Developing conceptions of racism among young white adults in the context of cultural diversity coursework

Despite substantial research on racial attitudes and racial identity development among young white adults, little is known about the development of their conceptions about racism. The present study assessed a five-step, empirically based contextualist model of the development of conceptions about racism in young white adults, adapted from the research of Perry (1970), Kitchener and Fischer (1990), and others. A total of 55 young white adults participating in cultural diversity coursework responded to questionnaires about the nature and causes of racism and responses were classified according to the five-step model. Results indicated that many first-year white college students think about racism in dualistic terms, comparable to those described by Perry (1970) in some first-year students' epistemological concepts. Over a semester, many students showed transitions to higher steps, conceptually integrating more dimensions of the problem. Such developmental transitions may be highly context-specific. Implications for educational interventions are discussed.     

The child as informant: Eliciting linguistic intuitions from young children

In this paper we report an interview technique we have developed to elicit judgments from young children about the well-formedness and referential properties of sentences. Judgments are compared with act-out responses of a group of 20 children ranging in age from 3 years 9 months to 5 years 4 months. We argue that judgment data are more revealing of children's grammars than are traditional performance tasks.     

Revisiting the effect of incentivization on cognitive reflection: A meta-analysis

The effect of performance-based incentives on judgment biases is a controversial issue. A recent extensive meta-analysis of Brañas-Garza et al. (2019, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2019.101455 ) found no effect of incentives on performance in the cognitive reflection test (CRT), a test commonly used for assessing heuristic versus deliberative judgments. We conducted a meta-analysis of studies that directly compared an incentive versus no-incentive conditions (n = 2836) and found a small positive effect of incentivization (Cohen's d = .21) on CRT performance. In addition, we re-examined the Brañas-Garza et al. (2019) dataset (n = 39,385), taking into consideration not only whether incentivization was used but also the nominal and fiscal size of the incentive. The results show that surprisingly when including only studies that used monetary incentives, the effect of incentivization and incentive size are significant, even when taking into consideration other aspects of the studies. The results thus suggest a small but robust effect of incentives on judgment biases.     

Presurgery distress and specific response expectancies predict postsurgery outcomes in surgery patients confronting breast cancer.

Prior to scheduled surgery, patients frequently experience particularly high levels of distress and expect a variety of postsurgery symptoms. Surgery patients who confront breast cancer are no exception. It has been suggested that such presurgery distress and response expectancies are predictive of postsurgery outcomes. To test the contribution of presurgery distress and expectancies to common postsurgery symptom outcomes (pain, nausea, fatigue, and discomfort), 63 female patients undergoing breast cancer surgery were recruited to a prospective study. Results indicated that presurgery distress uniquely contributed to patients' postsurgery nausea, fatigue, and discomfort; specific expectancies uniquely contributed to pain intensity, pain unpleasantness, and fatigue (ps < .05). Consistent with expectancy theory, associations between response expectancies and postsurgery outcomes were not due to presurgery distress.     

Receipt of interpersonal citizenship: fostering agentic emotion,cognition, and action in organizations

With an eye to fostering an energized and empowered workforce, we explore the discrete emotion of self‐assurance (characterized by boldness, pride, and audacity), investigating how receipt of interpersonal citizenship behavior (ICB) fuels this agentic emotion. ICB includes acts of everyday concern that may be of a person‐ or task‐focused nature. With two survey samples, we propose and test a model that situates self‐assurance as a mechanism linking ICB‐receipt to employee thriving and empowerment. Additionally, we find links to citizenship enactment, as reported by coworkers. Notably, person‐focused ICB‐receipt may be just as beneficial to self‐assurance as task‐focused ICB‐receipt. These results hold equally for working women and men. Our multi‐study, multi‐source results underscore the role of agentic emotion in cultivating a proactive workforce.     

Act Expediently,with Autonomy: Vicarious Learning,Empowered Behaviors,and Performance

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to investigate how organizations can best facilitate an empowered workforce that makes autonomous decisions and acts expediently, which the literature on high performing organizations posits will increase the likelihood of sustained performance and retaining competitive advantages. We introduce a novel mechanism for encouraging such behaviors and pursuant outcomes: vicarious learning from a supervisor who demonstrates autonomy and expediency.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We drew experimental data from a sample of participants who underwent a managerial simulation, and used these data to investigate relationships between the vicarious learning of empowered behaviors and individual task performance (n = 100).

Findings

Results indicate that when supervisors behave with autonomy and expediency this both increases the extent to which individuals behave similarly, and is associated with enhanced individual performance. Further, we find that expedient behavior fully mediates the relationship between empowered supervisor behavior and performance.

Implications

Findings show that supervisors need not necessarily engage directly in empowering others. Rather, by modeling behaviors, supervisors can craft a context where employees may act with autonomy and efficiency. This provides an opportunity for empowerment that is both actionable and cost-effective.

Originality/Value

This is the first study to consider empowerment as a managerial phenomenon that can be vicariously learned, integrating theories of social learning and empowerment, and extending existing empowerment constructs (including psychological and structural) to develop an indirect, yet potent means of encouraging empowered behavior.

     

Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of a Measure of Child Irrationality

The article describes results from two studies that examined the psychometric properties of a measure of irrational thinking, the Child and Adolescent Scale of Irrationality (CASI), based on the model of REBT. Participants were 1034 children and parents recruited through schools and clinical settings. While the internal consistency of the total scale was quite high, the reliability of the proposed irrational subscales were considerably lower and an exploratory factor analysis failed to yield interpretable factors. Discriminative validity was demonstrated between subjects in clinical settings and school-based subjects on the total scale score and two of the irrational subscales. The total scale score and irrational subscales were correlated with ratings of behavior and emotion, with higher irrationality being correlated with higher levels of emotional and behavioral disturbance. Overall, while problems exist with the factor structure and reliability of the irrational subscales, the CASI appears to adequately measure irrational beliefs. Therefore, it may be clinically useful as a screener when working with children and adolescents.     

Comparing Brief Experimental Analysis and Teacher Judgment for Selecting Early Reading Interventions

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of brief experimental analysis (BEA) to identify early reading interventions for students in the primary grades and to compare teachers’ judgments about their students’ early reading intervention needs to BEA results. In addition, the research was conducted to explore how teachers make decisions regarding early reading intervention selection and evaluation. Three teachers and three elementary students (two kindergarten and one second grade) participated in the study. A BEA using a multielement design with mini-reversals was used to test the effects of four different interventions. Each teacher selected an intervention that she judged to be the most promising for her student. An extended analysis using an alternating treatments design compared the relative effects of the BEA-identified intervention and the teacher-identified intervention across time. The teachers were interviewed before and after selecting and implementing the interventions. The extended analysis results showed that the BEA-identified intervention was more effective than the teacher-identified intervention for all participants. Initial and final interview findings revealed that the teachers reported using data to make intervention decisions, but with limited specificity and in some cases, misjudgments. The results are discussed in regard to limitations and future research.     

Black Males Living in an Antithetical Police Culture: Keys for Their Survival

Police killings of unarmed Black males is an all too often occurrence. Just how many have succumbed in this manner is unknown due to a lack of a comprehensive reporting method. However, an undeniable fact and reality is that the Black community, and society as a whole, suffers as a result of the loss of these individuals. The authors of this article suggest that police shootings of unarmed Black males may never cease. The authors propose simple but thoughtful ways in which Black males should be educated by the Black community (family, church, and other institutions) regarding general survival skills and more specifically survival skills in regards to police encounters. Implications for further research are also presented.