Structure in therapy: A conceptual analysis.

In spite of widespread identification of structure as an important dimension of the therapy process, there have been no uniform conceptual or operational definitions of the construct. The present authors discuss the conceptual definition of structure in therapy and link it to theoretical assumptions regarding the effects of ambiguity and uncertainty. Three therapist interventive behaviors by which structure has been previously defined are guidance, role orientation, and specificity. The theoretical and empirical literature bearing on these activities is reviewed, with a focus on their hypothesized and/or demonstrated effects on clients and on treatment outcomes. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding team adaptation: A conceptual analysis and model.

This endeavor provides a multidisciplinary, multilevel, and multiphasic conceptualization of team adaptation with theoretical roots in the cognitive, human factors, and industrial-organizational psychology literature. Team adaptation and the emergent nature of adaptive team performance are defined from a multilevel, theoretical standpoint. An input-throughput-output model is advanced to illustrate a series of phases unfolding over time that constitute the core processes and emergent states underlying adaptive team performance and contributing to team adaptation. The cross-level mixed-determinants model highlights team adaptation in a nomological network of lawful relations. Testable propositions, practical implications, and directions for further research in this area are also advanced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Just teasing: A conceptual analysis and empirical review.

Drawing on E. Goffman's concepts of face and strategic interaction, the authors define a tease as a playful provocation in which one person comments on something relevant to the target. This approach encompasses the diverse behaviors labeled teasing, clarifies previous ambiguities, differentiates teasing from related practices, and suggests how teasing can lead to hostile or affiliative outcomes. The authors then integrate studies of the content of teasing. Studies indicate that norm violations and conflict prompt teasing. With development, children tease in playful ways, particularly around the ages of 11 and 12 years, and understand and enjoy teasing more. Finally, consistent with hypotheses concerning contextual variation in face concerns, teasing is more frequent and hostile when initiated by high-status and familiar others and men, although gender differences are smaller than assumed. The authors conclude by discussing how teasing varies according to individual differences and culture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation for psychotherapy: A factorial and conceptual analysis.

Constructed a rater measure of patient motivation for psychotherapy to include the concepts, such as libidinal drives, degree of suffering experienced, ego-derived recognition of reality demands, conscious readiness, self-actualization motives, and secondary gain, used in previous studies, with added items for theoretical completeness. Additional new items in the measure, which contained 36 items, deal with previous patient positive or negative experiences with therapy, the patient's confidence in his/her own abilities to participate in therapy, consequences expected from therapy, and environmental incentives and support. A factor analysis of the measure revealed 4 factors: Active Engagement, Psychological Mindedness, Incentive-Mediated Willingness to Sacrifice, and Positive Valuation of Therapy. Items from previous studies of motivation for psychotherapy were distributed across several factors. Results indicate that motivation needs to be treated as a multidimensional construct. Distinctions need to be made between factors pertinent to patient motivation and those which refer to patients' suitability for a particular treatment. It is concluded that motivation for psychotherapy should not be conceptualized as a static quantity, but as a fluctuating interaction of multiple factors. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recurrence in major depression: A conceptual analysis.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 118(4) of Psychological Review (see record 2011-23298-002). An incorrect version of Figure 2 was published, and Figure 3 was published in color instead of Figure 4. Also, in Table 1, the acronym “(FLED)” should not have been included in the Recurrence section, under Confusion to avoid, following “Not to be confused with a first lifetime recurrence.” All versions of this article have been corrected.] Theory and research on major depression have increasingly assumed a recurrent and chronic disease model. Yet not all people who become depressed suffer recurrences, suggesting that depression is also an acute, time-limited condition. However, few if any risk indicators are available to forecast which of the initially depressed will or will not recur. This prognostic impasse may be a result of problems in conceptualizing the nature of recurrence in depression. In the current paper we first provide a conceptual analysis of the assumptions and theoretical systems that presently structure thinking on recurrence. This analysis reveals key concerns that have distorted views about the long-term course of depression. Second, as a consequence of these theoretical problems we suggest that investigative attention has been biased toward recurrent forms of depression and away from acute, time-limited conditions. Third, an analysis of how these theoretical problems have influenced research practices reveals that an essential comparison group has been omitted from research on recurrence: people with a single lifetime episode of depression. We suggest that this startling omission may explain why so few predictors of recurrence have as yet been found. Finally, we examine the reasons for this oversight, document the validity of depression as an acute, time-limited disorder, and provide suggestions for future research with the goal of discovering early risk indicators for recurrent depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of sex role stereotypes on personnel decisions.

Used an in-basket exercise to investigate the influence of sex role stereotypes on the personnel decisions of 95 male bank supervisors. 4 experiments (in-basket items) were conducted in which an employee's sex and other situational attributes were manipulated. Results confirm the hypothesis that male administrators tend to discriminate against female employees in personnel decisions involving promotion, development, and supervision. Discrimination against male employees was found in personnel decisions involving competing role demands stemming from family circumstances. Features of the decision-making process which heighten the influence of sex role stereotypes on personnel decisions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on the success ratio and the utility of fixed hiring rate personnel selection decisions.

Using simple simulation methods, the author verifies that the formulas used to estimate both the expected success ratio of a selection and the expected average criterion score of the selectees overestimate the real gain one may expect to obtain when hiring a preestablished proportion of employees from a finite sample of applicants. To correct for this deficiency, the present article shows how an exact estimate of the expected payoff can be obtained. In addition, it indicates how the new approach can be used to assess the sampling variability of the utility estimates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of person and job stereotypes on two personnel decisions.

Two studies investigated whether the effects of incumbent age on personnel decisions are different in a stereotypically older job than in a stereotypically younger job. In Exp I, 19 26–52 yr old managers were asked to make awards recommendations and overall evaluations for 18 hypothetical employees in 3 jobs that varied in age stereotype. Hypothetical employees varied in age and exhibited either a stereotypically older performance pattern or a stereotypically younger pattern of performance. Significant Job?×?Performance Pattern and Target Age?×?Pattern interactions were found in the awards exercises. In Exp II, 19 26–62 yr old managers were asked to make promotion decisions for 18 hypothetical employees in 3 jobs. Again, the Job?×?Pattern interaction was significant. Overall results suggest that when the pattern of performance is inconsistent with the age stereotype of the job, employees receive lower ratings than when behavior is consistent with the job stereotype. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Labor market dimensions as predictors of the reenlistment decisions of military personnel.

Labor market variables (e.g., unemployment statistics) and perceptual measures of employment opportunity (e.g., perceived occupational demand) were used to predict the reenlistment decisions of 402 U.S. Air Force enlistees. With logistic regression analysis, 3 significant predictors of reenlistment were isolated. A combination of perceptual and objective job availability measures provided the best prediction of the reenlistment criterion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical judgment of psychopathology: A model for inferential accuracy.

Proposes a model for inferential accuracy in clinical judgment which hypothesizes 2 major processes, sensitivity and threshold. Sensitivity is defined as an awareness of underlying patterns of behavioral consistency and threshold as the propensity to ascribe behavior to patients based on a knowledge of these behavioral patterns. Results from judgments by 189 undergraduates about the behavior of 3 clinical and 1 nonclinical target individuals indicate a high degree of agreement among judges, the average reliability being above .98. Sensitivity and threshold were independent and generalizable across patient types. In addition, evidence is reported that supports the accuracy of the consensual judgment. Implications of the generalizability of these findings and the contribution of modern methodological and assessment principles to clinical judgment research are discussed. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some problems with social cognition models: A pragmatic and conceptual analysis.

Empirical articles published between 1997 and 2001 from 4 health psychology journals that tested or applied 1 or more social cognition models (theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behavior, health belief model, and protection motivation theory; N=47) were scrutinized for their pragmatic and conceptual basis. In terms of their pragmatic basis, these 4 models were useful for guiding research. The analysis of their conceptual basis was less positive. First, these models do not enable the generation of hypotheses because their constructs are unspecific; they therefore cannot be tested. Second, they focus on analytic truths rather than synthetic ones, and the conclusions resulting from their application are often true by definition rather than by observation. Finally, they may create and change both cognitions and behavior rather than describe them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related differences in work attitudes and behavior: A review and conceptual analysis.

Presents a theoretical framework for understanding age-related differences in work attitudes and behavior. Based on a review of more than 185 research studies, age-related differences in 3 major categories of variables are examined: work attitudes, work behaviors, and values, needs, and preferences. The work attitudes include overall job satisfaction; satisfaction with work itself, pay, promotions, co-workers, and supervision; job involvement; internal work motivation; organizational commitment; and turnover intention. Among the behavioral characteristics are performance, turnover, absenteeism, and accidents. Consistent age-related differences are reported for a number of work attitudes and behaviors, but conceptual and methodological difficulties preclude identifying causal factors in the relationship between age and work attitudes and behaviors. Some theoretical orientations having utility for guiding theory development and research on age differences are discussed. (6 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Childhood sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation: A conceptual analysis and quantitative review.

This article reviewed research examining the association between childhood sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation. Prospective studies suggest that childhood cross-sex-typed behavior is strongly predictive of adult homosexual orientation for men; analogous studies for women have not been performed. Though methodologically more problematic, retrospective studies are useful in determining how many homosexual individuals displayed cross-sex behavior in childhood. The relatively large body of retrospective studies comparing childhood sex-typed behavior in homosexual and heterosexual men and women was reviewed quantitatively. Effect sizes were large for both men and women, with men's significantly larger. Future research should elaborate the causes of the association between childhood sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation and identify correlates of within-orientation differences in childhood sex-typed behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of sex role stereotypes on personnel decisions of Black managers.

The influence of sex role stereotypes on the hiring decisions of Black managers was investigated. A 2?×?2?×?2 factorial design and a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were used to analyze the relationship between sex of respondent, sex of applicant, and job sex type. Respondents were 131 managers who rated either a Black man or a Black women for a stereotypically female- or male-sex-typed job on a Likert-type scale. There were significant findings on 3 of the 7 dependent variables: potential to work, potential to complete tasks, and technical potential. Men were rated more favorably for the male-sex-typed job and women were rated more favorably for the female-sex-typed job. However, sex stereotyping was more pronounced for the female-sex-stereotyped job than for the male-sex-stereotyped job on some dependent variables. Results are discussed in regard to the unique experiences of Black men and women in American society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Feeling good-doing good: A conceptual analysis of the mood at work-organizational spontaneity relationship.

Describes 5 forms of organizational spontaneity (helping co-workers, protecting the organization, making constructive suggestions, developing oneself, and spreading goodwill). Organizational spontaneity is compared with the seemingly analogous constructs of organizational citizenship behavior and prosocial organizational behavior. Based on a selective review of the literature, a multilevel model of spontaneity is presented. Positive mood at work is a pivotal construct in the model and posited as the direct precursor of organizational spontaneity. Primary work-group characteristics, the affective tone of the primary work group, affective disposition, life event history, and contextual characteristics are proposed to have direct or indirect effects, or both, on positive mood at work. Motivational bases of organizational spontaneity are also described. The model and its implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validity of the Type A construct: A reprise.

The recent application of meta-analytic techniques to the topic of coronary proneness has proved useful in promoting a sound construct-validation approach, an approach that should have been used years ago. However, the meta-analytic methods and statistics themselves are subject to some degree of interpretation. This article explains and comments on some of the important conclusions and some key limitations that emerge from three recent meta-analyses of the Type A behavior pattern. Both methodological and conceptual issues are addressed. All in all, there is a remarkable degree of consensus about what we know and what we need to know. Strong evidence emerges that Type A behavior (assessed by the Structured Interview) is a significant risk factor for coronary heart disease, but the Type A construct still has not been adequately defined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the prevention of accidents and injuries. A comparative analysis of conceptual frameworks

The meaning of prevention has changed as new applications of the concept have appeared. Ideas presented in eleven different conceptual frameworks are compared. Identification of the frameworks took place through searches in databases and relevant literature. Five are general by nature, while six relate to injuries and accidents. All are supported by just a few parameters, the time dimension being the most prominent. Compatibility was established on three additional dimensions: level (individual, organizational or societal); direction ("bottom-up" or "top-down"); and in relation to the trichotomy "host-agent-environment". An attempt to synthesize all these dimensions into one general model of accident and injury prevention is presented.