Structural power and experienced job satisfactions: The empowerment paradox for women

This study related the structural power of women's occupational roles to their job values, perceptions, satisfactions, and dissatisfactions regarding power and affiliation. For 110 mostly Caucasian college-educated women in their mid-30s returning mailed questionnaires, analyses compared women in relational power, directive power, and low power jobs. Women in supervisory roles were compared with nonsupervisors. Perceived Autonomy/Challenge and Affiliation correlated with Interpersonal Power satisfaction; these and Perceived Status Mobility correlated with Interpersonal Power dissatisfaction. More women in relational power jobs reported Affiliative values and Interpersonal Power satisfactions, and fewer reported Status Mobility values and perceptions or Autonomy/Challenge satisfactions. Supervisors valued and perceived Status Mobility and Autonomy/Challenge more than did nonsupervisors, and reported more Autonomy/Challenge satisfaction. More nonsupervisors reported Interpersonal Power and Affiliative satisfactions. Thus, as women gain more structural power, they report less satisfaction from Interpersonal Power despite greater satisfaction with Autonomy/Challenge.I thank Sandra S. Tangri for initiating and continuing this longitudinal study; Sandra S. Tangri, Jo Ruggiero, and Jan Hitchcock for their collaborative work on the 1981 data collection; and Karen Chandler and Kathy MacDonald for coding of open-ended data. I appreciate Harriett Aronson's comments on previous drafts, and those of two anonymous reviewers.This research has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Grant No. 5-F1-MH-30#493-03; by Radcliffe Research Support Grants from The Henry A. Murray Research Center of Radcliffe College to Jo Ruggiero and to Sharon Rae Jenkins; a faculty research grant from the University of California, Santa Cruz to Sharon Rae Jenkins; and by a grant from the Mobil Foundation to Radcliffe College awarded to Sharon Rae Jenkins. Portions of these analyses were supported by NIMH Postdoctoral Fellowship MH-15122-07 from the Department of Sociology and Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley. The 1967 and 1970 data sets are archived at The Henry A. Murray Research Center, Radcliffe College, Ten Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, are used with the Center's permission, and are available for secondary analysis by qualified researchers.     

Case study: Noninvasive behavioral treatment of self-injurious hand stereotypy in a child with Rett syndrome

Treatment of stereotypic hand mouthing in a 3-year-old girl with Rett syndrome by differential reinforcement of competing functional responses plus response interruption is described and evaluated in this case study. A package of graduated guidance with social and edible reinforcers successfully established stable rates of functional hand movements to activate toys, gross motor responses to verbal prompts, palmar grasp and release, and some vocal imitation. Contingent response interruption virtually eliminated hand mouthing during instructional sessions. Instruction alone did not maintain hand mouthing suppression when interruption was withdrawn, and treatment gains appeared highly discriminated. Post-hoc comparison indicated differential reinforcement plus response interruption (DR1 + 1) to be superior to hand splints in reducing hand stereotypies, with approximately equivalent increases in collateral tongue thrusting.     

Well-being during the coronavirus pandemic: The effect of big five personality and COVID-19 beliefs and behaviors

This study examined the relationship between personality traits, COVID-specific beliefs and behaviors, and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. In July 2020, at the onset of a second major lockdown, Australian adults (n = 1453) completed measures of Big Five personality, COVID beliefs and behaviors (i.e., belief in a rapid recovery, perceived risk, compliance, change in exercise, and change in interpersonal conflict), subjective well-being and COVID-specific well-being. Personality correlates of COVID-specific well-being differed from those with general life satisfaction. The benefits of conscientiousness were elevated whereas the benefits of extraversion and agreeableness were reduced. Neuroticism was related to greater perceived risk from the pandemic, elevated interpersonal conflict during the pandemic, and more pessimistic views about the rate at which society would recover from the pandemic. In contrast, conscientiousness was notably related to greater compliance with directions from public health authorities. While regression models showed that general well-being was largely explained by personality, COVID factors provided incremental prediction, and this was greatest when predicting COVID-specific well-being and lowest for global evaluations of life satisfaction. The observed prediction by beliefs and behaviors on well-being beyond personality, provides potential opportunities for targeted interventions to support the management of future novel stressors.     

Vulnerability of facial attractiveness perception to early and multi-year visual deprivation

Judgments of facial attractiveness invariably accompany our perception of faces. Even neonates appear to be capable of making such judgments in a manner consistent with adults. This suggests that the processes supporting facial attractiveness require little, if any, visual experience to manifest. Here we investigate the resilience of these processes to several years of early-onset visual deprivation. Specifically, we study whether congenitally blind children treated several years after birth possess the ability to rate facial attractiveness in a manner congruent to normally sighted individuals. The data reveal significant individual variability in the way each newly sighted child perceives attractiveness. This is in marked contrast to data from normally sighted controls who exhibit strong across-subject agreement in facial attractiveness ratings. This variability may be attributable, in part, to atypical facial encoding strategies used by the newly sighted children. Overall, our results suggest that the development of facial attractiveness perception is likely to be vulnerable to early visual deprivation, pointing to the existence of a possible sensitive period early in the developmental trajectory.