Hierarchical, job content, and double plateaus: A mixed-method study of stress, depression and coping responses

Hierarchically, job content, and double plateaued employees from a variety of industries were surveyed regarding their experiences. Plateau-specific stress was higher than the stress experienced by the general population. Plateaued employees also reported more depression than the general population. Double plateaued employees reported higher depression than hierarchically plateaued employees. Content analysis revealed 27 distinct coping strategies reported by employees, representing 7 coping meta-themes. The most frequently occurring meta-themes were Discuss Problem, Job Withdrawal, and Mental Coping. Hierarchically plateaued employees reported slightly greater use of Mental Coping strategies than job content and double plateaued employees.     

Bridging the partisan divide: Self-affirmation reduces ideological closed-mindedness and inflexibility in negotiation

Three studies link resistance to probative information and intransigence in negotiation to concerns of identity maintenance. Each shows that affirmations of personal integrity (vs. nonaffirmation or threat) can reduce resistance and intransigence but that this effect occurs only when individuals' partisan identity and/or identity-related convictions are made salient. Affirmation made participants' assessment of a report critical of U.S. foreign policy less dependent on their political views, but only when the identity relevance of the issue rather than the goal of rationality was salient (Study 1). Affirmation increased concession making in a negotiation over abortion policy, but again this effect was moderated by identity salience (Studies 2 and 3). Indeed, although affirmed negotiators proved relatively more open to compromise when either the salience of their true convictions or the importance of remaining faithful to those convictions was heightened, the reverse was true when the salient goal was compromise. The theoretical and applied significance of these findings are discussed.     

Initial Validation of the Children’s Worry Management Scale

We investigated the psychometric properties of a new instrument, the Children’s Worry Management Scale (CWMS). The CWMS has three subscales that specify methods of regulating worry: inhibition (the suppression of worry), dysregulation (exaggerated displays of worry), and coping (constructive ways of managing worry). Using a Caucasian, middle-class sample of 214 children (M = 9 years, 1 month), Study 1 provides reliability and validity data through patterns of correlations to parent- and child-completed measures of emotion management and behavioral problems. Internal consistencies range from .69 to .74. Study 2 establishes discriminant validity by demonstrating that the CWMS Dysregulation and Coping subscales differentiated, in the expected directions, between a group of children (n = 27) with DSM-IV anxiety diagnoses and a control group of children with no psychological disorders.     

Are bad experiences stronger than good ones in mentoring relationships? Evidence from the protégé and mentor perspective

Two studies examined the relative importance of good versus bad mentoring experiences in predicting subjective states associated with the mentoring relationship. Study 1 examined the protégé perspective and found general support for the proposition that, on average, bad is stronger than good in predicting protégé outcomes. Study 2 adopted the mentor perspective and found mixed support for the prediction that, on average, bad is stronger than good. The results are discussed in terms of advancing research and theory on the relational processes associated with mentoring in the workplace and the need to consider the relational context to more fully understand the relative predictive power of good and bad mentoring experiences.     

The Escape Theory of Suicide in College Students: Testing a Model That Includes Perfectionism

A model of the escape theory of suicide was tested, using the following measures: the Life Experiences Survey, the Socially Prescribed Perfectionism subscale, the Self-Rating Depression Scale, the Hopelessness Scale, the Reasons for Living Inventory, and the Scale for Suicide Ideation. College students (N = 114) completed all of these measures, and results were correlated. LISREL path analysis failed to validate the proposed model. All proposed paths were significant, except for the reciprocal path proposed between negative life events and socially prescribed perfectionism. Two residual paths were also significant: from socially prescribed perfectionism to suicide ideation, and from hopelessness to suicide ideation. A revised model constructed from these significant paths had a good overall fit, which suggests that an interactional model is more appropriate than a linear one.     

Assent and permission rejoinder

We share Roberts and Buckloh's (this issue) concern about issues of assent and permission in research with children and agree that our research cannot conclude legitimately that (a) researchers failed to obtain permission/assent, (b) children were put at risk, or (c) failure to report permission/assent procedures was, in any way, unethical. We never made these conclusions. Rather, we argue that publishing assent and permission would enhance compliance with ethical standards, sensitize researchers and readers to its importance, and shift publishing priorities in an appropriate direction.     

Better Together: A Review and Recommendations to Optimize Research on Family Involvement in CBT for Anxiety and Related Disorders

Anxiety and related disorders (ARDs) occur in an interpersonal context. Individuals with ARDs respond well to individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT); however, there is room for improvement. As such, family members may be included to “enhance” treatment outcomes, yet findings from studies examining family involvement in CBT for ARDs are equivocal. The present paper (a) identifies methodological considerations for explaining inconsistent outcomes among CBT for ARDs with family involvement, and (b) reviews factors that affect outcomes of CBT for ARDs with family involvement including levels of involvement in treatment (e.g., number, duration, and spacing of sessions) and characteristics of who is involved in treatment (e.g., family member cognitions and cultural factors). Limitations of the literature and recommendations for future research are discussed. Researchers should focus on conducting studies that can test not whether but for whom and how family involvement can contribute to improved outcomes above and beyond individual CBT for ARDs.