The importance of status congruency in interaction processes

The literature on status congruency is summarized in two statements: 1) Individuals strive after status congruency, and 2) status congruency involves favorable state for individuals, groups and the society. The two reported experiments throw serious doubts on the generality of these statements. Experiment I is a variation of Burnstein and Zajonc's (1965) experiment. It is hypothesized and shown that the striving after congruency is weakened under condition of a competitive reward structure, the Ss giving incongruent self-rankings. Moreover it is found that nominations for a different task are not congruent at all. Experiment II was designed to replicate and extend Exline and Ziller's (1959) experiment, in which it was shown that status congruency in small groups causes interpersonal conflict. On none of the several measures was clear support obtained. In the discussion it is argued that there is hardly any experimental evidence for the two statements formulated above. It is pointed out that the correlational relationships between status congruency and other variables may be attributed to some internal cognitive link in the person, serving as an intermediate variable, the forces of it perhaps being self-interest (as supported by Experiment I), a need for clarity and a need for justice.     

Does self-efficacy mediate the cross-sectional relationship between perceived quality of health care and self-management of diabetes? Results from Diabetes MILES – Australia

Objective: Quality of health care (QoC) and self-efficacy may affect self-management of diabetes, but such effects are not well understood. We examined the indirect role of diabetes-specific self-efficacy (DSE) and generalised self-efficacy (GSE) in mediating the cross-sectional relationship between self-reported QoC and diabetes self-management.

Design: Diabetes MILES–Australia was a national survey of 3,338 adults with diabetes. We analysed data from 1,624 respondents (age: M = 52.1, SD = 13.9) with type 1 (T1D; n = 680) or type 2 diabetes (T2D; n = 944), who responded to a version of the survey containing key measures.

Main Outcome Measures: self-reported healthy eating, physical activity, self-monitoring of blood glucose frequency, HbA_1c, medication/insulin adherence.

Results: We used Preacher and Hayes’ bootstrapping method, controlling for age, gender and diabetes duration, to test mediation of DSE and GSE on the relationship of QoC with each self-management variable. We found statistically significant but trivial mediation effects of DSE and of GSE on most, but not all, variables (all effect sizes < .06).

Conclusion: Support for mediation was weak, suggesting that relationships amongst these variables are small and that future research might explore other aspects of self-management in diabetes.     

Subjective Wellbeing Among Adults with Diabetes: Results from Diabetes MILES—Australia

This study examines the subjective wellbeing of Australian adults with diabetes who completed the Diabetes MILES—Australia survey, investigating by diabetes type and treatment, and by comparing with the subjective wellbeing of the general Australian adult population. In addition, the extent to which depression and socio-demographic factors account for subjective wellbeing is investigated. People with type 1 or type 2 diabetes have significantly lower subjective wellbeing compared to the general population, even after controlling for covariates (demographic and socio-economic status, diabetes duration, body mass index, number of diabetes-related complications, and depression). Furthermore, adults with type 2 diabetes using insulin to manage their condition report the lowest levels of subjective wellbeing, and are also most likely to report dissatisfaction with their current health. These findings suggest that living with diabetes, and in particular, living with type 2 diabetes and using insulin, strongly challenges the maintenance of subjective wellbeing.     

New perspectives on career and identity in the contemporary world

For much of the 20th century, career and identity have been intimately interwoven: to know about work has been to know about the self. But meanings for both are differently constructed at different times in different discourses.This article re-examines the meaning of the concept of 'identity' under late modern conditions. It draws on discourses ranging from neuro-physiology to autobiography. The primary purpose of the piece is to set up some signposts for alignment of the careers-work field to the demands of our time. In particular, the article concludes that much of policy-directed development in this field takes too little account of emerging and significant relationships between career and identity.     

Effect of a Faith-Based Education Program on Self-Assessed Physical,Mental and Spiritual (Religious) Health Parameters

The aim of the study was to determine the effect of attending a faith-based education program (FBEP) on self-assessed physical, mental and spiritual health parameters. The study was designed as a prospective, observational, cohort study of individuals attending a 5-day FBEP. Out of 2650 sequential online registrants, those previously unexposed to the FBEP received automated invitations to complete 5 sequential Self-Assessment Questionnaire’s (SAQ’s) containing: (1) Duke University Religion Index (DUREL); (2) Negative Religious Coping (N-RCOPE); (3) Perceived Stress Scale (PSS); (4) Center for Epidemiology and Statistics-Depression Scale (CES-D); (5) Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire (BIPQ); and the (6) State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Pre-attendance SAQ (S1) was repeated immediately post-FBEP (S2), at 30 days (S3), 90 days (S4) and after 1 year (S5). Of 655 invited, 274 (42 %) succeeded, 242 (37 %) failed and 139 (21 %) declined to complete S1. Of the 274, 37 (14 %) were excluded at on-site interview; 26 (9 %) never attended the FBEP (i.e., controls: 5♂; 21♀; 27–76 years); and 211 (77 %) participated (i.e., cases: 105♂; 106♀; 18–84 years) and were analyzed over time: 211 (S1); 192 (S2); 99 (S3); 52 (S4); 51 (S5). IRB approval was via the Human Research Ethics Committee of Stellenbosch University. DUREL showed significant, sustained changes in Intrinsic Religiosity. N-RCOPE showed significant, lasting improvement. In others, median values dropped significantly immediately after the FBEP (S1:S2) for STAI-State p < 0.0001; PSS p < 0.0001; BIPQ p < 0.0001; and CES-D p < 0.0001; and at 1 month (S1:S3) for STAI-Trait p < 0.001; all changes were sustained (S3 through S5). This FBEP produced statistically and clinically significant changes; these lasted in those followed up >1 year.     

Towards a strong career learning environment: results from a Dutch longitudinal study

ABSTRACT

To prepare students for the flexible labour market of nowadays, schools are increasingly acknowledging their responsibility to guide students in their career development. The project ‘Career Orientation and Guidance in Secondary Vocational Education’ was developed to encourage Dutch schools to initiate and/or continue the creation of a strong career learning environment for their students. Central in this learning environment is a dialogue with the students, where meaning is attached to concrete experiences with work. This longitudinal study is designed to gain theoretical and practical insight into the influence of the project. Results show that, although the school’s vision on career orientation and guidance is clear to the teachers, it is not supported by all of them. It appears that the renewed vision is imposed on the teachers, and this absence of a shared and widely supported vision appears to withhold the teachers and the project managers to engage in collective action.     

Is Mathematics a Domain for Philosophers of Explanation?

In this paper we discuss three interrelated questions. First: is explanation in mathematics a topic that philosophers of mathematics can legitimately investigate? Second: are the specific aims that philosophers of mathematical explanation set themselves legitimate? Finally: are the models of explanation developed by philosophers of science useful tools for philosophers of mathematical explanation? We argue that the answer to all these questions is positive. Our views are completely opposite to the views that Mark Zelcer has put forward recently. Throughout this paper, we show why Zelcer’s arguments fail.     

Mentoring in Dutch vocational education: an unfulfilled promise

Between 1998 and 2002 an estimated 250 mentoring programmes were started in Dutch secondary vocational education in order to decrease motivational problems and drop-out rates, especially among youngsters from ethnic minorities. Currently there are only two schools in secondary vocational education that include mentoring as part and parcel of their system of guidance and counselling. The vast majority of mentoring programmes do not run for more than two years. The main reason for this seems to be the absence of a vision of mentoring that explains how and why it works – a vision that is shared by mentors, teachers and school managers. In this article, data presented from four different case studies on mentoring in Dutch vocational education showed that the absence of a shared vision resulted in vague, often contradictory, and conflicting perspectives and actions taken by all parties involved in the mentoring scheme. In fact, because no synergy existed, the mentoring programmes had a marginal position in schools and disappeared as soon as external funding stopped.     

Copying without rewards: socially influenced foraging decisions among brown capuchin monkeys

An individual’s foraging activity can be influenced by the choices made by nearby conspecifics. The interest shown in the location and characteristics of a feeding patch may depend on the feeding success of a conspecific there, a process that needs to be distinguished from choices guided by rewards to the observer itself. We investigated how rewards for both self and others influence the foraging choices of captive capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). Thirteen adult capuchins observed familiar female conspecific models explore one of three opaque boxes under three conditions. In the first, there were no rewards available to either monkey; in the second, rewards were available to the model only; and in the third, both monkeys could retrieve a reward. Under all conditions, subjects more often explored the same box as the model than was expected by chance. Thus, without ever receiving a reward themselves or without seeing another receive rewards, subjects’ searches were directed at the box explored by another monkey. The tendency to match the model’s choice increased if the subject was rewarded. We compared these results to control conditions in which the model was either absent, or present but not allowed to demonstrate. Subjects’ located the reward less often in control conditions, than in the experimental conditions. We conclude that extrinsic rewards, while helpful, are not required for partners to influence the foraging choices of capuchins, and that the unrewarded copying of foraging choices demonstrated here may provide the basis for additional social influences on learning. This contribution is part of the Special Issue “A Socioecological Perspective on Primate Cognition” (Cunningham and Janson 2007)