Selecting entrepreneurial employees using a person-group fit perspective

As jobs become unstructured and collective endeavor oriented, it is increasingly being realized that work groups must become more autonomous and entrepreneurial. The selection literature is however silent on the predictive mechanisms that may be leveraged to select group members with the desired competencies. The person-group fit perspective enables us to hypothesize and demonstrate that selection instruments geared toward gauging an individual's fit within a group are likely to manifest entrepreneurial competencies and behaviors in the individual. Further, the nature of the job, in terms of the structuredness of work (task formalization) and the repetitiveness of work activities (task routinization), has a moderating impact on the relationship between overall entrepreneurial competence and selection practices. The study has implications for incorporating the principles of person-group fit into the design of job profiles.     

Aha over Haha: Brands benefit more from being clever than from being funny

We examine whether the cleverness of a brand's humor attempt affects consumers' brand attitudes and engagement. A clever humor attempt is any humor attempt wherein the consumer feels she must make mental connections to solve the joke (e.g., understand a cultural reference, understand the dual meaning of a pun). Across five studies, we demonstrate that as the cleverness of a humor attempt increases, consumers report higher brand attitudes and are more engaged with the brand. This effect is mediated by perceptions of brand warmth and competence and moderated by consumers' need for cognition.     

Addressing social determinants of mental health in therapy: A thematic synthesis

Background

The importance of addressing social determinants of mental health in therapy is well-documented. However, there appears to be limited research on what this actually involves in practice and how best to prepare therapists to work with individuals experiencing adverse social determinants.

Aims

The aim of this review was to draw implications for practice and training from reviewing research on addressing social determinants of mental health in therapy.

Methodology

A qualitative systematic review of the research on addressing social determinants of mental health in therapy was conducted, extracting papers from eight databases: Cochrane Library, ASSIA, CINAHL Plus, PsycInfo, Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science. Out of 127 papers found, five met the eligibility criteria and were quality-assessed and analysed thematically.

Findings

The thematic synthesis generated three main themes: “the therapeutic relationship,” “adapting to client context” and “community as a resource,” with eight subthemes.

Conclusion

This thematic synthesis highlights the importance of the therapeutic relationship and adapting mental health support to client frame of reference and context to address social determinants of mental health in therapy. It emphasises community as a helpful resource for informing training and therapeutic interventions, as well as a significant resource for people experiencing adverse social determinants.     

The mediational role of motivation in the model of motor development in childhood: A longitudinal study

The aim of this study was twofold: first, to examine the stability of the hypothesized conceptual model of motor development (without and with including various types of motivation) when children are followed up one-year later, and second to examine longitudinally whether changes in one model variable predict changes in other variables, according to the hypothesized pathways in the model. A sample of 361 Spanish students (50.7% girls, 8–11 years old) voluntarily participated in this study. In relation to the first aim, structural equation modeling revealed the expected positive relationship between the model variables in both measurement times. That is: actual motor competence (MC) predicted physical activity (PA) (p < .001), perceived MC mediated the relationship between actual MC and PA (p < .001), and autonomous motivation mediated the relationship between perceived MC and PA (p < .05). Moreover, the comparison of the invariance analysis showed non-practical differences between the unconstrained model and the constrained model, supporting the stability of the model over time. In relation to the second aim, the hypothesized model in Time 2 controlling for Time 1 values showed that changes in children’s actual MC positively predicted changes in their perceived MC (p < .001), which in turn, predicted changes in their autonomous motivation (p < .001), and PA (p < .001) at Time 2. Based on these findings Physical Education teachers are recommended to foster children’s actual and perceived MC as well as their autonomous motivation over time in order to promote PA strategies for lifelong health.     

Preparing children to cope with earthquakes: Building emotional competence

Natural disasters, including earthquakes, can have a traumatic impact on children's psychological wellbeing and development. The efficacy of interventions aimed at enhancing children's socio-emotional learning has been documented in the literature. At the same time, these techniques are the key for training children for possible future disasters by enhancing their knowledge about behavioural preparedness and emotional competence. However, research on evidence-based training programs on earthquakes combining digital and traditional activities is scarce. We tested the efficacy of a 10-unit training program for primary school children, developed within the Emotional Prevention and Earthquakes in Primary School (PrEmT) project. The program aimed at increasing knowledge of and metacognition about earthquakes, safety behaviours, emotions, and coping strategies, through digital (using the web-application HEMOT^®, Helmet for EMOTions, developed ad-hoc) and traditional activities (completing paper-and-pencil tasks). The participants were 548 second and fourth-graders from Italian schools. They were divided into an experimental group (participating in the training program) and a control group. Both groups participated in pretests and posttests to evaluate changes in their knowledge of training-related contents. For ethical reasons, we also measured children's wellbeing. Generalized linear mixed models indicated an improvement in the experimental group's knowledge and metacognition about earthquakes, safety behaviours, emotions, and coping strategies after the training program, compared to the control group. Children's general wellbeing did not deteriorate during participation in the project. The results documented the efficacy of the evidence-based training program developed within the PrEmT project. The program provides a preventive method for enhancing earthquake-related resilience that could be generalized to other kinds of disasters.     

Reaping the benefits of cultural diversity: Classroom cultural diversity climate and students’ intercultural competence

Culturally diverse schools may constitute natural arenas for training crucial intercultural skills. We hypothesized that a classroom cultural diversity climate fostering contact and cooperation and multiculturalism, but not a climate fostering color-evasion, would be positively related to adolescents’ intercultural competence. Adolescents in North Rhine-Westphalia (N = 631, M_age = 13.69 years, 49% of immigrant background) and Berlin (N = 1,335, M_age = 14.69 years, 52% of immigrant background) in Germany reported their perceptions of the classroom cultural diversity climate and completed quantitative and qualitative measures assessing their intercultural competence. Multilevel structural equation models indicate that contact and cooperation, multiculturalism, and, surprisingly, also color-evasion (as in emphasizing a common humanity), were positively related to the intercultural competence of immigrant and non-immigrant background students. We conclude that all three aspects of the classroom climate are uniquely related to aspects of adolescents’ intercultural competence and that none of them may be sufficient on their own.     

Multicultural Education and Perceived Multicultural Competency of School Counselors

A national survey of practicing school counselors (N = 755) revealed significant differences between participants’ perceived multicultural competence based on the type of multicultural training received. Participants who took infused multicultural coursework had significantly higher mean scores in multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills than participants who reported taking a single multicultural course. Una encuesta nacional de consejeros escolares en activo (N = 755) reveló diferencias significativas en la competencia multicultural percibida de los participantes según el tipo de capacitación multicultural recibida. Los participantes que tomaron cursos que incluían contenidos multiculturales obtuvieron puntajes medios significativamente más altos en consciencia, conocimientos y habilidades multiculturales que aquellos participantes que indicaron haber tomado un único curso multicultural.     

Use of numerical symbols by the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes): Cardinals, ordinals, and the introduction of zero

An adult female chimpanzee with previous training in the use of Arabic numerals 1–9 was introduced to the meaning of "zero" in the context of three different numerical tasks. The first two were cardinal tasks where the subject was required either to select numerals corresponding to the number of items presented on a computer screen (productive use of numerals) or to match sets of the appropriate size to numerals presented as samples (receptive use). The third task addressed the ordinal meaning of the same symbols where the subject was required to respond to numerals sequentially, arranging them into an ascending series. The subject mastered the recognition of the meaning of zero in all three tasks. However, details of her usage of the symbol revealed that transfer of the meaning between different kinds of tasks was incomplete, suggesting that the level of abstraction characteristic of human numerical ability was not attained in the chimpanzee. Over the course of acquisition leading to the high levels of accuracy eventually observed, the newly introduced zero appeared to shift along the length of a continuous numerical scale toward the lower end, while confusions with 1 remained the most frequently encountered mistakes. Such patterns of error thus suggest that Ai's understanding of the meaning of zero in relation to the rest of the number symbols was not consistent with an "absence of items versus presence of items" scheme. Electronic Publication