Role of employee felt obligation and endorsement of the just world hypothesis: A social exchange theory investigation in an organizational justice context

According to social exchange theory, felt obligation after being treated justly is key to explaining why justice perceptions influence behaviors important to organizations, such as task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Perhaps those who believe in a just world (Just World Hypothesis, JWH) are more likely to feel obligated to reciprocate just treatment with behaviors benefiting the organization. Thus, our goal was to investigate whether belief in the JWH influences to what extent people feel obligated after being treated justly and the importance of felt obligation in regard to behavioral outcomes, such as OCB and task performance. Based on 160 university alumni and their supervisors, results provide support that justice perceptions can relate to both job performance and OCB via felt obligation, providing empirical support for the theoretical role of felt obligation in the social exchange theory explanation of how justice perceptions can translate into employee behaviors benefiting the organization. Results also suggest that endorsement of the JWH interacts with procedural and distributive justice perceptions, but not interpersonal justice perceptions, to influence felt obligation and that the indirect effect of distributive and procedural justice perceptions on both OCB and task performance via felt obligation is only significant for individuals with relatively high levels of endorsement of the JWH. Implications are discussed.     

LMX in team-based contexts: TMX,authority differentiation,and skill differentiation as boundary conditions for leader reciprocation

The purpose of the current study is to develop an integrated theoretical model based upon social exchange theory focused on the simultaneous interplay of leader–member exchange (LMX) and team–member exchange (TMX) in team-based contexts. We propose a model that extends current theories related to social exchange by integrating currently independent propositions in the literatures on LMX and TMX, showing how these propositions are contingent on the nature of the team in which leaders and followers are embedded. In a sample of 439 employees on 61 teams, the results show that when it comes to predicting individual performance (a) high TMX quality eliminates the otherwise negative effects of low LMX quality, (b) low authority differentiation weakens the otherwise positive effects of LMX, and (c) high skill differentiation weakens the otherwise positive effects of high LMX quality on performance. We discuss how the role of LMX may be changing in contemporary team-based work contexts relative to what was true in the historical literature when the construct was originally developed.     

Interactions between the effects of food and water motivating operations on food‐ and water‐reinforced responding in mice

Two experiments examined interactions between the effects of food and water motivating operations (MOs) on the food‐ and water‐reinforced operant behavior of mice. In Experiment 1, mice responded for sucrose pellets and then water reinforcement under four different MOs: food deprivation, water deprivation, concurrent food and water deprivation, and no deprivation. The most responding for pellets occurred under food deprivation and the most responding for water occurred under water deprivation. Concurrent food and water deprivation decreased responding for both reinforcers. Nevertheless, water deprivation alone increased pellet‐reinforced responding and food deprivation alone likewise increased water‐reinforced responding relative to no deprivation. Experiment 2 demonstrated that presession food during concurrent food and water deprivation increased in‐session responding for water relative to sessions where no presession food was provided. Conversely, presession water during concurrent food and water deprivation did not increase in‐session responding for pellets. These results suggest that a) the reinforcing value of a single stimulus can be affected by multiple MOs, b) a single MO can affect the reinforcing value of multiple stimuli, and c) reinforcing events can also function as MOs. We consider implications for theory and practice and suggest strategies for further basic research on MOs.     

Emotional flexibility and recovery from pain

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between two aspects of emotional flexibility (EF, i.e. flexible emotional responsiveness and affective flexibility) and tolerance for, and recovery from, experimentally-induced pain. Fifty-two adults completed a flexible emotional responsiveness task in which emotional responses on multiple dimensions were registered while watching positive and negative pictures. Affective flexibility was measured using a switching task with positive and negative pictures. Pain tolerance was assessed as the time participants endured an ischemic pain task and total time until recovery in terms of pain intensity and pain unpleasantness was registered. Flexible emotional responsiveness—reflected in divergent corrugator responses to positive and negative stimuli—was associated with faster recovery from pain unpleasantness. Affective flexibility was associated with recovery in terms of pain intensity, with faster switches from neutral towards affective aspects of positive stimuli being predictive of faster recovery. Results did not provide evidence for an association between EF and pain tolerance. The findings suggest that EF may protect against pain persistence.

     

Psychological Inertia Revisited: Replicating and Extending the Differential Effect of Proactive and Reactive Criminal Thinking on Crime Continuity

Measures of proactive and reactive criminal thinking were evaluated as putative mediators of the past crime?future crime relationship in a group of 1,354 adjudicated delinquents. Analyses performed on total offending variety scores and aggressive offending frequency scores revealed that reactive but not proactive criminal thinking mediated the past crime?future crime relationship. As in previous studies, proactive criminal thinking failed to correlate with prior criminal offending. These results have theoretical implications for continued development of the criminal thinking-mediated moral and control models of criminal lifestyle development and practical implications for effective treatment, management, and prevention of serious criminality.     

Influence of Attachment Style on Sexual Abuse Survivors' Posttraumatic Growth

This study investigated the directional relationship between adults' (N = 292) attachment styles and perceived impact of child sexual abuse with their experience of posttraumatic growth (PTG). Structural equation modeling results identified that attachment style served as a partial mediator between trauma and PTG scores, with the mediating effect contributing to 8% of the variance in the presence of PTG (p < .05; standardized coefficient = ?.31).     

VA telemental health: suicide assessment

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) encompasses one of the largest telemental health networks in the world, with over 45,000 videoconferencing and over 5,000 home telemental health encounters annually. Recently, the VA designated suicide prevention as a major priority, with telehealth modalities providing opportunities for remote interventions. Suicide risk assessments, using videoconferencing, are now documented in the literature, as are current studies that find telemental health to be equivalent to face-to-face treatment. Remote assessment of suicidality, however, involves complex legal issues: licensing requirements for remote delivery of care, legal procedures for involuntary detainment and commitment of potentially harmful patients, and liability questions related to the remote nature of the mental health service. VA best practices for remote suicide risk assessment include paradigms for establishing procedures in the context of legal challenges (licensing and involuntary detainment/commitment), for utilizing clinical assessment and triage decision protocols, and for contingency planning to optimize patient care and reduce liability.     

Attachment insecurity and perceptions of housework: Associations with marital well-being.

This exploratory study examines the interactive effects of attachment insecurity and perceptions of housework on 2 dimensions of marital well-being--satisfaction and perceptions of fairness. Participants were 148 married couples obtained from an area probability sample as part of a larger study. Multilevel modeling analyses with the couple as the unit of analysis showed that women who scored high and men who scored low on the dimension of attachment anxiety and reported that their spouses performed more routine housework (i.e., prepares meals) also reported being over-benefited. Women who scored high and men who scored low on the dimension of attachment avoidance and reported that their spouses performed more intermittent housework (i.e., yard work) reported greater marital satisfaction. These results highlight the role of attachment orientations in explaining why perceptions of housework may have more or less prominent effects on marital well-being.     

Using the 4/5ths Rule as an Outcome in Regression Analyses: A Demonstrative Simulation

The adverse impact associated with personnel practices is an important issue for personnel psychologists. The purpose of this simulation study is to demonstrate the consequences of using the 4/5ths rule and the adverse impact ratio in analyses designed to predict adverse impact from human resource management (HRM) strategies. Results show that increasing (1) the total number of selections made and (2) the minority representation in the candidate pool may influence adverse impact differently depending on how adverse impact is measured. Specifically, using the 4/5ths rule as an outcome in logistic regression analyses led to unexpected findings regarding the effectiveness of HRM strategies designed to reduce adverse impact. On the other hand, using the adverse impact ratio as an outcome in linear regression analyses produced to intuitive findings.