Observe: A multimedia course on the observational analysis of behavior

OBSERVE is a preliminary release of a multimedia course for teaching undergraduate and graduate students how and why to study behavior by direct observation. The instructional text and commentary and the self-test and examination materials are built around a series of exercises in which the student observes and categorizes film clips of the behavior of several different species in several different ways. Incorporation of elements from The Observer software for computer recording and video analysis implements fully computerized continuous recording. At present, the text, together with check sheets that the program generates, enables a comparison between one-zero, instantaneous, and continuous sampling of the same behavioral excerpts. Matrices are printed out for an exercise in calculating interobserver reliability. Another section supports carrying out and writing up a small observational project on human behavior in the field. Plans for the future development of OBSERVE are briefly described.     

How are employees at different levels affected by privatization? A longitudinal study of two Swedish hospitals

Despite the amount of privatizations around the world in recent decades, only limited research attention has been paid to how privatization affects the employees. The effects are likely to vary depending on the individual's position in the organization. The aim of this study was to investigate how employees' work‐related attitudes and strain changed after privatization of a Swedish acute care hospital, and to analyze whether the effects of privatization differed between employees at various hierarchic levels. Questionnaire data collected at a hospital 1 year before and 2 years after privatization, as well as at a hospital which remained a public administration unit, suggest only limited effects of privatization on a general level, but that employees at various hierarchic levels may be affected differently. While employees at a high level (physicians) and low level (assistant nurses) reported only marginal differences over time in work attitudes and strain, also in comparison with their colleagues at the comparison hospital, work attitudes of employees at the intermediate level (registered nurses) decreased after privatization. These results emphasize the importance of taking hierarchic level into account when a privatization is implemented and analyzed.     

Religious Change over the Generations in an Extremely Secular Society: The Case of Sweden

The main argument of this paper is that religious change caused by modifying supply in the religious market takes time due to intergenerational value change. Unlike previous research, this study suggests that not only do religious agents on the supply side need time to adjust, but that the time lag is probably even greater among individuals on the demand side of the religious market. Using time series data, the study demonstrates that, despite shrinking church attendance, interest in religious concepts such as “salvation” has increased in the generations born after 1970 in Sweden. Describing the transformation of the Swedish religious market from a regulated religious monopoly before 1970 to an increasingly deregulated and competitive religious supply since 1970, the study explains this revival in religious interest on the part of generations whose formative years were after 1970. As these generations replace previous generation with less religious interest, religious interest is rising in the Swedish population. The conclusion holds even when controlling for period and lifecycle effects, as well as alternative explanations of religious change such as increased migration and the existential security thesis.     

Education and Social Trust: Testing a Causal Hypothesis Using the Discordant Twin Design

One of the clearest results in previous studies on social trust is the robust positive relationship with educational attainment. The most common interpretation is that education has a causal effect on social trust. The theoretical argument and empirical results in this article suggest a different interpretation. We argue that common preadult factors such as cognitive abilities and personality traits rooted in genes and early‐life family environment may confound the relationship between educational attainment and social trust. We provide new evidence on this question by utilizing the quasi‐experiment of twinning. By looking at the relationship between education and social trust within monozygotic (MZ) twin pairs, we are able to avoid potential confounders rooted in genetic factors and common environmental influences because the monozygotic twins share both. The results suggest that when controlling for such familial factors the estimated effects of education on social trust are close to zero and far from reaching statistical significance. Further analyses show that the relationship between education and social trust largely is driven by common genetic factors.     

Associations Between Self-Esteem,General Self-Efficacy,and Approaches to Studying in Occupational Therapy Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

The aim of this study was to explore associations between self-esteem, general self-efficacy, and the deep, strategic, and surface approaches to studying. Norwegian occupational therapy students (n?=?125) completed questionnaires measuring study approaches, self-esteem, and general self-efficacy. Regression analyses were used to explore the direct relationships between self-esteem, general self-efficacy and the approaches to studying, after controlling for age, gender, prior higher education, and time spent on independent studying. General self-efficacy displayed positive associations with deep and strategic approaches to studying and a negative relationship with a surface approach to studying. Self-esteem was not significantly associated with approaches to studying.     

Relationships Between Locus of Control, Coping Strategies and Emotional Well-Being in Persons with Spinal Cord Lesion

Relations between locus of control, coping strategies and emotional well-being in persons with traumatically acquired spinal cord lesion (SCL) were examined. The sample included 132 community-residing adults. Structural equation modelling, including confirmatory factor analysis, was used. A model was hypothesized based on the transactional theory of stress and coping where coping strategies mediated the relation between locus of control and emotional well-being. The model showed acceptable fit to the data and was compared with five alternative models. The alternative models fitted the data less well or were difficult to interpret. In the preferred model, persons indicating internal control reported more coping strategies (Acceptance, Fighting spirit) related to increased well-being, whereas persons indicating external control reported a coping strategy (Social reliance) related to poorer well-being. The findings support the stress and coping framework in medical rehabilitation and illustrate why some persons need coping effectiveness training to enhance emotional adjustment.     

The influence of surface color information and color knowledge information in object recognition

In order to clarify whether the influence of color knowledge information in object recognition depends on the presence of the appropriate surface color, we designed a name-object verification task. The relationship between color and shape information provided by the name and by the object photo was manipulated in order to assess color interference independently of shape interference. We tested three different versions for each object: typically colored, black and white, and nontypically colored. The response times on the nonmatching trials were used to measure the interference between the name and the photo. We predicted that the more similar the name and the photo are, the longer it would take to respond. Overall, the color similarity effect disappeared in the black-and-white and nontypical color conditions, suggesting that the influence of color knowledge on object recognition depends on the presence of the appropriate surface color information.     

Visual rapid naming and phonological abilities: different subtypes in dyslexic children

One implication of the double-deficit hypothesis for dyslexia is that there should be subtypes of dyslexic readers that exhibit rapid naming deficits with or without concomitant phonological processing problems. In the current study, we investigated the validity of this hypothesis for Portuguese orthography, which is more consistent than English orthography, by exploring different cognitive profiles in a sample of dyslexic children. In particular, we were interested in identifying readers characterized by a pure rapid automatized naming deficit. We also examined whether rapid naming and phonological awareness independently account for individual differences in reading performance. We characterized the performance of dyslexic readers and a control group of normal readers matched for age on reading, visual rapid naming and phonological processing tasks. Our results suggest that there is a subgroup of dyslexic readers with intact phonological processing capacity (in terms of both accuracy and speed measures) but poor rapid naming skills. We also provide evidence for an independent association between rapid naming and reading competence in the dyslexic sample, when the effect of phonological skills was controlled. Altogether, the results are more consistent with the view that rapid naming problems in dyslexia represent a second core deficit rather than an exclusive phonological explanation for the rapid naming deficits. Furthermore, additional non-phonological processes, which subserve rapid naming performance, contribute independently to reading development.     

Basic psychological need satisfaction across the retirement transition: Changes and longitudinal associations with depressive symptoms

Motivation and Emotion - Drawing on self-determination theory, the present study examined how satisfaction of the basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) changes across...