Psychological availability and work engagement: The moderating role of sex and race

This study sought to determine the relationship of sex and race as moderators of psychological availability on work engagement in various South African organisations. Participants were 1 059 employees predominantly from the corporate sector in Gauteng province (females = 61%, blacks = 36%). Cross-sectional survey data were collected from the employees using the Psychological Conditions Scale and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Moderated hierarchical regression analyses tested the prediction of work engagement from psychological availability, while controlling for the sex and race of employees. Psychological availability increased the level of work engagement for both men and women, the relationship, however, was stronger for women as compared to men. White employees were less work engaged compared to other race group members. Psychological availability was higher for the black, Indian, and coloured employees compared to white employees. The results confirmed the positive relationship of psychological availability on work engagement, and that sex and race differences exist for employees in a developing country.     

如何克服边界条件：来自记忆强度影响记忆去稳定的分子机制的启示

长时记忆在激活后首先会变得不稳定(去稳定过程), 继而会经历一个再巩固过程重新稳定下来以维持记忆的关联性。在再巩固期间给予电击、药理或行为训练以干预记忆再巩固, 可以更改原有记忆的强度或内容。这有望成为临床上治疗病理性记忆的一种方法。然而, 一些边界条件(记忆痕迹强、时间久远等)导致记忆在简单激活后不能去稳定, 不会经历再巩固过程, 使干预再巩固的方法无法发挥作用。动物实验表明, 通过药理学地调控参与记忆去稳定的分子的活动以促进记忆去稳定, 可以成功克服边界条件。可见, 边界条件不是绝对的。未来研究可进一步探索更多、更优的促进记忆去稳定并克服边界条件的方法, 提升干预记忆再巩固疗法的临床应用潜能。     

Does Semantics Need Normativity? Comments on Allan Gibbard,Meaning and Normativity

In the book Gibbard proposes, first, that statements about meaning are normative statements and, second, that they can be given an expressivist treatment, along the lines of Gibbard’s preferred metaethics. In my paper, I examine the first step: The claim that meaning statements are to be construed as being normative, as involving ‘oughts’. Gibbard distinguishes two versions of the normativity of meaning thesis – a weak version, according to which every means implies an ought, and a strong version, according to which for every means, there is an ought that implies it. I argue that neither thesis withstands scrutiny. The weak thesis depends on assumptions about the notion of semantic correctness that the anti-normativist rejects, and the strong thesis does not solve the problems Gibbard wants it to solve: the problems of indeterminacy and meaning skepticism. I conclude that semantics does not need normativity.     

Illness representations in patients with multimorbid long-term conditions: Qualitative study

Most research on illness representations explores how patients view single conditions, but many patients report more than one long-term condition (known as multimorbidity). It is not known how multimorbidity impacts on patient illness representations. This exploratory qualitative study examined patients’ representations of multimorbid long-term conditions and sought to assess how models of illness representation might need modification in the presence of multimorbidity. We explored two major issues: (1) the impact of multimorbidity on patient representations of their individual conditions and (2) the representation of multimorbidity itself. Twenty eight adults with at least two long-term conditions (mean of 4) were interviewed. The presence of multimorbidity impacted on patient illness representations in relation to the dimensions of identity, perceived cause, coherence and consequences. Representations of multimorbidity itself concerned representations of the burden of medication and perceived priorities among conditions and synergies and antagonisms between conditions and their management. The results have implications for the measurement of multimorbidity (through scales such as the Illness Perception Questionnaire) and the use of illness representations in the design and delivery of interventions to improve health behaviour and outcomes of patients with multiple long-term conditions.     

Detail-oriented cognitive style and social communicative deficits,within and beyond the autism spectrum: Independent traits that grow into developmental interdependence

At the heart of debates over underlying causes of autism is the “Kanner hypothesis” that autistic deficits in social reciprocity, and a cognitive/perceptual ‘style’ favouring detail-oriented cognition, co-vary in autistic individuals. A separate line of work indicates these two domains are normally distributed throughout the population, with autism representing an extremity. This realisation brings the Kanner debate into the realm of normative co-variation, providing more ways to test the hypothesis, and insights into typical development; for instance, in the context of normative functioning, the Kanner hypothesis implies social costs to spatial/numerical prowess. In light of this growing body of research, we review relevant factor analytic and correlational, behavioural studies. Findings are then synthesised into three themes: an alternative triad of primary autistic trait categories – Social Interaction Deficits, Cognitive Inflexibility, and Sensory Abnormalities – that more accurately reflects the factor structure of autistic traits; continuity between clinical and non-clinical autism-spectrum trait presentation; and indications that although social and non-social autistic traits may be initially independent, Kanner-like co-variance emerges behaviourally from dynamic trait interactions over the course of development. A dynamic developmental model subsuming these patterns is offered, and its advantages demonstrated in a novel account of ritualistic behaviours: as developmentally emergent, compensatory mechanisms for interactions between cognitive inflexibility and sensory abnormalities. We conclude with the broader imperative that behavioural scientists appealing for directly and exclusively genetic links may instead benefit from a developmental framing within their own discipline.     

Burnout during a long-term rehabilitation: comparing low burnout,high burnout – benefited,and high burnout – not benefited trajectories

Abstract

To focus rehabilitation activities among burnout clients more effectively, it is important to investigate who benefits from burnout interventions. This study (N=85) aimed at identifying burnout trajectories in terms of benefit, that is, subgroups of clients who share similar mean levels and changes in burnout during a one-year rehabilitation intervention (17 days in total) with a six-month follow-up. After identifying the burnout trajectories, the relations of the trajectories with factors describing the clients, antecedents, and consequences of burnout during the one-year intervention were examined. Three burnout trajectories were identified by growth mixture modeling: (a) low burnout (n=39), (b) high burnout – benefited (n=29), and (c) high burnout – not benefited (n=17). Positive changes were detected in antecedents and consequences among the clients in the low burnout and high burnout – benefited trajectories. Recovery from burnout was associated with increased job resources and decreased job demands, as well as with increased job satisfaction and decreased depression. It seems that more precise targeting of rehabilitation is needed since the trajectories revealed not only clients with mild symptoms, but also clients who probably received this treatment too late.     

The effect of controllability and causality on counterfactual thinking

Previous research on counterfactual thoughts about prevention suggests that people tend to focus on enabling rather than causing events and controllable rather than uncontrollable events. Two experiments explore whether counterfactual thinking about enablers is distinct from counterfactual thinking about controllable events. We presented participants with scenarios in which a cause and an enabler contributed to a negative outcome. We systematically manipulated the controllability of the cause and the enabler and asked participants to generate counterfactuals. The results indicate that when only the cause or the enabler is controllable participants undid the controllable event more often. However, when the cause and enabler are matched in controllability participants undid the enabler slightly more often. The findings are discussed in the context of the mental model, functional and judgement dissociation theories as well as previous research on counterfactual thinking. The importance of controllability and possible reasons for the special role of enablers are considered.     

Differential Daily Writing Conditions and Performance on Major Multiple-Choice Exams

Students (N=153) in three equivalent sections of an undergraduate human development course compared pairs of related concepts via either written or oral discussion at the beginning of most class sessions. A writing-for-random-credit section achieved significantly higher ratings on the writing activities than did a writing-for-no-credit section. The writing-for-random-credit section also obtained significantly higher correlations between the writing ratings and scores on multiple-choice exam items related to the conceptual pairs (r=.74) and on total exam scores (r=.78) than did the writing-for-no-credit section (rs=.45 and .43, respectively). Finally, the writing-for-random-credit condition produced significantly higher scores on exam items related to the conceptual pairs than did the oral-discussion-only condition. Plus, effect-size comparisons showed weak to medium differences between exam scores under the writing-for-random-credit and the writing-for-no-credit condition.