Sexual Harassment in the Sales Force: The Customer is NOT Always Right

This study utilizes historical data to explore the effects of sales management succession, the characteristics of the successor, and type of succession on post-succession performance of an industrial sales organisation while controlling for pre-succession performance and economic conditions. Three theoretical positions were contrasted: (1) that a change in a sales manager will lead to a decline in a performance, (2) that such a change will lead to an increase in sales performance, and (3) that the change will have no impact on performance. The results demonstrated a positive effect due to succession, thus supporting the commonsense notion that a sales management change leads to improved performance. There was also some support for the proposition that experience and ability may mediate the succession effect.     

Sex Differences in Jealousy: An Evolutionary Perspective on Online Infidelity

This study examined whether sex differences in jealousy would generalize to online infidelity. Based on the evolutionary psychological explanation for sex differences in jealousy (ancestral men's challenge of paternal uncertainty vs. ancestral women's challenge of ensuring paternal investment), we expected that men and women would perceive online infidelity similarly to conventional infidelity. The experimental design was a 2 (Infidelity Context: online or conventional) × 2 (Participant Sex) × 2 (Infidelity Type: emotional vs. sexual) mixed factorial. Participants were 332 (132 male, 200 female) undergraduates who completed a questionnaire assessing their responses to potential infidelity. As predicted, online and conventional infidelity elicited the same sex difference in jealousy. Implications for social scientists who study online behavior are discussed.     

A Psychometric Analysis of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale—Parent Version in a Clinical Sample

The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale—Parent Version (RCADS-P) is a 47-item parent-report questionnaire of youth anxiety and depression, with scales corresponding to the DSM-IV categories of Separation Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The RCADS-P is currently the only parent-report questionnaire that concurrently assesses youth symptomatology of individual anxiety disorders as well as depression in accordance with DSM-IV nosology. The present study examined the psychometric properties of the RCADS-P in a large (N = 490), clinic-referred sample of youths. The RCADS-P demonstrated favorable psychometric properties, including high internal consistency, convergent/divergent validity, as well as strong discriminant validity—evidencing an ability to discriminate between anxiety and depressive disorders, as well as between the targeted anxiety disorders. Support for the DSM-related six-factor RCADS-P structure was also evidenced. This structure demonstrated superior fit to a recently suggested alternative to the DSM-IV classification of anxiety and affective disorders—namely, the MDD/GAD “distress” factor.     

National Survey of Psychologists’ Training and Practice in Breaking Bad News: A Mixed Methods Study of the MUM Effect

Research on breaking bad news has involved undergraduates, medical students, and physicians. However, to date, no studies have examined how, or whether, psychologists are trained to break bad news, as well as their current practice of breaking bad news. This mixed methods study explored the training and practice of 329 licensed psychologists/APA members in breaking bad news, using the MUM effect as a theoretical backdrop. Results suggest (1) psychologists are, as hypothesized, significantly more reluctant to break bad news than good news, (2) anxiety accounts for 30.6% of the variance in their reluctance, and (3) three-out-of-four psychologists break bad news “to some extent” or more, most typically related to a patient’s psychological health, major Axis I diagnosis, or learning disability. Results also suggest most psychologists are not trained to break bad news, with only 2.7% being familiar with existing recommendations and guidelines; and anxiety, concerns for self/other, context, and norms play an important role in the bad news breaking process. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed and a training model is proposed.     

Dynamic Structure in Diagnostic Structured Interviewing: A Comparative Test of Accuracy and Efficiency

The incorporation of Bayesian logic into diagnostic interviewing may assist with empirically based diagnostic assessment strategies in practice settings, balancing cost effectiveness, administration demands, and accuracy, yet few demonstrations of such a system have been undertaken in the context of mental health diagnosis. The present study represented an initial feasibility demonstration of whether a simplified Bayesian approach offered comparative advantages in interview accuracy and efficiency against a standard assessment procedure. Two different diagnostic algorithms were compared targeting three selected diagnoses: generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), major depressive disorder (MDD), and social phobia (SP). The first algorithm was from a standard semi-structured diagnostic interview, and the second was from a dynamic system using diagnostic base rate information to select interview content. The dynamic algorithm reduced administration time and uniformly matched or improved accuracy over standard procedures. Preparation of this article was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grant R03 MH60134, an award from the University of Hawai‘i Research Council, and awards from the Hawaii Departments of Health and Education to the first author.     

Supporting Fourth-Grade Students' Word Identification Using Application Software

A quasi-experimental study examined effects of a 10-week word structure intervention with fourth-grade students. During daily 10–15-minute practice periods, students worked individually with mobile apps focused on specific aspects of word identification. Pre- and post-treatment assessments showed no differences in rate and accuracy of oral reading between groups that did and did not use the apps, with little effect on motivation to read. Some differences were found in level of texts read and in spelling favoring the intervention students. However, practical significance was found in gains in percentile rank scores on standardized vocabulary and comprehension measures.     

Family Assisted Contingency Management within the Context of Evidence-Supported Treatment for Child Neglect and Drug Abuse

Contingency management (CM) has extensively been shown to be effective in reducing substance use disorders, but its effects in reducing child maltreatment have yet to be determined. The current study provides preliminary support for the utilization of an innovative family-assisted CM component in 18 mothers who were referred to an evidence-supported behavioral treatment for concurrent child neglect and drug abuse by Child Protective Service caseworkers. In the examined CM, participants were invited to indicate from a list of common actions incompatible with child neglect (i.e. positive parenting actions), the extent to which these actions had been experienced utilizing a 3-point scale (almost never, sometimes, almost always). For each item that was indicated to be almost never or sometimes experienced, the participants were queried to indicate if the neglect incompatible action should be targeted as a therapeutic goal. Contingencies were subsequently established in which the participants were rewarded by involved family members for their completion of therapeutic goals. At baseline, results indicated that there was a negative association between the number of neglect incompatible parenting actions that were infrequently experienced and child abuse potential. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that the number of neglect incompatible actions targeted as therapeutic goals at baseline, but not the number of positive parenting actions experienced infrequently at baseline, predicted reduced child maltreatment potential following treatment. These findings suggest the examined CM may assist evidence supported behavioral treatment specific to child neglect and drug abuse.