Social Power Bases: A Meta-Anaiytic Examination of Interrelationships and Outcomes1

French and Raven (1959) inferred how the existence of social power bases influences a subordinate's perception and a leader's use of other powers. Based on their propositions, we tested a model using meta-analytic correlations as input to structural equations analysis. We also used recent literature to test a revised model, which fit the data better. Additionally, the meta-analytic effects of the social bases of power on satisfaction with supervision, job satisfaction, and performance were examined.     

The search for meaning in (new) work: Task significance and newcomer plasticity

Using temporally-lagged data from 146 business and engineering newcomers, we found evidence for a “positive side” of plasticity theory (Brockner, 1988, p. 547) in fostering newcomer adjustment. Specifically, as predicted, we found that higher newcomer generalized self-efficacy positively moderates the association between job design (i.e., task significance of the newcomer's job) and newcomer attitudes (in our study, organizational identification, job satisfaction, intentions to quit). Our findings promote plasticity theory as readily applicable to both newcomer adjustment and positive organizational scholarship.     

Safer self-injury or assisted self-harm?

Psychiatric patients may try (or express a desire) to injure themselves in hospital in order to cope with overwhelming emotional pain. Some health care practitioners and patients propose allowing a controlled amount of self-injury to occur in inpatient facilities, so as to prevent escalation of distress. Is this approach an example of professional assistance with harm? Or, is the approach more likely to minimise harm, by ensuring safer self-injury? In this article, I argue that health care practitioners who use harm-minimisation can be considered to be helping physical injury to occur, although they do not encourage the act. I consider why there are compelling reasons to believe that a patient who self-injures is not maximally autonomous in relation to that choice. However, I then move onto argue that allowing a degree of self-injury may enable engagement with psychotherapy (enhancing autonomy) and behavioural change. In these circumstances, allowing injury (with precautions) may not be harm, all things considered.     

Merging Professional Training and Community Engagement Agendas: A Case Study

This case study explored the emancipatory foundations of community work through a schools-based peer support intervention. We use a case study approach to describe the context in which the intervention was developed, its emancipatory theoretical foundations, and the project's implementation components and process. The findings suggest that reflexivity is a useful tool for community engagement and for articulating tensions that arise in the enactment of community participation, empowerment and conscientisation. The intervention presented a unique opportunity to reflect on the operationalisation of theoretical concepts in community psychology, and to train professional psychologists for reflexive community work.     

“My first choice is to work out at work; then i don't feel bad about my kids”: A discursive psychological analysis of motherhood and physical activity participation

ObjectivesThe determinants of physical activity participation for mothers of young children are only beginning to be understood. The aim with this study was to further this understanding by exploring motherhood as a socially and culturally constructed identity linked to physical activity participation.DesignDiscursive psychology was used to theorize mother identities as subject positions constructed within discourse(s), and explore the implications for one woman's physical activity participation, through an in-depth case study approach (see Yin, 2009).MethodA newly active 35 year old woman with two young children, husband and activity partner, were interviewed over 16 weeks. Critical discourse analysis (see Wetherell, 1998) of nine interviews was used to explore the constructive nature of language and the effects by identifying the discourses within which mother identities were constructed.ResultsTwo primary discourses were identified: a patriarchal discourse of the family and a liberal feminist discourse. Participants drew upon these discourses to position the woman's identity as a good mother and/or super mother. Based on the behavioural practices linked to discourses and the subject positions/identities (e.g., good mothers place children's needs over their own), a situation came into being which made physical activity participation difficult.ConclusionsThis study contributes towards understanding motherhood and physical activity participation by attending to social and cultural discourses. By constructing mother identities within a patriarchal discourse of the family and a liberal feminist discourse, physical activity barriers of time, fatigue and the family functioned in nuanced ways, and were not easily surmounted.     

Politics and emotion: Working with disadvantaged children in South Africa

This paper discusses the experience of consulting to organizations involved in the provision of care to disadvantaged groups of children in South Africa. It draws particular attention to the impact of South Africa's painful political history on the emotional life of these organizations. This has created an additional burden for organizational staff who often work under difficult conditions with very troubled groups of children. The paper highlights the common experiences of deprivation and loss, fears around the abuse of power and problems with acknowledging differences between people, which are a part of South Africa's political legacy. These kinds of issues were found to have a powerful impact on the functioning of organizations and also on the quality of the consultancy relationship itself. We argue that it is important to recognize the emotional demands of child-care work generally, but also that it is equally necessary work, through our political experiences, to achieve some kind of understanding of these. Lack of containment for these experiences will impact on the quality of care organizations are able to offer to children in our context.     

Does trauma memory play a role in the experience of reporting sexual assault during police interviews? An exploratory study

A recent study indicated that 94.4% of reported sexual assault cases in the UK do not result in successful legal prosecution, also known as the rate of attrition (Kelly, Lovett, & Regan, 2005 Kelly, L., Lovett, J. and Regan, L. 2005. A gap or a chasm? Attrition in rape cases, London: Home Office.  [Google Scholar]). Scant research has examined the role of trauma-related psychological processes in attrition. Victims of sexual assault (N =22) completed questions about peri-traumatic dissociation, trauma memory fragmentation, account incoherence during police interview, and likelihood of proceeding with legal cases. Higher levels of dissociation during sexual assault were associated with participants reporting more fragmented trauma memories. Memory fragmentation was associated with participants indicating that they provided more incoherent accounts of trauma during police interview. Importantly, people who viewed themselves as providing more incoherent accounts predicted that they would be less likely to proceed with their legal cases. The findings suggest trauma impacts on memory, and these trauma-related disruptions to memory may paradoxically contribute to attrition.     

Enhanced counselling for women undergoing BRCA1/2 testing: Impact on knowledge and psychological distress–results from a randomised clinical trial

This randomised controlled trial evaluated the impact of an enhanced counselling (EC) intervention on knowledge about the heritability of breast and ovarian cancer and distress, as a function of BRCA test result, among high-risk women. Before deciding about whether or not to undergo genetic testing, participants were randomly assigned to the EC intervention (N = 69), designed to promote cognitive and affective processing of cancer risk information (following the standard individualised counselling session), or to the control condition (N = 65), which involved standard individualised counselling followed by a general health information session to control for time and attention. Women in the EC group exhibited greater knowledge than women in the control group, 1 week after the intervention. Further, at the affective level, the intervention was found to be the most beneficial for women testing positive: specifically 1 week after test result disclosure, women in the intervention group who tested positive experienced lower levels of distress than women in the control group who tested positive. The findings suggest that the design of counselling aids should include a component that explicitly activates the individual's cognitive–affective processing system.     

Perceiving and Wanting to Be Valued by Others: Implications for Cognition,Motivation, and Behavior in Romantic Relationships

Two studies examined implications of two individual differences—perception of being valued by others and desire to be valued by others—for romantic relationships. Study 1 included 171 participants involved in romantic relationships (59 males, 112 females) and examined attributions and behavioral intentions in hypothetical scenarios. Study 2 involved 160 heterosexual couples who completed daily reports and/or an observed conflict discussion. Perception of being valued by others and desire to be valued by others independently predicted more pro‐relationship responses and reduced relationship‐destructive responses, including more care, commitment, and regard for partners; more responsive and ingratiating behavior; less negative behavior; and more positive perceptions and behavioral intentions. Perceived and desired interpersonal value were related to attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and trait self‐esteem. However, perceived and desired interpersonal value were superior predictors of relationship outcomes, even in replications of foundational attachment studies. Individual differences in believing that one is valued by others and wanting to be valued by others independently predict relationship maintenance, and these dimensions may be at the core of many effects of attachment dimensions and self‐esteem. These individual differences appear to be important aspects of personality that guide cognition, motivation, and behavior in interpersonal relationships.     

The Long and Winding Road: An Autobiographic Study of an Elite Athlete Mother’s Journey to Winning Gold

Within sport psychology, researchers have explored elite athlete mothers’ experiences. More work is needed to understand the nuanced psychosocial aspects of their athletic journeys. Studying autobiographical narratives is useful toward understanding the psychosocial nuances of motherhood and athletics in sociocultural context. Within the present study we sought to extend this understanding through studying one elite athlete’s—British runner Jo Pavey—journey as an athlete mother within her autobiography This Mum Runs (26 chapters totaling 253 pages). Thematic narrative analysis of key chapters focusing on pregnancy and motherhood in relation to training and competition allowed for the identification of a central theme—discovery narrative–reconfiguring the performance narrative—along with two subthemes: go with the flow and best of both worlds. The subthemes are used to illustrate the navigation of tensions in relation to an athlete mother identity grounded in family relationships to facilitate training and competition goals, within a discovery narrative. Applied sport psychology recommendations are made using narrative theory in relation to key findings. Recommendations focused on athlete stories and narrative resources as concrete entry points to encourage compatible athlete mother identities and sport career engagement. This study adds to sport psychology work that has used autobiography as theoretical, analytical, and applied resources to expand understanding of marginalized and/or hard to access topics in elite sport. This is the first autobiographic study to focus on elite athlete mother identities, furthering understanding of nuanced identity negotiation and experiences over time.

Lay Summary: Understanding of elite athlete mother's negotiation of identity and athletic career is expanded through studying published/public autobiographical narratives. A discovery narrative grounded in personal growth and family relationships facilitates strategies that facilitate training and competition goals.