Feeling safe at work: Development and validation of the Psychological Safety Inventory

Psychological safety, defined as perceptions that an individual within a team is supported and feels safe to take interpersonal risks, voice opinions, and share ideas, is vital for organizational effectiveness. However, there is no consensus on how workplace psychological safety should be measured. We developed the Psychological Safety Inventory (PSI) in response to organizational needs to accurately assess psychological safety. A 70-item version of the PSI was administered to 497 employees from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Based on factor analytic findings, we reduced the preliminary PSI to a 30-item, five-factor scale. The PSI showed high reliability and correlated as anticipated with convergent measures. Overall, the PSI is a valid and reliable measure of workplace psychological safety.     

Cognitive marital therapy

This article reviews recent applications of cognitive therapy to the treatment of marital distress. Three categories of cognitive phenomena that can decrease marital satisfaction and elicit dysfunctional interactions between spouses are described. First, automatic thoughts that comprise an individual's stream-of-consciousness thinking about marital events can be biased by systematic cognitive distortions. Inaccurate attributions about the causes of marital problems are a major form of such automatic thoughts. Second, individuals' behaviors toward their partners are influenced by their expectancies about the probabilities of the partner's subsequent responses, and these expectancies also are susceptible to systematic distortion. Third, an individual's unrealistic or irrational beliefs about the nature of intimate relationships can produce distress and dysfunctional behavioral responses toward the partner. Methods for assessing and modifying these dysfunctional cognitions, particularly in conjoint treatment, are described. Similarities and differences between cognitive therapy and rational-emotive therapy in the treatment of marital problems are noted.     

The assessment of personality characteristics in depressed and dependent psychiatric inpatients

The diagnosis and treatment of depression may be complicated by the presence of excessive dependency needs. Previous research has found stable personality traits useful in identifying depressive subtypes. This study was designed to assess the personality characteristics of 106 psychiatric inpatients. Subjects were grouped according to the presence or absence of two primary dimensions: depression and dependency. Results indicated that both depression and dependency were significantly related to various indices of psychopathology. Main effects were more useful than interactions, implying that depression and dependency both affect symptomology directly rather than interactively. Although the assessment of personality traits may be complicated by the presence of a major psychiatric disorder, results from our study suggest that the assessment of both Axis I and Axis II variables can be useful in understanding the current clinical picture.     

Juror Underutilization of Eyewitness Nonidentifications: A Test of the Disconfirmed Expectancy Explanation1

The impact of two types of eyewitness testimony on mock jurors' judgments was explored. A crime eyewitness either testified that the defendant definitely was the robber (identification), definitely was not the robber (nonidentification), or that they weren't sure if he was or was not the robber (control). An alibi eyewitness testified that the defendant either definitely was at the alibi location (identification), definitely was not at the alibi location (nonidentification), or he wasn't sure if the defendant was or was not at the alibi location (control). Strength of case was also manipulated. Results show that crime eyewitness identifications and alibi eyewitness nonidentifications were underutilized. A crime eyewitness by alibi eyewitness interaction revealed that within the crime eyewitness identification condition alibi identification was underutilized whereas with the other two crime eyewitness conditions, alibi nonidentification information was underutilized. The results supported a disconfirmed expectancy explanation.     

An assessment of appraisal,anxiety, coping,and procrastination during an examination period

High School students responded to an inventory which included dispositional measures of procrastination and social evaluation trait anxiety. Subsequently, and 7 days prior to their first examination (Stage 1), each of the 40 female and 23 male students completed measures of state anxiety, perception of the stressor situation, and ways of coping, all with regard to their approaching exam period. These judgments were repeated 1 day prior to their first examination (Stage 2), and again 5 days after their last examination (Stage 3). Correlational analyses indicated that threat and harm perceptions were highly positively related to state anxiety, whereas challenge and gain were moderately and negatively related. State anxiety was linked to emotion-focused coping, but was independent of problem-focused coping. In an analysis of variance, high procrastination, high trait anxious subjects felt the least challenged at Stage 1. In a ‘maverick’, post hoc analysis, high procrastinators were more likely than low procrastinators at each stage to promise themselves ‘that things will be different next time’. Discussion included an assessment of the need for specificity when using the Ways of Coping (Folkman and Lazarus, 1985) scale.     

Interrelations of empathy,cognition, and moral reasoning with dimensions of juvenile delinquency

The interrelations of a variety of indices of sociocognitive development (empathy, role-taking, logical cognition, and moral reasoning) were studied in delinquent and nondelinquent adolescents. Delinquent males (grouped into psychopathic, neurotic, and subcultural subgroups) and a matched nondelinquent comparison group were administered individually two empathy scales (the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index and the Mehrabian and Epstein Questionnaire Measure of Emotional Empathy), an adaptation of Byrne's and Flavell's role-taking tasks, two Piagetian cognitive tasks, and two of Kohlberg's structured moral dilemmas. Delinquents as a group displayed significantly more immature modes of role-taking, logical cognition, and moral reasoning than did nondelinquents. The delinquent subgroups, however, did not significantly differ from one another on these dimensions. Role-taking, logical cognition, and moral reasoning were significantly related to one another. Anticipated differences in level of empathy between the delinquent and nondelinquent adolescents failed to occur. A number of interpretations for this unexpected finding are offered.This study is based on a doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Texas at Austin (Lee, 1983) and presented in part at the meetings of the Western Psychological Association, San Jose, April 1985, and the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development, Tours, France, July 1985. Appreciation is expressed to James Bieri, Edward T. Emmer, Guy J. Manaster, Philip M. Powell, and Robert K. Young for constructive suggestions at various phases of the study.Delinquents were drawn from the Brownwood (Texas) State School through the cordial collaboration of Adrian Moore, Director of Planning, Research, and Evaluation of the Texas Youth Commission. The support of Cary Cockerell, superintendent at the Brownwood State School, and Dann Barger, superintendent at the Statewide Reception Center, and their staff was also instrumental in securing delinquents. Nondelinquents were obtained through the cooperation of Jack Allison, principal of the Travis High School, Austin, Texas, and his staff. Freda M. Holley, Director of the Office of Research and Evaluation, Austin Independent School District, and her staff are thanked for their assistance in obtaining these subjects.The contributions of Danny Escobar and of Ping-Fong Chu in scoring protocols is gratefully acknowledged.     

Path model of multidimensional compliance with cancer therapy

Patients newly diagnosed with hematologic malignancies were followed for a 6-month treatment period to assess compliance with three regimen requirements for cancer therapy: anti-neoplastic medication self-administered intermittently, supportive medication self-administered daily, and monthly clinic appointments. The effect on compliance of three intervention "packages" (some combination of education, shaping of pill-taking behavior, and home restructuring) and the extent that patient satisfaction, knowledge, and uncertainty about illness-related events mediated the effects of the interventions were also examined. Blood levels of the drugs and self-report measures indicated that compliance with daily pill taking was higher for each intervention group compared to a control group. Similar results were obtained for compliance with clinic appointments. No improvement in intermittent self-medication was found. Although each intervention package increased patient knowledge and satisfaction, path analyses demonstrated that knowledge did not affect any aspect of compliance, whereas satisfaction was associated with increased appointment keeping only. Daily pill taking was influenced directly by the behavioral components of the interventions. Uncertainty did not influence compliance but was associated with depression, which was negatively correlated with intermittent self-medication.     

Line bisection by left-handed preschoolers: A phenomenon of symmetrical neglect

When a normal dextral attempts to bisect a horizontal line placed across his/her midline, there is a tendency for the transection to be placed slightly to the left of true center, a tendency which may be a little more pronounced when the left hand is used. However, left-handed children at or younger than 5 years of age err substantially to the left with the left hand and to the right with the right hand. This symmetrical neglect of extents contralateral to the hand currently in use, which may possibly reflect relatively greater commissural immaturity in left-handers, was not seen in dextral children of comparable ages, whose performance closely followed adult patterns.