CONTRIBUTORS TO STRESS RESISTANCE

This study integrated work-family research with the stress resource perspective and organizational leadership theory. Based on the premise that stress is a major contributor to work-family conflict, this research examined resources likely to reduce the stress and work-family conflict women experience. Family emotional support, leader-member exchange, and hardiness were explored as potential resources. The 206 participants were recruited in daycare centers, a business community, and a university setting. The sample was diverse in terms of ethnicity and occupation. However, the majority of the women were married (68%) with children (82%). Path analytic tests supported most of the relationships in the hypothesized model. Findings suggest that having a high-quality relationship with one's supervisor may have complex implications for work-family conflict.     

Ordinal knowledge: number names and number concepts in Chinese and English.

Previous research has demonstrated cross-language variation in early counting associated with linguistic differences in number-naming systems. Ordinal number names are typically learned later than cardinal names, but languages also differ in the regularity with which they form these names. Elementary school children in China and the U.S. showed differences in the acquisition and use of ordinal numbers corresponding to linguistic differences in ordinal names in their native languages. On tasks assessing children's conceptual knowledge of ordinal relations, a more complicated picture emerged. These results suggest that (a) children induce their language's set of ordinal number names by generalization based on rules sanctioned by early examples, and (b) the relation between ordinal names and ordinal concepts is a complex one, with language only one source of difficulty in understanding ordinal relations. Implications for studies of the relation between linguistic structure and cognitive development are discussed, in particular the possibility that effects of linguistic differences may vary for different levels of development and for different aspects of cognition.     

A test of two different revelation effects using forced-choice recognition

The revelation effect refers to the finding of an increased propensity to classify recognition test probes as old when they are preceded by a problem solving task. Recent research indicates that revelation effects are dissociable based on whether the revelation task involves an item that is the same as or different than the subsequently presented recognition probe. Using a two-alternative forced-choice design, we found a revelation effect for both words (Experiment 1) and nonwords (Experiment 2) in the condition where the revealed item was the same as the target item (same revelation condition), but no effect when the revealed item was different than either test alternative (different revelation condition). These results were replicated using a mixed list design containing both words and nonwords (Experiment 3). Results support Verde and Rotello’s (2004) two-factor account of the revelation effect, which proposes that changes in memory sensitivity underlie revelation effects in the same revelation condition, and that changes in the decision criterion are responsible in the different revelation condition.     

SOCIAL COMPARISONS AND CONTENTMENT Exploring the Psychological Costs of the Gender Wage Gapi

This study explored the role of social comparison processes in fostering contentment among those who are objectively disadvantaged. We focus on how comparisons can produce gender differences in personal entitlement, perceptions of one's own performance, and pay satisfaction. We hypothesized that individuals would base judgments of entitlement, performance, and pay satisfaction more on comparisons with ingroup (same-sex) than outgroup (cross-sex) others, even when both types of comparison information were equally available, unavoidable, and made clear the disadvantaged status of the ingroup. As predicted, the amount students felt they were entitled to be paid, how well they thought they had performed (women only), and how satisfied they were with their pay were all influenced more by same-sex than cross-sex comparison information. The implications of these results for the tolerance of injustice among disadvantaged groups are discussed.     

Efficacy of neurostimulation to treat symptoms of Mal de Debarquement Syndrome. A preliminary study using repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation

Mal de debarquement syndrome (MdDS) is a rare and poorly understood condition of perceived continual motion. Using a multiple‐case design (n = 13; 8 f; 63.5 ± 12.6 years), this study investigated the efficacy of eight 20‐min sessions, over 4 weeks, of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the dorsolateral pre‐frontal cortex. Compared to sham, rTMS demonstrated improvement in balance and confidence in daily living activities. rTMS shows promise for the treatment of MdDS. However, larger trials with longer intervention periods are required.     

Prejudice and self-esteem: A transactional model

This paper reviews three theoretical models of how prejudice affects the self-esteem of its targets. The stimulus-response model assumes that prejudice has a direct, negative effect on self-esteem. The stimulus-perception-response model recognises that perceptions of prejudice may not directly mirror experiences with prejudice, but predicts that the subjective perception of being a target of prejudice has a direct, negative effect on self-esteem. Both of these models are found to be inadequate. We propose a third, transactional model, which assumes that individuals do not respond in uniform way to being the target of prejudice. Rather, this model contends that self-esteem and emotional responses to prejudice are determined by cognitive appraisals of prejudicial events and coping strategies used in response to these events; these processes, in turn, are shaped by personal, situational, and structural factors. Experiments are presented showing that self-esteem in response to perceived prejudice is moderated by presence or absence of threats to personal identity, clarity of prejudices cues in the situation, ingroup identification, dispositional optimism, endorsement of legitimising ideologies, and group status. We argue that a transactional model of responses to prejudice emphasises sources of resistance as well as vulnerability among targets of prejudice.     

An Expectancy/Value Perspective on the Demotivating Effects of Prejudice

This study examined whether expecting prejudice is demotivating. Women were led to believe they were being evaluated for a co‐manager position. They were randomly assigned to receive information that the evaluator held negative attitudes toward women or that he did not. We hypothesized that compared to women led to believe that the evaluator was unprejudiced, women led to believe the evaluator was prejudiced would: (a) have lower expectations for being chosen as co‐manager; (b) place less value on being chosen as co‐manager; and (c) be less motivated to perform a task that would influence selection as co‐manager. We predicted that the effect of prejudice on motivation would be mediated by expectations and valuing of success. Results were consistent with predictions.     

Newcomer Information Seeking: Individual and Contextual Influences

This study examined situational and individual influences on the proactive information seeking of newcomers. Task interdependence was expected to be positively related to information seeking, given that it links newcomers to organizational insiders. Newcomers' work related self-efficacy and the physical accessibility of organizational insiders were both predicted to moderate the relationship between task interdependence and information seeking. Usable surveys were completed by 421 co-op students (295 males and 126 females) who had been participating in career-relevant internships for approximately 4.5 weeks. All students were enrolled in an educational programme that rotates students between twelve weeks in class and twelve weeks on internship over a period of five years. Controlling for the number of previous internships and size of work group, results supported the joint moderating effect, with newcomers low on self-efficacy exhibiting greater information seeking when task interdependence and accessibility were high. Applied implications of the results and directions for future research on proactive information seeking and socialization are discussed.     

Situational moderators of gender differences in reward allocations

This experiment investigated the impact of four variables, hypothesized to convey cues as to sex-role appropriate behavior, on gender differences in reward allocations between self and a co-worker. These variables were: expectations for future interactions with the co-worker, sex of co-worker, type of reward, and type of allocation decision. Males and females were asked to indicate how they would allocate money or course points between themselves and a same or opposite sex co-worker with inferior performance. Females allocated either type of reward more equitably than males when making independent allocations. When making joint (zero-sum) allocations, however, both sexes allocated rewards more equitably with a same-sex co-worker than with an opposite-sex co-worker when future interaction with the co-worker was expected. Grades were seen as more important than money by both sexes, and both men and women allocated course points more equitably than money. Type of reward did not, however, differentially affect men's and women's allocation patterns. Overall, independent allocations were more equitable than joint allocations. Results are discussed as suggesting that gender differences in reward allocations are not a result of inherent personality differences between the sexes but rather reflect the influence of situational factors that can arouse sex-role specific self-presentational concerns.     

Overworked and underpaid: on the nature of gender differences in personal entitlement

This research investigated gender differences in feelings of personal entitlement with respect to monetary payment for work performed. Two experiments were conducted to test the hypothesis that women's internal standards of fair pay for their work are lower than men's and to examine possible causes of this difference. In Experiment 1, men and women were asked to pay themselves in a private situation what they thought was fair pay for a fixed amount of work. Social comparison information was varied. As predicted, women paid themselves less money than men in the absence, but not the presence, of social comparison information. In Experiment 2, men and women were asked to do as much work as they thought was fair for a fixed, prepaid, amount of money. Subjects believed that their work was either monitored or unmonitored. Women worked significantly longer, did more work, and did more correct work than men in both public and private work settings. Furthermore, women, but not men, worked longer when they believed their work was monitored than when they believed it was unmonitored. Possible explanations for these gender differences are discussed.