Novelty seeking in adulthood: increases accompany decline

Using stereotypes, researchers have predicted that novelty seeking declines in adulthood. Through this cross-sectional study, the authors revealed that only the external sensational type of novelty seeking declined, whereas the internal sensational and internal and external cognitive types remained stable or increased. A population of 233 adults (152 men, 81 women) completed the Novelty Experiencing Scale (P. H. Pearson, 1970). Correlational analyses revealed that older men sought novelty more frequently through cognition than did younger men and that older women were less likely than were younger women to seek novelty through their senses. Multivariate analysis of variance, 2 x 5 (Gender x Age), showed that cognitive novelty seeking increased significantly among participants younger than 50 years of age. Sensational novelty seeking was lower among women older than 40 years and among men older than 50 years. The analyses revealed no significant Gender x Age interactions.     

A longitudinal study of student-teacher relationship quality, difficult temperament, and risky behavior from childhood to early adolescence

This study examines the mediating role of student-teacher relationship quality (conflict and closeness) in grades 4, 5, and 6 on the relation between background characteristics, difficult temperament at age 4½ and risky behavior in 6th grade. The longitudinal sample of participants (N = 1156) was from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate paths from (a) background characteristics to student-teacher relationship quality and risky behavior, (b) temperament to student-teacher relationship quality and risky behavior, and (c) student-teacher relationship quality to risky behavior. Findings indicate that students' family income, gender, receipt of special services, and more difficult temperament were associated with risky behavior. In addition, student-teacher conflict was a mediator. Students with more difficult temperaments were more likely to report risky behavior and to have conflict in their relationships with teachers. More conflict predicted more risky behavior. Closer student-teacher relationships were associated with less risky behavior. Results suggest negative relationships, specifically student-teacher relationships, may increase the risk that certain adolescents will engage in risky behavior.     

Affect, Curiosity, and Socialization-Related Learning: A Path Analysis of Antecedents to Job Performance

This study examined the influence of affect, curiosity, and socialization-related learning on job performance, with 233 service industry employees from a diverse variety of occupations completing surveys at their places of work. Both state and trait curiosity and socialization-related learning (learning associated with employee socialization) were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between affect (operationalized as state and trait anxiety and anger) and job performance. Structural equation analyses indicate that the data are consistent with the theoretical models proposed. As expected, anxiety negatively influences curiosity, socialization-related learning, and job performance; conversely, anger positively influences curiosity, socialization-related learning, and job performance. Overall, the findings suggest that affects indeed predict perception of job performance, but through the mediation of curiosity and the learning associated with the socialization process. These results highlight the importance of the complex interplay between affect, curiosity, and learning when thinking about successful employee socialization and best possible job performance.     

The measurement and conceptualization of curiosity

In this study, the authors tried various methods to measure and conceptualize curiosity. A sample of 369 education students (103 men, 266 women) who were attending universities on the East Coast of the United States completed 5 paper-and-pencil curiosity measures in 1 of their classes. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the authors found that the data best fit a 3-factor curiosity model consisting of cognitive curiosity, physical thrill seeking, and social thrill seeking. These findings supported the development of new instruments that specifically measured those 3 curiosity types, new empirical research predicting meaningful curiosity-related outcomes, and subsequent theory building concerning how and why curiosity is a fundamental part of optimal human functioning.     

Personal Accomplishment,Mentoring, and Creative Self-Efficacy as Predictors of Creative Work Involvement: The Moderating Role of Positive and Negative Affect

This research explores the relationships among personal accomplish- ment, mentoring, affect, creative self-efficacy, and creative involvement. With a sample of working adults (N = 242), structural equation modeling results revealed that the data fit the theoretical model well in that creative self-efficacy fully mediated the relationships between personal accomplishment and creative work involvement and between mentoring and creative work involvement. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that positive affect moderated the relationship between personal accomplishment and creative self-efficacy but negative affect did not, signifying that positive affect may be a necessary situational factor to optimize the personal accomplishment-creative self-efficacy link. In contrast, negative but not positive affect moderated the link between mentoring experiences and creative self-efficacy, suggesting that mentoring experiences associated with negative affect situationally may have been likely to have a significant consequence in weakening creative self-efficacy. The findings expand upon self-efficacy and mentoring theories by highlighting the importance of employing theoretically relevant moderating and mediating variables in research investigating the etiology of possible variables associated with vital workplace outcomes.     

Social information processing and job characteristics.

This study simultaneously tested 2 theories that attempt to explain differences in job satisfaction: job characteristics theory (Hackman & Oldham, 1976) and social information processing theory (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978). The theories were tested using data collected from the civilian employees of the public works division at a U.S. military base. The results indicated that individuals' social environments had significant effects upon their attitudes. Multiple social networks were used to operationalize individuals' social environments. The results also suggested that job characteristics had an independent main effect upon job satisfaction, in addition to the effects of the social environment. Based on prior research, employees' past experience and self‐monitoring were tested as moderators of the effects of the social environment, and growth need strength was tested as a moderator of the effects of job characteristics upon job satisfaction. Only self‐monitoring was found to have a significant moderating effect on the relationship between information from the social environment and job satisfaction, and growth need strength had no significant moderating effect.