The relationship of GMA to counterproductive work behavior revisited

Recent research reported that general mental ability (GMA) predicted counterproductive work behavior (CWB), whereas some previous studies failed to find such a relationship. We tested occupational homogeneity of the sample and criterion measurement as two potential explanations for these inconsistencies. Study 1 replicated major design features of one previous study, which found no GMA–CWB relation in a heterogeneous sample, with occupationally homogeneous groups. Results confirmed previous null findings, indicating no effect of sample homogeneity. In Study 2, using a controlled laboratory setting, GMA was again unrelated to self‐reported CWB, but partially predicted observed CWB negatively. Combined findings suggest that GMA is consistently unrelated to CWB self‐reports but may predict objectively measured CWB independently of the likelihood of being caught. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Three indications for the existence of God in causal metaphysics

With the emergence of modern physics a conflict became apparent between the Principle of Sufficient Cause and the Principle of Physical Causal Closure. Though these principles are not logically incompatible, they could no longer be considered to be both true; one of them had to be false. The present paper makes use of this seldom noticed conflict to argue on the basis of considerations of comparative rationality for the truth of causal statements that have at least some degree of philosophico-theological relevance and can be taken to indicate (not prove) the existence of God. The paper’s comparatively modest aim is to establish belief in the existence of God as a rational metaphysical option, not as a rational obligation. In its final section, enriched causal considerations lead to an indication (not proof) of God as that which guarantees the unified continuance of the physical world.     

Fishing for the right words: decision rules for human foraging behavior in internal search tasks

Animals depleting one patch of resources must decide when to leave and switch to a fresh patch. Foraging theory has predicted various decision mechanisms; which is best depends on environmental variation in patch quality. Previously we tested whether these mechanisms underlie human decision making when foraging for external resources; here we test whether humans behave similarly in a cognitive task seeking internally generated solutions. Subjects searched for meaningful words made from random letter sequences, and as their success rate declined, they could opt to switch to a fresh sequence. As in the external foraging context, time since the previous success and the interval preceding it had a major influence on when subjects switched. Subjects also used the commonness of sequence letters as a proximal cue to patch quality that influenced when to switch. Contrary to optimality predictions, switching decisions were independent of whether sequences differed little or widely in quality.     

Erfassung der sozialen Ungleichheit in empirischen Untersuchungen

Background

The interrelationship between social inequality and health problems is well known. This paper evaluates how current empirical studies in the context of social psychiatry, psychosomatics and medical sociology respond to this issue in terms of taking characteristics of socio-economic status (SES) into account.

Material and methods

All empirical studies published in the German journals Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik und Medizinische Psychologie and Psychiatrische Praxis in 2005 and 2006 were evaluated regarding the use of characteristics of SES.

Results

Of the 113 studies examined, 70 (62%) covered characteristics of the SES. The majority included characteristics of both formal and professional education, but often in only few categories. Some studies used a combination of formal and professional education. Half of the studies included categories of occupational status or gainful employment, also often in few categories and 11% of studies included net family income. Three studies formed an index of social class using the categories lower class, middle class and upper class.

Conclusion

Determination of characteristics of SES can be improved both quantitatively and qualitatively. Comparability of population studies can be improved by an increased orientation on demographic standards.     

Logic Without Contraction as Based on Inclusion and Unrestricted Abstraction

On the one hand, the absence of contraction is a safeguard against the logical (property theoretic) paradoxes; but on the other hand, it also disables inductive and recursive definitions, in its most basic form the definition of the series of natural numbers, for instance. The reason for this is simply that the effectiveness of a recursion clause depends on its being available after application, something that is usually assured by contraction. This paper presents a way of overcoming this problem within the framework of a logic based on inclusion and unrestricted abstraction, without any form of extensionality. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On the source and scope of priming effects of masked stimuli on endogenous shifts of spatial attention

Unconscious stimuli can influence participants’ motor behavior as well as more complex mental processes. Previous cue-priming experiments demonstrated that masked cues can modulate endogenous shifts of spatial attention as measured by choice reaction time tasks. Here, we applied a signal detection task with masked luminance targets to determine the source and the scope of effects of masked stimuli. Target-detection performance was modulated by prime-cue congruency, indicating that prime-cue congruency modulates signal enhancement at early levels of target processing. These effects, however, were only found when the prime was perceptually similar to the cue indicting that primes influence early target processing in an indirect way by facilitating cue processing. Together with previous research we conclude that masked stimuli can modulate perceptual and post-central levels of processing. Findings mark a new limit of the effects of unconscious stimuli which seem to have a smaller scope than conscious stimuli.     

Goal setting via videoconferencing

In two experiments (N = 126, N = 120) telework in an advertising company was simulated. Participants communicated either face-to-face or via a PC-videoconference with a supervisor who motivated employees to solve brainstorming tasks using several goal setting strategies. In addition, communication with the supervisor prior to goal setting was manipulated to examine the impact of a personal meeting with the supervisor and to investigate the effect of having some prior experience with this technology. In both experiments, stimulating challenging goals improved performance compared to “do your best” instructions when goal setting was conducted via a videoconference. Moreover, it was found that participative goal setting was more effective than directive goal setting. However, a prior personal meeting with a supervisor or an additional interaction via videoconference prior to goal setting had no impact on performance or the effectiveness of goal setting. In sum, these findings indicate that goal setting effects are robust and can be found even if communication is based on a videoconference. When difficult goals have to be set within a videoconference, participative goal setting strategies are most effective.     

A PRP-study to determine the locus of target priming effects

Visual stimuli that are made invisible by a following mask can nonetheless affect motor responses. To localize the origin of these target priming effects we used the psychological refractory period paradigm. Participants classified tones as high or low, and responded to the position of a visual target that was preceded by a prime. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between both tasks varied. In Experiment 1 the tone task was followed by the position task and SOA dependent target priming effects were observed. When the visual position task preceded the tone task in Experiment 2, with short SOA the priming effect propagated entirely to the tone task yielding faster responses to tones on visually congruent trials and delayed responses to tones on visually incongruent trials. Together, results suggest that target priming effects arise from processing before and at the level of the central bottleneck such as sensory analysis and response selection.