Social Interactions at Work and Psychological Health: The Role of Leader–Member Exchange and Work Group Integration1

The objectives of this study are to test the effects that the quality of leader–member exchange (LMX) and work group integration (WGI) may have on psychological health, as well as their interaction effect. Psychological health is defined both in terms of subjective well‐being and psychological distress. Data were gathered from a sample of 249 employees working in a prison setting. Results indicated that LMX and WGI are positively related to subjective well‐being and are negatively related to psychological distress. In addition, LMX and WGI exert a synergistic interaction effect on both dimensions of psychological health. Overall, the results show that the quality of the social environment may greatly enhance psychological health in a high‐risk workplace.     

When more is less: feedback effects in perceptual category learning

Rule-based and information-integration category learning were compared under minimal and full feedback conditions. Rule-based category structures are those for which the optimal rule is verbalizable. Information-integration category structures are those for which the optimal rule is not verbalizable. With minimal feedback subjects are told whether their response was correct or incorrect, but are not informed of the correct category assignment. With full feedback subjects are informed of the correctness of their response and are also informed of the correct category assignment. An examination of the distinct neural circuits that subserve rule-based and information-integration category learning leads to the counterintuitive prediction that full feedback should facilitate rule-based learning but should also hinder information-integration learning. This prediction was supported in the experiment reported below. The implications of these results for theories of learning are discussed.     

Neural correlates of the perception of goal-directed action in infants

We investigated the neural correlates of the perception of human goal-directed action by 8-month-old infants. Infants viewed video loops of complete and incomplete actions, which they could discriminate according to our pilot study, while we recorded their electrophysiological brain activity. Analysis of bursts of gamma-band oscillations resulting from passive viewing of these stimuli indicated increased gamma-band activity over left frontal regions when viewing incomplete actions as compared with complete actions. These results suggest that by 8 months infants are sensitive to the disruption of perceived goal-directed actions.     

Culture, gender, and the self: variations and impact of social comparison processes

Psychological differences between women and men, far from being invariant as a biological explanation would suggest, fluctuate in magnitude across cultures. Moreover, contrary to the implications of some theoretical perspectives, gender differences in personality, values, and emotions are not smaller, but larger, in American and European cultures, in which greater progress has been made toward gender equality. This research on gender differences in self-construals involving 950 participants from 5 nations/cultures (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, and Malaysia) illustrates how variations in social comparison processes across cultures can explain why gender differences are stronger in Western cultures. Gender differences in the self are a product of self-stereotyping, which occurs when between-gender social comparisons are made. These social comparisons are more likely, and exert a greater impact, in Western nations. Both correlational and experimental evidence supports this explanation.     

The evolutionary role of self-deceptive enhancement as a protective factor against antisocial cognitions

This study investigates the relationship between self-deception and variables associated with antisociality in the general population (i.e., mating effort, antisocial thinking, psychopathy, and personality), seeking to provide an evolutionary explanation for how self-deception might influence antisocial thinking. The Mating Effort Scale (MES); an adjusted version of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS); the Levenson Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP); the NEO-Five Factor Inventory-Revised (NEO-FFI-R), and the Paulhus Deception Scales (PDS) were administered to 95 participants (33 males, 62 females, mean age = 36.4 years). Self-deceptive enhancement correlated significantly and negatively with Neuroticism (r = −.30, p < 0.01), and positively with Openness (r = .27, p < 0.05) and Conscientiousness (r = .43, p < 0.01). Mating effort related primarily to the PICTS and self-reported psychopathy. Factor analysis of the scales produced two underlying components; ‘careless non-cooperation’ (defined by impulsive antisociality) and ‘careful cooperation’ (reflecting dutifulness, emotional stability, and social desirability). Our results suggest self-deceptive enhancement may be a protective factor against antisocial thinking and behaviour, and that this is impeded by high neuroticism and impulsive thinking.     

Within-category discontinuity interacts with verbal rule complexity in perceptual category learning

A test of the predicted interaction between within-category discontinuity and verbal rule complexity on information-integration and rule-based category learning was conducted. Within-category discontinuity adversely affected information-integration category learning but not rule-based category learning. Model-based analyses suggested that some information-integration participants improved performance by recruiting more "units" in the discontinuous condition. Verbal rule complexity adversely affected rule-based category learning but not information-integration category learning. Model-based analyses suggested that the rule based effect was on both decision criterion learning and variability in decision criterion placement. These results suggest that within-category discontinuity and decision rule complexity differentially impact information-integration and rule-based category learning and provide information regarding the detailed processing characteristics of these two proposed category learning systems.     

Keeping it Real: Intentional Inexistents,Fineness‐of‐Grain,and the Dilemma for Extrinsic Higher‐Order Representational Theories

According to the standard argument from targetless higher‐order representations, the possibility of such representations presents a dilemma for higher‐order theorists. In this article I argue that there are two theoretically well‐motivated replies to the standard argument. Consequently, the standard argument against higher‐order theories fails. I then go on to argue that while certain versions of higher‐order theory can adequately respond to the standard argument, they both, nevertheless, fail to explain the fineness‐of‐grain that phenomenally conscious experience appears to have.