The Effect of Commitment to a Learning Goal,Self-Efficacy,and the Interaction Between Learning Goal Difficulty and Commitment on Performance in a Business Simulation

The effect of commitment to a learning goal, self-efficacy, and the interaction between learning goal difficulty and goal commitment with performance was investigated using a highly complex business simulation. Participants (n?=?128) needed to acquire knowledge in order to perform the task effectively. The correlation between commitment to the learning goal and performance was positive and significant (r = .47, p < .001). Commitment was also a moderator of the learning goal–task performance effect. The relationship between self-efficacy and performance was partially mediated by commitment to the learning goal. Performance was a partial mediator of the relationship between goal commitment and self-efficacy. Seventy-five percent of the participants self-set a performance goal. The correlation between self-set performance goals and performance was positive and significant (r = .31, p < .001).     

Queer in the Clinic

Beginning with a rumination on the AIDS-inspired poetry of Thom Gunn, this article by the guest editors introduces the special issue of the Journal of Medical Humanities titled “Queer in the Clinic.” After providing an overview of the historical legacy and contemporary dilemmas of LGBTQ persons in biomedical practice, the authors describe the rationale of the issue and the contributions included.     

How Muslim and Non-Muslim Chaplains Serve Muslim Patients? Does the Interfaith Chaplaincy Model have Room for Muslims’ Experiences?

Chaplaincy is typically practiced within the contexts of the Jewish and Christian traditions, and little attention has been paid to the influence of the Islamic perspective of nursing and caring. Therefore, many Muslim patients might not receive appropriate care for their religious and spiritual needs, especially as they relate to daily religious practices and worship, medical ethics, and end-of-life treatment choices. This study examined Muslim and non-Muslim chaplains’ approaches to pastoral care used with Muslim patients in New York City hospitals. The study used in-depth interviews with 33 Muslim and non-Muslim chaplains. The results indicate areas of both convergence and divergence.     

What Reviewers Should Expect from Authors Regarding Common Method Bias in Organizational Research

We believe that journal reviewers (as well as editors and dissertation or thesis committee members) have to some extent perpetuated misconceptions about common method bias in self-report measures, including (a) that relationships between self-reported variables are necessarily and routinely upwardly biased, (b) other-reports (or other methods) are superior to self-reports, and (c) rating sources (e.g., self, other) constitute measurement methods. We argue against these misconceptions and make recommendations for what reviewers (and others) should reasonably expect from authors regarding common method bias. We believe it is reasonable to expect (a) an argument for why self-reports are appropriate, (b) construct validity evidence, (c) lack of overlap in items for different constructs, and (d) evidence that authors took proactive design steps to mitigate threats of method effects. We specifically do not recommend post hoc statistical control strategies; while some statistical strategies are promising, all have significant drawbacks and some have shown poor empirical results.     

The Effect of Learning vs. Outcome Goals on Self-Efficacy, Satisfaction and Performance in an MBA Program

Dans cette expérience de terrain, on applique la théorie de la fixation des objectifs au sentiment d’efficacité personnelle d’étudiants, à leur satisfaction envers le programme du MBA aussi bien qu’à leur performance (GPA). Immédiatement après leur avoir fixé des objectifs spécifiques élevés, nous avons mesuré le sentiment d’efficacité personnelle des étudiants en MBA. Celui des étudiants de la condition “objectifs de résultats pour la fin de l’année” (long terme) était inférieur à celui de sujets qui étaient dans la condition “faites de votre mieux” ou dans celle “but d’apprentissage”. Les sujets présentant des difficultés spécifiques en ce qui concerne les buts d’apprentissage sont plus satisfaits du programme MBA que ceux des autres conditions expérimentales. Le GPA était significativement plus élevé dans la condition “but d’apprentissage” que dans celle “but de performance”à long terme. Les sujets qui ont des objectifs à court terme et un objectif de résultat à long terme ont un GPA plus élevé que ceux qui ont seulement un objectif à long terme ou que ceux qui sont dans l’urgence de faire de leur mieux. Les implications de ces résultats pour la théorie et la pratique sont discutées. The present field experiment examined the application of goal setting theory on student self‐efficacy, satisfaction with the MBA program, as well as performance (i.e. GPA). Immediately after setting specific high goals, the self‐efficacy of MBA students who set year end (distal) outcome goals was lower than participants in either the “do your best” or the learning goal conditions. Participants who set specific difficult learning goals had higher satisfaction with the MBA program than those in other experimental conditions. GPA was significantly higher in the learning goal condition relative to the distal performance goal condition. Participants who set proximal goals, in addition to a distal outcome goal, had a higher GPA than those who only set a distal goal or those who were urged to do their best. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.     

Social support,negative social exchange,and response to case formulation-based cognitive behavior therapy

We investigated associations between pretreatment social support, negative social exchange, and slope of weekly symptom change for depression, anxiety, and stress over the course of ideographic, case formulation-based, cognitive behavior therapy. Participants were 74 adults treated in a private practice setting. We used self-report measures to assess social support and negative social exchange at intake and to assess symptoms on a weekly basis. At pretreatment, a higher level of social support was associated with lower levels of depression, and a higher level of negative social exchanges was associated with higher levels of depression and stress. Pretreatment social support was not significantly associated with slope of symptom change. However, a higher level of pretreatment negative social exchanges was associated with steeper slope of change in symptoms of depression and stress during treatment. These findings suggest that the association between pretreatment negative social exchanges and subsequent symptoms may be stronger than that of social support and subsequent symptoms. Additionally, we discuss the possibility that having data on negative social exchanges at the start of treatment may benefit the outcome of ideographic, case formulation-based, cognitive behavior therapy.     

Child characteristics,family demographics and family processes: Their effects on the stress experienced by families of children with disabilities

Parents of children with disabilities are often reported as having more stress than their counterparts. Because past investigations of parent stress have been limited by considering too few sources of stress, this study gathered a large variety of demographic, child and family process variables. Two domains of parenting stress, including those aspects related to the child's characteristics (child related) and those aspects concerned with the parent's attitudes toward parenting (parent related) were analyzed separately. The results showed that the circumstances and processes of a family, as well as child characteristics, must be taken into account when clinicians attempt to mediate problems. This research has direct application for clinicians and interventionists. If intervention hopes to truly serve families, a thorough understanding of parenting stress is needed.