Prediction of Burnout in Volunteers

This work studies the personal experience of volunteering and several antecedent and consequent variables. We studied the effect of the amount of time dedicated to the organization, motivation, social support, integration in the organization, self‐efficacy, and characteristics of the work on a consequent variable of the volunteering experience; that is, burnout, with its 3 components of efficacy, cynicism, and exhaustion. The statistical analysis shows that the time dedicated to volunteering and the extrinsic motivations (i.e., social and career) predicts higher levels of burnout, whereas intrinsic motivations (i.e., values and understanding), life satisfaction, and integration in the organization are negatively related to burnout.     

Learning in High-Tech and Multimedia Environments

ABSTRACT— When do high-tech environments promote learning? The goal of this article is to offer one answer to this question by examining the classic distinction between media and method, in terms of their roles in promoting learning with technology. To this end, I first propose a cognitive theory of learning with media, from which a set of instructional design principles are derived. Then I review research in which the relative learning contributions of method and media are investigated, and I offer final reflections for future research.     

Role Asymmetry and Code Transmission in Signaling Games: An Experimental and Computational Investigation

In signaling games, a sender has private access to a state of affairs and uses a signal to inform a receiver about that state. If no common association of signals and states is initially available, sender and receiver must coordinate to develop one. How do players divide coordination labor? We show experimentally that, if players switch roles at each communication round, coordination labor is shared. However, in games with fixed roles, coordination labor is divided: Receivers adjust their mappings more frequently, whereas senders maintain the initial code, which is transmitted to receivers and becomes the common code. In a series of computer simulations, player and role asymmetry as observed experimentally were accounted for by a model in which the receiver in the first signaling round has a higher chance of adjusting its code than its partner. From this basic division of labor among players, certain properties of role asymmetry, in particular correlations with game complexity, are seen to follow.     

Assessing Adolescents’ Information Management with Mothers and Fathers: A Brief Report

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Adolescents’ information management is a fundamental topic for research on adolescence, with numerous studies using Kerr and Stattin’s (2000;...     

Schizotypy and pathological personality profile in siblings of patients with psychosis

Schizotypy has been proposed to be the expression of the genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia. Schizotypal features have been associated with personality dimensions found in patients with psychosis. In this study, we compared the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology - Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ) scores of patients with psychosis, siblings scoring higher on schizotypy (SSHS), and siblings scoring lower (SSLS). The SSHSs displayed a DAPP-BQ profile characterized by high scores in the dimensions of affective lability, anxiousness, submissiveness, social avoidance, identity problems, oppositionality, narcissism, and restricted expression, distinguishing them from the SSLS. Due to these dimensions, SSHSs are more similar to the patients' DAPP-BQ profile. The results suggest that this pathological personality profile might contribute to increase the risk of developing psychosis in siblings who have more schizotypal features.     

The Spanish version of the Wisconsin Personality Disorders Inventory-IV (WISPI-IV): tests of validity and reliability

Personality disorders (PD) are a prevalent class of mental disorders that interfere with functioning and cause subjective distress while increasing the intensity and duration of Axis I clinical syndromes, and therefore assessing PD is important even when PDs are not the focus of treatment. The purpose of these studies was to develop and test a new Spanish version of a self-report measure of PD, the Wisconsin Personality Inventory-IV (WISPI-IV) that would be psychometrically equivalent to the English version while also maintaining the same interpersonal content, which is based on Benjamin's analysis of the PD criteria using her Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB) model (1974). Study 1 participants completed the WISPI-IV twice over a two-week interval. For Study 2, participants from two sites in Spain and one site in Argentina completed Spanish versions of the WISPI-IV and other personality measures. SASB-analysis of the translated items showed high correspondence between the interpersonal content of the English version and the Spanish version demonstrating theoretical validation in relation to other PD measures. The Spanish WISPI-IV showed satisfactory reliability based on test-retest correlations and alphas for internal consistency. Study 2 showed the Spanish WISPI-IV had good convergent validity with the Spanish versions of the IIP and SCID-II and performed similarly to the English versions of these measures. Our goal in translating the WISPI-IV was to extend this measure to Spanish-speakers in language that would be understood by different Hispanic sub-groups, however research team members and subjects had a variety of suggestions for changes in item wording. This reflects the difficulty with creating a "neutral" Spanish version of any assessment given regional differences.     

The bullied who bullies: the reciprocal relationship between victim and aggressor in workplace bullying situations

The aim of this study was to explore longitudinal relationships between organizational factors (workload and procedural justice) and targets and perpetrators of workplace bullying. We compared several causal models (baseline or stability, normal, reversed and reciprocal models). The sample comprised 286 employees from two companies in Madrid, and we used a time-lag of one year. Results of structural equation modeling analyses showed that reciprocal model fit the data the best. We found that T1 workload was related positively to T2 target of bullying, and T1 procedural justice was related negatively to T2 target of bullying. There was a significant reverse effect of T1 target of bullying on T2 workload. Furthermore, we found a reciprocal relationship between being the target and the perpetrator of bullying. Overall, these findings emphasize the need to extend the traditional causal models of workplace bullying to more dynamic approaches.