A little acceptance is good for your health: Interpersonal messages and weight change over time

This research examines whether acceptance messages from close others about one's weight predict changes in stressful weight concern and body mass index (BMI) over time. Participants reported weight concern and BMI in three waves of data collection spanning approximately 9 months, and reported the messages they received from parents, friends, and romantic partners concerning their weight in the second wave of data collection. Participants normatively gained weight during the study period. But for vulnerable women, those initially high in weight concern, receiving fewer acceptance messages about weight was associated with weight gain, whereas receiving more acceptance messages was associated with decreases in stressful weight concern and weight maintenance, or even loss, over time. Alternative predictors, mechanisms, and models were also tested.     

The Honey Trap: the social and cognitive adequacy of language in educational contexts

ABSTRACT The attack on bidialectal approaches to the teaching of writing mounted by John Honey in The Language Trap is examined and critically discussed. It is argued that Honey confuses the issues of the social and the cognitive adequacy of a particular variety of language. In particular, his critique of bidialectalism, in so far as it is based on a version of verbal deficit theory and/or cognitive relativism, is misconceived. There are valid criticisms to be made of the bidialectal approach, but they centre on the social rather than the cognitive adequacy of different varieties of language. When the critique is formulated in this way, it is more enlightening and less misleading.     

EQUAL POLITICAL LIBERTIES

Formal guarantees of political equality are compatible with inequalities in the value of political liberties, as individuals may convert their socioeconomic advantages into political advantages. Perhaps the predominant strategy for limiting substantive political inequalities recommends limiting inequalities in the means of acquiring political power for private gain – most notably, economic means. I express a worry that measures instituted to restrict economic inequalities may do more to frustrate the cause of political equality than to further it. I argue that attempts to decrease individuals' means to capture political power will systematically increase their motives to capture political power.     

THE ASSIMILATION ARGUMENT AND THE ROLLBACK ARGUMENT

Seth Shabo has presented a new argument that attempts to codify familiar worries about indeterminism, luck, and control. His ‘Assimilation Argument’ contends that libertarians cannot distinguish overtly randomized outcomes from exercises of free will. Shabo claims that the argument possesses advantages over the Mind Argument and Rollback Argument, which also purport to establish that indeterminism is incompatible with free will. I argue first that the Assimilation Argument presents no new challenges over and above those presented by the Rollback Argument, and second that the Rollback Argument itself neither presents a deep challenge to, nor raises the cost of, accepting libertarianism.     

The Metaphysics of Mash‐Ups

Accounts of the ontology of musical works seek to uncover what metaphysically speaking a musical work is and how we should identify instances of musical works. In this article, I examine the curious case of the mash‐up and seek to address two questions: are mash‐ups musical works in their own right and what is the relationship between the mash‐up and its source materials? As mash‐ups are part of the broader tradition of rock, I situate this discussion within an ontology of rock as defended by Theodore Gracyk and Stephen Davies and offer some interpretation as to what their positions might be in regard to mash‐ups. Finally, I argue that the account of mash‐ups that best makes sense of our evaluative practices would hold that they are emergent musical works that are distinct in their own right and yet also happen to be cases of musical works that instantiate parts of other musical works.     

Partner's understanding of affective–cognitive meta‐bases predicts relationship quality

Knowledge that partners have about each other's attitudes are consequential for relationship quality. This article extends prior research and examines whether knowledge regarding a partner's meta‐attitudinal bases, or subjective perceptions of how one's attitudes are driven, can influence relationship quality. Given how meta‐bases are reflective of information‐processing goals, we hypothesized that partner understanding of meta‐attitudinal bases would positively predict relationship quality. Self and partner ratings of how relationally relevant attitudes were driven, as well as perceptions of relationship quality, were assessed. Results revealed that a partner's knowledge of one's meta‐bases positively predicts one's own reported relationship quality. Results remained significant when controlling for relationship duration and meta‐bases similarity. Implications of meta‐bases understanding for close relationship functioning are discussed.     

AGE‐ AND GENDER‐BASED ROLE INCONGRUENCE: IMPLICATIONS FOR KNOWLEDGE MASTERY AND OBSERVED LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL AMONG PERSONNEL IN A LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Using archival data from 972 military officers who participated in a 5‐week team‐based leadership development program, the authors tested 5 hypotheses concerning the implications of age‐ and gender‐based role incongruence for individuals’ mastery of 2 knowledge categories and their observed leadership potential (OLP). As hypothesized, greater age was related to less mastery of both teamwork knowledge and strategy knowledge, whereas female gender was related to less mastery of strategy knowledge only. Another focus was on possible evaluative bias in OLP, with individuals’ knowledge mastery and career‐relevant circumstantial factors taken into account. Notably, knowledge mastery partially explained the appreciable overall relationship of age with OLP, yet fully explained the modest overall relationship of gender with OLP. Therefore, some evaluative bias existed for age but not gender. The overall pattern of results revealed that an intrapersonal consequence (i.e., knowledge mastery) of demographic‐based role incongruence overshadowed any interpersonal bias in evaluation, pointing to a new direction for theory and research.     

INTRAORGANIZATIONAL EMPLOYEE NAVIGATION AND SOCIALLY DERIVED OUTCOMES: CONCEPTUALIZATION,VALIDATION, AND EFFECTS ON OVERALL PERFORMANCE

Intraorganizational employee navigation (IEN) is conceptualized as a means of better understanding how the organizational actor proactively works across their firm's internal environment in the execution of their jobs. Navigation is argued to be a precursor to the employee's overall performance through a class of mediating variables labeled “socially derived outcomes,” which are variables inside the organization that are bestowed upon the employee as a result of them first engaging in proactive behavior (e.g., IEN). Two studies are reported. Study I sees IEN psychometrically validated versus a range of existing proactive behaviors and individual traits (discriminant, nomological, and criterion‐related validity) with a heterogeneous sample of 704 employees. Study II then tests a model relating IEN to performance through six mediating “socially derived outcomes” by leveraging data from 2 Fortune 500 firms. The results of Study II show that IEN significantly impacts multiple measures of the employee's overall performance through mediating effects brought about by key socially derived outcomes, such as the employee's “manager alignment.” The contributions, broader implications, and limitations of the research are then put into context.