A Framework for the Study of Positive Deviance in Organizations

Positive deviance describes behavior that deviates from salient norms, yet is positive in its intention or effect. It has received considerable attention in the sociology literature, and is increasingly being studied in the context of the workplace. The development of a cumulative tradition in this domain, however, is hindered by the continued coexistence of multiple definitions of positive deviance in organizations and the use of various measurements and research designs. In this article, we synthesize existing definitions and approaches to the organizational study of positive deviance, integrate them into a coherent conceptual framework, and offer methodological advice and illustrations.     

Consolidating behavioral and neurophysiologic findings to explain the influence of contextual interference during motor sequence learning

Motor sequence learning under high levels of contextual interference (CI) disrupts initial performance but supports delayed test and transfer performance when compared to learning under low CI. Integrating findings from early behavioral work and more recent experimental efforts that incorporated neurophysiologic measures led to a novel account of the role of CI during motor sequence learning. This account focuses on important contributions from two neural regions—the dorsal premotor area and the SMA complex—that are recruited earlier and more extensively during the planning of a motor sequence in a high CI context. It is proposed that activation of these regions is critical to early adaptation of sequence structure amenable to long-term storage. Moreover, greater CI enhances access to newly acquired motor sequence knowledge through (1) the emergence of temporary functional connectivity between neural sites previously described as crucial to successful long-term performance of sequential behaviors, and (2) heightened excitability of M1—a key constituent of the temporary coupled neural circuits, and the primary candidate for storage of motor memory.     

Human rights studied as social representations in a cross‐national context

A questionnaire study using the 30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was conducted in 35 countries (N=6791 students). The basic assumption was that human rights can be studied as social representations following the model of Doise, Clémence, & Lorenzi‐Cioldi (1993). The existence of a shared meaning system concerning the 30 articles in different countries was demonstrated. Individual attitudes toward the whole set of rights were proven to be highly consistent. However, individuals differed systematically in beliefs about their own and the government's efficacy in having human rights respected. An individual‐level and a pancultural analysis (Kenny & La Voie, 1985; Leung & Bond, 1989) converged in the definition of four groups of respondents: advocates (most favorable responses towards human rights), sceptics (less favorable responses), personalists (high personal involvement and scepticism about governmental efficacy) and governmentalists (low personal involvement and strong belief in governmental efficacy). Analyses of anchoring started either from assessing individual positionings or from maximizing between‐country differences. Individual‐level analyses show that positionings are anchored in value choices as well as in perception and experience of social conflicts. Pancultural analyses confirm the importance of national context concerning the attitudes of scepticism or advocacy, personalism and governmentalism. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Correction processes in person judgments: the role of timing

In this study, participants were instructed to correct for the influence of a trait priming task on their judgments of ambiguous information. The time at which correction was instigated (preinformation or postinformation) determined whether contrastive correction effects were found solely on information‐related ratings (preinformation conditions) or on both information‐related and information‐unrelated ratings (postinformation conditions). Assimilative trait priming effects were found when no correction instructions were given. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Priming and timing: a test of two perspectives

Supporting a ‘stage’ perspective of assimilation and contrast effects, and in contrast to an ‘extremity’ conceptualization, this study demonstrated that priming moderate person exemplars before the behaviour of an ambiguous target person had been encoded results in assimilation, whereas priming such exemplars after encoding results in a small contrast effect. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hidden talents in harsh conditions? A preregistered study of memory and reasoning about social dominance

Although growing up in stressful conditions can undermine mental abilities, people in harsh environments may develop intact, or even enhanced, social and cognitive abilities for solving problems in high‐adversity contexts (i.e. ‘hidden talents’). We examine whether childhood and current exposure to violence are associated with memory (number of learning rounds needed to memorize relations between items) and reasoning performance (accuracy in deducing a novel relation) on transitive inference tasks involving both violence‐relevant and violence‐neutral social information (social dominance vs. chronological age). We hypothesized that individuals who had more exposure to violence would perform better than individuals with less exposure on the social dominance task. We tested this hypothesis in a preregistered study in 100 Dutch college students and 99 Dutch community participants. We found that more exposure to violence was associated with lower overall memory performance, but not with reasoning performance. However, the main effects of current (but not childhood) exposure to violence on memory were qualified by significant interaction effects. More current exposure to neighborhood violence was associated with worse memory for age relations, but not with memory for dominance relations. By contrast, more current personal involvement in violence was associated with better memory for dominance relations, but not with memory for age relations. These results suggest incomplete transfer of learning and memory abilities across contents. This pattern of results, which supports a combination of deficits and ‘hidden talents,’ is striking in relation to the broader developmental literature, which has nearly exclusively reported deficits in people from harsh conditions. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/e4ePmSzZsuc .     

Heartbeat perception in panic disorder: a reanalysis

This article describes a reanalysis of seven studies on heart beat perception (HBP) in panic disorder. The pooled sample had 709 participants from eight diagnostic categories. Accurate HBP was uncommon, but more prevalent among panic disorder patients than among healthy controls, depressed patients, patients with palpitations and individuals with infrequent panic attacks. No differences were found between panic disorder patients and patients with other anxiety disorders. Accurate perceivers had higher anxiety sensitivity scores than inaccurate perceivers. The data remain inconclusive as to whether perceived heart rate is correlated with anxiety in inaccurate perceivers. Physical exercise, distraction, variations in instructions and treatment each influenced HBP. However, the influence was different than previously thought. Finally, it is suggested that HBP may be understood in terms of schema-guided information processing.     

THE CONSTANCY OF STRUCTURE OF PERCEIVED PARENTAL REARING STYLE IN GREEK AND SPANISH SUBJECTS AS COMPARED WITH THE DUTCH

To be able to contribute to the cross-cultural study of child-rearing practices and psychopathology, this study sought to examine the cross-national generalizability of parental rearing constructs by analyzing self-report data on the EMBU, an instrument designed to assess memories of one's parents' rearing behavior. Of the four primary factors identified originally with Dutch individuals, namely Rejection, Emotional Warmth, Overprotection and Favoring Subject, the first three were replicated in a similar form in a Greek and a Spanish sample of normal research volunteers. Other properties of the factors, their corresponding scales, and the items constituting the scales were such that it would be warranted to carry out mean scale level or pattern comparisons between subjects from the respective countries on the three constructs evidencing cross-national constancy. Scale-level factor analysis of these constructs produced identical two- factor compositions (CARE and PROTECTION) across the Greek, the Spanish and the Dutch samples which further supported this conclusion.     

Towards a refined structure of personality traits

In this article we pursue two goals. The first is a further articulation of the dimensionality of the Dutch trait domain. The second is a detailed mapping of the factorial trait structure, one which includes intelligible and proper niches for various nuances of the trait language and for different interpretations of the main factors of personality language. In realizing these goals, we discuss the reliance on theory in structuring and modelling the domain in question, the type of model to be used, and the comprehensiveness versus the economy of domain representation. The advantages and disadvantages of the simple structure model and the circumplex model are commented upon, and a new framework that integrates these two models is presented. The present results provide confirmation of the existence of five major dimensions that cover the trait domain: (I) Extraversion or Surgency, (II) Agreeableness, (III) Conscientiousness, (IV) Emotional Stability, and (V) Intellect or Openness to Experience. The newly developed representational model, revealing a refined structure of personality characteristics, not only clarifies some of the problems faced in interpreting the Big Five factors, but also forms a starting point for applications.