Team climate,climate strength and team performance. A longitudinal study

We tested the hypothesis that the relationship between team climate and team performance is moderated by climate strength. The study sample was composed of 155 bank branches, and a two‐wave panel design was implemented. We measured four team climate facets (support, innovation, goal achievement and enabling formalization). We obtained two subjective indicators of team performance (ratings provided by team members and by team managers) and a financial indicator of team performance. Seven out of the 12 interaction effects tested were statistically significant and showed the expected sign. When financial team performance was the criterion, only the interaction term was significant. This suggests that only strong climates are related to financial team performance over time.     

Refutation by Parallel Argument

This paper discusses the method when an argument is refuted by a parallel argument since the flaw of the parallel argument is clearly displayed. The method is explicated, examined and compared with two other general methods.

Right or Wrong? The Brain's Fast Response to Morally Objectionable Statements

ABSTRACT— How does the brain respond to statements that clash with a person's value system? We recorded event-related brain potentials while respondents from contrasting political-ethical backgrounds completed an attitude survey on drugs, medical ethics, social conduct, and other issues. Our results show that value-based disagreement is unlocked by language extremely rapidly, within 200 to 250 ms after the first word that indicates a clash with the reader's value system (e.g., "I think euthanasia is an acceptable/unacceptable…"). Furthermore, strong disagreement rapidly influences the ongoing analysis of meaning, which indicates that even very early processes in language comprehension are sensitive to a person's value system. Our results testify to rapid reciprocal links between neural systems for language and for valuation.     

Lesions of the dorsal subiculum and the dorsal hippocampus impaired pattern separation in a task using distinct and overlapping visual stimuli

The contribution of the dorsal subiculum (DS) and of the dorsal hippocampus (DH) to memory for distinct and overlapping visual stimuli was examined. Rats with selective lesions of the DS or the DH were compared to sham-operated rats on a delayed matching-to-place task guided by distal visual cues in a modified radial-arm maze. Overlapping distal visual cues could be perceived from three arm entrances (adjacent arms) and a unique set of distal cues were more likely to be seen from the other two arm entrances (distinct arms). Rats with DS lesions were impaired on trials with baited adjacent arms, but not on trials with baited distinct arms. Rats with DH lesions were impaired on both types of trials. These results suggest that the DS and the DH are necessary for pattern separation and that they may have different contributions to memory.     

How need for cognition affects the formation of performance expectancies at school

Individuals with low Need for Cognition (NFC) have been found to process information using a peripheral route compared to individuals higher in NFC. These differences affect the formation of performance expectancies. Based on previous work demonstrating that the formation of performance expectancies can be understood as an information processing event and that inferring expectancies from the specific self-concept requires cognitive motivation, we tested whether students with higher NFC had performance expectancies in a specific subject that more strongly depended on specific self-concept. The participants (554 tenth grade students) reported their NFC, performance expectancies, general self-concept, and specific self-concepts in mathematics and English. Actual performance was assessed for mathematics. Multiple linear regressions supported the interaction-hypothesis concerning performance expectancies in mathematics and English. In addition, the higher the students’ NFC, the stronger actual performance in mathematics related to the specific self-concept. The results suggested that performance expectancies mediated the effect of self-concept on performance. NFC is an important variable influencing motivational processes, and should be included in models describing the relation between self-concepts and individuals beliefs or behaviors.     

Personal epistemology across cultures: exploring Norwegian and Spanish university students’ epistemic beliefs about climate change

The primary aim was to explore and compare the dimensionality of personal epistemology with respect to climate change across the contexts of Norwegian and Spanish students. A second aim was to examine relationships between topic-specific epistemic beliefs and the variables of gender, topic knowledge, and topic interest in the two contexts. Participants were 225 Norwegian and 217 Spanish undergraduates enrolled in psychology or education courses, and the dimensionality of topic-specific personal epistemology was explored through factor analyses of the scores on a 49-item questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to predict scores on the epistemic belief dimensions emerging from the factor analyses with gender, topic knowledge, and topic interest, respectively. Even though considerable cross-cultural generalizability in dimensionality was demonstrated, this research also draws attention to the cultural embeddedness of topic-specific epistemic beliefs. Moreover, differences in the predictability of topic knowledge and topic interest in Norway and Spain, suggest that factors constraining or enhancing adaptive epistemic beliefs concerning particular topics may vary across cultures.     

Model‐related factor score predictors for confirmatory factor analysis

The present paper introduces model‐related (MR) factor score predictors, which reflect specific aspects of confirmatory factor models. The development is mainly based on Schönemann and Steiger's regression score components, but it can also be applied to the factor score coefficients. It is shown that the rotation of factor score predictors has no impact on the covariance matrix reproduced from the corresponding regression component patterns. Thus, regression score components or factor score coefficients can be rotated in order to obtain the required properties. This idea is the basis for MR factor score predictors, which are computed by means of a partial Procrustes rotation towards a target pattern representing the interesting properties of a confirmatory factor model. Two examples demonstrate the construction of MR factor score predictors reflecting specific constraints of a factor model.     

Honor and Public Opinion

Honor has been an indispensable reference in the life of individuals and societies throughout the course of human history. As a basic concern of men and women, the phenomenon already appears in the earliest literary testimonies. The heroes of the Greek, Roman or German epic poems adapt their behavior to the demands of this particular deity, honor. Literature, at any time, in any culture, in any language, makes constant use of honor as an effective dramatic element. The recurrent presence is certainly a reflection of the actual significance the phenomenon of honor had in everyone’s life. This essay clarifies why honor is given such importance; why it has been considered to be more valuable for the individual than his/her own life. To this end, the mention of public opinion is unavoidable. This phenomenon, in its social psychological conception, is the key that permits us to enlighten the labyrinth of honor.     

Personality traits of Russians from the observer's perspective

Data were collected by the members of the Russian character and personality survey from 39 samples in 33 administrative areas of the Russian Federation. Respondents (N = 7065) identified an ethnically Russian adult or college‐aged man or woman whom they knew well and rated the target using the Russian observer rating version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, which measures neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Factor analyses within samples showed that the factor structure of an international sample combining data from 50 different cultures was well replicated in all 39 Russian samples. Sex differences replicated the known pattern in all samples, demonstrating that women scored higher than men on most of the neuroticism, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness facet scales. Cross‐sectional analyses demonstrated consistent age differences for four factors: Older individuals compared to younger ones were less extraverted and open but more agreeable and conscientious. The mean levels of traits were similar in all 39 samples. Although in general personality traits in Russians closely followed the universal pattern, some reliable culture‐specific effects were also found that future studies can help interpret. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.