Mobility Strategies and Career Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study of MBAs

This research examines the impact of work- and non-work-related mobility on salary, promotions, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment among 671 male and female managers over a 7-year period. Results indicated that those with frequent lateral moves had significant gain in salary increases compared to those who did not move. In addition, frequent lateral moves had a negative impact on work-related attitudes, specifically overall job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Implications of these findings for career strategies and future research are discussed.     

PROMPTING PATRON SAFETY BELT USE AT A RESTAURANT

A reversal (ABABAB) design was used to assess the effects of a verbal prompt on safety belt use of restaurant patrons. A verbal prompt delivered by employees at the exit door resulted in an average increase of 20% in safety belt use by drivers leaving the restaurant. A previous study provided this type of antecedent immediately before supermarket patrons entered their vehicles. This effort demonstrates the effects of a verbal prompt with greater latency between the prompt and target response.     

Asymmetrical impact: vigilance for differences and self‐relevant stimuli

We hypothesized that people are ‘vigilant’ for differences between stimuli. In particular, we compared the reactions elicited by unexpected differences versus unexpected similarities. Participants imagined themselves in several situations where they learned something unexpected. This unexpected information showed either that two things previously thought to be similar were actually different or that two things previously thought to be different were actually similar. Also, the new information was either beneficial, neutral, or detrimental to the perceiver. Participants indicated for each situation how surprised they would be and how they would feel. Unexpected differences were rated as more surprising than unexpected similarities for positive and negative events, though not for neutral events. Participants also reported that beneficial differences would produce more positive affect than beneficial similarities, whereas detrimental differences would produce more negative affect than detrimental similarities. These findings support the asymmetrical impact hypothesis that differences have more psychological impact than similarities. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“It Depends on What You Mean by Starting”: An Exploration of How Women Define Initiation of Aggression and Their Motives for Behaving Aggressively

This study explored women's use of aggression, focusing on how they define initiation of aggression and what motives they have for behaving aggressively. Twenty-five women who had used aggression during conflicts with their romantic partners were interviewed. Results indicated that, while the women reported initiating aggression in the majority of conflicts described (54%), they varied in how they defined initiation, with some believing that initiating aggression meant being angry, bringing up the conflict issue, or persistently asking the partner to engage verbally. Twelve categories of motives for the use of aggression were also identified. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, highlighting the ongoing need for an ecological perspective when studying women's use of aggression.     

Questions and reflections: the use of motivational interviewing microskills in a peer-led brief alcohol intervention for college students

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between peer facilitator adherence to motivational interviewing (MI) microskills and college student drinking behavior. First year students (N=67) took part in a Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) led by peer facilitators trained in MI and BASICS. Participants were assessed pre- and 2 weeks post-intervention on contemplation to change, as well as, pre- and 3 months post- intervention on drinking quantity. Independent coders used the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity scale (MITI, Moyers, Martin, Manuel, & Miller, 2003) to evaluate therapist MI adherence. Peer facilitators met beginning proficiency in MI on scores of empathy, the ratio of MI adherent behaviors to non-adherent behaviors and the ratio of open questions to total questions as defined by the MITI. Results indicated that a higher number of closed questions was related to less contemplation and a higher number of open questions was related to more contemplation post intervention. A higher number of simple reflections was associated with increased drinking at the 3 month assessment, however, complex reflections were found to attenuate the effect of simple reflections on changes in drinking. These findings highlight the importance of competent reflective listening skills and the need for continual training and supervision for peer facilitators.     

An exploration of lived religion in same-sex couples from Judeo-Christian traditions

Religious involvement has been found to be associated with higher levels of commitment and relationship satisfaction among heterosexually married individuals (Mahoney et al., 1999). Little is known, however, about the religiosity of gay, lesbian, bisexual (GLB) individuals, and virtually nothing is known about religious involvement in same-sex couples. The purpose of this qualitative interview study was to examine couples' experiences of incorporating religious involvement into their committed relationships. In a sample of 14 same-sex couples, we found that couples used their spiritual/religious values to understand and undergird their relationships. In this process, they negotiated intra-couple differences in religious practices, involved themselves in activities that have religious or spiritual meaning to them, created religious social support for their relationships, and experienced some non-supportive or rejecting interpersonal interactions with religious family members, congregants, and strangers. These findings are instructive to therapists who work with same-sex couples and the family members of GLB individuals. We conclude with specific suggestions for practitioners.     

Interactions Between Maternal Parenting and Children’s Early Disruptive Behavior: Bidirectional Associations across the Transition from Preschool to School Entry

This study was a prospective 2-year longitudinal investigation of associations between negative maternal parenting and disruptive child behavior across the preschool to school transition. Our main goals were to 1) determine the direction of association between early maternal negativity and child disruptive behaviors across this important developmental transition and 2) examine whether there would be different patterns of associations for boys and girls. Participants were 235 children (111 girls; T1; M = 37.7 months, T2; M = 63.4 months) and their mothers and teachers. Observational and multi-informant ratings of child disruptive behavior showed differential patterns of stability and associations with measures of parenting risk. Results indicated bidirectional and interactive contributions of externalizing behavior and negative parenting across time. Results also indicated that risk mechanisms operate similarly for both sexes. Findings support transactional models of disruptive child behavior that highlight the joint contributions of parents and children.     

Fitting Attitude Analyses of Value and the Partiality Challenge

According to ‘Fitting Attitude’ (FA) analyses of value, for an object to be valuable is for that object to have properties—other than its being valuable—that make it a fitting object of certain responses. In short, if an object is positively valuable it is fitting to favour it; if an object is negatively valuable it is fitting to disfavour it. There are several variants of FA analyses. Some hold that for an object to be valuable is for it to be such that it ought to be favoured; others hold that value is analyzable in terms of reasons or requirements to favour. All these variants of the FA analysis are subject to a partiality challenge: there are circumstances in which some agents have reasons to favour or disfavour some object—due to the personal relations in which they stand to the object—without this having any bearing on the value of the object. A. C. Ewing was one of the first philosophers to draw attention to the partiality challenge for FA analyses. In this paper I explain the challenge and consider Ewing's responses, one of which is preferable to the other, but none of which is entirely satisfactory. I go on to develop an alternative Brentano-inspired response that Ewing could have offered and that may well be preferable to the responses Ewing actually did offer.

Reporting tendencies underlie discrepancies between implicit and explicit measures of self-esteem

The assumption that implicit measures assess associations that are not accessible to consciousness abounds in current social cognition research. In the present report, we question this assumption, focusing on the construct of implicit self-esteem as a case in point. Although researchers often argue that implicitly measured self-esteem is unconscious, we provide evidence that it is not, and that discrepancies between implicit and explicit measures of self-esteem are the result of reporting tendencies. Study 1 demonstrated that individuals for whom explicitly measured self-esteem is relatively high and implicitly measured self-esteem is relatively low admit to overpresenting themselves. In Study 2, implicit and explicit measures of self-esteem were related when subjects were urged to avoid over- or underpresenting themselves when responding to the explicit measures. We discuss the critical distinction between awareness of one's attitudes and awareness of their influence.