Longitudinal relationships between workplace bullying,basic psychological needs,and employee functioning: a simultaneous investigation of psychological need satisfaction and frustration

The aim of this cross-lagged study was to provide new insight into the interplay between workplace bullying, basic psychological needs (for autonomy, competence, and relatedness), and employee functioning. Based on new developments in self-determination theory (SDT) research, we simultaneously examined the temporal relationships between workplace bullying, need satisfaction and frustration, as well as two indicators of psychological functioning: life satisfaction and psychosomatic complaints. Data were collected at two time points over a 12-month period from a sample of 508 Canadian nurses. Results suggest that bullying not only negatively predicted satisfaction for the needs of autonomy and competence, it actively frustrated all three needs. Frustration of the needs for competence and relatedness as well as satisfaction of the need for relatedness also predicted the psychological functioning of employees exposed to bullying behaviour over time. Taken together, the results suggest that evaluating need frustration provides in-depth insight into the detrimental effects of bullying on employees’ psychological inner resources and may explain the impoverishment of employees’ psychological functioning when confronted with bullying behaviour. The implications for the bullying and SDT literature are discussed.     

The sexual dimorphic association of cardiorespiratory fitness to working memory in children

The present investigation examined the sexual dimorphic patterns of cardiorespiratory fitness to working memory in preadolescent children (age range: 7.7–10.9). Data were collected in three separate studies (Study 1: n = 97, 42 females; Study 2: n = 95, 45 females; Study 3: n = 84, 37 females). All participants completed a cardiorespiratory fitness assessment in addition to a specific measure of working memory (i.e. the operation span task, the n‐back task, or the Sternberg task). Results from all three samples revealed that higher cardiorespiratory fitness levels were associated with better working memory performance only for males with no such relation observed for females. In addition, the sexually dimorphic pattern was selective for the most challenging working memory conditions in each task. Together, these findings reveal new evidence that cardiorespiratory fitness is selectively related to better working memory performance for male children. This investigation provides additional insight into how interventions aimed at improving fitness may influence cognitive development differentially among preadolescent children.     

One size doesn’t fit all: the influence of supervisors’ power tactics and subordinates’ need for cognitive closure on burnout and stress

The present research investigated the notion of fit between supervisors’ power tactics and subordinates’ need for cognitive closure (NFCC) on subordinates’ burnout and stress. Subordinates who tend to avoid ambiguity (high NFCC) were expected to experience relatively less burnout (Study 1) and stress (Study 2) if their supervisors utilize harsh (controlling and unequivocal) power tactics and more burnout and stress if their supervisors utilize soft (autonomy-supportive and equivocal) power tactics. In contrast, it was expected that subordinates who avoid firm and binding conclusions (low NFCC) would experience relatively less burnout and stress if their supervisors use soft power tactics and more burnout and stress if they use harsh power tactics. Two studies conducted in diverse organizational settings supported these hypotheses. Collectively, these results support the conclusion that soft (vs. harsh) power tactics are not always associated with better (vs. worse) organizational outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications for organizations are discussed.     

The relationship between perceived organizational support and proactive behaviour directed towards the organization

Numerous studies have shown that perceived organizational support has positive consequences on both employees and organizations. However, no study has examined the causal relationship between perceived organizational support and proactive behaviour directed towards the organization and few studies have identified potential mechanisms underlying this relationship. We first investigated the direction of causality between perceived organizational support and proactive behaviour, and hypothesized that perceived organizational support leads to proactive behaviour directed towards the organization. Second, based on social exchange and motivational perspectives, we examined two potential mechanisms underlying this relationship, i.e., felt obligation and work engagement. Employees from a Belgian Federal Public Service were invited to take part in a three-wave longitudinal survey. Using a cross-lagged panel design, our results (N = 1963) revealed that Time 2 perceived organizational support was positively related to Time 3 proactive behaviour towards the organization, whereas the reverse was not true. Additionally, our results (N = 1293) showed that Time 2 felt obligation and Time 2 work engagement mediated the positive relationship between Time 1 perceived organizational support and Time 3 proactive behaviour directed towards the organization.     

Differences in false recollection according to the cognitive reserve of healthy older people

We present an associative recognition experiment comparing three samples of healthy people (young people, older people with high cognitive reserve [HCR], and older people with low cognitive reserve [LCR], with each sample consisting of 40 people), manipulating stimuli repetition during the study phase. The results show significant differences among the three samples in their overall performance. However, these differences are not due to a different use of familiarity, but rather due to a different way of using recollection: although there are no differences in the hit rates between the HRC and LRC samples, the LCR group makes significantly more recollective false alarms than the HCR group. Moreover, repetition provokes an increase in the recollective false alarms in the LCR group, but this does not occur in the group of young people or in the HCR group. These findings are explained in terms of recollection-based monitoring errors and seem to provide support for the cognitive reserve hypothesis.     

Advanced training in child psychology: Key elements in offering a Doctor of Psychology (DPsych) programme in South Africa

The aim of this article is to propose some benchmarks for a Doctor of Psychology (DPsych) in advanced training in Child Psychology in South Africa, and to highlight key elements in offering such a programme. In doing so, we use as case illustration an existing DPsych programme currently being offered at the University of the Free State, South Africa. We consider advanced child psychology training to registered psychologists in the clinical, counselling and educational categories. The DPsych option encompasses clinical practice, research, training, selection, and student outcomes in the context of theory as well as evidence-based practices. A wider adoption of a DPsych, focusing on child psychology, would add value to the integration of the best available research and clinical expertise in child mental health care in South Africa.     

Multiple cue use and integration in pigeons (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Columba livia</Emphasis>)

Encoding multiple cues can improve the accuracy and reliability of navigation and goal localization. Problems may arise, however, if one cue is displaced and provides information which conflicts with other cues. Here we investigated how pigeons cope with cue conflict by training them to locate a goal relative to two landmarks and then varying the amount of conflict between the landmarks. When the amount of conflict was small, pigeons tended to integrate both cues in their search patterns. When the amount of conflict was large, however, pigeons used information from both cues independently. This context-dependent strategy for resolving spatial cue conflict agrees with Bayes optimal calculations for using information from multiple sources.     

Communicating power and resistance: exploring interactions between aboriginal youth and non-aboriginal staff members in a residential child welfare facility

Aboriginal youth are highly overrepresented within the child welfare system. High-risk youth are often placed in out-of-community residential placements. Such residential placements have been described by some as a continuation of colonial practices. Using communication theory as a conceptual model, we propose a qualitative analysis of micro-interactions that take place between Aboriginal youth and non-Aboriginal workers during the management of high-risk behaviors within a residential program. Three broad categories of interaction emerge from the data: complementary, symmetrical/complementary (where youth show a form of submission despite resistance), and symmetrical (characterized by a power struggle). Despite the diversity of interactions along this symmetrical to complementary continuum, interventions always start and finish in the same fashion. Moreover, the nature of interactions depended mostly on how quickly youth accepted the consequences of their behaviors. We also extracted five categories related to culture, race or context that are perceived as influencing the interactions that take place between staff and youth. The analysis of micro-interactions within clinical, organizational, social and historical contexts points to mechanisms by which asymmetrical power relations may be replicated on a day-to-day basis despite the best intentions of residential workers.     

Anthropocentric Rhetorical Discourse in Popular Science Writing about Human Evolution

Discourse describing evolution in contemporary popular science writing often posits that humans evolved not from an ape, but from a merely ape-like or generalized primate. Contemporary fossil and genetic evidence, though, have revealed what can accurately be described as an extinct ape species as ancestral to the human lineage. The persistence of ambiguous terms in popular science writing may be interpreted as a form of anthropocentric rhetorical discourse. Nonetheless, while such discourse is often justified in terms of increasing the public understanding of science, it may also mitigate (whether consciously intended or not) religion-based resistance to evolutionary theory.