Replication of the factor structure of the fear of AIDS schedule (FAIDSS) across samples

Abstract

The stability of the Fear of AIDS Scale (FAIDSS) was studied using three samples (two samples of health workers and one of social work students) on Cattel's s index. Using hyperplane cutoffs between 0.35 and 0.45, on the five factor solution of the FAIDSS, there were significant correlations between factors across samples and with few exceptions each factor correlated significantly with only one factor in its comparison samples. Concurrent validity was demonstrated by comparing scores on the Attitudes toward AIDS scale with the FAIDSS. Data indicated that the FAIDSS structure was stable across samples and is an appropriate instrument for measurement of fear of AIDS in the helping professions.     

Real Men Don’t Make Mistakes: Investigating the Effects of Leader Gender, Error Type, and the Occupational Context on Leader Error Perceptions

Purpose

Despite the fact that leaders make mistakes, little attention has been paid to the effects of errors on subordinate perceptions. This study investigated the influence of errors on perceptions of leader competence, effectiveness, and desire to work for the leader. It also examined the effects of gendered expectations on perceptions of male and female leader errors by investigating the interactions that occur between the leader’s gender, the type of error, and the occupational context.

Design/Methodology

A sample of 284 undergraduates read a series of fictional employee emails describing a leader’s behavior and responded to several measures while envisioning themselves as subordinates of the leader.

Findings

Results suggested task and relationship errors exert damaging and differential effects on perceptions of leader task and relationship competence, respectively, and equally damage desire to work for the leader. Male leaders were perceived as less task and relationship competent, desirable to work for, and effective than female leaders for committing errors in a masculinized domain.

Implications

This study suggests leader errors matter, and that current leadership models ought to be expanded to account more clearly for them. Moreover, it offers insight into the role of gendered expectations in determining perceptions of male and female leader errors.

Originality/Value

This study is one of the first to empirically examine leader error perceptions and the effects of gender stereotypes on these perceptions. It represents a step toward understanding evaluations of male and female leaders, not when they succeed, but when they make mistakes.     

Attention and Executive Function Deficits in Adolescent Sex Offenders

Thirty male adolescent sex offenders and 20 age-matched male adolescents completed an extensive battery of attention and executive function tests. Controls were obtained from adolescents from a socially and economically deprived background, typical of the offending group. The attention battery was based on Mirksy, Anthony, Duncan, Ahearn, and Kellam (1991) and the executive function battery on Kelly (2000a). Successful matching for IQ was not achieved and therefore ANCOVA comparisons were made between the groups, with IQ as the covariate. In attention a highly significant difference was found on the focus-execute factor and a significant difference on the shift factor. In executive function there was a highly significant difference only on the response speed factor. In all cases better abilities were demonstrated by the control group. The importance of thorough neuropsychological investigation in the clinical assessment of this forensic group is supported. The clinical implications of neuropsychological deficits in terms of risk assessment and clinical management are discussed.     

Analysis of effects of driver/vehicle characteristics on acceleration noise using GPS-equipped vehicles

Researchers have used acceleration noise, defined by the standard deviation of accelerations of a vehicle, as an attempt to measure the quality of traffic flow. As a potential indicator of traffic flow quality, acceleration noise has been considered to be capable of reflecting vehicle/driver–roadway–traffic interactions within a traffic stream. However, this proposition, in particular for the driver/vehicle, has seldom been investigated, mainly due to the difficulty of data collection. This paper reports the results of an analysis of the effects of driver/vehicle characteristics on acceleration noise using global positioning system (GPS)-equipped instrumented vehicle data obtained from four freeway segments. In the analysis, speed models were developed and compared with acceleration noise models. In addition, the effects were investigated by traffic condition levels defined by the density-based level of service.     

The Mechanisms Involved in the Behavior of White Rats on the Inclined Plane

Semantic tasks, such as lexical decision making and word recognition, have not produced a mood priming effect. Earlier studies have been criticized because they included (a) mood induction techniques that required instruction to feel the mood, and (b) the use of overleamed tasks that did not require controlled processing. In this pair of experiments, the authors attempted to address these criticisms. However, the results of this study did not demonstrate a mood priming effect for happy and sad subjects who appraised sentence content as being happy or sad. The results of this study supported the dissociation of semantic and episodic memory.     

The Advantages of Using Standardized Scores in Causal Analysis

This article compares the usefulness of standard score results (such as correlations and standardized regression coefficients) to that of raw scores results (such as covariances and raw score regression coefficients). The 2 main advantages of presenting standardized results is then examined. First, reporting standardized coefficients allows recognition of causal relationships that replicate across studies, facilitating meta‐analysis. Second, an analysis with standardized coefficients allows the researcher to determine which of the predictor variables has the largest relative impact on the criterion variable. The implications of these 2 standardized score advantages are demonstrated with examples.     

The effect of culture and self‐construals on predispositions toward verbal communication

This study tested the effects of culture and self‐construals (i.e., independence and interdependence) on predispositions toward verbal communication. For the purpose of this study, we focused on two main areas of verbal communication predispositions: (a) communication apprehension and (b) argumentativeness. In our path model, we expected that culture‐level individualism increases one's construal of self as independent, which, in turn, leads to a higher degree of argumentativeness and a lower level of communication apprehension. We also expected that culture‐level individualism decreases one's construal of self as interdependent, which, in turn, leads to a lower degree of argumentativeness and a higher level of communication apprehension. Data to test the model were drawn from undergraduates (N=539) studying in Korea, Hawaii, and mainland U.S. The data were partially consistent with the theoretical predictions made. The implications of the results for theory and practice are discussed.