From state neuroticism to momentary task performance: A person × situation approach

The goal of this article was to investigate the mechanisms through which personality relates to task performance. We argue that perceptions of work pressure and task complexity trigger momentary levels of neuroticism (i.e., state neuroticism) and that these momentary levels of neuroticism predict momentary task performance. Moreover, we hypothesized that the relationship between momentary job demands and state neuroticism is moderated by trait neuroticism. To test this model, we conducted an event reconstruction study and a day reconstruction study. The results revealed that trait neuroticism indeed moderated the momentary job demands–state neuroticism relationship, and in three out of four cases state neuroticism was found to mediate the relationship between momentary job demands and momentary task performance. From a practical point-of-view our results suggest that employees’ task performance can be improved by enhancing the way in which individuals perceive job demands. This strategy would be particularly helpful for individuals for whom the momentary job demands–state neuroticism relationship is the strongest (i.e., employees high in trait neuroticism).     

团队领导与团队有效性:基于社会认同理论的多层次研究

随着工作团队的广泛应用,团队有效性已成为研究者与管理者关注的焦点。团队领导作为影响有效性的关键因素,其作用机制得到研究者的日益关注。虽然团队领导的多层特征与中介机制已进入研究者的视野,但多层交互作用机制的实证探讨还较少;领导测量的情境性尚未得到充分关注。本研究在双通道团队变革型领导模型和社会认同理论基础上,提出基于团队、个体各自独立水平与两者交互层面的团队变革型领导作用机制模型。研究将在开发双通道团队变革型领导行为的情景判断测验基础上;通过企业问卷调查分阶段收集多源数据,整合多层结构方程与多层线性模型的数据分析,验证假设中的团队层面变量(团队聚焦变革型领导、关系认同、集体认同)与个体层面变量(个体聚焦变革型领导、领导成员交换、领导导向关系认同)之间的交互关系与边界条件,及对有效性的影响。研究结果一方面可拓展现有的团队领导理论,另一方面可为团队领导选拔等实践应用提供支持。     

From segregation to intergroup contact and back: Using experiments and simulation to understand the bidirectional link

Research on intergroup contact has mostly viewed desegregation as a necessary condition for contact to unfold its power to reduce prejudice. Through residential and school choices, however, prejudice also contributes to segregation. To shed light on this bidirectional link, we conducted two survey‐based experiments with stratified quota samples of German adults. In Study 1, respondents with less contact and more prejudice indicated a lower likelihood of renting an apartment in a neighborhood with a larger proportion of minority members, although housing quality and crime rate were held constant. In Study 2, similar results were obtained for the likelihood of enrolling their child at a school with a larger proportion of minority students. Building on these results in a computer simulation, we find that because contact only reduces prejudice, but does not produce pro‐minority preferences, spontaneous desegregation is unlikely to occur even under the most favorable structural and economic conditions.     

小学生同伴接纳对其人格发展的影响：友谊质量的多层级中介效应

以班级为单位选取1-6年级23个班级的小学生,通过最好朋友提名法,得到有互选朋友有效被试700人,采用同伴提名法、小学生友谊质量问卷、小学生人格发展教师评定问卷,运用多层线性模型（HLM）考察个体和班级两个水平上的同伴接纳、友谊质量对人格的影响,并在两个水平上检验友谊质量在同伴接纳对人格的影响上的多层中介效应。结果表明：（1）班级水平：班级平均友谊质量对外倾性、亲社会性、认真自控、情绪稳定性有预测作用;班级平均同伴接纳对情绪稳定性有预测作用。（2）个体水平：同伴接纳对人格5个维度均有直接影响;除情绪稳定性,友谊质量分别在同伴接纳对智能特征、外倾性、亲社会性、认真自控影响上有部分中介效应。     

The influence of question framing on symptom report and perceived health status

Abstract

Self-reports of symptom experience and subjective ratings of health were obtained from 157 undergraduates. The format of the symptom-report question was varied so that half the participants underlined any symptoms (in a list of 30) they had experienced (endorse condition), whereas the remaining participants crossed out any they had not experienced (exclude condition). Within each of these conditions, half were asked to record symptoms over the last month, and half over the last year. Participants in the exclude condition reported, on average, 70% more symptoms than those in the endorse condition. More symptoms were reported over the last year than the last month. Adjusting for the number of symptoms reported and the perceived seriousness of the symptom set as a whole, participants rated their own state of health more negatively in the endorse than exclude condition. This is consistent with research on the “feature-positive” effect, suggesting that active responses have greater influence on self-perceptions. It is argued that self-report measures of health status must be interpreted in relative, rather than absolute terms, and that attention should be paid to the underlying cognitive processes.     

Is Fear of Crime Mainly Social and Economic Insecurity in Disguise? A Multilevel Multinational Analysis

Using the 2006 Eurobarometer data (representative sample of the European population, N = 16 306, 27 countries), we performed a multilevel analysis aimed at predicting fear of crime. A significant proportion of the variation in fear of crime was at country level. Of the individual predictors included, being a woman, being poorly educated, being unemployed, and being an urban dweller showed positive relations with fear of crime. Fear was highest among people who considered themselves to be socially marginal, among people with negative expectations regarding themselves and their country's future, and among people who considered their nation's welfare system to be unsatisfactory. Among the ecological predictors we took into consideration, nations' degree of economic inequality and low expenditure on education and on social protection showed a positive association with fear of crime, whereas the crime, immigration, and employment rates did not. Implications and limitations of this research are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Salutary effect of daily coping self-efficacy: impact on day-by-day coping to mood effects within dyads following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Little is known how coping self-efficacy (CSE) interacts with coping in dyad everyday life. The present study examined the moderating role of daily CSE in the relationship between coping and the next-day positive (PA) or negative (NA) affect in patient-caregiver dyads, following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Design: This intensive longitudinal study was conducted during the first 28 days after post-transplant discharge.

Methods: Patients and their caregivers (N?=?200) maintained daily diaries on CSE, coping strategies, and affect.

Results: Daily CSE moderated daily coping–affect relationship: Positive emotion-focused coping increased PA in patients with higher than usual emotion-related CSE, whereas a buffering effect was found at lower than usual emotion-related CSE. A positive association between negative emotion-focused coping and NA in both patients and caregivers was stronger among those with lower than usual levels of emotion-related CSE. Higher than usual instrumental coping reduced NA in patients whose caregivers had higher than usual problem-related CSE, but increased NA for those whose caregivers had lower than usual instrumental CSE.

Conclusion: The findings show that daily CSE contributes to the effectiveness of daily coping within dyad, confirming its significance in effective adaptation and the role in the dyadic coping process.     

Age Differences in Day-To-Day Speed-Accuracy Tradeoffs: Results from the COGITO Study

We examined adult age differences in day-to-day adjustments in speed-accuracy tradeoffs (SAT) on a figural comparison task. Data came from the COGITO study, with over 100 younger and 100 older adults, assessed for over 100 days. Participants were given explicit feedback about their completion time and accuracy each day after task completion. We applied a multivariate vector auto-regressive model of order 1 to the daily mean reaction time (RT) and daily accuracy scores together, within each age group. We expected that participants adjusted their SAT if the two cross-regressive parameters from RT (or accuracy) on day t-1 of accuracy (or RT) on day t were sizable and negative. We found that: (a) the temporal dependencies of both accuracy and RT were quite strong in both age groups; (b) younger adults showed an effect of their accuracy on day t-1 on their RT on day t, a pattern that was in accordance with adjustments of their SAT; (c) older adults did not appear to adjust their SAT; (d) these effects were partly associated with reliable individual differences within each age group. We discuss possible explanations for older adults’ reluctance to recalibrate speed and accuracy on a day-to-day basis.     

A Bayesian Approach to More Stable Estimates of Group-Level Effects in Contextual Studies

Multilevel analyses are often used to estimate the effects of group-level constructs. However, when using aggregated individual data (e.g., student ratings) to assess a group-level construct (e.g., classroom climate), the observed group mean might not provide a reliable measure of the unobserved latent group mean. In the present article, we propose a Bayesian approach that can be used to estimate a multilevel latent covariate model, which corrects for the unreliable assessment of the latent group mean when estimating the group-level effect. A simulation study was conducted to evaluate the choice of different priors for the group-level variance of the predictor variable and to compare the Bayesian approach with the maximum likelihood approach implemented in the software Mplus. Results showed that, under problematic conditions (i.e., small number of groups, predictor variable with a small ICC), the Bayesian approach produced more accurate estimates of the group-level effect than the maximum likelihood approach did.     

It Takes a Village: The Effects of 10th Grade College-Going Expectations of Students, Parents, and Teachers Four Years Later

Adolescents are surrounded by people who have expectations about their college-going potential. Yet, few studies have examined the link between these multiple sources of college-going expectations and the actual status of students in postsecondary education years later. The study draws on data collected in the 2002–2006 Educational Longitudinal Study and employs an underutilized statistical technique (cross-classified multilevel modeling) to account for teacher reports on overlapping groups of students (typical of high school research). Results showed that positive expectations of students, parents, English, and mathematics teachers in the 10th grade each uniquely predicted postsecondary status 4 years later. As a group, the four sources of expectations explained greater variance in postsecondary education than student characteristics such as socioeconomic status and academic performance. This suggests positive expectations are additive and promotive for students regardless of their risk status. Teacher expectations were also found to be protective for low income students. Implications for future expectancy research and equity-focused interventions are discussed.