Causal uncertainty during initial interactions

Causal uncertainty (CU) refers to persistent doubts people have about their ability to understand causes of social events. Although such confusion about social dynamics should affect social exchanges, previous research has been limited to the realm of social cognition (i.e., computer‐based studies exploring perceptions of hypothetical others). In three studies, we explored CU effects during real‐time social interactions with unacquainted conversational partners. We found that high CU participants perceived their conversations and conversational partners more negatively than did low CU participants and that these negative social perceptions stemmed from an inability to sufficiently reduce their cognitive uncertainty. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hostile Attributional Bias,Negative Emotional Responding,and Aggression in Adults: Moderating Effects of Gender and Impulsivity

The current study examined the main effects of hostile attributional bias (HAB) and negative emotional responding on a variety of aggressive behaviors in adults, including general aggression, physical aggression, relational aggression, and verbal aggression. Effects of both externalizing (anger) and internalizing (embarrassment/upset) negative emotions were considered. In addition, the moderating roles of gender and impulsivity on the effects of HAB and negative emotional responding were explored. Multilevel models were fitted to data from 2,749 adult twins aged 20–55 from the PennTwins cohort. HAB was positively associated with all four forms of aggression. There was also a significant interaction between impulsivity and HAB for general aggression. Specifically, the relationship between HAB and general aggression was only significant for individuals with average or above‐average levels of impulsivity. Negative emotional responding was also found to predict all measures of aggression, although in different ways. Anger was positively associated with all forms of aggression, whereas embarrassment/upset predicted decreased levels of general, physical, and verbal aggression but increased levels of relational aggression. The associations between negative emotional responding and aggression were generally stronger for males than females. The current study provides evidence for the utility of HAB and negative emotional responding as predictors of adult aggression and further suggests that gender and impulsivity may moderate their links with aggression. Aggr. Behav. 38:47‐63, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Role of Neuropsychological Assessment in the Functional Outcomes of Children with ADHD

The value of evidence-based services is now recognized both within clinical communities and by the public at large. Increasingly, neuropsychologists must justify the necessity of often costly and time-consuming neuropsychological assessments in the diagnosis and treatment of common childhood disorders, such as Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Published medical guidelines and prominent researchers, however, have argued against the need for formal neuropsychological assessment of ADHD. The present review examines the literature on developmental outcomes in childhood ADHD, with emphasis on the utility of formal neuropsychological assessment among children diagnosed and treated in primary care settings. The review yields three central findings: 1) adherence to published diagnostic guidelines for ADHD is poor among pediatric and primary care physicians; 2) ADHD most often co-exists with other disorders, thus diagnoses made without formal psychometric assessment can be incomplete or incorrect, ultimately increasing treatment costs; and, 3) untreated children with ADHD, and those who have untreated comorbidities, are at greater risk for poor outcomes in social, academic, vocational, and practical settings. The available literature suggests that neuropsychological assessment provides information that can potentially reduce risks for poor outcomes and improve quality of life among children with ADHD. Controlled studies directly examining the impact of neuropsychological assessments in improving outcomes among children with ADHD are needed.     

Causal uncertainty and metacognitive inferences about goal attainment

These four studies investigated G. Weary and J. A. Edwards’ (1996) hypothesis that causal uncertainty feelings serve as input to perceivers regarding the adequacy of their causal knowledge and thus determine the amount of processing accorded a given task. Participants worked on a task until they had satisfied an assigned stop rule. In three experiments, high causally uncertain people processed more information under a sufficiency of information rule and less under an enjoyment rule, whereas low causally uncertain people generally did not differentiate between the rules. In the last experiment, low causally uncertain people exhibited a similar pattern to the chronic causally uncertain individuals in the first experiments, but only after their causal uncertainty beliefs and feelings had been primed.     

A Place to Stand: Intersubjectivity and the Desire to Dominate

Research indicates that upwards of 80% of our students experience the devastation of bullying during their school years. To date, research on bullying has mainly employed empirical methodologies, including quantitative and qualitative approaches. This research has largely concluded that bullying is situated in a lack of skill, understanding, or self-control and involves intentional action directed toward status dominance. Based upon these assumptions current anti-bullying strategies focus on training students toward more appropriate avenues of status acquisition and social interaction. Against the backdrop of an actual bullying encounter this paper employs a psychoanalytic philosophical lens to offer a fresh perspective on this enduring educational issue. Employing the philosophical work of Adam Phillips, Jessica Benjamin, and Emmanuel Ghent I ask the question: What is the desire to bully a desire for? Here I consider what is sought and what is at stake in the typical bullying encounter. Through careful analysis I argue that the domination represented in bullying is not simply situated in a lack of social skills or in disregulated aggression––skill deficiencies that require training. Instead, or perhaps in addition to these possibilities, I contend that bullying is foundationally a move toward establishing identity, a self. On this view bullying becomes an activity of self construction through attempted omnipotence. I argue that the status dominance inherent in bullying should be seen not as an end (a tool to secure resources or privilege), but as a means to something more foundational. I conclude that status dominance becomes a means toward the end of providing a secure place for the self to stand. Hence, instead of advocating that we train students to get along better this paper outlines the futility, as well as the insatiability of bullying, opening up new territory focused upon a re-construction of the bully through the relational bonding and differentiation available in the concrete Other.     

Development and Validation of the Performance Management Behavior Questionnaire

This study integrates literature on performance management and organizational behavior with input from managers to develop a 27‐item measure of performance management behavior. We used 8 samples, including multisource data, to develop a reliable multidimensional scale that replicated across samples. The scale demonstrated content validity, both convergent and discriminant validity, and incremental validity, and criterion‐related validity was established through the scale's relation with measures of management effectiveness and job attitudes. Overall, this study suggests that the Performance Management Behavior Questionnaire (PMBQ) is a reliable and valid measure and that performance management behaviors have important implications for both employees and organizations.     

MY MOTHER,MY STORY

This piece returns to the writer’s memoir essays about her mother’s chronic lung disease to examine the relationship between the act of caregiving and the act of writing. In arguing for important differences between the clinical, healing imperatives of narrative medicine and the primacy for the writer of self-reflection, personal need and career, the essay demonstrates how writing remains in many ways at odds with the obligations and the hopes of caregiving. At the same time, the essay argues that writing her mother’s stories of illness holds the potential for both honor and mutuality—and can, in fact, constitute a form of caregiving.