Attributional Complexity: A Link Between Training, Job Complexity, Decision Latitude, Leader–Member Exchange, and Performance

Previous research demonstrated that individuals differ in the relative sophistication of their schemas for organizing and interpreting social stimuli (i.e., attributional complexity, or AC) and that AC has been linked to performance in social situations. In the present study, 420 employed students completed surveys for an investigation of the relationship between individual, work role, and job characteristics; AC; and job performance. Educational level and major predicted AC, but leader–member exchange (LMX), decision latitude (DL), and social/task complexity of the job did not. Contrary to expectations, social and task complexity did not interact with DL and LMX to predict AC. AC, DL, LMX, and educational level predicted job performance. Further, AC interacted with social complexity of the job to predict performance. The results suggest that AC may be both content and process based, and predictive of performance in certain jobs.     

Providing a Rationale in an Autonomy-Supportive Way as a Strategy to Motivate Others During an Uninteresting Activity

When motivating others during uninteresting activities, people typically use extrinsic contingencies that promote controlling forms of extrinsic motivation. In contrast, we investigated a motivational strategy that could support another person's capacity to personally endorse and value the effort he or she put forth during the uninteresting activity. That strategy is the provision of an externally provided rationale when communicated in an autonomy-supportive way. In two studies, we tested and found support for a motivational mediation model, based on self-determination theory, in which the presence of such a rationale (vs. its absence) adds to participants' identification with the task's personal value which, in turn, explains participants' subsequent effort. These studies suggest that extrinsically motivated behaviors can become self-determined through the process of identification and that the promotion of this identification experience depends on the presence of a rationale that is communicated in an autonomy-supportive way.     

Executive attention moderates the effect of trait anxiety on hyperarousal symptoms

The majority of individuals exposed to trauma do not go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD); thus, researchers have sought to identify individual difference variables that make one particularly susceptible to posttraumatic stress symptoms. Trait anxiety is one individual difference variable implicated in the pathogenesis of posttraumatic stress symptoms. Following from cognitive theories of anxiety and extant data, the purpose of the present study was to examine executive attention as a moderator of the relation between trait anxiety and posttraumatic stress symptoms, particularly hyperarousal symptoms, among undergraduate women reporting trauma exposure (N = 88). As predicted, executive attention moderated the association between trait anxiety and hyperarousal symptoms, such that there was a significantly weaker relation as executive attention increased. Study results further support the potential buffering effect of executive attention in relation to posttraumatic stress symptoms, as well as the possible importance of targeting executive attention following trauma exposure.     

EFFECTS OF A VIDEOTAPE FEEDBACK PACKAGE ON THE PEER INTERACTIONS OF CHILDREN WITH SERIOUS BEHAVIORAL AND EMOTIONAL CHALLENGES

Peer interactions are among the greatest challenges experienced by children who have severe emotional and behavioral problems. This study evaluated an intervention package designed to increase the ratio of these children's desirable to undesirable interactions. The package included three principal components: (a) observation of videotapes following regularly scheduled peer activity sessions; (b) self-evaluation of the children's peer interactions observed on the videotapes; and (c) delayed feedback and reinforcement for desirable peer interactions. Five students from two elementary schools participated. Multiple baseline designs and one reversal were used to evaluate the effects of the intervention package. The results showed that the intervention produced lower levels of undesirable peer interactions and higher ratios of desirable to undesirable interactions for all participants. The results are discussed in regard to their conceptual and applied implications and in terms of specific directions for future research.     

Happy Talk: Mode of Administration Effects on Subjective Well-Being

There is increasing interest in subjective well-being (SWB) both in academic and policy circles. As a result, considerable research efforts are now being directed at the validity and reliability of SWB measures. This study examines how SWB reports differ by survey mode. Using data from the April 2011 to March 2012 Annual Population Survey in the UK we find that individuals consistently report higher SWB over the phone compared to face-to-face interviews. We also show that the determinants of SWB differ significantly by mode, with life circumstances tending to matter more in face-to-face interviews. These results have substantial implications for research and policy purposes.     

Response to Gordon Baker

Studies in Philosophy and Education -     

On the relationship between sources of within- and between-group differences and measurement invariance in the common factor model

Investigating sources of within- and between-group differences and measurement invariance (MI) across groups is fundamental to any meaningful group comparison based on observed test scores. It is shown that by placing certain restrictions on the multigroup confirmatory factor model, it is possible to investigate the hypothesis that within- and between-group differences are due to the same factors. Moreover, the modeling approach clarifies that absence of measurement bias implies common sources of within- and between-group variation. It is shown how the influence of background variables can be incorporated in the model. The advantages of the modeling approach as compared with other commonly used methods for group comparisons is discussed and illustrated by means of an analysis of empirical data.     

Responses to Marriage Counselling

The experiences of clients who received marital counselling from trained volunteer marriage guidance counsellors were investigated. Fifty-one clients from 42 marriages were interviewed and questioned about why they chose the agency, what expectations they held, what happened during counselling, how they felt about the counsellor, and what if anything was achieved through counselling. They were also asked how they had fared since. Rating scales were used after the interview to evaluate satisfaction with counselling, benefit from counselling, aspects of the counselling relationship, etc. The clients were also asked to do a card-sort of statements about counselling to determine what aspects had been valuable and disappointing. Some of the preliminary results of the study are presented and discussed.     

Theoretical perspectives on language and communication problems in mental retardation and developmental disabilities

We argue that researchers interested in language and communication problems in mental retardation or any other developmental disorder should view such problems as emerging within the broader context of the behavioral profile, or phenotype, associated with a particular genetic condition. This will require understanding the direct and indirect effects of genes on the development of language and communication and thereby an understanding of the complex relations that exist between language and other dimensions of psychological and behavioral functioning as well as an understanding of the environments in which the developing person acts and is acted upon. We believe that the dominant model for understanding language and communication problems--the nativist approach, which emphasizes the child's innate capacity for acquiring language and characterizes language as consisting of a set of context-free deterministic rules that operate on abstract representations--is inconsistent with an emphasis on indirect genetic effects. We review recent evidence that undermines the nativist approach--evidence concerning the initial state of the language-learning child, the role of environmental input, the competence-performance distinction, and modularity. In place of nativism, we argue for Emergentism, which is a model in which language is seen to emerge from the interaction between the child's biological abilities to map statistical properties of the language input into a distributed representation and the characteristics of the language learning environment and for the purpose of engaging in real-time, meaningful language use.     

Patterns of personality pathology in patients with generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder with and without agoraphobia, and social phobia

The relationship between co-occurring personality disorders and anxiety disorders (panic disorder with or without agoraphobia, social phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder) was examined, taking into account the effect of major depression. This article describes findings for 622 participants in the Harvard/Brown Anxiety Research Project, a longitudinal follow-up study of DSM-III-R-defined anxiety disorders. A total of 24% of participants had at least one personality disorder, with avoidant, obsessive compulsive, dependent, and borderline most common. Generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, and major depression were positively associated with the occurrence of one or more personality disorders, whereas panic disorder with agoraphobia was not associated. Major depression was associated in particular with dependent, borderline, histrionic, and obsessive compulsive personality disorders and social phobia was associated with avoidant personality disorder. Whereas some of our findings confirm results from earlier studies, others are somewhat inconsistent with previous results and indicate the need for further investigation.