The Adaptation and Validation of Quality of Work Life Scale to Turkish Culture

The aim of this research is to adapt the Quality of Work Life Scale developed by Sirgy et al. (Social Indicators Research, 55, 241–302, 2001) to Turkish culture, and to examine its psychometric properties. The research has been conducted on 254 academics who are affiliated to the Faculty of Education and Faculty of Science and Letters of four different universities in Ankara, Turkey. In order to provide the lingual equivalence, bilingual group pattern was used, and an English version of the scale was applied to a group of 34 academicians who are fluent in both English and Turkish. Nearly 1 month after this application, the Turkish version of the same form was applied once again to the same 34 people. The construct validity of the scale was conducted by using the Confirmatory Factor Analysis method. As a result of the study, it was determined that the original scale and its Turkish form yielded similar results. The fact that internal consistency is high is proved. Croanbach alpha coefficient was found as 0.84. This result indicates that the internal consistency of the test and accordingly the reliability are high and close to the original QWL scale. As a result of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis applied, it was determined that the Turkish form gave a factorial structure which was similar to the original scale and that no problems occurred in the course of using the scale total points. It is concluded that this scale, with its extremely comprehensible language, will contribute to defining the level of quality of the work life of those who work in Turkey and understand their behaviors and attitudes towards their work.     

A comparison of the effects of providing activity and material choice to children with autism spectrum disorders

The present study compares the effects of providing choice between activities or between materials for completion of activities on the on-task behavior of 4 boys with autism spectrum disorders. Results showed that the participants displayed higher levels of on-task behavior during the choice conditions than in the no-choice condition. However, the type of choice opportunity did not seem to have a differential effect.     

Identifying distinct sets of predictors of specific functions of autobiographical memory

ABSTRACT

Grounded in the ecological approach, research has charted several adaptive functions of autobiographical remembering. Each represents a rather different psychosocial domain (i.e., self, social, directive). The goal of this research was to determine the contributions of each of a set of variables, controlling for all others, in predicting use of autobiographical memory to serve each specific function. In two studies, participants (N?=?100; N?=?195) rated frequency of functional use of specific event memories and completed a brief battery of memory-related measures. Most Study One results were replicated in Study Two. Self-relevance of memories was related to their functional use regardless of domain. Each function was also, however, predicted by a unique set of variables consistent with its use in a given psychosocial domain. Findings emphasise how a combination of factors come into play to allow humans to use autobiographical memory to serve various different functions in navigating daily life.     

Michael Jackson,Bin Laden and I: Functions of positive and negative,public and private flashbulb memories

This study examined the perceived psychosocial functions of flashbulb memories: It compared positive and negative public flashbulb memories (positive: Bin Laden's death, negative: Michael Jackson's death) with private ones (positive: pregnancy, negative: death of a loved one). A sample of n = 389 young and n = 176 middle-aged adults answered canonical category questions used to identify flashbulb memories and rated the personal significance, the psychological temporal distance, and the functions of each memory (i.e., self-continuity, social-boding, directive functions). Hierarchical regressions showed that, in general, private memories were rated more functional than public memories. Positive and negative private memories were comparable in self-continuity and directionality, but the positive private memory more strongly served social functions. In line with the positivity bias in autobiographical memory, positive flashbulb memories felt psychologically closer than negative ones. Finally, middle-aged adults rated their memories as less functional regarding self-continuity and social-bonding than young adults. Results are discussed regarding the tripartite model of autobiographical memory functions.     

Job Insecurity and Turnover Intentions: Gender Differences and the Mediating Role of Work Engagement

The present study tests an integrative model that considers differential gender effects for the mediating role of work engagement on the relationship between job insecurity and turnover intentions in a predominantly Muslim country. Job insecurity was divided into two aspects: general concerns about losing one’s job and concerns about losing the privileges (such as career advancement, stimulating work, competence, and pay development) that come from one’s specific job. Data were collected from 309 private banking employees (107 women, 202 men, with a mean age of 33.58) in Marmara region, Turkey. The results of multi-group path analysis partially support the hypotheses. The differential gender effects for the mediating effect of work engagement were supported only on the concerns about losing job privileges→turnover intention linkage, but not on the concerns about losing the job itself→turnover intention linkage. Moreover, the mediating effect of work engagement on the relationship between concerns about losing job privileges and turnover intention was found to be stronger for women than for men. For men, work engagement acts only as a partial mediator, suggesting that concerns about the loss of job privileges exerts its effects on turnover intentions both directly and indirectly. Although the direct effect of concerns about losing the job itself on turnover intention is significant, the indirect effect through work engagement turns out to be nonsignificant for both genders. Our findings are discussed considering the business environment in Turkey as a Muslim country.     

Comprehension of Idioms in Turkish Aphasic Participants

Brain damaged participants offer an opportunity to evaluate the cognitive and linguistic processes and make assumptions about how the brain works. Cognitive linguists have been investigating the underlying mechanisms of idiom comprehension to unravel the ongoing debate on hemispheric specialization in figurative language comprehension. The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the comprehension of idiomatic expressions in left brain damaged (LBD) aphasic, right brain damaged (RBD) and healthy control participants. Idiom comprehension in eleven LBD aphasic participants, ten RBD participants and eleven healthy control participants were assessed with three tasks: String to Picture Matching Task, Literal Sentence Comprehension Task and Oral Idiom Definition Task. The results of the tasks showed that in overall idiom comprehension category, the left brain-damaged aphasic participants interpret idioms more literally compared to right brain-damaged participants. What is more, there is a significant difference in opaque idiom comprehension implying that left brain-damaged aphasic participants perform worse compared to right brain-damaged participants. On the other hand, there is no statistically significant difference in scores of transparent idiom comprehension between the left brain-damaged aphasic and right brain-damaged participants. This result also contribute to the idea that while figurative processing system is damaged in LBD aphasics, the literal comprehension mechanism is spared to some extent. The results of this study support the view that idiom comprehension sites are mainly left lateralized. Furthermore, the results of this study are in consistence with the Giora’s Graded Salience Hypothesis.     

Testing the Domain Specificity of Creativity with Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale: A Meta-Analytic Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Domain-specificity is a topic of debate within the field of creativity. To shed light on this issue, we conducted a meta-analysis of cross-domain correlations based on the Kaufman Domains of Creativity Scale (K-DOCS). To evaluate the model fit of one general factor versus two factors that encompass the primary K-DOCS subscales (Scholarly, Everyday, Artistic, Scientific, and Performance), we employed the one-stage meta-analytic structural equation modeling (OSMASEM) approach. Poor fit of these models would provide evidence of domain-specificity, as the proposed models would not outperform the independence model. Our analysis included 45 correlation matrices from 30 studies, with a total sample size of 31,136 participants. The results provided support for a general domain of creativity, as well as a two-factor solution consisting of Arts and Sciences factors. Among the subscales, the highest correlation was found between the Artistic and Performance domains (r = .478), while the smallest correlation was observed between the Everyday and Scientific domains (r = .178). Furthermore, moderator analyses incorporating age and gender revealed that the Scientific and Everyday subscales exhibited a stronger factor load in older participants compared to younger participants. Implications are discussed for research and practice.     

Challenges for the sequential two-system model of moral judgement

Considerable evidence supports the sequential two-system (“default interventionist”) model of moral judgement, as proposed by Greene and others. We tested whether judgement speed and/or personal/impersonal moral dilemmas can predict the kind of moral judgements (utilitarian or deontological) subjects make for each dilemma, and whether personal dilemmas create difficulty in moral judgements. Our results showed that neither personal/impersonal conditions nor spontaneous/thoughtful-reflection conditions were reliable predictors of utilitarian or deontological moral judgements. Yet, we found support for an alternative view, in which, when the two types of responses are in conflict; the resolution of this conflict depends on both the subject and the dilemma. While thinking about this conflict, subjects sometimes change their minds in both directions, as suggested by the data from a mouse-tracking task.     

The relation of the conceptual self to recent and distant autobiographical memories

Based on the self-memory system model (SMS; Conway, Singer, & Tagini, 2004) of autobiographical memory, this study uses a large sample of young and middle-aged adults to investigate the relation between individuals' current self-characteristics and the content of both their earliest childhood memory and a recent memory. In the first session, participants' current self-characteristics were assessed. In the second session, individuals provided a written narrative of their earliest childhood memory and a more recent memory (within-participants design) and rated the self themes present in each memory. In keeping with the SMS model, findings show that current self-characteristics were reflected in individuals' memories. As predicted, however, recent memories were more frequently linked to current self-characteristics than were earliest memories. All six current self-characteristics predicted the inclusion of these themes in recent memories, but only four self-characteristics were associated with memory themes in earliest memories. The relation between current self-characteristics and memory themes did not differ across young and middle-aged adults, suggesting developmental stability in these relations. Findings provide general support for the SMS model but also suggest possibilities for its extension and refinement.     

Psychotropic Medication Patterns in Medicaid-Insured Youth Based on Clinician-Reported Maltreatment Status

The main objective of this study is to explore the relationship of psychotropic medication use patterns and clinician-reported maltreatment status in Medicaid-insured youth. This cross-sectional study analyzed computerized outpatient claims for youth aged 2–17 years who were continuously enrolled for ≥10 months in a mid-Atlantic state Medicaid program in 2006. Bivariate analyses and multivariable logistic modeling were employed to assess patterns of any psychotropic drug use, and specifically for antipsychotics, antidepressants, and stimulants by clinician-reported maltreatment status and according to other study covariates. Child maltreatment status was assessed using ICD-9 codes for maltreatment. Other covariates included age group, gender, race/ethnicity, region, Medicaid-eligibility categories, and clinician-reported psychiatric diagnostic groups. Among 274,490 youth, 901 had a clinician-reported child maltreatment indicator for a prevalence of 3.3 per 1,000. These youth were more likely to be older, female, African American, and Medicaid eligible by foster care or disability. Youth with clinician-reported maltreatment compared to youth without identified maltreatment had a significantly higher prevalence of antipsychotic use (14.1 vs. 3.4 %), antidepressant use (12.1 vs. 3.4 %) and stimulant use (15.8 vs. 7.8 %). After adjusting for the study covariates, the odds of antipsychotic use (2.6 [2.0, 3.2]), antidepressant use (2.0 [1.6, 2.6]), and any psychotropic use (1.5 [1.3, 1.9]) were comparatively higher among youth with clinician-reported maltreatment. By contrast, the adjusted-odds of stimulant use was comparable between the groups. The findings from this exploratory study from one state’s Medicaid outpatient data suggest that youth with maltreatment indicators have an increased likelihood of antipsychotic and antidepressant medication dispensings.