Individualism/collectivism and organizational citizenship behavior

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) are workplace activities that exceed an employee's formal job requirements and contribute to the effective functioning of the organization. We explored the roles of the dispositional traits of individualism and collectivism in the prediction of OCB. The relationship was examined in the context of other constructs known to influence OCB, specifically, motives and identity as an organizational citizen. A total of 367 employees in 24 organizations completed surveys measuring individualism/collectivism, OCB motives, strength of organizational citizen role identity, and amount of OCB. The results showed collectivism to be a significant predictor of Organizational Concern and Prosocial Values motives, role identity, and OCB. Individualism predicted Impression Management motives and was a significant negative predictor of a role identity as one who helps others. The findings are discussed with regard to previous research in OCB.     

Asthma severity, child security, and child internalizing: using story stem techniques to assess the meaning children give to family and disease-specific events

Children with persistent asthma are at increased risk for mental health problems. Although mechanisms of effect are not yet known, it may be that children are less trusting of the family as a source of support and security when they have more severe asthma. This study tested whether asthma severity is related to children's perceptions of insecurity in the family, and whether insecurity is in turn associated with child adjustment. Children (N = 168; mean age = 8 years) completed story stems pertaining to routine family events (e.g., mealtimes) and ambiguous but potentially threatening asthma events such as tightness in the chest. Responses were evaluated for the extent to which appraisals portrayed the family as responding in cohesive, security-provoking ways. Asthma severity was assessed by both objective lung function testing and primary caregiver report. Caregivers reported child symptomatology. Beyond medication adherence, caregiver education, and child age and gender, greater asthma severity predicted more internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Greater asthma severity, assessed using spirometry (but not parent report), was related to less secure child narratives of the family, which in turn related to more child internalizing symptoms. Results suggest that asthma can take a considerable toll on children's feelings of security and mental health. Furthermore, given the difficulty in assessing young children's perceptions, this study helps demonstrate the potential of story stem techniques in assessing children's appraisals of illness threat and management in the family.     

Is the enhancement of memory due to reward driven by value or salience?

Past research using two levels of reward has shown that the higher-value items are remembered better than lower-value items and this enhancement is assumed to be driven by an effect of reward value. In the present study, multiple levels of reward were used to test the influence of reward salience on memory. Using a value-learning procedure, words were associated with reward values, and then memory for these words was later tested with free recall. Critically, multiple reward levels were used, allowing us to test two specific hypotheses whereby rewards can influence memory: (a) higher value items are remembered better than lower value items (reward value hypothesis), and (b) highest and lowest value items are remembered best and intermediate-value items are remembered worst (following a U-shaped relationship between value and memory; reward salience hypothesis). In two experiments we observed a U-shaped relationship between reward value and memory, supporting the notion that memory is enhanced due to reward salience, and not purely through reward value.     

Between Integrity and Despair: Toward Construct Validation of Erikson’s Eighth Stage

A new measure of Erikson’s final psychosocial stage, Integrity versus Despair, is presented and validated across two studies. In the first, 97 adults (68 women and 31 men) aged 65 and older responded to this measure: the Self-Examination Interview (SEI). Responses on the SEI were treated both categorically and dimensionally (continuous scores) with respect to four integrity statuses: Integrated, Nonexploring, Pseudointegrated, and Despairing. In Study One, categorical and dimensional Integrity statuses were examined in relation to five convergent measures: the Integrity subscale of the Modified Eriksonian Psychosocial Inventory, Openness to Experience, the Competence subscale of the California Personality Inventory, the Geriatric Depression Scale, and Perceived Health. As hypothesized, Integrated respondents were socially competent and resilient; Nonexploring persons conventional; Pseudointegrated respondents immature; and Despairing persons, demoralized. A subsample of participants took a semi-structured Adult Identity Status Interview. Integrated persons were most often Identity Achieved; Pseudointegrated and Nonexploring persons were most often Foreclosed. Study Two evaluated a new sample of 70 persons (51 women and 19 men) aged 70 and older. It generally confirmed the Integrity statuses developed in Study One, extending them to variables related to complexity and maturity of sociomoral reasoning and thinking style. As expected, the Integrated status was negatively related, and the Nonexploring status positively related, to intolerance for ambiguity. The highest levels of sociomoral reasoning occurred most in the Integrated status group, as did dialectical reasoning. In contrast, the Nonexploring and Despairing statuses had more formistic-mechanistic reasoners. Pseudointegrated persons produced the highest number of invalid protocols. The importance of present findings and implications of these studies for future directions in integrity research are discussed.     

Abstract categorization ability as a predictor of learning disability classification

Based on a theoretical analysis of the type of cognitive processing that should be sensitive to population differences, this study evaluated the diagnostic validity of a task measuring abstract categorization ability in six-, seven-, and eight-year-old learning disabled (LD) and non-LD peers. This research is part of a project, the major goal of which is the development of a cognitive-based preschool screening test for the early detection of children who may subsequently fail in school. Diagnostic validity is being evaluated within the context of the research strategy we have adopted. Data are presented that demonstrate that the component of abstract category knowledge that best discriminates LD children from non-LD peers, is knowledge of how members of abstract categories differ from each other. This is consistent with a priori predictions from theory.     

Interpretation, psychoanalysis, and the philosophy of mind

I suggest that a conflict between two philosophical models of the mind so far unremarked in discussions of psychoanalysis is at the heart of questions about its status as a science, the objectivity of psychoanalytic interpretations, and the nature of the unconscious. In philosophy one model is embodied in the tradition of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Kant, among many others, which construes thought as prior to and independent of language. According to this tradition the mind is self-contained and mental contents or "ideas" are essentially subjective phenomena. It follows that knowledge of other minds and the material world is radically problematic. In the second and more contemporary model the phenomenon of meaning is dependent on interactions between minds, and between mind and the world. Since meaning is understood to be intrinsically social, so in an important sense is mind. I develop this second philosophic model, indicating its relevance for psychoanalysis. I also point out some of the contributions of psychoanalysis to philosophy of mind.     

Sex differences in identity status

In this study, sex differences in the Identity Status Interview (ISI) developed by Marcia (1980) were examined. The ISI was administered to 151 college students, 75 female and 76 male. It was found that status in the Ideology domain is most predictive of Identity Status for males, while status in the Sexual-Interpersonal domain is most predictive for females. No sex difference was found for the Occupation domain. An additional finding was that females rated the Sexual-Interpersonal domain as more important to their identity than did males. These results are interpreted as supporting the view that issues of interpersonal function are uniquely relevant to female identity development.     

Ecocultural bias in culture-specific intelligence tests in an ecologically diverse culture: The Philippines

In an ecologically diverse society (the Philippines), measurement equivalence across ecological settings was investigated with two culture-specific intelligence tests. Comparative reliability and factor analyses indicated that the tests (one for preschoolers, one for adults) were measuring the same ability dimensions equally reliably within each setting. Across settings, however, delta-plot analyses revealed considerable bias at the item level in tests of crystallized abilities, and the preschool tests tended to favor children from the setting where the tests were developed. The results are interpreted in terms of an ecocultural framework in which group differences in intellectual performance can reflect not only actual ability differences but differences in practice with, and exposure to, particular environmental stimuli and/or cognitive skills. The study demonstrates: (a) the need, particularly in ecologically diverse and segmented societies, to inspect tests for item bias; (b) the difficulty of culturally “equating” cognitive measures, even for very similar cultural subgroups who differ primarily in ecological setting.