Helping Groups Determine Their Most Accurate Member: The Role of Outcome Feedback1

One of the difficulties groups have when making quantitative judgments is determining the relative quality of members’ inputs. Outcome feedback was investigated as a method for improving the ability of groups to identify their most accurate member. Results indicate that groups given outcome feedback were better at identifying their best member than were groups that practiced without feedback. This occurred even though the same individual was seldom the most accurate across items. However, groups given feedback were not as accurate as their best member any more often. This suggests that groups given feedback are learning how to discriminate valid from invalid cues, but are not using this information consistently when making their group estimates.     

Related attributes in the choice of comparison others: It's there,but it isn't all there is

Subjects within a group of nine were supposedly given different amounts of practice prior to taking a test on which performance was either related or unrelated to practice. After taking the test, each subject was given his score, his rank order in the group, and the amount of practice presumably done by each of the other group members. The subject was then given a choice of which performance score he would like to know; a second choice was also given. On both first and second choices, subjects in the related condition were more likely to choose to see the scores of others with the same amount of practice. Related condition subjects were more interested in their comparison choices and thought they had done better on the task than unrelated subjects. In addition to this confirmation of the related attributes hypothesis, there was a significant tendency toward comparison on the basis of similarity of performance per se and a significant tendency toward upward comparison.     

Conceptualizing “Prayer” for an East–West Dialogue and Beyond

Early in the American psychology of religion, prayer was a central topic, emphasizing the “self” (James in Varieties of religious experience. Longmans, Green, New York, 1902) and social activity (Strong in The psychology of prayer. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1909). These writings, and contemporary efforts as well, typically conceptualize prayer as a theistically directed activity of communication, locating the work firmly in Western faith traditions. While this orientation captures a portion of the practice within those traditions, it is difficult to carry that definition over into comparative studies with Eastern practices. The present paper explores alternative ways to think about prayer and analogous activities that may facilitate an East–West dialogue. In addition, non-theistic formulations may help extend the conversation to encompass the spiritual practices of people not associated with any sort of traditionally bounded belief system.     

The personal style inventory: Preliminary validation studies of new measures of sociotropy and autonomy

We conducted five studies with depressed patients, demographically matched controls, and college students to develop and psychometrically evaluate new measures of concerns about interpersonal relationships (sociotropy) and autonomous achievement (autonomy), constructs that have been proposed to confer vulnerability to depression. The final version of the Personal Style Inventory (PSI) Sociotropy and Autonomy scales showed a good factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and test-retest stability, a low correlation with each other, and weak or no gender differences. Convergent and discriminant validity were examined with respect to depressive symptom levels, the Dependency and Self-Criticism scales of the Revised Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, and a social desirability scale and were generally acceptable. Further evaluations of the construct validity of the PSI are indicated.     

The parental support networks of mothers and fathers: A multidimensional approach

This paper argues for a multidimensional approach to the study of the social support networks of mothers and fathers of young children. Network structure (e. g. size, density, member characteristics), support content (e. g. emotional, informational, economic and child care) and support quality (e. g. helpfulness, satisfaction with support, conflict associated with support and willingness to access support in future need) are distinguished. The goals of the study were: (1) to empirically test the multidimensionality of parental support networks; (2) to assess the relations among these three dimensions for mothers and for fathers; and (3) to examine how couples' support networks are interrelated. Individual at-home interviews were conducted with 100 parents to derive measures of parental support structure, content and quality. Fathers (N = 31) were compared to their spouses (N = 31) and to a comparison group of demographically similar married mothers (N = 38). For all three groups, the same three predicted dimensions emerged in the factor structure of their networks; in general, few gender differences were found. However, relations among structure, content and quality differed by gender, with network structure predicting support content and quality only for mothers. The network structure of couples was positively correlated, and overlap in network members was related to own and spouse's network helpfulness, satisfaction and child care support.     

Helping Coworkers and Helping the Organization: The Role of Support Perceptions,Exchange Ideology,and Conscientiousness1

This study examined 2 types of organizational citizenship behaviors: those that benefit the organization, and those that benefit one's coworkers. Parallel hypotheses were developed that predicted that support perceptions (both organizational and individual) would predict their respective type of citizenship behavior, and that exchange ideology (also both organizational and individual) would moderate this relation. The contributions of conscientiousness and empathy were also explored for their potential incremental value. Existing measures of perceived organizational support and exchange ideology were used to develop two new measures to assess perceived coworker support and individual exchange ideology. Results from a diverse sample support the importance of support perceptions as well as the moderating role of organizational exchange ideology. With respect to the 2 personality variables, conscientiousness played a significant role, but empathy did not. Implications for citizenship research and practice are discussed.     

Peer rejection as an antecedent of young children's school adjustment: an examination of mediating processes.

A short-term longitudinal design (N = 399) was used to examine peer relations processes that may mediate the relation between peer rejection and children's emotional and academic adjustment during kindergarten. These proposed mediating processes extend the current literature by explicating behavioral pathways via which the attitudinal construct of peer rejection may affect adjustment outcomes. Structural equatiton modeling results supported the hypothesis that negative peer treatment (e.g., victimization, refusal of peer group entry bids, and exclusion from peer activities) and classroom participation partially mediate the relationship between rejection and adjustment outcomes. Rejected children were more likely to experience negative peer treatment, more likely to show decreases in classroom participation, and more likely to report loneliness, to express a desire to avoid school, and to perform less well on achievement measures.     

Inward, Outward, Upward Prayer: Scale Reliability and Validation

This study provides support for a model that conceptualizes prayers as the means to establish cognitive connections in three directions: inward (self-connection); outward (human-human connection); and upward (human-divine connections). A confirmatory factor analysis demonstrates a single general prayer factor divisible into three subfactors that are in turn comprised of eight discrete scales. Measures of general religiosity, the need for structure, religious styles of coping, well-being, life-satisfaction, and belief in the paranormal provide evidence of convergent and divergent validity for the theory of prayer as a mechanism for inward, outward, and upward connections.