Exploring types of career orientation: A latent class analysis approach

Career literature has been discussing the decline of the traditional career. Despite this debate, systematic information on the prevalence of contemporary career types is lacking. Two studies with large samples of employees aimed to determine types of career orientation, to explore their prevalence, and to validate these types by testing hypotheses relating each of the career orientations to work attitudes and sociodemographical variables. In study 1 (N = 835), we identified four types of career orientation – traditional/promotion, traditional/loyalty, independent, disengaged – applying exploratory latent class analysis. These were confirmed in study 2 (N = 737) with confirmatory latent class analysis. The variables associated with the career orientation types mostly followed the predicted pattern. Almost two thirds reported a traditional career orientation, while one fifth each expressed an independent and a disengaged orientation. This finding shows that people’s career orientation does not reflect the changes that many authors argue have been occurring.     

Differential development of selectivity for faces and bodies in the fusiform gyrus

Viewing faces or bodies activates category‐selective areas of visual cortex, including the fusiform face area (FFA), fusiform body area (FBA), and extrastriate body area (EBA). Here, using fMRI, we investigate the development of these areas, focusing on the right FFA and FBA. Despite the overlap of functionally defined FFA and FBA (54%–75% overlap), we found that these regions developed along different trajectories. With age (7–32 years old), the FFA gradually increased in size and selectivity, and was significantly larger and more face‐selective in adults than children. By contrast, the size and selectivity of the FBA did not correlate with age, and were equivalent in children and adults. Whereas in adults the FFA and FBA were comparable in size, in children the FBA was on average 70% larger than the FFA. These findings suggest that, in children, the fusiform gyrus is predominantly selective for bodies, with commensurate face‐selective responses apparent later in development. Moreover, differences in the development of the FFA and FBA indicate that overlapping functional brain areas, supported by the same anatomical structure, can develop along different trajectories.     

Personal Goal Facilitation through Work: Implications for Employee Satisfaction and Well-Being

Que le travail facilite la réalisation des objectifs personnels dépend de la perception de l’impact du travail sur l’atteinte de ces objectifs personnels. En accord avec la littérature sur l’autorégulation et le modèle cybernétique du stress organisationnel proposé par Edwards (1992), la facilitation de l’accès à ses objectifs personnels par le travail fut supposée en relation positive avec les attitudes relatives à l’emploi et le bien‐être de l’employé. En outre, on a prédit un rapport plus étroit entre la facilitation de l’accès à ses objectifs personnels par le travail et les performances du salarié quand les buts personnels étaient fortement valorisés. Ces hypothèses ont été mises à l’épreuve à travers un questionnaire rempli par 1036 employés du secteur de la santé. D’après l’analyse de régression, la facilitation de l’accès à ses objectifs personnels par le travail expliquait une part importante de la variance du bien‐être et des attitudes relatives à l’emploi, même après avoir contrôlé les caractéristiques des postes en référence au modèle de Karasek concernant les relations agents stressants—tension au travail (1979; Karasek & Theorell, 1990). L’importance des objectifs n’avait qu’une influence des plus limitées. On en conclut que la facilitation de l’accès à ses objectifs personnels par le travail offre une voie prometteuse pour explorer les attitudes liées à l’emploi et le bien‐être, en complément des modèles plus traditionnels des caractéristiques de l’emploi. Personal goal facilitation through work refers to perceptions of the extent to which one's job facilitates the attainment of one's personal goals. In line with the self‐regulation literature and Edwards’ (1992 ) cybernetic model of organisational stress, personal goal facilitation through work was predicted to show positive associations with job attitudes and employee well‐being. Moreover, stronger relationships between personal goal facilitation through work and employee outcomes were predicted for highly valued personal goals. These predictions were investigated in a questionnaire study of 1,036 health care employees. In regression analyses, personal goal facilitation through work accounted for substantial variance in job attitudes and well‐being, even after controlling for job characteristics from Karasek's (1979 ; Karasek & Theorell, 1990 ) model of occupational stressor–strain relations. There was only very limited evidence of moderating effects of goal importance. It is concluded that personal goal facilitation through work offers a promising source of insight into job attitudes and well‐being, complementing more traditional job characteristics models.     

In Search of the Trinity: A Dilemma for Parfit’s Conciliatory Project

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice - I outline a dilemma for Derek Parfit’s project to vindicate moral realism. In On What Matters, Parfit argues that the best versions of three of the main...