Transmission of reduction‐oriented crafting among colleagues: A diary study on the moderating role of working conditions

Zooming into reduction‐oriented job crafting among employees, next to minimizing demands (i.e., making a job less strenuous), we introduced optimizing demands (i.e., simplifying the job and making work processes more efficient) and suggested that optimizing demands should be positively related to work engagement, whereas minimizing demands negatively related to work engagement. Moreover, we suggested that both forms of reduction‐oriented crafting can be transferred among colleagues, and this will particularly occur in jobs that are high on demands (workload and emotional demands), low on resources (autonomy), and when the colleagues have a high‐quality relationship. We examined these hypotheses among 65 dyads of employees who filled in a general questionnaire and a diary for three working days. Multilevel analyses supported the transmission of both job crafting dimensions among colleagues. Moreover, there is more transmission of minimizing demands among colleagues when workload and emotional demands are high and autonomy is low. Additionally, optimizing demands was transmitted among colleagues when autonomy was low and quality of relationship with colleague was high. Optimizing demands was positively related to work engagement, whereas minimizing demands was unrelated to work engagement. These findings imply that optimizing demands is a favourable behaviour and can be transmitted among colleagues under specific conditions.

Practitioner points

• Working smarter is related to higher work engagement
• Employees model their colleague's proactive behaviour
• Unfavourable working conditions stimulate modelling behaviour of colleagues

     

Understanding and Improving the Validity of Self-Report of Parenting

Although researchers using parental self-report data have questioned its validity (Holden, 2001) and called for more work in this area (Krevans & Gibbs, 1996; Locke & Prinz, 2002), methodological concerns regarding self-report about parenting practices have not been addressed adequately. The susceptibility of parental report to systematic distortions suggests a need for research on ways to improve self-report. This paper attempts to synthesize research findings from other fields (e.g., survey methodology) about ways to improve the validity of self-report, and to discuss the implications for self-report of parenting behaviors. Methods for improving self-report are presented for each of the 5 major tasks in responding to a question: (1) understanding the question, (2) recalling relevant behavior, (3) inference and estimation, (4) mapping the answer onto the response format, and (5) “editing” the answer for reasons of social desirability. Self-administered interviewing, audio-computer-assisted interviewing, pretesting, conversational interviewing, and the decompositional item may be among the best candidates for use in parental self-report. Recommendations are offered with respect to strategies that might prove useful in improving parental assessment of parenting, and to research efforts to evaluate the utility and potential costs of these strategies.     

Patterns of Daily Time Use of Young Adults With or Without First-Episode Psychosis

This study compared patterns of daily activities and satisfaction with time use of young adults with first-episode psychosis and healthy volunteers. Fifty young adults participated in retrospective structured interviews on time use. Young adults with first-episode psychosis spend more time in sleep, passive leisure, and personal care activities, and less in total productive activities and education. No difference appeared for leisure, paid work, and household work, or satisfaction with daily time use. Reasons underlying dissatisfaction with daily time use differed between the groups. Clinical and research implications are discussed.     

Understanding the Lived Experience of Formerly Homeless Adults as They Transition to Supportive Housing

The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with formerly homeless adults who had moved to supportive housing to understand their perceived occupational needs and the factors that affected their transition. A qualitative research design with four participants who had a history of substance abuse and mental illness was used. Participant interviews that addressed categories of daily living and personal satisfaction produced data that were coded for analysis using conventional content analysis. Mega themes emerged that related to factors shaping the housing transition and maintenance experience. Occupational therapists can use these findings to create informed interventions to enhance this population's occupational performance.     

Characteristics of Male Batterers in Treatment

Abstract

This article presents information on the characteristics of a clinical population of male perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV) court-ordered for batterers' treatment, and how these characteristics co-varied with treatment attrition. The average demographic profile of male batterers in a midwestern treatment program that met present-day treatment guidelines was similar to that found in other studies. In addition, relationship length and status, alcohol/drug use, self-reports of past treatment and mental health issues, and self-report of witnessing or experiencing violence within the home during childhood was also similar. Batterers' self-reports of their own violent behavior were found to vary by data collection technique, with face-to-face interviews eliciting greater admission of violent behavior than paper-and-pencil questionnaires. However, the only predictors of successful treatment outcome were living arrangement at the time of treatment and racial category. Implications of these findings are discussed, and “local effects” program evaluation approaches are suggested.     

Correspondence between children's and adults' ratings of stimulant-induced changes in ADHD behaviours in a crossover trial with medication-naive children

Correspondence between children's and adults' ratings of changes in ADHD behaviours was investigated in a paediatric ADHD stimulant crossover trial. Thirty-one children completed an ADHD self-report scale each week, and comparisons were made with an ADHD questionnaire completed by adults (combined parent and teacher ratings). Children's and adults' ratings demonstrated good internal consistency, were significantly associated with the assessment of ADHD behaviours in the placebo condition and showed comparable responsiveness to stimulants at the group level. Furthermore, a large and significant correlation was detected between the two sets of informants' ratings of changes from placebo to both methylphenidate and dextroamphetamine high-dosage conditions, but not from placebo to low-dosage conditions. Agreement in the categorization of best stimulant condition for individual children was significant, but modest from a clinical perspective. The results indicate that children's ratings correspond adequately with adults' ratings, and thus appear to be a complementary outcome measure.     

Revisiting desirable response bias in well-being reports

Growing popular interest in positive psychology may have important implications for the measurement of well-being. Five studies tested the prediction that well-being ratings are influenced by desirability bias. In Study 1, participants (N?=?176) instructed to fake good endorsed higher well-being; those instructed to fake bad endorsed lower well-being, compared to controls. In Studies 2 and 3 (N’s?=?111, 121), control participants endorsed higher levels of well-being compared to those attached to a bogus pipeline. These differences were mediated by desirability bias. In Study 4 (N?=?417), instruction manipulations did not affect well-being levels, but presenting a desirability measure prior to well-being measures attenuated the correlations between them. In Study 5 (N?=?391), however, this order effect did not replicate. We discuss the importance of continued vigilance for desirability bias in well-being research as a ready solution to this clear problem remains elusive.     

Hearing Impairment, Coping Strategies, and Anxiety Sensitivity

The aim was to study coping strategies among hearing-impaired individuals by using a validated coping instrument—The Ways of Coping Questionnaire (WOCQ; S. Folkman & R. Lazarus, 1988)—and to relate the use of coping with anxiety sensitivity and experience of hearing impairment. A questionnaire booklet was sent out to the members of the local branch of the Swedish Hard of Hearing Association. Ninety-four members responded to the questionnaire, yielding a 53% response rate. Primary outcome measures were the WOCQ, the Anxiety Sensitivity Index, and visual analogue scale rating of discomfort from hearing impairment. Repeated measures analysis of WOCQ subscales showed that the participants used planful problem solving and self-controlling coping strategies whereas escape/avoidance responses were less frequently used than the other coping strategies. Anxiety sensitivity was associated with escape/avoidance coping (r = .63, p < .0001). In conclusion, hearing-impaired individuals do not use escape/avoidance coping more than other coping strategies. However, escape/avoidance coping is associated with anxiety sensitivity, suggesting that sensitivity to anxiety sensations is an important associated factor. Coping strategies were not associated with discomfort from hearing impairment in any meaningful way.     

Validation of the Multidimensional Blood/Injury Phobia Inventory: Evidence for a Unitary Construct

The Multidimensional Blood/Injury Phobia Inventory (MBPI) was developed from a theoretical framework to characterize a broad range of feared stimuli and phobic reactions associated with this pathology. The MBPI consists of 40 items that cross 4 types of stimulus content (injections, hospitals, blood, injury), 5 types of phobic responses (fear, avoidance, worry, fainting, disgust), and a self versus other focus. This study reports on administration of the MBPI to 558 undergraduates, 9 of whom had blood/injury phobia. The instrument had a Cronbach's alpha of .91 and demonstrated good concurrent validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. One large factor emerged in an unrotated principal components analysis, suggesting that blood/injury phobia is a unitary psychometric construct. Exploratory factor analyses revealed a 6-factor solution defined by stimulus content domains and fainting, each of which may be important to consider clinically when assessing the unique concerns of treatment-seeking individuals.     

Avoidance of 20% carbon dioxide-enriched air with humans.

Four college students were exposed to a Sidman avoidance procedure to determine if an avoidance contingency involving 20% carbon dioxide-enriched air (CO2) would produce and maintain responding. In Phase 1, two conditions (contingent and noncontingent) were conducted each day. These conditions were distinguished by the presence or absence of a blue or green box on a computer screen. In the contingent condition, CO2 presentation were delivered every 3 s unless a subject pulled a plunger. Each plunger pull postponed CO2 presentations for 10 s. In the noncontingent condition, CO2 presentations occurred on the average of every 5 min independent of responding. Following stable responding in Phase 1, condition-correlated stimuli were reversed. In both conditions, plunger response rate was high during the contingent condition and low or zero during the noncontingent condition. Furthermore, subjects avoided most CO2 presentations. However, CO2 presentations did not increase verbal reports of fear. Overall, the results from the present study suggest that CO2 can be used effectively in basic studies of aversive control and in laboratory analogues of response patterns commonly referred to as anxiety.