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.     

Computing Cohen’s kappa coefficients using SPSS MATRIX

This short paper proposes a general computing strategy to compute Kappa coefficients using the SPSS MATRIX routine. The method is based on the following rationale. If the contingency table is considered as a square matrix, then the observed proportions of agreement lie in the main diagonal’s cells, and their sum equals the trace of the matrix, whereas the proportions of agreement expected by chance are the joint product of marginals. The generalization to weighted kappa, which requires an additional square matrix of disagreement weights, both matrices having the same order, becomes possible by the use of the Hadamard product-that is, the elementwise direct product of two matrices.     

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.     

Neuropsychological Characteristics of Adolescents With Conduct Disorder: Association With Attention-Deficit–Hyperactivity and Aggression

The purpose of this study was to determine whether an association exists between neuropsychological deficits and conduct disorder (CD) with and without concurrent attention-deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In addition, we explored the differential neuropsychological performance of aggressive and nonaggressive CD adolescents and the combined effect of this behavioral status and ADHD on performance. Fifty-nine adolescents (mean age of 15.4 years) who met the criteria for CD were compared with 29 controls comparable in age, gender, and socioeconomic status. A neuropsychological battery of current tests measuring executive functions and a battery of language tests were used in the study. Multivariate analyses showed that, compared with controls, CD adolescents had significantly lower verbal skills but did not differ on executive function measures. However, the lower verbal performance of CD adolescents is not explained by the existence of a CD subgroup with concomitant ADHD or aggressiveness. The study confirms with a sample of CD adolescents the association between verbal deficits and antisocial behavior when socioeconomic status is controlled. Our results also demonstrate that CD per se can be a sufficient condition for such deficits.     

The Five-Factor Model of Personality at the Facet Level: Association with Antisocial Personality Disorder Symptoms and Prediction of Antisocial Behavior

The association between the Five-Factor Model of personality (FFM) and antisocial personality disorder (APD) symptoms was investigated in a sample of young males with a history of severe antisocial behavior. Results were compared against those of an expert-consensus study (Lynam and Widiger Journal of Abnormal Psychology 110:401–412, 2001) and those of a recent meta-analysis (Samuel and Widiger Clinical Psychology Review 28:1326–1342, 2008) based primarily on non-antisocial samples. A high degree of similarity was observed across the three. Multivariate analysis indicated two FFM facets, Compliance and Activity, to be associated with APD symptoms. The contribution of these facets to the prospective prediction of antisocial behavior over and above that of APD symptoms and past antisocial behavior was evaluated. Compliance alone explained 8.7% of the unique variance in future antisocial behavior.     

Comparing persistent juvenile delinquents and normative peers with the Five-Factor Model of Personality

Recent research suggests that personality traits are associated with delinquency. T-tests were run to identify which traits and facets of the Five-Factor Model of Personality contributed to differentiate persistent juvenile delinquents (n = 48) from normative peers (n = 48). Results showed that two traits, namely Agreeableness and Neuroticism, and 12 facets differed significantly between the groups. Observed effect sizes varied from medium to large.