Getting by with a little help from self and others: self-esteem and social support as resources during early adolescence

Influences of social support and self-esteem on adjustment in early adolescence were investigated in a 2-year longitudinal study (N = 350). Multi-informant data (youth and parent) were used to assess both overall levels and balance in peer- versus adult-oriented sources for social support and self-esteem. Findings obtained using latent growth-curve modeling were consistent with self-esteem mediating effects of social support on both emotional and behavioral adjustment. Lack of balance in social support and self-esteem in the direction of stronger support and esteem from peer-oriented sources predicted greater levels and rates of growth in behavioral problems. Results indicate a need for process-oriented models of social support and self-esteem and sensitivity to patterning of sources for each resource relative to adaptive demands of early adolescence.     

The Family Cycle: An Activity to Enhance Parents’ Mentalization in Children’s Mental Health Treatment

This article introduces the Family Cycle, a therapeutic activity informed by attachment theory, family systems theory, and current literature on reflective functioning. The Family Cycle helps clinicians and families create a narrative about a child’s psychopathology that considers complex trauma and/or adverse childhood experiences. It reframes observable dysfunctional phenomena as behavioral sequelae of more deeply rooted emotional loss. After the theoretical underpinnings of the Family Cycle are laid out, we describe the implementation of the Family Cycle within the context of an intensive home-based, family-focused intervention created at the Yale Child Study Center, the Intensive In-Home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service (IICAPS). The Family Cycle provides a teachable clinical framework to facilitate the treatment of families with complex, multigenerational trauma.     

The logical structure of linguistic commitment II: Systems of relevant commitment entailment

In The Logical Structure of Linguistic Commitment I (The Journal of Philosophical Logic 23 (1994), 369–400), we sketch a linguistic theory (inspired by Brandom's Making it Explicit) which includes an expressivist account of the implication connective, : the role of is to make explicit the inferential proprieties among possible commitments which proprieties determine, in part, the significances of sentences. This motivates reading (A B) as commitment to A is, in part, commitment to B. Our project is to study the logic of . LSLC I approximates (A B) as anyone committed to A is committed to B, ignoring issues of whether A is relevant to B. The present paper includes considerations of relevance, motivating systems of relevant commitment entailment related to the systems of commitment entailment of LSLC I. We also consider the relevance logics that result from a commitment reading of Fine's semantics for relevance logics, a reading that Fine suggests.     

Development and convergent validation of a methodology for estimating cross-job retraining times

Cross-jobtransferability of skills is defined in terms of the ease with which individuals can apply knowledge and skills acquired in a previous job in learning to perform a new job. This study reports the development of a prototype methodology for estimating retraining times based on analyses of transferability of skills. Using this methodology which assesses interjob similarity in task content and task learning time, times to retrain across 41 different U.S. Air Force enlisted jobs were estimated. Convergent validities of retraining time estimates were tested in terms of correlations with differences in jobs': (a) general job learning difficulty, and (b) aptitude requirements. Results supported predictions that cross-job retraining time would be longer (a)into jobs that generally aremore difficult to learn, (b)from jobs that generally areless difficult to learn, and (c) across jobs having different, rather than similar, aptitude requirements. Implications for training, human resources planning, and coping with increasingly rapid technological changes in the workplace are discussed.Research sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research/AFSC, United States Air Force, under contract F49620-87-R-0004. The United States Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for governmental purposes notwithstanding any copyright notation hereon.     

Intrinsic Motivation and norms about payment1

Several previous studies have shown that rewarding individuals for preforming an interesting task may have an inhibitory effect on tast satisfaction and persistence. In this experiment, an extrinsic reward decreased task satisfaction and persistence when a norm for no payment existed, but the inhibitory effect was not found when a norm for payment was associated with the task. This result is discussed in terms of the “means-ends” theoretical perspective developed by Calder and Straw (1975b) as well as other dcompeting explanations.     

Motivation,altruism, and generalized compliance: a field study of organizational citizenship behaviors

This study tests the relations among five sources of motivation and two organizational citizenship behaviors. 175 employees from 31 locations of two agriculturally based companies completed the Motivation Sources Inventory and were rated by their supervisors for demonstrated organizational citizenship behaviors. There were significant positive correlations for employees' Self-concept-Internal Motivation with Altruistic Behavior of employees; while employees' Self-concept-External Motivation showed a significant negative relation with Altruistic Behavior by employees. Surprisingly, no correlation between employees' Goal Internalization Motivation and Altruistic Behavior by employees was found. Interpretation of these findings and further research are suggested.     

Extending the Nomological Network of Assessment Center Construct Validity: Prediction of Cross-Situationally Consistent and Specific Aspects of Assessment Center Performance

The purpose of this study was to expand the nomological validity of assessment centers (ACs) by investigating predictors of cross-situationally consistent versus specific aspects of AC performance. Consistent with hypotheses, (a) Big Five personality factors predicted AC performance as it related to a cross-situationally consistent general performance factor but not as it related to exercise (i.e., situationally specific) factors, and (b) job knowledge predicted performance as it related to both the general performance factor and exercise-specific factors. Results are interpreted as they relate to the growing literature on AC construct validity.     

Employee Attachment: Implications for Supervisor Trustworthiness and Trust

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of adult attachment on perceptions of trustworthiness and trust in one’s supervisor. Specifically, we cast trustworthiness perceptions as the cognitive mechanisms by which attachment influences trust, which then influenced work outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

Data on attachment, trustworthiness, and trust were obtained from employees, and performance ratings were provided by the employees’ direct supervisor (n = 353, 157 supervisors).

Findings

Secure and counterdependent attachment had a significant impact on trustworthiness perceptions, and secure attachment was also significantly related to trust, even in the presence of trustworthiness perceptions. Overdependent attachment had no significant influence on trustworthiness or trust perceptions.

Implications

Adult attachment influences one’s regulatory processes in interpersonal relationships and will certainly influence trust in one’s supervisor. Understanding the process by which attachment influences trust in one’s supervisor via trustworthiness perceptions provides a more comprehensive picture of how trust develops. This study provides evidence that adult attachment influences trustworthiness and trust simultaneously, which may be helpful in the selection process but also in managing the interpersonal aspect of the employee–supervisor relationship.

Originality/value

Though trust has been linked to attachment in the literature, no research has examined adult attachment and its influence on trustworthiness perceptions. Our paper provides an examination of attachment and its role in a comprehensive model of interpersonal trust. In addition, we examine attachments influence on trustworthiness and trust beyond the influence of propensity to trust, a commonly studied dispositional variable in the trust literature.