AN EVALUATION OF GENERIC TEAMWORK SKILLS TRAINING WITH ACTION TEAMS: EFFECTS ON COGNITIVE AND SKILL-BASED OUTCOMES

This study evaluated the utility of generic teamwork skills training for enhancing the effectiveness of action teams. Results from 65 4-person action teams working on an interdependent command and control simulator revealed that generic teamwork skills training had a significant and positive impact on both cognitive and skill-based outcomes. Trained team members evidenced higher levels of declarative knowledge regarding teamwork competencies and demonstrated greater proficiency in the areas of planning and task coordination, collaborative problem-solving, and communication. Furthermore, results indicated that cognitive and skill based outcomes were interrelated. Team members' declarative knowledge regarding teamwork competencies positively affected planning and task coordination, collaborative problem solving, and communication skills. However, we found that the effects of declarative knowledge differed across team members depending on their roles and responsibilities. The team benefited the most from the knowledge held by the team member who occupied the most critical position in the workflow. Implications of these findings for future research and practice are discussed.     

Experimental Evidence that Theistic-Religious Body Affirmations Improve Women's Body Image

We examined in a random-assignment, pretest-posttest design whether college women's body image would improve after reading religious and spiritual affirmations about their bodies. The sample was predominantly white and Christian. In a pretest, women completed measures of religiosity and body esteem (how they felt about their weight and appearance) and were then assigned via matched random assignment to three different groups for a treatment and posttest one week later. In the Religious group, women read affirmations with a theistic and Christian-based tone that emphasized God's love and acceptance of their bodies; in the Spiritual group, women read body affirmations with a more positive secular tone and no mention of God; Control group women read random statements about campus issues. After reading the affirmations, women then viewed photos of "thin ideal" fashion models to activate body image concerns. Women next completed the posttest body esteem measures. Women in the Religious group increased significantly compared to Control women (who declined) in how they felt about their appearance and looks. Women in the Spiritual condition improved marginally compared to the Control condition.     

Coparenting dynamics: Mothers' and fathers' differential support and involvement

This study utilizes the actor–partner interdependence model to examine mothers' and fathers' support of their partner and involvement in parental decision making during coparenting interactions in relation to cooperative and competitive coparenting in a sample of 125 first‐time parents with a 24‐month‐old child. Fathers showed greater instances of support for their partner than did mothers, and mothers demonstrated higher levels of involvement in parenting decisions than did fathers. Mothers' higher support of fathers' parenting was related negatively to competitive coparenting and positively to fathers' involvement. Fathers' higher support of mothers and higher involvement in parenting decisions was related to higher cooperative coparenting. Implications for family intervention and future research are discussed.