The nature, prevalence and correlates of generativity among men in middle career

Multiple methods were used to explore the character, contexts, and correlates of generativity among 41 men aged 45–55. Generativity in the role of worker was unrelated to generativity in men’s roles as father, citizen and ‘leisurite’. Individuals who were generative in their work reported greater job satisfaction and subjective career success. These associations were stronger for generativity targeting societal well-being and fellow-workers’ growth than for creative/productive generativity. As some theorists have argued, therefore, nurturant forms of generativity may be more adaptive in mid/late career than other varieties, and more indicative of psychosocial maturity. The status of creativity/productivity within the generativity construct seems problematic. Our findings offer qualified support for McAdams and de St Aubin’s (McAdams, D.P., & de St Aubin, E. (1992). A theory of generativity and its assessment through self-report, behavioral acts, and narrative themes in autobiography. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 62 (6), 1003–1015) contention that generativity is expressed differentially in the domains of concern, commitment and action, and that the different relationships of these generativity domains to third variables can be interpreted in meaningful ways.     

Targeting Performance Dimensions in Sequence According to the Instructional Hierarchy: Effects on Children’s Math Work Within a Self-Monitoring Program

Four fifth-grade students were presented with frustration-level math probes while three performance dimensions were measured (i.e., percent intervals on-task, percent correct digits, and digits correct per minute (DCM)). Using a multiple baseline design across participants, students were trained to self-monitor time on-task, accuracy, and productivity in sequence and were given their choice of preferred rewards for increases in each performance dimension. The effects of self-monitoring productivity plus rewards prior to and after reaching on-task and accuracy criteria were also evaluated on a probe basis using an embedded multielement design. Results showed that three of the four students increased DCM when self-monitoring productivity plus rewards, but only after meeting on-task and accuracy criteria. Effects of self monitoring accuracy were mixed, and all students showed high levels of on-task behavior throughout the study. The implications of these results for increasing the effectiveness of self-monitoring through a sequenced approach to academic skill training are discussed.     

Structure and conventions

Wayne Davis’s Meaning, Expression and Thought argues that linguistic meaning is conventional use to express ideas. An obvious problem with this proposal is that complex expressions that have never been used are nonetheless meaningful. In response to this concern, Davis associates conventions of use not only with linguistic expressions but also with the modes in which such expressions can combine into larger expressions. I argue that such constructive conventions are in conflict with the principle of compositionality (as it is usually understood) and that (at least in the cases Davis considers) they are unnecessary for semantic explanations.

Productivity is not enough: A comparison of interactive and nominal brainstorming groups on idea generation and selection

The conclusion that nominal brainstorming groups outperform interactive brainstorming groups has been exclusively based on studies of idea generation. This study tested whether the productivity advantage of nominal groups would also result in better idea selection. Nominal and interactive groups performed a task that involved idea generation and selection. Idea generation and selection were strictly separated for half the groups, but were combined for the other half. Nominal groups generated more ideas than interactive groups, and the ideas generated by nominal groups were more original and less feasible than the ideas generated by interactive groups. However, there were no differences among conditions in quality of the selected ideas. Further, idea selection was not significantly better than chance. This suggests that high productivity in brainstorming is not sufficient to lead to better solutions.     

Children's early productivity with verbal morphology

Three studies using the intermodal preferential looking paradigm examined onset of productive comprehension of tense/aspect morphology in English. When can toddlers understand these forms with novel verbs and novel events? The first study used familiar verbs and showed that 26–36-month olds correctly matched a past/perfective form (-ed or irregular past) to a completed version of an event and a present/imperfective (is V-ing) to the ongoing version of the same event. The second study used novel verbs and events and found that 33-month olds failed to use tense/aspect morphology to choose between completed and ongoing versions of the same event. The third study also used novel verbs and events but simplified the processing demands of the task in several ways (using initial priming of the events and classes of meaning, using different events within test pairs). This study found that 30-month olds successfully used tense/aspect morphology to choose between ongoing and completed novel events. The results demonstrate that children have productive command of tense/aspect morphology by 30 months and have therefore begun the process of creating an abstract grammar containing this element.     

THE GOOD PRODUCTIVITY GAME: INCREASING WORK PERFORMANCE IN A REHABILITATION SETTING1

Simple reinforcement systems have been used to improve performance in a broad range of settings. For example, in classrooms, the “Good Behavior Game” has been shown to be very effective (Barrish, Saunders, and Wolf, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1969, 2 , 119–124). In industry, small bonuses were used to increase the punctuality of workers (Hermann, deMontes, Dominquez, Montes, and Hopkins, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1973, 6 , 503–572). In a sheltered workshop setting, Shroeder (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1972, 5 , 45–52) examined work rates under varying frequencies and amounts of reinforcement and response force. The present study involved the utilization of simple group contingencies to increase productivity in a rehabilitation industry. Four state hospital residents who were trainees at a rehabilitation industry participated in the study which examined the effects of feedback, and feedback plus the “Good Productivity Game” to improve work output. The task, for which the employees were paid a wage, involved sorting boards by size. When the employees were provided with feedback on the number of boards sorted during the observation period, productivity increased slightly over baseline. After a return to baseline, the “Good Productivity Game” was played. For performance, the game afforded the employees pseudo-competition (in that teams were paired against each other, but both teams always “won”) and simple rewards such as candy and early work termination. The game improved performance by 104% over the second baseline and by 64% over the third baseline. Data gathered on rates of on-task behavior by the employees correlate with the productivity rates. Data gathered on rates of staff attention paid to employees show little difference across conditions, thus corroborating the function of the “Good Productivity Game” in increasing work output. Although no formal data were collected, the staff continued to use the game with considerable success after the formal termination of the study. The “Good Productivity Game” appears useful in increasing work output in a rehabilitation setting. Further research should concentrate on the utility of the game throughout longer periods of the workday and over extended periods of time.     

Mobbing–prevention and management in organizations

Abstract

So far, only a few companies have dealt with the issue of “mobbing”. This article describes some of the variables required for a successful implementation of an anti-mobbing programme, as well as measures of prevention and intervention. A successful anti-mobbing programme depends on the pressure the problem exerts on the company, the competition with other company programmes, the negative image of mobbing, and the slow diffusion of social issues in companies. Various prevention measures are outlined and suggested in connection with the causes of mobbing: changes in work design, changes in leadership behaviour, the protection of the individual social position, and the moral standard of employees. Depending on the stage of conflict escalation, different intervention measures apply. The concepts of appointing contact people for mobbing victims and the setting up of neutral clearing posts are discussed.     

The Happy-Productive Worker Thesis Revisited

Despite extensive research on the subject spanning over 70 years, uncertainty still remains as to whether happier workers are in fact more productive. This study combined longitudinal prospective and experience sampling methods to examine the relationship between happiness and self-reported productivity among Directors employed in the public and private sectors. Analyses at a trait level suggested happy people were more productive. Similarly, at the state level of analysis, people were more productive when they were happier. Among the happiness indicators examined (job satisfaction, quality of work life, life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect) positive affect was most strongly, but not exclusively, tied to productivity at both the state and trait levels. Discussion focuses on reconciling a long history of mixed findings regarding the happy-productive worker thesis.

Systematicity redux

One of the main challenges that Jerry Fodor and Zenon Pylyshyn (Cognition 28:3–71, 1988) posed for any connectionist theory of cognitive architecture is to explain the systematicity of thought without implementing a Language of Thought (LOT) architecture. The systematicity challenge presents a dilemma: if connectionism cannot explain the systematicity of thought, then it fails to offer an adequate theory of cognitive architecture; and if it explains the systematicity of thought by implementing a LOT architecture, then it fails to offer an alternative to the LOT hypothesis. Given that thought is systematic, connectionism can offer an adequate alternative to the LOT hypothesis only if it can meet the challenge. Although some critics tried to meet the challenge, others argued that it need not be met since thought is not in fact systematic; and some claimed not to even understand the claim that thought is systematic. I do not here examine attempts to answer the challenge. Instead, I defend the challenge itself by explicating the notion of systematicity in a way that I hope makes clear that thought is indeed systematic, and so that to offer an adequate alternative to the LOT hypothesis, connectionism must meet the challenge.     

Psychology's limits as a scientific discipline: A personal view

I provided a more personal view of Wachtel's (1980) article. I began by discussing the extent to which my own research program complied with his distinctive recommendations. After offering a different take on the impact of high productivity, I focused on (a) the negative effects of the quest for extramural funding and (b) the positive effects of a better balance between theoretical and empirical contributions. I then turn to some of my own theoretical and empirical studies of the place that theory has in successful science. This research suggests that theory only has a beneficial effect when it is integrative in function and when it is closely constrained by available data. I end with a speculation regarding the value of having theories that are maximally formal, even mathematical.