Effects of task performance, helping, voice, and organizational loyalty on performance appraisal ratings

Despite the fact that several studies have investigated the relationship between organizational citizenship behavior and performance appraisal ratings, the vast majority of these studies have been cross-sectional, correlational investigations conducted in organizational settings that do not allow researchers to establish the causal nature of this relationship. To address this lack of knowledge regarding causality, the authors conducted 2 studies designed to investigate the effects of task performance, helping behavior, voice, and organizational loyalty on performance appraisal evaluations. Findings demonstrated that each of these forms of behavior has significant effects on performance evaluation decisions and suggest that additional attention should be directed at both voice and organizational loyalty as important forms of citizenship behavior aimed at the organization.     

Work environment structure and psychological ownership: the mediating effects of control

Current theorists on the psychology of possession highlight control as an important route in the development of feelings of ownership. In the present article, the authors hypothesized that the extent to which individuals experience control over their job and work environment is positively associated with feelings of ownership for their job and the organization. The authors used supervisory report data on work environment structure and self-reports on experienced control and psychological ownership to test for the mediating effects of experienced control in the relationship between the work environment structure and psychological ownership. The authors found that experienced control mediates the relationship between 3 sources of work environment structure--technology, autonomy, and participative decision making--and psychological ownership of the job and (to a lesser extent) the organization. The authors proposed implications of the findings and directions of further research.     

Understanding team adaptation: a conceptual analysis and model

This endeavor provides a multidisciplinary, multilevel, and multiphasic conceptualization of team adaptation with theoretical roots in the cognitive, human factors, and industrial-organizational psychology literature. Team adaptation and the emergent nature of adaptive team performance are defined from a multilevel, theoretical standpoint. An input-throughput-output model is advanced to illustrate a series of phases unfolding over time that constitute the core processes and emergent states underlying adaptive team performance and contributing to team adaptation. The cross-level mixed-determinants model highlights team adaptation in a nomological network of lawful relations. Testable propositions, practical implications, and directions for further research in this area are also advanced.     

Incorporating adolescent females' perceptions of their partners' attitudes toward condoms into a model of female adolescent condom use

The highest rates of sexually transmitted infections in the U.S. occur among adolescent females. One prevention strategy promoted for sexually active adolescents is condom use: therefore, influences on correct and consistent condom use are worth examining. Because interventions and observational research into predicting and increasing condom use have yielded mixed results, we hypothesized that a theoretically driven model incorporating female adolescents' perceptions about partner sentiments along with their own perceptions, intentions, and behaviours would improve condom use predictions. We also measured condom use errors and consistency for a more precise estimate of effective use than is common in the literature. In three structural equation models tested on a sample of 519 female adolescents, we found that intentions were associated with both correct and consistent condom use; that females' expectancy beliefs about condom use were associated with intentions; and that females' expectancy beliefs about partners' sentiments reduced the impact of their expectancy beliefs about condom use. The implications of these relations upon condom use correctness and consistency are discussed with respect to informing interventions, among other future research.     

Meadow voles, Microtus pennsylvanicus, can distinguish more over-marks from fewer over-marks

Is it possible that voles have a sense of number? To address this question, we determined whether voles discriminate between two different scent-marking individuals and identify the individual whose scent marks was on top more often than the other individual. We tested whether voles show a preference for the individual whose scent marks was on top most often. If so, the simplest explanation was that voles can make a relative size judgement—such as distinguishing an area containing more of one individual’s over-marks as compared to less of another individual’s over-marks. We found that voles respond preferentially to the donor that provided a greater number of over-marks as compared to the donor that provided a lesser number of over-marks. Thus, we concluded that voles might display the capacity for relative numerousness. Interestingly, female voles were better able than male voles to distinguish between small differences in the relative number of over-marks by the two scent donors.     

Social identity complexity and outgroup tolerance

Social identity complexity refers to the way in which individuals subjectively represent the relationships among their multiple ingroup memberships. More specifically, individuals with low social identity complexity see their ingroups as highly overlapping and convergent, whereas those with high complexity see their different ingroups as distinct and cross-cutting membership groups. The present study tested the hypothesis that perceived overlap among ingroup memberships would be negatively related to ingroup inclusiveness and tolerance for outgroups, such that individuals with high overlap (low complexity) would be less tolerant and accepting of outgroups in general than those with low overlap (high complexity). Results from a telephone interview survey of adult residents of the state of Ohio supported this hypothesis. Individual differences in complexity of perception of their national, religious, occupational, political, and recreational social identities were systematically related to their attitudes toward ethnic outgroups and diversity.     

Understanding the social costs of narcissism: the case of the tragedy of the commons

Two studies examined narcissism and behavior in a commons dilemma. Study 1 used a four-person, laboratory-based task and Study 2 used a dyadic task. Participants were told that they represented one of four (Study 1) or two (Study 2) forestry companies and then were asked to harvest timber from a renewable forest. Narcissism was found to be positively related to acquisitive goals and harvesting more timber in the initial round. The more narcissists harvesting in the competitive group of four (Study 1) or dyad (Study 2), the less timber was harvested overall and the more rapidly the forest was depleted. Within competitive groups and dyads, however, narcissists harvested more than the nonnarcissists competing with them. In all, narcissism provided a benefit to the self, but at a long-term cost to other individuals and to the commons.     

Behavioral Problems and Reading Difficulties Among Language Minority and Monolingual Urban Elementary School Students

This study examined the potentially compounding effect of language minority (LM) status on problem behaviors among urban second and third grade-level poor readers. Univariate analyses showed that a disproportionate percentage of both LM and English monolingual (L1) poor readers already displayed clinically significant levels of anxiety, social problems, and oppositional behaviors in the classroom. Analyses of variance, however, demonstrated that LM status was not an additive risk factor for reading difficulties, behavior problems, or lowered self-concept in this sample. No differences were observed between LM and L1 students on a wide range of reading measures, on their teachers’ ratings of internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors in the classroom, or on self-ratings of self-efficacy and social competence. Implications for intervention for all urban students with reading difficulties are discussed.     

Teacher-Coaches’ Perceptions of Life Skills Transfer from High School Sport to the Classroom

Positive youth development is one of the primary goals of high school sport participation, yet the process of how youth transfer life skills from sport to other life domains is in need of greater examination. To offer a unique perspective, the purpose of the study explored teacher-coaches’ perceptions of the process of life skills transfer for student-athletes from high school sport to the classroom. Using a constructivist approach, 12 teacher-coaches (9 male, 3 female) with an average of 13?years (SD?=?5.7) experience as a teacher-coach completed in-person, semistructured interviews. Using model for life skills transfer as a guiding framework, the theoretical thematic analysis revealed specific student-athlete characteristics (e.g., internal assets, external assets), high school sport factors (e.g., inherent demands, coaching characteristics), and high school classroom factors (e.g., classroom contextual factors, student-athlete psychological processes) that helped or hindered the process of life skills transfer. The critical influences of individual awareness and agency and of congruence between contexts highlighted the value of understanding life skills transfer through a developmental systems lens. Results are discussed with specific recommendations for researchers and practitioners related to understanding life skills transfer.

Lay Summary: Positive youth development is a primary goal of high school sport participation, yet researchers can do more to understand the developmental outcomes from high school sport. In this study, teacher-coaches identified specific factors that can help and hinder student-athletes’ ability and likelihood of transferring life skills from high school sport to the classroom.     

Effects of emotion on associative recognition: valence and retention interval matter

In two experiments, we examined the effects of emotional valence and arousal on associative binding. Participants studied negative, positive, and neutral word pairs, followed by an associative recognition test. In Experiment 1, with a short-delayed test, accuracy for intact pairs was equivalent across valences, whereas accuracy for rearranged pairs was lower for negative than for positive and neutral pairs. In Experiment 2, we tested participants after a one-week delay and found that accuracy was greater for intact negative than for intact neutral pairs, whereas rearranged pair accuracy was equivalent across valences. These results suggest that, although negative emotional valence impairs associative binding after a short delay, it may improve binding after a longer delay. The results also suggest that valence, as well as arousal, needs to be considered when examining the effects of emotion on associative memory.