Mood spillover and crossover among dual-earner couples: a cell phone event sampling study

In this study, the authors examined affective experiences of dual-earner couples. More specifically, the authors explored how momentary moods can spill over between work and family and cross over from one spouse to another. Fifty couples used their cell phones to provide reports of their momentary moods over 8 consecutive days. Results show significant spillover and crossover effects for both positive and negative moods. Work orientation moderated negative mood spillover from work to home, and the presence of children in the family decreased negative mood crossover between spouses. Crossover was observed when spouses were physically together and when the time interval between the spouses' reports was short. With this study, the authors contribute to the work and family research by examining the nature of mood transfers among dual-earner couples, including the direction, valence, and moderators of these transfers across work and family domains. The authors also contribute to the event sampling methodology by introducing a new method of using cell phones to collect momentary data.     

Possession and Applicability of Signature Character Strengths: What Is Essential for Well-Being,Work Engagement,and Burnout?

Signature character strengths can foster health-related outcomes in work and private life, thus being particularly important for endangered occupational groups like physicians. However, situational circumstances need to allow character strengths demonstration (applicability) first to enable their application. Therefore, this study addresses the role of (1) applicability of signature character strengths in work and private life beyond their possession and (2) relationships with well-being, work engagement, and burnout dimensions (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment). Hospital physicians (N = 274) completed an online survey examining their signature character strengths and applicability, well-being, work engagement, and burnout dimensions. The top-five individual signature character strengths were fairness, honesty, judgment, kindness, and love. Hierarchical multiple linear regressions revealed that the possession as well as the applicability of signature character strengths was important in work and private life, but to different degrees. Possessing fairness, honesty, or kindness indicated significant positive relations with subjective well-being, whereas judgment and kindness seemed to negatively interact with reduced personal accomplishment. Hospital physicians’ applicability of fairness, honesty, judgment, and love was particularly essential for their psychological well-being and work engagement, whereas the applicability of fairness (reduced personal accomplishment) and judgment (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization) at work interacted negatively with the respective outcomes. Therefore, creating awareness for individual signature character strengths as well as providing applicability in hospitals and private life could be a promising approach to improve physicians’ well-being and consequently patient care as well as the performance of the health-care system in general.

     

Coalition Preference as a Function of Expected Values in a Tetradic Weighted-Majority Game

Eighty male subjects participated in a tetradic weighted-majority game in which a coalition was required to control the division of the payoff. The amount of the payoff and/of the probability of receiving the payoff were varied. The data strongly supported the hypothesis that subjects would prefer the coalition with the largest expected value (size of payoff x probability of success = expected value) rather than the coalition with the largest payoff or the coalition with the highest probability of success. However, contrary to expectations, the 'division of rewards was found to be a function of the relative assigned resources of the coalition members, despite the lack of a logical connection between the assigned resources and the rules governing obtaining the payoff.     

Prologue: Introduction and Overview to Special Volume

Abstract

The editors provide an overview of the obstacles that prevent us from ending child abuse in the United States and briefly summarize the various articles in this volume that address these obstacles from multiple points of view.     

The areas of change questionnaire: A cross-cultural comparison of israeli and american distressed and nondistressed couples

Abstract

This study examines Israeli couples' presenting complaints about their relationship, their perceptions of one another's complaints and perceptual accuracy between actual and perceived complaints, using the Areas of Change Questionnaire (ACQ). Samples were obtained of both distressed and nondistressed couples. Each sample met stringent criteria for categorization as distressed and nondistressed. Normative data for both samples are examined and areas of similarities and differences are discussed. The instrument is found to discriminate distressed and nondistressed Israeli couples. Results are compared with a previous study of American distressed and nondistressed couples. The American finding that women desire more change in marriage is not replicated in the Israeli sample, nor the American finding that distress and stage in the life cycle are related. However, there is an indication in both samples that men, compared to women, perceive more requests for change. Men in both cultures also feel more change is asked of them than they themselves ask in return.     

Big brains are not enough: performance of three parrot species in the trap-tube paradigm

The trap-tube task has become a benchmark test for investigating physical causality in vertebrates. In this task, subjects have to retrieve food out of a horizontal tube using a tool and avoiding a trap hole in the tube. Great apes and corvids succeeded in this task. Parrots with relative brain volumes comparable to those of corvids and primates also demonstrate high cognitive abilities. We therefore tested macaws, a cockatoo, and keas on the trap-tube paradigm. All nine parrots failed to solve the task. In a simplified task, trap tubes with a slot inserted along the top were offered. The slot allowed the birds to move the reward directly with their bills. All but one individual solved this task by lifting the food over the trap. However, the parrots failed again when they were prevented from lifting the reward, although they anticipated that food will be lost when moved into the trap. We do not think that the demanding use of an external object is the main reason for the parrots’ failure. Moreover, we suppose these parrots fail to consider the trap’s position in the beginning of a trial and were not able to stop their behaviour and move the reward in the trap’s opposite direction.     

Object permanence in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus)

A series of 9 search tasks corresponding to the Piagetian Stages 3-6 of object permanence were administered to 11 common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). Success rates varied strongly among tasks and marmosets, but the performances of most subjects were above chance level on the majority of tasks of visible and invisible displacements. Although up to 24 trials were administered in the tests, subjects did not improve their performance across trials. Errors were due to preferences for specific locations or boxes, simple search strategies, and attentional deficits. The performances of at least 2 subjects that achieved very high scores up to the successive invisible displacement task suggest that this species is able to represent the existence and the movements of unperceived objects.     

Children's Decisions About Substance Use: An Application and Extension of the Theory of Reasoned Action1

This research examines the applicability of Fishbein and Ajzen's (1975) theory of reasoned action (TRA) to intentions to use cigarettes and alcohol among 5th- and 6th-grade students. It also addresses the question of unidimensionality of outcome beliefs and referent norms. Results suggest that the TRA model describes children's decision making well, although the ability of income and race to add to prediction, net of the effects of attitude and perceived norm, are contrary to the theory's prediction. In addition, we find support for multidimensional components of both attitude and norm for both behaviors.