A TALE OF TWO JOB MARKETS: ORGANIZATIONAL SIZE AND ITS EFFECTS ON HIRING PRACTICES AND JOB SEARCH BEHAVIOR

Small firms employ half the U.S. private sector workforce, yet recruitment research has traditionally focused on large firms. The present study attempts to advance knowledge on how recruitment practices vary with firm size. Results suggest that the recruitment practices of larger firms are generally more formal and bureaucratic than those of smaller firms. In addition, the study demonstrates that many job seekers have distinct preferences regarding firm size, and that preferred firm size is related to job search behavior. Taken together, these findings suggest that firm size is an overlooked and important aspect of the recruitment/job search context. The processes involved in matching employers and applicants differ so much as a function of firm size that one might argue that large and small firms comprise separate labor markets.     

Interpersonal risk and the evaluation of transgressions in close relationships

An experiment examined individuals’willingness to excuse a romantic partner of blame for a transgression when perceptions that a relationship is risky are salient. Participants evaluated an actual transgression on measures tapping three levels of appraisal: (a) initial impressions of the act (i.e., severity of the transgression), (b) considerations of the context in which it occurred (i.e., judgments about excuses and extenuating context), and (c) judgments about its broader implications for the relationship (attributions of globality). Evaluator perspective was also varied. Half the participants (actors) evaluated their own partner's wrongdoing; half (observers) evaluated another participant's partner's wrongdoing. Compared to controls, risk participants rated the transgression as more severe and were more cautious and risk-averse in assessing the merits of potentially excusing information. Evaluator perspective did not influence these judgments, a finding consistent with a cognitive interpretation of the results. In contrast, the effects of risk on judgments of globality were more pronounced among observers than among actors, suggesting that motivational pressures come into play when the evaluative stakes are higher.     

Charting the topography of risky relationship experiences

The present study examined people's accounts of risky relationship experiences, with the aim of documenting (a) the types of issues and events that people view as “danger zones” in their dating relationships as well as (b) the feelings and emotions that they experience in response to situations in which such risks arise. A detailed content analysis of participants’(N= 51) risk accounts revealed a considerable diversity in both the range of risk experiences recalled and their affective concomitants. The results suggest that individuals’relational concerns vary widely and, more importantly, that there may be important connections or links between certain of the relational circumstances that occasion feelings of risk (e.g., acts of self-disclosure and fears of negative evaluation). In addition, although participants employed an extensive vocabulary of affect terms in describing their emotional responses to the risks they faced, we found little evidence that particular types of risks (e.g., concerns about relationship exclusivity) elicited particular types of affective response (e.g., sadness). Feelings of fear and anxiety appeared more frequently across accounts than any other emotions, a finding that held generally true even when we considered the type of risk recalled.     

Prototype analysis of the concept of compassionate love

Social scientists are turning their attention to compassionate love, arguing that this kind of love may promote the greatest social good. The central thesis of this research was that compassionate love might be best understood as a prototype rather than a classically defined concept. Six studies were conducted with in Canada and the United States. In Study 1, participants generated features of compassionate love. Studies 2 and 3 revealed that some features (e.g., trust, caring) are considered more central to the concept of compassionate love than others (e.g., sacrifice, sympathy). This prototype structure was confirmed in studies of reaction time (Study 4), memory (Study 5), and logical inferences (Study 6). The implications of a prototype conceptualization of compassionate love for theorizing and research in this relatively new area are discussed.     

Family,peer and school connectedness in final year secondary school students

The study aim was to investigate Australian Year 12 students' sense of connectedness to their schools, families, and peers, and examine associations between connectedness and emotional wellbeing. Year 12 students (492 male, 449 female) from 10 secondary schools in Victoria, Australia participated in Phase 1 of the study. of these, 204 participants (82 male, 122 female) returned surveys 1 year later; 175 of these were attending tertiary education institutions. The study found high levels of depression, anxiety and stress among Year 12 students, with higher negative affect associated with lower levels of family, peer and school connectedness. Negative affect 1 year after leaving school was predicted by negative affect and peer connectedness at Year 12. Results suggest there are significant numbers of at‐risk young people in their final year of school, who feel lonely and disconnected from peers, and who maintain concerning levels of depression, anxiety and stress in first year of university.     

The New Focus for Career Development Programs in Business and Industry

The continuing need to deal with technological change and increased economic uncertainty has had an impact on carer development programs in business and industry. The focus of existing career development programs has changed from a shared vision of meeting both individual and organizational goals to an emphasis on fulfilling organizational needs. Although the rationale for implementing these career development programs was to promote both career planning and career management for the individual and the organization, the current programs reflect a new trend. The research on the current economic factors that affect business and industry indicates that the current career development programs tend to stress career management for the organization. This focus on organizational goals leaves the individual employee with a greater responsibility for his or her own career planning. A review of the research results also provides new information and strategies that can assist employees in their career planning.     

Parental Autonomy

ABSTRACT We argue that in societies like our own the prevailing view that parents have both special responsibilities for and special rights over their children fails to give a proper understanding of the autonomy both of parents and of children. It is our claim that there is a logical priority of the separable interests of a child over the autonomy of its parents in the fulfilment of their special responsibilities for and the exercise of their special rights over their children. However, we believe that in acknowledging the child as a distinct locus of interests appropriate weight can still be given to parental autonomy. In particular, since raising a child is a long-term commitment which plays a central role in the life-plans of many adults it will be a legitimate exercise of an adult's autonomy strongly to influence the future of any children involved in such a plan. Such influence will be quite separate from paternalistic concern for those children. But the logical priority of the child's interests will at the same time show why parents are not entitled to behave proprietorially toward their children, even when paternalistic concern is called for.     

Seeking help from a female friend: Girls' competencies,friendship features,and intentions

Adolescent girls frequently manage problems by seeking help from friends. We examined girls' intentions of seeking help from a female friend and whether these intentions were related to their competencies (emotional competence, self‐disclosure) directly and/or indirectly via specific friendship features (companionship, closeness). Participants included 222 Canadian girls (Grades 9–12) who completed an anonymous survey at school. Results showed that girls had high intentions of seeking help from a female friend and that higher self‐disclosure competence was linked directly to higher intentions. Both competencies were linked indirectly to higher intentions mediated by friendship features. These findings indicate that competencies make help seeking by girls from girls likely in multiple ways and suggest how coping programs can address help seeking in girl–girl friendships.     

Religion and Coping: A Contribution from Religious Studies

Freud and Marx pegged religion as a beguiling painkiller. Recent social scientific research has exposed the not-so-simple reality of religious coping, identifying differential usage, means, and outcomes. Appropriately, psychologists, many with clinical training, lead the way. This article is a contribution from religious studies. It describes two thus far neglected modes of religious coping that are prominent in traditions and distinctly representative of religious responses to suffering—magical rituals and religious experiences. Consideration of these forms will address deficiencies and imbalances in the literature apparent from the study of religions. Specifically, the current investigation of religion and coping would benefit from historical perspective, greater attention to unconscious coping processes, heightened use of qualitative data, and fuller recognition of the challenges inherent in the therapeutic use of religion .