Correlates of organizational commitment: Differences in the public and private sector

Private and public sector managers were compared regarding their job characteristics and organizational commitment. We hypothesized that job characteristics would be positively related to commitment and that sector would moderate that relationship. Moderated regression analyses revealed partial support for both hypotheses. The existence of clarity and challenge were positively related to commitment. Job characteristics demonstrated a stronger relationship with commitment among private sector managers. Explanations for these findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

The rationing of health care: A doctor's dilemma

Physicians are currently presented with very difficult ethical issues regarding who receives what level of medical care and for how long. A meaningful response to these perplexing issues necessitates a collaboration of doctors with others steeped in religious and ethical traditions. This paper addresses the complicated issue of the rationing of health care, and this issue is then addressed by responses from representatives of the religious community. This symposium took place at the New York Hospital—Cornell Medical Center in March 1991.The Rev. Curtis W. Hart, M.Div. is Director of Pastoral Care and Education at the New York Hospital—Cornell Medical Center.The Rev. Paul Conner, O.P., is Associate Professor and Director of the Master's Program in Public Health Care Ethics at New York Medical College. Larry Rasmussen, Th.D., is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Dr. Harlan J. Wechsler is Rabbi of Congregation Or Zarua and Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.     

The use of subtle items in detecting deception

When subjects attempt to fake psychopathology on the MMPI, scores on subtle subscales tend to be lower than those of nonfaking subjects. Our study hypothesized that this paradox comes about because the subtle subscales have no predictive validity, but their face validity for psychopathology is the opposite of the keyed direction for psychopathology. Subjects who attempt to fake psychopathology do so on the basis of item content and thus achieve lower rather than higher scores. Three groups of 80 undergraduates took the MMPI under regular, faking-good, or faking-bad instructions. As expected, faking-bad subjects scored significantly lower than regular subjects on the 100 most subtle items, and this was due to their responses to those. 73 of the items whose face validity was misleading. The results are consistent with other work showing valid uses of subtle items in detecting deception.     

Dispositional Optimism/Pessimism and Coping Strategies: Predictors of Psychosocial Adjustment of Rheumatoid and Osteoarthritis Patients1

Because rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has a more unpredictable course than osteoarthritis (OA), we hypothesized that generalized expectancies (optimistic/ pessimistic) influence the psychosocial adjustment of RA patients, whereas disease severity influences the adjustment of OA patients. Path analysis (LISREL VI) revealed that pessimistic RA patients (N= 107) and the more physically disabled OA patients (N= 108) reported poorer adjustment. The hypothesized mediating role of coping was supported for the RA but not the OA sample; that is, pessimism was associated with poor adjustment through greater use of wishful thinking coping. Unexpectedly, problem-solving coping was not found to mediate the optimism adjustment relationship.     

The prediction of adjustment at age 7 from activity level at age 5

One-hundred and ninety-two children (equally split between boys and girls) were studied when they were 5 years old in two settings, school and home. The children were observed in playgroups and at home, and were rated on activity level by their parents on the Rothbart Child Behavior Questionnaire. At age 7, the children were tested in our laboratory on the Harter Test of Perceived Competence and on an achievement task, and parents filled out the Child Behavior Checklist, the Child Behavior Questionnaire, and the Conners Parent Rating Scale. Home observations of activity level were significantly related to parent ratings of activity level, but not to school observations. Activity level at age 5 was related to parents' ratings of aggression and hyperactivity and to girls' learning problems at age 7. Activity level was not related to the children's self-perceived competence, but mothers' rating of high activity level at age 5 was related to low reading comprehension at age 7.Preparation of this paper was supported in part by the Center for Research for Mothers and Children, NICHD, U.S. PHS grant HD 19739 to Beverly I. Fagot.     

Concurrent Use of Cigarettes,Alcohol, and Coffee1

The interrelationships between cigarette, alcohol, and coffee use were examined in 307 U.S. army trainees and 304 U.S. enlisted army personnel. Usage patterns indicated distinct gender differences in this occupational setting. Among women, cigarette use and alcohol consumption were positively correlated; whereas for men, cigarette and coffee use were positively related. For both males and females, alcohol and coffee use were only weakly correlated. As demonstrated in other studies, nonsmokers showed a consistent pattern of abstention from coffee and alcohol or moderate alcohol use.     

Detection and discrimination thresholds for auditory periodicity

Complex periodic auditory signals, produced by the Guttman-Julesz procedure of repeating segments of random noise, were employed to address the low region of auditory periodicity. Periodicity detection and discrimination tasks were examined with a common experimental procedure and a common measure of thresholds. Typically, detection and discrimination performance suffer at extremely low periodicities, presumably because of the extremely close spacing of harmonics throughout the auditory spectrum. Interaural phase effects are extremely weak for these signals, being largely confined to threshold-detection tasks. Despite qualitative phenomenological differences for different periodicity regions, detection and discrimination functions show no sharp discontinuities over a wide range of periodicities.