Different measures of risk perceptions and distress yield different patterns of results: the importance of specificity in measurement and theory

There is little consensus on how to conceptualize and measure both cognitive perceptions of risks and affective responses to risks. We report data on two measures of risk perceptions and affective responses, as well as attendance behaviour, for 226 women who received a normal test result and 180 women who received a first or non-consecutive inadequate cervical smear test result. Different measures of risk perceptions (cognition) and distress about test result (affect) were not always strongly associated, often yielding markedly different patterns of results. This highlights the need for more precise reporting of measures and greater specificity of theoretical predictions. Suggestions for further studies investigating cognitive and affective reactions to health risk information are outlined.     

Does the Onset Controllability of Diagnostic Labels Affect the Perceived Appropriateness of an Insanity Verdict?1

The present study attempted to look at reactions to an insanity verdict by asking participants to rate the appropriateness of an insanity verdict already handed down by a jury. A sample of 196 adults read a short vignette describing the defendant's crime, a courtappointed psychiatrist's diagnosis, and a jury's verdict (guilty; or not guilty by reason of insanity, NGRI). Using Weiner's (1995) responsibility model, it was predicted and found that an insanity verdict was deemed less appropriate when the defendant was construed to have an onset controllable disorder. Path analyses indicate that onset controllability, responsibility judgments, and affective reactions do not account for the perceived appropriateness of guilty and NGRI verdicts in the same way.     

Chinese Churches and the Ecumenical Movement from an Asian Perspective

The involvement of Chinese churches and Chinese Christians with the ecumenical movement preceded the establishment of the World Council of Churches in 1948. Recurring themes in the encounter have been de‐colonization and indigenization, church unity and post‐denominationalism, and Asian regional ecumenism. There was also a determination among Chinese church leaders to reconfigure mission and relations between churches in the West and those in Asia. These concerns have their origins in the chequered history of Christian missions and their association with imperialism in the last century.     

ADHD and Depression Symptoms in Parent Couples Predict Response to Child ADHD and ODD Behavior

Parents of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) often have elevated ADHD and depressive symptoms, both of which increase the risk of ineffective parenting and interparental discord. However, little is known about whether child ADHD/ODD behavior and parent ADHD or depressive symptoms uniquely or synergistically predict the quality of parenting and interparental communication during triadic (mother-father-child) interactions. Ninety parent couples, including 51 who have children diagnosed with ADHD, were randomly assigned to interact with a 9–12 year-old confederate child (84 % male) exhibiting either ADHD/ODD-like behavior or typical behavior. Parents reported their own ADHD and depressive symptoms, and parents and observers rated the quality of parenting and interparental communication during the interaction. Actor-partner interdependence modeling indicated that child ADHD/ODD behavior predicted less positive and more negative parenting and communication, independent of adult ADHD and depressive symptoms. Parent couples including two parents with elevated ADHD communicated more positively while managing children exhibiting ADHD/ODD behavior than couples managing children behaving typically or couples with only one parent with elevated ADHD symptoms. Couples including one parent with, and one parent without, elevated ADHD or depressive symptoms parented less positively and more negatively, and communicated more negatively, when managing children exhibiting ADHD/ODD behavior than when managing children behaving typically. Taken together, depending on the similarity of ADHD and depressive symptom levels in parent couples, adults managing children exhibiting ADHD/ODD behavior may parent or communicate positively or negatively. Findings highlight the need to consider the psychopathology of both parents when treating children with ADHD in two-parent homes.     

Virtual team leadership: The effects of leadership style and communication medium on team interaction styles and outcomes

This study investigated the effects of transformational and transactional leadership styles and communication media on team interaction styles and outcomes. Teams communicated through one of the following three ways: (a) face-to-face, (b) desktop videoconference, or (c) text-based chat. Results indicated that transformational and transactional leadership styles did not affect team interaction styles or outcomes; that the mean constructive interaction score was higher in FTF than videoconference and chat teams, but not significantly higher in videoconference than chat teams; and that teams working in richer communication media did not achieve higher task performance than those communicating through less rich media. Finally, mean team cohesion scores were higher in FTF and videoconference than chat teams, but not significantly higher in FTF than videoconference teams. These results provide further evidence that communication media do have important effects on team interaction styles and cohesion.     

Black sheep and expectancy violation: integrating two models of social judgment

A study of race‐based ingroup and outgroup judgment demonstrates the links between two models of social judgment—the ‘black sheep’ effect (Marques, Yzerbyt & Leyens, 1988) and expectancy‐violation theory (Jussim, Coleman & Lerch, 1987). White participants had a live interaction with a Black or White partner who contributed to a team success or failure at a game. Partner judgments, perceived expectancy violation, and mood changes indicated a pattern of ingroup polarization, though the race differential was reliable only when targets performed poorly. Consistent with other research, this pattern was most striking among Whites who were highly identified with their racial group. We suggest that racial identification activates favorable within‐group judgment standards which, when violated, produce mood decrements and negative evaluations. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Anger and Gender Effects in Observed Supervisor-Subordinate Dyadic Interactions

This study investigates the effects of a supervisor's anger and supervisor's and subordinate's gender on evaluations made by observers of interacting supervisor-subordinate dyads. In a laboratory experiment, 370 undergraduates viewed one of eight video-tapes representing the conditions of the 2 (gender of supervisor) × 2 (gender of subordinate) × 2 (presence or absence of anger) design and then completed evaluations of the supervisor and the subordinate. A field study using 265 employees from three organizations replicated the laboratory results. In spite of constant dialogue in the interactions across all eight conditions, supervisors expressing anger were rated lower and female supervisors were rated higher by observers. Subordinates were rated higher when interacting with an angry supervisor and when interacting with a male supervisor. Main effects of supervisor's gender may reflect over-evaluation of unexpected, albeit average, performance. The joint supervisor and subordinate effects are interpreted as reflecting a dyadic rating effect in which high ratings assigned to one member of the dyad are accompanied by lower ratings assigned to the other member.     

Correction to: Is it still worth it? Applying expectancy-value theory to investigate the intraindividual motivational process of forming intentions to drop out from university

Motivation and Emotion - An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.