Psychological Well-Being in a Sample of Male and Female Office Workers

This questionnaire study used a model of mental health proposed by Warr (1987, 1993) to examine how 8 aspects of the work situation (principal environmental influences, PEIs) were associated with psychological well-being, measured on several dimensions. It is hypothesized that the importance of different PEIs for well-being will be influenced by gender, particularly the relationship between control and work-related mental health. The results of multiple regression analysis indicated similarities and differences in the association of PEIs with well-being in males and females. In the male sample, control at work was significantly associated with all dimensions of work-related mental health; but in the female sample, it was not associated with any dimension of mental health. The influence of gender is discussed.     

Orientation of the diamond and the square revisited

Below the age of 7 or 8, children find it very difficult to reproduce a diamond compared with a square. They are also highly sensitive to contextual alignment cues from the age of three years. It is shown here that over the brief age-span of 4-6 years (inclusive), children come to control the weight they give to contextual cues. It is argued that this is a more likely precursor of the older child's ability to cope with obliques, than is the converse process of learning to specify targets and thence to prevent themselves from responding inappropriately to the context. Of course, both target-specification and contextual-responsiveness are manifest at all the ages, but the latter seems to have the leading edge in early development.     

Can Messages Make a Difference? The Association Between E‐Mail Messages and Health Outcomes in Diabetes Patients

This investigation examined the impact of social support messages on patient health outcomes. Forty‐one American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian patients received a total of 618 e‐mail messages from their healthcare provider (HCP). The e‐mail messages were divided into 3,565 message units and coded for instances of emotional social support. Patient glycosulated hemoglobin scores (HbA1c) showed significantly improved glycemic control and emotional social support messages were associated with significant decreases in HbA1c values. Patient involvement with the system, measured by system login frequency and the frequency of uploaded blood glucose scores to the HCP, did not predict change in HbA1c.