Understanding physician power: a review of The Social Transformation of American Medicine

Paul Starr's 1983 book on how physicians emerged with the power and authority to shape American health care institutions is reviewed. Daniels contends that Starr's analysis has important philosophical implications because it demonstrates that the medical profession, perhaps blinded by its own ethic, egregiously violated the common obligation of all citizens to promote justice in the design of institutions.     

A Six Year Longitudinal Study of Graduate Expectations: The Implications for Company Recruitment and Selection Strategies

All job extrants formulate a set of expectations about what a new job will be like. A least in part, these expectations are shaped by their experience of the organization's selection process. What impact do these early impressions have upon subsequent job attitudes and behaviour? This article reports the findings of a longitudinal study of UK graduates from a few weeks prior to organizational entry to five or six years after commencing employment. Both the level of pre-entry expectations and the congruency of these expectations with work experience are found to correlate with subsequent job satisfaction and organizational commitment. More support is found for the congruent expectations hypotheses, and the implications of this for company selection and socialization strategies are discussed.     

Comparison of automated and standard administration of the Purdue Pegboard with mentally retarded adults.

Standard and automated administrations of the Purdue Pegboard to 32 mentally retarded adults were compared in a test-retest paradigm. The automated administration involved videotape and audio input. Both types of administration yielded equivalent scores except on the assembly portion of the test where the difference favored the automated presentation. Spearman rank-order test-retest correlations over a 2-mo. period showed both types of test administration to be equally reliable.     

Effects of acetoxycycloheximide on appetitive learning and memory

The effects of direct brain infusions of acetoxycycloheximide (an inhibitor of protein synthesis; ACXH) on acquisition, storage and recall of memory for one-trial appetitive learning were examined in five experiments. ACXH was infused into the rats' hippocampi through implanted cannulas. Control subjects received an equal volume of physiological saline. ACXH was infused (a) 5 h before acquisition, (b) 5 hr before commencement of recall tests, and (c) immediately after acquisition. Each subject's general motor activity was recording during testing. The results indicate that (1) ACXH has similar effects on appetitive and avoidance learning. (2) ACXH administered immediately after acquisition, has no effect on memory. (3) At 4 hr after acquisition memory is affected by ACXH. (4) Short-term memory is unaffected by ACXH and can exist independently of long-term memory. (5) ACXH consistently reduces general motor activity.     

A “Primer” in Conceptual Metaphor for Counselors

Conceptual metaphor provides a potentially powerful counseling framework, generalizable across theoretical orientations. According to the conceptual perspective, metaphor is not merely a matter of language, but is an indispensable dimension of human understanding and experience whereby more abstract ideas (like relationships) are understood in terms of more concrete experiences (like journeys). Consequently, when a couple in counseling says, “we're just spinning our wheels,” they are not only using a common colloquial expression, but also giving information about how they conceptualize their relationship. This article provides a theoretical foundation for use of conceptual metaphor and offers examples of its potential for counseling.     

The Relationship between Workplace Status and Workplace Religious Expression

A growing body of literature explores religious expression in workplaces, but comparatively little research examines how religious expression might be shaped by inequality in workplace status. We hypothesize that perceived work autonomy and socioeconomic status (SES) both function as mediating links between organizational status and religious expression. Drawing on a sample of employed adults from a nationally-representative survey in the United States (n = 8611), we examine three modes of religious expression at work: displaying faith, feeling comfortable talking about faith, and expressing views when observing unfair work practices that conflict with faith. Results revealed that workers at the bottom of their organizations express their religiosity less than those at the top. Religious expression in the workplace is thus not simply a reflection of individual religiosity or religious identity, but also workplace power. Although perceived work autonomy mediated the relationship, SES buffered the relationship. Findings have important implications for workplace policy.     

The Sexual Abuse Crisis in the Roman Catholic Church: What Psychologists and Counselors Should Know

Recent events regarding child sexual abuse committed by Roman Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Boston and elsewhere have yet again resulted in a tremendous amount of media attention and frenzy regarding this topic. During 2002 alone, approximately 300 American Catholic priests, including several bishops, were accused of child sexual abuse. Many were forced to resign their positions while others were prosecuted and went to prison. Curiously, there still exist many myths and misperceptions about priests who sexually abuse children and their victims. Since psychologists and other mental health professionals are likely to interact with many who have been impacted by these recent events, it is important for them to have some basic understanding of the various myths and misperceptions about sexual abuse committed by Roman Catholic priests.     

Guidance on conducting and reviewing systematic reviews (and meta-analyses) in work and organizational psychology

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are means of summarizing and synthesizing research evidence in a given topic area. They can be used to define the current state of knowledge and how confident we can be in that knowledge, to identify evidence gaps, and to provide recommendations for policy and practice based on the best available evidence. At European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, our editorial stance is explicitly to encourage the conduct of systematic reviews and meta-analyses. The purpose of this editorial is to provide some guidance to authors and journal referees on the (technical) features of good systematic reviews.