Towards a psychosocial mediator model of hostility and CHD

Abstract

How might hostility contribute to the development of CHD? One possible explanation, labelled “psychosocial vulnerability”, is that hostile individuals inhabit a more taxing interpersonal world, and that increased stress, in turn, causes CHD. However, previous research testing this proposition has suffered from a measurement confound by employing self-reports of stress, social support, and hostility. One hundred and twelve subjects participated in the current study and completed the Cook-Medley Hostility scale. Then, each subject's closest friend was asked to estimate for the past year: (1) how many stressors had been encountered by the subject; (2) how easily the subject was upset by a stressor; (3) how many emotional reactions the subject disclosed after a stressor; and (4) how much social support was available to the subject. Results suggested that hostile men and women may both be phychosocially vulnerable, but they are so at different stages of the stressor-distress process. There was no relation between hostility and observed stressor frequency for either men or women, however, hostility in men was found to be related to increased distress in reaction to stressors and in women was related to decreased disclosure about these stressful events. Importantly, hostility in both men and women was related to decreased levels of observed social support, as compared to their non-hostile peers.     

Challenges in Transforming Military Training: Research and Application of Advanced Simulation and Training Technologies and Methods

This study addresses the need to validate estimates of cross-job retraining times against measures of actual retraining success. Specialty-level cross-job retraining time estimates were computed for 43 U.S. Air Force (USAF) enlisted specialties. The estimates were based on profiles of mean subject- matter-expert ratings of months to proficiency across 26 task categories. Individual-level criteria indicating previous job skill utilization, current skills and abilities, and current job performance were obtained from a separate study conducted 10 years earlier. Results were supportive: Correlations between retraining time estimates and performance criteria were negative and statistically significant. Future research needs and potential applications of retraining time estimates are discussed.     

Human dignity: A challenge to contemporary philosophy

The United States is the hegemon. As the world's superpower, it dominates political discourse and economic policy. Around the world, our hegemony inspires in turn admiration, intimidation, anger, retaliation, and despair. What is the future of our hegemonic world? Is it viable? How will it maintain order? How one answers these questions depends on one's worldview. Many view the world in the clockwork/domination model. Others view it in terms of a self-organizing/web model. Current United States policy works within the first paradigm. I consider the world situation within the self-organization/web paradigm and propose effective methods for conscious evolution.     

Memory Deficits Among Alcoholics: Performance on a Selective Reminding Task

ABSTRACT

This article compared alcoholics and healthy controls on the Buschke Selective Reminding Task. Alcoholics demonstrated deficits in memory and learning when compared to healthy controls, even when controlling for age. Examination of the alcoholic sample initially showed that age predicted memory deficits; however, age was no longer a significant predictor once the number of years of heavy drinking was entered into the regression equation. Findings suggest a direct link or mechanism of action between alcohol use and memory impairments, above and beyond effects of age or education.     

Cultural and Bilingual Influences on Artistic Creativity Performances: Comparison of German and Chinese Students

Empirical research on the relationship between culture and creativity has thus far yielded no consistent results. Investigations of the differences are mostly post-hoc, and results are inconclusive. A creativity-value-oriented theory is proposed to explain cultural differences, as an alternative to ethnic and language effects. This study was conducted to compare the performances of artistic creativity of Germans and Chinese. Results revealed that the four groups of students examined (German students of Caucasian descent, German students of Asian descent, Chinese students studying abroad, and Chinese students studying in China) differed in their artistic creativity. German participants (Caucasian Germans and Asian Germans) produced more creative and aesthetically pleasing artwork than did their Chinese counterparts (Chinese studying abroad and domestic Chinese). This difference was observed by both German and Chinese judges. There no significant subgroup differences in creative performances—no difference between the two German groups, and no difference between the two Chinese groups. Finally, although there were significant differences between German judges, Chinese judges studying abroad, and domestic Chinese judges in judging the artworks, these were not due to a preference for artwork from students from their own cultural background. Chinese and German judges roughly agreed on what constitutes creativity. These results suggest that cultural differences affect creative performances.     

The prediction of turnover intention by means of employee engagement and demographic variables in a telecommunications organisation

This study sought to determine the prediction of turnover intention by employee engagement and demographic variables in a large South African information and communication technology (ICT) organisation. Cross-sectional survey data was collected from the organisation. Using a sample of 2276 participants the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) was employed to measure employee engagement, while the Intention to Stay Questionnaire (ISQ) measured turnover intentions. Employee engagement was significantly negatively related with turnover intentions. A factor analysis conducted on the UWES indicated that activation accounted for 10% of the variance in turnover intentions. Age and tenure had statistically significant negative relationships with turnover intentions, whilst qualification and race had significant positive relationships with turnover intentions. The results also confirmed the predictive model of employee engagement as well as the impact of the demographic variables of race, age, tenure on turnover intentions. The study has practical implications in relation to its ability to contribute to human resources activities in the form of differentiated remuneration and retention strategies based on differences in age and tenure.     

Doubly-Latent Models of School Contextual Effects: Integrating Multilevel and Structural Equation Approaches to Control Measurement and Sampling Error

This article is a methodological-substantive synergy. Methodologically, we demonstrate latent-variable contextual models that integrate structural equation models (with multiple indicators) and multilevel models. These models simultaneously control for and unconfound measurement error due to sampling of items at the individual (L1) and group (L2) levels and sampling error due the sampling of persons in the aggregation of L1 characteristics to form L2 constructs. We consider a set of models that are latent or manifest in relation to sampling items (measurement error) and sampling of persons (sampling error) and discuss when different models might be most useful. We demonstrate the flexibility of these 4 core models by extending them to include random slopes, latent (single-level or cross-level) interactions, and latent quadratic effects.

Substantively we use these models to test the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE), showing that individual student levels of academic self-concept (L1-ASC) are positively associated with individual level achievement (L1-ACH) and negatively associated with school-average achievement (L2-ACH)—a finding with important policy implications for the way schools are structured. Extending tests of the BFLPE in new directions, we show that the nonlinear effects of the L1-ACH (a latent quadratic effect) and the interaction between gender and L1-ACH (an L1 × L1 latent interaction) are not significant. Although random-slope models show no significant school-to-school variation in relations between L1-ACH and L1-ASC, the negative effects of L2-ACH (the BFLPE) do vary somewhat with individual L1-ACH.

We conclude with implications for diverse applications of the set of latent contextual models, including recommendations about their implementation, effect size estimates (and confidence intervals) appropriate to multilevel models, and directions for further research in contextual effect analysis.     

Notes toward “a user's guide to the quantum connection”

Nick Herbert is an experimental physicist living in California whose recent book, Quantum Reality: Beyoad the New Pbysics, has been highly regarded as a lucid introduction to the many alternative interpretations of quantum mechanics that are currently being debated among professional physicists. In this playful article, he treads the fine line between science, fact, and fantasy to give us a metaphorical glimpse into some future possibilities about quantum dynamics in everyday life.

Dr. Herbert will be a speaker and panelist at our upcoming Fall 1988 conference on “Cod, Consciousness, and the New Quantum Psychologies” where he will present his most recent views on the reconstruction of a physics that includes consciousness and observer-created realities on many levels.     

Early Fathering as a Predictor of Later Psychosocial Functioning Among Preschool Children with Behavior Problems

The present study examined the role of early fathering in subsequent trajectories of social emotional and academic functioning of preschool children with behavior problems. Participants were 128 preschool-aged children (73 boys, 55 girls) with behavior problems whose biological fathers took part in a longitudinal study. Children were 3 years of age at the beginning of the study and were assessed annually for 3 years. Early paternal depressive symptoms predicted many aspects of children’s outcome 3 years later, including externalizing and internalizing problems, social skills deficits, and lower cognitive and academic functioning, and predicted changes in children’s externalizing, internalizing, and social problems across the preschool years. Paternal socioeconomic status (SES) also consistently predicted children’s later functioning across these domains. Furthermore, self-reported paternal attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and laxness, as well as observed frequent commands were associated with later externalizing problems in children. Paternal depressive symptoms and laxness mediated the relation between paternal ADHD symptoms and child functioning. Results suggest that aspects of early father functioning play an important role in the psychosocial, cognitive, and academic development of preschool-aged children with behavior problems.     

Infant interest in their mother's face is associated with maternal psychological health

Early experience can alter infants’ interest in faces in their environment. This study investigated the relationship between maternal psychological health, mother–infant bonding, and infant face interest in a community sample. A visual habituation paradigm was used to independently assess 3.5-month old infants’ attention to a photograph of their mother's face and a stranger's face. In this sample of 54 healthy mother–infant pairs, 57% of mothers (N = 31) reported symptoms of at least one of stress response to trauma, anxiety, or depression. Interest in the mother-face, but not stranger-face, was positively associated with the mother's psychological health. In regression analyses, anxiety and depression predicted 9% of the variance in looking to the mother-face. Anxiety was the only significant predictor within the model. No direct associations were found between mother–infant bonding and infants’ face interest. Taken together, these findings indicate that infant's visual engagement with their mother's face varies with maternal symptoms of emotional distress, even within a community sample.