Substance use as an employee response to the work environment

A conceptual framework for the examination of alcohol and drug use as employee responses to work environments is proposed. Three sets of substance use antecedents are discussed. These are distancing forces, attractions, and constraints. Examples of these antecedents within the organizational setting are provided, and the dynamic interrelationships among them explored. Conditions for the use of different types of substances are also identified.     

Dextroamphetamine and measures of intelligence

A sample of 320 male high school students was drawn on the basis of their neuroticism and extraversion scores from a population of 2500 students. By following a 4 × 4 randomized block design (replicated 20 times) an attempt was made to study the effects of dextroamphetamine on the test scores of fluid and crystallized intelligence of high school children. The study lends support to the hypothesis that the drug will have a differetial effect on the test scores of fluid and crystallized intelligence.     

Extraversion and reinforcement in verbal operant conditioning.

The present investigation was designed to study the relationship between extraversion and modes of reinforcement in verbal operant conditioning. A 4 X 3 randomized block design was replicated ten times. Eighty graduate and post-graduate male students were individually subjected to the standard Taffel conditioning procedure. When the numbers of conditioned responses produced by introverts and extraverts were compared, it was found that: (1) under negative reinforcement ('bad' and electric shock), with both the female and male experimenters, and under positive reinforcement ('good') with the male experimenter, the introverts' score was the higher of the two; (2) under positive reinforcement ('good') with the female experimenter, the extraverts' score was higher than that of the introverts.     

PERSONALITY AND DRUGS IN VISUAL FIGURAL AFTEREFFECTS

The effects of dexedrine and phenobarbitone on visual figural aftereffect (VFAE) were examined in 32 postgraduate students selected after a preliminary testing with the Maudsley Personality Inventory. Calcium tablets were used as placebos. The subjects were repeatedly tested under each of the treatment conditions. The results supported the following conclusions: (1) extraverted subjects relative to introverted ones had larger VFAE; (2) the size of VFAE increased under the influence of phenobarbitone in all personality groups except N+E+ and N-E-; (3) interactions between the drug treatments and personality variables in effects on VFAE did not occur.     

Job stress and employee behaviors

The relationship between four job stresses (role ambiguity, role overload, underutilization of skills, and resource inadequacy) and two employee withdrawal behaviors (absenteeism and turnover) was investigated. The joint prediction of employee withdrawal from measures of job stress and selected backgroundd variables was also investigated. Data were obtained regarding 651 employees in five organizations through personal interviews and company records. Analysis indicated that job stress is related to employee withdrawal behaviors, that prediction of subsequent behaviors is stronger than prediction of prior behaviors, and that the predictive power of job stress and background variables taken together is as strong as, or stronger than, the predictive power of background variables alone. Confidence in the strength of the findings is enhanced by the use of multiple data sources and multiple data points.     

Impulsivity/sociability and reinforcement in verbal operant conditioning

The present investigation was designed to study the relationship between impulsivity/sociability and modes of reinforcement in verbal operant conditioning. Two 2x3 randomized block designs, one each for impulsivity and sociability, were replicated ten times. One hundred and twenty undergraduate female students (60 for impulsivity and 60 for sociability) were individually subjected to Taffel's verbal conditioning procedure. When the conditioning scores of high and low scorers on the impulsivity and sociability scales were compared, it was found that under rewarding conditions ('good' and 'buzzer' in respect of sociability and 'good' in respect of impulsivity) the high scorers' score and under punishing conditions ('electric shock') the low scorers' score was the higher of the two. The study also revealed that the high scorers (on the impulsivity scale) conditioned more under rewarding conditions while the low scorers (both on the impulsivity and sociability scales) conditioned more under punishing ones.     

Structural examination of RIASEC scales in high school students: Variation across ethnicity and method

The structural validity of Holland’s model of vocational interests across racial/ethnic groups was examined in the population of high school juniors in two states. The fit of the circumplex model to Holland’s RIASEC types as assessed by the UNIACT-R was evaluated for the general sample and five subgroups: Caucasian/Euro-Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. Four different methods were used to test the proposed circumplex structure, each with various circumplex definitions. Results indicate that nonparametric methods generally showed good model-data fit, whereas SEM-based results indicated less support. No differences in fit were found across ethnicity supporting the usage with U.S. ethnic groups.     

Training and transfer effects in task switching

Performance on task switching, a paradigm commonly used to measure executive function, has been shown to improve with practice. However, no study has tested whether these benefits are specific to the tasks learned or are transferable to new situations. We report evidence of transferable improvement in a cued, randomly switching paradigm as measured by mixing cost, but we report no consistent improvement for switch cost. Improvement in mixing costs arises from a relative reduction in time to perform both switch and nonswitch trials that immediately follow switch trials, implicating the ability to recover from unexpected switches as the source of improvement. These results add to a growing number of studies demonstrating generalizable improvement with training on executive processing.     

Aging, Training, and the Brain: A Review and Future Directions

As the population ages, the need for effective methods to maintain or even improve older adults’ cognitive performance becomes increasingly pressing. Here we provide a brief review of the major intervention approaches that have been the focus of past research with healthy older adults (strategy training, multi-modal interventions, cardiovascular exercise, and process-based training), and new approaches that incorporate neuroimaging. As outcome measures, neuroimaging data on intervention-related changes in volume, structural integrity; and functional activation can provide important insights into the nature and duration of an intervention’s effects. Perhaps even more intriguingly, several recent studies have used neuroimaging data as a guide to identify core cognitive processes that can be trained in one task with effective transfer to other tasks that share the same underlying processes. Although many open questions remain, this research has greatly increased our understanding of how to promote successful aging of cognition and the brain.