Distress Tolerance as a Mechanism Linking Violence Exposure to Problematic Alcohol use in Adolescence

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Adolescents exposed to violence are at elevated risk of developing most forms of psychopathology, including depression, anxiety, and alcohol...     

Corporate Social Responsibility,Employee–Company Identification,and Organizational Commitment: Mediation by Employee Engagement

Contrary to the theory and research on employee engagement in the western countries, less consideration has been given to the importance of employee engagement in Asian countries wherein its need is felt more. As more and more companies in Asia realize the importance of a productive workforce, this research examines the mediating role of employee engagement in the relationships of corporate social responsibility (CSR), employee–company identification (E–C) and organizational commitment (OC). Structural analysis of 290 online responses of employees working for various Indian and foreign information technology enabled services (ITES) companies in India, confirms the presence of partial mediation by employee engagement in between its antecedents (CSR and E–C) and its consequence (OC). The proposed model was found to be a good fit. The study provides empirical support to the argument that CSR and E–C are distant antecedents of OC. The results may encourage managers of ITES companies to consider CSR as an investment rather than an expense.     

The elusive wishful thinking effect

Abstract

We define a desirability effect as the inflation of the judged probability of desirable events or the diminution of the judged probability of undersirable events. A series of studies of this effect are reported. In the first four experiments, subjects were presented with visual stimuli (a grid matrix in two colours, or a jar containing beads in two colours), and asked to estimate the probability of drawing at random one of the colours), and asked to estimate the probability of drawing at random one of the colours. The estimated probabilities for a defined draw were not higher when the draw entailed a gain than when it entailed a loss. In the fifth and sixth experiments, subjects read short stories each describing two contestants competing for some desirable outcome (e.g. parents fighting for child custody, or firms bidding for a contract). Some judged the probability that A would win, others judged the Desirability that A would win. Story elements that enhanced a contestant's desirability did not cause the favoured contestant to be judged more likely to win. Only when a contestant's desirability was enhanced by promising the subject of payoff contingent on that contestant's victory was there some slight evidence for a desirability effect: contestants were judged more likely to win when the subject expected a monetary prize if they won than when the subject expected a prize if the other contestant won. In the last experiment, subjects estimated the probability of an over-20-point weekly change in the Dow Jones average, and were promised prizes contingent on such a change either occurring, or failing to occur. They were also given a monetary incentive for accuracy. Subjects who desired a small change. We conclude that desirability effects, when they exist, operate by biasing the evidence brought to mind regarding the event in question, but when a given body of evidence is considered, its judged probability is not influenced by desirability considerations.     

Correlates of relationship, psychological, and sexual behavioral factors for HIV risk among Indian women

The rate of HIV/AIDS among women in India is expected to rise yet few studies have examined factors related to HIV risk among Indian women. The objective of this prospective, cross-sectional study was to characterize similarities and differences in the relationships, psychological well-being, and sexual behaviors among Indian women (N=459). Both HIV positive (N=216) and negative (N=243) women from urban and rural areas in India were included in this study. Chi-square, analysis of variance, and logistic regression analyses revealed that in both geographic groups, HIV-positive women were significantly more likely to report marital dissatisfaction, a history of forced sex, domestic violence, depressive symptoms and husband's extra marital sex when compared to the HIV-negative women. Findings also indicate that specific factors related to the quality of the marital relationship such as domestic violence, martial dysfunction, and depressive symptoms may be related to HIV-related risks for women. Implications for future research and culturally relevant interventions are discussed.     

Expressive timing and interactional synchrony between mothers and infants: cultural similarities, cultural differences, and the immigration experience

The spontaneous vocal interactions of 30 mothers and their 2- to 5-month-old infants from India, France, and the United States were analyzed using an acoustic analysis method. Similarities and differences in vocal interactional patterns were highlighted between the three groups. On the one hand, in the three cultural contexts mother–infant vocal interaction was found to be organized around hierarchical temporal intervals of the same approximate length, had the same balance between regular rhythm and variation (“expressive timing”), and manifested the same coordination between mother and infant vocalization (“interactional synchrony”). On the other hand, the three groups also revealed cultural variability. The Indian mothers had more togetherness with their babies, as indexed by less space between vocal turns and more overlap of mother and baby vocalizations. They also produced a higher ratio of nonverbal to verbal vocalizations. The spontaneous vocal interactions of a group of 30 Indian immigrant dyads were also studied. With respect to culturally variable characteristics, the vocal interaction of immigrant dyads living in the United States showed signs of change in the direction of the host culture. With respect to characteristics shared by all three nonimmigrant groups, the immigrant dyads showed lower levels of expressive timing and interactional synchrony than the nonimmigrant group as a whole.     

Participants shift response deadlines based on list difficulty during reading-aloud megastudies

We tested the list homogeneity effect in reading aloud (e.g., Lupker, Brown, & Colombo, 1997) using a megastudy paradigm. In each of two conditions, we used 25 blocks of 100 trials. In the random condition, words were selected randomly for each block, whereas in the experimental condition, words were blocked by difficulty (e.g., easy words together, etc.), but the order of the blocks was randomized. We predicted that standard factors (e.g., frequency) would be more predictive of reaction times (RTs) in the blocked than in the random condition, because the range of RTs across the experiment would increase in the blocked condition. Indeed, we found that the standard deviations and ranges of RTs were larger in the blocked than in the random condition. In addition, an examination of items at the difficulty extremes (i.e., very easy vs. very difficult) demonstrated a response bias. In regression analyses, a predictor set of seven sublexical, lexical, and semantic variables accounted for 2.8% more RT variance (and 2.6% more zRT variance) in the blocked than in the random condition. These results indicate that response deadlines apply to megastudies of reading aloud, and that the influence of predictors may be underestimated in megastudies when item presentation is randomized. In addition, the CDP++ model accounted for 0.8% more variance in RTs (1.2% in zRTs) in the blocked than in the random condition. Thus, computational models may have more predictive power on item sets blocked by difficulty than on those presented in random order. The results also indicate that models of word processing need to accommodate response criterion shifts.