Innovation Motivation and Artistic Creativity

Innovation motivation is a social learning model of originality comprising two variables: the need to be different and innovation expectancy. This study examined their contribution to artistic creativity in a sample of undergraduates. Participants completed measures of both innovation motivation variables as well as intelligence, adjustment, and artistic training. Participants completed three drawings using colored pencils: a human artifact, a non‐human life form, and a person. Choice of main subject and details were tabulated for each drawing and originality scores were derived based on the infrequency of each thematic element. The drawings were also evaluated for technical proficiency and creativity by two master's level art therapists. The need to be different and innovation expectancy each predicted the originality of each drawing; together, they predicted 42% of the variance in the composite originality score. The need to be different and innovation expectancy also predicted proficiency and creativity ratings, especially the latter. The other variables yielded weaker, less consistent predictions. In general, both innovation motivation variables still predicted significant proportions of the variance in originality scores and creativity ratings even after controlling for other variables.     

Kings,Professors, and Ploughboys: On the Accessibility of Scripture

Under the heading of ‘the accessibility of Scripture’ I investigate accounts of the conditions – skills, knowledge or status – necessary to extracting meaning from the text adequately. I suggest that modern theological scholarship has a visibly different account from classical Reformation and post‐Reformation dogmatics, insisting on the need for historical and linguistic expertise, which used to be denied, and refusing any account of the need for the aid of the Holy Spirit, which used to be insisted upon. I suggest that, because of the constructed nature of the ‘Bible’, theological accounts of Bible reading must be responsible to lived practices of engagement with the text to be academically coherent, and on this basis argue for the superiority of the older tradition.     

THE IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCE AND OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON COMPANY PRODUCTIVITY: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Within the strategic human resource management (SHRM) perspective, psychology‐based practices, especially empowerment, extensive training, and teamwork, are seen as vital to sustained competitive advantage. Other approaches, such as those of integrated manufacturing and lean production, place greater emphasis on operational initiatives such as total quality management, just‐in‐time, advanced manufacturing technology, and supply‐chain partnering as determinants of organizational performance. We investigated the relative merits of these practices through a study of the productivity of 308 companies over 22 years, during which time they implemented some or all of these 7 practices. Consistent with SHRM theory we found performance benefits from empowerment and extensive training, with the adoption of teamwork serving to enhance both. In contrast, none of the operational practices were directly related to productivity nor did they interact with other practices in ways fully consistent with the notions of integrated manufacturing or lean production.     

INTERACTION AND INTERSECTION: THE CONSTELLATION OF EMOTIONAL STABILITY AND EXTRAVERSION IN PREDICTING PERFORMANCE

This study investigated the constellation of 2 Big 5 traits—Emotional Stability and Extraversion—in predicting job performance. Two forms of the constellation, one indirect (a statistical interaction) and the other direct (a measure of the intersection between the traits from the Big 5 circumplex), were used to predict job performance. Data were collected from employees and their supervisors at a regional health and fitness center. Results indicated that both measures predicted performance, even when controlling for the "main effects" of Emotional Stability and Extraversion, as well as 2 other relevant Big 5 traits (Agreeableness and Conscientiousness). These results suggest that the combination of Emotional Stability and Extraversion—reflecting a "happy" or "buoyant" personality—may be more important to performance than either trait in isolation.     

Misperception of sexual and romantic interests in opposite‐sex friendships: Four hypotheses

Two online studies evaluated the misperception of sexual and romantic interests in established relationships and tested four hypotheses: a simple sex‐difference hypothesis, a projection hypothesis, a mate value hypothesis, and a mediation hypothesis. Two hundred thirty‐eight (Study 1) and 198 (Study 2) members of young adult opposite‐sex friendship dyads indicated their sexual and romantic interests in their friend and their perceptions of their friend’s sexual and romantic interests in them. Participants projected their own levels of sexual and romantic interests onto their opposite‐sex friend, mediating the following effects: males overperceived and females underperceived their friends’ sexual (but not romantic) interest, and participants of both sexes misperceived the sexual (but not romantic) interest of friends depending on the friends’ mate value.     

IS EMOTIONAL LABOR MORE DIFFICULT FOR SOME THAN FOR OTHERS? A MULTILEVEL,EXPERIENCE‐SAMPLING STUDY

In response to 2 areas for development in the emotional labor literature—(a) the contemporaneous associations between emotional labor and affective reactions, and (b) whether emotional labor might be more personally costly for some employees than others—this study tested a conceptual model explaining the differential effects of deep and surface acting on job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion via their asymmetrical influences on mood, and whether extraverts fare better when engaging in emotional labor. As expected, surface acting was positively associated with negative mood, and this explained some of the association of surface acting with increased emotional exhaustion and decreased job satisfaction. Contrary to hypotheses, deep acting was unrelated to job satisfaction and was associated with lower positive affect. Extraversion moderated several emotional labor relationships such that, in general, surface and deep acting had more positive (or less negative) effects for extraverts (compared to introverts). Overall, the results support the importance of considering the roles of mood and disposition in the impact of emotional labor.     

Transition novelty moderates daters' cortisol responses when talking about marriage

Nonmarital couples' salivary cortisol responses during a likelihood of marriage discussion were assessed. Sixty‐eight couple members (34 couples) in the United States independently indicated the extent to which they had experience thinking about and talking about marriage to their current partners (i.e., marriage novelty). Couples subsequently jointly graphed their chance of marriage to each other over the course of their relationship histories. Increased levels of marriage novelty predicted heightened cortisol reactivity to the joint discussion relative to cortisol responses of couple members for whom the idea of marriage was less novel. These results highlight the impact simply discussing transitions can have on individuals' physiological responses, and add to the expanding literature concerning the link between nonmarital romances and biological outcomes.