The Interactive Effect of Conscientiousness and Agreeableness on Job Performance Dimensions in South Korea

While much is known about the effects of personality traits on performance, there is still limited empirical evidence that examines how personality traits may interact with each other to impact dimensions of performance. This study examined how conscientiousness and agreeableness interact to predict both task performance and organizational citizenship behavior using a sample of 113 bank employees in South Korea. The interaction between the two personality traits was significantly related to both dimensions of performance.     

Reconstruction of things past: Why do some memories feel so close and others so far away?

The vast majority of work in construal level theory focuses prospectively on the future. Through a series of studies controlling for knowledge about an event, we look retrospectively at the past and demonstrate that construal mindsets can materially influence how a past event is reconstructed in memory. Specifically, an event recalled in a more concrete mindset feels subjectively closer than when recalled in an abstract mindset (Studies 1-3). We present evidence suggesting this is because a concrete mindset actually makes people feel as though they know more, even if they were initially exposed to the same set of information—perceived information accessibility mediates the effect of construal level on temporal distance (Study 2). The effect of construal level on memory reconstruction extends to judgments of blame, where judgments of greater temporal distance drive a greater propensity to blame parties for negative events and temporal distance mediates these judgments (Study 3). Together, these studies are the first to demonstrate that the mindset employed when recalling an event shapes its remembrance.     

Comparative analyses of rider position according to skill levels during walk and trot in Jeju horse

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the rider position at walk and trot as a function of rider skill level by analyzing joint angles. Participants included three advanced riders and six beginners, and training was conducted for one hour, twice a week for 24 weeks. In the walk stage of the beginners’ group, the elbows and shoulders sustained postures comparable to those of the advanced riders group; the trunk tilted forwards at first, but later it tilted slightly behind the vertical. The knee, ankle, and left–right angle kept stable postures after 12 weeks of training (p < .05). The front-rear (FR) angle of the beginners group improved during training, but it was still lower than the advanced riders group after 24 weeks of training (p < .05). At trot, while the knee angle measurement of the beginners’ group was similar to the advanced riders, the ankle joint sustained a forward point posture. The ankle joint maintained dorsiflexion posture with 83.9° ± 5.3 in the advanced riders group, while the beginners group had plantar flexion posture with 98.7° ± 6.0. This study suggested that the correlation between the joint and body segment angles could be an important indicator in the evaluation of rider proficiency.     

The Role of Attachment and Stigma in the Relationship Between Stress and Attitudes Toward Counseling in South Korea

Using structural equation modeling, the authors investigated the mediators between stress and attitudes toward seeking professional help among 298 undergraduate students in South Korea. Results indicated that attachment styles (avoidance and anxiety) and stigma (public and self‐stigma) mediated the relationship between stress and attitudes toward seeking help. Furthermore, public and self‐stigma had different paths depending on attachment styles related to help seeking. Regarding previous counseling experience, differences in the relationships between stress, attachment styles, stigma, and attitudes toward seeking help were evident.     

Performance of Fourth-Grade Students with Learning Disabilities on Multiplication Facts Comparing Teacher-Mediated and Technology-Mediated Interventions: A Preliminary Investigation

Instructional applications (apps) are educational software programs that can be accessed via mobile technologies (e.g., iPad, smartphone) and used to help students acquire various academic skills, including mathematics. Although research suggests that app-based instruction (AI) can be effective, there is a paucity of research comparing AI, to teacher-directed instruction (TDI) or to a combination of instructional approaches (CI) involving both AI and TDI in tandem. In an alternating treatments design, we compared AI, TDI, and CI conditions during instruction targeting multiplication facts with six students with learning disabilities. Results were inconsistent across students, and no condition emerged as consistently better than the others. Students completed social validity rating scales, and all approaches were favored by at least one student. Our results support findings from previous research involving similar comparisons between these instructional formats in which no (or minimal) differences across conditions were detected. We conclude that there may not be a meaningful difference between the outcomes achieved using AI, TDI, or CI for many students. Results are discussed in terms of directions for the future research.     

Participant Reflexivity in Community‐Based Participatory Research: Insights from Reflexive Interview,Dialogical Narrative Analysis,and Video Ethnography

Focusing on researchers, the predominant discourse on reflexivity has seldom considered the contribution that participants could make to research through their self‐reflections. To bring to light the significance of participants' self‐reflection in participatory inquiries, I develop the concept of participant reflexivity, referring to the process in which participants use insights gained through self‐reflection for data analysis and group discussion. My discussion is based on a community‐based participatory research project conducted with a group of adult learners on their educational experiences. I examined the accounts shared by one of the participants by using insights from the theories of reflexive interview, dialogical narrative analysis and video ethnography, and found that her accounts played a pivotal role in evoking group reflections and drawing the conclusion of the project. I argue that participant reflexivity is a useful construct that can do justice to what participants can uniquely offer in participatory inquiries. The concept can also contribute to advancing knowledge of reflexivity by complementing the researcher‐focused predominant discourse on reflexivity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Long-term psychological sequelae of smoking cessation and relapse.

The authors examined whether smoking cessation and relapse were associated with changes in stress, negative affect, and smoking-related beliefs. Quitters showed decreasing stress, increasing negative health beliefs about smoking, and decreasing beliefs in smoking's psychological benefits. Quitters became indistinguishable from stable nonsmokers in stress and personalized health beliefs, but quitters maintained stronger beliefs in the psychological benefits of smoking than stable nonsmokers. Relapse was not associated with increases in stress or negative affect However, relapsers increased their positive beliefs about smoking and became indistinguishable from smokers in their beliefs. For quitters, decreased stress and negative beliefs about smoking may help maintain successful cessation. However, for relapsers, declining health risk perceptions may undermine future quit attempts.     

Trajectories of Social Withdrawal from Middle Childhood to Early Adolescence

Heterogeneity and individual differences in the developmental course of social withdrawal were examined longitudinally in a community sample (N = 392). General Growth Mixture Modeling (GGMM) was used to identify distinct pathways of social withdrawal, differentiate valid subgroup trajectories, and examine factors that predicted change in trajectories within subgroups. Assessments of individual (social withdrawal), interactive (prosocial behavior), relationship (friendship involvement, stability and quality, best friend’s withdrawal and exclusion/victimization) and group- (exclusion/victimization) level characteristics were used to define growth trajectories from the final year of elementary school, across the transition to middle school, and then to the final year of middle school (fifth-to-eighth grades). Three distinct trajectory classes were identified: low stable, increasing, and decreasing. Peer exclusion, prosocial behavior, and mutual friendship involvement differentiated class membership. Friendlessness, friendship instability, and exclusion were significant predictors of social withdrawal for the increasing class, whereas lower levels of peer exclusion predicted a decrease in social withdrawal for the decreasing class.     

CATOS (Computer Aided Training/Observing System): Automating animal observation and training

In animal behavioral biology, an automated observing/training system may be useful for several reasons: (a) continuous observation of animals for documentation of specific, irregular events, (b) long-term intensive training of animals in preparation for behavioral experiments, (c) elimination of potential cues and biases induced by humans during training and testing. Here, we describe an open-source-based system named CATOS (Computer Aided Training/Observing System) developed for such situations. There are several notable features in this system. CATOS is flexible and low cost because it is based on free open-source software libraries, common hardware parts, and open-system electronics based on Arduino. Automated video condensation is applied, leading to significantly reduced video data storage compared to the total active hours of the system. A data-viewing utility program helps a user browse recorded data quickly and more efficiently. With these features, CATOS has the potential to be applied to many different animal species in various environments such as laboratories, zoos, or even private homes. Also, an animal’s free access to the device without constraint, and a gamified learning process, enhance the animal’s welfare and enriches their environment. As a proof of concept, the system was built and tested with two different species. Initially, the system was tested for approximately 10 months with a domesticated cat. The cat was successfully and fully automatically trained to discriminate three different spoken words. Then, in order to test the system’s adaptability to other species and hardware components, we used it to train a laboratory rat for 3 weeks.     

The Effects of Marital Conflict on Korean Children’s Appraisal of Conflict and Psychological Adjustment

This study examined the effects of marital conflict on Korean children’s psychological adjustment and appraisal of hypothetical marital conflict situations. Children between the ages of 10 and 12 were divided into “high-conflict” (n = 58) and “low-conflict” (n = 58) groups based on their self-reported degree of perceived interparental conflict in the home environment. Hypothetical marital conflict situations were provided in cartoon format, and were differentiated based conflict intensity (verbal versus physical aggression) and content (child-related conflict versus non-child-related conflict). In general, children reported greater negative affect and perceived threat to hypothetical conflict situations involving physical aggression compared to situations involving verbal conflict. In child-related conflict situations, children reported more fear of being drawn in and endorsed coping strategies that involved direct intervention. “High-conflict group” children evidenced stronger reactivity in responding to marital conflict situations in general and endorsed indirect intervention strategies—a finding previously not found in similar studies conducted with European-American children—indicating the possibility of cross-cultural difference in coping preferences in interparental conflict situations. Furthermore, “high-conflict group” children manifested more indices of maladjustment as indicated by externalizing and internalizing behavior problems, in addition to more self-reported depressive symptoms. Results highlight the effects of marital conflict on children’s psychological adjustment and indicate the possibility of cross-cultural differences in preferred coping mechanism in interparental conflict situations for Korean children.