Sexual Enhancement for Young Adults

Despite the recent development of sexual enhancement programs, young, premarital aged adults (18 to 20) have usually been excluded from participation. Few models exist that attempt to meet the needs of this age group. In an effort to bridge this gap, a sexual enhancement workshop has been developed that focuses specifically on the needs of young adults.     

Accuracy and bias in newlywed spouses' perceptions of each other's personalities

This study investigated moderators of newlywed spouses' accuracy in judging each other's personality. Spouses in 154 predominantly Hispanic newlywed couples rated their own and their partners' personality traits. Full‐sample results showed significant associations between perceivers' and targets' personality ratings (“truth force”/“tracking accuracy”). Positive directional bias (perceivers' mean trait ratings of targets exceeding targets' self‐ratings) also was evident. Positive directional bias occurred when perceivers had little familiarity with their spouse prior to dating and when perceivers had high self‐esteem. Truth force/tracking accuracy increased with less time spent cohabiting and higher perceiver self‐esteem. Positive associations between perceivers' self‐esteem and ratings of partners on positively valenced traits were reduced when partners had had greater opportunities to observe one another's behaviors.     

THE IMPACT OF HUMAN RESOURCE AND OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON COMPANY PRODUCTIVITY: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Within the strategic human resource management (SHRM) perspective, psychology‐based practices, especially empowerment, extensive training, and teamwork, are seen as vital to sustained competitive advantage. Other approaches, such as those of integrated manufacturing and lean production, place greater emphasis on operational initiatives such as total quality management, just‐in‐time, advanced manufacturing technology, and supply‐chain partnering as determinants of organizational performance. We investigated the relative merits of these practices through a study of the productivity of 308 companies over 22 years, during which time they implemented some or all of these 7 practices. Consistent with SHRM theory we found performance benefits from empowerment and extensive training, with the adoption of teamwork serving to enhance both. In contrast, none of the operational practices were directly related to productivity nor did they interact with other practices in ways fully consistent with the notions of integrated manufacturing or lean production.     

Counseling and Human Sexuality: A Training Model

In recent years sexuality has been broadly defined as a fundamental dimension of personality. Mental health practitioners need to respond to the increased awareness of human sexuality as a vital aspect of personal development. To date, few programs or workshops assist mental health counselors in developing the necessary skills to confront sexual concerns in the counseling relationship. This article presents a counseling and human sexuality course model that provides counselors with an information base in human sexuality and assists them in exploring the emotional aspects of sexuality. This course model assumes that mental health counselors will provide a valuable service to their client populations once they have become more willing and able to explore sexual conflicts.     

Protestantism and Child Mortality in Northeast Brazil, 2000

The recent growth of Pentecostal Protestantism in Latin America has called attention to the social consequences of religious conversion. Ethnographic studies find that affiliation with Pentecostal churches is associated with attitudinal and behavioral transformations that modify gender relations, enhance the economic viability of the household, and endow families with social capital that can be mobilized during periods of economic stress, sickness, and emergency. The nature of the changes suggests that they may improve the welfare of infants and young children within the family. To explore this proposition, we use sample data from the 2000 demographic census in the Brazilian northeast to estimate the probability of death among children born to women 20 to 34 years of age. The findings show that, other things being equal, the death rate among children born to Protestant women is around 10 percent lower compared to the death rate among children born to Catholic women. We further disaggregate Protestants into "traditional" (e.g., Baptist, Presbyterian) and "Pentecostal" (e.g., Assembly of God) subgroups, and show that the mortality-reducing effect is greater among historical compared to Pentecostal Protestants. No mortality effects were associated with membership in neo-Pentecostal churches.     

ON THE VALIDITY OF SUBJECTIVE MEASURES OF COMPANY PERFORMANCE

Subjective measures of company performance are widely used in research and typically are interpreted as equivalent to objective measures. Yet, the assumption of equivalence is open to challenge. We compared the use of both types of measure in 3 separate samples. Findings were consistent in showing that: (a) subjective and objective measures of company performance were positively associated (convergent validity); (b) those relationships were stronger than those between measures of differing aspects of performance using the same method (discriminant validity); and (c) the relationships of subjective and objective company performance measures with a range of independent variables were equivalent (construct validity).