The role of self-attribution differences in the utilization of social comparison information

A study is reported that investigated the effects of receiving social comparison information which implied individual's behavior was inconsistent with his/her self-ascribed trait. The effects of this information on subsequent self-labeling and behavior involving a similar task were found to be mediated by the attributional style of the subject. The social comparison information caused subjects to reevaluate their relevant self-labels regardless of their attributional style. However, only self-attributors also changed their behavior on a later task as a result of exposure to the comparison information. These findings and their implications were discussed with regard to self-attribution and the maintenance of traitbehavior consistency.     

It's Not How Hard You Work But How You Work Hard: Evaluating Workaholism Components

This study examines the relationship of three workaholism components (work involvement, feeling driven to work, work enjoyment) proposed by Spence and Robbins (1992) and a variety of work and psychological well being outcomes. Workaholism components generally had significant relationships with these outcome measures, controlling for personal and situational factors. Feeling driven was more likely to be associated with negative well-being outcomes; work enjoyment more likely associated with positive work outcomes.     

Job Pressures, Organizational Support, and Health Among Norwegian Women Managers

Questionnaire data were collected from 191 professional and managerial women in Norway. Measures included demographic and work characteristics, job pressures (hours worked, level of management, work-family conflict), organizational supports (acceptance, support, training and development, challenging and visible jobs), and health indicators (life satisfaction, psychosomatic complaints, emotional exhaustion). Emotional exhaustion and psychosomatic complaints were combined into a stress index. Results indicated that women who experienced high role conflict and work-family pressures also reported poor health outcomes and little life satisfaction. Organizational initiatives to support and develop women's careers were associated with lower exhaustion and psychosomatic symptomatology and more life satisfaction. While the relationship between women's employment and physical and psychological well-being is not clear-cut, there is perhaps a need for organizations to focus on initiatives that will allow diversity in the choices women make with regard to involvement in careers and family, as well as a need to find ways to support and encourage such diversity. Not only may this have a beneficial effect on women workers' health and energy to use at work, but it may also make way for alternative career paths into top management positions for professional women.     

Workaholism in Organizations: Measurement Validation and Replication

Although workaholism in organizations has received considerable attention in the popular press, our understanding of it based on research is quite limited. This deficit is the result of absence of both suitable definitions and measures of the concept. This study reports the replication of earlier work undertaken by Spence and Robbins (1992) applying their measures to a managerial population (N = 530). Considerable support was found for the usefulness of their measures based on reliability and construct validity data.     

Wave of Memory

This article explores theories of selfhood by juxtaposing them against an individual's lived experience. As Ronald Manheimer reflects upon his friendship with Hildegard, a student from one of the classes that he taught at a senior center in Olympia, Washington, he compares this experience with that described by various theories of selfhood. Building on the linguistic self, the narrative self, and the relational self, Manheimer posits a self that exists through time within a network of relationships, not a fixed determined self, but a dynamic self, subject to revision and reimagining.     

STAZ: Interactive software for undergraduate statistics

STAZ is an interactive computer program that demonstrates statistical concepts, many of which cannot be readily demonstrated using conventional methods. Use of dynamic graphics encourages active engagement with challenging statistical concepts. The program consists of 13 graphical demonstrations, most of which allow for interactive participation by students. A detailed Help file with guided explanations accompanies each demonstration. STAZ is a multiple document interface program that makes full use of Windows features, such as tiling, links, and multitasking. Designed to be used as a supplement for any undergraduate statistics course, STAZ may be used by either instructors in classroom settings or students working independently.     

Does the eye know calculus? The threshold of representation in classical and connectionist models

The notion of representation lies at the crossroads of questions about the nature of belief and knowledge, meaning, and intentionality. But there is some hope that it might be simpler than all those. If we could understand it clearly, it might then help to explicate those more difficult notions. In this paper, my central aim is to find a principled criterion, along lines that make biological sense, for deciding just when it becomes theoretically plausible to ascribe to some process or state a representational role. I shall be especially concerned with some differences, in this regard, between classical and connectionist models. The relation between ‘standard’ artificial intelligence and connectionism turns out to illustrate a ‘first in, last out’ principle: What we most easily understand (and so can program) is what we have most recently invented; tasks we ourselves perform best, by contrast, are a lot harder to understand. Classical AI has modelled the former; connectionism tries to tackle the latter. I end with some speculations about the possible implications of these considerations for our understanding of understanding.