An exploratory study of gender and motivation to lead in millennials

ABSTRACT

This study explores how gender predicts millennial employee motivation to take a leadership role within a work organization. Previous studies have considered multiple factors in predicting three distinct types of employee motivation to lead, but none have considered how gender may impact this relationship, specifically within the millennial population. Using a sample of 210 employees from a range of industries, results indicate that gender directly affects two types of motivation to lead. In addition to enhancing the theoretical model of employee motivation to accept organizational leadership responsibilities, the results have practical significance for organizations concerned with attracting and developing millennial organizational leaders.     

Unconscious attention modulates the silencing effect of top-down predictions

The brain is considered to be proactive in that it continuously generates predictions about external environment stimuli. Recent Bayesian models of perception have demonstrated that prediction and attention operate synergistically to optimize stimulus processing. However, the relation between prediction and unconscious attention remains unclear given the relative neglect of unconscious attention in scholarly literatures. To investigate this issue, twenty participants (12 women) performed an orientation identification task in which a circular grating appeared either in the left or in the right visual field in a single 30–40 min session, during which 64-channel EEG data were acquired. Behavioral results showed an unconscious-attended effect and a facilitated effect. Importantly, prediction-related P1 and N1 silencing effects were observed in the unconscious-attended condition, probably reflecting that unconscious attention improves the precision of top-down predictions at an early stage of processing, thereby increasing the synaptic gain of predictor neurons. Moreover, unlike the early ERP components, P3 revealed a reversed pattern of results, which displayed a silencing effect of prediction only in the unattended condition, suggesting that the influence of unconscious attention on the silencing effect may change over time.     

The use of Skype in analysis and training: a research and literature review

Of recent years there has not only been an increasing use of Skype in analytic treatment, supervision and teaching, but also a number of writers have been endeavouring to assess its effectiveness. Whilst it is generally agreed that Skype can facilitate an analytic encounter where distance prohibits a face‐to‐face process, where continuity needs to be maintained and where analysands are in areas far from specialized centres, there is divergence in the literature as to whether analysis, as opposed to psychotherapy, can be successful using Skype. This paper reviews the literature and concludes that the essentials of a genuine analytic process are not necessarily precluded by Skype. One central reason is because there exists a cross‐modal communication channel between the human senses (underpinned by audiovisual mirror neurons) in addition to the recently discovered instinct for communication and interpersonal understanding, and these can override the need for physical proximity of the participants. The essentials of an analytic frame can thus be maintained, and the continuity that Skype enables means that containment is also facilitated and this counters the negative aspects of shuttle analysis. The critical issues for the profession then become the professional development for practitioners in the use of Skype and suggestions are listed.     

Position exchange: The social development of agency

Human agency can be defined in terms of acting independently of the immediate situation. Humans have a considerable independence from immediate situational demands because, on the one hand, they are able to distanciate from ongoing activity and reflect upon it, while on the other hand, they are able to identify with other people in different situations. It is argued that this form of agency arises through intersubjectivity because intersubjectivity enables the actor to take a perspective outside of the immediate situation and thus extricating the actor from the immediate situation. The paper contributes to the question of how intersubjectivity, as the basis of agency, develops. Explanations from phenomenology, child development and mirror neuron research are critically reviewed and the novel idea of position exchange is advanced. The paper concludes by examining some of the implications of position exchange for our understanding of the development of agency focusing upon mirror neurons, role play and autism.     

A model of curved saccade trajectories: Spike rate adaptation in the brainstem as the cause of deviation away

The trajectory of saccades to a target is often affected whenever there is a distractor in the visual field. Distractors can cause a saccade to deviate towards their location or away from it. The oculomotor mechanisms that produce deviation towards distractors have been thoroughly explored in behavioral, neurophysiological and computational studies. The mechanisms underlying deviation away, on the other hand, remain unclear. Behavioral findings suggest a mechanism of spatially focused, top-down inhibition in a saccade map, and deviation away has become a tool to investigate such inhibition. However, this inhibition hypothesis has little neuroanatomical or neurophysiological support, and recent findings go against it. Here, we propose that deviation away results from an unbalanced saccade drive from the brainstem, caused by spike rate adaptation in brainstem long-lead burst neurons. Adaptation to stimulation in the direction of the distractor results in an unbalanced drive away from it. An existing model of the saccade system was extended with this theory. The resulting model simulates a wide range of findings on saccade trajectories, including findings that have classically been interpreted to support inhibition views. Furthermore, the model replicated the effect of saccade latency on deviation away, but predicted this effect would be absent with large (400 ms) distractor-target onset asynchrony. This prediction was confirmed in an experiment, which demonstrates that the theory both explains classical findings on saccade trajectories and predicts new findings.     

Influence of Attachment Style on Major Psychological Capacities to Lead

Addressing psychological literature's deficiency in research on the early development of leaders in everyday life (e.g., leaders in the workplace, leaders in social settings, leaders in organizational settings), this study assumed that central psychological capacities required for such leaders can be predicted and explained by J. Bowlby's (1969) Bowlby, J. 1969. Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Attachment New York : Basic Books. [Google Scholar] attachment theory concerning developmental processes in infancy. The authors administered a series of questionnaires to 402 participants. The authors analyzed data by using structural equation modeling. Findings indicate a potential-to-lead construct that forms in infancy. The results fully supported the authors’ main arguments: that secure attachment style influences the potential to lead and that this capacity is essential for leadership as measured by leadership ranking.     

Relationship Quality,Commitment, and Stability in Long‐Distance Relationships

Using a nationally representative sample (N = 870), the present study compared long‐distance romantic relationships to close‐proximity romantic relationships in terms of relationship quality, commitment, and stability. Individuals in long‐distance relationships generally reported higher levels of relationship quality on a number of relationship quality variables, as well as higher levels of dedication to their relationships and lower levels of feeling trapped (i.e., felt constraint), but were similar to individuals in close‐proximity relationships in terms of perceived and material constraints. Although individuals in long‐distance relationships perceived a lower likelihood of breaking up with their partner at the initial time point, they were as likely as the individuals in close‐proximity relationships to have broken up by the follow‐up assessment.     

Understanding action language modulates oscillatory mu and beta rhythms in the same way as observing actions

The mu rhythms (8–13 Hz) and the beta rhythms (15 up to 30 Hz) of the EEG are observed in the central electrodes (C3, Cz and C4) in resting states, and become suppressed when participants perform a manual action or when they observe another’s action. This has led researchers to consider that these rhythms are electrophysiological markers of the motor neuron activity in humans. This study tested whether the comprehension of action language, unlike abstract language, modulates mu and low beta rhythms (15–20 Hz) in a similar way as the observation of real actions. The log-ratios were calculated for each oscillatory band between each condition and baseline resting periods. The results indicated that both action language and action videos caused mu and beta suppression (negative log-ratios), whereas abstract language did not, confirming the hypothesis that understanding action language activates motor networks in the brain. In other words, the resonance of motor areas associated with action language is compatible with the embodiment approach to linguistic meaning.     

血铅对儿童发展的影响及其特点

铅具有很强的神经发育毒性,即使是低水平的铅暴露也会对个体发展产生消极的影响.本文综述了铅对个体影响的研究,这些研究表明铅导致个体产生生理缺陷、认知能力下降及社会情绪性障碍等症状,对处在生长发育重要时期的儿童影响更长远.已有研究发现,血铅对儿童的影响具有持久性的特点,而且血铅的危害很难通过螯合作用的干预得到改善.医疗干预及相关研究显示,积极避免铅接触是预防儿童铅中毒的最有效策略.本文为将来探讨血铅如何影响儿童认知、情绪社会性和脑发育提出了研究方向.     

Hand–foot motor priming in the presence of temporary inability to use hands

To verify if the link between observed hand actions and executed foot actions found in aplasics is essentially induced by the constant use of foot substituting the hand, we investigated if the vision of a grasping hand is able to prime a foot response in normals. Participants were required to detect the time-to-contact of a hand grasping an object either with a suitable or a less suitable movement, an experimental paradigm known to induce a priming effect. Participants responded either with the hand or the foot, while having free or bound hands. Results showed that for hand responses motor priming effect was stronger when the hands were free, whereas for foot responses it was stronger when the hands were bound. These data are interpreted as a further evidence that a difficulty to move affects specific cognitive functions and that the vision of a grasping hand may prime a foot response.