Conditioned nausea after cancer chemotherapy and autonomic nervous system conditionability

There are marked individual differences in conditioned nausea after cancer chemotherapy. To examine if part of this variation is associated with individual differences in autonomic nervous system conditionability, the present study addressed whether patients with conditioned nausea acquired conditioned heart rate and electrodermal responses at a different rate than patients without conditioned nausea. Of 28 relapse-free patients who had completed cisplatinum treatment for testicular cancer between 1981 and 1986, 10 reported persistent conditioned nausea, 8 extinguished conditioned nausea and 10 no conditioned nausea. These three groups were subjected to a differential conditioning paradigm with 8 sec pictorial stimuli (circles and triangles) serving as conditioned stimuli for an unconditioned electric shock while heart rate and electrodermal activity was monitored. There were 4 habituation, 8 acquisition and 8 extinction trials with each of the two cues. Analyses of variance using nausea status as the independent variable and physiological responses as the dependent lended some support to the notion that conditioned heart rate deceleration developed in response to the reinforced compared to the nonreinforced cue during acquisition in the two groups with persistent or extinguished conditioned nausea but not in the group with no conditioned nausea. In addition, patients that displayed good, as compared to poor heart rate conditionability during acquisition, were more likely to have persistent conditioned nausea, whereas those who showed poor heart rate conditioning mostly were those without conditioned nausea. Electrodermal variables revealed no systematic differences between groups. This tentatively supports that individual differences in parasympathetic but not sympathetic nervous system conditionability may be associated with individual differences in conditioned nausea resulting from cancer chemotherapy.     

CANDIDATE VALENCE AS A PREDICTOR OF VOTER PREFERENCE

The effects of source valence, including its components source credibility, attraction, and homophily, on voter preference were examined in this study. A systematic sample with a random start of 350 registered Democratic voters in Tallahassee, Florida, was used to test the effects of eight dimensions of source valence on voter preference. The differential valence of the two candidates was the best predictor of voter preference. The eight-variable model accounted for 61% of the variance in voter preference, while attitude homophily alone accounted for 58% of that variance.     

Dimensions of Distributed Leadership and the Impact on Teachers' Organizational Commitment: A Study in Secondary Education

In this study, we first operationalized distributed leadership. Multilevel confirmatory factor analyses showed that distributed leadership can be defined from different dimensions: quality and distribution of support and supervision performed by the leadership team; cooperation within this team; and participative decision making. Second, the relation between dimensions of distributed leadership and teachers' organizational commitment was investigated. Multilevel analyses on data from 1,522 teachers in 46 secondary schools indicated that 9% of the variance in teachers' organizational commitment was attributable to differences between schools. Further, the analyses revealed that it is not the distribution of leadership functions among formal leaders that plays a key role in teachers' organizational commitment. The perceived cooperation within the leadership team and the quality of their support are crucial.     

The Relationship Between Control,Job Seeking,and Well‐Being in Unemployed People

We tested the usefulness of the competence–contingency–control model to account for well‐being and job seeking in the unemployed. We surveyed 216 job seekers (M age = 35 years; M unemployment = 12.4 months) with measures of personal competency, beliefs about contingency relationships, job seeking, and well‐being. We hypothesized that control (i.e., competency and contingency) would be positively related to well‐being and job seeking, and that job seeking would be positively associated with well‐being and would mediate or moderate between control and well‐being. We found that control accounted for one third of the variance in well‐being, and was positively associated with job seeking (7% of variance). Job seeking did not mediate or moderate between control and well‐being.     

Social Networking Websites,Personality Ratings,and the Organizational Context: More Than Meets the Eye?1

We examined the psychometric properties of the Big Five personality traits assessed through social networking profiles in 2 studies consisting of 274 and 244 social networking website (SNW) users. First, SNW ratings demonstrated sufficient interrater reliability and internal consistency. Second, ratings via SNWs demonstrated convergent validity with self‐ratings of the Big Five traits. Third, SNW ratings correlated with job performance, hirability, and academic performance criteria; and the magnitude of these correlations was generally larger than for self‐ratings. Finally, SNW ratings accounted for significant variance in the criterion measures beyond self‐ratings of personality and cognitive ability. We suggest that SNWs may provide useful information for potential use in organizational research and practice, taking into consideration various legal and ethical issues.