Test-taking behaviors in a neurocognitive assessment: associations with school-age outcomes in a Finnish longitudinal follow-up

Test-taking behaviors (i.e., task focus, maintenance of attention, and cooperation) affect children's cognitive test performance, and, thus, it is critical to take test-taking behavior into account when drawing conclusions and making recommendations. Prior studies have evaluated test-taking behaviors at the end of the assessment; the present study focused on the fluctuation of cooperation and attention during a neuropsychological assessment. We examined the attention and cooperation of 5-year-old children in a test-taking situation; the associations between these aspects of their test-taking behavior and the children's concurrent neurocognitive test performance, IQ, and parent-rated behavior; and the associations with their IQ, behavioral outcomes, and academic achievement at 8 years of age. The data (for 76 boys and 63 girls) were drawn from the Jyv?skyl? Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia (Lyytinen et al., 2001, 2004). All the children were Caucasian and spoke Finnish as their native language. As a whole, the 5-year-old children showed high cooperation and attention, but a slight decrement in test-taking behavior toward the end of the session was rather common. Three subgroups of children with different levels of cooperation and attention were identified. Children in the subgroup with nonoptimal attention and cooperation showed decreasing neurocognitive test performance toward the end of the assessment session. They also showed more inattentive behavior 3 years later. The findings imply that the examiner's observations of waning attention and cooperation during the assessment session are highly relevant, as these provide stable and clinically meaningful information about the child's behavioral tendencies.     

Constructions of work stress and coping in a female- and a male-dominated department

In the present study the nature of stress and coping was investigated and considered as socially constructed. Thirty small group interviews were performed using the Critical Incident Technique in one female- and one male-dominated customer service department of a telecom company. The main themes about stress among both women and men were often expressed as collective phenomena and were connected to the organizational change and downsizing process, problems when carrying out the work and lack of autonomy. However, a striking difference between female and male interviews was found in the way that women to a greater extent expressed lack of autonomy and their working situation was described as strictly regulated. The findings illustrate that a traditional gender difference regarding autonomy could be found when comparing a female- and a male-dominated department even though they were performing the same type of job. Both women and men portrayed coping as a mixture of collective and individual strategies. They often mentioned collective acceptance, resignation and hardening. There is a need for further research about women and men at work, taking into consideration the interpersonal context and the collective nature of stress and coping.     

Exploring the Nature of Human Resource Developers' Expertise

This article explores the nature of expertise of HR developers who work on training, career development, and developmental processes in an organization. The study draws on the data from a survey on HR developers in Finland (n = 164), possessing both quality and length of education and experience typical of experts in HRD. The HR developers evaluated their work performance through work roles and outputs, importance of competencies needed in performance, and related developmental interests in competencies. The results indicated that in terms of work performance there are specific areas of change agency, trainership, and management in HRD work determined mostly by contextual factors; there is also a common element which refers to dealing with the less explicit processes of change. Also, there seem to be common areas in expert knowledge, but the importance of these varies according to work role. In terms of importance and developmental interest, analytical and coaching competence seemed to be central. Seemingly both are less explicit and informal areas of expert knowledge. Additionally, both are acquired mainly through experience, and are areas which enable expertise to be communicated and mediated for the use of the organization. These findings are discussed further in relation to the nature and further development of HR developer's expertise.     

The Role of Darwin in Elizabeth Grosz's Deleuzian Feminist Theory: Sexual Difference,Ontology, and Intervention

In this article on Elizabeth Grosz's philosophy and its implications for discussions about feminist theory, I first suggest that Charles Darwin plays a particular role in Grosz's recent ontological thought. This role is to provide help in joining together two incompatible sources in her work: Gilles Deleuze's monistic ontology of a constant flow of new differentiations, on the one hand, and Luce Irigaray's thought of sexual difference as the primary ontological difference, on the other. I argue that Grosz's intellectual project has developed into a grand general theory of change in which both Darwin and Irigaray are turned into ontologists in a Deleuzian vein. I then point out that Grosz's ontology also includes a political aspect, which manifests in the fact that Grosz redescribes Darwin through interpreting him primarily as a theorist of “event” and the unexpected. However, through an analysis of the discussion on Grosz between Luciana Parisi and Jami Weinstein, I speculate whether Grosz's ambition to provide a total and complete explanation of change encourages the tone of feminist discussion toward one of explanation rather than intervention.     

Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI): Normative data,psychometric properties,and associations with socioeconomic status in Finnish children

Assessment of behavioral disorders is one of the most commonly encountered tasks in child psychiatry. The Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) is a widespread measurement tool used for assessing conduct problems, though the psychometric properties of the tool have varied in different samples. In this study, the ECBI was evaluated in a Finnish population based sample of children aged 4 to 12 years (n = 1,715). Factor structure and internal consistency of the ECBI and associates of behavioral problems in Finnish children were evaluated. The results showed that a unidimensional one‐factor solution for the ECBI intensity scale was the best fit for the data. The ECBI mean scores were considerably higher in our sample compared to other Nordic countries. Boys scored higher than girls on both ECBI scales, and the mean scores decreased with child's age. Socioeconomic status (SES) was weakly connected to the ECBI scores. Our results highlight the need for country specific reference norms in order to improve the clinical utility of evidence‐based measures for assessing conduct problems.     

Reciprocity of trust in the supervisor–subordinate relationship: The mediating role of autonomy and the sense of power

This article develops and tests a model of reciprocal trust between supervisor and subordinate. Drawing from literature on trust and control and on the approach/inhibition theory of power, the authors present a model in which supervisor trust is suggested to enhance subordinate reciprocal trust through increased work-related autonomy and a heightened sense of power. The mediator analysis using the two-level full structural model confirmed that the relationship between supervisor trust and subordinate trust was partially mediated by the suggested chain of variables. The article responds to a call for empirical studies on reciprocal trust and offers a complementary mechanism for trust building beside characteristics and relationship-based approaches.     

Genetic Ignorance and Reasonable Paternalism

The question concerning an individual's rightto remain in ignorance regarding her owngenetic makeup is central to debates aboutgenetic information. Whatever is decided onthis matter has a weighty bearing on all of therelated third-party issues, such as whetherfamily members or employers should be toldabout an individual's genetic makeup. Thosearguing that no right to genetic ignoranceexists tend to argue from a viewpoint I havecalled in this paper reasonablepaternalism. It is an appealing position whichrests on widely shared intuitions on reasonablechoices, but which, in the end, smugglespaternalism back to medical practice.     

Genetic Information,Rights, and Autonomy

Rights, autonomy, privacy, and confidentialityare concepts commonly used in discussionsconcerning genetic information. When theseconcepts are thought of as denoting absolutenorms and values which cannot be overriden byother considerations, conflicts among themnaturally occur.In this paper, these and related notions areexamined in terms of the duties and obligationsmedical professionals and their clients canhave regarding genetic knowledge. It issuggested that while the prevailing idea ofautonomy is unhelpful in the analysis of theseduties, and the ensuing rights, an alternativereading of personal self-determination canprovide a firmer basis for ethical guidelinesand policies in this field.     

Stress and health among women and men in a Swedish telecom company

The aim of the study was to investigate gender differences at managerial and nonmanagerial level in perceived stress and control and the relationship to health problems. Questionnaires were collected from 281 women and men at both managerial and nonmanagerial level in a sales department in a large Swedish telecom company. Items describing sources of stress were selected from Dallner, Gamberale, Olsson, and Örelius (1999) and developed through a group interview. The results showed only minor differences in perceived stress and no differences in perceived control when comparing men and women working at the same level in the organization. Instead the differences in perceived stress and control were found between managers and nonmanagers. In addition, the study showed both differences and similarities in explaining health symptoms for women and men at the same organizational level. Similarities were found at a nonmanagerial level but at a managerial level health problems were not predicted by the same factors for women and men. The need to consider organizational level in future studies about stress and gender is addressed.