Trust, Dependency, and Control in the Contemporary Organization

Trust is an essential element in productive and effective intraorganizational communication and interaction. The present study examined several consequences of trust in terms of influence strategies used and the frequency with which people interact with each other. The study also examined the extent to which the technology of work affects management's dependency on their employees. It was found that distrust of subordinates by managers (n = 275) was associated with the use of strong tactics of influence, little dependency on employees, and the use of personal-related characteristics to explain distrust. It was also found that distrust of managers by subordinates (n = 267) was associated with the use of strong methods of influence, less interaction, less attempts to influence, and the use of personal-related characteristics to explain lack of trust. These findings have clear implications for understanding the relation among worker trust, dependency, and social influence. The data suggest that both employees and employers could benefit from considering the importance of a trusting relationship in the workplace.     

Implicit learning of a repeated segment in continuous tracking: a reappraisal

Several prior studies (e.g., Shea, Wulf, Whitacre, & Park, 2001; Wulf & Schmidt, 1997) have apparently demonstrated implicit learning of a repeated segment in continuous-tracking tasks. In two conceptual replications of these studies, we failed to reproduce the original findings. However, these findings were reproduced in a third experiment, in which we used the same repeated segment as that used in the Wulf et al. studies. Analyses of the velocity and the acceleration of the target suggests that this repeated segment could be easier to track than the random segments serving as control, accounting for the results of Wulf and collaborators. Overall these experiments suggest that learning a repeated segment in continuous-tracking tasks may be much more difficult than learning from a repeated sequence in conventional serial reaction time tasks. A possible explanation for this difference is outlined.     

Terrorism, altruism, and patriotism: An examination of children’s letters to Santa Claus, 1998–2002

One annual tradition that children participate in is writing letters to Santa Claus. While parents and teachers pass on the general “rules” for the letters, the children often dictate the contents. The current study focused on whether the letters to Santa have changed over the years, especially in light of recent terrorist actions (for example, on the World Trade Center and Pentagon), and if so, how. Although many aspects of the letters to Santa have remained the same across the years, results indicated that requests for gifts for other people and the number of patriotic sentiments and drawings increased in 2001 and 2002. Also, compared to the year 2000, fewer gifts were requested in 2001. Santa Claus appears to be conceptualized as part demigod, part social worker, and part grandfather. The letters to Santa Claus provide a provocative and insightful look into the everyday life and world events that impact children.     

Emotional competence and quality of life of children with asthma: The mediating effect of coping strategies

This study explored the mediating effect of coping strategies on the relationship between emotional competence (EC) and quality of life (QOL) among children with asthma. Participants were 87 children (M age?=?11.72, SD?=?2.58) with controlled and partially controlled asthma, undergoing everyday treatment. They filled in questionnaires assessing EC, coping strategies and QOL. Results showed that the association between some ECs and the QOL of children with asthma was fully mediated by two maladaptive cognitive coping strategies. Among children with asthma, a greater ability to differentiate their emotions, a reduced attention to bodily signals of emotions and a reduced analysis of their current emotional state were related to decreased engagement in two coping strategies (‘Ignoring Asthma’ and ‘Worrying about Asthma’), which in turn increased their QOL. These findings show that EC has an indirect effect on QOL through very specific coping strategies. They also emphasise the importance of screening EC in children with asthma and the importance of developing and using multidisciplinary interventions for them.     

Parent–child relationship quality and infantile amnesia in adults

The first years of life are typically shrouded by infantile amnesia, but there is enormous variability between adults in how early and how much they can remember from this period. This study examined one possible factor affecting this variability: whether the perceived quality of parent–child relationships is associated with the number of early memories young adults can retrieve, and their age at the time of their first memory. We found such associations but they were qualified by parent gender. Mother–child relationships that were more affectively intense (greater social support but also more negative interchanges) were associated with recalling more early memories, although paternal companionship was most associated with how early an individual's first memory was. Affective tone of retrieved memories was also assessed, and a greater proportion of affectively positive memories (as well as fewer affectively neutral memories for males) was associated with high parental involvement in children's lives.     

Marital commitment,money and marriage preparation: What changes after the wedding?

This paper explores conceptions of commitment and styles of money management in heterosexual couples at two points in time: Just before the wedding (T1) and about a year later (T2). It also examines the potential effects of using FOCCUS as a form of marriage preparation (MP). Forty‐two couples were recruited at T1 and randomly allocated to either A MP group and a group that would not be offered any marriage preparation ‐ the Non‐Marriage Preparation group (NMP). Individual, in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews were carried out at T1 and T2, recorded and fully transcribed. A thematic analysis (TA) yielded three themes or levels of commitment which were used to categorize couples at T1 and T2. Their money management styles were defined based on Pahl's ( 1989 ) typology. The results showed that conceptions of commitment had developed slightly overall by T2, and had been enhanced in the MP group. At T2, a more elaborated conception of commitment was associated with a greater tendency to treat money as a collective resource. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The development and validation of the pictorial motivation scale in physical activity

The purpose of the present research was to report the validation of the pictorial motivation scale in English. This scale is designed for adolescents and adults with an intellectual disability who are unable to independently read a questionnaire. The scale has a picture and phrase depicting 16 items related to participation in sport and physical activity; four for each of the following subscales, intrinsic motivation, self-determined extrinsic motivation, non self-determined extrinsic motivation, and amotivation. Phase 1 of the research describes the formal translation of the scale from French to English. Results from three studies conducted with Special Olympians (Phase 2) and adolescents in a special school (Phases 3 and 4) provided support for the internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and factorial and construct validity of the scale. Overall, the scale would appear to be sufficiently reliable and valid to warrant its continued use and further development.

Team Coordination in Basketball: Description of the Cognitive Connections Among Teammates

This study investigated team coordination in basketball using the course-of-action theoretical framework. The focus was on how the players were connected with their teammates' activities. The activity of five French basketball players (17.60 ± .89 years) was studied during an official match. The data were collected and processed according to a procedure defined for course-of-action analysis. The results were used to characterize the coordination modes among players and the team coordination network that was built. The processes that underlie team coordination are discussed (i.e., mutuality and awareness), and some directions for practical applications are addressed.     

Contributions of metaknowledge to retrieval of natural categories in semantic memory

Retrieving the answer to a general knowledge question has been shown to involve two metacognitive processes--a feeling-of-knowing that initiates the search of long-term memory and a willingness to continue searching until an answer can be confidently stated. To extend this model, college students were asked to retrieve as many members of 2 natural categories as they could in 1 min. Examination of the points at which they switched categories revealed that they searched longer in categories of higher potency, and they switched earlier when the other category was of higher potency. They also searched the first category longer when they were allowed to switch only once during a trial rather than as often as they wished. It was concluded that feeling-of-knowing maintained search of a category and also contributed to the willingness to continue searching, and the constraint on switching impacted the willingness to continue.