Interrole conflict and self-efficacy to manage work and family demands mediate the relationships of job and family demands with stress in the job and family domains

Background and objectives: This study derives from Work–Home Resources model (ten Brummelhuis, L. L., & Bakker, A. B. (2012). A resource perspective on the work–home interface: The work–home resources model. American Psychologist, 67(7), 545–556. doi:10.1037/a0027974) and Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, US: Prentice-Hall, Inc.) to investigate mechanisms responsible for the effect of job and family demands on work- and family-related perceived stress. We hypothesized that interrole conflict and self-efficacy to manage work and family demands operate either independently or sequentially transmitting the effects of demands on perceived stress. Design: A sample of 100 employees of various occupations participated in the study conducted online in two waves: Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2) with a three-month interval. Method: Regression analysis with bootstrapping was applied. Results: Interrole conflict (T1) did not mediate the relationships between demands (T1) and perceived stress (T2), whereas self-efficacy (T1) mediated only those between family demands (T1) and stress (T2). However, data supported the sequential mediation hypotheses: Demands (T1) were associated with increased interrole conflict (T1) which in turn decreased self-efficacy (T1) and ultimately resulted in the elevated perceived stress at work and in the family (T2). Conclusions: Demands originating in one domain can impact stress both in the same and other life areas through the sequence of interrole conflict and context-specific self-efficacy.     

The role of rehearsals in self-generated prospective memory tasks

In order to inquire into the nature of retrieval in prospective memory in a naturalistic context, we investigated the number and circumstances of rehearsals of different kinds of intentions to be pursued during a single time period. Thirty-six students were given four minutes to generate a list of tasks they were planning to perform over the course of 10 days. During this retention interval, they were provided with pocket-size diaries in which they recorded the details of each occasion they thought about the tasks previously listed. As to the nature of any triggers or cues that prompted rehearsal, the participants were asked to choose one of three alternatives: (1) association with an internal or an external cue that accidently appeared in the surroundings (accidental rehearsals), (2) deliberate thinking, e.g. while planning (self-initiated rehearsals), (3) recollection that spontaneously popped into one's mind for no apparent reason (no-trigger rehearsals). The results showed that thoughts about intended actions appeared more often after accidental cues than for no apparent reason. However, the relative contribution of self-initiated triggers to the rehearsal process was substantial: Most importantly, it was the self-initiated rehearsal that differentiated between executed and unexecuted actions. In addition, the most activated intention resulted in a higher frequency of no-trigger and self-initiated rehearsals than the remaining intentions. Finally, perceived intention importance was positively related to both the number of rehearsals and the likelihood of successful task completion. The results are discussed with regard to which factors may be crucial for the successful performance of participants' own self-generated intentions in a natural setting. The role of deliberate rehearsal in specifying the details of the intended action and its designated retrieval context is highlighted.     

Suicidal ideation,parenting style,and family climate among Hong Kong adolescents

The prevalence of suicidal ideation and its relations with perceived parenting treatment and family climate was examined in 120 Hong Kong students aged 15–19 years. Fifty‐two per cent of the participants reported suicide ideation. Suicide ideation was found to be significantly associated with perceived authoritarian parenting, low parental warmth, high maternal over‐control, negative child‐rearing practices, and a negative family climate. A positive family climate may act as a buffer against developing suicide ideation in adolescents.     

Pigeons play the percentages: computation of probability in a bird

The ability to compute probability, previously shown in nonverbal infants, apes, and monkeys, was examined in three experiments with pigeons. After responding to individually presented keys in an operant chamber that delivered reinforcement with varying probabilities, pigeons chose between these keys on probe trials. Pigeons strongly preferred a 75% reinforced key over a 25% reinforced key, even when the total number of reinforcers obtained on each key was equated. When both keys delivered 50% reinforcement, pigeons showed indifference between them, even though three times more reinforcers were obtained on one key than on the other. It is suggested that computation of probability may be common to many classes of animals and may be driven by the need to forage successfully for nutritional food items, mates, and areas with a low density of predators.     

Evaluation of drug toxicity in clinical trials

An increasing number of drugs removed from the market because of unacceptable toxicity raises concerns regarding preapproval testing of drug safety. In the present paper it is postulated that the non-inferiority type of trial should be abandoned in favor of the superiority trial with active controls and less stringent (p<0.1, both for efficacy and toxicity) statistics. This approach will increase sensitivity of detection of drug-induced adverse effects at the expense of increasing false positive results regarding the difference in efficacy between the tested and reference drug. Such a move will increase the protection of future patients. In addition, the proposed design is far more acceptable from the clinical (e.g. no need to specify the statistically expected “unimportant” number of deaths) and ethical points of view, as well as being favored by the strong incentive of involved parties. In the second part of this paper arguments are presented in favor of the hypothesis that placebo (still used in some superiority trials) does not induce adverse effects. The assertion that placebo may induce adverse effects is probably biased by the nature of the clinical experiment. Such a conclusion is supported by studies indicating that placebo-induced adverse effects are disease — and treatment — specific. The modification of clinical trials according to the proposed changes may increase the trials’ sensitivity at detecting adverse effects of drugs. A lecture on the subject of this paper was presented at the 6th International Bioethics Conference on the subject of ‘The Responsible Conduct of Basic and Clinical Research’, held in Warsaw, Poland, 3–4 June 2005.     

河图洛书探源

河图洛书究竟为何物,历化学者解说大相径庭。本文主要就其汉以前的渊源作了初步探讨,提出它始见于先秦古籍,是某些企图改朝换代的“圣人”们的有意伪造之物,汉儒称其为八卦九畴并附会《周易》,宣扬灾异思想,汉代方士也假托河图洛书编纬图,主要内容是与“经天验道”、推算吉凶有关的卜筮数术,目的在于为改朝换代制造“天书”、“祥瑞”,以神话自已。     

All You Need Is Love: The Importance of Partner and Family Relations to Highly Creative Individuals’ Well-Being and Success

The aim of the article was to investigate how the family life of highly creative individuals—mainly marriages or romantic relationships—is related to their sense of success and well-being. Previous studies have led to conflicting conclusions. The predominant finding has been that marriage and family constitute an obstacle to creative potential development. Other studies have demonstrated that, regardless of gender, creators lead satisfying family lives, which contributes to their well-being. The study presented in this paper is based on the grounded theory methodology and triangulates two sources: interviews with prominent creators from the USA conducted years ago (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996, N = 91) and interviews with recognized contemporary Polish artists and scientists (N = 34). Based on interactions between the interviewees’ perception of themselves as creators and their perception of gender and family roles, the authors identify and discuss five types of relationship between creators’ family life and work. They also discuss the factors that hinder or facilitate creators’ satisfactory functioning in both areas in each of the five types of relationship.     

Performance of the CES-D and its short forms in screening suicidality and hopelessness in the community

A measurement scale should be short and quick to complete if it is to be practically useful. Drawing on data from a community-based survey of 2,178 people in Hong Kong, we compared five short forms (5- to 10-item) and the original version (20-item) of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) in predicting suicidal attempts and suicidal thoughts. Short forms with as few as nine items performed in ways very similar to the full version; a version with only five items had a detectable difference from the full version. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values in differentiating people with and without suicidal thought or attempt change almost linearly with the cut-offs.