Individual Reactions to New Technologies in the Workplace: The Role of Gender as a Psychological Construct

Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB), individual reactions to a new technology and technology usage behavior were studied over a 12-month period among 552 employees being introduced to a new computer-based system in the workplace. When considering gender as a psychological construct by employing Bern's Sex Role Inventory (BSRI), important distinctions were revealed. Specifically, masculine gender-typed individuals exhibited the same pattern as did men in previous research; feminine gender-typed individuals were different from women in that they were influenced only by subjective norm and PBC. The balanced decision-making process was observed only in the case of individuals categorized as androgynous. The high percentage of women who tested to be androgynous explains the divergence in results from the previous work, and provides evidence of changing gender roles for women in today's organizations and society.     

A reappraisal of the relationship between span memory and intelligence via “best evidence synthesis”

This paper examines the relationship between span memory [e.g., immediate memory, short-term memory (STM), simple span] and general ability (g) though a reanalysis of two data sets [Christal, R. E. (1959). Factor analytic study of visual memory. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 72 (13, Whole No. 466); Kelley, H.P. (1964). Memory abilities: A factor analysis. Psychometric Monographs, No. 11]. Because of their large sample sizes and the multiple measures used to identify each construct, the Christal and Kelley studies were examined within a “best evidence synthesis” framework. Modern structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques were used to examine the relationship between immediate memory and g. Results indicated that in both studies, the relationship between immediate memory and g was quite substantial (.71 and .83), and that this relationship was essentially reduced by half when the common content variance of the tests was accounted for (e.g., verbal, spatial, numerical). Results are discussed within the context of recent research examining the relationship between working memory (WM) and g.     

The Relationship between Sex Offender Height and Pedophilic Interest

The current study examined the relationship between offender height and pedophilic interest (as measured by having a victim under 13 years old) in a sample of 22,228 registered sex offenders in the United States. Results revealed that offenders with victims age 12 and under were, on average, nearly one-quarter inch shorter than offenders of adults, and .18 inches shorter than those with minor teen victims. Implications for future research about the biological etiology of child sexual abuse perpetration are discussed, including the role of adverse childhood experiences in the neurodevelopment of offenders.     

The easily learned,easily remembered heuristic in children

A previous study with adults [Koriat, A. (2008a). Easy comes, easy goes? The link between learning and remembering and its exploitation in metacognition. Memory & Cognition, 36, 416–428] established a correlation between learning and remembering: items requiring more trials to acquisition (TTA) were less likely to be recalled than those requiring fewer trials. Furthermore, learners’ judgments of learning (JOLs) seemed to rely on the easily learned, easily remembered (ELER) heuristic, that items requiring fewer TTAs are more likely to be recalled. This study extended investigation of these effects to 2nd- and 4th-grade children. When the list included hard and easy paired-associates (Experiment 1, N = 40, 7–10 years), recall and JOL decreased with increasing TTAs for both grades, supporting the validity of the ELER heuristic and its utilization in monitoring one's own learning. When presented only with hard pairs (Experiment 2, N = 60, 7–10 years), however, 4th graders’ but not 2nd graders’ JOLs evidenced reliance on this heuristic. The results suggest an early development of metacognitive heuristics that incorporate information about the links between characteristics of the encoding process and subsequent remembering.     

The Irony of Harmony: Intergroup Contact Can Produce False Expectations for Equality

ABSTRACT— Positive intergroup contact has been a guiding framework for research on reducing intergroup tension and for interventions aimed at that goal. We propose that beyond improving attitudes toward the out-group, positive contact affects disadvantaged-group members' perceptions of intergroup inequality in ways that can undermine their support for social change toward equality. In Study 1, participants were assigned to either high- or low-power experimental groups and then brought together to discuss either commonalities between the groups or intergroup differences. Commonality-focused contact, relative to difference-focused contact, produced heightened expectations for fair (i.e.,  egalitarian) out-group behavior among members of disadvantaged groups. These expectations, however, proved unrealistic when compared against the actions of members of the advantaged groups. Participants in Study 2 were Israeli Arabs (a disadvantaged minority) who reported the amount of positive contact they experienced with Jews. More positive intergroup contact was associated with increased perceptions of Jews as fair, which in turn predicted decreased support for social change. Implications for social change are considered.     

Religion,Ethnicity, Culture,Way of Life: Jews,Muslims, and Multicultural Counseling

Jews and Muslims represent 2 unique cultural groups that have been relatively under‐examined by multicultural counseling scholars. In this article, the authors review the recent literature on Jews and Muslims, synthesize and discuss the commonalities across these 2 groups, provide some recommendations for counseling members of these populations, and offer suggestions for future research.     

Can We Identify with a Nation Low in Morality? The Heavy Weight of (Im)Morality in International Comparison

Research has shown that the perceived morality of the ingroup is a primary source of group pride and ingroup identification. The present research examined whether this is true even when a group has a poor reputation for morality in terms of dishonesty and corruption, such as in the case of Italians. To address this issue, two studies analyzed the role of the three fundamental dimensions of social judgment—morality, competence, and sociability—in predicting Italians’ identification with their nation when the salience of social comparison and the status of the comparison outgroup were varied. Findings showed that perceived morality predicted ingroup identification when participants did not engage in social comparison. Under salient social comparison, individuals based group identification on other dimensions: Perceived sociability was the main predictor of identification when respondents compared with a higher status outgroup (Germans; Study 1; N = 109), whereas perceived competence was the main predictor of identification when participants compared with a lower status outgroup (Romanians; Study 2; N = 121). Overall, findings showed compensation processes in social identification: When social comparison is salient, members of a low morality group base identification on the dimension which allows positive differentiation from the outgroup.     

The importance of distinguishing between harassment-only and assault military sexual trauma during screening

Extant research demonstrates that a history of military sexual trauma (MST) is associated with PTSD and depression diagnoses as well as heightened risk for suicidal ideation and death by suicide. Past studies of MST and its sequelae typically collapse harassment-only and assault MST screening items into a single response, recorded as positive or negative for a history of MST. It is presently unclear whether assault is associated with poorer mental health outcomes relative to harassment-only MST. Female service members/Veterans (n = 656) completed an online survey assessing history (present, absent) and type (harassment-only, assault) of MST, PTSD, depression, sexual satisfaction and function symptoms, as well as suicidal ideation. Findings revealed that those who reported a history of MST, and assault more specifically, were more likely to report higher PTSD symptoms and probable PTSD diagnosis, higher depression symptoms and probable depression diagnosis, worse sexual function and probable sexual function diagnosis, lower sexual satisfaction, and presence of suicidal ideation. Those who reported harassment-only MST also reported higher PTSD severity and probable PTSD diagnosis, but the magnitude of the association of harassment-only MST and PTSD severity relative to assault MST and PTSD severity was substantially lower. Findings suggest it is critical to distinguish between history and type of MST during screening as a combined screening item loses sensitivity to identify those at heightened risk for distress and dysfunction.     

The effect of placement instability on adopted children's inhibitory control abilities and oppositional behavior

This study assessed relations among placement instability, inhibitory control, and caregiver-rated child behavior. The sample included 33 adopted children who had experienced placement instability, 42 adopted children who had experienced 1 stable placement, and 27 children never placed in foster care. Five- and 6-year-old children completed the day-night task, which requires children to inhibit a prepotent response, and a control task that presents similar memory demands but does not require inhibition (C. L. Gerstadt, Y. J. Hong, & A. Diamond, 1994). Adopted children who had experienced placement instability performed worse on the inhibition task than did both other groups of children, when the authors controlled for age, verbal intelligence (as measured with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence--Revised; D. Wechsler, 1989; or the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test--Third Edition; L. M. Dunn & L. M. Dunn, 1997), and control task performance (p<.01). Children who had experienced placement instability were also rated on the Child Behavior Checklist as more oppositional than other children (p<.01; T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2000). Inhibitory control did not mediate the association between placement instability and oppositional behavior (p>.05). These results suggest that placement instability may adversely affect the social-emotional development of adopted children.