Assessing Leadership Potential with a Biographical Measure of Personality Traits

The aim of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of biographical inventories free of the limitations common to many current biographical measures by constructing and validating an inventory composed of homogeneous scales, with item content that is factual and fair, to assess personality traits predictive of leadership. The experimental inventory, with tentative scales for Dominance, Emotional Stability, Need for Achievement, Self-Confidence, and Sociability, was administered to incoming midshipmen at the US Naval Academy and item analyzed. The validity of the final scales was appraised against subsequent peer ratings of the traits and of leadership shortly after entering the Academy; military performance grades, and midshipman rank and leadership position at the Academy; and recommendations for promotion after graduating and serving as an officer. The Sociability, Dominance, and Need for Achievement scales demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity, and all of the scales except Self-Confidence correlated with the leadership criteria. The Sociability scale’s consistent correlations with several of the leadership criteria, including a nontrivial correlation (r = 0.28) with the leadership peer rating, implies that this measure may be useful in assessing leadership potential.     

Book Reviews

John T. Haworth Work, Leisure and Well-being Owen Hargie The Handbook of Communication Skills Richard Lepsinger and Anntoinette D. Lucia The Art and Science of 360° Feedback Kevin Murphy Individual differences and behavior in organizations     

汉字材料的性质对视觉短时记忆广度影响的实验研究

汉字材料的熟悉性和复杂性对视觉短时记忆（ＶＳＴＭ）广度的影响研究存在分析。本研究在实验设计上区分了汉语字词的熟悉性和复杂性维度,探讨了它们对ＶＳＴＭ广义的不同影响程度,结果表明：（１）材料的熟悉性是影响汉语字词ＶＳＴＭ广度的最重要因素,材料的复杂性影响不大;（２）在材料熟悉程度一致,被试在１１－２０岁年龄范围条件下,汉语字词ＶＳＴＭ广义将保持相对恒定（３）在承认“组块假说”的前提,汉语字词ＶＳＴＭ     

TRAINING PEERS TO TUTOR: EVALUATION OF A TUTOR TRAINING PACKAGE FOR PRIMARY LEARNING DISABLED STUDENTS

Peer tutoring—academic instruction given by a student to a same-aged classmate—can be a cost-effective way of providing needed instruction in the typical classroom where one teacher must deal with many students of varying ability levels. This study evaluated an instructional package as a training method for increasing the use of selected tutoring behaviors by peer tutors. Nine male students, aged 7 to 9 years, from a learning disabilities resource room served as subjects; four subjects served as tutors, four as students, and one as a generalization student who was assigned to all tutors during generalization testing. Subjects were assigned to tutor-student pairs based on their performances on a pretest of the 220 Dolch Basic Sight Words, with the subjects scoring highest on the pretest serving as tutors. Each tutor worked with his assigned student throughout the study, except for pre- and posttest sessions with the generalization student. During daily sessions, tutors trained their students to recognize sight words using 10 flash cards, each with 1 of the Dolch words printed on it. Training was conducted with all four tutors in a group and was evaluated using a multiple baseline design across three classes of tutoring behaviors: Preparation Behaviors, Prompting Behaviors, and Praising Behaviors. Training consisted of: (a) verbal instructions on how to perform the tutoring behaviors; (b) charts illustrating the appropriate tutoring behaviors with stick figures; (c) role playing with each tutor with the experimenter playing the part of the student and giving feedback and verbal reinforcement to the tutor for performance of the appropriate tutoring behaviors; and (d) verbal testing of each tutor by asking him to state orally the behaviors he was to perform. Training sessions took approximately 30 minutes for each of the 3 classes of tutoring behaviors. Results showed an increased use of tutoring behaviors by tutors as a function of the instructional package. Increases in tutoring behaviors were also observed during postintervention generalization testing of tutors instructing their regular student in new subject matter (math). Data taken from pre-, mid-, and postintervention testing of the 220 Dolch Words showed an increase of identifiable sight words by both students and tutors after completing the peer tutoring program. This study demonstrates that a simple tutor training package can be employed to teach young, special education students to serve as effective tutors for their peers. In addition, the academic gains evidenced by the subjects lend positive support to the effectiveness of peer tutoring programs and specifically to the research of Dineen, Clark, and Risley (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1977, 10 , 231–238) which demonstrated the educational benefits of tutoring incurred by the tutor as well as by the student.     

儿童最初词汇的获得及其过程

本文追踪研究了两名儿童获得最初词汇的过程。结果表明:在儿童最初语音发展过程中,所发出的音节日益丰富、分化,产生了连续音节,随意性和指向性逐渐增强。儿童获得最初词汇的过程,是连续音节逐渐被有指向的词取代的过程。根据连续音节和有指向的词的比例及沟通作用的变化,儿童获得最初词汇的过程可分为各具特点的三个阶段。两名儿童的最初词汇在其词类构成和功能意义上具有很高的一致性。结合两名儿童之间的个别差异,本文还初步探讨影响儿童获得最初词汇的因素——言语中枢和言语器官的发展、认知的发展,并探讨它们之间可能存在的相互关系。     

从归因理论的角度探讨我国大学生的社会性评价

本文采用归因理论研究方法测试我国大学生对五种生理病症和五种心理、行为引起的疾患或缺陷的责任归因、情感反应和帮助行为的关系,借以探讨我国大学生对疾患者的社会评价的特点和研究方法。研究结果表明这是一种可用于研究社会性评价的方法。同时,这项研究也体现了我国大学生对某些社会性评价的特点。     

家庭支持型主管行为对员工的影响与作用机制：基于元分析的证据

为厘清家庭支持型主管行为对员工的独特影响,并比较不同的作用机制,本研究对包含204个独立样本、340个效应值及91145名员工的164篇文献进行了元分析,结果发现：(1)与一般主管支持行为相比,家庭支持型主管行为对员工的任务绩效、创新行为和生活满意度有更强的积极影响。(2)工作对家庭冲突(资源视角)、领导-成员交换(交换视角)和情感承诺(情感视角)均能解释家庭支持型主管行为对员工的作用机制,并互为补充。具体而言,三者均能中介家庭支持型主管行为对任务绩效的影响;领导-成员交换和情感承诺在家庭支持型主管行为与创新行为间起中介作用;工作对家庭冲突和领导-成员交换则在家庭支持型主管行为影响生活满意度中发挥中介效应。研究结果为家庭支持型主管行为的影响效果提供了可靠结论,也有助于深入理解其作用机制。     

Chronic pain relief after receiving affective touch: A single case report

Affective touch is gentle slow stroking of the skin, which can reduce experimentally induced pain. Our participant, suffering from Parkinson's Disease and chronic pain, received 1 week of non-affective touch and 1 week of affective touch as part of a larger study. Interestingly, after 2 days of receiving affective touch, the participant started to feel less pain. After 7 days, the burning painful sensations fully disappeared. This suggest that affective touch may reduce chronic pain in clinical populations.     

Change in Seasonal Beliefs Mediates the Durability Advantage of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Over Light Therapy for Winter Depression

In treating an acute episode of winter depression, cognitive-behavioral therapy for seasonal affective disorder (CBT-SAD) and light therapy are comparably efficacious, with improvement in depression symptoms during CBT-SAD mediated by reduced seasonal beliefs (i.e., maladaptive thoughts about the seasons, light availability, and weather). Here, we tested whether the enduring benefit of CBT-SAD over light therapy following treatment is associated with offsetting seasonal beliefs during CBT-SAD. Currently depressed adults with Major Depression, Recurrent with Seasonal Pattern (N = 177) were randomized to 6 weeks of light therapy or group CBT-SAD and followedup one and two winters after treatment. Outcomes measured during treatment and at each follow-up included depression symptoms on the Structured Clinical Interview for the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression—SAD Version and Beck Depression Inventory—Second Edition. Candidate mediators measured at pre-, mid-, and posttreatment were SAD-specific negative cognitions (Seasonal Beliefs Questionnaire; SBQ); general depressogenic cognitions (Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale; DAS); brooding rumination (Ruminative Response Scale-Brooding subscale; RRS-B); and chronotype (Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire; MEQ). Latent growth curve mediation models found a significant positive path from treatment group to the slope of SBQ during treatment, with CBT-SAD showing larger improvements in seasonal beliefs with overall change in seasonal beliefs in the medium-effect range, and significant positive paths from SBQ slope to depression scores at the first and second winter follow-ups, indicating greater change towards more flexible seasonal beliefs during active treatment was associated with less severe depression symptoms following treatment. Estimated indirect effects (treatment group → SBQ change * SBQ change → outcome) were also significant at each follow-up for each outcome with β_indirect ranging from .091 to .162. Models also found significant positive paths from treatment group to the slope of MEQ and RRS-B during treatment, with light therapy showing a greater increase in “morningness” and CBT-SAD showing a greater decrease in brooding during active treatment; however, neither construct emerged as a mediator of follow-up depression scores. Change in seasonal beliefs during treatment mediates both the acute antidepressant and long-term effects of CBT-SAD and explains lower depression severity following CBT-SAD relative to light therapy.     

汉语阅读发展研究中几种实验任务之间关系的探讨

本研究综合考察汉语阅读获得与发展研究中经常使用的注音、命名与组词,听写与多重选择的关系。结果发现：注音与命名有很强的一致性,并且都与组词有很高的棚关;在这些任务中,听写的难度最大,多重选择最易;几种任务存在共同的加工规律。文章从词汇识别过程讨论了这些结果的理论含义。