Retrospective Predictors of Successful Career Change Among Older Workers: Perceived Objective Success Versus Perceived Subjective Success

An increasing number of older workers are attempting career changes; however, little is known about the antecedents or outcomes of these changes. Results indicate that perceived objective and perceived subjective career‐change success are predicted by different combinations of variables. Implications for both future research and practice are discussed.     

On the dark side of work: a longitudinal analysis using self-determination theory

As the nature of work has changed in recent decades, employees are increasingly exposed to psychological demands in the workplace, which have associated consequences for employees, organizations, and society. Using self-determination theory, this study examined the dark side of work, in which frustration of basic psychological needs is associated with higher levels of work-related stress. In this model, work-related stress is associated with higher levels of somatic symptom burden, which in turn is associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion, turnover intention, and absenteeism. Results of a longitudinal analysis using data from four time points over 15 months supported these predictions. Taken together, this study advances the literature towards an understanding of the (potential) detrimental impact that need-thwarting work contexts can have on employee wellness and work-related outcomes.     

大学生人格特质与主观幸福感的关系:儒家心理资产的中介作用

以308名大学生为被试,以《大五人格问卷》、《儒家心理资产问卷》、《生活满意度量表》和《积极消极情感量表》为工具,考察人格特质、儒家心理资产与主观幸福感的关系。结果表明:(1)五种人格特质与儒家心理资产的八个维度存在不同程度的相关;(2)儒家心理资产八个维度与主观幸福感的不同指标相关不同;(3)爱人、务民、崇德、学等儒家心理资产维度在人格特质与主观幸福感总分之间起部分中介作用。本研究是对《论语》管理智慧实证化的创新性尝试。     

Love and melancholia in the analysis of women by women

This paper suggests that in the analysis of women by women a melancholic core may be encountered at the centre of the transference/countertransference situation that is an expression of the loss of the primary maternal object that has never been mourned. The attachment to the primary, lost object may be preserved in a melancholic, invisible way, and the longing that it is connected to might only reach representation in the après coup of the analytic process. The links between this primary love, melancholia and the unrepresentable in the analysis of women will be explored. These analyses powerfully evoke the relationship to the somatic. The internalization of the body of the mother, which is a requirement in the development of a woman, can take on frightening, fragmented, part‐object qualities. An example of a five times a week analysis is discussed.     

Embodied information affects judgements about politicians: The impact of haptic weight sensations and hand cleansing

Politicians' characteristics attract voters' attention and dominate impression formation. Thereby, social judgements are deduced from different information being available in a certain situation. The literature suggests that incidental bodily sensations can influence judgement processes. Here, two bodily treatments—the haptic sensation of weight and the act of hand cleansing—simultaneously contribute to judgements about politicians. This study expands previous works by (a) investigating potential interactions of two haptic information cues, (b) providing evidence for the significant role of conceptual closeness between embodied cues and judgement dimensions, (c) showing that hand cleansing leads to harsher moral judgements independently of whether a misconduct has been committed or not, and (d) showing that the familiarity of the target to be judged does not moderate the effect of embodied information. The results demonstrate that judgements can be modulated by basal sensorimotor experiences. We discuss implications and the important issue of result generalisation and replicability.     

Parents’ adjustment following the death of their child: Resilience is multidimensional and differs across outcomes examined

We examine whether the previously reported commonness of resilience to significant adversity extends to parents’ death of a child. To examine our research questions, we apply growth mixture models to longitudinal data from 461 parents in the HILDA study who had experienced child loss. The proportion of parents manifesting resilience were 44%, 56%, 21%, 32%, and 16% for life satisfaction, negative affect, positive affect, general health, and physical functioning, respectively. Only 5% were resilient across all five indices, whereas 28% did not show a resilient trajectory across all outcomes. Social connectedness, anticipating comfort when distressed, and everyday role functioning were the strongest predictors of resilient adaptation. Findings underscore that resilience is not a unidimensional construct.Words: 115.     

Change in subjective social status following HIV diagnosis and associated effects on mental and physical health among HIV-positive gay men in Australia

Objective: This study investigates the impact of HIV diagnosis on subjective social status and if changes are linked to health outcomes.

Design: Two measures of subjective social status, socio-economic and standing in the community were examined in 342 Australian HIV-positive gay men in 2014. Participants recalled ratings at diagnosis were compared with current ratings.

Main outcome measures: Self-reported mental (psychological distress, self-esteem, positive mental health and satisfaction with life) and physical health (self-rated health, CD4 count, viral load).

Results: Half of the participants reported improvements in subjective socio-economic status (59%) or standing in the community (52%) since diagnosis, yet one quarter reported socio-economic status (25%) or standing in the community had decreased (23%). Increases in either measure of subjective social status were linked to higher self-esteem, positive mental health, satisfaction with life and better self-rated health. Decreases in subjective social status, however, were strongly linked to poorer outcomes on all mental health measures. Decreases in standing in the community were also associated with poorer physical self-rated health.

Conclusion: Most participants reported their subjective social status were the same or better since diagnosis. Changes in subjective social status following diagnosis were strongly linked to mental health outcomes. Those who reported a decrease in subjective social status were particularly vulnerable to mental health problems.     

Subjective age and sleep in middle-aged and older adults

Objective: Chronological age is commonly used to explain change in sleep. The present study examines whether subjective age is associated with change in sleep difficulties across middle adulthood and old age.

Design: Participants were drawn from the second (2004–2005) and third (2013–2014) waves of the Midlife in the United States Survey (MIDUS, N = 2350; Mean Age: 55.54 years), the 2008 and 2014 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS, N = 4066; Mean Age: 67.59 years) and the first (2011) and fourth (2014) waves of the National Health and Aging Trends Survey (NHATS, N = 3541; Mean Age: 76.46). In each sample, subjective age, sleep difficulties, depressive symptoms, anxiety and chronic conditions were assessed at baseline. Sleep difficulties was assessed again at follow-up.

Main outcome measures: Sleep difficulties.

Results: An older subjective age at baseline was related to an increase in sleep difficulties over time in the three samples, and was mediated, in part, through more depressive symptoms, anxiety and chronic conditions. Feeling older was associated with an increased likelihood of major sleeping difficulties at follow-up in the three samples.

Conclusion: Subjective age is a salient marker of individuals’ at risk for poor sleep quality, beyond chronological age.     

Present Bias and Everyday Self‐Control Failures: A Day Reconstruction Study

Everyday life is full of self‐control problems. The economist's favorite explanation for self‐control problems is present bias. This paper tests whether experimentally elicited present bias predicts self‐control problems in everyday life. We measure present bias by using a standard incentivized delay discounting task and everyday self‐control by using the day reconstruction method (DRM). Because this is the first study to measure everyday self‐control by using the DRM, we also validate the method by showing that its data replicate key results from the seminal Everyday Temptation Study. We find that present bias does not predict everyday self‐control. This points to a distinction between decreasing impatience (as measured in delay discounting tasks) and visceral influences (as occurring in everyday life) as determinants of self‐control problems. We argue that decision making research can benefit from the DRM as a cost‐effective tool that complements lab and field experiments to better understand economic preference measures and their correlates in everyday life decision making. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluating Effort: Influences of Evaluation Mode on Judgments of Task‐specific Efforts

The claim that humans adapt their actions in ways that avoid effortful processing (whether cognitive or physical) is a staple of various theories of human behavior. Although much work has been carried out focusing on the determinants of such behaviors, less attention has been given to how individuals evaluate effort. In the current set of experiments, we utilized the general evaluability theory to examine the evaluability of effort by examining subjective value functions across different evaluation modes. Individuals judged the anticipated effort of four task‐specific efforts indexed by stimulus rotation, items to be remembered, weight to be lifted, and stimulus degradation across joint (i.e., judged comparatively) and single evaluation modes (i.e., judged in isolation). General evaluability theory hypothesizes that highly evaluable attributes should be consistently evaluated (i.e., demonstrate similar subjective value functions) between the two modes. Across six experiments, we demonstrate that the perceived effort associated with items to be remembered, weight to be lifted, and stimulus degradation can be considered relatively evaluable, while the effort associated with stimulus rotation may be relatively inevaluable. Results are discussed within the context of subjective evaluation, internal reference information, and strategy selection. In addition, methodological implications of evaluation modes are considered. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.