Person-environment congruence in relation to career change and career persistence

This study examined Holland’s theoretical proposition, that personality-work environment congruence influences career stability and change, with a sample of 212 career changers (respondents who expressed an intent to change career and had engaged in preliminary career change activity) and 249 career persisters (respondents who indicated an intent to remain in their current career). Independent groups ANCOVA (controlling for age and current career tenure) indicated that career persisters scored higher on congruence than career changers, however, the effect size was within the small to medium range. Repeated-measures ANCOVA indicated, with a medium effect size, that career changers moved towards careers that were more congruent with their personality profiles than their current careers. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Environmental and Family Associations With Racism1

Environmental and family factors related to racism in college students were investigated. Students (N=114) at a southern liberal‐arts college filled out an extensive survey about childhood activities and family of origin, and 40 of their mothers completed a similar survey. The Attitudes Toward Blacks ( Brigham, 1993 ) scale measured racism. Several hypotheses were supported. Students who exhibited less racism also reported that they made more diverse friends in school, came from a more diverse hometown, had diverse encounters and friendships at an earlier age, and had more positive foreign travel experiences. In addition, more racist students perceived their mothers as being more prejudiced while they were growing up, and they perceived their fathers as being more prejudiced currently. Finally, students judged their mothers as less racist than their fathers, and also reported that their mothers exhibited less racist behaviors than did their fathers. The importance of racially diverse experiences and friendships early in life are discussed as means to decrease racism.     

Line-bisectioning and obstacle avoidance: Evidence for separate strategies

Previous studies have frequently applied a combination of line-bisection tasks (in which participants indicate the middle of a line) and obstacle avoidance tasks (in which participants move their hand between two obstacles) with the aim of revealing perception–action dissociations in certain neurological disorders, such as visual form agnosia and optic ataxia. However, valid conclusions about the underlying processing pathways can only be drawn if participants apply the same strategy in both tasks (i.e. finding the middle between the obstacles). Yet, this assumption has never been tested directly. In this experiment, we investigated whether participants perform obstacle avoidance and line-bisectioning using similar strategies by manipulating the position of the obstacles and the start position of the hand relative to the obstacles. Our results indicate that the lateral hand position during obstacle avoidance does not only vary as a function of obstacle location but also strongly depends on the start position. Moreover, participants showed increased sensitivity to obstacle shifts occurring closer to the hand's start position. In contrast, during line-bisectioning the sensitivity to obstacles shifts was unaffected by the hand's start position. The findings suggest that during obstacle-avoidance the need to keep a safe distance from the obstacles is balanced with the requirement to minimise energetic demands. In contrast, the main intention during line-bisectioning is to move to the perceived midpoint as accurately as possible. The fact that very different constraints underlie trajectory planning in both tasks implies that caution has to be taken when interpreting differences in performance levels.     

18- and 24-month-olds' discrimination of gender-consistent and inconsistent activities

18- and 24-month-olds' ability to discriminate gender-stereotyped activities was assessed. Using a preferential looking paradigm, toddlers viewed male and female actors performing masculine and feminine-stereotyped activities. Consistent with our predictions, and previous research, 24-month-olds, but not 18-month-olds, looked longer at the gender-inconsistent activities than the gender-consistent activities. Results are discussed in terms of toddlers emerging gender stereotypes and perception of everyday events.     

When accurate and inaccurate eyewitnesses look the same: a limitation of the ‘pop‐out’ effect and the 10‐ to 12‐second rule

Research has found support for a ‘pop‐out effect’ that occurs when witnesses who accurately identify a criminal from a lineup are faster and uses more automatic processing than inaccurate witnesses who misidentify a foil. We present evidence that this finding may not occur with biased lineups. Witnesses to a mock theft were asked to make a lineup identification and three types of witnesses were compared: (1) accurate witnesses who identified a thief, (2) inaccurate witnesses who misidentified a foil who was more similar looking to the thief than the other lineup foils and (3) inaccurate witnesses who misidentified a foil who was not more similar in appearance to the thief than the other lineup foils. Accurate witnesses who identified the thief and inaccurate witnesses who misidentified a foil more similar to the thief than the other lineup foils were indistinguishable; both were faster, used more automatic recognition processes and were more confident than inaccurate witnesses who identified other foils. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Career transitions in times of social change. His and her story

Drawing on data collected from two longitudinal Cohort Studies following the lives of over 20,000 individuals born in the United Kingdom 12 years apart in 1958 and 1970, respectively, this paper examines antecedents and outcomes of educational and occupational aspirations of young men and women, covering the transition from dependent childhood into independent adulthood. Two analytical models, a Social Reproduction Model and a Developmental-Contextual Model are tested to assess the processes by which family background and the wider socio-historical context influence work and family related careers. The findings demonstrate the persistent role of gender, social origin and individual agency processes as well as the influence of a changing socio-historical context on career development. Results are interpreted with regard to biographical agency processes linking individual lives with social contexts across the life course.     

Exploring Power and Gender Issues Emergent in an Institutional Workshop on Preventing Clergy Sexual Misconduct

The Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) sponsors the Crossing the Boundaries (CTB) workshop, a program that focuses on the maintenance of appropriate boundaries in clergy-congregant relationships as a means to prevent clergy sexual misconduct. Drawing primarily on an analysis of the synod-sanctioned workshop materials, an observation of the workshop, and interviews with 10 pastors who have attended the workshop, this paper explores differing conceptions of power and gender held by the synod officials and workshop participants.     

College students' motivations for money and subjective well-being

Previous research indicates that, while making money is important to college students, it is negatively correlated with subjective well-being. This study asked 157 undergraduate business and psychology students about the importance of making money, their motives for doing so, and several dimensions of subjective well-being: satisfaction with life, self-actualization, and mood/affect. Making money remains very important to college students. Being motivated to make money was not globally related to subjective well-being, but wanting to make money to help others, to feel secure, and to feel proud of oneself were predictive of happiness or subjective well-being. Motives such as comparing oneself favorably to others, spending impulsively, and overcoming self-doubt were not correlated with subjective well-being. Business students appeared more motivated to make money than other students and also to have more negative affect.