are necessary and sufficient to describe achromatic test lights associated with the name “gray.” On the basis of the criteria that establishes a color as elemental, black and white were confirmed as elemental, whereas gray was not. These findings support the assumption of various opponent processing models that there are only two elemental achromatic sensations. In addition, the results support Hering’s (1920) view that black and white differ from the paired-chromatic opponent colors in that they are not mutually exclusive.     

The perceived support network inventory

The development and psychometric investigation of the Perceived Support Network Inventory (PSNI), a measure of perceived social support, is described. A group of 146 introductory psychology students participated in a test-retest study design that collected reliability, internal consistency, and construct, convergent, and discriminant validity data on the scale. In addition, a contrast group of 28 Counseling Center clients was administered the PSNI. Test-retest reliability of the PSNI total score and subscale scores ranged from .72 to .88. Internal consistency for the PSNI was .77. Construct validity estimates ranged from .21 to .57. Convergent validity estimates varied from -.25 to .20. Discriminant validity estimates varied from -.11 to .19. Sample differences between introductory psychology student mean PSNI total and subscale scores and Counseling Center client mean PSNI total and subscale scores proved significant. Recommendations for subsequent research and future application are offered.     

An investigation of planned helping behavior

It is argued that stable, individual differences in helping behavior have not generally been observed in previous research because of the type of helping studied. This paper advocates the study of planned helping behavior as opposed to spontaneous helping behavior. The results of three studies are reported. In Study 1, an instrument designed to measure level of involvement in planned helping activities was developed. Scores on this instrument were found to be stable over a 7-month period. Further analysis revealed two major types of planned helping: (a) formal, organizational helping and (b) informal helping between friends and family. Study 2 examined a variety of intrapsychic and demographic correlates of formal and informal planned helping. Study 3 found support for the hypothesis that people in helping professions have higher levels of involvement in everyday planned helping than do people in nonhelping occupations. It is concluded that the study of planned helping, although posing methodological difficulties, is a necessary adjunct to experimental research.     

Neuroticism,Somatic Complaints,and Disease: Is the Bark Worse than the Bite?

Perhaps because negative emotions are frequently expressed in physiological reactions, psychosomatic theories have often identified Neuroticism and its component traits (including anxiety, anger, and depression) as causal influences on the development of disease. These views are apparently supported by correlations between physical symptom reports and measures of Neuroticism in males. Data from 347 adult women in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging replicate this finding for total physical complaints and for most body systems. However, analyses of mortality in the literature and in the present article show no influence of Neuroticism, suggesting that symptom reporting may be biased by Neuroticism-related styles of perceiving and reporting physiological experiences. Researchers in this area are urged to employ objective measures of medical status, and to be alert to possible biases of self-selection and selective perception in interpreting associations between Neuroticism and disease.     

Stress as a state of anticipatory vigilance

The pituitary-adrenocortical system is activated in stressful situations, and the adrenocortical hormones have been implicated by Selye in the diseases of stress. Evidence indicates that the adrenocortical hormones peak during the period of anticipation of stressful events, not during actual confrontation with them. The circadian cortisol rhythm shows peaks before waking, not during active periods of the day, and cortisol does not appear to be required during physical activity. The role of these hormones appears to be to suppress ongoing physiological activity in order to increase vigilance and to get the organism ready to take action before the impact of dangers.     

Semantic Satiation,Aftereffects, and Recognition Memory for Positive,Negative, Neutral,and Mixed Lists of Words

The Psychological Record - By avoiding the confound between the physical and semantic properties of words, it was possible to demonstrate the effects and aftereffects of semantic satiation....     

Do you really want to maintain that a flat tire can upset your stomach? Using the findings of the psychophysiology of stress to bolster the argument that people are not directly disturbed by events

The purpose of this paper is to help clients and others more fully appreciate the complex chain of events intervening between an external happening and an emotional response to that happening. It deals first with the sensory processing of physical stimulation and then presents the current state of knowledge regarding stress psychophysiology. A decision by the cortex which defines something as dangerous or threatening activates two major stress reaction pathways, the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system, with a large number of physical consequences such as: acceleration of heart rate, increased blood pressure, reduced effectiveness of the immunological system, slowing of gastro-intestinal processes, pupil dilation, bronchial dilation and inhibition of salivation. The complexity and variety of such consequences is illustrated with a series of flow-chart diagrams, and it is suggested that these can be an additional and persuasive argument for the RET position which follows the claim of Epictetus: People are disturbed not by things, but by the views they take of them. Finally it is argued that while rapid emotional responses oftenseem to occur automatically it is because the intervening cortical processes are at times not verbalized. This is shown in the context of a diagrammatic outline of the Rational-Emotive Therapy process.Paul J. Woods, Ph.D., co-editor of this journal, is an associate fellow and an RET training supervisor of the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy.