Do personality factors predict job satisfaction?

Two studies investigated the relationships between personality traits and aspects of job satisfaction. In Study 1, job applicants (n=250) completed the Eysenck Personality Profiler and the Work Values Questionnaire (WVQ), which requires respondents to rate various work-related facets according to the extent to which they contribute to their job satisfaction. These facets were combined into two composites (hygiene and motivator) based on previous research. The three personality superfactors accounted for a small percentage of the variance in importance ratings (about 5%). In Study 2, employees (n=82) completed a measure of the ‘Big Five’ personality traits and the Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (JSQ), which assesses both what respondents consider as important in their work environment as well as their satisfaction with their current job. Importance ratings were again combined into two composites while job satisfaction ratings were factor analyzed and three factors, differentiated along hygiene versus motivator lines, emerged. Personality traits again accounted for a small percentage of the total variance both in importance ratings and in levels of job satisfaction. It is concluded that personality does not have a strong or consistent influence either on what individuals perceive as important in their work environment or on their levels of job satisfaction.     

Does Absence Make the Heart Grow Fonder? Work-Related Travel and Marital Satisfaction

Using a sample of 961 dual-earner couples, the authors examined the relationship between work-related travel and marital satisfaction, using gender role attitudes and parental status as moderators. For women and men with children, the impact of travel is generally consistent with gender role congruence theory, which posits that marital satisfaction will be highest when gender role attitudes and gender role behaviors are congruent. Generally, when one holds traditional gender role attitudes, marital satisfaction is stable or enhanced when the husband travels, and is lower when the wife travels. Nontraditional parents are generally less happy if either member travels. The results were less predictable among couples without children in the home.     

Do Middle-Class Students Perceive Poor Women and Poor Men Differently?

In this study, we examined attitudes toward poor women, stereotypes about them, attributions for their poverty, and whether these thoughts and feelings differ from those about poor men. In our Midwestern college students sample (n = 206), attitudes toward poor women were significantly more positive than attitudes toward poor men. In addition, stereotypes of poor women were both more positive and more consistent with gender stereotypes than were those of poor men. Participants endorsed internal attributions for the poverty of both women and men more strongly than external or cultural attributions. However, the content of these attributions was different for the two target groups. Poor women were held responsible for nontraditional familial and reproductive patterns, whereas poor men were held responsible for lack of initiative and self-improvement. For poor men, all types of attributions included references to ability or willingness to work. The three types of attributions were more conceptually distinct for poor women.     

Major depression,chronic minor depression,and the five‐factor model of personality

Fifty‐eight outpatients with major depression completed the NEO Personality Inventory at intake (time 1) and after up to three months of anti‐depressant treatment (time 2). Within this group, 26 patients met additional Research Diagnostic Criteria for chronic minor depression. Repeated‐measures analyses revealed significant decreases in Neuroticism scores, and significant increases in Extraversion and Conscientiousness scores, from time 1 to time 2 for both patient groups. In addition, despite similar symptom severity at time 2, the patients with major depression+chronic minor depression scored significantly higher on the Angry Hostility facet of Neuroticism and significantly lower on Agreeableness than those with major depression alone. We suggest from these findings that Angry Hostility and low Agreeableness may represent a trait vulnerability in individuals with chronic minor depression that persists even following remission of the major depressive state, and that this may help to explain their high rates of relapse and recurrence. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cinematherapy: Metaphorically promoting therapeutic change

Cinematherapy involves assigning clients commercial movies to view between sessions of therapy. This article describes the applications of cinematherapy as a useful adjunct to more traditional approaches to therapeutic change. Techniques for implementation are outlined, and potential advantages of the use of cinematherapy are discussed. While cinematherapy may be used as an assignment within a variety of theoretical orientations, this article conceptualizes the technique from the perspective of the use of metaphor to promote therapeutic change. Although many therapists report informal use of films in working with clients, there is a paucity of research on the efficacy of cinematherapy as a counselling technique. The article makes extrapolations about effectiveness based on empirical findings involving use of the related technique of bibliotherapy. However, the authors hope that the article will inspire more formal research into the use of cinematherapy.     

Culturally Competent Assessment: More Than Nonbiased Tests

The persistent and unresolved issue of minority disproportionality in special education provides a strong rationale for ensuring that assessment is culturally appropriate and sensitive. An extensive literature on test bias has failed to find evidence of bias sufficient to fully explain disproportional representation of minorities in special education. Yet minorities in this nation, most especially African Americans, have been exposed to a long history of unequal opportunity and oppression, and these inequities continue to be played out in educational settings. In the face of inadequate cultural and educational opportunity, unbiased tests provide an accurate estimate not only of individual capability, but also of the inhospitable conditions that depress that capability. A failure to take differential educational opportunity into account when considering minority test performance may lead to serious errors of test score interpretation. In the face of unequal educational opportunity, culturally competent assessment thus means more than manipulating the content of tests. Rather, it represents a comprehensive process that uses the results of assessment to identify and remedy educational conditions that systematically disadvantage students of color.     

全球生命伦理学——梦想还是梦魇？

导言对于出席这次在东京召开的第四届国际生命伦理学大会开幕式的很多人来讲,好像有实现了一个梦想的感觉。国际生命伦理学学会和亚洲生命伦理学学会的共同努力是一个强有力的信号：     

Assessment Instruments Used by Addictions Counselors

The Association for Assessment in Counseling's Committee on Assessment and Training in Addictions Counseling conducted a survey of Master Addictions Counselors (MACs) certified by the National Board for Certified Counselors. The intent of the survey was to identify which standardized assessment instruments were most frequently used by MACs and perceived to be most important in their substance abuse practices. This article describes survey results and provides training and practice recommendations.