Positive and negative: Partner derogation and enhancement differentially related to relationship satisfaction

Previous research on positive illusions has treated negatively biased views of one's romantic partner as existing along the same continuum as positively biased views. However, research on the greater psychological impact of negative events suggests that overly negative views of one's partner (derogation) may have a stronger association with relationship outcomes than overly positive views (enhancement). In this study, 353 couples completed 2 measures of relationship satisfaction and rated themselves and their partners on 3 trait domains. For most domains, with the exception of interpersonal virtues, derogating one's partner was a stronger predictor of satisfaction than enhancing one's partner. Being the object of derogation or enhancement had little association with relationship satisfaction, with some exceptions.     

Gender,Ethnicity, and College Students' Responses to the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory

In this study we investigated the career interest patterns of White American, African American, and Hispanic students attending a summer orientation program at a predominantly White university. A total of 77 students completed the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII). Responses were analyzed by gender and ethnicity. The results indicated a gender effect for the Realistic theme. There were no ethnic differences in responses; there was, however, an interaction effect for gender and ethnicity on the Artistic theme and on the two special scales of the SCII: Academic Comfort (AC) and Introversion-Extroversion (I-E). Implications of the findings are discussed. Este estudio investiga la distribución del interés por una carrera de estudiantes Anglo-Americanos, Afro-Americanos, e Hispanos que as-isten a un programa de orientación durante el verano en una universidad que es en su mayor parte anglo-sajona. Setenta y siete estudientes respondieron a el inventorio Strong-Campbell Interest. Se analizaron las respuestas según género y etnia. Los resultados indicaron un efecto de genero para el Tema Realista. No había diferencias étnicas en las respuestas, a pesar de eso, había un efecto de interacción entre género y etnia en el Tema Artístico, y en las dos Escalas Especiales de SCII: Academic Confort e Introversión-Extroversión. Se discuten las implicaciones de los resultados.     

The child development consultant: an experiment

The effects of a new type of practitioner in elementary schools—the Child Development Consultant—were evaluated in contrast to the effects of persons carrying out typical functions of the elementary school counselor and social worker. This two-year project shows trends but no significant differences favoring one type of worker over the other. Evidence suggests the value of a pupil services practitioner in a school, and indicates that although such practitioners were prepared informally and relatively briefly, their effects are the same as those who engage in full, formal preparation programs.     

The Personality Composition of Teams and Creativity: The Moderating Role of Team Creative Confidence

We examined the possibility that teams composed primarily of individuals with personality characteristics conducive to team creativity (e.g., high extraversion, high openness to experience, low conscientiousness, high neuroticism, low agree‐ableness) would show synergistic increases in creativity when they experienced high levels of “team creative confidence”, a shared understanding that the team is more creative than each team member individually. We tested these hypotheses using a sample of 145 three‐student teams that worked on a set of idea generation tasks at Time 1 (T1) and a second set two weeks later at Time 2 (T2). As expected, results of cross‐lagged regression analysis indicated that when team creative confidence at T1 was high, team creativity at T2 increased quadratically as the number of team members who scored high on extraversion, high on openness, or low on conscientiousness increased. However, the number of individuals composing a team who scored high on neuroticism or low on agree‐ableness had no relation to team creativity under conditions of high or low team creative confidence. Implications of these results for the design of creative teams are discussed.