Affective norms for 380 Spanish words belonging to three different semantic categories

Emotional words are increasingly used in the study of word processing. To elucidate whether the experimental effects obtained with these words are due either to their affective content or to other semantic characteristics, it is necessary to conduct experiments with affectively valenced words obtained from different semantic categories. In the present article, we present affective ratings for 380 Spanish words belonging to three semantic categories: animals, people, and objects. The norms are based on the assessments made by 504 participants, who rated about 47 words either in valence and arousal, by using the Self-Assessment Manikin (Bradley & Lang, Journal of Behavioral Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 25, 49-59. 1994), or in concreteness and familiarity. These ratings will help researchers select stimuli for experiments in which both the affective properties of words and their membership to a given semantic category have to be taken into account. The database is available as an online supplement for this article.     

Self- and social perception of physical appearance in chest wall deformity

This study analyzes self- and social perception of physical appearance in patients with chest wall deformity (CWD), including both pectus carinatum and pectus excavatum. Self-perception of appearance in 76 patients with CWD and social perception of patients' appearance by 20 adult and 20 adolescent raters was assessed using the Appearance Rating Scale (Stangier et al., 2000) and evaluated for agreement and multivariate correlates. Results indicate no agreement between self- and social rating. Based on mean scores patients rated their appearance significantly more negatively than adult raters but only slightly different than adolescent raters. Adolescent raters' judgment of the patients' appearance was related to CWD characteristics, while self-rating rather seems to be related to psychosocial factors. Because adolescents are a relevant peer group for adolescent patients with CWD their evaluation of the appearance might influence patients' self-image and might affect their psychological functioning. Effective interventions focusing on social interactions are needed.     

Parental Influences on the Prevalence and Development of Child Aggressiveness

The development of aggressiveness between 5 and 17 years and some parental influences on this development were analyzed using data from Germany. International studies have shown a “camel humps” curve, i.e., a peak of aggression of children (primarily boys) between 2 and 4 years and a second peak of antisocial or aggressive behavior of boys between 15 and 20 years, but small groups of children and adolescents were persistently aggressive. A representative longitudinal study (2,190 children and their parents) and an additional study (1,372 children and adolescents) were conducted in Germany. The hypotheses of this article are that in the data can be found (a) an U-shaped course of aggressiveness for boys and girls, but on different levels, (b) a minority of persistently aggressive children and youth, (c) influences of parental temperaments, behavioral tendencies, parenting styles and the family status on the children’s aggressiveness. The results replicate roughly the “valley” of the U-shaped course of aggressiveness. Small groups of chronically aggressive children were found as well. Influences of parental temperaments and corresponding behavioral tendencies (internalizing and externalizing behavior), parenting styles (child-centered communication, use of violence) and the social status of the families on child aggressiveness confirmed the hypotheses. These processes were moderated by gender effects between mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons. In regard to the group of persistently aggressive young people prevention of aggression should start early in childhood and over the long term. Parent education should consider more the individual personalities of the parents, not only parenting styles.     

Employee voice at work: the role of employees’ gender,self-efficacy beliefs,and leadership

ABSTRACT

Building on social role theory, we investigated the association between gender and employee voice (employees’ speaking up in a challenging but constructive way about work-related issues) in a typically male-dominated sector. In two field studies in the logistics context, we tested how and when gender is related to employee voice. In Study 1 (N = 132), we examined whether the gender-voice association is mediated by general self-efficacy beliefs. In Study 2 (N = 99), we replicated the indirect effect of gender on employee voice via general self-efficacy beliefs and investigated whether this indirect effect is contingent on supportive leadership. Using path analytical procedures, we found a significant indirect effect moderated by supportive leadership: At low and medium levels of supportive leadership, women reported less self-efficacy than men, which in turn resulted in less voice. At high levels of supportive leadership, the indirect effect was nonsignificant. Our studies contribute to research on the mechanisms and boundary conditions of gender’s influence in the employee voice process and have practical implications for leaders in male-dominated working contexts who want to encourage their female employees to speak up about work-related issues.     

Expanding Echo: Coordinated Head Articulations as Nonmanual Enhancements in Sign Language Phonology

Echo phonology was originally proposed to account for obligatory coordination of manual and mouth articulations observed in several sign languages. However, previous research into the phenomenon lacks clear criteria for which components of movement can or must be copied when the articulators are so different. Nor is there discussion of which nonmanual articulators can echo manual movement. Given the prosodic properties of echoes (coordination of onset/offset and of dynamics such as speed) as well as general motoric coordination of various articulators in the human body, we expect that the mouth is not the only nonmanual articulator involved in echo phonology. In this study, we look at a fixed set of lexical items across 36 sign languages and establish that the head can echo manual movement with respect to timing and to the axis/axes of manual movement. We propose that what matters in echo phonology is the visual percept of temporally coordinated movement that repeats a salient movement property in such a way as to give the visual impression of a copy. Our findings suggest that echoes are not obligatory motor couplings of two or more articulators but may enhance phonological distinctions that are otherwise difficult to see.