Predictive validity of a multidisciplinary model of reemployment success

The authors propose a multidisciplinary model of the predictors of reemployment and test its predictive validity for explaining reemployment success. Predictor variables from the fields of economics, sociology, and psychology are incorporated into the model. Reemployment success is conceptualized as a construct consisting of unemployment insurance exhaustion and reemployment speed, and for reemployed persons, job improvement, job-organization fit, and intention to leave the new job. Direct, mediated, and moderated relationships were hypothesized and tested, clarifying the role of the variables in the reemployment process and outcome. The authors' proposal and examination of a multidisciplinary model of reemployment success contributes to a literature that has not tended to adequately cross disciplinary boundaries.     

Evolution of disability in late 19th century America: Civil War pensions for Union Army veterans with musculoskeletal conditions

This article examines the evolution of musculoskeletal (MSK) disability and its impact on mortality and work patterns in the late 19th century in America, in the context of the Civil War disability policy scheme. The study was conducted on 17,702 Union Army (UA) Civil War veterans. Of these, 10,789 were examined and diagnosed with major MSK conditions, rheumatism, sciatica, and spinal curvature, between 1862 and 1907. Analyses examine MSK (i) prevalence rates by birth cohort and age group; (ii) fatality rates as compared with other disabilities; (iii) risk rates by occupation type; and (iv) lifespan for MSK patients. MSK conditions are commonly claimed disabilities within the Civil War data set, with prevalence rates increasing with age. Regression studies show that working in clerical and professional (relative to manual labor) occupations decreases the likelihood of being examined for and diagnosed with MSK conditions. MSK patients examined at older ages tended to have longer lifespan than those examined at younger ages. The findings suggest that changes in age, environmental, and occupational conditions during the late 19th century affected MSK condition prevalence and the average lifespan of MSK patients. Implications for contemporary disability policy are discussed.     

Linking sight and sound: fMRI evidence of primary auditory cortex activation during visual word recognition

We describe two studies that used repetition priming paradigms to investigate brain activity during the reading of single words. Functional magnetic resonance images were collected during a visual lexical decision task in which nonword stimuli were manipulated with regard to phonological properties and compared to genuine English words. We observed a region in left-hemisphere primary auditory cortex linked to a repetition priming effect. The priming effect activity was observed only for stimuli that sound like known words; moreover, this region was sensitive to strategic task differences. Thus, a brain region involved in the most basic aspects of auditory processing appears to be engaged in reading even when there is no environmental oral or auditory component.     

The effects of newcomer proactive behaviours on socialization outcomes: A meta-analysis

Organizational researchers and practitioners have shown increasing interest in how newcomer proactivity contributes to socialization. This meta-analysis synthesizes the existing empirical research that examines the relationships between frequently performed newcomer proactive behaviours (sensemaking, relationship building, positive framing and job change negotiation) and proximal and distal socialization outcomes. Proximal outcomes include role clarity, task mastery and social integration; distal outcomes include job performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and turnover intention. Based on 45 independent samples (N = 11,508), proactive behaviours were found to be generally beneficial for newcomer socialization. Relative weight analyses identified positive framing as the strongest predictor of five of the seven reviewed outcomes while relationship building accounted for the greatest part of the variance in social integration. Job change negotiation was the weakest predictor of socialization outcomes. The study also explored the impact of boundary conditions, including culture, study design and sample type, on the magnitude of these effects. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, along with the study's limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Is Disciplinary Culture a Moderator Between Materialism and Subjective Well-being? A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

To clarify the influence of disciplinary culture on the materialism–subjective well-being (SWB) relationship, as well as the relationship between changes in materialism and changes in SWB, the current longitudinal study tracked the levels of materialism and SWB among first-year undergraduates for 12 months. A total of 218 participants from a congruent disciplinary culture (i.e., business school) and 210 participants from an incongruent disciplinary culture (i.e., engineering school) provided ratings on the Material Values Scale, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule in three waves. The following results were obtained: (1) the interaction effect of disciplinary culture and time was significant. In Wave 3, the level of materialism in business school was significantly higher than that in engineering school, but this difference was not found in Waves 1 and 2; (2) the negative relationship between materialism and SWB remained stable over time and was not moderated by disciplinary culture. Moreover, disciplinary culture did not moderate the relationship between changes in materialism and changes in SWB. The above findings indicate that disciplinary culture influences the development of materialism but not the materialism–SWB relationship in the long term.     

Making Sense of Climate Change: How Story Frames Shape Cognition

In 2006, Adam J. Berinsky and Donald R. Kinder published findings in the Journal of Politics that demonstrated that framing news as a story influences how individuals cognitively organize concepts and information. The study presented here moves forward in this tradition. This research combines samples obtained in the springs of 2009 and 2010 while conducting online experiments. In these experiments, slightly over 2,000 respondents are asked to organize concepts presented in one of three culturally nuanced stories about climate change or where information is presented as a list. Hierarchical cluster analysis indicates that when respondents are exposed to culturally congruent stories, respondent organizational patterns are more likely to mirror the story. We discuss the implications of these findings.     

Detecting Curvilinear Relationships: A Comparison of Scoring Approaches Based on Different Item Response Models

There is a growing use of noncognitive assessments around the world, and recent research has posited an ideal point response process underlying such measures. A critical issue is whether the typical use of dominance approaches (e.g., average scores, factor analysis, and the Samejima's graded response model) in scoring such measures is adequate. This study examined the performance of an ideal point scoring approach (e.g., the generalized graded unfolding model) as compared to the typical dominance scoring approaches in detecting curvilinear relationships between scored trait and external variable. Simulation results showed that when data followed the ideal point model, the ideal point approach generally exhibited more power and provided more accurate estimates of curvilinear effects than the dominance approaches. No substantial difference was found between ideal point and dominance scoring approaches in terms of Type I error rate and bias across different sample sizes and scale lengths, although skewness in the distribution of trait and external variable can potentially reduce statistical power. For dominance data, the ideal point scoring approach exhibited convergence problems in most conditions and failed to perform as well as the dominance scoring approaches. Practical implications for scoring responses to Likert-type surveys to examine curvilinear effects are discussed.     

青少年公正世界信念对抑郁的影响:感恩和自尊的序列中介作用

为探讨青少年公正世界信念与抑郁的关系,以及感恩和自尊在二者关系中的作用机制,采用公正世界信念问卷(BJW)、感恩问卷(GQ-6)、自尊量表(SES)和流调中心用抑郁量表(CES-D)对1049名高中学生进行调查。结果发现:(1)青少年公正世界信念、感恩和自尊两两之间呈显著正相关,且三者均与抑郁呈显著负相关。(2)青少年公正世界信念通过感恩和自尊的中介作用对抑郁产生影响,且该中介效应包含了三条中介路径——感恩的简单中介效应,自尊的简单中介效应,以及感恩→自尊的链式中介作用。研究结果揭示了青少年公正世界信念对抑郁产生影响的内部心理机制,为引导青少年更好地利用公正世界信念提升感恩和自尊的水平以及更好地促进心理健康发展提供了有益建议。     

Bayesian active probabilistic classification for psychometric field estimation

Psychometric functions are typically estimated by fitting a parametric model to categorical subject responses. Procedures to estimate unidimensional psychometric functions (i.e., psychometric curves) have been subjected to the most research, with modern adaptive methods capable of quickly obtaining accurate estimates. These capabilities have been extended to some multidimensional psychometric functions (i.e., psychometric fields) that are easily parameterizable, but flexible procedures for general psychometric field estimation are lacking. This study introduces a nonparametric Bayesian psychometric field estimator operating on subject queries sequentially selected to improve the estimate in some targeted way. This estimator implements probabilistic classification using Gaussian processes trained by active learning. The accuracy and efficiency of two different actively sampled estimators were compared to two non-actively sampled estimators for simulations of one of the simplest psychometric fields in common use: the pure-tone audiogram. The actively sampled methods achieved estimate accuracy equivalent to the non-actively sampled methods with fewer observations. This trend held for a variety of audiogram phenotypes representative of the range of human auditory perception. Gaussian process classification is a general estimation procedure capable of extending to multiple input variables and response classes. Its success with a two-dimensional psychometric field informed by binary subject responses holds great promise for extension to complex perceptual models currently inaccessible to practical estimation.