Human Costs of Organizational Downsizing: Comparing Health Trends Between Leavers and Stayers

We studied health-related selection and consequences of an organizational downsizing among 886 municipal employees. Measurements of health indicators were conducted before any rumor of the downsizing and immediately after the downsizing 3 years later. Results of predownsizing health showed that those who did not find employment after the staff reductions were older employees with high preexisting morbidity. Those getting a new job elsewhere were younger and had better health already before the downsizing than the stayers. After the downsizing, deterioration of health was most likely in the stayers working in groups of major staff reductions and among the nonemployed leavers. In the reemployed leavers, the risk of increased health problems was lower than in others including employees working in no or minor downsizing groups.     

Applying phenomenography in guidance and counselling research

This paper examines phenomenography as a viable qualitative approach in guidance and counselling research. A phenomenographic study maps the qualitatively different ways in which people experience a specific phenomenon and helps researchers to describe the aspects that make one way of experiencing a certain phenomenon qualitatively distinct from another. This paper presents an overview of phenomenographic research, encompassing theoretical, methodological and practical considerations. The application of this approach in guidance and counselling studies is illustrated with examples.     

“But Others Do It!”: Do Misperceptions of Schoolmate Alcohol and Marijuana Use Predict Subsequent Drug Use Among Young Adolescents?

We examined the effects of perceived prevalence of drug use among same-age peers on adolescents' subsequent drug use. In 7^th grade, participants estimated prevalence of alcohol and marijuana use among 7^th-grade students in their school, reported own use of these drugs, receipt of offers to use these drugs, and frequency of contact with peers who use these drugs. In 8^th grade, participants reported their frequency of alcohol and marijuana use. Although perceived prevalence of drug use predicted subsequent alcohol and marijuana use when controlling for actual prevalence, these effects disappeared once participants' prior levels of drug use and proximal peer contacts were considered. Implications of findings for intervention programs aiming solely to increase accuracy of perceived prevalence estimates are discussed.     

How stable is sense of coherence? Changes following an intervention for unemployed individuals

The present investigation was concerned with the changeability of sense of coherence. We examined changes in sense of coherence (SOC) over a six-month period in a sample of Finnish unemployed individuals ( n = 74) participating in an intervention program designed to boost re-employment. Over the study period, participants' sense of coherence improved significantly and re-employed individuals reported the greatest changes. Different changes in the subcomponents of SOC, comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness, were found. Contrary to expectations, participants younger than 30 years of age did not show greater changes in their SOC. Initial personal resources were predictors of both positive and negative changes in SOC.     

Predictors of Teens' Attitudes Toward Condoms: Gender Differences in the Effects of Norms

Using data collected from a telephone survey of adolescents aged 15 to 19, we studied predictors of condom attitudes. Analyses were conducted on a sample of 348 sexually active teens. Multiple regression revealed that holding other variables constant being females, African American, perceiving that more of their friends were using condoms (i. e., perceived normative behavior). and stronger perceived normative pressure were significantly associated with favorable condom attitudes. Furthermore, significant interaction effects pointed to gender differences in the association between two types of norms and attitudes toward condoms. Perceived normative behavior had a greater effect on the attitudes of female adolescents. Perceived normative pressure had a greater effect on the attitudes of male adolescents.     

Cross-lagged relations between kindergarten teachers’ causal attributions, and children’s interest value and performance in mathematics

The present study investigated mathematics performance and related interest value as the antecedents and consequences of teachers?? causal attributions concerning children??s academic outcomes during their kindergarten year. Sixty-nine children (5?C6?years old at the baseline) and their teachers were examined twice during the kindergarten year. Children were tested in mathematics performance and interviewed about their interest value. Teachers rated their causal attributions in the fall and spring. The results showed that the higher the interest value in mathematics children showed, the more the teacher attributed their success to ability and effort. Teachers?? ability attributions for success, in turn, contributed to an increase in children??s interest value in mathematics. Moreover, attributing children??s success and failure to external causes decreased children??s mathematics-related interest value.     

Frustration of Life Goals Mediates the Negative Effect of Unemployment on Subjective Well-Being

The present study investigated whether unemployment influences the importance and the realization of life goals and whether a reduced realization of life goals mediates the negative effect of unemployment on subjective well-being. A sample of 256 employed and unemployed German adults was studied with scales measuring six different life goal domains (power, achievement, variety, altruism, intimacy, affiliation). Only weak differences between unemployed and employed people were found for importance ratings of life goals. However, current realization of life goals, particularly of agency goals such as power, achievement and variety, was significantly lower among unemployed persons than among employed persons. Thus, unemployment did not change the goals people wanted to achieve in their lifetime, but it inhibited the success of these strivings. Furthermore, current realization of life goals was found to be a mediator of the detrimental effect of unemployment on life satisfaction and positive/negative affect.     

The basic tools of psychoanalysis

The objective of psychoanalysis is to help the analysand make the contents of his or her psyche conscious to him- or herself In this paper, the author identifies four tools central in the attempts to reach this goal: (1) the analysand's self- observation; (2) the analyst's assistance in identifying the obstacles to self-observation (i.e., resistance analysis); (3) the analysand's bringing unconscious contents into the sphere of self-observation with the help of the analyst's interpretations; (4) turning the analysand's tendency to account for the listener into an object of self-observation (i.e., the analysis of transference). Of these tools, the first is regarded as the most fundamental; all methodological instruments used in psychoanalysis aim at enhancing the scope of the analysand's self-observation. Some difficulties in keeping this aim are identified, and the analysand's autonomy in this work is pointed out, leading to the conclusion that the analysand never becomes changed in an analysis; the analysand might, however, change him- or herself as a consequence of a newly-won self-observation.     

Spatial integration in Glass patterns

The extraction of a global orientation structure presumably has a different neural mechanism from that of the analysis of its local features. We investigated spatial integration within these two mechanisms using stimulus patterns composed of dot pairs (dipoles). The stimuli targeted local feature detection, contained no global configuration, but rather contained randomly oriented dipoles of a fixed length (the distance between the dots in a pair). For the detection of a global orientation structure, local dipole orientations were arranged in a concentric Glass pattern. Thresholds as a function of a stimulus area were determined by measuring the minimum proportion of dipoles among random-dot noise (signal-to-noise ratio) required for the detection of dipoles (features), as well as for the detection of an orientation structure. Thresholds for feature detection were significantly higher than those for the detection of the global structure--regardless of the stimulus size. Spatial integration, however, did not differ between the two tasks: the exponents of the power functions fitted to data for six observers were -0.48 +/- 0.07 for random dipole orientations and -0.62 +/- 0.1 for Glass patterns.     

Job Insecurity and Depressive Symptoms in Mothers and Adolescents: A Dyadic Study

Journal of Child and Family Studies - In this study, we examined whether maternal perceived job insecurity (JI) affected depressive symptoms in their adolescent children. Specifically, we tested a...