Modeling the Relationship Between Pay Level and Pay Satisfaction

The relationship between pay level and pay satisfaction was modeled in a field study with 456 employees of nursing departments in a large hospital. After controlling for person, job, and pay system characteristics, pay satisfaction variance was better explained by treating pay level as a power function rather than a linear function. This result was expected given the low wage rate relative to the market, the lack of a formal rewards system, and the high level of tenure in the workforce. Implications of this finding for theory, research, and practice were discussed.     

Physiological and symptom responses to hyperventilation: A comparison of frequent and infrequent panickers

Ten subjects with panic disorder and ten subjects with infrequent panic attacks were assessed during 2 min of voluntary hyperventilation using four measures of physiological arousal (heart rate, upper trapezious EMG, skin conductance, and digital skin temperature). Immediately following hyperventilation, subjects were asked to rate their degree of distress on 13 panic symptoms, derived from DSM-III criteria for panic disorder. Results indicated that frequent panickers had significant overall elevations in trapezious EMG, relative to infrequent panickers, and demonstrated a slight increase in muscle tension following hyperventilation. In contrast, infrequent panickers showed a trend toward greater vasodilation preceding and during hyperventilation, with subsequent vasoconstriction upon resumption of normal breathing. Increases in skin conductance and heart rate were noted for both samples during hyperventilation, as reported in prior research. Symptom distress ratings indicated that the infrequent panickers reported significantly greater distress from dizziness and trembling in response to overbreathing, contrary to prediction. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of current accounts of cognitive and physiological factors in the etiology of panic attacks and panic disorder.This research was supported by Biomedical Research Support Grant #507RR07147, National Institutes of Health.     

Syntactic frozenness in processing and remembering idioms

Three experiments examined the effect of syntactic frozenness on understanding and memory for idiomatic expressions. In Experiment 1 we established a frozenness continuum by asking subjects to judge whether idioms in different syntactic forms maintained their idiomatic meanings. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that subjects processed idiomatic expressions more quickly than they did nonidiomatic, control strings. Moreover, subjects are faster at processing frozen idioms than they are at understanding flexible ones. The final experiment found that the degree of syntactic frozenness has an effect on memory for idioms in that flexible idioms were recalled more often than were frozen ones. These data overall support the idea that idioms are part of the normal lexicon, but are accessed differentially according to their degree of syntactic frozenness.     

Women's Physiological Reactions to Physically Demanding Work

Eight females ( age = 20 yrs.) were subjects in an experiment consisting of two parts. The first part measured the maximal work capacity and peak work load on a treadmill at a speed of 8 kms (5 mph) with grade increasing 2 1/2% every 3 minutes. The second part measured energy expended on a treadmill walked under varying conditions of speed, grade, and load in an eight hour day of strenuous work. The results showed that these women were able to do strenuous work expending 2369 kcals for 8 1/2 hours. The energy expended exceeded that required for most physically demanding occupations. The results have implications for vocational choice research for women who have been excluded from occupations due to an assumed lack of strength.     

The Mediation Effect of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms on the Relationship of Intimate Partner Violence and IFN-γ Levels

Background: Women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) report greater stress and negative health consequences than nonabused women. Although an association between psychological stress and altered immune function has been shown, IPV studies have not investigated this relationship. Objective: This study explored the association of IPV with mental health symptoms and an immune marker to determine if posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms mediate the effect of IPV on pro-inflammatory (IFN-γ) cytokine levels. Methods: A cross-sectional, comparative design was used to compare 62 women with IPV and 39 nonabused women. Results: Mean IFN-γ values were higher in abused women and in women with current PTSD symptoms. There were no significant relationships with potential confounding variables that could provide an alternative explanation for the increase in production of proinflammatory cytokines. Conclusions: PTSD symptoms mediate the association between IPV and IFN-γ levels and may partially explain the association of mental health symptoms with physical health sequelae in IPV.     

The relationship between age, verbal working memory, and language comprehension

A structural modeling approach was used to examine the relationships between age, verbal working memory (vWM), and 3 types of language measures: online syntactic processing, sentence comprehension, and text comprehension. The best-fit model for the online-processing measure revealed a direct effect of age on online sentence processing, but no effect mediated through vWM. The best-fit models for sentence and text comprehension included an effect of age mediated through vWM and no direct effect of age. These results indicate that the relationship among age, vWM, and comprehension differs depending on the measure of language processing and support the view that individual differences in vWM do not affect individuals' online syntactic processing.     

Assessing worry in older adults: confirmatory factor analysis of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire and psychometric properties of an abbreviated model

The assessment of worry among older adults typically has involved measures designed with younger cohorts. Because of special concerns in assessing older adults, modifications to existing instruments may be necessary. Addressing equivocal factor analytic data on the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) among younger adults, the authors conducted confirmatory factor analyses to evaluate the generalizability of previous models to older adults with generalized anxiety disorder. Data fit poorly with established single- and two-factor models. The single-factor model was modified, resulting in the elimination of 8 items, strong fit indices, high internal consistency, adequate test-retest reliability, and good convergent and divergent validity. Further psychometric work is required to assess whether the revised model is a more parsimonious method to assess late-life anxiety.     

Exploring the influence of personality on depressive symptoms and self-esteem across a significant life transition

This study investigates the influence of personality on adjustment to a particular life transition, community relocation. Participants were 285 women (average age=69.5) who were interviewed once before they moved, and then multiple times after the move. Within the context of this multiwave design, personality traits were used to predict changes in depressive symptoms (DS) and self-esteem (SE) across the move. Neuroticism and Openness to Experience predicted increases in DS over time, whereas Extraversion and Openness predicted increases in SE. Stressful reactions to the move and sense of mastery about the move partially mediated these effects. The study documents the dynamic influence of personality on positive and negative aspects of adjustment and investigates differing routes through which such effects occur.