Comparative study of the cognitive performance of Greek Australian and Greek national elderly: Implications for neuropsychological practice

In the area of dementia diagnosis and assessment of cognitive functioning of elderly culturally and linguistically diverse individuals (CALDI) little is known about cognitive test performance differences between migrants and peers from their country of origin. This study investigated whether community dwelling elderly Greek Australian (GA) performance on tests of cognition was comparable to that of elderly Greek national ‘normal’ individuals without a diagnosis of dementia (Gn). Based on available cross‐cultural literature it was hypothesised that GA would obtain lower scores on the Cambridge Cognitive Examination of the Elderly and the Mini‐Mental Status Examination compared to Gn due to issues relating to the migrant experience such as acculturation, reduced language fluency and proficiency. The results of the current study supported the hypothesis arguing for caution when interpreting CALDI performance on tests that have not been normed in that particular group because there may be a greater risk of false‐positive diagnoses.     

SELF-ESTEEM AND JOB PERFORMANCE: THE MODERATING ROLE OF SELF-ESTEEM CONTINGENCIES

Although theoretical perspectives suggest self-esteem level (i.e., high/low) should have main and moderating effects on job performance, empirical and narrative reviews of the literature suggest such effects are either nonexistent or highly variable. To account for these mixed findings, we hypothesized that self-esteem level should only have main and moderating effects on job performance when one's self-esteem is not contingent upon workplace performance. Using multisource ratings across 2 samples of working adults, we found that the importance of performance to self-esteem (IPSE) moderated the effect of self-esteem level on job performance and moderated the buffering interaction between self-esteem level and role conflict in the prediction of job performance. Our results thus support IPSE as an important moderator of both main and moderating effects of self-esteem level.