Surfacing embedded assumptions: Using repertory grid methodology to facilitate organizational change

This article outlines a 3-year research project that examines the role of performance evaluation and control systems in bringing about change in manufacturing organizations. A key aim of the project was to develop tools and techniques that managers can use to enable them to understand and enact change. As part of an indepth case study methodology, repertory grid interviews were used with both managers and operatives in three companies as a means of identifying commonly held assumptions about a range of work behaviours. The article discusses the use of the grid as a developmental, rather than exploratory technique, thereby focusing on its use as a process through which managers can assess their systems in use and highlight any necessary change issues. It is argued that repertory grid techniques have a useful part to play in diagnosing the key change issues that work and organizational psychologists face when planning organizational change and development interventions.     

Does HPA‐Axis Dysregulation Account for the Effects of Income on Effortful Control and Adjustment in Preschool Children?

The effects of low income on children's adjustment might be accounted for by disruptions to hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA)‐axis activity and to the development of effortful control. Using longitudinal data and a community sample of preschool‐age children (N = 306, 36–39 months) and their mothers, recruited to over‐represent low‐income families, we explored the associations among diurnal cortisol levels and effortful control, and we tested a model in which diurnal cortisol and effortful control account for the effects of family income on child adjustment. Continuous indicators of morning cortisol level and diurnal slope, as well as dichotomous indicators reflecting low morning levels and flat diurnal slope, were examined as predictors of rank‐order changes in two dimensions of effortful control, executive control and delay ability. Low income was related to a flat diurnal cortisol slope, and above the effects of family income, a flat diurnal cortisol slope predicted lower social competence. Low morning cortisol level predicted smaller gains in executive control and higher total adjustment problems. Further, delay ability predicted lower adjustment problems above the effects of income and diurnal cortisol levels. The results suggest that HPA‐axis dysregulation and effortful control contribute additively to children's adjustment. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The possibility of morality

Despite much discussion over the existence of moral facts, metaethicists have largely ignored the related question of their possibility. This paper addresses the issue from the moral error theorist’s perspective, and shows how the arguments that error theorists have produced against the existence of moral facts at this world, if sound, also show that moral facts are impossible, at least at worlds non-morally identical to our own and, on some versions of the error theory, at any world. So error theorists’ arguments warrant a stronger conclusion than has previously been noticed. This may appear to make them vulnerable to counterarguments that take the possibility of moral facts as a premise. However, I show that any such arguments would be question-begging.     

The Effects of R-Rated Movies on Adolescent and Young Adult Religiosity: Media as Self-Socialization

Arnett (J Youth Adolesc 24:519–533, 1995) has suggested that media are a form of self-socialization, meaning that people choose the media they consume and in turn become socialized into certain beliefs and values. Research has suggested that viewing R-rated movies may lead to decreases in religiosity (Barry et al. in J Adult Deviance 19:66–78, 2012), but the direction of causality in this study is questionable. This research improves upon Barry, Padilla-Walker, and Nelson’s study by including control variables for peer and family influence while utilizing panel data for longitudinal data analysis. Findings from the 2003, 2005, and 2007–2008 waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) suggest that viewing R-rated movies does indeed lead to decreases in church attendance and salience of religious faith, but it does not influence certainty and selective acceptance of religious beliefs. These results are discussed in light of self-socialization and their implications for how future studies might examine the relationship between R-rated movies and religiosity.     

Resurgence of response sequences during extinction in rats shows a primacy effect

Rats were trained to emit a series of three-response sequences to a criterion (i.e., more than 80% of all emitted sequences correct over five successive sessions). Each rat was trained on a series of different, three-response sequences. After the final three-response sequence was acquired, two extinction tests were administered, and the three-response sequences that re-emerged during these extinction tests were noted. Resurgence effects during extinction were observed; that is, the previously trained sequences were emitted. These resurgence effects followed an orderly pattern, which involved a primacy effect. The rats initially emitted the immediately previously trained response, but then started to emit the response sequence they first were trained to emit. Thus, resurgence behavior during extinction can be an orderly function of previous training history. These results replicate those previously obtained with human subjects.     

Conditions under which stereopsis and motion perception are blind

We describe modified random-dot stereograms in which the corresponding elements differ from non-corresponding elements in colour, size, and luminance. Despite these visible differences between the elements, depth perception collapses when the spatially integrated luminous flux is similar for the corresponding and non-corresponding elements. Our results suggest that a low-pass spatial filter precedes the mechanism that recognises disparity. A similar phenomenon is observed for the perception of coherent motion in random-dot kinematograms. Our modified stereograms and kinematograms may find other uses when experimenters wish to study the contribution of colour to visual processes and require a method of eliminating edge artifacts.     

Speech perception in rats: use of duration and rise time cues in labeling of affricate/fricative sounds

The voiceless affricate/fricative contrast has played an important role in developing auditory theories of speech perception. This type of theory draws some of its support from experimental data on animals. However, nothing is known about differential responding of affricate/fricative continua by animals. In the current study, the ability of hooded rats to "label" an affricate/fricative continuum was tested. Transfer (without retraining) to analogous nonspeech continua was also tested. The nonspeech continua were chosen so that if transfer occurred, it would indicate whether the animals had learned to use rise time or duration cues to differentiate affricates from fricatives. The data from 9 of 10 rats indicated that rats can discriminate between these cues and do so in a similar manner to human subjects. The data from 9 of 10 rats also demonstrated that the rise time of the stimulus was the basis of the discrimination; the remaining rat appeared to use duration.     

Comparison at a distance

The visual system is known to contain hard-wired mechanisms that compare the values of a given stimulus attribute at adjacent positions in the visual field; but how are comparisons performed when the stimuli are not adjacent? We ask empirically how well a human observer can compare two stimuli that are separated in the visual field. For the stimulus attributes of spatial frequency, contrast, and orientation, we have measured discrimination thresholds as a function of the spatial separation of the discriminanda. The three attributes were studied in separate experiments, but in all cases the target stimuli were briefly presented Gabor patches. The Gabor patches lay on an imaginary circle, which was centred on the fixation point and had a radius of 5 deg of visual angle. Our psychophysical procedures were designed to ensure that the subject actively compared the two stimuli on each presentation, rather than referring just one stimulus to a stored template or criterion. For the cases of spatial frequency and contrast, there was no systematic effect of spatial separation up to 10 deg. We conclude that the subject's judgment does not depend on discontinuity detectors in the early visual system but on more central codes that represent the two stimuli individually. In the case of orientation discrimination, two naive subjects performed as in the cases of spatial frequency and contrast; but two highly trained subjects showed a systematic increase of threshold with spatial separation, suggesting that they were exploiting a distal mechanism designed to detect the parallelism or non-parallelism of contours.     

Cognitive correlates of depressive symptoms in 11-year-old children

Self-reports of depressive symptoms were obtained for 792 11-year-old New Zealand children using a structured interview. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that depressive symptomatology in children is associated with impairment on cognitive tasks. The results did not support this hypothesis. Depression was unrelated to performance on various subscales of the WISCR, whereas self-reported inattention was associated with poor performance. Depressive symptoms, however, were significantly related to lower self-esteem and a poorer self-perception of scholastic ability.The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Research Unit is supported by the Medical Research Council of New Zealand and the Departments of Education and Health, and involves several departments of the University of Otago. Much of the data are gathered by voluntary workers from the Dunedin community. The authors are indebted to the many people whose contributions make this ongoing study possible.