Perceived Inequity: Does It Explain Burnout Among Medical Specialists?1

This study investigated, among medical specialists (N= 2,400), the association between perceived inequity in relationships at work (patients, colleagues, organization) and burnout, and the moderating role of communal orientation. Intrapersonal inequity, involving an internal standard of reference, and interpersonal inequity, taking colleagues as the standard of reference, were assessed. The adjusted response rate was 63%. Intrapersonal inequity affected all burnout dimensions: emotional exhaustion in all relationships at work, depersonalization in the relationship with patients, and reduced personal accomplishment in relationships with colleagues and the organization. Intrapersonal inequity explained more variance in burnout than did interpersonal inequity. Communal orientation did not moderate these associations. Hence, medical specialists are more vulnerable to burnout if they perceive their relationships at work to be inequitable, regardless of their tendency to help others. Organizations might, therefore, prevent burnout by creating a working environment that is supportive and appreciative.     

Self-Discrepancies and Involvement Moderate the Effects of Positive and Negative Message Framing in Persuasive Communication

One individual difference that is conceptually closely related to the positive and negative framing of outcomes in persuasive communications is the person's self-discrepancy. It was expected that a match between a person's self-discrepancy and framing will lead to more persuasion, under the condition that the information is processed centrally (high involvement). Two experiments were conducted to test this expectation, one through the Internet among obese people and one in the laboratory among students. Both experiments showed that only among those with high involvement—assessed as an individual difference—participants with an ideal-discrepancy were persuaded the most by the positively framed information, whereas participants with an ought-discrepancy were persuaded the most by the negatively framed information.     

Matching auditory and visual signals: is sensory modality just another feature?

In order to perceive the world coherently, we need to integrate features of objects and events that are presented to our senses. Here we investigated the temporal limit of integration in unimodal visual and auditory as well as crossmodal auditory-visual conditions. Participants were presented with alternating visual and auditory stimuli and were asked to match them either within or between modalities. At alternation rates of about 4 Hz and higher, participants were no longer able to match visual and auditory stimuli across modalities correctly, while matching within either modality showed higher temporal limits. Manipulating different temporal stimulus characteristics (stimulus offsets and/or auditory-visual SOAs) did not change performance. Interestingly, the difference in temporal limits between crossmodal and unimodal conditions appears strikingly similar to temporal limit differences between unimodal conditions when additional features have to be integrated. We suggest that adding a modality across which sensory input is integrated has the same effect as adding an extra feature to be integrated within a single modality.     

An inversion effect modified by expertise in capuchin monkeys

The face inversion effect may be defined as the general impairment in recognition that occurs when faces are rotated 180°. This phenomenon seems particularly strong for faces as opposed to other objects and is often used as a marker of a specialized face-processing mechanism. Four brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) were tested on their ability to discriminate several classes of facial and non-facial stimuli presented in both their upright and inverted orientations in an oddity task. Results revealed significantly better performance on upright than inverted presentations of capuchin and human face stimuli, but not on chimpanzee faces or automobiles. These data support previous studies in humans and other primates suggesting that the inversion effect occurs for stimuli for which subjects have developed an expertise.     

Variables associated with repeated suicide attempt in a criminal justice population

The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with repeated suicide attempts among criminal justice clients examined for substance abuse using the Addiction Severity Index. Among suicide attempters (n=1,404), repeaters (two or more attempts, n=770) were compared to nonrepeaters. In logistic regression, repetition was associated with younger age, opioid analgesics, somatic medication, overdose, maternal psychiatric problems, delirium tremens, cognitive problems, and violent behavior. As in other settings, factors associated with repetition differed from those associated with suicide attempts in general. In this setting, substance use complications and cognitive problems were connected to repetition and should be addressed in risk assessments.