Workaholism Components,Job Satisfaction,and Career Progress1

This investigation examined the relationship of workaholism‐related measures to work satisfaction and career‐progress outcomes. A comprehensive research framework was developed based on previous speculation and research findings to guide selection of variables and data analysis. Five blocks of predictor variables were included: individual demographics, work‐situation characteristics, two antecedents of workaholism (one an individual‐level measure of beliefs and fears; the other an organizational‐level measure of perceived support of work‐personal‐life imbalance), three workaholism components identified by Spence and Robbins (1992), and workaholic job behaviors (eg, hours worked, perfectionism). Work outcomes included job and career satisfaction, future career prospects, and salary increases. Hierarchical regression analysis generally indicated relationships between workaholism‐related measures and work outcomes.     

Religion and atrocity: the influence of religion on perpetrators,bystanders and victims during the Holocaust

Historical accounts of the Holocaust rarely pay regard to the impact of religion on the individual decision‐making process. Yet questions about how individuals perpetrated atrocities in the Final Solution stimulated research by Festinger, Kohlberg and Milgram which have contributed to developments in our understanding of decision making. It is the contention of this article that religion played an important role in individual thinking. The Holocaust occurred in the heart of Christian Europe, in societies that were actively religious. Thus, this article explores primary and secondary sources for evidence of the impact of religion on people at the time. Hilberg’s framework of perpetrators, bystanders and victims provides the structure for consideration. In each section issues are raised about the impact of religion in both interpreting and responding to events.     

Information processing and negative affect: evidence from the 2003 Health Information National Trends Survey.

OBJECTIVE: Health communication can help reduce the cancer burden by increasing processing of information about health interventions. Negative affect is associated with information processing and may be a barrier to successful health communication. DESIGN AND MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We examined associations between negative affect and information processing at the population level. Symptoms of depression (6 items) and cancer worry (1 item) operationalized negative affect; attention to health information (5 items) and cancer information-seeking experiences (6 items) operationalized information processing. RESULTS: Higher cancer worry was associated with more attention to health information (p<.01) and worse cancer information-seeking experiences (p<.05). More symptoms of depression were associated with worse information-seeking experiences (p<.01), but not with attention. CONCLUSIONS: We found population-level evidence that increased cancer worry is associated with more attention to health information, and increased cancer worry and symptoms of depression are associated with worse cancer information-seeking experiences. Results suggest that affect plays a role in health information processing, and decreasing negative affect associated with cancer communication may improve experiences seeking cancer information.     

Response-specific slowing in older age revealed through differential stimulus and response effects on P300 latency and reaction time

Older age produces numerous changes in cognitive processes, including slowing in the rate of mental processing speed. There has been controversy over the past three decades about whether this slowing is generalized or process-specific. A growing literature indicates that it is process-specific and suggests it is most dramatic at the interface where a stimulus input is translated into a response output. We tested this hypothesis using a task in which young and older adult males made either compatible or incompatible responses to the word LEFT or RIGHT shown briefly and variously located in a 4 row × 6 column matrix surrounded by # signs or by letters chosen randomly from the sets A-G or A-Z. Processing speed was measured using P300 latency and reaction time. Experimental effects on these two measures provided support for the hypothesis in revealing that stimulus identification processes were preserved, whereas processes related to translating a stimulus input into a designated response output and then selecting that response were compromised in the elderly.     

An Investigation of Psychology Staffing in Australian Metropolitan Acute Public Hospitals

Psychology is one component of the multidisciplinary services provided to patients in acute public hospitals, with research demonstrating that psychological intervention significantly enhances clinical outcomes for patients across a range of health issues. Despite the increasingly important role that psychologists play in Australian hospitals, there remains a lack of information available about staff levels, discipline structures, and clinical activity for psychological services within acute hospital settings. The most recent Australian data about hospital‐based psychology services was collected 20 years ago. The current study provides updated information from a survey of 15 Australian metropolitan, acute public hospitals: presenting and critically reviewing staffing configurations and models of service delivery. Results suggest that: (a) hospitals employ a highly skilled workforce at a rate of 0.16 full‐time equivalent psychology staff for every 10 hospital beds; (b) psychologists have a viable career pathway within the hospital‐based health sector; (c) role diversity is common, with the primary focus varying as a function of position level; (d) neuropsychology staffing requires urgent attention to address significant delays in access to services; and (e) public hospitals actively contribute to current and future workforce development through supervision, research, and training. The implications of these results for the future of psychological services in Australian healthcare are discussed.     

Conditional same/different concept learning in the short‐beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus)

Echidnas have evolved separately from other mammalian groups for around 200 million years and incorporate a mixture of reptilian and mammalian features. Because of these attributes, they have historically been considered “primitive” animals. However, they have successfully adapted to a wide variety of ecological niches and their neurophysiology demonstrates a number of unusual and apparently sophisticated characteristics, including a relatively large brain and cerebral cortex and a comparatively massive frontal cortex. Studies of learning in the echidna have thus far been limited to only a handful of experiments which demonstrated relatively basic abilities such as forming a position habit in a T‐maze, successive habit‐reversal learning, and simple visual and instrumental discrimination. This study aimed to expand on these results and test the “primitive” echidna on what are generally considered more advanced cognitive tasks—same/different and conditional same/different concept learning. The results demonstrated that echidnas are able to discriminate on the basis of a relational same/different concept, using simultaneously presented multi‐element stimuli, and transfer that discrimination to novel stimuli. After further training, they were then able to repeat the performance when the correct choice was conditional on the background color of the stimulus panels.     

Mechanisms of Behavioral and Affective Treatment Outcomes in a Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Boys

Evidence for effective treatment for behavioral problems continues to grow, yet evidence about the effective mechanisms underlying those interventions has lagged behind. The Stop Now and Plan (SNAP) program is a multicomponent intervention for boys between 6 and 11. This study tested putative treatment mechanisms using data from 252 boys in a randomized controlled trial of SNAP versus treatment as usual. SNAP includes a 3 month group treatment period followed by individualized intervention, which persisted through the 15 month study period. Measures were administered in four waves: at baseline and at 3, 9 and 15 months after baseline. A hierarchical linear modeling strategy was used. SNAP was associated with improved problem-solving skills, prosocial behavior, emotion regulation skills, and reduced parental stress. Prosocial behavior, emotion regulation skills and reduced parental stress partially mediated improvements in child aggression. Improved emotion regulation skills partially mediated treatment-related child anxious-depressed outcomes. Improvements in parenting behaviors did not differ between treatment conditions. The results suggest that independent processes may drive affective and behavioral outcomes, with some specificity regarding the mechanisms related to differing treatment outcomes.