A conservation of resources perspective on career hurdles and salary attainment

Guided by conservation of resources theory, the present study examines six types of hurdles individuals face in their careers and how those hurdles impede the attainment of higher salaries. With a meta-analysis of 339 empirical studies conducted over the past 50 years, we observed that socio-demographic hurdles (e.g., being non-Caucasian), trait-related hurdles (e.g., low cognitive ability), motivational hurdles (e.g., being unwilling to relocate), skill-related hurdles (e.g., low levels of formal education), social environment hurdles (e.g., no mentors), and work environment hurdles (e.g., jobs with low control) all made it more difficult to command high salaries.     

Modeling a cascade of effects: the role of speed and executive functioning in preterm/full-term differences in academic achievement

This study identified deficits in executive functioning in pre-adolescent preterms and modeled their role, along with processing speed, in explaining preterm/full-term differences in reading and mathematics. Preterms (< 1750 g) showed deficits at 11 years on a battery of tasks tapping the three basic executive functions identified by Miyake - updating/working memory, inhibition, and shifting. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that these executive functions, though correlated, were distinct from one another and from processing speed, which later proved to account for much of the intercorrelation among executive functions. In the best-fitting structural equation model, the negative effects of prematurity on achievement were completely mediated by the three executive functions and speed in a cascade of effects: prematurity → slower processing speed → poorer executive functioning (working memory) → lower achievement in math and reading.     

Mother and infant coordinate heart rhythms through episodes of interaction synchrony

Animal studies demonstrated the powerful impact of maternal-infant social contact on the infant's physiological systems, yet the online effects of social interactions on the human infant's physiology remain poorly understood. Mothers and their 3-month old infants were observed during face-to-face interactions while cardiac output was collected from mother and child. Micro-analysis of the partners’ behavior marked episodes of gaze, affect, and vocal synchrony. Time-series analysis showed that mother and infant coordinate heart rhythms within lags of less than 1 s. Bootstrapping analysis indicated that the concordance between maternal and infant biological rhythms increased significantly during episodes of affect and vocal synchrony compared to non-synchronous moments. Humans, like other mammals, can impact the physiological processes of the attachment partner through the coordination of visuo-affective social signals.     

Intraclass correlation associated with therapists: estimates and applications in planning psychotherapy research

It is essential that outcome research permit clear conclusions to be drawn about the efficacy of interventions. The common practice of nesting therapists within conditions can pose important methodological challenges that affect interpretation, particularly if the study is not powered to account for the nested design. An obstacle to the optimal design of these studies is the lack of data about the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), which measures the statistical dependencies introduced by nesting. To begin the development of a public database of ICC estimates, the authors investigated ICCs for a variety outcomes reported in 20 psychotherapy outcome studies. The magnitude of the 495 ICC estimates varied widely across measures and studies. The authors provide recommendations regarding how to select and aggregate ICC estimates for power calculations and show how researchers can use ICC estimates to choose the number of patients and therapists that will optimize power. Attention to these recommendations will strengthen the validity of inferences drawn from psychotherapy studies that nest therapists within conditions.     

Emotional granularity and borderline personality disorder

This study examined the affective dysregulation component of borderline personality disorder (BPD) from an emotional granularity perspective, which refers to the specificity in which one represents emotions. Forty-six female participants meeting criteria for BPD and 51 female control participants without BPD and Axis I pathology completed tasks that assessed the degree to which participants incorporated information about valence (pleasant-unpleasant) and arousal (calm-activated) in their semantic/conceptual representations of emotions and in using labels to represent emotional reactions. As hypothesized, participants with BPD emphasized valence more and arousal less than control participants did when using emotion terms to label their emotional reactions. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Affective organizational commitment and citizenship behavior: Linear and non-linear moderating effects of organizational tenure

Utilizing a meta-analytical approach for testing moderating effects, the current study investigated organizational tenure as a moderator in the relation between affective organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). We observed that, across 40 studies (N = 11,416 respondents), the effect size for the relation between affective organizational commitment and non-self measures of OCB was .23. However, we also found that organizational tenure moderated the relation in a non-linear way. Before 10 years of tenure, the strength of the commitment–OCB relation increased as organizational tenure increased; after that point, the strength of the commitment–OCB relation decreased as organizational tenure increased. In short, the moderating effect of tenure follows a curvilinear pattern.     

Responses to Positive Affect Predict Mood Symptoms in Children Under Conditions of Stress: A Prospective Study

Rumination to negative affect has been linked to the onset and maintenance of mood disorders in adults as well as children. Responses to positive affect have received far less attention thus far. A few recent studies in adults suggest that responses to positive affect are involved in the development of both depressive and hypomanic symptoms, but thus far no study has investigated their role in childhood mood problems. The purpose of the present study was to validate a child version of the Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire and examine the extent to which responses to positive affect prospectively predict mood symptoms over a 3-month interval. The Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire for Children was found to assess two types of responses to positive affect: Positive Rumination and Dampening. Both subscales showed sufficient internal consistency and moderate stability over a 3-month interval. Low levels of positive rumination and high levels of dampening were concurrently associated with depressive symptoms, over and above responses to negative affect. Importantly, low levels of positive rumination also predicted increases in depressive symptoms over a 3-month interval over and above baseline symptoms in children reporting high levels of stress. Both positive rumination and dampening were positively related to concurrent hypomanic symptoms and high levels of positive rumination predicted increases in hypomanic symptoms over a 3-month interval over and above baseline symptoms in children reporting high levels of stress. The results underscore the added value of assessing responses to positive affect in addition to responses to negative affect.     

Emotions are real

It is obvious that emotions are real, but the question is what kind of "real" are they? In this article, I outline a theoretical approach where emotions are a part of social reality. I propose that physical changes (in the face, voice, and body, or neural circuits for behavioral adaptations like freezing, fleeing, or fighting) transform into an emotion when those changes take on psychological functions that they cannot perform by their physical nature alone. This requires socially shared conceptual knowledge that perceivers use to create meaning from these physical changes (as well as the circuitry that supports this meaning making). My claim is that emotions are, at the same time, socially constructed and biologically evident. Only when we understand all the elements that construct emotional episodes, in social, psychological, and biological terms, will we understand the nature of emotion.     

Gay male attraction toward muscular men: Does mating context matter?

The purpose of this study was to examine gay men's perceived attractiveness of male figures based on short-term and long-term partner contexts. A sample of 190 gay adult men rated the attractiveness of line-drawings depicting male figures varying systematically in muscularity and body fat percentage in both short-term and long-term dating contexts. Mixed effects modeling was used to estimate the effects of figure (muscularity and body fat), dating context (short-term vs. long-term), and individual rater characteristics on attractiveness ratings. Results indicated that figure muscularity and body-fat had significant non-linear (i.e., quadratic) relationships with attractiveness ratings, and short-term dating context was associated with more discriminating ratings of attractiveness. Interactions between individual characteristics and figure characteristics indicated that the more available the individual and lower body fat, the more discriminating they were in ratings of attractiveness. The implications for future investigations considering both object and observer characteristics of attractiveness preferences are discussed.