Management style and its effect on prison officers’ stress

This study investigates the impact of the work environment on the level of perceived job stress in prison officers. Two models of prison administration were assessed in an attempt to identify the organizational structures and processes which were related to level of occupational stress. To identify the impact of occupational stress on prison officers, the bureaucratic and unit management models of prison administration are compared with respect to officer job characteristics and management processes. The Occupational Role Questionnaire and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were administered to 112 prison officers. A multivariate analysis identified a significant main effect for prison management type. On all measures, prison officers from the bureaucratic management model (Pentridge Prison) scored higher than officers from a unit management model (Barwon Prison). Role boundary, physical environment, and trait anxiety were the most salient discriminators between officers from Pentridge and Barwon. Private Practice.     

Relations of socioeconomic status and sex variables to the complexity of worker functions in the occupational choices of elementary school children

The relationships of sex and socioeconomic status to complexity of worker functions in the occupational choices of elementary school children were studied. Complexity of worker functions was defined in terms of the most complex level of interaction required of a worker, when interacting with data, people, and things. The children included in the study were third- and fifth-grade students, divided on the basis of grade, sex, and socioeconomic status. The children's occupational choices were scored for complexity with the code numbers of the worker function hierarchies of the U.S. Employment Service's Dictionary of Occupational Titles (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Printing Office, 1977, 4th ed.). Findings based on the obtained data indicated the following: (a) a positive relationship between socioeconomic status and complexity of data manipulation in occupational choices; and (b) greater complexity of interaction with things in the occupational choices of boys, than girls. The positive relationship between socioeconomic status and complexity of data manipulation was accounted for by the children's exposure to their parents' orientation toward data manipulation. Apparent differences in the play activities of boys and girls was used to explain differences between the sexes in the levels of complexity of interactions with inanimate objects and animals.     

Impact of adults' appeals for sharing on the development of altruistic dispositions in children

Third- and fourth-grade boys and girls (mean age 7 years, 10 months) were directly instructed to share half their winnings from a bowling game under one of three types of verbal appeal: a power assertive appeal emphasizing punitive consequences for noncompliance, an inductive appeal emphasizing the child's potential contribution to the well being of another person, or a neutral appeal. While they complied with this request, half the children were monitored by television camera; the other half were not. A measure of generalized sharing (noninstructed sharing under anonymous conditions) was then collected. It was predicted that generalized sharing would be greater for children who had heard the inductive appeal than for children who had heard the power assertive appeal and would be greater for children who had shared without television surveillance than for children who had shared under survellance. As predicted, generalized sharing was highest among children who had received the inductive appeal. However, prior surveillance depressed noninstructed sharing only for girls who had received the power assertive appeal. There was one additional and unexpected finding: when children were asked to reinforce themselves for having shared in the instructed sharing phase, boys who had shared in compliance with a power assertive appeal indulged themselves more than children in any other condition.     

Pre‐millennial tensions: What Pentecostal ministers look forward to

This paper examines the effects of beliefs about the future on conduct and attitudes in the present. It uses questionnaire responses of Christian ministers belonging to the four main Pentecostal denominations in the UK. These ministers hold views about the future defined by their theology, specifically by their eschatology. Ministers who expect to go through persecution are compared with ministers who expect to escape persecution supernaturally. The persecution‐expecting ministers are more likely to emphasise charismatic phenomena and are better educated. They are less likely to emphasise restrictive holiness codes.     

Detection in a four-observation two-channel task

Two models are proposed for a four-observation two-channel forced-choice paradigm of signal detection. The first model, an extension of signal detection theory, fails, while the second model, an extension of the classical decision threshold model, succeeds.     

Evaluating job satisfaction and success for emotionally maladjusted men

Work histories of male psychiatric patients were compared to see if they varied as a function of psychiatric diagnosis. It was predicted that there would be significant differences between diagnostic groups for types and levels of jobs held, amounts of job success achieved, and levels of job satisfaction attained. All three predictions were supported. Results indicated that the more severe the maladjustment, the less likely the men were to have been employed above the semiskilled level of occupations. Job satisfaction and job success were found to vary as a function of the personality characteristics of the different diagnostic groups. A direct relationship was found between severity of psychiatric disorder and unemployment time. Implications are discussed.     

The perception and identification of mirror-reversed patterns

Many species have difficulty in discriminating between mirror-image stimuli, especially those about a vertical axis, and when identificatory rather than purely perceptual processes are involved. Various theories are reviewed. In two experiments involving same-different judgments for pairs of stimuli, triangles or semicircles, these were simultaneously presented either unilaterally or bilaterally, and in mirror or aligned orientations with respect to each other. Mirror oriented stimuli presented to opposite cerebral hemispheres were no more readily matched than those possessing the same orientations (aligned), thus suggesting that at the perceptual level there is no interaction between mirror-corresponding points in the two visual cortices. Foreknowledge of stimulus orientations failed differentially to affect the findings. Two other studies were performed involving manual identification of single letters, correct or mirror oriented, in either visual field. Here, for most subjects, mirror reversal proved either less disruptive or even advantageous when in the visual field which is normally inferior with correctly oriented material. It was concluded that mirror-image confusion at the level of memory is almost certainly a consequence of reversed coding, in some form, in the opposite sides of the brain. A number of incidental findings were made with respect to visual field effects.     

Attributing causes for one's own performance: The effects of sex,norms, and outcome

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effect of sex of subject, stated sex linkage of task, and task outcome on causal attributions of an actor's performance. Results from both studies showed that: (1) males evaluate their performance more favorably than do females, despite equivalent objective scores; (2) males claim greater ability than do females following task performance; and (3) females are more prone to use luck to explain performance. The evidence also suggests that the difference between males and females in performance evaluation and self-attribution occurs most strongly in response to failure and on masculine tasks. The results are interpreted in terms of a general expectancy model.     

Similarity,Sex, and Requests for Small Favors1

To determine whether correspondence in appearance between helper and helped will increase the rate of helping behavior, two types (Hippie and Straight) and two sexes of experimenters approached each of the four corresponding types of subjects and asked to borrow a dime for a telephone call. As predicted, a significantly greater number of persons were willing to lend money to someone who resembled them in appearance. Furthermore, as predicted, his tendency to match on the basis of appearance was stronger for male subjects than for female subjects. It was hypothesized that dress styles, like race, provide a basis for assumptions about other areas of similarity and create a greater willingness to help a similar other.