Eating Together at the Firehouse: How Workplace Commensality Relates to the Performance of Firefighters

Cooperative activities among coworkers can provide valuable group-level benefits; however, previous research has often focused on artificial activities that require extraordinary efforts away from the worksite. We investigate organizational benefits that firms might obtain through various supports for coworkers to engage in commensality (i.e., eating together). We conducted field research within firehouses in a large city to explore the role that interacting over food might have for work-group performance. Using a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods, our field research shows a significant positive association between commensality and work-group performance. Our findings establish a basis for research and practice that focuses on ways that firms can enhance team performance by leveraging the mundane and powerful activity of eating.     

Latent Differential Equation Modeling of Self-Regulatory and Coregulatory Affective Processes

We examine emotion self-regulation and coregulation in romantic couples using daily self-reports of positive and negative affect. We fit these data using a damped linear oscillator model specified as a latent differential equation to investigate affect dynamics at the individual level and coupled influences for the 2 partners in each couple. Results indicate an absence of damping of relationship-specific affect within individuals in the sample. When both positive and negative affect are modeled at the individual level, the influence of positive affect is greater than that of negative affect. At the dyad level, the findings indicate coupled influences in both positive and negative affect between partners. With regard to positive affect, females are sensitive to their partners' overall displacement from average as well as their rate of change; males are sensitive only to their partners' displacement from average. For negative affect both partners are sensitive to each other's displacement from average, yet there are no coupled influences for rates of change in this dimension. We interpret the influence of the parameters on the system by examining the expected behavior of the system as a function of varying parameter values.     

The role of perfectionism in cognitive behaviour therapy outcomes for clinically anxious children

The main aim of this study was to determine whether pre-treatment levels of child perfectionism impacted on anxiety treatment outcomes for school-aged children. In addition, it was investigated whether child perfectionism decreased following treatment for anxiety. Participants were sixty-seven clinically anxious children aged 6–13 years (female = 34; majority Caucasian) who were enrolled in a group-based cognitive behaviour therapy program, and their parents. They completed self-report questionnaires on anxiety and depressive symptoms and were administered a diagnostic interview to determine the type and clinician rated severity of anxiety and related disorders pre- and post-treatment and at 6-month follow-up. Self- and parent-rated perfectionism were also measured pre-treatment, while a subset of children completed perfectionism measures post-treatment as well. Self-Oriented Perfectionism, but not Socially Prescribed Perfectionism, predicted poorer self-reported treatment outcome (higher levels of anxiety symptoms) immediately following treatment and at 6-month follow-up when using a multi-informant approach. Additionally, both Self-Oriented and Socially Prescribed child perfectionism significantly reduced immediately following treatment. Despite reductions in child perfectionism following anxiety treatment, higher Self-Oriented Perfectionism may impact negatively on child anxiety treatment outcome.     

Development and Validation of the Xhosa Translations of the Beck Inventories: 1. Challenges of the Translation Process

This article describes the translation of the Beck Depression Inventory-II, the Beck Hopeless Scale, and the Beck Anxiety Inventory, into Xhosa the language spoken in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The processes of translation, back-translation and committee discussion failed to yield trustworthy translations because of practical difficulties in working with translators. Critical words and phrases were identified which gave rise to lack of agreement. For each, a range of options was generated and the advantages and disadvantages evaluated in terms of criteria such as conceptual and idiomatic equivalence, and extensiveness of usage. Examples are given of the problems encountered and the way in which final decisions were made. A pilot clinical trial demonstrated the acceptability of the translated instruments. Two further articles report the psychometric evaluation of the translated scales.     

Development and Validation of the Xhosa Translations of the Beck Inventories: 2. Item Analysis,Internal Consistency and Factor Analysis

The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) were translated into Xhosa, a language widely spoken in South Africa to yield translated scales referred to as the XBDI-I (Xhosa BDI-II), the XBAI (Xhosa BAI) and the XBHS (Xhosa BHS). These scales were administered to a sample of 122 Xhosa respondents which included students and patients. The psychometric properties of the translated scales were comparable to those of the original English versions. Measures of internal consistency were as high as those for the validation studies in the USA and good item-scale correlations were obtained. This suggests that the translation yielded clinically useful scales which tap symptoms that are largely culturally universal.     

What Matters to Stakeholders? Measuring Values at a University Museum

ABSTRACT

Perceptions of museum performance may be linked to individual values. This study asked members of different groups that hold a stake in a university museum (e.g., Alaska Native, Art Community, Business Community, Donors/Museum Members, Military Leaders, Science Community, K–12 Teachers, University Leaders) what they valued about their museum's performance. Results indicate that key differences exist with respect to performance indicators among some groups; however, stakeholders as a whole highly value indicators related to the human face of the museum and the collections. Museums can use these results to develop and pursue appropriate goals for specific audiences and to develop performance reports that matter to stakeholders.     

Self and modernity on trial: A reply to cergen's saturated self

Abstract

In The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life, Kenneth Gergen (1991) suggests that the rising uncertainty ushered in by the postmodern age has resulted in the collapse of traditional conceptions of self, truth, and social life. Although we agree that meaning is a product of social construction, we believe that Gergen has overextended his case. We argue that there is a need to maintain a notion of personal agency in constructionist models of human functioning and that an epigenetic-systems model of development (Gottlieb, 1991a, 1991b) provides a useful framework for doing so. We also suggest that even though social frameworks structure people's observations, data from their worlds nevertheless constrain theory making and foster scientific progress. Finally, we question whether postmodernism has provided a convincing strategy for dealing with the conflicts that arise from competing value systems.     

Religious coping,stigma, and psychological functioning among HIV-positive African American women

The present study examined the role of religious coping in psychological distress and adjustment both cross-sectionally and longitudinally among 141 HIV-positive African American women. Cross-sectional analyses showed that negative religious coping was associated with poorer mental health and functioning, and greater perceptions of stigma and discrimination. Longitudinal analyses revealed that greater negative religious coping at baseline significantly predicted greater changes in mental health in a negative direction 12 months later. Positive religious coping was not associated with any measures of psychological well-being, nor did it predict any mental health outcomes at 12 months. However, participants who experienced high levels of HIV-related stigma and reported high levels of positive religious coping were less depressed than those who reported lower levels of positive religious coping. These results suggest that for this population, negative religious coping was a more salient determinant of psychological distress than positive religious coping was of psychological health.     

The effects of formal order and spatial content on reasoning in three dimensions

This study investigates the effects of formal order and spatial content on reasoning in three dimensions in view of the Formal Rules theory and the Mental Models theory of spatial reasoning. Twenty‐six subjects solved 144 spatial deductive problems that varied by the formal order of the entities (referential order, referential continuity) and the spatial content (dimension, orientation, and direction). There were two dependant variables: the correct responses and their response times. The number of mental models and the formal derivations underlying the deductions allowed comparison of opposite predictions made by the Formal Rules theory and the Mental Models theory of spatial reasoning. The results overwhelmingly supported the Mental Models theory's predictions. The effects of referential order showed that problems yielding two possible mental models were significantly more difficult than problems based on one mental model, although the former problems involved a shorter formal derivation than the latter. The effects of referential continuity also generalized the Mental Models theory's prediction to reasoning in all three dimensions. The effects of referential continuity showed that problems that required independent layouts in memory were reliably more difficult than problems that allowed the continuous integration of the entities in a mental model. We obtained these results despite the fact that the former condition required a shorter formal derivation than the latter. The effects of spatial content were also reliable despite the fact that the formal derivations were the same across spatial content. Thus, spatial deductions were significantly easier to make in 1D than in 2D and in 2D than 3D. Deductions were also significantly easier to make from left to right along the horizontal axis of a mental model, and from top to bottom along the vertical axis rather than from the respective opposite directions. The effects of spatial content suggest that mental models reproduce spatial relations relative to reference frames.     

Effects of Organizational Level and Gender on Stress in the Workplace

Occupational stress adversely affects productivity, absenteeism, and job turnover, and contributes to health-related problems. The effects of organizational level and gender on the specific sources of occupational stress assessed by the Job Stress Survey (JSS) were evaluated for a heterogeneous sample of 1,791 working adults (860 males, 931 females) employed in 2 industrial companies and a large state university. Significant main or interactive effects of organizational level and/or gender were found for the JSS Item Index, Severity and/or Frequency scores of 29 of the 30 JSS items. Organizational level effects were both more numerous and larger in magnitude than gender effects. Employees at higher organizational levels reported that they experienced stress more often while making critical decisions and dealing with crisis situations than did workers at lower levels, for whom inadequate salary and lack of opportunity for advancement were more stressful. For males, work stress was more strongly related to concerns about their role in the power structure of an organization, whereas female employees reported experiencing more severe stress when there was a conflict between job requirements and family relationships.