What (not) to add in your ad: When job ads discourage older or younger job seekers to apply

Both older and younger job seekers face difficulties when entering the workforce. Qualification-based targeted recruitment (QBTR) might be used to attract older/younger job seekers, yet how this strategy is perceived by older/younger job seekers has not been considered before. The present study fills this gap and investigated effects of negatively metastereotyped information in job ads (i.e., personality requirements or traits) on application intention and self-efficacy of both older and younger job seekers. An experimental study (N_total = 556; 44.6% aged 50 or older, 55.4% aged 30 or younger) showed that negatively metastereotyped traits in job ads (e.g., “flexible”) lowered older job seekers’ application intention and that this effect was mediated by older job seekers’ self-efficacy regarding that trait. No such effects were found among younger job seekers. Results showed that organizations can fail to attract older candidates because of the traits mentioned in job ads, which is particularly alarming when aiming to target age-diverse applicants. Suggestions for practitioners and future research are formulated.     

Between individualisation and tradition: transforming religious authority on German and Polish Christian online discussion forums

The aim of this paper is to connect the debates on individualisation and mediatisation of religion and transformations of religious authority online on theoretical and empirical basis. The classical and contemporary concepts of individualisation of religion, rooted in the secularisation debate, will be connected with Campbell’s [2007. “Who’s Got the Power? Religious Authority and the Internet.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12 (3): 1043–1062] concept of four layers of religious authority online. The empirical material consists of a joint analysis of German Christian and Polish Catholic Internet forums. In a transnational comparison, the findings show similar tendencies of individualisation and emerging communities of choice, as well as a lasting significance of textual religious authorities, although different levels of authority are negotiated and emphasised to a varying extent. However, in both cases critique of the Church and religion usually emerges offline, and is then expressed online. While the forums do not have a subversive potential, they facilitate adopting a more independent, informed, and reflexive approach to religion.     

The “Obama Effect”: How a salient role model reduces race-based performance differences

Barack Obama, the first Black-American president, has been widely heralded as a role model for Black-Americans because he inspires hope. The current study was conducted to assess whether, beyond simply inspiring hope, this “Obama Effect” has a concrete positive influence on Black-Americans’ academic performance. Over a three-month period we administered a verbal exam to four separate groups of Black- and White-American participants at four predetermined times. When Obama’s stereotype-defying accomplishments garnered national attention - just after his convention speech, and election to the presidency - they had a profound beneficial effect on Black-Americans’ exam performance, such that the negative effects of stereotype threat were dramatically reduced. This effect occurred even when concerns about racial stereotypes continued to exist. The fact that we found performance effects with a random sample of American participants, far removed from any direct contact with Obama, attests to the powerful impact of ingroup role models.     

Task control and cognitive abilities of self and spouse in collaboration in middle-aged and older couples

Collaborative problem solving may be used by older couples to optimize cognitive functioning, with some suggestion that older couples exhibit greater collaborative expertise. The study explored age differences in 2 aspects of collaborative expertise: spouses' knowledge of their own and their spouse's cognitive abilities and the ability to fit task control to these cognitive abilities. The participants were 300 middle-aged and older couples who completed a hypothetical errand task. The interactions were coded for control asserted by husbands and wives. Fluid intelligence was assessed, and spouses rated their own and their spouse's cognitive abilities. The results revealed no age differences in couple expertise, either in the ability to predict their own and their spouse's cognitive abilities or in the ability to fit task control to abilities. However, gender differences were found. Women fit task control to their own and their spouse's cognitive abilities; men only fit task control to their spouse's cognitive abilities. For women only, the fit between control and abilities was associated with better performance. The results indicate no age differences in couple expertise but point to gender as a factor in optimal collaboration.     

The ameliorating effect of oroxylin A on scopolamine-induced memory impairment in mice

Oroxylin A is a flavonoid and was originally isolated from the root of Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi., one of the most important medicinal herbs in traditional Chinese medicine. The aim of this study was to investigate the ameliorating effects of oroxylin A on memory impairment using the passive avoidance test, the Y-maze test, and the Morris water maze test in mice. Drug-induced amnesia was induced by administering scopolamine (1 mg/kg, i.p.) or diazepam (1 mg/kg, i.p.). Oroxylin A (5 mg/kg) significantly reversed cognitive impairments in mice by passive avoidance and the Y-maze testing (P<.05). Oroxylin A also improved escape latencies in training trials and increased swimming times and distances within the target zone of the Morris water maze (P<.05). Moreover, the ameliorating effects of oroxylin A were antagonized by both muscimol and diazepam (0.25 mg/kg, i.p., respectively), which are GABA(A) receptor agonists. Furthermore, oroxylin A (100 microM) was found to inhibit GABA-induced inward Cl(-) current in a single cortical neuron. These results suggest that oroxylin A may be useful for the treatment of cognitive impairments induced by cholinergic dysfunction via the GABAergic nervous system.     

Personality,social support,and anxiety among adolescents preparing for university entrance examinations in turkey

This study aimed to investigate the importance of different sources of perceived social support, sociotropic and autonomic personality dispositions, achievement expectation, and importance of academic achievement in predicting anxiety symptoms of male and female students who were preparing for the university entrance exam. Three hundred and forty students with ages varying from 16 to 21 participated in the study. Separate multiple regression analyses were run for males and females in predicting anxiety symptoms. The total Sociotropy score and the total Social Support score predicted anxiety for females, whereas for males, anxiety was predicted by four variables, namely, Achievement Expectancy, Concern over Approval, Social Support from Family, and Social Support from Friends. Implications of these results were discussed. This study was supported by the Turkish Academy of Sciences under the Young Scientist Award Program. (TG-TUBA-GEB>P/2002-l-ll).     

Attitudes toward physical education classes of primary school students in Turkey

The purposes of this study were to report an investigation of attitudes toward physical education in a sample of primary school students and examine the predictive influence of students' sex, grades in physical education classes, and parents' education and socioeconomic status on students' attitudes. Participants, 963 (474 girls and 489 boys) primary school students from Grades 6 (12.7%), 7 (10.3%) and 8 (77%), completed the Wear Attitude Inventory. Analysis indicated students had positive scores on General Attitudes rather than on Social, Emotional, and Physical Attitudes. In addition, girls (M = 32.6, SD = 3.9) had more positive General Attitudes than boys (M = 32.0, SD = 4.6). Also, students' grades in physical education classes were statistically significantly related to their Attitudes toward physical education (Wilks lambda, F1,1110 = 2.88, p < .05). However, parents' education and socioeconomic status were not. One may infer that ways of encouraging more favorable attitudes might be planned.     

Learning to coordinate redundant degrees of freedom in a dynamic balance task

The present study investigated Bernstein's [The co-ordination and regulation of movements, 1967] proposal regarding the three stages of learning in the changing coordination and control of redundant joint-space degrees of freedom. Six participants practiced maintaining balance on a moving platform that was sinusoidally translated in the anterior-posterior direction for 30 trials on day 1 and 10 trials on day 2. At the beginning of practice, the motion of the torso and limb segments was less coherent in the attempt to compensate for the movement of the support surface in retaining a balanced posture. However, with practice, the organization of a compensatory postural coordination mode became highly coherent and also progressively utilized the passive, inertial forces generated by the movement of the support surface. The findings support the propositions that: (a) the pathway of change over time in the coordination pattern of the torso and joint motions depends on the task goal and constraints to action and (b) the changes in limb and torso motion are in support of the learning of a global body center of mass/platform dynamic.     

Effects of display characteristics and individual differences on preferences of VDT icon design

This study explored the effects of display characteristics such as target/background color combination, single/simultaneous presentation, and individual differences by sex, and design specialty on preferences of VDT icon design. The results indicated black targets (black-on-white, black-on-yellow) and black backgrounds (red-on-black, yellow-on-black) were the most popular and white targets (white-on-red, white-on-black) and white backgrounds (blue-on-white, red-on-white) were the second most popular. As for the chromatic color combinations, yellow-on-blue was the most favored. Subjects rated color combinations under single presentation higher than those under simultaneous presentation. Women rated purplish targets and rated purplish and blue backgrounds higher than men. Subjects with design background favored black more either as a target or background, but they favored turquoise less than those without design background.     

Unilateral nostril breathing in intraocular pressure of right-handed healthy subjects

The effects of unilateral forced nostril breathing on the intraocular pressures of right and left eyes was studied in 24 male and 26 female right-handed adults. In men, the forced breathing through both the right and left nostrils significantly decreased the intraocular pressures of both right and left eyes. For women, the forced breathing through right nostril did not affect the intraocular pressures of right and left eyes, and the forced breathing through left nostril also had no effect on the intraocular pressure of right eye, although it decreased the intraocular pressure of left eye significantly. These results show that unilateral forced nostril breathing decreases intraocular pressure especially in men, perhaps increasing sympathetic nervous system activity.