Assessment of Knowledge Gains in Proactive Training for Postvention

This paper describes the development of a knowledge measure for the evaluation of a proactive training program for suicide postvention and analyses of its psychometric properties. The 25-item true–false knowledge test was administered before and after each of 12 training sessions; a total of 205 school personnel participated in the training and evaluation. Participants showed significant improvement in overall test scores and on several individual items following the training. Analyses suggested that the measure has construct validity, and that it taps a single underlying dimension. Strengths and weaknesses of the measure, and measurement issues in program evaluation are discussed.     

Book reviews

Cleeremans, A. (1993). Mechanisms of implicit learning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Pp. 227. ISBN 0-262-03205-8. £26.95.

Manktelow, K.l., & Over, D.E. (Eds.) (1993). Rationality: psychological and philosophical perspectives. London: Routledge. Pp. 322. ISBN 0-415-06955-6. £40.00.

Parkin, A. (1993). Memory. Oxford: Blackwell, Pp. 272. ISBN 0-631-15711-5. £40 (Hbk); ISBN 0-631-15712-3. £12.99 (Pbk).

Hellige, J.B. (1993). Hemispheric asymmetry: What's right and what's left. (Perspectives in cognitive neuroscience series.) Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Pp. 396. ISBN 0-674-38730-9. £27.95 (Hbk).     

VOICE MATTERS: BUFFERING THE IMPACT OF A NEGATIVE CLIMATE FOR WOMEN IN SCIENCE

The current study examined whether women scientists' perceptions of voice moderate the impact of poor workplace climates on job satisfaction and whether effective leadership and mentoring promote women's voice. Survey data were collected from 135 faculty women in the natural sciences. The results from multiple regression analyses indicated that negative (e.g., sexist, hostile) departmental climates were related to lower job satisfaction. However, voice interacted with climate, such that women who perceived that they had more voice in departmental matters showed higher levels of job satisfaction than those who perceived having less voice. An additional regression indicated that mentoring by other women (but not men) in academia and effective departmental leadership were positively related to women's sense of voice. Theoretical and practical implications for the retention and success of women in male-dominated fields are discussed.     

Effects of item concreteness on temporal coding

Recently several authors have suggested that coding of serial position in a word list is an automatic process. This contention is questioned in the present paper: two experiments explore the concrete-abstract distinction and show that temporal order retention is higher with concrete than with abstract lists. An alternative view that temporal coding is influenced by either selective attention and/or the selective strategies used by the subjects to meet the requirements set by the memory task is put forward.     

Editorial: Special Issue on Quality of Life among Children and Adolescents in Chinese Societies

Applied Research in Quality of Life -