Perceptions of organizational politics as a moderator of the relationship between consciousness and job performance.

Meta-analytic studies of the relationships between the five-factor model of personality constructs and job performance indicate that conscientiousness has been the most consistent predictor. Recent research has sought to identify situational factors that may explain additional variance beyond what has been reported by simple bivariate relationships. The authors hypothesized that perceptions of organizational politics would moderate the relationship between conscientiousness and job performance. Data collected from 234 male and 579 female workers in 4 organizations indicated that conscientiousness was related to job performance among workers perceiving average to high levels of organizational politics but unrelated to performance among workers perceiving low levels of organizational politics. Moreover, perceptions of organizational politics were negatively related to job performance only among workers of average to low levels of conscientiousness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pathogens, personality, and culture: Disease prevalence predicts worldwide variability in sociosexuality, extraversion, and openness to experience.

Previous research has documented cross-cultural differences in personality traits, but the origins of those differences remain unknown. The authors investigate the possibility that these cultural differences can be traced, in part, to regional differences in the prevalence in infectious diseases. Three specific hypotheses are deduced, predicting negative relationships between disease prevalence and (a) unrestricted sociosexuality, (b) extraversion, and (c) openness to experience. These hypotheses were tested empirically with methods that employed epidemiological atlases in conjunction with personality data collected from individuals in dozens of countries worldwide. Results were consistent with all three hypotheses: In regions that have historically suffered from high levels of infectious diseases, people report lower mean levels of sociosexuality, extraversion, and openness. Alternative explanations are addressed, and possible underlying mechanisms are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Four-factor justice and daily job satisfaction: A multilevel investigation.

This study examined the differential effects of 4 types of organizational justice on daily job satisfaction at between- and within-individual levels. Specifically, the authors predicted that interpersonal justice and informational justice would exhibit meaningful daily variations and would have direct impacts on individuals’ job satisfaction on a daily basis. They further theorized that distributive justice and procedural justice at a between-person level would moderate the within-person relationships. The authors used hierarchical linear modeling to test their hypotheses with a sample of 231 full-time employees in Hong Kong over the course of 25 working days. The results showed that both daily interpersonal and informational justice were positively related to daily job satisfaction. As hypothesized, between-individual distributive justice moderated the relationship between daily interpersonal justice and daily job satisfaction, and between-individual procedural justice moderated the relationship between daily informational justice and daily job satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Enhancing the prediction of self-handicapping.

Levels of test anxiety, Type A and Type B coronary-prone behavior, fear of failure, and covert self-esteem were studied as predictors of self-handicapping performance attributions for college women who were placed in either a high- (N?=?49) or low- (N?=?49) evaluative test or task situation. We hypothesized that test anxiety, Type A or Type B level, and their interaction would account for reliable variance in the prediction of self-handicapping. However, we also theorized that underlying high fear of failure and low covert self-esteem would explain the self-handicapping claims of test-anxious and Type A subjects. The results indicated that only high levels of test anxiety and high levels of covert self-esteem were related to women's self-handicapping attributions. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Optimizing well-being: The empirical encounter of two traditions.

Subjective well-being (SWB) is evaluation of life in terms of satisfaction and balance between positive and negative affect; psychological well-being (PWB) entails perception of engagement with existential challenges of life. The authors hypothesized that these research streams are conceptually related but empirically distinct and that combinations of them relate differentially to sociodemographics and personality. Data are from a national sample of 3,032 Americans aged 25-74. Factor analyses confirmed the related-but-distinct status of SWB and PWB. The probability of optimal well-being (high SWB and PWB) increased as age, education, extraversion, and conscientiousness increased and as neuroticism decreased. Compared with adults with higher SWB than PWB, adults with higher PWB than SWB were younger, had more education, and showed more openness to experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The interactive effects of conscientiousness and agreeableness on job performance.

The authors hypothesized that the relationship between conscientiousness and job performance would be stronger for persons high in agreeableness than for those low in agreeableness. Results of hierarchical moderated regression analyses for 7 independent samples of employees across diverse occupations provided support for the hypothesis in 5 of the samples. In samples supporting the hypothesis, among the highly conscientious workers, those low in agreeableness were found to receive lower ratings of job performance than workers high in agreeableness. One explanation for lack of an interaction between conscientiousness and agreeableness in the other 2 samples is that those jobs were not characterized by frequent, cooperative interactions with others. Overall, the results show that highly conscientious workers who lack interpersonal sensitivity may be ineffective, particularly in jobs requiring cooperative interchange with others. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The curvilinear relation between experienced creative time pressure and creativity: Moderating effects of openness to experience and support for creativity.

This study examined the possibility of a curvilinear relation between the creative time pressure employees experience at work and their creativity. The authors also examined whether this curvilinear relation was moderated by employees' scores on the openness to experience personality dimension and by the support for creativity employees received from supervisors and coworkers. Data were obtained from 170 employees and 10 supervisors of a manufacturing organization. Results showed an inverted U-shaped creative time pressure-creativity relation for employees who scored high on openness to experience while simultaneously receiving support for creativity. The authors discussed the implications of these results for future research and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Normality evaluations and their relation to personality traits and well-being.

Despite frequent discussions of what it means to be normal in clinical, social, and personality psychology theory, the characteristics of individuals who call themselves normal are little understood. In 5 studies, the authors investigated various hypotheses concerning the nature of normality evaluations. The authors add to recent evidence that normality evaluations represent a distinct dimension of evaluative judgments, showing self-judgments of being normal (versus strange) to be relatively independent from self-judgments of being average (versus unique). Normality evaluations showed positive relations with communal traits such as agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability, and were negatively related to openness to experience. Supporting a broader hypothesis that normality evaluations may be involved in directing or motivating personality development processes, normality evaluations were positively associated with well-being and a sense of fitting in with one's peers, and individuals who felt abnormal felt a heightened sense that they needed to improve their personality. Finally, the personality correlates of normality evaluations were found to change over the lifespan, largely in parallel with the actual mean-level development of personality traits with age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Workplace safety performance: Conscientiousness, cognitive failure, and their interaction.

This research investigated the effects of cognitive failure on workplace safety and accidents over 2 studies. It was hypothesized that cognitive failure would directly predict safety behavior and workplace accidents and predict these outcomes over and above conscientiousness. It was found that cognitive failure uniquely accounted for workplace safety behavior and accidents. However, it has been suggested by researchers that certain individual differences might interact to produce differential effects. Thus, a moderated model was tested examining the interaction of cognitive failure and conscientiousness. It was found that cognitive failure moderated the relationship between conscientiousness and accidents and unsafe work behaviors. Overall, results suggest that cognitive failure plays an important part in individual safety behavior, especially when conscientiousness is low. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of error training and individual differences on training outcomes: An attribute-treatment interaction perspective.

The authors examined the effectiveness of error training for trainees with different levels of cognitive ability, openness to experience, or conscientiousness. Participants (N=181) were randomly assigned to control, error-encouragement, or error-avoidance conditions and trained to perform a decision-making simulation. Declarative knowledge, task performance, and self-efficacy were measured posttraining. Findings suggest the effectiveness of error training is dependent on the cognitive ability or dispositional traits of trainees. High cognitive ability or more open individuals benefit more from error-encouragernent training than low cognitive ability or less open individuals. Conscientiousness has a negative effect on self-efficacy when trainees are encouraged to make errors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactive Effects of Personality and Perceptions of the Work Situation on Workplace Deviance.

Previous research on workplace deviance has examined the relationship of either personality or employees' situational perceptions with deviant behavior. In this study, the authors focused on the joint relationship of personality and perceptions of the work situation with deviant behavior. Using 4 samples of employees and multiple operationalizations of the core constructs, the authors found support for the hypothesis that positive perceptions of the work situation are negatively related to workplace deviance. In addition, consistent with hypotheses, the personality traits of conscientiousness, emotional stability, and agreeableness moderated this relationship. Specifically, the relationship between perceptions of the developmental environment and organizational deviance was stronger for employees low in conscientiousness or emotional stability, and the relationship between perceived organizational support and interpersonal deviance was stronger for employees low in agreeableness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creativity, divergent thinking, and openness to experience.

Test scores of divergent thinking obtained between 1959 and 1972 were correlated with a variety of personality measures administered since 1980. In this sample of 268 men, divergent thinking was consistently associated with self-reports and ratings of openness to experience, but not with neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, or conscientiousness. Both divergent thinking and openness were also modestly correlated with Gough's (1979) empirically derived Creative Personality Scale. Several other personality variables mentioned in the literature were also examined; those that were associated with divergent thinking were also generally correlated with openness. These data suggest that creativity is particularly related to the personality domain of openness to experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The work-family interface and job performance: Moderating effects of conscientiousness and perceived organizational support.

Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors hypothesized that two aspects of the work-family interface--family-to-work conflict (FWC) and family-to-work enrichment (FWE)--are related to job performance. The authors also hypothesized that two variables moderate those relationships--individual differences in conscientiousness and aspects of the work environment in terms of perceived organizational support (POS). Data collected from a matched set of 136 private sector workers and their respective supervisors revealed that high FWC was more strongly related to lower job performance: (1) among high- than low-conscientiousness workers and (2) among workers reporting low rather than high levels of organizational support. However, FWE was unrelated to job performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Too stressed out to participate? Examining the relation between stressors and survey response behavior.

Despite the use of survey-based organizational data in many studies of organizational behavior, survey response behavior and nonresponse are rarely studied phenomena. This study expands on previously proposed survey response and nonresponse frameworks by integrating the job stress literature. The authors investigated whether overload, role ambiguity, and role conflict experienced by individuals relate to survey response behavior. Using organizational citizenship behavior theory and social exchange theory as theoretical frameworks, the authors proposed that nonrespondents experience higher levels of stressors than respondents. Data collected in a longitudinal field study partially supported the hypotheses. As hypothesized, overload increased the likelihood of nonresponse. Contrary to hypotheses, role ambiguity decreased the likelihood of nonresponse. Role conflict was not significantly related to nonresponse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eating behavior in response to food-cue exposure: Examining the cue-reactivity and counteractive-control models.

Many studies have demonstrated that those high in weight-related concerns eat more after food-cue exposure, which is consistent with predictions of the cue-reactivity model. However, the counteractive-control model predicts that exposure to fattening foods activates dieting-related goals and behavior in weight-concerned individuals. Although these models seem incongruous, the authors hypothesized that the salience of the cue could represent a critical factor in determining which model is activated. The authors predicted that attending to salient food cues would result in increased intake (cue reactivity) in individuals with high weight-related concerns, whereas incidental food-cue exposure would result in decreased intake (counteractive control), relative to control exposure. The authors employed a 3 (attended vs. incidental vs. control cue) × 2 (low vs. high weight-related concerns) design. As expected, participants with high weight-related concerns who attended to a food cue ate more than did both those with high weight-related concerns in the control condition and those with low weight-related concerns in the attended-cue condition; however, intake of individuals with high weight-related concerns who were exposed to the incidental cue did not differ from that of those in the control condition. The manner of food-cue presentation may be a critical factor in determining eating behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The three faces of interpersonal dependency: Structural analyses of self-report dependency measures.

Using the interpersonal circumplex and the 5-factor model of personality as a structural framework, the authors identified 3 aspects of interpersonal dependency in structural analyses of the universe of content defined by the combined item pool of widely used self-report dependency measures: love dependency, exploitable dependency, and submissive dependency. Markers of these aspects of interpersonal dependency were reconstituted, and their relations with neuroticism (N), conscientiousness (C), and openness to experience (O) were examined. All forms of interpersonal dependency are related positively with N. Exploitable and submissive dependency are increasingly negatively correlated with C and O, whereas love dependency is positively correlated with C and O. Implications regarding the assessment of dependency and multifactor models of dependency are discussed, and hypotheses for future research linking dependency and depression are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why We Sing the Blues: The Relation Between Self-Reflective Rumination, Mood, and Creativity.

Past research has shown that creative behavior is associated with a higher risk for depression. The authors hypothesized that a 3rd underlying factor, namely, self-reflective rumination, may explain the connection. This hypothesis was examined in a sample of 99 undergraduate college students, using path analysis. The authors found that self-reported past depressive symptomatology was linked to increased self-reflective rumination. Rumination, in turn, was related to current symptomatology and to self-rated creative interests and objectively measured creative fluency, originality, and elaboration. No direct link existed between currently depressed mood and either creative interest or creative behavior. These results suggest that the association between depression and creativity is solely the result of rumination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding when bad moods foster creativity and good ones don't: The role of context and clarity of feelings.

Using a mood-as-input model, the authors identified conditions under which negative moods are positively related, and positive moods are negatively related, to creative performance. Among a sample of workers in an organizational unit charged with developing creative designs and manufacturing techniques, the authors hypothesized and found that negative moods were positively related to creative performance when perceived recognition and rewards for creative performance and clarity of feelings (a metamood process) were high. The authors also hypothesized and found that positive moods were negatively related to creative performance when perceived recognition and rewards for creativity and clarity of feelings were high. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life experience and mode of coping: Relation to moral judgment in adulthood.

Two studies examining Gibbs's (1977, 1979) hypothesis on the relation between mode of coping with human needs and moral development in adulthood are presented. It was hypothesized that mature levels of moral reasoning would be related to affirmative coping, whereas conventional reasoning would be related to abortive coping. In Study 1, 70 adults (M?=?44.3 years of age) were given the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and classified as either principled or conventional moral reasoners. From this original sample, 13 principled and 15 conventional women were administered an Existential Coping Interview (ECI), designed to assess affirmative and abortive coping with human needs (after Fromm, 1955) arising from an experience of loss. Results indicated that conventional moral reasoners dealt abortively with Fromm's existential needs, whereas principled reasoners exhibited affirmative coping strategies. In Study 2, 75 adults 20 to 78 years of age were administered the ECI; measures of moral reasoning (DIT), openness to experience, and coping; and an impact of life events scale. A positive relationship was demonstrated between existential coping and principled reasoning, openness to experience, and problem-focused coping strategies. Discussion focuses on the cognitive definition of life experience and situational and contextual variability influencing moral development in adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)