Engaging and disengaging work conditions, momentary experiences and cortisol response

There is a growing literature suggesting important associations between the perceived work situation, individual health, and organizational outcomes. Less research has investigated employee experiences in the moment, which might help explain why the broader outcomes emerge. We examined momentary affect and cortisol from a within-day and between-day perspective, comparing working time to nonworking time for employees in engaging and disengaging workplaces. Findings indicate significantly lower momentary happiness and interest and higher stress and sadness are associated with work, and, in particular, with disengaging work environments. The connections between momentary affect and cortisol confirmed prior research, but cortisol was higher during non-work weekday moments. Employees with engaging work conditions had lower cortisol during weekday (working) mornings in comparison to employees with disengaging work conditions. There was no difference on Saturdays. These results provide evidence that work, and especially the work situation, is associated with affective and physiological momentary states.     

The six most essential questions in psychiatric diagnosis: a pluralogue part 1: conceptual and definitional issues in psychiatric diagnosis

In face of the multiple controversies surrounding the DSM process in general and the development of DSM-5 in particular, we have organized a discussion around what we consider six essential questions in further work on the DSM. The six questions involve: 1) the nature of a mental disorder; 2) the definition of mental disorder; 3) the issue of whether, in the current state of psychiatric science, DSM-5 should assume a cautious, conservative posture or an assertive, transformative posture; 4) the role of pragmatic considerations in the construction of DSM-5; 5) the issue of utility of the DSM - whether DSM-III and IV have been designed more for clinicians or researchers, and how this conflict should be dealt with in the new manual; and 6) the possibility and advisability, given all the problems with DSM-III and IV, of designing a different diagnostic system. Part I of this article will take up the first two questions. With the first question, invited commentators express a range of opinion regarding the nature of psychiatric disorders, loosely divided into a realist position that the diagnostic categories represent real diseases that we can accurately name and know with our perceptual abilities, a middle, nominalist position that psychiatric disorders do exist in the real world but that our diagnostic categories are constructs that may or may not accurately represent the disorders out there, and finally a purely constructivist position that the diagnostic categories are simply constructs with no evidence of psychiatric disorders in the real world. The second question again offers a range of opinion as to how we should define a mental or psychiatric disorder, including the possibility that we should not try to formulate a definition. The general introduction, as well as the introductions and conclusions for the specific questions, are written by James Phillips, and the responses to commentaries are written by Allen Frances.     

Effect of Nb on nanoquasicrystalline Al-based alloys

Nanoquasicrystalline Al-based alloys, containing icosahedral particles in an α-Al matrix, exhibit high strength at elevated temperature. The metastability of the quasicrystals can limit the use of these alloys. In the present work, the microstructural evolution of Al₉₃(Fe₃Cr₂)₇ and Al₉₃Fe₃Cr₂Nb₂ (at%) alloys was studied using heat treatments and structural characterization by XRD, TEM and STEM-EDX analysis. It was observed that the Nb is dissolved in the Al–Fe–Cr icosahedral phase. This provides higher thermal stability, retaining the fine nanoquasicrystalline microstructure for longer times at high temperature.     

The Romantic Absolute

In this article I argue that the Early German Romantics understand the absolute, or being, to be an infinite whole encompassing all the things of the world and all their causal relations. The Romantics argue that we strive endlessly to know this whole but only acquire an expanding, increasingly systematic body of knowledge about finite things, a system of knowledge which can never be completed. We strive to know the whole, the Romantics claim, because we have an original feeling of it that motivates our striving. I then examine two different Romantic accounts of this feeling. The first, given by Novalis, is that feeling gives us a kind of access to the absolute which logically precedes any conceptualisation. I argue that this account is problematic and that a second account, offered by Friedrich Schlegel, is preferable. On this account, we feel the absolute in that we intuit it aesthetically in certain natural phenomena. This form of intuition is partly cognitive and partly non-cognitive, and therefore it motivates us to strive to convert our intuition into full knowledge.     

Second-Order Change in Marriage and Family Therapy: A Web-Based Modified Delphi Study

Second-order change is a central concept in Marriage and Family Therapy, but still remains poorly operationalized. We conducted a web-based modified Delphi study with 31 established faculty members currently teaching in COAMFTE-accredited Master's and Doctoral programs in the United States and in Canada to identify consensus regarding second-order change concepts, clinical operationalization, evaluation, and teaching principles. Numerous exemplars of first and second-order change were generated, but consensus on most items was low. Consensus was highest for pedagogy and low regarding concepts and clinical examples of first-order change and evaluation of second-order change. Results suggest clearer definitions and better measurement of systemic change are needed.     

Marital event appraisals and frequencies: A comparison of distressed and nondistressed husbands

Abstract

Frequencies of marital events have been shown to vary according to whether a marriage is classified as distressed or nondistressed, but it is not known if these two groups of subjects appraise or view marital events in the same ways. This study examined husbands' appraisals of five marital events which were recorded daily for 90 consecutive days. Subjects appraised events according to four qualities: desirability, changingness, meaningfulness, and control. Event frequencies of desirable and undesirable events replicated previous work, but contrary to our expectations, there were no differences in how husbands from distressed and nondistressed marriages viewed events.     

Contextualizing experience

This paper extends the discussion of Luke and Banerjee published in an earlier issue of this Journal by suggesting that psychologists studying the effects of stressful experiences on a later outcome do not always acknowledge the possibility that the experience might be correlated with conditions that are necessary for the outcome. This essay argues that the victims of a stressful event are not a random sample of the population and often belong to gender, class, or ethnic groups during particular historical eras that contribute to the outcome. The properties of these groups represent causal patterns that should replace the usual practice of examining the relation between a single independent and dependent variable.     

Team Coordination in Basketball: Description of the Cognitive Connections Among Teammates

This study investigated team coordination in basketball using the course-of-action theoretical framework. The focus was on how the players were connected with their teammates' activities. The activity of five French basketball players (17.60 ± .89 years) was studied during an official match. The data were collected and processed according to a procedure defined for course-of-action analysis. The results were used to characterize the coordination modes among players and the team coordination network that was built. The processes that underlie team coordination are discussed (i.e., mutuality and awareness), and some directions for practical applications are addressed.