career beliefs and job satisfaction in adults with symptoms of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder

The authors evaluated dysfunctional career beliefs and subsequent low job satisfaction in adults reporting significant symptoms of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants (N= 81) completed the Adult Attention Deficit Disorders Evaluation Scale (S. B. McCarney & P. D. Anderson, 1996), the Career Thoughts Inventory (J. P. Sampson, G.W. Peterson, J. G. Lenz, R. C. Reardon, & D. E. Saunders, 1996), and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (D. J. Weiss, R. V. Dawis, G. W. England, & L. H. Lofquist, 1967). Regression analyses confirmed that ADHD symptoms were significantly predictive of dysfunctional career beliefs, decision‐making confusion, commitment anxiety, and external conflict.     

Effects of classroom organization on letter-word reading in first grade

Teacher organization is a crucial part of classroom functioning; however, its relation to student achievement has not been investigated as extensively as that of instruction. In this study, organization is defined as the amount of time teachers spend explaining the purpose and procedures of learning activities and daily routines. Data from first-grade classrooms (N = 44) observed three times during the school year (fall, winter, and spring) are analyzed, along with students' (N = 108) literacy skills at fall and spring. Hierarchical Linear Modeling reveals that, controlling for students' fall word reading and vocabulary skills, as well as amount of language arts instruction they receive, both amount and change in amount over time in classroom organization significantly predicts spring word reading skills. Specifically, children in classrooms observed in higher amounts of classroom time in organization at the beginning of the school year, followed by sharp decreases over the school year, demonstrated stronger letter and word reading skills by spring, and this was a main effect (p < .05). Practical and research implications are discussed.     

Fear Appeals Revisited: Testing a Unique Anti-smoking Film

Past research has found that fear-arousing persuasive messages can significantly affect attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. In this study, participants in high and low threat conditions viewed appropriately edited versions of a unique fear appeal video used in the American Lung Association’s anti-smoking campaign, while control condition participants viewed no film. Threat condition participants expressed stronger anti-smoking behavioral intentions than did control condition participants. These results represent the first effectiveness test of this widely used film.     

The FLMP STMPed

Massaro and Chen (2008) offer a commentary ostensibly on a recent article by Galantucci, Fowler, and Turvey (2006). Our article provided an evaluation of Alvin Liberman’s motor theory of speech perception. We considered it timely to evaluate the motor theory’s different claims, and we hoped to understand why the theory has been better received outside the field of speech than within it. Accordingly, we evaluated its component claims and embedded our presentation of the theory within a wider scientific context, rather than restricting it to the field of speech. However, Massaro and Chen did not undertake to understand the motor theory or to evaluate the effort by Galantucci et al. Rather, they chose to evaluate a different theory of speech than the one on which Galantucci et al. focused. They evaluated direct-realist theory, erroneously referring to it as a motor theory. I take this opportunity to clarify the difference, staving off potential confusion, and to address other errors in their critique.     

Trans-saccadic perception

A basic question in cognition is how visual information obtained in separate glances can produce a stable, continuous percept. Previous explanations have included theories such as integration in a trans-saccadic buffer or storage in visual memory, or even that perception begins anew with each fixation. Converging evidence from primate neurophysiology, human psychophysics and neuroimaging indicate an additional explanation: the intention to make a saccadic eye movement leads to a fundamental alteration in visual processing itself before and after the saccadic eye movement. We outline five principles of 'trans-saccadic perception' that could help to explain how it is possible - despite discrete sensory input and limited memory - that conscious perception across saccades seems smooth and predictable.     

Day-to-Day Variability in Empathy as a Function of Daily Events and Mood

Despite broad agreement that understanding a personality construct requires integrating trait and state levels of analysis, few studies have explicitly attempted such an integration. The present study did this by examining the relationships between trait and state measures of empathy. State measures were taken daily, with a focus on the day level (within-person) covariation between empathy and daily mood and events. Twice a week for up to 10 weeks, 103 participants provided measures of their daily empathy and mood (NA and PA) and described the events that occurred each day. Multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses found that daily empathy covaried positively with the impact of daily positive and negative social events and with daily positive and negative affect. Empathy did not covary with achievement-related events. Analyses that simultaneously included empathy, mood, and events suggested that daily NA mediated relationships between daily empathy and daily negative social events. Although mean daily empathy was positively related to trait empathy, trait empathy did not moderate relationships between daily empathy and events nor between daily empathy and mood. Moreover, daily empathy did not covary with daily depressogenic thinking, need for cognition, nor self-esteem, suggesting that empathy is distinct from these constructs. Possible mechanisms linking social events and empathy, such as emotional contagion, are discussed.     

Selection or Training? A Two-Fold Test of the Validity of Job-Analytic Ratings of Trainability

Decisions to use selection devices or training are typically based on subject matter expert (SME) judgments concerning the trainability of job components, including tasks and knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs). The studies reported here examined the validity of SME trainability judgments from two perspectives. We found that (1) different SME groups' judgments related differently to actual learning changes in KSAOs covered in a training program and (2) sources of variability thought to be unrelated to the job influenced trainability ratings. Implications for the selection of SMEs in job analysis applications intended to determine the trainability of various job components are outlined.     

Impact of pre-existing levels of hostility and aggression on substance abuse treatment outcome

The impact of the change in level of hostility and aggression on subsequent substance abuse (drug, alcohol, or combined) recovery was investigated. One hundred and thirty-two dually diagnosed veterans completed an inpatient treatment programme at a large DVA Medical Centre. Results showed significant decreases in addiction severity over 3 month and 12 month following-up. At 3 months, pretreatment severity was predictive of drug, alcohol, and drug/alcohol severity whereas change in hostility and aggression scores were not. At 12 months, however, pretreatment severity was predictive only of drug severity whereas change in hostility and aggression were predictive of alcohol and combined drug/alcohol severity. Implications for changes in substance abuse correlates over time are discussed.     

Problem-Solving Appraisal and Psychological Adjustment of Persons with Chronic Low-Back Pain

To examine the role of self-appraised problem-solving ability in the prediction of psychosocial impairment, depression, hopelessness, average pain unpleasantness, and current pain ratings among persons with chronic low-back pain. A second purpose was to enhance theoretical understanding of the mechanisms by which problem-solving appraisal influences adjustment. Correlational and regression procedures were used to test the hypothesized relations procedures between elements of self-appraised problem-solving ability and each criterion variable. Seventy-eight persons enrolled in an inpatient multidisciplinary chronic pain management program. The psychosocial subscale of the Sickness Impact Profile, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the McGill Pain Questionnaire, and Visual Analogue Scales of Pain Sensory Intensity and Affective Response were the main outcome measures. After first controlling demographic characteristics, elements of self-appraised problem-solving ability assessed by the Problem-Solving Inventory were significantly predictive of depression, hopelessness, psychosocial impairment, and average pain unpleasantness (accounting for 20, 26, 29, and 11% of the respective variance in these constructs). Results indicate complex relations among the elements of problem-solving appraisal, suggesting that the Approach–Avoidance link to psychological adjustment was mediated by Problem-Solving Confidence. Comprehensive problem-solving interventions may be beneficial to persons with chronic pain