The perceived helpfulness of rendering emotional first aid via email

The present research examined the perceived helpfulness of an increasingly widespread mode of psychological assistance, namely, emotional first aid via email. The sample comprised 62 naturally occurring email interactions between distressful clients and trained volunteers operating within the framework of the Israeli Association for Emotional First Aid. Data were gathered by means of a structured questionnaire and open-ended questions so as to examine the clients' motivation to seek help via email and evaluate their satisfaction with the responses obtained. The results revealed a preference for written communication and the accessibility of assistance to be the most frequent reasons for clients to choose the medium of email. Most clients found the responses to be helpful in providing emotional support, enhancing cognitive change and suggesting practical ways of coping. Women perceived the assistance to be more helpful than men did. The results are discussed in terms of the unique value of email as an agent of mental health assistance.     

Comparison of three systems for psychotechnical assessment used in Turkey

The aim of this study was to compare three different psychotechnical test batteries in Turkey (Act and React Test system – ART2020, TRAFIKENT, and Vienna Test System) which are used to evaluate safe driving-related ability traits and to evaluate the construct validity of the tests included in these three test systems that claim to measure the same cognitive structures. Therefore, 176 drivers (19–63 years old), who owned a driving license for at least one year and had driven at least 5000 km, were tested in all three systems. Both professional and amateur drivers as well as drivers whose licenses were detained due to speeding, DWI or other violations were included in order to form a heterogeneous and representative sample for the Turkish driver population. Participants completed the three psychotechnical batteries which tested their cognitive and psychomotor skills in a period of two or three days. The analysis of the findings revealed that the three batteries were more compatible for some cognitive abilities whereas they were less compatible for other abilities. For instance, there were higher similarities among the systems in skills such as reasoning, visual memory, and attention, while there were lower similarities in terms of reaction speed, visual continuity, coordination, speed distance estimation, and visual field. The results were discussed and evaluated so as to improve traffic safety in Turkey, and further suggestions for enhancement in traffic situations followed.     

Extraversion and job performance: How context relevance and bandwidth specificity create a non-linear,positive, and asymptotic relationship

The personality factor of extraversion has been associated with performance in some occupations (e.g., sales), and it has been one of the most consistent personality predictors of leadership. Recent research indicates that extraversion could have a non-linear relation with performance. At the same time, many researchers have contended that scholars should utilize measures of personality narrower than factors and that the bandwidth and relevance of personality should fit both the criterion and the context of a study. We argue and find that by examining an aspect of extraversion (i.e., social potency) in a particular vocational context (i.e., enterprising job demands), non-linear, asymptotic (diminishing marginal benefits) effects will be demonstrated on a relevant type of performance (i.e., enterprising job performance). We review implications, limitations, and avenues for future research.     

The environment influences whether high-fat foods are associated with palatable or with unhealthy

This study investigated whether relatively automatic evaluations of food differ between situations and between obese people and lean controls. These evaluations were assessed in the affective priming paradigm (APP) -- a response latency based measure for associations. In Experiment 1, we either focused participants (33 obese and 26 lean controls) on the palatability (restaurant condition) or on the healthiness (health condition) of food, prior to the APP. Independent of weight-status, relatively automatic evaluations of food were based on palatability in the restaurant condition, and on health in the health condition. So, the current focus of attention can shape the way foods are evaluated relatively automatically. In Experiment 2, craving was induced in participants (27 obese and 29 lean controls). Unexpectedly, the craving induction did not achieve its goal of focusing on the palatability of food in general, but just for low-fat foods, possibly because of the health-emphasizing environment -- a hospital. Interestingly, obese people showed a stronger palatability priming effect with increasing levels of initial craving. For normal weight controls the effect was in the same direction, but missed significance. In our environment, palatability of food may be too salient, and health may not be salient enough, influencing automatic food-evaluations.     

The relative impact of workplace bullying as a social stressor at work

Hauge, L. J., Skogstad, A. & Einarsen, S. (2010). The relative impact of workplace bullying as a social stressor at work. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 426–433. Exposure to workplace bullying has been argued to be a severe social stressor and a more crippling and devastating problem for affected individuals than the effects of all other work‐related stressors put together. However, few studies have explicitly investigated this assumption. In a representative sample of the Norwegian working population, the present study investigated the relative contribution of workplace bullying as a predictor of individual and organizational related outcomes after controlling for the well‐documented job stressors of job demands, decision authority, role ambiguity and role conflict. Bullying was found to be a significant predictor of all the outcomes included, showing a substantial relative contribution in relation to anxiety and depression, while for job satisfaction, turnover intention and absenteeism, more modest relative contributions were identified. Workplace bullying is indeed a potent social stressor with consequences similar to, or even more severe than, the effects of other stressors frequently encountered within organizations. Thus, the finding that bullying has a considerable effect on exposed individuals also when controlling for the effects of other job stressors demonstrates bullying as a serious problem at workplaces that needs to be actively prevented and managed in its own right.     

Evaluating Arguments Based on Toulmin’s Scheme

Toulmin’s scheme for the layout of arguments (1958, The Uses of Argument, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) represents an influential tool for the analysis of arguments. The scheme enriches the traditional premises-conclusion model of arguments by distinguishing additional elements, like warrant, backing and rebuttal. The present paper contains a formal elaboration of Toulmin’s scheme, and extends it with a treatment of the formal evaluation of Toulmin-style arguments, which Toulmin did not discuss at all. Arguments are evaluated in terms of a so-called dialectical interpretation of their assumptions. In such an interpretation, an argument’s assumptions can be evaluated as defeated, e.g., when there is a defeating reason against the assumption. The present work builds on recent research on defeasible argumentation (cf. e.g. the work of Pollock, Reiter, Loui, Vreeswijk, Prakken, Hage and Dung). More specifically, the author’s work on the dialectical logic DEFLOG and the argumentation tool ARGUMED serve as starting points.     

生涯适应力的作用：个体与组织层的跨层面分析*

生涯适应力(career adaptability)是生涯建构理论提出的自我职业生涯管理的核心概念,但国外理论和实践一直认为生涯适应力是一把双刃剑(生涯适应力高的员工工作绩效高,但其离职意向也高),本研究将对此进行检验;同时,生涯适应力作为个体职业生涯开发的核心变量,它在组织职业生涯管理跨层面作用中的价值也未曾研究。通过员工在两个时间点自评和管理者他评问卷,获得54家单位的485份有效调查问卷。结构方程模型分析的结果表明,生涯适应力不仅与工作绩效有显著正相关,而且也与离职意向有显著负相关。层次回归分析结果表明,工龄是生涯适应力与离职意向、工作绩效关系的调节变量;也就是说,工龄短员工的生涯适应力与工作绩效呈显著正相关,与离职意向呈显著负相关,但工龄长员工的生涯适应力与二者的关系都不显著。基于跨层面研究设计,多层线性模型(HLM)分析的结果表明,生涯适应力是组织职业生涯管理与个体工作绩效之间的完全中介变量,但在组织职业生涯管理与离职意向之间的中介作用不显著。这不但回答了生涯适应力对组织价值的管理困境问题,也解决了组织职业生涯管理与个体工作绩效的连接纽带问题。     

教师职业倦怠与归因的关系探讨

教师职业倦怠问题越来越受到国内外教育研究者的关注。本研究检验归因对教师倦怠的影响。采用教师职业倦怠量表与归因问卷调查170名中学教师。结果表明,中学教师的情绪倦怠程度并不高,但仍有一定比例的教师体验较严重的倦怠状态;内控性与机遇两个控制源与倦怠3个维度之间的相关达到显著水平,权势只与去个性化维度之间的相关达到显著水平;并且,只有内控性与机遇显著地预测了职业倦怠的三个维度。