Power that Builds Others and Power that Breaks: Effects of Power and Humility on Altruism and Incivility in Female Employees

Building on the approach/inhibition theory of power and the situated focus theory of power, we examine the roles of positional and personal power on altruism and incivility in workplace dyads. Results from a field study in daycare centers showed that legitimate power (a dimension of positional power) was positively associated with incivility. In contrast, personal power—referent power and expert power—was positively associated altruism and was negatively associated with incivility. Referent power was a stronger predictor of both altruism and incivility for individuals with low humility than those with high humility. Coercive power was a stronger predictor of incivility for individuals with high humility than those with low humility.     

Use of Psychotropic Medications Among Youth in Treatment Foster Care

We describe the use of psychotropic medications among youth in treatment foster care (TFC). Data from 240 youth were coded to examine rates of medication use, including polypharmacy and an indicator of “questionable polypharmacy.” Fifty-nine percent of youth in TFC had taken a psychotropic medication within the past 2 months. Of the youth taking psychotropics, 61 % took two or more and 22 % met criteria for questionable polypharmacy. The majority of youth taking psychotropics also received psychosocial mental health services and were more likely to receive such services than youth not taking medication. Use of psychotropic medication use was not significantly related to demographic factors, maltreatment history, or custody. However, youth with more severe symptoms were more likely to be on medications and to be on multiple medications. Youth with “questionable polypharmacy” were less likely than other youth on multiple medications to have a recent visit to a psychiatrist.     

Gender Differences in the Effects of Community Violence on Mental Health Outcomes in a Sample of Low-Income Youth Receiving Psychiatric Care

Previous research suggests that community violence impacts mental health outcomes, but much of this research has not (a) distinguished between different types of community violence, (b) examined gender differences, and (c) focused on youth living in urban poverty. The current study addresses these questions. Participants were 306 youth (23 % girls) and one parent/guardian receiving outpatient psychiatric services for disruptive behavior disorders in a large urban city. Youth and parents reported on youth’s experience of different types of community violence (being a direct victim, hearing reports, and witnessing violence), and whether violence was directed toward a stranger or familiar. Outcomes included youth externalizing, internalizing, and posttraumatic stress symptoms assessed via parent and youth reports. Being a direct victim of violence accords risk for all mental health outcomes similarly for both boys and girls. However, gender differences emerged with respect to indirect violence, such that girls who hear reports of violence against people they know are at increased risk for all assessed mental health outcomes, and girls who witness violence against familiars are at increased risk for externalizing mental health symptoms in particular. There are gender differences in violence-related mental health etiology, with implications for intervention assessment and design.     

The School Adjustment of Rural Adolescents with and Without Disabilities: Variable and Person-Centered Approaches

This study examined the school adjustment of adolescents with disabilities and their nondisabled peers in a national sample of rural high school students. The total sample consisted of 7,376 students: 6,704 nondisabled students, 70 students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), 512 students with learning disabilities (LD), and 90 students identified as English language learners (ELL). Teacher ratings on the Interpersonal Competence Scale-Teacher (ICS-T) were used to assess students’ adjustment on seven factors: academic, affiliative, aggressive, internalizing, popular, Olympian, and shy. Cluster analyses were used to identify distinct configurations of competence and risk separately for boys and girls. Differences between educational classifications were identified for the ICS-T factors and for the interpersonal competence configurations. Students with EBD were overrepresented in Multi-risk configurations (aggressive high-risk profiles), students with LD were overrepresented in both the Multi-risk and Disengaged (non-aggressive high-risk profiles) configurations, and students identified as ELL were overrepresented in Disengaged configurations.     

Effects of 7.5% CO2-Induced Anxiety on Individual Performance During a Group Computer Combat Game

The inhalation of 7.5% CO₂ has been shown to induce cognitive effects similar to anxiety. Sixteen healthy participants (14 male; mean age 25.6 years) inhaled either a mixture of 7.5% CO₂ gas or air while playing a group combat computer game. Participants reported greater feelings of anxiety and fired fewer bullets when inhaling CO₂ compared with air, indicating CO₂-induced anxiety may improve efficiency without task-related decrements. Being able to induce controlled and measured anxiety in group situations by CO₂ inhalation may be a useful technique when evaluating response to stressful situations, such as combat, in simulators or real-life scenarios.     

Quality of Relationships Between Youth and Community Service Providers: Reliability and Validity of the Trusting Relationship Questionnaire

We examined the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Trusting Relationship Questionnaire, a brief measure of relationship quality between youth and community-based service providers involved in their care. Data on youth residing in Therapeutic Foster Care and in Group Homes (N = 296) were collected. We identified a one-factor solution for the child version of the measure and a two-factor structure for the adult version: child's perception of the relationship and adult's perception of the relationship. Both versions appear to be highly reliable and possess adequate levels of construct, criterion, and discriminative validity. While no statistically significant age differences were noted on the parent version, on the child version, older youth were more likely to report lower relationship scores. Gender differences were found on both versions: Female youth reported higher scores on the child version as did adults reporters of relationships with female youth, but only for the first factor—child's perception of the relationship. Overall, the TRQ appears to capture the quality of the relationship between service providers and youth in their care, thus bridging a gap in assessment measures.     

Evidence for a visuo-spatial scratch-pad in working memory

Experiments are reported which address the nature of the working memory system. Articulatory suppression (continuous recital of the digits 1 to 4) disrupted concurrent performance of a verbal reasoning task, but had no effect upon performance of a spatial reasoning task. In contrast, spatial suppression (continuous sequential tapping) produced reliable interference only with spatial reasoning. These findings are taken as consistent with Baddeley's argument for two slave systems in working memory: the articulatory loop and the more controversial visuo-spatial scratch-pad.     

Comparison for aphasic and control subjects of eye movements hypothesized in neurolinguistic programming

Neurolinguistic programming's hypothesized eye movements were measured independently using videotapes of 10 nonfluent aphasic and 10 control subjects matched for age and sex. Chi-squared analysis indicated that eye-position responses were significantly different for the groups. Although earlier research has not supported the hypothesized eye positions for normal subjects, the present findings support the contention that eye-position responses may differ between neurologically normal and aphasic individuals.