Testing between-family associations in within-family comparisons

Using behaviorally discordant siblings to test for gene-behavior associations is a common tool in molecular genetics, because the within-family contrast offers a research design that avoids confounds inevitable in all between-family comparisons of unrelated individuals. We propose a similar strategy to assess the behavior-behavior associations on which much of psychological science is built. Between-family correlations of personality test scores (e.g., sensation seeking) and behavioral outcomes (e.g., substance use) may be mediated by variables that differ between families (e.g., social class or religiosity) and correlate with both personality and outcome. Contrasting twin and nontwin siblings who were highly discordant for behavioral correlates of substance use, we tested whether between-family behavioral correlations replicated within families. Some, but not all, did. Within-family analyses of behaviorally discordant siblings may find wide application in efforts to clarify the meaning of correlational research data.     

Gender differences in orthographic, verbal, and compositional fluency: Implications for assessing writing disabilities in primary grade children

Measures of oral verbal fluency (word finding), written orthographic fluency (alphabet task), and written composition (narrative and oral expository) were administered to 300 children (50 girls and 50 boys each in the first, second, and third grades). Both oral verbal fluency and written orthographic fluency correlated significantly with the number of words (fluency) and the number of clauses (microorganization) in the compositions, but boys performed significantly better than girls on oral verbal fluency and girls performed significantly better than boys on written orthographic fluency. Girls consistently outperformed boys on the number of words and the number of clauses produced in narrative and expository composition. Thus, in beginning writing, orthographic fluency may be relatively more important than verbal fluency and boys may be at greater risk for writing disabilities. However, more boys were identified as having a disability in composition when absolute criteria (lowest 5% of normal distribution) were used, but about the same number of boys and girls were identified as having a disability in composition when relative criteria (significant discrepancy between Verbal IQ and compositional skill, based on the Mahalanobis statistic) were used. School psychologists are encouraged to use standardized measures of othographic, verbal, and compositional fluency to identify primary grade children needing early intervention to prevent more severe writing disabilities.     

Investigating Relationships Among Distress Tolerance,PTSD Symptom Severity,and Alcohol Use

Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment - Exposure to trauma (particularly interpersonal trauma), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and low distress tolerance (DT; the...     

Do individual differences in need strength moderate the relations between basic psychological need satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior?

An important theoretical debate in the literature on psychological needs concerns the potential moderating role of individuals’ need strength in the effects of basic psychological need satisfaction. The present study adds to the relatively small literature with inconsistent findings by examining whether the relations between work-related basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) and organizational citizenship behavior (i.e., constructive voluntary job performance) are enhanced when employees’ work-specific explicit need strength increases. Survey data from two samples of employees in the United States (N = 353; M_Age = 38.13) and in the Netherlands (N = 298; M_Age = 44.57) consistently showed that across the need domains, need satisfaction was positively associated with organizational citizenship behavior through work engagement. However, we only found minor evidence for a moderating role of need strength. These findings largely endorse core self-determination theory assertions, as they underscore the relevance of employees’ psychological need satisfaction rather than fit between high psychological need satisfaction and high need strength in the workplace.

     

RAMP Findings and Making Sense of the ‘God Within Each Person,Rather than Out There’

This research note provides selected ‘belief’ data from the RAMP (Religious and Moral Pluralism) survey—data of an apparently arresting nature. The present discussion is primarily directed at offering several hypotheses to do with interpretations and explanations of the data. The overarching aim is to contribute to a research agenda which is of considerable significance for the sociological study of spirituality and religion, with profound implications for policy makers.     

Conditions for speeding behaviour: A comparison of car drivers and powered two wheeled riders

Against a UK background of decreases in collisions involving car drivers, motorcycle collisions are on the increase. To throw light on this process, this paper explores differences between motorcyclists and car drivers in the conditions for speeding behaviour. Some predictions derived from the model of Task-difficulty Homeostasis (TDH) were tested using self-report data from samples of older (>35 years), male car drivers (n = 269) and motorcyclists (n = 102). As predicted, riders were more likely to speed on rural roads and less likely to speed on urban roads, and, riders were much more likely to speed in daytime than at night.Riding a motorcycle offers opportunities for expressive use of the vehicle and riders are more likely to say they really enjoy riding fast. However amongst older riders this behaviour appears to be largely confined to daytime riding on rural roads. Compared with cars, motorcycles provide more of an opportunity to manoeuvre around obstacles in controlling task demand, rather than using speed as the primary controlling variable. Although this provides more options for the rider, it carries with it vulnerability to loss of control from variation in road surface adhesion and maintaining too high a speed.     

Parental monitoring moderates the importance of genetic and environmental influences on adolescent smoking

Although there is a substantial literature on the role of parenting in adolescent substance use, most parenting effects have been small in magnitude and studied outside the context of genetically informative designs, raising debate and controversy about the influence that parents have on their children (D. C. Rowe, 1994). Using a genetically informative twin-family design, the authors studied the role of parental monitoring on adolescent smoking at age 14. Although monitoring had only small main effects, consistent with the literature, there were dramatic moderation effects associated with parental monitoring: At high levels of parental monitoring, environmental influences were predominant in the etiology of adolescent smoking, but at low levels of parental monitoring, genetic influences assumed far greater importance. These analyses demonstrate that the etiology of adolescent smoking varies dramatically as a function of parenting.     

Group commitment as a moderator of attributional and behavioural responses to power use

This study used 50 Natural Science and English Literature students who held differential behavioural expectations of ingroup and outgroup members to investigate evaluative, attributional and behavioural responses to power use in an experimental research paradigm. It was hypothesized that subordinates interpret frequent power use by a superior differently depending on whether it is consistent or inconsistent with previous expectations. Frequent power use results in decreased satisfaction and negative evaluations of the superior. Attributional ratings indicated that when an outgroup member engaged in frequent power use, this negatively evaluated behaviour was attributed to the superior's group membership, and resulted in decreased cooperation on the part of the subordinate. To the extent that frequent power use of an ingroup member was attributed to external circumstances, subordinates maintained a sense of commitment to the ingroup superior, which resulted in displays of cooperative behaviour. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.