A multilevel study on the relationships between work characteristics, self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and organizational citizenship behavior: the case of Taiwanese police duty-executing organizations

Public security, traffic management, and service for the people are the 3 major functions of policing in Taiwan. This definition encompasses not only the traditional job characteristics, but also the level of contextual characteristics and social characteristics because of police work's characteristics and its frequent interaction with the public. Thus, the present study conducted a multilevel model analysis by taking self-efficacy and collective efficacy as the mediating variables. The purpose was to investigate the influences of motivational work characteristics (knowledge-oriented) and social work characteristics (socially and contextually oriented) of work-design model on the police officers' organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), by using first-line police officers in Taiwan as the research objects. The study showed not only that knowledge characteristics will influence the self-efficacy of a police officer and that self-efficacy can in turn influence individual police officers' OCB, but also the contextual effect of social characteristics, contextual characteristics, and collective efficacy on self-efficacy and individuals' OCB. Additionally, there was a crosslevel moderating effect from contextual characteristics on the relationship between knowledge characteristics and self-efficacy and the relationship between self-efficacy and the individuals' OCB. The authors conclude the article with research implications.     

Basic numerical capacities and prevalence of developmental dyscalculia: the Havana Survey

The association of enumeration and number comparison capacities with arithmetical competence was examined in a large sample of children from 2nd to 9th grades. It was found that efficiency on numerical capacities predicted separately more than 25% of the variance in the individual differences on a timed arithmetical test, and this occurred for both younger and older learners. These capacities were also significant predictors of individual variations in an untimed curriculum-based math achievement test and on the teacher scores of math performance over developmental time. Based on these findings, these numerical capacities were used for estimating the prevalence and gender ratio of basic numerical deficits and developmental dyscalculia (DD) over the grade range defined above (N = 11,652 children). The extent to which DD affects the population with poor ability on calculation was also examined. For this purpose, the prevalence and gender ratio of arithmetical dysfluency (AD) were estimated in the same cohort. The estimated prevalence of DD was 3.4%, and the male:female ratio was 4:1. However, the prevalence of AD was almost 3 times as high (9.35%), and no gender differences were found (male:female ratio = 1.07:1). Basic numerical deficits affect 4.54% of school-age population and affect more boys than girls (2.4:1). The differences between the corresponding estimates were highly significant (α < .01). Based on these contrastive findings, it is concluded that DD, defined as a defective sense of numerosity, could be a distinctive disorder that affects only a portion of children with AD.     

Mental representations of attachment figures facilitate recovery following upsetting autobiographical memory recall

A growing literature shows that even the symbolic presence of an attachment figure facilitates the regulation of negative affect triggered by external stressors. Yet, in daily life, pernicious stressors are often internally generated--recalling an upsetting experience reliably increases negative affect, rumination, and susceptibility to physical and psychological health problems. The present research provides the first systematic examination of whether activating the mental representation of an attachment figure enhances the regulation of affect triggered by thinking about upsetting memories. Using 2 different techniques for priming attachment figure representations and 2 types of negative affect measures (explicit and implicit), activating the mental representation of an attachment figure (vs. an acquaintance or stranger) after recalling an upsetting memory enhanced recovery--eliminating the negative effects of the memory recall (Studies 1-3). In contrast, activating the mental representation of an attachment figure before recalling an upsetting memory had no such effect (Studies 1 and 2). Furthermore, activating the mental representation of an attachment figure after thinking about upsetting memories reduced negative thinking in a stream of consciousness task, and the magnitude of the attachment-induced affective recovery effects as assessed with explicit affect measures predicted mental and physical health in daily life (Study 3). Finally, a meta-analysis of the 3 studies (Study 4) showed that the regulatory benefits conferred by the mental representation of an attachment figure were weaker for individuals high on attachment avoidance. The implications of these findings for attachment, emotion regulation, and mental and physical health are discussed.     

Assessing the Role of Spirituality in Coping Among African Americans Diagnosed with Cancer

Spirituality plays an important role in cancer coping among African Americans. The purpose of this study was to report on the initial psychometric properties of instruments specific to the cancer context, assessing the role of spirituality in coping. Items were developed based on a theoretical model of spirituality and qualitative patient interviews. The instruments reflected connections to self, others, God, and the world. One hundred African American cancer survivors completed the instruments by telephone. The instruments showed adequate internal reliability, mixed convergent validity, discriminant validity, and interpretable factor structures.     

Acculturating to the Role of Tenure-Track Assistant Professor: A Family Systems Approach to Joining the Academy

The trajectory toward tenure is complex and arduous, and it requires one to balance attention among diverse and competing demands. It is not surprising that many newly appointed assistant professors report struggling with this process. Borrowing from family and ecological systems theories, we proffer a framework that may help junior faculty members—defined in this article as tenure-earning assistant professors—learn about the tenure-earning process as they navigate through the university system and beyond. We also describe and clarify the many parts of the tenure-earning process, including the roles, responsibilities, and multiple contexts that must be considered concurrently by junior faculty members as they progress through the stages of their tenure-earning appointment in the academy.     

Achieving relationship harmony in groups and its consequence for group performance

Relationships are formed to meet individual goals, and one consequence of this joint effort towards mutual goal fulfillment will be a level of relationship harmony achieved between the interaction partners. The present study investigated the personality correlates associated with the achievement of relationship harmony in a group setting and its consequences for group performance. Students from a social psychology course formed groups for completing task assignments. After a 3-month collaboration, each student evaluated his or her level of relationship harmony attained with each of his or her other group members. It was found that a member's agreeableness positively predicted his or her achievement of relationship harmony in the group, but that conscientiousness and openness to experience had detrimental effects on the relationship harmony achieved with other group members. A group whose members attained higher relationship harmony performed better on its group assignments, suggesting that relationship harmony among members of a group might have beneficial effects on group processes like performance focus and shared exchange at least in a collectivist, Chinese culture.     

Slang: A male domain?

A brief overview of various definitions of the problematic term “slang” precedes a discussion of stereotyped perceptions of slang and whether it is a male or female linguistic characteristic. Following this is a report on an investigation carried out on 160 South African adolescents, which attempted to measure the effect of the following variables on the use of slang: sex, age and type of school. Although interesting sex-related differences are revealed in the results, which can be correlated with the theme of social power and status, it is argued that the expected differences between males and females in this area are not as striking as one is led to believe by literature in the field, and that the gap is likely to close: it is probably not the sex of the speaker alone that influences slang usage, but also, and perhaps more importantly, his/her age and scholastic environment.     

Are the fruits of research available to all? The effects of sex and academic rank on reprint-sending behavior

There is considerable evidence in the psychological literature that perceived status often has a major effect on behavior. The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of two status variables in an academic setting by monitoring reprint-sending behavior. Reprints were requested from 1,200 authors of psychological articles by men and women of varying academic rank. Neither sex nor academic rank of requester had any significant effect on the total number of responses returned. However, male requesters received responses significantly faster than did female requesters. In addition, subsequent analyses indicated that reprint requests were more likely to be honored by male authors than by female authors.