The psychological contract and individual differences: The role of exchange and creditor ideologies

The present study examines exchange and creditor ideologies (two dispositional characteristics that are strongly related to exchange relationships) and their moderating effects on the psychological contract. Five hundred public-sector employees were studied over a 3-year period. Respondents’ were surveyed as to their perceptions of what they believed their employer owed them (e.g., job security, training, involvement in decision making, etc.) and the extent to which these “employer obligations” had been met. In addition, we assessed respondents’ perceptions of their own obligations to their employer (e.g., agreeing to work extra hours, volunteering for non-job-related activities, working unpaid hours, etc.) and the extent to which they believed that these “employee obligations” had been fulfilled. The results indicate that creditor ideology related positively to employee perceptions of their obligations to the employer and the extent to which they fulfilled those obligations while exchange ideology related negatively to employee obligations and fulfillment of obligations. Exchange ideology moderated the effects of perceived employer obligations on employee obligations and fulfillment of obligations while creditor ideology moderated the relationship between perceived employer fulfillment of obligations and employee obligations. This article provides preliminary evidence to the benefits of examining the role of individual dispositions in psychological contract research—a previously neglected topic—and discusses the potential implications for the practice of management.     

Turning a blind eye to double blind line‐ups

Although psychologists have urged police officers to use double blind line‐up procedures during their investigations, police officers state that these would be difficult to administer and most have been reluctant to implement this change. Four studies examine whether lay people's judgements about the guilt of a suspect vary according to whether a brief written summary of a case described the identification procedure as double blind or non‐double blind. The effects were all small (and almost all non‐significant). Most people do not treat double blind line‐ups differently from non‐double blind line‐ups when assessing the guilt of a defendant. Either police investigators should stop using this biased method or police investigators and others in the judicial system (e.g. jurors, judges) should be informed of this bias when evaluating results from any line‐up. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An experiential avoidance conceptualization of depressive rumination: Three tests of the model

This study examined an experiential avoidance conceptualization of depressive rumination in 3 ways: 1) associations among questionnaire measures of rumination, experiential avoidance, and fear of emotions; 2) performance on a dichotic listening task that highlights preferences for non-depressive material; and 3) psychophysiological reactivity in an avoidance paradigm modeled after the one used by Borkovec, Lyonfields, Wiser, and Deihl (1993) in their examination of worry. One hundred and thirty-eight undergraduates completed questionnaire measures and participated in a clinical interview to diagnose current and past episodes of depression. Of those, 100 were randomly assigned to a rumination or relaxation induction condition and participated in a dichotic listening task, rumination/relaxation induction, and depression induction. Questionnaire measures confirmed a relationship between rumination status and avoidance; however, no significant effects were found in the dichotic listening task. Psychophysiological measures indicated no difference in physiological response to a depression induction among high ruminators (HR). However, low ruminators (LR) in the relaxation condition exhibited a larger IBI response than LR in the rumination condition. Overall, these results provide partial support for an avoidance conceptualization of depressive rumination. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Relationship Between Dropout and Outcome in Naturalistic Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Dropout from psychotherapy is frequent and limits the benefits patients can receive from treatment. The study of factors associated with dropout has the potential to yield strategies to reduce it. This study analyzed data from a large sample of adults (N = 1,092) receiving naturalistic cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to test the hypotheses that dropouts, as compared to completers, had (1) higher symptom severity at treatment termination, (2) a slower rate of symptom change during treatment, and (3) a higher odds that the therapist rated treatment as ending for reasons related to poor outcome. Results showed that although dropouts ended treatment with higher symptom severity than completers, dropouts and completers did not differ in their rate of symptom change during treatment, suggesting that dropouts had higher symptom severity at termination because they received fewer sessions of treatment, not because their symptoms changed at a slower rate. Dropout was also associated with a higher odds of having a therapist-rated termination reason indicating a poor outcome, suggesting that dropout is more likely if patients are dissatisfied with some aspect of the therapy outcome or process. These findings suggest that strategies for monitoring and enhancing patient satisfaction with the process and outcome of treatment may help patients stay in treatment longer and end treatment with fewer symptoms than if they had dropped out.     

Who Will Volunteer? Religiosity, Everyday Racism, and Social Participation Among African American Men

This study explores the relative importance of everyday racism, empathic concern, communalism, and religiosity as predictors of pro-social involvement (i.e., volunteerism and membership in political/social justice organizations) among a sample of African American men (N = 151). Church involvement emerged as a positive predictor of the likelihood that these men were involved in volunteer work as well as the number of hours that men dedicated to volunteer work. Communalism positively predicted the amount of time (in hours per year) that men were involved in volunteer work. Subjective religiosity and the stress of everyday racism were associated with a greater likelihood of being a member of a political–social justice organization. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

How to get “kissably close”: Examining how advertisers appeal to consumers’ sexual needs and desires

This paper explores the nature of sexual appelas—sex-related promises or benefits—in mainstream advertising by describing types of sex appeals and findings from a sex-benefit content analysis. Overall, our findings reveal that sex is used to appeal to women and men, although a higher proportion of sexual ads appear in men’s (12%) compared to women’s magazines (6%). In addition, a variety of sex appeals are directed toward women (attractiveness, behavior, esteem), whereas most appeals directed toward men emphasize more and better sex. Last, male-only images are relatively absent in sexual ads compared to female-only (45%) and couples (47%) images. These findings, observations, and directions for future research are discussed.     

The effectiveness of function‐based interventions to treat sleep problems,including unwanted co‐sleeping,in children with autism

This study investigated the effectiveness of functional behavioral assessment (FBA)—informed interventions for sleep problems, particularly co‐sleeping, in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Seven children, who exhibited multiple sleep problems including unwanted co‐sleeping, participated. FBA, based on information derived from interviews and parent‐recorded sleep diaries, was used to develop individualized case formulations upon which multicomponent, parent‐implemented interventions were based. These were evaluated using a single‐case, non‐concurrent multiple‐baseline‐across‐participants design. Improvements were observed across all sleep problems, including the elimination of co‐sleeping. Gains were maintained at follow‐up for five out of seven children, though two children did not complete intervention. Parents reported high levels of satisfaction with the program. FBA‐based interventions for sleep problems in children with ASD and their clinical implications are further discussed.     

“I Believe in Cusk”: The Effect of Explicit Belief Statements on Children’s Reality Status Judgments and Beliefs about Consensus

Children learn about the world through others’ testimony, and much of this knowledge likely comes from parents. Furthermore, parents may sometimes want children to share their beliefs about topics on which there is no universal consensus. In discussing such topics, parents may use explicit belief statements (e.g., “Evolution is real”) or implicit belief statements (e.g., “Evolution happened over millions of years”). But little research has investigated how such statements affect children’s beliefs. In the current study, 4- to 7-year-olds (N = 102) were shown videos of their parent providing either Explicit (“Cusk is real”) or Implicit (“I know about cusk”) belief testimony about novel entities. Then, children heard another speaker provide either Denial (“Cusk isn’t real”) or Neutral (“I’ve heard of cusk”) testimony. Children made reality status judgments and consensus judgments (i.e., whether people agree about the entity’s existence). Results showed that explicit and implicit belief statements differentially influenced children’s beliefs about societal consensus when followed by a denial: explicit belief statements prevented children from drawing the conclusion that there is societal consensus that the entity does not exist. This effect was not related to age, indicating that children as young as 4 use these cues to inform consensus judgments. On the reality status task, there was an interaction with age, showing that only 4-year-olds were more likely to believe in an entity after hearing explicit belief statements. These findings suggest that explicit belief statements may serve as important sources of both children’s beliefs about novel entities and societal consensus.