Does customer aggression more strongly affect happy employees? The moderating role of positive affectivity and extraversion

Customer abusive behavior has been found to be a major source of stress for service workers. The main purpose of the present research was to investigate the moderating role of positive affectivity (PA) on the relationship between customer verbal aggression and organizational outcomes. Three studies, based on three separate samples of service employees (Study 1: N = 187; Study 2: N = 422, Study 3: N = 156) demonstrated that frequency of customer aggression was a strong predictor of job-induced tension, job-related attitudes and emotional dissonance even after controlling for negative affectivity. A primary finding of this research was that positive disposition of employees did not reduce the negative consequences of interactions with aggressive customers, but rather increased them. The research provides additional support for the notion that positive disposition can be associated with unfavorable organizational outcomes in certain situation. The results also point out that those who are more likely to be negatively affected by frequent interactions with aggressive customers, are the very service workers that organizations tend to value most. Implications for management and future research are discussed.     

Representationalism and Husserlian Phenomenology

According to contemporary representationalism, phenomenal qualia—of specifically sensory experiences—supervene on representational content. Most arguments for representationalism share a common, phenomenological premise: the so-called “transparency thesis.” According to the transparency thesis, it is difficult—if not impossible—to distinguish the quality or character of experiencing an object from the perceived properties of that object. In this paper, I show that Husserl would react negatively to the transparency thesis; and, consequently, that Husserl would be opposed to at least two versions of contemporary representationalism. First, I show that Husserl would be opposed to strong representationalism, since he believes the cognitive content of a perceptual episode can vary despite constancy of sensory qualia. Second, I then show that Husserl would be opposed to weak representationalism, since he believes that sensory qualia—specifically, the sort that he calls “kinesthetic sensations”—can vary despite constancy in representational content.     

Behandlungs- und Kunstfehler in der Psychoanalyse

Failures and transgressions in psychoanalyses are nowadays more often published and also ascribed to mistakes made by the therapists. In German professional literature, however, no difference is made between treatment errors due to the special method and serious malpractice. The authors show in case studies transgressions in the psychoanalytic setting und discuss their causes and consequences.     

Zeitlosigkeit und Verg?nglichkeit (in) der Psychoanalyse

The author shows that the accessible psychoanalytic unconscious is not timeless. Freud??s ??timeless unconscious??, which was ontologized by himself and his successors, proves to be fiction with negative consequences. Assuming ??timeless?? primary processes psychoanalysis as a therapy would bite the hand which feeds it. Instead of contrasting linear time to the cyclic personal experience of time, the author suggests to speak about the ??emergence of lived time?? and the ??new moments?? of encounter in the therapeutic situation, to emphasize the importance of the opportune moment for change in contrast to the cyclic repetition of transference. In order to understand and approach disorders of time perception knowledge of unconscious conflicts and defense processes remains crucial. Even dreams are not timeless. While our conscious mind works according to chronological patterns, the pictorial representation in the particular form of thinking asleep, dreaming, makes it possible to map different memory traces simultaneously. Freud??s speculations about the ??timeless unconscious?? and Nirvana may originate from a longing for redemption. In contrast the author??s final chapter deals with the potential life span and transience of some central psychoanalytic concepts. Not even those who prove to be very close to observation can be attributed with ??eternal life??.     

Re-Visioning Medicine

Studies suggest that medical students and physicians have higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation than their peers in the general population. Some authors have suggested that medical culture perpetuates these problems by erecting “barriers to treatment,” preventing students and physicians from getting the help they need. Here, the author begins a broader examination of the potential role of culture by examining the myths and symbols that form the basis for medical culture and the medical self-image. The author argues that a medical self-image based on a de-contextualized medical mythology, the Asclepius myth, results in a sense of professional identity that is unbalanced, dehumanized, and characterized by unattainable expectations. The outward expression of this medical self-image, the medical culture, is often a-relational, unhealthy, stressed, or even toxic. The author suggests some ways of re-modeling medical culture, including its rituals and symbols, and medical education in ways that incorporate what is currently kept in its shadow.     

Between Black and White: Examining Grey Literature in Meta-analyses of Psychological Research

The inclusion of grey literature in meta-analyses and reviews is controversial. We examine both the advantages and challenges of including grey literature in meta-analyses. An exemplar meta-analysis of behavioral parenting interventions on parent behavior, child behavior, and parent adjustment outcomes is used to demonstrate these issues. It also explores the influence of the inclusion of grey literature on outcomes, including whether effect sizes are affected by the inclusion of grey literature and describes the challenges of searching for grey literature using traditional search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Homogeneity and publication bias are also examined. Based on these results, recommendations are presented for meta-analysts and researchers.     

What's mom got to do with it? Contributions of maternal executive function and caregiving to the development of executive function across early childhood

Executive functions (EFs; e.g. working memory, inhibitory control) are mediated by the prefrontal cortex and associated with optimal cognitive and socio‐emotional development. This study provides the first concurrent analysis of the relative contributions of maternal EF and caregiving to child EF. A group of children and their mothers (n = 62) completed age‐appropriate interaction (10, 24, 36 months) and EF tasks (child: 24, 36, and 48 months). Regression analyses revealed that by 36 months of age, maternal EF and negative caregiving behaviors accounted for unique variance in child EF, above and beyond maternal education and child verbal ability. These findings were confirmed when using an early child EF composite‐our most reliable measure of EF – and a similar pattern was found when controlling for stability in child EF. Furthermore, there was evidence that maternal EF had significant indirect effects on changes in child EF through maternal caregiving. At 24 months, EF was associated with maternal EF, but not negative caregiving behaviors. Taken together, these findings suggest that links between negative caregiving and child EF are increasingly manifested during early childhood. Although maternal EF and negative caregiving are related, they provide unique information about the development of child EF. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPKXFbbrkps     

Aligning inside and outside perspectives of the self: A cross‐cultural difference in self‐perception

Past research shows that European Americans tend to take a first‐person perspective to understand the self and are unlikely to align the inside look with the outside gaze, whereas Asians tend to take a third‐person perspective and are likely to shift their inside look in the direction of the outsize gaze. In three experiments, we compared Asians and European Americans' self‐perceptions when the presence of their parents in the background of self‐perception was primed or otherwise. Without the priming, both European Americans and Asians viewed themselves more positively from their own perspective than from their parents' perspective. With the priming, only Asians lowered the positivity of their self‐perceptions to match the perceived positivity of the self in the parents' perspective. These results suggest that Asians do not have a static, passive tendency to assimilate their self‐views into the perceived external assessments of the self. Rather, their self‐views are fluid and flexible.     

Work,Leisure, and Life Satisfaction for Employees with Physical Disabilities in South Korea

Applied Research in Quality of Life - Empirical studies on work-life balance (WLB) among employees without disabilities are abundant; in contrast, insufficient research exists on WLB and quality of...