Reinventing ourselves

In my role as President of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology, I provide an introduction to the ‘Manifesto for the Future of Work and Organizational Psychology’ (this issue), positioning the manifesto within our association’s and discipline’s broader focus on renewal and improvement.     

The impact of physical activity and sex differences on intraindividual variability in inhibitory performance in older adults

It is well-known that processing speed and executive functions decline with advancing age. However, physical activity (PA) has a positive impact on cognitive performances in aging, specifically for inhibition. Less is known concerning intraindividual variability (iiV) in reaction times. This study aims to investigate the influence of PA and sex differences on iiV in inhibitory performance during aging. Healthy adults were divided into active and sedentary groups according to PA level. To analyse iiV in reaction times, individual mean, standard deviation and the ex-Gaussian parameters were considered. An interaction between activity level and sex was revealed, sedentary females being slower and more variable than sedentary men. No sex differences were found in the active groups. These results indicate that the negative impact of sedentariness on cognitive performance in older age is stronger for females. The present findings underline the need to consider sex differences in active aging approaches.     

Parent sex education beliefs in a rural South African setting

This study explored beliefs held by African community parents which are important in their children’s sexual health education. The informant parents (n = 30) were predominantly rural dwelling (female = 70%; black = 95%; rural = 80%; age range = 30 to 65 years old) from the Free State, South Africa. They reported on their child sex education beliefs; addressing appropriateness, resources, and content issues. Thematic analysis revealed that parents were more comfortable engaging in sex education with their older or young adult children rather than the younger children. Moreover, the parents considered sex education topics on sexual intercourse and instruments taboo subjects. Resourcing parents regarding sex education would require working around cultural barriers about the age appropriateness of sex education, as well as permissible content.     

Le bien-être psychologique au travail des professionnels du médical et du paramédical : rôles des échanges leader-membres,du soutien organisationnel perçu,du sentiment d’efficacité et médiations par la satisfaction des besoins psychologiques

This research aims to study the relationships between the perceived organizational support, the leader-member exchange (LMX), and the feeling of general self-efficacy with the psychological well being at work (PWBW) in the medical and para-medical environment. We also tested the indirect effects of satisfaction psychological of autonomy, competence and affiliation in the relationship between these predictors and PWBW. A total of 175 participants from the medical and para-medical sectors completed a questionnaire. The results showed that all predictors positively correlated with PWBW. Mediation analyzes showed that need satisfaction had a mediating effect on the relationships between inductors and PWBW. Finally, leader-member exchanges (LMX) and general self-efficacy promoted PWBW, and the satisfaction of the three psychological need systematically played a mediating role.     

Messing with the emotions of the other exploring ambiguous youth-adult relations in a residential care institution

This article provides insights into the lived ambivalence, between support and control that arises in care work. It does so through an analysis of the spatialised entanglements of emotions, age and formal position in intergenerational encounters at a residence for young people suffering from social and mental distress. By identifying the dominant norms associated with the roles of ‘resident’ and ‘professional in the social space of the residence’, Warming explores what may, drawing on Haraway, be termed popular, oppositional and inappropriate practices and the emotions and power relations linked to them. The analysis reveals how the three types of practices – all framed by neoliberal youth policies and psy-knowledge about age, (ab)normal personalities and ‘professionalism’ as spatialised in the institutional organisation of work and the physical space as well as rules, norms, and routines - represent very diverse ways of navigating. Moreover it demonstrates, how ‘messing with other people's emotions' and trying to change their behavior is regarded as manipulation if it challenges norms or power relations rooted in spatially anchored perceptions of appropriate practices, but as empowerment if it chimes with norms that correspond to the roles and intersecting binary constructions of childish/young/insane client – adult professional.     

Are Religions for Sale? Evidence from the Swedish Church Revolt Over Same‐Sex Marriage

Religious leaders sometimes condemn progressive social norms. This article revisits David Hume's hypothesis that secular states can “bribe” churches into adopting less strict religious doctrines. The hypothesis is difficult to test due to reverse causality: more liberal theologies may attract more political support in the first place. The empirical strategy used to circumvent this problem focuses on a theological conflict over same‐sex marriage within the Church of Sweden and takes advantage of political regulations that effectively make some parishes shareholders of the church's state‐protected property. The shares used for statistical identification are tied to property rights assigned more than 300 years ago, and they cannot be sold, traded, or amended by the individual parishes. The results show that priests in shareholding parishes are less likely to publicly oppose same‐sex marriage. The impact of political protection is stronger in parishes with more conservative members. The results are consistent with a model of clerical opportunism, in which income protection makes priests less likely to pander to the stricter followers.     

Take a Job,Any Job: Exploring the Importance of Matched Interests to Career Paths and Work Satisfaction

Employment counselors often face the conundrum of whether to advise people to take a job or to hold out for something that better matches their interests. This study investigated whether matched interests in an initial job predicted the subsequent career journey of 336 sales engineers and whether this made a difference to longer term work satisfaction and tenure. Results showed that although the first job significantly influenced people's future career journey, personality and job characteristics were likely to be more influential than matched interests in predicting work satisfaction. Thus, people may be better off taking well‐designed jobs than holding out for matched interests.     

Changements technologiques,TIC et santé psychologique au travail : une revue de la littérature

Changes, innovations and developments in the corporate environment are followed by new organizational policies. These new work policies are marked by the introduction of innovative working tools commonly known as Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The aim of this article is to propose a theoretical reflection on the technological changes and psychological health at work. From a corpus of articles and books published in management and psychology journals (English and French), several categories of ICTs in organizations are explored. These ICTs lead from a rigid organization to a flexible one. They enable organizations to maximize productive capacities, reduce intermediate management, recompose work collectives and develop the versatility of employees. These arrangements also change the nature, modalities and content of the work to be carried out. Beyond that, ICTs give workers the opportunity to renew their skills, open up new fields of action, broaden the space for autonomy and increase efficiency. But at the same time, these technologies can also involve more control and pressure, increase intensification factors and considerably reduce the scope for maneuver and expression of the trade; exposing the psychological health of employees to risks such as stress and burn out.     

Differences between experience of anger and readiness to angry action: A study of Japanese and Spanish students

In this study, the individual proneness to anger, either as an experienced emotion or as action readiness, was studied in university students of both sexes in Japan and Spain, administering the Anger Situation Questionnaire (ASQ) to 425 subjects (195 in Japan and 230 in Spain). The feelings of anger experience were higher than the readiness to action in all the samples. This difference between both variables was higher in females than in males, as well as in the Spanish sample compared with the Japanese one. An intragroup analysis in each sex in each country showed that the relative differences between males and females were similar in both countries. These constant differences between both sexes seem to be independent of the cultural context. Aggr. Behav. 28:429–438, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

The Impact of Self-Components on Attitudes Toward Sex Among African American Preadolescent Girls: The Moderating Role of Menarche

The purpose of this study was to identify the protective factors that help to prevent attitudes that are tolerant of risky sexual behavior among inner-city, African American, preadolescent girls. It was hypothesized that aspects of the self would significantly predict attitudes toward sexual behavior among this population. It was also expected that the predictive power of the self-components (i.e., ethnic identity, self-concept, and masculine and feminine gender role orientation) would be increased in African American girls following menarche. Two hundred and five African American, preadolescent girls from a northeastern, inner-city community participated in this study. The age for this sample ranged from 10 to 13. Findings of this study lend partial support to the hypotheses. Examination of the predictive relationship between the self-components and attitudes toward sex indicated that self-concept and the masculine and feminine gender role characteristics were significant predictors of attitudes toward sex. In addition, the impact of ethnic identity on functioning was found to be most significant for girls who had experienced menarche.