Sexual Harassment Severity: Assessing Situational and Personal Determinants and Outcomes1

The current study bridges literatures on sexual harassment, person‐environment systems, and stress and appraisal processes. Conventional wisdom equates severity of sexual harassment with type of harassment. We test this notion empirically and posit a more comprehensive model that examines both person‐ and situation‐level variables. Data came from 13,743 U.S. Armed Forces women responding to survey questions about a significant experience of sexual harassment. Multiple regression results indicate that pervasiveness of sexual harassment relates outcomes better than does type of sexual harassment. Pervasiveness and type interact to predict subjective appraisal of harassment. Additionally, according to multiple‐group structural equation models, appraisal mediates relations between pervasiveness and outcomes. Results further suggest that relations among sexual‐harassment antecedents and outcomes are consistent, regardless of the type of sexual harassment. These findings highlight the importance of examining both persons and situations when assessing sexual harassment severity.     

Receipt of interpersonal citizenship: fostering agentic emotion,cognition, and action in organizations

With an eye to fostering an energized and empowered workforce, we explore the discrete emotion of self‐assurance (characterized by boldness, pride, and audacity), investigating how receipt of interpersonal citizenship behavior (ICB) fuels this agentic emotion. ICB includes acts of everyday concern that may be of a person‐ or task‐focused nature. With two survey samples, we propose and test a model that situates self‐assurance as a mechanism linking ICB‐receipt to employee thriving and empowerment. Additionally, we find links to citizenship enactment, as reported by coworkers. Notably, person‐focused ICB‐receipt may be just as beneficial to self‐assurance as task‐focused ICB‐receipt. These results hold equally for working women and men. Our multi‐study, multi‐source results underscore the role of agentic emotion in cultivating a proactive workforce.     

Increasing Positive Health Behaviors in Adolescents with Nutritional Goals and Exercise

Research has documented that low-income urban youth are at risk for obesity and related health problems. Our goal was to develop a brief, developmentally informed intervention to increase positive health behaviors (e.g., diet and exercise) among low-income, minority adolescents. Our study was designed to examine the feasibility and potential impact of our single session intervention that was delivered in a primary care setting. The participants were 100 adolescents from an urban adolescent medicine clinic who were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a) a 3–5?min goal-only session or b) a 15–20?min motivationally enhanced intervention. Health behaviors and individual characteristics (i.e., autonomous motivation, self-efficacy) were assessed at baseline and re-assessed at follow-up 1 month later with 53?% of the youth completing the follow-up assessment. Those in the enhanced intervention group were more likely to participate in the follow-up as were those who reported higher baseline motivation and self-efficacy. Both groups reported statistically significant health behavior improvements over time and older adolescents reported more improvements. The two conditions did not significantly differ in reported health improvements. Self-efficacy predicted improvements in self-reported fruit and vegetable intake at follow-up. Results support that a brief “chat” with adolescents about their personal goals and values appears to have the potential to increase their positive health behaviors and appears to be useful as a preparatory intervention for weight management efforts for urban teens. The study demonstrates the feasibility and potential efficacy of implementing this 20?min intervention into primary care settings, thereby helping urban youth focus on their individualized goals, values, and motivations for health.     

Contextuality and Community: Challenges for Theological Education and Ecumenical Formation

This article looks at some aspects of the history of ecumenical theological formation. It emphasizes the need to strive for quality theological education. This should always be ecumenical and pluralistic, link the global and the local and be founded on community‐based ecclesiastical theory. It points out the need to continue questioning the epistemological fundamentals of theology in order to ensure the continuous strengthening of the relationship between theory and practice. Another essential aspect is the relationship between mission and ecumenical theological formation and our understanding that education and ecumenical training is aimed at transforming people and communities. This means that changes to our educational institutions are indispensable. They should promote ecumenical, pluralist, inter‐disciplinary and holistic policies and practices and a commitment to a radical interpretation of the Bible that leads us to seek justice and well‐being for all people, communities and groups, and oppose any beliefs, practices and interpretation of the Bible that lead to oppression and injustice.     

The role of values with personal examples in altering the functions of pain: comparison between acceptance-based and cognitive-control-based protocols

The purpose of the present study was twofold. First, to compare the effect of establishing a motivational context of values on pain tolerance, believability, and reported pain, with three experimental conditions: pain acceptance (ACT condition), pain control (CONT condition), or no values (untrained condition). Second, the study aimed to isolate the impact of adding the corresponding coping strategies to both the ACT and the CONT conditions. Thirty adults were randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions. The participants went through the pain task in two occasions (Test I and Test II). In Test I, the effects of the ACT-values protocol (which established pain as part of valued action), the CONT-values protocol (which established high pain as opposed to valued action), and the no-values protocol, were compared. In Test II, the effect of adding the corresponding coping strategy to each condition (defusion for ACT vs. suppression for CONT) was examined. Test I showed a clear superiority of the ACT-values protocol in increasing tolerance and lowering pain believability. In Test II, the superiority of the ACT protocol was replicated, while the CONT protocol proved useful to reduce reported pain, in accordance with previous studies.     

Slurs, Snubs, and Queer Jokes: Incidence and Impact of Heterosexist Harassment in Academia

Previous research has suggested that overt hostility against sexual minorities is associated with decrements in their well-being. However, subtler forms of heterosexism and their potential effects have been overlooked, heterosexuals have not been asked how they fare in a heterosexist environment, and no research has examined whether women and men might respond differently to heterosexism. Data from 3,128 northwestern US university students (representing all sexual orientations) address these gaps. Approximately 40% reported experiences of heterosexist harassment (HH) in the past year, and those who encountered both ambient and personal HH reported worse psychological and academic well-being than those who encountered no HH. Similar patterns of findings held for sexual minorities and heterosexuals, and for women and men. This paper is based on a presentation given at the American Psychological Association Convention in Toronto, Ontario in August 2003.     

Thematic roles: Core knowledge or linguistic construct?

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - The status of thematic roles such as Agent and Patient in cognitive science is highly controversial: To some they are universal components of core knowledge, to...