INDIVIDUAL AND SITUATIONAL CORRELATES OF WHISTLE-BLOWING

Although popular interest in whistle-blowing continues to increase, little is known about why some employees who observe wrongdoing report it, while others do not. In the present study, we analyze archival survey data from individuals who observed wrongdoing in any of 22 organizations. Results are generally consistent with predictions based on a model of whistle-blowing as a type of prosocial behavior. Whistle-blowing was more likely when observers of wrongdoing (1) held professional positions, (2) had more positive reactions to their work, (3) had longer service, (4) were recently recognized for good performance, (5) were male (though race was unrelated to whistle-blowing), (6) were members of larger work groups, and (7) were employed by organizations perceived by others to be responsive to complaints. Implications for research and practice are described.     

Sample size determinations for the two rater kappa statistic

This paper gives a method for determining a sample size that will achieve a prespecified bound on confidence interval width for the interrater agreement measure,. The same results can be used when a prespecified power is desired for testing hypotheses about the value of kappa. An example from the literature is used to illustrate the methods proposed here.     

Perceptions of speakers with minimal eye contact: Implications for stutterers

One hundred and thirty-three college students responded to percentage definitions of “good,” “minimal,” and “no” eye contact. They also judged their perceptions of a speaker with “little or no eye contact” on a semantic differential scale containing 60 polarized adjective pairs regarding personality traits. The majority of the student respondents defined an individual with “good” eye contact as looking at his/her audience/listener 90–100% of the time. This is a more stringent definition than other literature has indicated. Furthermore, speakers with little or no eye contact were judged less favorably on 70% of the items, which indicates that low eye contact adversely affects perceptions of a speaker's personality. Therefore, stutterers need to be made aware of the importance of and determinants of effective eye contact in communication. Also, the development of effective eye contact needs to be incorporated as a major goal in stuttering therapy.     

S-R compatibility between response position and destination of apparent motion: evidence of the detection of affordances

In choice reaction time, stimuli and responses in some combinations (e.g., based on spatial arrangement) are faster than in other combinations. To test whether motion toward a position yields faster responses at that position, a computer-generated square in front of one hand appeared to move either toward that hand or toward the other hand. Compatible responses (e.g., motion toward left hand/left response) were faster than incompatible responses, even when that opposed traditional positional compatibility. In Experiment 2, subjects responded to the same stimuli but with both hands left, right, or on the body midline. Medial responses were the fastest, showing that destination, rather than mere relative position, was a critical variable. It was suggested that spatial compatibility effects are not unique to position but apply to a variety of task situations, describable by J.J. Gibson's theory of affordances, in which he claims that one perceives the actions (e.g., catching) permitted in a situation.     

Race and Moral Judgment Development Scores

Black and White college students were studied to determine reactions to moral dilemmas when the race of the central character in the dilemma was changed.     

Interactions between area and numerosity

Summary The concept of filled area, i.e. the impressionistic ensemble of parts of a stimulus field occupied by dots, is used to account for various kinds of numerosity illusions due to perceptual interaction between a number of dots and their spatial arrangement. A measure of filled area is derived from a model for the perceptual clustering of dots on the basis of relative proximity. It is shown that the quantified concept of filled area successfully predicts illusion data from earlier studies. Subsequently, a two-alternatives forced-choice numerosity experiment is reported, the data of which gave further evidence of the predictive power of the filled-area hypothesis. Our approach is discussed with respect to spatial features of dot stimuli that might be in rivalry with the filled-area factor in numerosity-estimation tasks.     

Emotional sequelae of abortion: implications for clinical practice

For women in therapy who have had abortions, an exploration of the context and aftermath of each abortion has been suggested. This inquiry should include: characteristics of the woman herself before and at the time of the abortion, the nature of the interpersonal and cultural milieu at the time, characteristics of the medical environment and procedure, and any events subsequent to the abortion that may evoke regrets about the earlier decision.
Whether or not such an inquiry results in the identification of unresolved issues surrounding the abortion, it is likely to enhance one's general understanding of the client. Exploring a woman's decision to have an abortion can bring into relief developmental and family issues, relationship conflicts, and her aspirations for education, work, and family. A woman's approach to establishing and asserting her priorities and values in making difficult personal decisions becomes clear as does her ability to tolerate and resolve the ambivalence inherent in making difficult decisions.
In psychotherapy, it is important to understand and address those aspects of experience that women have difficulty resolving. Hence, the emphasis on categories of experience that may have a negative impact on a woman's emotional well-being after abortion. Nevertheless, the clinician should remember that even women who report negative post-abortion sequelae overwhelmingly report that they feel that the decision was the right one for them. Having ambivalent feelings to resolve does not necessarily mean that one has made a wrong choice, only that one has made an emotionally significant choice with far-reaching personal implications, in a sociocultural environment that reinforces the ambivalence inherent in such decisions.