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.     

On Separable Tests,Correlated Priors,and Paradoxical Results in Multidimensional Item Response Theory

This paper presents a study of the impact of prior structure on paradoxical results in multidimensional item response theory. Paradoxical results refer to the possibility that an incorrect response could be beneficial to an examinee. We demonstrate that when three or more ability dimensions are being used, paradoxical results can be induced by using priors in which all abilities are positively correlated where they would not occur if the abilities were modeled as being independent. In the case of separable tests, we demonstrate the mathematical causes of paradoxical results, develop a computationally feasible means to check whether they can occur in any given test, and demonstrate a class of prior covariance matrices that can be guaranteed to avoid them.     

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.     

Violence and sex in television programs do not sell products in advertisements

Adults (N = 336) 18 to 54 years old watched a television program containing violence, sex, both violence and sex, or no violence and sex. Programs were shown in a comfortable room containing padded chairs and tasty snacks. Each program contained the same 12 ads. Embedding an ad in a program containing violence or sex reduced (a) viewers' likelihood of remembering the advertised brand, (b) their interest in buying that brand, and (c) their likelihood of selecting a coupon for that brand. These effects occurred for males and females of all ages, regardless of whether they liked programs containing violence and sex. These results show that violence and sex in television programs do not sell products in advertisements.     

Explaining the paradoxical rejection-aggression link: the mediating effects of hostile intent attributions, anger, and decreases in state self-esteem on peer rejection-induced aggression in youth

People are strongly motivated to feel accepted by others. Yet when faced with acute peer rejection they often aggress against the very peers they desire acceptance from, which may lead to further rejection. The present experiment tests three potential mediators of aggressive responses to acute peer rejection in the critical developmental stage of early adolescence. Participants (N=185, M(age)=11.5 years) completed personal profiles that were allegedly evaluated online by peers. After receiving negative or neutral peer feedback, participants could aggress against the same peers who had evaluated them. Rejected participants attributed more hostile intent to the peers, were angrier, showed a greater reduction in state self-esteem, and were more aggressive. Mediational analyses showed that hostile intent attributions mediated the acute peer rejection-aggression relationship, whereas increases in anger and decreases in state self-esteem did not. Thus, acute peer rejection evokes hostile intent attributions that, in turn, lead to aggressive reactions.     

Fairness

The main body of this paper assesses a leading recent theory of fairness, a theory put forward by John Broome. I discuss Broome's theory partly because of its prominence and partly because I think it points us in the right direction, even if it takes some missteps. In the course of discussing Broome's theory, I aim to cast light on the relation of fairness to consistency, equality, impartiality, desert, rights, and agreements. Indeed, before I start assessing Broome's theory, I discuss two very popular conceptions of fairness that contrast with his. One of these very popular conceptions identifies fairness with the equal and impartial application of rules. The other identifies fairness with all-things-considered moral rightness.