The future of workplace commitment: key questions and directions

This position paper presents the state-of-the art of the field of workplace commitment. Yet, for workplace commitment to stay relevant, it is necessary to look beyond current practice and to extrapolate trends to envision what will be needed in future research. Therefore, the aim of this paper is twofold, first, to consolidate our current understanding of workplace commitment in contemporary work settings and, second, to look into the future by identifying and discussing avenues for future research. Representative of the changing nature of work, we explicitly conceptualize workplace commitment in reference to (A) “Temporary work”, and (B) “Cross-boundary work”. Progressing from these two themes, conceptual, theoretical and methodological advances of the field are discussed. The result is the identification of 10 key paths of research to pursues, a shared agenda for the most promising and needed directions for future research and recommendations for how these will translate into practice.     

Children's Personal Narratives and Their Mothers' Responsiveness as Covariates of the Children's Compliance

Twenty-six mother–child dyads volunteered to be observed interacting at home, and the children agreed to participate in interviews designed to elicit their personal narratives. Observers coded the children's compliance with mother instructions and the mothers' responsiveness to their children's prosocial behaviors. Other raters coded the children's narratives for coherence of story structure. Correlational analyses of the data sets confirmed hypotheses that mother responsiveness and child coherence scores would account for separate variance in the children's willingness to comply with their mothers' instructions. These results were interpreted within the literature on child–mother synchrony and functional aspects of children's personal narratives.     

A Study of the Opinions of College Students

ABSTRACT

When judging whether a relationship partner can be counted on to “be there” when needed, people may draw upon knowledge structures to process relevant information. We examined one such knowledge structure using the prototype methodology: indicators of a partner who is likely to be there when needed. In the first study (N = 91), the structure, content, and reliability of the prototype of indicators were examined. Then, using a false recognition study (N = 77), we demonstrated that once activated, the prototype of indicators of a partner who is likely to be there when needed affects information processing. Thus, the prototype of indicators may shape how people process support-relevant information in everyday life, affecting relationship outcomes. Using this knowledge structure may help a person process relevant information quickly and with cognitive economy. However, it may also lead to biases in judgments in certain situations.     

Interaction between varying social ties on health: Perceived partner responsiveness and institutional trust

The interplay between different forms of social relationships, that is, perceived partner responsiveness and institutional trust, on subjective health evaluations was examined for the first time. There were 1241 respondents who had a romantic relationship. After adjusting for the covariates, findings suggested that greater perceived partner responsiveness and institutional trust led respondents to report better subjective health. The positive link between perceived partner responsiveness and subjective health was more pronounced among the respondents reporting a lower level of institutional trust. Such an interaction could be an indicator pointing out the compensatory role of close relationship dynamics. Given that finding, public health authorities and practitioners could be encouraged to be aware of the adaptive function of social ties on health and focus on maintaining the strength of intimate social ties and building trust between authority gradients. This suggestion could especially be adaptive not only during “normal” times but also during post-disaster circumstances (e.g., COVID-19).     

Responsiveness in Interactions of Mothers and Sons with ADHD: Relations to Maternal and Child Characteristics

We observed mother–child interactions, at baseline, in 136 families of 7–10-year-old boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were part of a large clinical trial, the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD. Independent coders rated stylistic aspects of maternal behavior and factor analyses revealed a responsiveness factor that included overall responsiveness and sensitivity to the child, warmth and acceptance, and appropriate control. We examined relations between maternal responsiveness and (a) maternal depressive symptoms and maternal childhood ADHD symptoms, and (b) boys' ADHD and conduct problem symptoms. Controlling for all other variables, maternal responsiveness displayed a unique negative association with mother-reported child conduct problems, but not with child ADHD symptoms, and also was negatively related to maternal depressive symptoms. We discuss the unique association between mother-reported child conduct problems and parenting, and note the utility of studying parenting style in families of children with ADHD. We describe the results within the framework of a transactional model.     

Economic and biological influences on key pecking and treadle pressing in pigeons

Pigeons were studied on a two-component multiple schedule in which the required operant was, in different conditions, biologically relevant (i.e., key pecking) or nonbiologically relevant (i.e., treadle pressing). Responding was reinforced on a variable-interval (VI) 2-min schedule in both components. In separate phases, additional food was delivered on a variable-time (VT) 15-s schedule (response independent) or a VI 15-s schedule (response dependent) in one of the components. The addition of response-independent food had different effects on responding depending on the operant response and on the frequency with which the components alternated. When components alternated frequently (every 10 s), all pigeons keypecked at a much higher rate during the component with the additional food deliveries, whether response dependent or independent. In comparison, treadle pressing was elevated only when the additional food was response dependent; rate of treadling was lower when the additional food was response independent. When components alternated infrequently (every 20 min), pigeons key pecked at high rates at points of transition into the component with the additional food deliveries. Rate of key pecking decreased with time spent in the 20-min component when the additional food was response independent, whereas rate of pecking remained elevated in that component when the additional food was response dependent. Under otherwise identical test conditions, rate of treadle pressing varied only as a function of its relative rate of response-dependent reinforcement. Delivery of response-independent food thus had different, but predictable, effects on responding depending on which operant was being studied, suggesting that animal-learning procedures can be integrated with biological considerations without the need to propose constraints that limit general laws of learning.     

EFFECTIVENESS OF BRIEF TIME-OUT WITH AND WITHOUT CONTINGENT DELAY: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

We evaluated a commonly used component of brief time-out, in which release from time-out is delayed contingent on the occurrence of disruption. Data were collected for one normal and two mentally retarded children on time-out-producing behaviors (aggression and disruption) as well as delay-producing behaviors during time-out (loud vocalizations, out-of-chair, aggression, and disruption). The results of a combination ABAC reversal and multiple-baseline design indicated that, under the conditions used in this investigation, both delay and no delay variations were effective in reducing the frequency of the target behaviors. Implications for the use of time-out to reduce aberrant behaviors are discussed.     

Infant and parental pathways to pre-school cognitive competence

In a longitudinal study, 62 parent-child dyads were seen during the second year of life and at 4 years of age. At 12 months, measures included parental sensitive responsiveness during free play, knowledge of cognitive-communicative development in infancy, and level of exploration and disinhibitedness of the infant. At 16 and at 20 months, parental responsiveness and directiveness and infant task mastery behaviour were assessed in constructive play. Quality of verbal guidance of the parent was assessed in a joint attention situation. At 48 months of age, the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities were administered at home, together with dyadic tasks. A path analysis revealed a model in which both verbal abilities and perceptual performance outcome measures were well predicted by the quality of parental verbal guidance in the second year. The latter measure was shown to be independent of the socioeconomic status of parents in the group, but was significantly related with knowledge of infant cognitive-communicative development. Of the measures at the outset of the second year, only socioeconomic status remained as having a direct path at pre-school age. The consistency of the model with other empirical findings underscores parental verbal scaffolding as an important shaper of cognitive development.