Managing occupational stress: A national and international perspective

Theoretical models of occupational stress are important because they suggest a focus for intervention, and inform practice. The gap between research and practice was exposed most recently by Burke (1993) claiming little awareness of research findings by practitioners (managers, consultants, clinicians), little intervention activity being undertaken at the organizational level, little research being undertaken to determine the effectiveness of individual level interventions, and only modest use of work research findings for intervention and policy development (p. 85). This paper discusses the issue of intervention, and examines values, assumptions and the politics of applied research. A critical review of the evaluation studies of individual vs. organizational level interventions is undertaken and finally the problem of occupational stress as a national and international issue is considered.     

Training direct service staff in congregate settings to interact with people with severe disabilities: A quick,effective and acceptable program

An area of traditional as well as recent concern in congregate settings for people with severe disabilities is ensuring frequent social interactions between direct service staff and individuals who live in the residences. This study evaluated a program for training staff to interact frequently and positively across clients while in group situations in living units. The program involved a short classroom instructional session encompassing less than 1 h, followed by a maximum of 4 brief on-the-job observations and feedback sessions. Results indicated interaction rates of all 9 participating direct service staff increased above a normative criterion rate while participating in the training program. All staff also increased the proportion of their social interactions with clients that were positive in nature, and 6 of the 9 staff increased their distribution of interactions across clients. The improved interaction performances occurred when staff were provided with immediate on-the-job feedback regarding their performances as well as when provided with delayed feedback. Acceptability measures indicated the training program was well received by staff, although program components also were noted that may have affected staff acceptance differentially. Directions for future research are suggested in regard to further evaluating and increasing staff acceptance of effective training procedures.     

Woman battering: The response of the clergy

This paper examines the response of the church and the clergy to the problem of woman battering. A critical review of the theological foundations which may or may not contribute to violence directed toward females is presented. The research examining the response of the clergy to battered women is reviewed. Clergy report being confronted with the problem of woman battering and experiencing much difficulty in handling situations of this nature. In a study conducted by the authors, traditional attitudes were reflected by some modern day clergy; several clerical responses included female-blaming statements. More progressive clergy in this and other studies recognized woman battering as unacceptable; some are even studying ways to more effectively handle woman battering situations. A series of recommendations are included.Summary of Master's Thesis, Indiana University of PA, Indiana, PA 15705.     

The Impact of Gender on Productivity and Satisfaction Among Medical School Psychologists

The impact of gender on productivity and satisfaction was examined among a random sample of 293 psychologists employed as faculty members in medical schools. Forty-one percent of the respondents were female. Males were older than females, had worked in a medical school longer, had higher academic ranks, held more administrative positions, were more likely to be tenured, and earned higher salaries. When years of employment as a psychologist were statistically controlled, there were no gender differences in productivity, as measured by publications, presentations, and grant awards; however, gender differences in salary remained. Females were less satisfied than males with regard to salary, promotion opportunities, and overall respect. Results are discussed within the context of the changing gender composition within psychology and the changing demands within the health care system.     

Psychiatric and Psychological Morbidity as a Function of Adaptive Disability in Preschool Children with Aggressive and Hyperactive-Impulsive-Inattentive Behavior

Children with high levels of aggressive-hyperactive-impulsive-inattentive behavior (AHII; n = 154) were subdivided into those with (n = 38) and without (n = 116) adaptive disability (+AD/–AD) defined as a discrepancy between expected versus actual adaptive functioning. They were compared to each other and a control group of 47 normal children. Both AHII groups were more likely to have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder than control children; more symptoms of general psychopathology; greater social skills deficits; more parental problems; and lower levels of academic achievement skills. Compared to AHII – AD children, AHII + AD children had (1) more conduct disorder; (2) greater inattention and aggression symptoms; (3) more social problems, less academic competence, and poorer self-control at school; (4) more severe and pervasive behavior problems across multiple home and school settings; and (5) parents with poorer child management practices. Thus, adaptive disability has utility as a marker for more severe and pervasive impairments in AHII children.     

An advocacy intervention program for women with abusive partners: Initial evaluation

Experimentally tested the hypotheses that (1) battered women are in need of numerous community resources upon exit from a domestic violence shelter, (2) working with advocates increases women's effectiveness in obtaining needed resources and social support, and (3) success in obtaining resources and social support increases women's levels of life satisfaction and decreases their risk of further abuse. The initial findings of a short-term intervention project designed to provide postshelter advocacy services to women with abusive partners are presented. One-hundred forty-one battered women were interviewed immediately upon their exit from a domestic violence shelter as well as 10 weeks thereafter. Half the sample was randomly assigned to receive the services of trained advocates who assisted them in accessing needed community resources. Women who worked with advocates reported being more effective in accessing resources and had higher levels of social support and overall quality of life postintervention. Although all women reported some decrease in postshelter abuse, there were no differences between those with and those without advocates, and abuse continued to be a problem for many women.     

Weak stimulus generalization using sinusoidal gratings: A cautionary note in animal psychophysics

Psychophysical techniques involving operant and classical conditioning are used commonly to determine the visual thresholds of nonverbal subjects. Typically, subjects are conditioned to respond to a particular stimulus, and once trained sufficiently, the subject’s sensitivity to this and similar stimuli can be determined by decreasing the stimulus intensity until the animal no longer responds. However, this assumes that the animal’s tendency to respond correlates with its sensory abilities. Stimulus generalization to sinusoidal gratings of different spatial frequencies was examined in goldfish. Subjects were classically conditioned to suppress respiration upon presentation of a sinusoidal grating. Animals’ learning curves to each spatial frequency grating were compared in order to determine whether the animals generalized across stimuli. Results indicate that fish show weak stimulus generalization across spatial frequencies. Also, the shape of the contrast sensitivity function, a common measure of the animal’s visual capabilities, is distorted by insufficient training. We conclude that when the goal is to obtain accurate data on visual capabilities, either subjects should be trained to each stimulus to be tested or their generalization gradients should be measured.     

The Validity of Job Knowledge Measures

The validity of written job knowledge tests as predictors of job performance and training success was examined. Based on a sample of 363,528 persons and 502 coefficients, meta-analyses were performed to investigate the extent of validity generalization and the effects of two hypothesized moderator variables: content similarity and job complexity. Corrected mean validities were 0.45 for studies predicting job performance and 0.47 for studies of training success. Support was found for both moderators since validities were higher for high complexity jobs and when job-test content similarity was high. The implications of this study for personnel selection and research in the area of work performance are discussed.     

Study strategies and story recall in attention deficit disorder and reading disability

The role of metacognition and executive processes in mediating use of study skills was examined in groups of attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADD-H), normal, and non- ADD- H reading-disabled (RD) boys, matched on age and verbal IQ. On a story recall task, ADD- H boys did not differ from normals in their immediate gist recall of a story or in their recall following a study period. RD boys demonstrated inferior recall in both conditions. Study skills of the ADD- H boys were poorer than those of normal boys on all measures. They spent less time studying, expended less effort, and employed more superficial strategies. However, their poor strategies did not appear to reflect a lack of metacognitive awareness. Results are discussed in terms of the impact of motivational variables in modulating strategy use in ADD- H boys and the impact of verbal processing problems in reading disabilities. Implications for treatment and the relationship between ADD- H and RD are discussed.This research was supported by grant MA 6913 from the Medical Research Council of Canada.     

A Few Can Catch a Liar

Research suggests that most people cannot tell from demeanor when others are lying. Such poor performance is typical not only of laypeople but also of most professionals concerned with lying. In this study, three professional groups with special interest or skill in deception, two law-enforcement groups and a select group of clinical psychologists, obtained high accuracy in judging videotapes of people who were lying or telling the truth about their opinions. These findings strengthen earlier evidence that some professional lie catchers are highly accurate, and that behavioral clues to lying are detectable in real time. This study also provides the first evidence that some psychologists can achieve high accuracy in catching lies.