An assessment of needed sales management skills

The skills required of sales managers are vitally important to the success of the firm's selling effort; however, there has not been a recent review that identifies these needed skills. Based on a survey of sales executives from 145 companies, this research develops a taxonomy of key sales management skills. The perceived importance of these skills is reported based on the level of management, gender and the performance level of the firm. In addition to identifying the relative importance of the various sales management skills, they were found to group into three conceptual dimensions relating to interpersonal, technical and strategic skills. The results also indicate that significant differences in the perceived level of skill importance exist based on level of management, years managing salespeople, gender and on three dimensions of the respondent's firm performance.     

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.     

Psychology in the Service of the School by M. F. Cleugh

Abstract

Forgiveness intervention has been shown to be effective in dealing with problems caused by interpersonal hurt. Problems caused by courtship hurt could also be resolved by this approach. This paper describes the theoretical foundations and application of a group forgiveness treatment program which reflected some elements of collectivist Chinese culture positivity for individuals hurt in romantic relationships. Thirty-one female students from a Chinese university were randomly assigned to three groups (forgiveness group, general group, and control group). They completed a Scale of Courtship Forgiveness, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Index of Well-Being &; Index of General Affect at entry (baseline), at the end of treatment, and at a four-week follow-up. Compared with the control group, clients both from forgiveness and general groups showed significant improvement in anxiety, depression, and well-being at the end of treatment, but only the forgiveness group showed significant improvement in courtship forgiveness. Further, the effectiveness of treatment for the forgiveness group lasted longer than for the general group. The findings suggest that the forgiveness treatment can be beneficial for college students hurt in romantic relationship.     

Tactical Military Leader Requisite Complexity: Toward a Referent Structure

The U.S. Army has focused on developing leader competencies in order to promote adaptability for asymmetric warfare. Expanding leader adaptive capacity, however, requires integrating competencies with deeper knowledge structures and leader identity. We conduct a three-stage exploratory study using semistructured interviews and three separate samples of experienced combat leaders to assess the organization of tactical leader functional roles. We identify the breadth of roles, tasks, skills, and attributes representative of expert tactical military leaders. We hope to take a first step in circumscribing the requisite cognitive and behavioral complexity required of tactical leaders and thereby provide a referent structure for future research on what constitutes requisite complexity for tactical military leaders.     

Temporal Changes in Mood Repair Through Music Consumption: Effects of Mood,Mood Salience,and Individual Differences

Prior research on mood management through media consumption has encountered mixed results. This study seeks to address these discrepancies by incorporating time of measurement into the examination of regulatory outcomes and by identifying trait-like cognitive moderators that presumably are involved in the regulation of negative moods. Results showed that sad mood initially fostered longer listening to mood-compatible music but such preference decreased over time, suggesting the merits of considering temporal changes in the mood-repair process. In addition, ruminative trait was found to be a significant factor in how people cope with their sad moods, whereas mood salience was not.     

Developmental change in feedback processing as reflected by phasic heart rate changes

Heart rate was recorded from 3 age groups (8-10, 12, and 20-26 years) while they performed a probabilistic learning task. Stimuli had to be sorted by pressing a left versus right key, followed by positive or negative feedback. Adult heart rate slowed following negative feedback when stimuli were consistently mapped onto the left or right key (response-dependent condition) but not when responses to stimuli were always followed by negative feedback (uninformative condition). Young children's heart rate showed slowing following both response-dependent and uninformative negative feedback. These findings suggest that the ability to assess the relevance of performance feedback improves with age, resulting in improved adjustment to dynamical changes in the task environment.     

Social skill in self-assertive strategies of toddlers with depressed and nondepressed mothers

The authors examined the effects of maternal depression on the skillfulness of toddlers' self-assertive strategies in interactions with their mother and with a female examiner. The participants were 110 mothers and their 26-month-old toddlers. Of these mothers, 57 had experienced an episode of clinical depression sometime since their child's birth, and 53 had had no history of depression. Toddlers exposed to maternal depression demonstrated significantly less social skill in their self-assertive strategies and more defiance when interacting with their mothers than did toddlers who were never exposed to maternal depression. The chronicity and severity of toddlers' exposure to maternal depression did not account for more pronounced differences in toddlers' skill in self-assertion toward mothers; however, toddlers exposed to more chronic courses of depression demonstrated less skill in their self-assertion toward the examiner. Toddlers who were exposed to maternal depression with a comorbid anxiety disorder did not exhibit less skill in their self-assertion toward mothers than did toddlers in either the depression-only or nondepressed groups. These findings suggest that exposure to maternal depression may interfere with toddlers' development of socially competent self-assertion strategies and may pose risks for future problems in the mother-toddler relationship.     

Preparation for speeded action as a psychophysiological concept

Mental preparation aids performance and induces multiple physiological changes that should inform concepts of preparation. To date, however, these changes have been interpreted as being due to a global preparatory process (e.g., attention or alertness). The authors review psychophysiological and performance investigations of preparation. Concepts of the central regulation of action offer an integrative framework for understanding the psychophysiology of preparation. If people process multiple streams of information concurrently, then preparatory processing requires a form of supervisory attention- central regulation to maintain unity of action. This concept is consistent with existing psychophysiological results and links them to current views of information processing. Conversely, psychophysiological measures may provide indices to test concepts within theories of the central regulation of action.     

An aerosol spray alternative to cigarette smoking in the study of the behavioral and physiological effects of nicotine

For studies of the behavioral and physiological effects of nicotine in smokers, delivery of nicotine via cigarette smoking is highly variable and difficult to control. A more precise method of delivery is needed in order to accurately manipulate the amount of nicotine being presented and, thus, to determine its quantitative effects. The objective of the study reported here was to test an aerosol nasal-spray method of delivering measured doses of nicotine. Eleven healthy males were presented 0 mg (placebo), 0.5 mg, 1.0 mg, and 2.0 mg of nicotine over 5 min during four separate sessions, and changes were observed in plasma nicotine concentration and cardiovascular activity. Dose-response relationships were observed between nicotine presented via this method and plasma nicotine, heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and, to a lesser extent, diastolic blood pressure. These results suggest that this aerosol spray method of presenting nicotine provides the measured doses necessary for quantification of nicotine’s effects.     

Developing Measures of Basic Job-Relevant English Proficiency for the Prediction of Job Performance and Promotability

The present study is an attempt to devise reliable and valid measures of job-relevant basic English proficiency to be applied in the prediction of job performance and promotability in an entry-level manual labor job dominated by workers whose native language is not English. An audio test and a reading test were developed to assess the ability to understand spoken English and written English respectively using job relevant material. Results showed that both tests demonstrated high predictive validity for the criteria of supervisory assessments of incumbents' English proficiency on the job, overall job performance, and promotability. In predicting ratings of overall job performance and promotability, each test provided incremental validity over the predictability provided by the other test. In addition, the tests also provided incremental validity in predicting promotability over the predictability provided by overall job performance.