SELF-ESTEEM AND JOB PERFORMANCE: THE MODERATING ROLE OF SELF-ESTEEM CONTINGENCIES

Although theoretical perspectives suggest self-esteem level (i.e., high/low) should have main and moderating effects on job performance, empirical and narrative reviews of the literature suggest such effects are either nonexistent or highly variable. To account for these mixed findings, we hypothesized that self-esteem level should only have main and moderating effects on job performance when one's self-esteem is not contingent upon workplace performance. Using multisource ratings across 2 samples of working adults, we found that the importance of performance to self-esteem (IPSE) moderated the effect of self-esteem level on job performance and moderated the buffering interaction between self-esteem level and role conflict in the prediction of job performance. Our results thus support IPSE as an important moderator of both main and moderating effects of self-esteem level.     

Infants and young children living in youth‐headed households in Rwanda: Implications of emerging data

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has already produced millions of orphans in Africa and the peak of the orphan epidemic has not yet been reached. One emerging social trend associated with premature parental death is the formation of households headed by youth aged 13–24. In Rwanda, specific sociocultural factors have supported the formation of youth‐headed households (YHH) in the wake of both the 1994 genocide and the ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic. There is no published data on the health and socioemotional functioning of children under 5 living in YHH. Survey data from 692 YHH in one region of Rwanda yielded a subsample of 89 homes which contained one or more children under 5 (n=104) . These data reveal that a majority of young children living in YHH's is in fair or poor health. Heads of household themselves report high levels of depressive symptoms and social isolation; reports of emotional distress among the youngest children in the homes are associated with reports of higher symptomatology among heads of household. Findings are interpreted in light of the sociocultural context of Rwanda and the implications of the data for intervention are considered.     

Julie's museum: The evolution of thinking, dreaming and historicization in the treatment of traumatized patients

The author contends that, following Freud, trauma may be viewed as a disruption of the ego's 'protective shield' and that a central factor of this shield is an internalized relationship to a thinking-containing mother. Severe trauma destroy this inner connection, resulting in the reversal of a-function and the establishment of a rigid traumatic organization (ß-screen) that brings coherence to the shattered psyche. However, this is an 'organized chaos' in which concrete forms of thinking predominate. The patient's ability to think, dream and imagine is signifi cantly curtailed and she is consequently locked in a traumatic world from which she is unable to evolve. He offers a detailed case history to illustrate these points and the vital role the analyst's imaginative capacities play in the analysis of such individuals. Finally, he addresses the development of the capacity to represent the trauma, starting with primitive, often somatically encoded experiences, and evolving toward the capacity for historicization.     

Family approval as a constraint in dependency regulation: Evidence from Australia and Indonesia

Murray and colleagues’ dependency regulation model suggests that individuals in romantic relationships permit themselves to be emotionally dependent on a romantic partner only when they are certain they are valued by their partners. We argue that in cultures where family has a role in mate selection, family approval of the relationship provides an additional constraint on emotional dependence. Reports of relationship perceptions were collected from Australian and Indonesian individuals in dating relationships. The traditional dependency regulation model was affirmed for the Australian sample, but regulation of emotional dependence was best accounted for by both feelings of security in a partner’s affections and perceptions of approval from the partner’s family for the Indonesian sample.     

Beyond the “Birds and the Bees”: Gender Differences in Sex‐Related Communication Among Urban African‐American Adolescents

To read this article's abstract in both Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, please visit the article's full‐text page on Wiley InterScience ( http://interscience.wiley.com/journal/famp ). The current study examined gender differences in communication about sex‐related topics in a community sample of urban, African‐American mothers and adolescents living in impoverished neighborhoods with high HIV rates. One hundred and sixty‐two mother–adolescent dyads completed self‐report measures of sex‐related communication. Youth also reported on their sexual risk. We identified the range of sexual‐based topics that adolescents discussed with their mothers, fathers, friends, and at school. The relationship between the frequency of sexual communication and sexual risk was examined. We also investigated congruency between adolescent and mother report about whether sexual‐based discussions occurred. Consistent with prior research, girls talked to their mothers, fathers, friends, and at school about sex‐related topics more than boys. Findings indicated that mothers not only communicated more frequently about sexual issues with their daughters than sons but that parental messages for girls were more protective. Greater sexual communication with mother was significantly associated with decreased HIV risk in the past 90 days and increased protection from HIV. Inconsistencies between mother and adolescent reports about sexual communication were marginally associated with decreased protection from HIV. Findings reveal the protective effect of sexual communication and the general lack of congruence between mother and adolescent reports of sexual communication.     

ADJUSTING SALES RESULTS MEASURES FOR USE AS CRITERIA

The use of objective criterion measures in validation research raises the issue of criterion contamination. Several methods of treating sales measures in the empirical keying of a biodata instrument are compared. The relative contaminating effects of local economic conditions and company factors are evaluated. This study is an example of how practitioners can use their knowledge about the selection context to develop acceptable criterion norming strategies.     

Reading Against the Lines: Resisting Foreclosure in Therapy Discourse

In this article, it is noted that poststructural ideas can be useful tools in fostering reflexivity and creativity for clinicians. By examining the process of meaning construction, clinicians can detach from repetitive interpretations of therapy discourse that lead to conversational closure. Four strategies for guiding a reading of family therapy interaction are presented: incitement to discourse, deconstruction, normativity, and the cultural grid of intelligibility. These strategies are used to describe examples of marital therapy discourse. By learning to read therapy as discourse, clinicians may critically examine how meaning is constructed and use that awareness to foster therapeutic conversations.