Assessing the impact of healthy work organization intervention

This research evaluates a healthy work organization intervention implemented in a retail setting. Using a participatory process, employee teams in 11 intervention stores developed customized plans for improving work organization at their sites. Ten comparable stores served as controls. Employee surveys were administered prior to the intervention and twice again at 12‐month intervals. Business results were compiled monthly for each store. The baseline data were used by the teams to identify needs and establish action priorities for their stores. Most study outcomes declined across time for all stores, due primarily to internal corporate events and a generally adverse economic environment. However, the intervention process appeared to buffer some of these declines; intervention stores fared better in terms of selected aspects of organizational climate and psychological work adjustment. Intervention stores also performed better than controls on general indices of perceived health and safety and two of the four business outcomes: employee turnover and sales per labour hour. These results are discussed in terms of the challenges involved in evaluating organizational‐level interventions in work settings.     

Value from Fit with Distinct Motivational Field Environments

For almost forty years gun ownership and the motivational underpinnings of why guns are valued has received little attention in psychology. Using motivation science tools that explain value creation (regulatory focus and regulatory fit), we tested for fit between the prevention orientation and gun ownership. Our field experiments demonstrate fit between gun ownership and prevention. Our research is agnostic regarding the legal and moral components of the gun rights debate. Instead, we examine the malleability of gun value as a function of regulatory focus and regulatory fit, and provide evidence for fit effects with distinct motivational environments.     

Biosocial selfhood: overcoming the ‘body-social problem’ within the individuation of the human self

In a recent paper, Kyselo (2014) argues that an enactive approach to selfhood can overcome ‘the body-social problem’: “the question for philosophy of cognitive science about how bodily and social aspects figure in the individuation of the human individual self” (Kyselo 2014, p. 4; see also Kyselo and Di Paolo (2013)). Kyselo’s claim is that we should conceive of the human self as a socially enacted phenomenon that is bodily mediated. Whilst there is much to be praised about this claim, I will demonstrate in this paper that such a conception of self ultimately leads to a strained interpretation of how bodily and social processes are related. To this end, I will begin the paper by elucidating the body-social problem as it appears in modern cognitive science and then expounding Kyselo’s solution, which relies on a novel interpretation of Jonas’s (1966/2001) concept of needful freedom. In response to this solution, I will highlight two problems which Kyselo’s account cannot overcome in its current state. I will argue that a more satisfactory solution to the body-social problem involves a re-conception of the human body as irrevocably socially constituted and the human social world as irrevocably bodily constituted. On this view, even the most minimal sense of selfhood cannot privilege either bodily or social processes; instead, the two are ontologically entwined such that humans are biosocial selves.     

Managing others like you were managed: how prevention focus motivates copying interpersonal norms

In 5 studies, we investigated the relation between regulatory focus and the tendency to copy a role model's managing behavior after one experiences this behavior as its recipient and later takes on the same managing role. Because enacting role-related behaviors fulfills interpersonal norms that fit prevention concerns, we predicted a stronger tendency to copy among individuals with a stronger prevention focus on duties and obligations ("oughts") but not among those with a stronger promotion focus on aspirations and advancements (ideals). We also predicted that individuals with a stronger prevention focus would tend to copy a managing behavior regardless of their earlier hedonic experience with this behavior as its recipient. These predictions were first supported in 2 experimental studies, where a stronger prevention focus was measured as a chronic disposition (Study 1) and experimentally induced as a temporary state (Study 2). Further, we tested the mechanism underlying the relation between stronger prevention and stronger copying and found that concerns about the normativeness, but not the effectiveness, of a managing behavior motivated copying for individuals with a strong prevention focus (Studies 3 and 4). We generalized these experimental results to the field by surveying a sample of superior-subordinate dyads in real world organizations (Study 5). Across all studies, we found that individuals with a stronger prevention focus tend to copy more a role model's managing behavior--independent of their hedonic satisfaction with the behavior as its recipient and their perception of its effectiveness.     

Regulatory mode orientations and well‐being in an organizational setting: the differential mediating roles of workaholism and work engagement

This paper examines the relationships between two independent regulatory mode orientations, locomotion and assessment, and well‐being in organizational contexts. Results from a sample of 320 employees revealed that locomotion was negatively associated with burnout and psychological strain whereas assessment was positively associated with burnout and strain. The effects of locomotion and assessment on burnout and strain were mediated by workaholism and work engagement. Both locomotion and assessment predicted greater workaholism; however, locomotion was positively associated whereas assessment was negatively associated with work engagement. In turn, workaholism predicted greater burnout and strain, and work engagement predicted less burnout and strain. Implications for employee health and organizational success are discussed.     

Number of Sexual Partners and Social Disorganization: A Developmental Trajectory Approach

Utilizing a developmental trajectory approach, this study examines whether or not the perceived presence of social disorganization within communities contributes to the experience of having multiple sexual partners. The sample consists of African-American self-reports (n = 402) originating from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79). Analysis centers on responses from individuals who were ages 15 to 17 in 1998, 17 to 19 in 2000, 19 to 21 in 2002, 21 to 23 in 2004, 23 to 25 in 2006, and 25 to 27 in 2008. Following trajectory analysis of their reported number of sexual partners and perceptions of social disorganization, three groups are identified, showing variations in perceptions and number of sexual partners. Overall, results from these groups indicate that perceived social disorganization among African Americans has some impact on their number of sexual partners. Implications and directions for future research concerning social disorganization and public health are discussed.     

Developmental Trajectories of Maternal and Paternal Attachment and Delinquency in Adolescence

The present study sought to address two research questions: (1) Are there distinct trajectories of maternal and paternal attachment among adolescents? And if so, (2) How do these trajectories of maternal and paternal attachment relate to delinquent trajectories over the ages of 12 to 16? Using a subsample (n = 383) of the longitudinal Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) data, the results from semi-parametric group-based modeling (SPGM) suggested five groups of maternal attachment, where one trajectory exhibited little to no maternal attachment; another group appeared to have an initially low rate of maternal attachment but increased rather noticeably over time; a third trajectory demonstrated high initial levels of maternal attachment but a general decline over time; and the last two groups exhibited high and rather stable rates of maternal attachment, although one of these groups showed evidence of a decline. Comparatively, the same number of trajectory groups was estimated for paternal attachment, with relatively similar patterns over time as for the maternal attachment trajectories, with the exception of one trajectory that appeared to decline initially before demonstrating a substantial increase. Finally, the results from the joint trajectory analysis indicated that as maternal and paternal attachment increased the likelihood for delinquency decreased. Implications for future research and policy are also discussed.     

Low Self-control and Deviance: Examining the Moderation of Social Support from Parents

Drawing on self-report survey data from a sample of 425 college students in 2001, this study examines whether parental support can moderate the link between low self-control and deviance. Using multiple measures of low self-control and parental support and item parcels of deviance, structural equation models are developed to arrive at the results. Results reveal that parental support does not completely moderate the link between low self-control and deviance. Importantly, we find that parental support can reduce the link that low self-control has with deviance, suggesting that this is a measure that may be manipulated to reduce instances of deviance.