The Social Relations of Rural African American Early Adolescents and Proximal Impact of the School Engagement Project

This paper reports on the social relations of rural African American early adolescents and the initial impact of a multilevel universal intervention program aimed at enhancing the productive school engagement of at-risk youth. Students' school social relations were assessed with social cognitive mapping procedures that yield information on peer group membership and social network centrality (i.e., prominence in the social structure). Risk status was determined by cluster analysis of teacher ratings of students' adjustment on multiple dimensions including aggression, academic competence, and popularity. Four subgroups were identified: Model, Aggressive, Troubled, and Below Average. Differences among clusters were found in network centrality and patterns of peer affiliations. In addition, boys in the Below Average and Troubled configurations showed an increase in social prominence after the initial intervention phase.     

Better Late than Never? The Relationship between Ratings of Attendance,Punctuality, and Overall Job Performance among Nursing Home Employees

This study examined the relationship between lateness, absenteeism, and overall job performance among nursing home employees. We addressed four issues: (a) agreement between subordinate and superior in their ratings, (b) the stability of rated lateness and rated absenteeism over 6 months, (c) the correlation between ratings of lateness and absenteeism assigned by the worker to himself or herself and the corresponding ratings from supervisors, and (d) the relationship of rated lateness and rated absenteeism to impressions of overall job performance. Neither attendance nor punctuality showed inter‐rater agreement between the worker and his/her supervisor on either of the two occasions. Ratings of attendance were not stable across time for either the subordinate (r=.16) or the supervisor (r=.04), but punctuality ratings showed moderate temporal stability over 6 months for both subordinate (r=.59) and supervisor (r=. 41) impressions. On the first administration of the rating form, attendance and punctuality were not significantly correlated to each other in either the workers' self‐ratings (r=.17) nor the supervisors' ratings of the workers (r=.08). On the second administration, however, these two facets were moderately correlated with each other in both workers' (r=.54) and supervisors' (r=. 39) impressions of employee behavior. Compared with attendance, punctuality was somewhat more highly correlated with impressions of overall job performance from the perspective of the worker herself/himself as well as the supervisor.     

A review of recent developments in research and theories on human contingency learning

Over the past 20 years, human contingency learning has resurfaced as an important topic within experimental psychology. This renewed interest was sparked mainly by the proposal that associative models of Pavlovian conditioning might also apply to human contingency learning--a proposal that has led to many new empirical findings and theoretical developments. We provide a brief review of these recent developments and try to point to issues that need to be addressed in future research.     

The CHIC Model: A Global Model for Coupled Binary Data

Often problems result in the collection of coupled data, which consist of different N-way N-mode data blocks that have one or more modes in common. To reveal the structure underlying such data, an integrated modeling strategy, with a single set of parameters for the common mode(s), that is estimated based on the information in all data blocks, may be most appropriate. Such a strategy implies a global model, consisting of different N-way N-mode submodels, and a global loss function that is a (weighted) sum of the partial loss functions associated with the different submodels. In this paper, such a global model for an integrated analysis of a three-way three-mode binary data array and a two-way two-mode binary data matrix that have one mode in common is presented. A simulated annealing algorithm to estimate the model parameters is described and evaluated in a simulation study. An application of the model to real psychological data is discussed. T. Wilderjans is a Research Assistant of the Fund for Scientific Research—Flanders (Belgium). The research reported in this paper was partially supported by the Research Council of K.U. Leuven (GOA/2005/04). We are grateful to Kristof Vansteelandt for providing us with an interesting data set. We also thank three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments.     

Expectancy confirmation in attitude learning: A connectionist account

Connectionist computer simulation was employed to model how learners acquire attitudes towards novel objects under conditions where (a) they are given prior expectancies that the objects as a whole are mostly good or mostly bad; and (b) they can only discover the true valence of the objects by approaching them. Expectancy confirmation was operationalized through modifying connection weights more after experiencing good than bad objects (positive bias), or more after experiencing bad than good objects (negative bias). Negative bias led the network to misclassify more good objects as bad, such negative attitudes resisting change because of the lack of corrective feedback relating to avoided objects. Conversely, positive bias encouraged approach and hence feedback leading to more accurate discrimination of good and bad objects, as well as to higher estimates of the valence of objects not presented during training. These findings suggest that expectancy confirmation may emerge “automatically” from basic learning processes. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Set-size effects for identification versus localization depend on the visual search task

In both behavior and neuroscience research, it is debated whether the processing of identity and location is closely bound throughout processing. One aspect of this debate is the possibly privileged processing of identity or location. For example, processing identity may have unlimited capacity, while processing location does not. The authors have investigated the possibility of such privileged processing by measuring set-size effects for a variety of identification and localization tasks. In particular, set-size effects in accuracy visual search are measured with either 1 or 2 possible targets. For 1-target tasks, set-size effects are smaller for identification than localization; for 2-target tasks, set-size effects are larger for identification than localization. The observed crossover interaction is inconsistent with a privileged processing hypothesis for either identity or location. Furthermore, this interaction is predicted by an independent channel model based on signal detection theory, in which the details of each decision determine the relative magnitude of the set-size effects. This result is consistent with the similar processing of identity and location, and it refutes the privileged processing hypothesis for either identity or location.     

Interpersonal relations as a source of risk of mobbing in the local police

Social relations in the workplace are one of the main sources of risk for the onset of mobbing. In this work, we analyzed, through the perceived social climate, the influence of interpersonal relations on the characterization of the processes of mobbing, in a sample of local police (N = 235). In particular, the policemen and women's opinions of the quality of the personal relations among the group members and the treatment they receive from the command posts were assessed. The results of the study show that the development of guidelines of social interaction based on discrimination and abuse of authority are predicting variables of mobbing in this group.     

Cognitive aspects of binge drinking

This paper aims to explore causes of binge drinking in young people and the effects that they seek when they drink alcohol, based on age and alcohol intake. 4,083 questionnaires were administered to 1,361 university students and 2,722 adolescents at their educational institutions. The findings corresponding to those who reported practising binge drinking -2,917 subjects- are presented in the paper. Taking into account the regularity of the practice and the alcohol intake, cluster analysis differentiated two consumer types in each group: the radical type (21.2% university students-18.2% adolescents): 10-11 drinks 3 days a week and for more than 10 months a year; and the average type (78.7% university students-81.7% adolescents): 4-5 drinks twice a week and for 8-9 months. Drinking as a way of having fun (75.2%) and drinking for the sake of drinking (81.9%) are two of the main causes underlying binge drinking, economical reasons being secondary for adolescents As for the expected effects, the short-term positive aspects of moderate consumption (being more talkative, euphoric...) stand out. Adolescents also expect to improve some of their personal skills (more self-confidence...). These results corroborate and increase the information currently available and allow us to propose alternatives adapted to young people's real needs.