Job Satisfaction and Innovative Performance in Young Spanish Employees: Testing New Patterns in the Happy-Productive Worker Thesis—A Discriminant Study

We aimed to make a theoretical contribution to the happy-productive worker thesis by expanding the study to cases where this thesis does not fit. We hypothesized and corroborated the existence of four relations between job satisfaction and innovative performance: (a) unhappy-unproductive, (b) unhappy-productive, (c) happy-unproductive, and (d) happy-productive. We also aimed to contribute to the happy-productive worker thesis by studying some conditions that influence and differentiate among the four patterns. Hypotheses were tested in a sample of 513 young employees representative of Spain. Cluster analysis and discriminant analysis were performed. We identified the four patterns. Almost 15 % of the employees had a pattern largely ignored by previous studies (e.g., unhappy-productive). As hypothesized, to promote well-being and performance among young employees, it is necessary to fulfill the psychological contract, encourage initiative, and promote job self-efficacy. We also confirmed that over-qualification characterizes the unhappy-productive pattern, but we failed to confirm that high job self-efficacy characterizes the happy-productive pattern. The results show the relevance of personal and organizational factors in studying the well-being-performance link in young employees.     

Parenting Style and Children’s Life Satisfaction and Depressive Symptoms: Preliminary Findings from Romania,France, and Russia

This study evaluated how culture relates to parenting and children’s life satisfaction and depressive symptoms, and whether there are cultural differences in how maternal parenting style relates to children’s adjustment among three cultural contexts: Romanian, Russian, and French. The sample included 325 children, aged 9–11 years, from Romania (n = 123), Russia (n = 112), and France (n = 90). Children completed questionnaires regarding their perceptions of maternal parenting style, and their life satisfaction and depressive symptoms. French children reported lower levels of authoritative parenting style and higher levels of authoritarian parenting style compared to their Romanian and Russian peers. Further, French children reported higher levels of depressive symptoms than both their Romanian and Russian peers, while Russian children had higher life satisfaction than their Romanian and French peers. The strengths of the associations between parenting style and both children’s life satisfaction and depressive symptoms, however, did not differ based on children’s cultural context. Our findings suggest the importance of cultural context in relation to parenting styles and children’s life satisfaction and depressive symptoms. Further, our study shows that the relations between parenting and children’s adjustment are similar across the cultural contexts included in this study.     

The impact of emotions on recall: An empirical study on social ads

Emotions are a complex phenomenon that entails a tricky problem regarding the measurement. To partially overcome this question, we assess emotions both using self‐report and measures commonly used in neuromarketing. This study assesses the accuracy of the recall after 4 months regarding two social advertising videos about female genital mutilation. Forty female participants were recruited. The skin conductance trend of the participants is different when viewing the two videos. The majority of participants (94.9%) reported that the two videos elicited different emotions (sadness for the first video and anger for the second one). Furthermore, according to arousal and valence model, these data are consistent with the literature that underlines the importance of psychophysiological indexes in measuring emotions and their associations with memory performances.     

The Role of Executive Function in Arithmetic Problem-Solving Processes: A Study of Third Graders

This study investigated the roles of different executive function (EF) components (inhibition, shifting, and working memory) in 2-step arithmetic word problem solving. A sample of 139 children aged 8 years old and regularly attending the 3rd grade of primary school were tested on 6 EF tasks measuring different EF components, a reading task and a reading comprehension task, an arithmetic facts task evaluating basic knowledge of calculation, and three 2-step arithmetic word problems. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to investigate the roles of the different EF components in the various phases of the problem-solving process. The results showed that EF affects the various phases of problem solving differently over and above calculation knowledge and reading abilities. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to further understanding the role of cognitive skills in mathematical problem solving and in relation to instructional approaches that may increase children’s performance on 2-step arithmetic word problems.     

Sexualized Video Game Avatars and Self-Objectification in Adolescents: The Role of Gender Congruency and Activation Frequency

Little is known about the effects of playing sexualizing video games on adolescent boys’ and girls’ self-objectified body image. Early and middle adolescents (N = 115; M_age = 12.63, SD = 0.85) participated in a between-subjects experiment testing the effect of playing with a sexualized male or female avatar as compared to a control condition. We revealed that playing a video game with a sexualized avatar increased self-objectification among adolescents. This effect occurred regardless of the gender of the adolescent and, thus, did not support the gender congruency hypothesis. In contrast to the activation frequency hypothesis and video game literature on sexualization, the effect of playing with a female sexualized avatar was not moderated by game frequency. Given the adverse consequences of self-objectification in adolescence, the current study results highlight the need for research on how these effects may be countered.     

Multidimensionality of Well-Being and Spillover Effects Across Life Domains: How Do Parenthood and Personality Affect Changes in Domain-Specific Satisfaction?

Whether having children improves our well-being is a long-standing topic of debate. Demographic and sociological research has investigated changes in individuals’ overall well-being and partnership satisfaction when they become parents. However, little is known about how becoming parent may produce vulnerability—observable as an enduring decrease in well-being—in life domains that are strongly interdependent with the family domain, such as work and leisure. Linking life-course and personality psychology perspectives, the authors examine the trajectories of subjective well-being—measured as satisfaction with life, work, and leisure—3 years before and 3 years after the transition to parenthood. The authors particularly focus on the moderating effects of gender and personality. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1984–2013) and multilevel growth curve modeling, the authors show strong gender-based vulnerability in how people react to parenthood. Although men display a nonlinear pathway of decreasing life satisfaction and a stable trajectory of job satisfaction, women experience more changes in their satisfaction with work and more dramatic decreases in leisure satisfaction. Contrary to most of our expectations, the moderating effects of personality were modest. Extraversion influenced the trajectories of work satisfaction, whereas neuroticism and conscientiousness affected the pathway of leisure satisfaction for women only. This article shows that the transition to parenthood influences well-being trajectories in specific domains, and this influence differs between women and men.     

Coping in High-Risk Snow-Sports: A Qualitative Exploration of Alpine Racing and Freestyle Athletes’ Experiences

This study examines how semi-elite student snow-sport athletes utilize process and trait coping strategies to combat risk-taking, potential loss and trauma, and other stressors integral to their sport participation. Factors influencing coping strategy preference are also explored. Semistructured interviews were used to explore 10 participants’ experiences; the narratives were analyzed using thematic analysis. Five master themes emerged from the analysis: Challenges to Overcome; Taking Action; Changing Perspectives; Staying in Control; and Underlying Influences. The findings highlight how participants develop and utilize preferred coping strategies, although the unpredictable nature of snow-sports can result in situation-specific process coping. Findings are discussed in relation to the differences between racing and freestyle disciplines.     

Coping Strategies and Resolution in Mothers of Children With Cerebral Palsy

“Parental resolution” represents parents coming to terms with their child’s health condition. Differences in the use of coping strategies between mothers who were resolved versus unresolved to their child’s diagnosis was investigated, and a possible moderating effect of these strategies was explored. A strategy aimed at mobilizing the family to acquire and accept help (institutional, formal support) was shown to be a significant moderating variable, in a way that its more frequent use allowed mothers of children with better functional status (but not mothers of children with poorer functional status) to reach resolution.     

Reasoning and mathematical skills contribute to normatively superior decision making under risk: evidence from the game of dice task

In this study, we assessed to what extent reasoning improves performance in decision making under risk in a laboratory gambling task (Game of Dice Task-Double, GDT-D). We also investigated to what degree individuals with above average mathematical competence decide better than those with average mathematical competence. Eighty-five participants performed the GDT-D and several numerical tasks. Forty-two individuals were asked to calculate the probabilities and the outcomes associated with the different options of the GDT-D before performing it. The other 43 individuals performed the GDT-D at the beginning of the test session. Both reasoning and mathematical competence had a positive effect on decision making. Different measures of mathematical competence correlated with advantageous performance in decision making. Results suggest that decision making under explicit risk conditions improves when individuals are encouraged to reflect about the contingencies of a decision situation. Interventions based on numerical reasoning may also be useful for patients with difficulties in decision making.     

Predicting Students’ Intention to Plagiarize: an Ethical Theoretical Framework

This article investigates whether acts of plagiarism are predictable. Through a deductive, quantitative method, this study examines 517 students and their motivation and intention to plagiarize. More specifically, this study uses an ethical theoretical framework called the Theory of Reasoned Action (TORA) and Planned Behavior (TPB) to proffer five hypotheses about cognitive, relational, and social processing relevant to ethical decision making. Data results indicate that although most respondents reported that plagiarism was wrong, students with strong intentions to plagiarize had a more positive attitude toward plagiarizing, believed that it was important that family and friends think plagiarizing is acceptable, and perceived that plagiarizing would be an easy task. However, participants in the current study with less intention to plagiarize hold negative views about plagiarism, do not believe that plagiarism is acceptable to family, friends or peers, and perceive that the act of plagiarizing would prove difficult. Based on these findings, this study considers implications important for faculty, librarians, and student support staff in preventing plagiarism through collaborations and outreach programming.