Contagious flexibility? A study on whether schedule flexibility facilitates work‐life enrichment

Schedule flexibility defines an important generating resource for work-life enrichment; however, our knowledge about how such spillovers take place is limited. This multiple case study examines how workers from different working time contexts with varying levels of schedule flexibility experience work-life interplay. Given the adopted explorative design, it is important to interpret the findings in a tentative light. Nonetheless, the study offers important insight into work-life enrichment that may guide future research in this field. The findings indicate that schedule flexibility may act as a boundary-spanning resource owing to the agency potential it offers workers. Thus, it seemed that flexible schedule opportunities enabled workers to engage more fully in personal life activities, which in turn had a positive influence on their work involvement through positive affect. Such positive role engagements appeared, however, to be greatly determined by workers' boundary management and by time conditions of work and family. In conclusion, the major findings and limitation of the study are discussed against existing research and theory.     

Post–traumatic stress disorder in patients with coronary artery disease: A review and evaluation of the risk

Psychosocial factors are known to impact on the prognosis of patients with coronary artery disease independently of disease severity. However, few studies have looked at whether these patients are at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder, and the potential implications for morbidity and mortality. Through a review of the empirical literature, the objectives were to investigate whether patients with coronary artery disease are at risk of developing this disorder, to look at relations between post-traumatic stress disorder and heart disease, and to stimulate further research. The review indicated that some patients with coronary artery disease are at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder, although the prevalence varied considerably. Methodological issues together with recommendations for future research are discussed. Although only some cardiac patients may develop post-traumatic stress, this disorder should not be overlooked due to its potential role in reinfarctions and mortality.     

Inclusive cultural empathy for successful global leadership

Empathy is reported in the research literature as a necessary factor in counseling and psychotherapy, but psychologists have historically interpreted empathy through an exclusively individual focus. Most of the research on empathy has been predicated on a definition of empathy as occurring when one person vicariously experiences the feelings, perceptions, and thoughts of another. In Western cultures, the study of empathy focuses exclusively on the individual, whereas in traditional non-Western cultures, empathy more typically involves an inclusive perspective focusing on the individual and significant others in the societal context. This article explores the reframing of "empathy," based on an individualistic perspective, into "inclusive cultural empathy," based on a more relationship-centered perspective, as an alternative interpretation of the empathic process. Psychologists are both the problem and the solution to this dilemma, and the authors call upon the field to take leadership in applying this "inclusive cultural empathy" model.     

Aspects of Repetition in Bonobo–Human Conversation: Creating Cohesion in a Conversation Between Species

Ape language research has primarily focused on specific isolated language features. In contrast, in research into human language, traditions such as conversational analysis and discourse analysis propose to study language as actual discourse. Consequently, repetitions are seen as accomplishing various discursive and pragmatic functions in human conversations, while in apes, repetitions are seen as rote imitations and as proof that apes do not exhibit language. Tools from discourse analysis are applied in this study to a conversation between a language-competent bonobo, Pan paniscus and a human. The hypothesis is that the bonobo may exhibit even larger linguistic competency in ordinary conversation than in controlled experimental settings. Despite her limited productive means, the bonobo Panbanisha competently engages in co-constructing the conversational turns. She uses shared knowledge and repetitions to achieve compliance with a request. This reveals a knowledge about socio-linguistic interactions which goes beyond the pure informational content of words. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Quantitative genetic analysis of latent growth curve models of cognitive abilities in adulthood

Though many cognitive abilities exhibit marked decline over the adult years, individual differences in rates of change have been observed. In the current study, biometrical latent growth models were used to examine sources of variability for ability level (intercept) and change (linear and quadratic effects) for verbal, fluid, memory, and perceptual speed abilities in the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging. Genetic influences were more important for ability level at age 65 and quadratic change than for linear slope at age 65. Expected variance components indicated decreasing genetic and increasing nonshared environmental variation over age. Exceptions included one verbal and two memory measures that showed increasing genetic and nonshared environmental variance. The present findings provide support for theories of the increasing influence of the environment with age on cognitive abilities.     

Generalized Schedule Following in a Youth with Autism

Abstract

Photographic activity schedules were used to increase on-task behaviour in a youth with autism. The multiple probe design included baseline, training, tests for training effects, resequencing of photographs, generalization to new photographs, and maintenance. The results showed that the participant was able to carry out four different chains (photographic activity schedules) without any prompts from the staff, even when the photographs were resequenced, and new photographs were included. On the other hand, there was no reduction of training trials to reach criterion from the first to the fourth chain. The results are discussed with reference to different aspects of generalization.     

Variation among developmental dyslexics: evidence from a printed-word-learning task

A word-learning task was used to investigate variation among developmental dyslexics classified as phonological and surface dyslexics. Dyslexic children and chronological age (CA)- and reading level (RL)-matched normal readers were taught to pronounce novel nonsense words such as veep. Words were assigned either a regular (e.g., "veep") or an irregular (e.g., "vip") pronunciation. Phonological dyslexics learned both regular and exception words more slowly than the normal readers and, unlike the other groups, did not show a regular-word advantage. Surface dyslexics also learned regular and exception words more slowly than the CA group, consistent with a specific problem in mastering arbitrary item-specific pronunciations, but their performance resembled that of the RL group. The results parallel earlier findings from Manis, Seidenberg, Doi, McBride-Chang, & Petersen [Cognition 58 (1996) 157-195] indicating that surface dyslexics and phonological dyslexics have a different profile of reading deficits, with surface dyslexics resembling younger normal readers and phonological dyslexics showing a specific phonological deficit. Models of reading and reading disability need to account for the heterogeneity in reading processes among dyslexic children.