Linking Workplace Aggression to Employee Well-Being and Work: The Moderating Role of Family-Supportive Supervisor Behaviors (FSSB)

Purpose

The present study examined the moderating effects of family-supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) on the relationship between two types of workplace aggression (i.e., patient-initiated physical aggression and coworker-initiated psychological aggression) and employee well-being and work outcomes.

Methodology

Data were obtained from a field sample of 417 healthcare workers in two psychiatric hospitals. Hypotheses were tested using moderated multiple regression analyses.

Findings

Psychiatric care providers’ perceptions of FSSB moderated the relationship between patient-initiated physical aggression and physical symptoms, exhaustion and cynicism. In addition, FSSB moderated the relationship between coworker-initiated psychological aggression and physical symptoms and turnover intentions.

Implications

Based on our findings, family-supportive supervision is a plausible boundary condition for the relationship between workplace aggression and well-being and work outcomes. This study suggests that, in addition to directly addressing aggression prevention and reduction, family-supportive supervision is a trainable resource that healthcare organizations should facilitate to improve employee work and well-being in settings with high workplace aggression.

Originality

This is the first study to examine the role of FSSB in influencing the relationship between two forms of workplace aggression: patient-initiated physical and coworker-initiated psychological aggression and employee outcomes.

     

Executive functioning and prospective memory in young children

The current study examined the role of executive functioning (EF) in children's prospective memory (PM) by assessing the effect of delay and number of intentions to-be-remembered on PM, as well as relations between PM and EF. Ninety-six 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds completed a PM task and two executive function tasks. The PM task required children to interrupt an ongoing card game to perform one action (single intention) or two actions (dual intention) with target cards after a short delay (1 min) or a long delay (5 min). There was no main effect of number of intentions or delay on the PM task. However, performance improved with age, and age and delay interacted such that 4-year-olds’ performance remained the same after a long delay whereas 5-year-olds’ performance improved after a long delay. We suggest that the age by delay interaction is a product of age differences in cognitive monitoring. Working memory but not inhibitory control predicted PM with age controlled. We argue that an executive function framework permits an integrative understanding of many processes involved in young children's prospective memory.     

Endocannabinoids and stress

Endogenous cannabinoids play an important role in the physiology and behavioral expression of stress responses. Activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, including the release of glucocorticoids, is the fundamental hormonal response to stress. Endocannabinoid (eCB) signaling serves to maintain HPA-axis homeostasis, by buffering basal activity as well as by mediating glucocorticoid fast feedback mechanisms. Following chronic stressor exposure, eCBs are also involved in physiological and behavioral habituation processes. Behavioral consequences of stress include fear and stress-induced anxiety as well as memory formation in the context of stress, involving contextual fear conditioning and inhibitory avoidance learning. Chronic stress can also lead to depression-like symptoms. Prominent in these behavioral stress responses is the interaction between eCBs and the HPA-axis. Future directions may differentiate among eCB signaling within various brain structures/neuronal subpopulations as well as between the distinct roles of the endogenous cannabinoid ligands. Investigation into the role of the eCB system in allostatic states and recovery processes may give insight into possible therapeutic manipulations of the system in treating chronic stress-related conditions in humans.     

The psychometric properties and utility of the Short Sadistic Impulse Scale (SSIS)

Sadistic personality disorder (SPD) has been underresearched and often misunderstood in forensic settings. Furthermore, personality disorders in general are the subject of much controversy in terms of their classification (i.e., whether they should be categorical or dimensional). The Sadistic Attitudes and Behaviors Scale (SABS; Davies & Hand, 2003; O'Meara, Davies, & Barnes-Holmes, 2004) is a recently developed scale for measuring sadistic inclinations. Derived from this is the Short Sadistic Impulse Scale (SSIS), which has proved to be a strong unidimensional measure of sadistic inclination. Through cumulative scaling, it was investigated whether the SSIS could measure sadism on a continuum of interest, thus providing a dimensional view of the construct. Further, the SSIS was administered along with a number of other measures related to sadism in order to assess the validity of the scale. Results showed that the SSIS has strong construct and discriminant validity and may be useful as a screening measure for sadistic impulse.     

Effects of pre-experimental knowledge on recognition memory

The influence of pre-experimental autobiographical knowledge on recognition memory was investigated using as memoranda faces that were either personally known or unknown to the participant. Under a dual process theory, such knowledge boosted both recollection- and familiarity-based recognition judgements. Under an unequal variance signal detection model, pre-experimental knowledge increased both the variance and the separation of the target and foil memory strength distributions, boosting hits and correct rejections. Thus, pre-experimental knowledge has profound effects on the multiple, interacting processes that subserve recognition memory, and likely in the neural systems that underpin them.     

Samples in applied psychology: over a decade of research in review

This study examines sample characteristics of articles published in Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP) from 1995 to 2008. At the individual level, the overall median sample size over the period examined was approximately 173, which is generally adequate for detecting the average magnitude of effects of primary interest to researchers who publish in JAP. Samples using higher units of analyses (e.g., teams, departments/work units, and organizations) had lower median sample sizes (Mdn ≈ 65), yet were arguably robust given typical multilevel design choices of JAP authors despite the practical constraints of collecting data at higher units of analysis. A substantial proportion of studies used student samples (~40%); surprisingly, median sample sizes for student samples were smaller than working adult samples. Samples were more commonly occupationally homogeneous (~70%) than occupationally heterogeneous. U.S. and English-speaking participants made up the vast majority of samples, whereas Middle Eastern, African, and Latin American samples were largely unrepresented. On the basis of study results, recommendations are provided for authors, editors, and readers, which converge on 3 themes: (a) appropriateness and match between sample characteristics and research questions, (b) careful consideration of statistical power, and (c) the increased popularity of quantitative synthesis. Implications are discussed in terms of theory building, generalizability of research findings, and statistical power to detect effects.     

Testing pigeon memory in a change detection task

Six pigeons were trained in a change detection task with four colors. They were shown two colored circles on a sample array, followed by a test array with the color of one circle changed. The pigeons learned to choose the changed color and transferred their performance to four unfamiliar colors, suggesting that they had learned a generalized concept of color change. They also transferred performance to test delays several times their 50-msec training delay without prior delay training. The accurate delay performance of several seconds suggests that their change detection was memory based, as opposed to a perceptual attentional capture process. These experiments are the first to show that an animal species (pigeons, in this case) can learn a change detection task identical to ones used to test human memory, thereby providing the possibility of directly comparing short-term memory processing across species.