The role of leadership perception as a mediator between managers’ self-monitoring and subordinate attitudes

Although the role of social cognition in leadership perception has been emphasized frequently in recent years, research using this approach in an organizational context is rare. This study investigated subordinates’ perceptions of their managers as leaders (that is, to what extent they perceive their manager as a leader) as a potential mediating factor explaining the relationship between managers’ self-monitoring and their subordinates’ attitudes toward their organizations. The study was carried out with middle-level managers (N = 64) and their subordinates (N = 210) from various business organizations in Turkey. Results indicate that subordinates’ leadership perceptions of their managers mediate the relationship between managers’ self-monitoring and their subordinates’ affective and normative organizational commitment. These results provide insight into some of the antecedents and outcomes of leadership perception.     

Mothers' Reactions to Preschoolers' Proactive and Reactive Aggressive Behaviours

The present study was designed to examine mothers' emotional reactions, causal attributions, and socialization strategies in response to preschool children's engagement in proactive and reactive physical aggression with peers during free play at school. Participants were 84 mothers (M_age = 31.83, SD = 4.48) with preschool‐aged children (M_age = 4.92, SD = 0. 97), residing in Ankara, Turkey. Supporting our expectations, mothers reacted with negative emotions to both functions of aggressive behaviours, with less anxiety, disappointment, embarrassment, and guilt for reactive aggression. They also believed that reactive aggression is more contextually dependent and intentional and reported more indirect (e.g., asking the child, teacher, or other children to find out more about the situation and aggressive episode) and other‐oriented strategies (e.g., telling the other child to behave properly) to address these behaviours. Overall, our findings suggest that Turkish mothers' feelings, perceptions, and socialization approaches to childhood aggression vary depending on the functions of aggression, and mothers perceive preschool‐aged children's engagement in reactive aggression in the school setting as relatively more acceptable than proactive aggression. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Factor solutions of the Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) in a Swedish population

Culturally validated rating scales for social anxiety disorder (SAD) are of significant importance when screening for the disorder, as well as for evaluating treatment efficacy. This study examined construct validity and additional psychometric properties of two commonly used scales, the Social Phobia Scale and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, in a clinical SAD population (n?=?180) and in a normal population (n?=?614) in Sweden. Confirmatory factor analyses of previously reported factor solutions were tested but did not reveal acceptable fit. Exploratory factor analyses (EFA) of the joint structure of the scales in the total population yielded a two-factor model (performance anxiety and social interaction anxiety), whereas EFA in the clinical sample revealed a three-factor solution, a social interaction anxiety factor and two performance anxiety factors. The SPS and SIAS showed good to excellent internal consistency, and discriminated well between patients with SAD and a normal population sample. Both scales showed good convergent validity with an established measure of SAD, whereas the discriminant validity of symptoms of social anxiety and depression could not be confirmed. The optimal cut-off score for SPS and SIAS were 18 and 22 points, respectively. It is concluded that the factor structure and the additional psychometric properties of SPS and SIAS support the use of the scales for assessment in a Swedish population.     

The temporal dynamics of global-to-local feedback in the formation of hierarchical motion patterns: psychophysics and computational simulations

Four motion quartets, each ambiguous with respect to the perception of parallel-path horizontal or vertical motion, were arranged in a diamond configuration. Both global parallel-path motion (the same motion axis for all the quartets), which is typical for multiquartet stimuli, and global rotational rocking are perceived. Experiment 1 indicated that rotational rocking is established at different levels of processing. Globally, larger displacements of each quartet's elements increase the angle of rotation and, thereby, the perception of rotational rocking. Locally, larger displacements have the opposite effect, weakening motion percepts. Experiment 2 showed that global-to-local feedback affects the local perception of rotation-consistent versus rotation-inconsistent motion directions. Experiment 3 provided evidence for hysteresis effects indicative of competition between global rotational rocking and parallel-path motion. The experimental results were simulated by a two-level dynamical model incorporating global-to-local feedback, with recurrent feedforward/feedback loops creating detection instabilities that amplify activation at both global and local levels of the rotational-rocking pattern.     

The Impact of Perceived Social Norms,Gender, and Intergroup Anxiety on the Relationship Between Intergroup Contact and Ethnic Attitudes of Adolescents1

This study addressed the impact of perceived familial and peer norms, gender, and intergroup anxiety on the relationship between the quality of inter‐ethnic contact and blatant and subtle ethnic attitudes of adolescents. With regard to the main focus of the study—the moderating effect of perceived norms—familial norms had a gender‐specific impact on the relationship between contact quality and subtle attitudes. Further, both familial and peer norms predicted the blatant and subtle attitudes of youth. Contact quantity had no effect, but contact quality had strong effects on both attitudes. Intergroup anxiety had direct and mediating effects on both kinds of attitudes. The results are discussed in relation to social‐contextual and developmental factors affecting the formation of ethnic attitudes.     

Be yourself,believe in yourself,and be happy: Self‐efficacy as a mediator between personality factors and subjective well‐being

Strobel, M., Tumasjan, A. & Spörrle, M. (2011). Be yourself, believe in yourself, and be happy: Self‐efficacy as a mediator between personality factors and subjective well‐being. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 52, 43–48. Research has shown close connections between personality and subjective well‐being (SWB), suggesting that personality traits predispose individuals to experience different levels of SWB. Moreover, numerous studies have shown that self‐efficacy is related to both personality factors and SWB. Extending previous research, we show that general self‐efficacy functionally connects personality factors and two components of SWB (life satisfaction and subjective happiness). Our results demonstrate the mediating role of self‐efficacy in linking personality factors and SWB. Consistent with our expectations, the influence of neuroticism, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness on life satisfaction was mediated by self‐efficacy. Furthermore, self‐efficacy mediated the influence of openness and conscientiousness, but not that of neuroticism and extraversion, on subjective happiness. Results highlight the importance of cognitive beliefs in functionally linking personality traits and SWB.     

Dynamic field theory of movement preparation

A theoretical framework for understanding movement preparation is proposed. Movement parameters are represented by activation fields, distributions of activation defined over metric spaces. The fields evolve under the influence of various sources of localized input, representing information about upcoming movements. Localized patterns of activation self-stabilize through cooperative and competitive interactions within the fields. The task environment is represented by a 2nd class of fields, which preshape the movement parameter representation. The model accounts for a sizable body of empirical findings on movement initiation (continuous and graded nature of movement preparation, dependence on the metrics of the task, stimulus uncertainty effect, stimulus-response compatibility effects, Simon effect, precuing paradigm, and others) and suggests new ways of exploring the structure of motor representations.     

The Logic of “Most” and “Mostly”

The paper suggests a modal predicate logic that deals with classical quantification and modalities as well as intermediate operators, like “most” and “mostly”. Following up the theory of generalized quantifiers, we will understand them as two-placed operators and call them determiners. Quantifiers as well as modal operators will be constructed from them. Besides the classical deduction, we discuss a weaker probabilistic inference “therefore, probably” defined by symmetrical probability measures in Carnap’s style. The given probabilistic inference relates intermediate quantification to singular statements: “Most S are P” does not logically entail that a particular individual S is also P, but it follows that this is probably the case, where the probability is not ascribed to the propositions but to the inference. We show how this system deals with single case expectations while predictions of statistical statements remain generally problematic.     

Latent constructs model explaining the attachment-linked variation in autobiographical remembering

In the current study, we proposed a latent constructs model to characterise the qualitative aspects of autobiographical remembering and investigated the structural relations in the model that may vary across individuals. Primarily, we focused on the memories of romantic relationships and argued that attachment anxiety and avoidance would be reflected in the ways that individuals encode, rehearse, or remember autobiographical memories in close relationships. Participants reported two positive and two negative relationship-specific memories and rated the characteristics for each memory. As predicted, the basic memory model yielded appropriate fit, indicating that event characteristics (EC) predicted the frequency of rehearsal (RC) and phenomenology at retrieval (PC). When attachment variables were integrated, the model showed that rehearsal mediated the link between anxiety and PC, especially for negative memories. On the other hand, for avoidance EC was the key factor mediating the link between avoidance and RC, as well as PC. Findings were discussed with respect to autobiographical memory functions emphasising a systematically, integrated framework.