Cognitive mechanisms mediating the biasing effects of leader sex on ratings of leader behavior

The present study examined the effects of the sex of the leader, the sex of the rater, and the temporal position of leader performance information on ratings of leader behavior. Male and female subjects listened to an audiotape of a male or female leader and then rated the leader's initiating structure and consideration behaviors. The position of the leader performance information was manipulated by describing the leader as successful before or after raters listened to the audiotape or not presenting raters with the performance information. Analyses indicated that the sex of the leader and/or sex of the rater biased ratings of initiating structure when the performance information was presented after the audiotape and when no leader performance information was presented. Consideration ratings were affected only by the position of the leader performance information. The results are interpreted within a cognitive/implicit sex theory framework. Implications for leadership research are also discussed.Portions of the data analyzed in this study were collected by the second author as part of a master's thesis directed by Joseph A. Sgro.     

How Academic Community and an Ethic of Care Can Shape Adjunct Work Environments: A Case Study of a Community College

This article presents a qualitative case study that explores how faculty and administrators at one community college conceptualized and experienced academic community within their institution and how that conceptualization helped shape the part-time faculty work environment. Using a combined framework of academic community and care ethics, this study utilizes data from 55 interviews with full-time and part-time faculty and administrative leaders from a large community college. Findings from this study indicate that defining membership, a sense of belonging, and shared mission and goals are key components to their understanding of academic community. From these three components, the study found that when participants included adjunct faculty as members of their academic community, they also reported a sense of responsibility or obligation to supporting them.

     

Self-report of ADHD symptoms in college students and repetition effects

The research in this article focuses on the relation between self-report of attention deficit disorder (ADD) symptoms and performance on a two-alternative forced-choice task that measures repetition effects. The ADD/Hyperactive Adolescent Self-Report Scale--Short Form is administered to college students after they completed the repetition effects task. Performance to familiar and novel stimuli can be measured using this paradigm. The results indicate that participants in the good and poor attention groups do not differ in their responses to repeated stimuli. However, participants who self-report poor attention are faster to respond to novel stimuli compared with participants who self-report good attention. This brief questionnaire appears to capture individual differences in attention and may be useful in attention research.     

Genetic Cancer Risk Assessment and Counseling: Recommendations of the National Society of Genetic Counselors

These cancer genetic counseling recommendations describe the medical, psychosocial, and ethical ramifications of identifying at-risk individuals through cancer risk assessment with or without genetic testing. They were developed by members of the Practice Issues Subcommittee of the National Society of Genetic Counselors Cancer Genetic Counseling Special Interest Group. The information contained in this document is derived from extensive review of the current literature on cancer genetic risk assessment and counseling as well as the personal expertise of genetic counselors specializing in cancer genetics. The recommendations are intended to provide information about the process of genetic counseling and risk assessment for hereditary cancer disorders rather than specific information about individual syndromes. Key components include the intake (medical and family histories), psychosocial assessment (assessment of risk perception), cancer risk assessment (determination and communication of risk), molecular testing for hereditary cancer syndromes (regulations, informed consent, and counseling process), and follow-up considerations. These recommendations should not be construed as dictating an exclusive course of management, nor does use of such recommendations guarantee a particular outcome. These recommendations do not displace a health care provider's professional judgment based on the clinical circumstances of a client.     

Validating a brief pupil evaluation inventory

A shortened version of the Pupil Evaluation Inventory (PEI) was evaluated. The shortened version consists of nine items and was administered to 381 third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders in Chicago area Catholic schools. A factor analysis revealed the same factor structure as the original measure. Correlations with other sociometric ratings and the Achenbach Teacher Report Form were moderate to strong. A series of ANOVAs was used to compare the factors of the PEI to the five social status groups calculated from a peer nominations measure, and significant differences were found. Rejected children received higher scores on Aggression and Withdrawal than any other group, and popular children scored significantly higher on Likability.Special thanks to Loisa Bennetto for reading the many drafts of this paper and to Jay Johnson, who helped with some of the initial analyses. Thanks also to the generous financial suppport from the National Institute of Mental Health (grant 40851).     

Category and letter fluency in semantic dementia, primary progressive aphasia, and Alzheimer's disease

This study examined the impact of various degenerative dementias on access to semantic knowledge and the status of semantic representations. Patients with semantic dementia, primary progressive aphasia, and Alzheimer's disease were compared with elderly controls on tasks of category and letter fluency, with number of words generated, mean lexical frequency and errors recorded. The findings are consistent with the view that category and letter fluency rely on both common and unique cognitive processes. Fluency tasks, with the richness of data obtained, are valuable in distinguishing different dementia syndromes from one another.     

Development of action monitoring through adolescence into adulthood: ERP and source localization

In this study we examined the development of three action monitoring event-related potentials (ERPs) - the error-related negativity (ERN/Ne), error positivity (P(E)) and the N2 - and estimated their neural sources. These ERPs were recorded during a flanker task in the following groups: early adolescents (mean age = 12 years), late adolescents (mean age = 16 years), and adults (mean age = 29 years). The amplitudes of the ERN/Ne and N2 were greater in the adult and late adolescent groups than in the early adolescent group. Both of these components had neural sources in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Although P(E) was present across groups, P(E) amplitude was greater in the late adolescent group compared to the adult group and also had neural sources in the ACC. ERN/Ne amplitude was related to post-error slowing across age groups; it was related to task performance only in the adult group. These findings are discussed in light of the role of the maturation of the ACC in the development of action monitoring processes.