The relative impact of workplace bullying as a social stressor at work

Hauge, L. J., Skogstad, A. & Einarsen, S. (2010). The relative impact of workplace bullying as a social stressor at work. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 426–433. Exposure to workplace bullying has been argued to be a severe social stressor and a more crippling and devastating problem for affected individuals than the effects of all other work‐related stressors put together. However, few studies have explicitly investigated this assumption. In a representative sample of the Norwegian working population, the present study investigated the relative contribution of workplace bullying as a predictor of individual and organizational related outcomes after controlling for the well‐documented job stressors of job demands, decision authority, role ambiguity and role conflict. Bullying was found to be a significant predictor of all the outcomes included, showing a substantial relative contribution in relation to anxiety and depression, while for job satisfaction, turnover intention and absenteeism, more modest relative contributions were identified. Workplace bullying is indeed a potent social stressor with consequences similar to, or even more severe than, the effects of other stressors frequently encountered within organizations. Thus, the finding that bullying has a considerable effect on exposed individuals also when controlling for the effects of other job stressors demonstrates bullying as a serious problem at workplaces that needs to be actively prevented and managed in its own right.     

Alcohol-induced changes in mood and activation in males and females as related to catecholamine excretion and blood-alcohol level

Abstract.— Effects of a moderate dose of whisky (0.72 g ale/kg body weight) were studied in a male and a female group. Successive measurements of blood-alcohol concentration, catecholamine excretion, heart rate, and subjective reactions were made over a seven-hour period. Maximum blood-alcohol values as well as the disappearance rate of alcohol from the blood were significantly higher in the females than in the males. Adrenaline excretion was approximately the same in both groups during the control condition, but was significantly higher in the female group during the alcohol condition. Ratings of subjective reactions indicated that pleasant effects were more pronounced in the males, negative effects more marked in the females.     

Overweight and cognition

There is a growing concern among health authorities that an increasing number of people in the Western world become overweight and even obese. It is well known that obesity is related to several diseases (e.g., diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure) and that such diseases related to obesity lead to early death. It has also been discussed whether overweight and obesity in themselves or in relation to such diseases lead to cognitive decline. On the basis of data from a large, population‐based, prospective study we examined three cognitive domains: episodic memory, semantic memory, and spatial ability. Two body measures were used to define normal weight and overweight, body‐mass index and waist/hip ratio. Although these two body measures reveal quite different prevalence data of overweight, the associations between overweight and cognition are similar. For episodic memory, overweight interacts with age, but when controlling for hypertension, stroke and diabetes, this interaction disappears. For semantic memory, normal weight participants outperform overweight participants even after controlling for these diseases. For spatial ability, the well‐established advantage for men holds for young‐old and old‐old normal‐weight participants. For overweight participants, this advantage holds for middle‐age participants only. We conclude that there is a weight‐cognition relationship even after controlling for obesity‐related diseases. The results are discussed in terms of possible biological mechanisms.     

Ego development in women without higher education

The study presents evidence that interpersonal and situational complexity, confrontation and conflict advance ego development in women. Thirty-two pregnant women of moderate education and from modest educational backgrounds were studied. Loevinger's Sentence Completion Test was used to measure ego development, and interviews and tests with the subjects and their mothers formed the data from which the mother daughter, father-daughter and parental relationship were assessed along with evaluation of environmental strain during childhood. The findings suggest that women at higher, compared to lower, stages of ego development are more individuated, and reared to more independence and conflict-tolerance by less responsive, but more active and socially engaged mothers. High ego-level daughters also had conflicted and overinvolved relationships to the fathers. Ego development was related to early environmental stress, parental marital strain and to present environmental stress. Personality or adjustment variables were not related to ego development. The relationship between ego development and complexities in the social environment was seen in light of the traditional over-socialization of females which may impede ego development.     

To drive or not to drive: Neuropsychological assessment for driver's license among stroke patients

Seventy-two stroke patients, 43 with right hemisphere (RHD) and 29 with left hemisphere damage (LHD), and 7 coronary infarct controls with no evidence of cerebral damage, were neuropsychologically tested as part of an assessment program for driver's license. Mean age in the group was 53 years. Stroke patients were tested on average 4 months post injury. The groups did not differ on major demographic variables except that RHD patients were more often hemiplegic than LHD patients. The test battery was factor analyzed into 4 valid principal components: (I) visual perception , (II) spatial attention , (III) visuospatial processing , and (IV) language/praxis. The presence of hemianopia (factor I) excludes driving. In addition, measures of neglect and reduced speed of mental processing from factor II, III and IV, were found to be the most discriminating variables when classifying patients for driving. Even though neglect was more frequently observed among RHD than LHD patients, the two hemisphere groups did not differ significantly in number of patients denied driving, 58% RHD compared to 41% LHD patients. The need for comprehensive neuropsychological assessment is underlined.     

Dissociative effects of elaboration on memory of enacted and non-enacted events: A case of a negative effect

One experiment compared the effect of elaboration on enacted and non-enacted events. The commands were either presented in a basic form (e.g., "wave your hands") or in an enriched form. The commands were enriched by adding statements to the commands of how to perform the actions (e.g., "wave your hands as a conductor"). Free- and cued-recall data showed elaboration to have a dissociative effect on enacted and non-enacted events. Memory for the non-enacted events benefited from enrichment, whereas simple enacted events were remembered to a higher extent than complex enacted events. Lack of benefit from elaboration on memory of enacted events is suggested to be due to enactment leading to a sufficient degree of item-specific processing, and a negative effect of elaboration is suggested to occur when the way of manipulating item complexity decreases the familiarity of the actions. Familiarity ratings of the items by two independent groups of subjects supported this interpretation.     

On non-verbatim learning: III. The outcome space of some basic concepts in economics

Abstract.— The subjective meaning of some basic concepts in economics was studied in an experimental context. The set of subjective meanings or levels of outcome constitutes the outcome space of a certain concept. Consecutive levels of outcome corresponding to basic concepts of economics such as the production possibility frontier, the law of diminishing returns and the Malthus theory of population were shown to be ordered with respect to complexity (number of simultaneous dimensions of variation) involved.     

Agency and communion in three generations of women and their relation to socialization

Personality clusters of agency (independence, self-protection and self-assertion) and communion (interpersonal sensitivity and nurturant concern for the welfare of others) were studied in three generations of Norwegian women with the expectation that 1) daughters would use mothers rather than fathers as models for both clusters and 2) socialization practices of encouraging independence would be related to agency, while responsiveness, closeness and control would be related to communion in daughters. 32 adult pregnant daughters and their mothers were studied. Agency and communion scores were negatively related within individuals in all 3 generations and each was positively related across the three generations. A, buta greater balance between the two personal qualities was seen in the younger generation of women than in the two older ones. Ospredicted, agency and communion scores for mothers and daughters were positively related in all three generations and fathers' and daughters' scores were unrelated. While agentic mothers were found to have encouraged autonomy, agency in daughters was facilitated by more nondirective-ness by the mother. Communion in daughters was fostered by demand for socially responsible behavior and related to close, controlled, non-individuated relationships to nurturant and confident mothers. Agency was related to more distant and conflicted relationships to non-nurturant and cognitively curious mothers. Agentic daughters were also found to be better educated and in more responsible jobs, while communal daughters were less educated and in more routine jobs. Thus agency was nurtured in challenging and tension producing and communion in close and less stimulating interpersonal environments. When strongly developed, both were associated with liabilities.