The Interplay of Low Identification,Psychological Detachment,and Cynicism for Predicting Counterproductive Work Behaviour

Prior research suggests that psychological detachment buffers the detrimental effects of negative work events and stressors on employees’ subsequent performance and well-being. This, however, assumes that employees are motivated to reengage in their work following detachment, which may not always be true. Our paper examines the potential dark side of psychological detachment by exploring its moderating effects on the relationship of low organisational identification with counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) via cynicism toward work. Based on self-discrepancy theory, we argue that detachment strengthens the link from low identification to cynicism because it reinforces the psychological distance of lowly identified employees with the organisation and provides them with additional resources to more deeply reflect on their mismatch with their organisation, thus generating stronger feelings of doubt and distrust that characterise cynicism. We also hypothesise that detachment strengthens the relation from cynicism to CWB, because detachment reinforces personal separation from work in cynical employees and because cynical employees may leverage their replenished resources to fuel deviant acts. Multi-wave data collected from two field samples support our hypotheses. We discuss the implications of our study and propose future research directions.     

Unrequited love: The role of prior commitment,motivation to remain friends,and friendship maintenance

ABSTRACT

This study tested a moderated mediation model that commitment prior to an unrequited love episode will be related to higher levels of friendship maintenance behaviors after the episode and that this relationship will be mediated by the individual’s motivations to remain friends with the rejecter. We predicted that rejection distress would weaken the mediational model among those reporting high distress. Participants wrote about an unrequited love experience as a pursuer and completed measures of pre-unrequited love commitment, rejection distress, motivations to remain friends, and friendship maintenance behaviors. Our results confirmed the moderated mediation model when the motivations to remain friends measure overall score, the interpersonal connection motivation, or the social connections motivation was the mediator. When covariates were added, only the model with the overall motivations score as mediator was supported. These data can help laypersons and mental health professionals understand and potentially repair friendships following an unrequited love episode.     

Minimally-effective interpolated stimuli in weight discrimination

The question of minimally effective weights was investigated by using an interpolated anchor paradigm. The weight series of 100 to 300 g,at 50-g-step intervals, was shown to be significantly affected by an interpolated anchor of 0.5 g, thus demonstrating a reduction in the region of ineffectiveness. The results were discussed in terms of procedural artifacts in the weight-judging methods reported in previous literature.     

African-American Male Academies: A Positive View

African-American male academies are advocated to promote the positive academic and holistic development of an endangered segment of our society—the young African-American male.     

Spiritual health locus of control and breast cancer beliefs among urban African American women.

The present study examined the relationship between spiritual health locus of control, breast cancer beliefs, and mammography utilization among a sample of 1,227 African American women from urban public health centers. Spiritual health locus of control was conceptualized as having an active and passive dimension, empowering individuals in their health beliefs and behaviors or rendering them to rely on a higher power (e.g., God) to determine their health outcomes, respectively. The active dimension was negatively associated with perceived benefits of mammography and positively associated with perceived barriers to mammography. The active and passive spiritual dimensions are distinct from internal and external health locus of control. Further study of their associations with other health-related beliefs and behaviors is warranted.     

On the relationship of frontal brain activity and anger: Examining the role of attitude toward anger

Activity in the left frontal cortex has been associated with positive affective traits, and activity in the right frontal cortex has been associated with negative affective traits. However, in this past research, the valence of the affect (positive vs. negative) was confounded with the direction of the motivation (approach vs. withdrawal). Recent research found that trait anger, a negative affect with approach tendencies, relates to increased left frontal activity. The present research addressed an alternative explanation for these past results—that the relationship between anger and increased left frontal activity is due to anger being regarded as a positive feeling. After developing a reliable and valid instrument that measures attitude toward anger, research indicated that trait anger related to relative left frontal activity and this relationship was not due to the anger being associated with a positive attitude toward anger.     

In their words: Connecting on‐line weblogs to developmental processes

This paper seeks to connect adolescents' communication within on‐line weblogs or blogs to developmental processes. A total of 195 English language blogs written by self‐identified 14‐ to 18‐year‐olds were selected; three entries from each blog were analysed, resulting in a sample of 585 entries. Blogger demographics, self‐presentation, and blog entries (format, style, content, and tone) were coded. The blog authors in our sample were overwhelmingly female and lived within the US; the majority were between 15‐ and 16‐years of age. Bloggers utilized usernames and userpictures for self‐presentation and in addition to gender, frequently presented information about their age and location. The majority of the entries used text, were narrative and reflective in style, and contained themes related to their authors' peers and everyday life. Emotional tone was present and entries with romantic, identity, and future‐related themes often contained emotional tone. Blog authors seemed to be using blogs to create narratives and to reflect about the people and events in their lives. Our results show that adolescent bloggers project off‐line themes to their blogs, suggesting that their on‐line and off‐line contexts are psychologically connected.     

Drive and Direction: Empathy with Intended Targets Moderates the Proactive Personality–Job Performance Relationship via Work Engagement

Proactive employees are self-starting and driven. Thus, they typically exhibit high levels of work engagement. While work engagement reflects the degree to which employees are attentive and absorbed when performing their work tasks, it does not guarantee effective job performance unless their actions are strategic. We draw on Grant and Ashford’s (2008) proactivity framework to develop a drive and direction contingency model that expands our understanding of how and when proactive personality predicts job performance via work engagement. We argue that employee’s drive (represented by the positive relation of proactive personality with work engagement) predicts job performance only when the employee also has high (vs. low) empathy with their intended targets, such as customers. Empathy with intended targets allows employees to understand and feel their targets’ concerns and feelings, thus providing a direction that guides their work engagement to address their targets’ interests and predict job performance. Results from a multiple-source (employees, supervisors, and organizational records) lagged (T1–T2) field study and a lab experiment support our model. We discuss the implications, limitations, and future directions of our findings.