The relationship between cognitive ability and personality scores in selection situations: A meta‐analysis

Several faking theories have identified applicants’ cognitive ability (CA) as a determinant of faking—the intentional distortion of answers by candidates—but the corresponding empirical findings in the area of personality tests are often ambiguous. Following the assumption that CA is important for faking, we expected applicants with high CA to show higher personality scores in selection situations, leading in this case to significant correlations between CA and personality scores, but not in nonselection situations. This meta‐analysis (66 studies, k = 115 individual samples, N = 46,265) showed this pattern of results as well as moderation effects for the study design (laboratory vs. field), the response format of the personality test, and the type of CA test.     

Reasoning as a source of justification

In this essay we argue that reasoning can sometimes generate epistemic justification, rather than merely transmitting justification that the subject already possesses to new beliefs. We also suggest a way to account for it in terms of the relationship between epistemic normative requirements, justification and cognitive capacities.     

Side effects of gender‐fair language: How feminine job titles influence the evaluation of female applicants

In many languages, feminization has been used as a strategy to make language more gender‐fair, because masculine terms, even in a generic function, exhibit a male bias. Up to date, little is known about possible side effects of this language use, for example, in personnel selection. In three studies, conducted in Polish, we analyzed how a female applicant was evaluated in a recruitment process, depending on whether she was introduced with a feminine or masculine job title. To avoid influences from existing occupations and terms, we used fictitious job titles in Studies 1 and 2: diarolo?ka (feminine) and diarolog (masculine). In Study 3, we referred to existing occupations that varied in gender stereotypicality. In all studies, female applicants with a feminine job title were evaluated less favorably than both a male applicant (Study 1) and a female applicant with a masculine job title (Studies 1, 2, and 3). This effect was independent of the gender stereotypicality of the occupation (Study 3). Participants' political attitudes, however, moderated the effect: Conservatives devaluated female applicants with a feminine title more than liberals (Studies 2 and 3). Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Family routines and rituals in the context of chronic conditions: A review

This paper is a systematic review of 39 empirical studies on family routines and rituals in the context of a chronic condition of a family member. The search strategy encompassed a wide spectrum of chronic conditions affecting family members from childhood/adolescence to adulthood. Twenty quantitative, 13 qualitative, 3 mixed‐methods, and 3 intervention studies published between 1995 and 2012 were reviewed. A conceptual framework of routines and rituals as key elements of family health was adopted, resulting in three main findings. First, a chronic condition in a family member impacted the frequency and nature of family's routines and rituals. Second, these whole‐family interactions held important functions for individuals and families, constituting strategic resources in the condition's management and opportunities for emotional support exchanges, and providing the family with a sense of normalcy amid the challenges posed by chronic conditions. Third, family routines and rituals were linked to positive health and adaptation outcomes for both patients and family members. Implications for future research include the need for the distinction between routines and rituals against a conceptual background, use of validated assessment methods, and empirical examination of predictors of changes in routines and rituals throughout the course of the condition and of the mechanisms linking these family events to positive outcomes. Conclusions support the inclusion of routines and rituals in a family‐centered care approach to the understanding and treatment of chronic conditions.     

Ethical and Professional Challenges of Genetic Counseling – the Case of Austria

Genetic counseling is gaining in importance with the increasing application of genetic testing for diagnosis and clinical treatment. Genetic counseling often raises ethical and professional challenges and prior research has categorized them into 16 domains. The purpose of this study was to analyze the situation in Austria on the basis of these challenges and discuss it in the national and international context. While in some countries there is a special profession for genetic counseling, in Austria it is provided by medical geneticists or other physicians in the context of their specialization. Psychosocial professionals might be consulted or brought in if necessary. Results from 95 survey respondents (including physicians and psychosocial professionals) revealed a greater interest in the topic of genetic counseling by medical specialists other than medical geneticists. The most frequently encountered challenges among physicians were informed consent, organizational constraints, withholding information, and attaining/maintaining proficiency. The psychosocial professionals experienced maintaining proficiency and organizational constraints as the prevalent challenges. Additional findings and practice implications are presented.     

Guidelines with Strategies for Enhancement of Resilience and Psycho-Social Well-Being in Professional Nurses

There are currently no guidelines available for enhancement of resilience in professional nurses. This study aims to provide broad guidelines with specific strategies that may enhance resilience and psycho-social well-being in professional nurses. These guidelines are based findings from previous qualitative research on resilience in professional nurses in the public and private sector in South Africa. We used Kumpfer's (1999) theoretical model of resilience to frame the guidelines. Resilience among professional nurses appears to vary in manifestation across settings of practice.     

Development of a career-enabler framework within a South African higher education institution

This study developed a preliminary career-enabler framework for use in a higher education setting. A quantitative survey was conducted with a sample of 1392 employees within a higher education institution in South Africa. Structural analysis was performed using exploratory factor analysis. The analysis yielded three enablers with acceptable psychometric properties, namely: self-transcendence, self-enhancement and self-conservation through work motives and needs. Interventions that focus on career-enablers within a higher education institution need to address these three factors.     

Salience and asymmetric judgments of physical distance

Previous research has shown that distance estimates made from memory are often asymmetric. Specifically, when A is a prominent location (a landmark) and B is not, people tend to recall a longer distance from A to B than from B to A. Results of two experiments showed that asymmetric judgments of distance are not restricted to judgments made from memory but occur also for judgments made when all relevant visual cues are still present. Furthermore, results indicated that situational salience is sufficient to produce asymmetric judgments and that distinctiveness (such as in the case of architectural landmarks) is not necessary.     

Dividing the self: distinct neural substrates of task-based and automatic self-prioritization after brain damage

Facial self-awareness is a basic human ability dependent on a distributed bilateral neural network and revealed through prioritized processing of our own over other faces. Using non-prosopagnosic patients we show, for the first time, that facial self-awareness can be fractionated into different component processes. Patients performed two face perception tasks. In a face orientation task, they judged whether their own or others' faces were oriented to the left or right. In the 'cross' experiment, they judged which horizontal or vertical element in a cross was relatively longer while ignoring a task-irrelevant face presented as background. The data indicate that impairments to a distinct task-based prioritization process (when faces had to be attended) were present after brain damage to right superior frontal gyrus, bilateral precuneus, and left middle temporal gyrus. In contrast, impairments to automatic prioritization processes (when faces had to be ignored) were associated only with left hemisphere damage (the cingulate gyrus, superior parietal lobe, and superior temporal gyrus). In addition, both automatic and task-based self-prioritizations were affected by damage to left supramarginal and angular gyrus. The results for the gray matter analyses also extended to the adjacent white matter fiber tracts including the inferior occipital-frontal fasciculus, cingulum, and optic radiation. The data provide the first empirical evidence for separate functional roles of the left and right hemispheres in different aspects of self-face perception and suggest distinct functional processes respectively for paying attention to and for ignoring self-related information.     

Understanding and philosophical methodology

According to Conceptualism, philosophy is an independent discipline that can be pursued from the armchair because philosophy seeks truths that can be discovered purely on the basis of our understanding of expressions and the concepts they express. In his recent book, The Philosophy of Philosophy, Timothy Williamson argues that while philosophy can indeed be pursued from the armchair, we should reject any form of Conceptualism. In this paper, we show that Williamson??s arguments against Conceptualism are not successful, and we sketch a way to understand understanding that shows that there is a clear sense in which we can indeed come to know the answers to (many) philosophical questions purely on the basis of understanding.