Reactive aggression tracks within‐participant changes in women's salivary testosterone

The relation between testosterone and aggression has been relatively well documented in men, but it is less well understood in women. Here we assessed the relationship between salivary testosterone and reactive aggression (i.e., rejection rate for unfair offers) in the Ultimatum Game. Forty naturally cycling women were tested twice, once in the late follicular phase (around ovulation) and once during the luteal phase. Ovulation was determined using urine test strips measuring luteinizing hormone levels. Salivary samples were assayed for testosterone, estradiol, progesterone, and cortisol at both test sessions. There was no association with the cycle, but multilevel modeling revealed a significant within‐participant association between testosterone and rejection rate for extremely unfair offers (i.e., high reactive aggression), indicating that women showed greater reactive aggression when their testosterone levels were higher. Additionally, we found that women with relatively high individual concentrations of testosterone were more likely to reject extremely unfair offers than women with relatively low concentrations of testosterone. This study is the first to demonstrate that women react more aggressively in response to provocation when their testosterone level is high than when their testosterone is low, suggesting that testosterone plays an important role in the regulation of women's aggressive behavior following social provocation.

     

Behavioral and self-concept differences in tattooed and nontattooed college students

235 college students rated themselves on a series of bipolar adjectives and answered questions about their involvement in a variety of "risky" behaviors, including tattooing and body piercing. 29 tattooed students rated themselves as more adventurous, creative, artistic, individualistic, and risky than those without tattoos. The 98 tattooed males considered themselves more attractive. Behaviorally, those with tattoos reported smoking more cigarettes. Tattooed men also reported more sexual partners, were more likely to report they had been arrested, and were more likely to have body piercings. The 21 tattooed women were more likely to report use of drugs other than alcohol, shoplifting, and body piercings in places other than their ears.     

Organizational injury rate underreporting: the moderating effect of organizational safety climate

The goals of this study were (a) to assess the extent to which construction industry workplace injuries and illness are underreported, and (b) to determine whether safety climate predicts the extent of such underreporting. Data from 1,390 employees of 38 companies contracted to work at a large construction site in the northwestern United States were collected to assess the safety climate of the companies. Data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) logs kept by the contractors allowed for calculation of each company's OSHA recordable injury rate (i.e., the reported injury rate), whereas medical claims data from an Owner-Controlled Insurance Program provided the actual experienced rate of injuries for those same companies. While the annual injury rate reported to OSHA was 3.11 injuries per 100 workers, the rate of eligible injuries that were not reported to OSHA was 10.90 injuries per 100 employees. Further, organizations with a poor safety climate had significantly higher rates of underreporting (81% of eligible injuries unreported) compared with organizations with a positive safety climate (47% of eligible injuries unreported). Implications for organizations and the accuracy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics's national occupational injury and illness surveillance system are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).     

Organizational Safety Climate and Supervisory Layoff Decisions: Preferences Versus Predictions

The current research investigated the extent to which supervisors take safety vs. productivity into account when making layoff recommendations under conditions of differing organizational emphasis on safety vs. production. A laboratory experiment with 57 participants acting as supervisors manipulated the organizational climate to emphasize safety vs. production and the safety performance and productivity of 4 subordinates. Results indicate that layoff recommendations were influenced by the stated organizational climate. However, regardless of the stated organizational priorities, participants predicted that upper management's final layoff decisions would result in safe workers being laid off to a greater extent than productive workers. Implications of these results are discussed in light of organizational efforts to improve their safety climate and employee safety performance.     

Expansion of Genetic Services Utilizing a General Genetic Counseling Clinic

We established a general genetic counseling clinic (GCC) to help reduce long wait times for new patient appointments and to enhance services for a subset of patients. Genetic counselors, who are licensed in Tennessee, were the primary providers and MD geneticists served as medical advisors. This article describes the clinic referral sources, reasons for referral and patient dispositions following their GCC visit(s). We obtained patients by triaging referrals made to our medical genetics division. Over 24 months, our GCC provided timely visits for 321 patients, allowing the MD geneticists to focus on patients needing a clinical exam and/or complex medical management. Following their GCC visit(s), over 80 % of patients did not need additional appointments with an MD geneticist. The GCC allowed the genetic counselor to spend more time with patients than is possible in our traditional medical genetics clinic. Patient satisfaction surveys (n?=?30) were very positive overall concerning the care provided. Added benefits for the genetic counselors were increased professional responsibility, autonomy and visibility as health care providers. We conclude that genetic counselors are accepted as health care providers by patients and referring providers for a subset of clinical genetics cases. A GCC can expand genetic services, complement more traditional genetic clinic models and utilize the strengths of the genetic counselor health care provider.