The effect of superstitious thinking on psychosocial stress responses and perceived task performance

Previous research on superstitious belief, a subset of paranormal belief (Irwin, 1993 ), has suggested that people tend to invoke luck‐related superstitions in stressful situations as an attempt to gain an illusion of control over outcomes. Based on this, the current study examined whether luck‐related superstition, in the form of a “lucky” pen, could influence the psychological response to a psychosocial stressor. Participants (N = 114), aged between 17 and 59 years (M = 22.98, SD = 4.57) from James Cook University Singapore, were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (a) no‐stress with no lucky pen; (b) no‐stress with a lucky pen; (c) stress with no lucky pen or; (d) stress with a lucky pen. The results revealed that participants provided with a lucky pen experienced lower state anxiety when exposed to the stressor. Further, participants provided with a lucky pen perceived their performance to be better than those without it. However, superstitious belief did not significantly change following exposure to stress. Taken together, the present findings add some support to the suggestion that belief in transferable luck may facilitate coping with a stressor. However, further research is needed to fully understand the mechanisms behind the potential benefits of superstitious belief.     

同事个性化契约对员工工作退缩行为的影响:基于公平理论的视角

个性化契约作为组织中一种非标准化的工作安排,以往研究较多关注其对契约获得者的积极效应,相对忽视了对未获得者的消极影响。鉴于此,本研究基于公平理论,探讨了同事个性化契约对员工工作退缩行为的影响及其内部机理。结果发现:同事个性化契约会引发员工的工作退缩行为,员工的心理契约违背在此过程中起部分中介作用;此外,员工与组织间较高的社会交换关系会削弱同事个性化契约对员工心理契约违背的正向影响。     

Combined effects of workplace bullying and perceived organizational support on employee behaviors: does resource availability help?

Background and Objective: This research examines the detrimental effects of workplace bullying as a social stressor on employees’ job performance, organizational retaliatory behaviors, and organizational citizenship behaviors and how the availability of support can reduce the negative impact of bullying. Using social exchange theory and the conservation of resources theory as theoretical frameworks, we propose that workplace bullying drains personal resources, leading to reduced job performance, low citizenship behaviors, and increased organizational retaliatory behaviors. We also propose that perceived organizational support acts as moderator, such that it reduces the detrimental effects of bullying on employee behaviors.

Research Design and Methods: We tested our hypotheses in two field studies (N?=?478 and N?=?395) conducted in Pakistan.

Results: The results of both studies supported the assertion that workplace bullying exacerbates employees’ job performance, reduces organizational citizenship behaviors and intensifies organizational retaliatory behaviors. The idea that perceived organizational support would moderate the bullying-work behavior relationships found mixed support. While perceptions of organizational support reinforced the bullying-job performance and bullying-retaliatory behaviors relationships, it did not moderate the bullying-citizenship behaviors relationship in the suggested direction.

Conclusion: The findings show that workplace bullying leads to more organizational citizenship behaviors when employee’s perceptions of organizational support is high.     

Workplace ostracism And workplace behaviors: A moderated mediation model of perceived stress and psychological empowerment

Background and objectives: Workplace ostracism research has examined numerous underlying mechanisms to understand the link between workplace ostracism and behavioral outcomes. Ostracism has been suggested to be an interpersonal stressor; however, research has not investigated workplace ostracism from a stress perspective. Therefore, the study investigated the mediating effect of perceived stress for the relationships between workplace ostracism and helping behavior, voicing behavior, and task performance. The study also investigated the moderating effect of psychological empowerment for the relationships between perceived stress and behavioral outcomes.

Design: The study design was a three-wave self-reported questionnaire.

Method: The study sampled 225 full-time employees in South Korea and regression analyses with bootstrapping were conducted to test the moderated mediation models.

Results: The bootstrapped 95% CI around the indirect effects did not contain zero; therefore, perceived stress mediated the relationship between workplace ostracism and helping behavior (–.06), voicing behavior (–.07), and task performance (–.07). Further, the moderated mediation analyses found perceived stress mediated the relationships between workplace ostracism and behavioral outcomes only when individuals perceived low levels of psychological empowerment.

Conclusion: The findings suggest that workplace ostracism is a stressor and psychological empowerment can mitigate the negative effects of ostracism on behavioral outcomes.     

Sexual‐perception processes in acquaintance‐targeted sexual aggression

This study analyzes data from seven published studies to examine whether three performance‐based indices of men's misperception of women's sexual interest (MSI), derived from a self‐report questionnaire, are associated with sexual‐aggression history, rape‐supportive attitudes, sociosexuality, problem drinking, and self‐reported MSI. Almost 2000 undergraduate men judged the justifiability of a man's increasingly unwanted advances toward a woman on the Heterosocial Perception Survey‐Revised. Participants self‐reported any sexual‐aggression history, and some completed questionnaires assessing rape‐supportive attitudes, sociosexuality, problem drinking, and self‐reported MSI. A three‐parameter logistic function was fitted to participants’ justifiability ratings within a non‐linear mixed‐effects framework, which provided precise participant‐specific estimates of three sexual‐perception processes (baseline justifiability, bias, and sensitivity). Sexual‐aggression history and rape‐supportive attitudes predicted: (a) reduced sensitivity to women's affect; (b) more liberal biases, such that the woman's affect had to be more negative before justifiability ratings dropped substantially; and (c) greater baseline justifiability of continued advances after a positive response. Sexual‐aggression history and attitudes correlated more strongly with sensitivity than baseline justifiability; remaining variables showed the opposite pattern. This work underscores the role of sexual‐perception processes in sexual aggression and illustrates the derivation of performance‐based estimates of sexual‐perception processes from questionnaire responses.

     

自适应背景焦点显示技术在遥操作中的应用

遥操作界面中可视信息的有效呈现是提高操作绩效的重要途径。本研究提出自适应背景焦点显示技术原型,构建新型遥操作显示平台,并通过比较不同显示条件下遥操作绩效,考察其应用有效性及特点。结果显示：1）相比其他显示（单一纠正信息、单一指导信息、恒定背景信息和无背景信息）,自适应背景焦点显示可有效提高操作绩效;2）在降低主观负荷方面,单一纠正信息显示显著优于其他显示。本研究结果为遥操作显示界面的优化提供了新思路。     

Heuristics versus direct calculation,and age-related differences in multiplication: an evidence accumulation account of plausibility decisions in arithmetic

We offer a new theoretical angle for cognitive arithmetic, which is that evidence accumulation may play a role in problem plausibility decisions. We build upon previous studies that have considered such a hypothesis, and here formally evaluate the paradigm. We develop the finding that performance differences, due to variations in strategy use and aging effects, can indeed be reasonably explained through these accumulation-to-bound cognitive models. Results suggest that these models may be effectively used to learn more about the underlying cognitive processes. In this study, we modelled young (18–24) and older (68–82) adults’ solution times in performing arithmetic verification (e.g. whether 8?×?5?=?41 is true/false). The domain-relevant factors in strategy use (problem-verification heuristics) and aging differences (older/younger adult groups) were analyzed by a response process model of the latency data, that is fit by participant and item. Lower thresholds accounted for the faster response times (RTs) for problems solved with heuristics (arithmetic rule-violation checking strategies), as opposed to problems solved by calculation approaches. A more rapid accumulation accounted for faster RTs on problems in which two arithmetic rules were violated (strategy combination) rather than one. Third, higher thresholds (i.e. preferring to have greater certainty before responding) accounted for older adults’ slower speed. These findings are in support of accumulation models being relevant for more complex cognitive tasks, as well as to account for the age-related differences therein.     

Rate of Torque Development and Feedforward Control of the Hip and Knee Extensors: Gender Differences

The purpose of this study was to determine whether women demonstrate decreased rate of torque development (RTD) of the hip and knee extensors and altered onset timing of the vastus lateralis and gluteus maximus during a drop-jump task when compared with men. On average, women demonstrated significantly lower normalized RTD of the hip extensors (women: 11.6 ± 1.3 MVT.s^?1, men: 13.1 ± 0.9 MVT.s^?1; p ≤ .01); however, there was no significant difference in knee extensor RTD. Women also demonstrated significantly earlier activation of their vastus lateralis (women: 206.0 ± 130.6 ms, men: 80.9 ± 69.6 ms; p ≤ .01) and gluteus maximus (women: 85.7 ± 58.6 ms, men: 54.5 ± 35.4 ms; p = .02). In both men and women, there was a significant negative correlation between the hip extensor RTD and the vastus lateralis electromyographic onset time (men: r = –.386, p = .046; women: r = –.531, p = .008). The study findings suggest that women may utilize a feedforward control strategy in which they activate their knee extensors earlier than men to compensate for deficits in hip extensor RTD. The impaired capacity to rapidly stabilize the hip and knee joints during dynamic maneuvers may contribute to the increased risk of anterior cruciate ligament injury observed in women.     

Jardin thérapeutique,outil de prévention du burnout

The aim of this research was to study the effect of the presence of a garden in a hospital care sector on caregiver burnout. Eighty-eight nurses and caregivers from 9 care sectors answered a questionnaire constructed from the theories and scales of Karasek and Theorell. Three types of services were compared (cognitive behavioral unit, palliative care, post-acute and rehabilitation care) with a garden adapted for therapeutic activities versus with a regular garden versus with no garden. The main result was a lesser incidence of burnout in care services with a garden that those without a garden, irrespective of the type of care service, along with an amplification of the benefit with specially-designed gardens. The feeling of strength, both physical and psychological, was less present when the care services did not have a garden. A trend toward an increase in musculoskeletal disorders in services with a therapeutic garden versus no garden was observed. Upon analyzing the results, the authors recommend particular attention in the designing of hospital gardens in order to facilitate the ergonomics of nursing work. The overall results advocate the use of the garden as a systemic structure conducive to work interactions in a specially-designed area.