Stroop effects for masked threat words: Pre‐attentive bias or selective awareness?

The single‐trial emotional Stroop effect for masked threat words, and its association with anxiety, anger, and depression was studied in a group of men (n = 24) and women (n = 24) while controlling for possible differential thresholds for threat words versus neutral words. Stroop interference for masked threat words was found to correlate with trait anxiety, and the effect could not be explained by any differences in thresholds due to valence, neither at a subjective (conscious identification task) nor at an objective (lexical decision task) level of awareness. Jacoby's exclusion task was explored as an alternative measure of conscious awareness, and the results corroborated the conclusion that the Stroop effect for masked threat words was the result of preattentive processes. Unexpectedly, however, the correlation between Stroop interference for masked threat words and trait anxiety was found only among the men.     

Does “the servant as leader” translate into Chinese? A cross-cultural meta-analysis of servant leadership

ABSTRACT

Servant leadership is a popular style of ethically-based leadership developed in the cultural context of the United States and other Anglo-Saxon (Anglo) countries with a similar culture and managerial context. However, much of the empirical research on this leadership style has been conducted in China, a country with very different cultural and managerial traditions. It is not known whether the results of research conducted in China can be integrated into a general theory of servant leadership. It is also unknown whether servant leadership, which is widely promoted as an effective leadership style in Anglo countries, will be equally effective for all employee outcomes in China. To answer these questions, we perform a meta-analysis of servant leadership research (k = 112, n = 35,716) which compares the effects of servant leadership on employees in China with its effects on employees in Anglo countries. Results show that there is no significant difference in effect sizes between Chinese and Anglo employees for job performance, organizational citizenship behaviour, creative behaviour, affective commitment, and job satisfaction. The effect of servant leadership on leader-member exchange may be stronger for Anglo employees. Implications for servant leadership theory and managerial practices in China are discussed.     

Family play,reading, and other stimulation and early childhood development in five low-and-middle-income countries

This paper used longitudinal data from five studies conducted in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Rwanda to examine the links between family stimulation and early childhood development outcomes (N = 4904; M_age = 51.5; 49% girls). Results from random-effects and more conservative child-fixed effects models indicate that across these studies, family stimulation, measured by caregivers’ engagement in nine activities (e.g., reading, playing, singing), predicted increments in children's early numeracy, literacy, social-emotional, motor, and executive function skills (standardized associations ranged from 0.05 to 0.11 SD). Study-specific models showed variability in the estimates, with null associations in two out of the five studies. These findings indicate the need for additional research on culturally specific ways in which caregivers may support early development and highlight the importance of promoting family stimulation to catalyze positive developmental trajectories in global contexts.

Research Highlights

• Research on the links between family stimulation and early childhood development in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited.
• We used longitudinal data from studies conducted in five LMICs to examine the links between family stimulation and early childhood development outcomes.
• Results suggest that family stimulation predicted increments in children's numeracy, literacy, social-emotional, motor, and executive function skills.
• We found variability in the observed estimates, with null associations in two out of the five studies, suggesting the need for additional research in LMICs.