Assessing Organizational Behavior Models: A Comparison of Linear and Nonlinear Methods1

This study highlights the use of nonlinear statistic techniques in a behavioral model that incorporates dispositional and situational variables. When ordinary least squares and log-linear/logit results were compared, various unique associations were found between job satisfaction, job complexity, locus of control, and the number of available benefits. Overall, the findings prove that more nonlinear modeling is needed in the behavioral sciences.     

FURTHER ANALYSIS OF PROBLEM BEHAVIOR IN RESPONSE CLASS HIERARCHIES

A functional analysis identified the reinforcers for 3 participants' problem behavior, but only relatively mild problem behaviors (e.g., screaming, disruption) were observed when all topographies produced tested consequences. We then conducted an extinction analysis in which specific topographies produced a reinforcer while all other topographies were on extinction. The extinction analysis confirmed that the same reinforcer identified in the initial functional analysis maintained more severe topographies of problem behavior (e.g., aggression). In addition, results of the extinction analysis indicated that 2 of the participants displayed patterns of responding consistent with a response class hierarchy hypothesis, in which less severe problem behavior frequently occurred prior to more severe topographies. The 3rd participant displayed a response pattern indicative of differential reinforcement effects.     

Predicting Generative Concern in Young Adulthood from Narrative Intimacy: A 5-Year Follow-Up

According to Erikson’s developmental model, achieving intimacy in young adulthood should predict higher levels of generativity later in life. This mixed quantitative and qualitative, longitudinal study examined the relationship between generative concern and intimacy in young adulthood (from ages 26–32). Participants (N = 147; 69 % female; 74.1 % college educated) told a narrative about a “relationship defining moment” with a same-sex friend, and completed self-report questionnaires of optimism and generative concern at ages 26 and 32. Optimism and generative concern had strong stability over time, while friendship intimacy did not exhibit test–retest stability. Most participants (88.6 %) disclosed a different story at each time point, which contributed to the lack of rank-order stability for friendship intimacy in the present study. Friendship intimacy was positively correlated with age 26 and age 32 generative concern. Both sex and optimism predicted longitudinal increases in generative concern over 5 years, with women and people higher in optimism seeing larger increases. Friendship intimacy coded from narratives at 26 predicted (p = .052) increases in generative concern at 32. The present study extended prior research by examining the relationship between intimacy and generative concern as people develop from emerging to young adulthood. Following Erikson, developing close relationships with others, exhibiting an optimistic outlook on life, and being female appear to facilitate greater generative concern in young adults.     

The Sacred Bed: Sex Guilt Mediates Religiosity and Satisfaction for Unmarried People

The relationship between religion and sexual satisfaction has long been debated. Oftentimes, previous research on the relationship between these two constructs has been directly contradictory. The current study sought to provide more detail, or perhaps clarify the way that religiosity may relate to sexual satisfaction. Past studies have shown that high religiosity is connected to lower sexual activity, lower desires, and more conservative values. Thus, the current study examined sexual guilt, resulting from sensitivity to internalized religious beliefs and teachings, as a potential mediator between the two constructs. Participants completed an online questionnaire that included measures of religious identification and internalization, sexual satisfaction, and sex guilt. Results suggest that sex guilt mediates the relationship between religiosity and sexual satisfaction for unmarried individuals, but not for married individuals. We suggest calling this finding the sacred bed phenomenon because the difference between the models for married and unmarried samples may be due to a belief in the sacred marital bed.     

Disabled – therefore,Unhealthy?

This paper argues that disabled people can be healthy. I argue, first, following the well-known ‘social model of disability’, that we should prefer a usage of ‘disabled’ which does not imply any kind of impairment that is essentially inconsistent with health. This is because (a) one can be disabled only because limited by false social perception of impairment and (b) one can be, if impaired, disabled not because of the impairment but rather only because of the social response to it. Second, I argue that it is often wrong to use the term ‘healthy’ in a way that makes health inconsistent with any degree whatsoever of health-relevant bodily dysfunction. Whether someone is ‘healthy’ properly-so-called depends on standards of health presupposed in conversational context. Sometimes, I argue, these standards are or ought to be lax enough to allow some people with some health deficits still to count as ‘healthy’ per se. Taking inspiration from David Lewis and Mary Kate Mcgowan, I go on to argue that denying that someone is ‘healthy’ in a context typically succeeds in shifting going presuppositions to require standards strict enough to make that denial acceptable. And this, I conclude by arguing, often constitutes an abuse of conversational power.     

Unintended,but still blameworthy: the roles of awareness,desire, and anger in negligence,restitution, and punishment

Two experiments (Experiment 1 N?=?149, Experiment 2 N?=?141) investigated how two mental states that underlie how perceivers reason about intentional action (awareness of action and desire for an outcome) influence blame and punishment for unintended (i.e., negligent) harms, and the role of anger in this process. Specifically, this research explores how the presence of awareness (of risk in acting, or simply of acting) and/or desire in an acting agent's mental states influences perceptions of negligence, judgements that the acting agent owes restitution to a victim, and the desire to punish the agent, mediated by anger. In both experiments, awareness and desire led to increased anger at the agent and increased perception of negligence. Anger mediated the effect of awareness and desire on negligence rather than negligence mediating the effect of mental states on anger. Anger also mediated punishment, and negligence mediated the effects of anger on restitution. We discuss how perceivers consider mental states such as awareness, desire, and knowledge when reasoning about blame and punishment for unintended harms, and the role of anger in this process.     

TREATMENT OF MULTIPLY CONTROLLED PROBLEM BEHAVIOR

The aggressive behavior of a young boy with developmental delays occurred most frequently following a request to pick up his toys. The request ended a period of play and social interaction. This suggested the presence of multiple establishing operations. The initial treatment consisted of praise, a break, and access to the toys contingent on compliance. Results showed that aggression decreased only when we added social interaction to the break. Findings are discussed regarding treating multiply controlled problem behavior without extinction.     

Cross-Lagged Relationships Between Insomnia and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Treatment-Receiving Veterans

Insomnia is a risk factor for the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) while it is also plausible that PTSD symptoms can maintain insomnia symptoms. The present study examined longitudinal bidirectional relationships between insomnia and PTSD symptoms in treatment-seeking veterans. Participants were 693 ex-serving members of the Australian Defence Force who participated in an accredited, hospital-based outpatient PTSD program. Participants completed self-reported assessments of PTSD and insomnia symptoms at four time points: intake, discharge, 3-month, and 9-months posttreatment follow-up.Cross-lagged pathway analyses indicated significant bi-directional pathways between insomnia symptoms and PTSD symptoms at most time points. A final cross-lagged model between insomnia symptoms and the PTSD symptom clusters indicated that the PTSD symptom paths on insomnia symptoms, between intake and discharge, were attributable to reexperiencing PTSD symptoms. In contrast, across posttreatment follow-up time points there were significant paths of insomnia symptoms on all PTSD symptom clusters except from insomnia at 3-months to avoidance symptom at 9-months. PTSD symptoms and insomnia symptoms have bidirectional associations over time that may lead to the mutual maintenance or exacerbation of each condition following PTSD treatment. Where residual insomnia symptoms are present post-treatment, a sleep-focussed intervention is indicated and a sequenced approach to treatment recommended.