Discussion increases efficacy when training accurate perception of patients' affect

Patients benefit when their healthcare providers accurately recognize their affect. The efficacy of three short‐term training components, practice, practice with feedback, and discussion with practice and feedback, to improve accuracy for judging patients' affect was experimentally assessed. Undergraduate participants were randomly assigned in pairs to one of the training conditions or an untrained control condition and the effect of training was measured using the Test of Accurate Perception of Patients' Affect (TAPPA). Participants were significantly more accurate on the TAPPA in the discussion with feedback and practice condition compared with the control condition. There was a significant linear trend in accuracy across training elements. Results suggest that a 40‐min discussion with feedback and practice training can significantly improve interpersonal accuracy.     

Pain reduces discrimination in helping

Because of their shared neurobiological underpinnings, factors increasing physical pain can also increase feelings of social disconnection (“social pain”). Feelings of connection with a social group are reflected in the term social identification, and social identity is commonly associated with intergroup discrimination. In two experiments, we examined the notion that physical pain would reduce social identification and subsequently inhibit intergroup discrimination in helping. By using a pain memory manipulation and a support measure of helping in Study 1 (N = 173), and an actual pain manipulation combined with a behavioural measure of helping in Study 2 (N = 72), results from both studies confirmed the predictions. As expected, physical pain eliminated ingroup favouritism in helping, and identification mediated this effect in the ingroup condition but not in the outgroup condition. We discuss these findings in light of the apparently paradoxical relationship between social support and pain. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality Factors and Adult Attachment Affecting Job Mobility

Past research has revealed that individuals' job mobility is affected by factors such as job satisfaction, specific career enhancing attributes and job availability. This study examined personality factors predicting voluntary internal and external job mobility. Three types of voluntary job mobility measures were studied: dissatisfaction changes, job improvement changes and job rotations within companies. These mobility measures were related to the Big Five personality factors, sensation seeking and adult attachment. Results showed that demographic variables and sensation seeking contributed to the variance in external job changes. Internal job rotations were not related to any of the demographic and personality variables.     

Color at the point of sale: Psychological and communicative implications

The environment that surrounds a consumer when they are at a point of sale can influence them both psychologically and communicatively. In this sense, the study arises from the need to discover the capacity of influence that colors of the components of the commercial establishment (wall, floor, ceiling, and furniture) have. The aim is to determine whether these factors influence the psychological level (feeling of pleasantness, calmness, etc.) and the communicative experience received in stores. The quasi-experimental methodology made it possible to study the impact of the independent variables (colors of the different components) on the dependent variables (psychological and communicative). For this purpose, two methods of measurement were constructed: a tool for the analysis of commercial establishments which allowed to establish patterns and a reception protocol capable of measuring both levels of influence of components and colors, by means of a reception test comprising of Level I (psychological) and Level II (communicative). This survey was applied to a total sample of 315 subjects. Overall, the study makes it possible to define which architectural components and colors stores should have in order to exert a certain perceptual influence on the subject. In general terms, this study reflects how the color of the different components of the space can influence the subject's primary perception of the establishment, with respect to the feeling of pleasantness, comfort, stimulation, calmness, security, spaciousness, formality, and warmth, as well as the perception of the quantity and quality of the information received and overall satisfaction and confidence.     

Longitudinal Examination of the Relationship Between Supplies–Values Fit and Work Outcomes

This study focuses on the robustness of the relationship between supplies–values (S–V) fit and work outcomes. Specifically, the functional form that best describes the relationships of three different dimensions of S–V fit (i.e. intrinsic work aspects, extrinsic work aspects, and social relations at work) with job satisfaction, intention to leave the organisation and psychological well‐being was investigated using the moderated regression technique proposed by Edwards (1991, 1994). This study extends previous research by examining the stability of these relationships across two occasions, separated by a period of four years. Results showed that the functional form of the relationship of S–V fit with work outcomes differed by the S–V fit dimension and the work outcome under investigation. However, the functional form of each of these relationships on the first occasion was almost identical to the form of the relationships on the second occasion. Additionally, results showed that all three S–V fit dimensions affected job satisfaction and intention to leave, but had only a weak effect on psychological well‐being. The organisational supplies component, as well as its quadratic term in particular, had a large influence on job satisfaction and intention to leave. Implications for future research in the P–O fit area are discussed.