The role of dispositional and situational factors in cognitive interference

Two studies investigated the cross-temporal stability and cross-situational consistency of cognitive interference. In Study 1, 70 college students reported on the intrusive thoughts they experienced during 2 course examinations and a self-reflective task. In Study 2, 55 college athletes reported on intrusive thoughts following 2 course examinations and 2 regular season football games. Major findings were (a) cognitive interference showed both cross-temporal stability and cross-situational consistency, (b) it was predicted by a measure of dispositional intrusive thinking, (c) the link between cognitive interference and dispositional intrusive thinking was not accounted for by indices of depressive symptomatology and trait anxiety, and (d) the degree of cross-situational consistency of cognitive interference and the content of these intrusive thoughts were influenced by situational factors.     

Coping in stressful episodes: The role of individual differences, environmental factors, and situational characteristics.

This article examines individual differences (extraversion and neuroticism), environmental factors (social support and work demand), and situational characteristics (type of stressful episode and its perceived importance) as predictors of three self-report measures of coping (general coping, direct coping, and suppression) derived from the Ways of Coping Questionnaire. The data analyzed were collected from 135 first-year female student nurses. Individual differences were assessed prior to exposure to the ward environment, and information about stressful episodes was obtained during the initial period of nursing practice. Multiple regression analyses showed that individual differences and environmental and situational factors were significant predictors of the coping scores and that patterns of main and interactive effects were different for each type of coping. For direct coping and suppression, predicted interactions across person, environmental, and situational variables contributed significantly to the explained variance. Curvilinear interactions between work demand and neuroticism were significant for both direct coping and suppression; interactions of social support and extraversion with perceived importance predicted direct coping; and interactions between neuroticism and extraversion and between work demand and importance predicted suppression. (70 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-critical perfectionism and daily affect: Dispositional and situational influences on stress and coping.

This study of university students (64 men and 99 women) examined both dispositional and situational influences of self-critical (SC) perfectionism on stress and coping, which explain its association with high negative affect and low positive affect. Participants completed questionnaires at the end of the day for 7 consecutive days. Structural equation modeling indicated that the relation between SC perfectionism and daily affect could be explained by several maladaptive tendencies associated with SC perfectionism (e.g., hassles, avoidant coping, low perceived social support). Multilevel modeling indicated that SC perfectionists were emotionally reactive to stressors that imply possible failure, loss of control, and criticism from others. As well, certain coping strategies (e.g., problem-focused coping) were ineffective for high-SC perfectionists relative to low-SC perfectionists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The mediating role of coping: A cross-sectional analysis of the relationship between coping self-efficacy and coping effectiveness among athletes.

This study examines the relationship among global coping self-efficacy, coping, and coping effectiveness within athletes. We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between coping self-efficacy and coping effectiveness, which would be mediated by coping. It was also predicted that coping strategies within the task-oriented coping dimension would be positively associated with coping effectiveness, whereas strategies from the disengagement- and distraction-oriented coping dimensions would be negatively associated with coping effectiveness. Participants were 353 athletes between the ages of 18 and 29 years, who completed a measure of coping self-efficacy the night before they competed, in addition to a measure of the athletes' use of coping strategies and their perceived coping effectiveness, which was completed immediately after the competitive event. Results revealed that higher global coping self-efficacy scores were significantly (r = .33, p     

Predicting hopelessness and psychological distress: The role of perfectionism and coping.

This study investigated an integrative model involving the relationship between perfectionism (P. L. Hewitt & G. L. Flett, 1991) and coping (C. S. Carver, A F. Scheier. & J. K. Weintraub, 1989) to predict changes in hopelessness and general psychological distress among college students. Results indicated that changes in psychological well-being (4-5 weeks later) were predicted by socially prescribed perfectionism, and, as theorized, avoidance coping moderated the link between perfectionism and psychological well-being beyond initial levels of distress. Support was also found for the adaptive effects of cognitive reconstruction coping and other-oriented perfectionism, whereas, under certain conditions, self-oriented perfectionism was shown to be maladaptive. These findings offer support for the proposed model. Implications for intervention and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of neuroticism in daily stress and coping.

The authors examined the influence of neuroticism (N) on the occurrence of different types of daily events, primary and secondary appraisals of those events, use of specific coping strategies, and end-of-day negative mood. College students completed questionnaires at the end of every day for 14 consecutive days. When reporting their most stressful event of each day, high-N individuals, compared with low-N individuals, reported more interpersonal stressors and had more negative primary and secondary appraisals and reacted with more distress in response to increasingly negative primary and secondary appraisals. Compared with low-N individuals, high-N individuals used less-adaptive coping strategies (e.g., hostile reaction) and reacted with more distress in response to some types of coping strategies. The appraisal findings, in particular, help to explain the chronic negative affectivity associated with neuroticism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal and situational factors in the recruitment interview.

Investigated the impact of various perceived recruitment interviewer traits, behaviors, and attitudes on job candidate interview evaluations and subjective probabilities of accepting a job. It was based on 112 1st- and 2nd-yr master's degree students at a graduate school of business and public administration. Results show that compared to the worst interviewers, the best ones had an impact such that candidates perceived: interest and concern from the interviewer, confrontation of the candidates' strengths and limitations, a younger successful man interviewing, and the possibility of a high salary. Candidates gave higher probabilities of accepting a job offer to those interviews in which they had an interest in receiving an offer, where the interviewer was seen as showing interest and concern for them, and where the interviewer discussed the careers of other employees with master's degrees in business administration in his company. An interaction among candidates' desires for mutually trusting and respectful interpersonal relations at work, their perception of the interpersonal qualities of their recruitment interviews, and their evaluation of the interviews was found. Candidates with higher interpersonal needs tended to perceive the best interviews as less interpersonally satisfying the worst interviews as more interpersonally satisfying than the candidates with lower interpersonal needs. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent prosocial behavior: Peer-group and situational factors associated with helping.

90 8th graders were rated by peers on sociometric dimensions of helpful and popular (and their converses) and were each observed or rated on 6 helping tasks in the school setting that differed in terms of perceived demand characteristics. In general, sociometric nominations were accurate in predicting who was not behaviorally helpful—those Ss rated as the unpopular and unhelpful. Sociometric status of Ss rated more positively by peers did not predict well the level of behavioral performance. To examine the interaction between peer-group status and helping behavior, the most helpful Ss were divided into 2 groups on the basis of peer status. There were significant differences in the types of situations in which these 2 groups performed: More popular helpers scored higher on peer-related helping tasks, whereas less popular helpers were more facilitative in non-peer-related helping tasks. Implications for individual socialization and future research in helping behavior are discussed in relation to peer-group status. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Creating satisfaction in steady dating relationships: The role of personal goals and situational affordances.

This research extends previous work indicating that individuals are more effective at regulating their behavior when they are in goal-congruent contexts by examining whether individuals particularly need concrete goal-relevant situational affordances once they are in these broadly affirming contexts. Specifically, the authors explore this issue by using the broad context of steady dating relationships (i.e., intimacy-relevant contexts), and considering the role of both intimacy goals and intimacy-affording daily life situations in producing relationship satisfaction and maintenance over time. Results indicate that those with a strong focus on intimacy experience considerable relationship satisfaction regardless of whether they spend time in daily life situations that facilitate intimacy, whereas those without such a focus depend for satisfaction on the presence of intimacy-conducive situations (e.g., time alone with one's partner, or social support from one's partner). Discussion focuses on the theoretical implications of these findings for the Person x Situation literature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Caring for an institutionalized parent: The role of coping strategies.

Extends knowledge about the stresses of caregiving by considering relationships between adult children and their institutionalized parents. Although previous studies have indicated that emotional strains experienced by adult children with institutionalized parents are of similar magnitude to those experienced by caregivers in the community, little attention has been paid to effects that may mediate the stressor–mental health relationship. Coping strategies were hypothesized as mediators of the stressor–mental health relationship. Data from 424 adult children with a parent living in a nursing home revealed that emotion-focused coping strategies mediate the relationship between stressors and mental health, whereas problem-focused coping strategies do not mediate this relationship. Findings emphasize the importance of examining coping strategies as multidimensional entities having differential effects on mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From optimism and pessimism to coping: The mediating role of academic motivation.

The main goal of this study was to examine an integrative model in which academic motivation was hypothesized to mediate the relationships between dispositional optimism and pessimism and coping utilization during the preparation for midterm exams. A sample of 299 undergraduate students completed measures of optimism and academic motivation two weeks prior to midterm exams and measures of academic motivation and coping two weeks after midterm exams. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that self-determined motivation mediated the relationship between dispositional optimism and task-oriented coping, whereas non-self-determined motivation mediated the relationship between dispositional pessimism and disengagement-oriented coping. Furthermore, task-oriented coping was associated with an increase in self-determined motivation from Time 1 to Time 2, whereas disengagement-oriented coping related to an increase in non-self-determined motivation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognition in test-anxious children: The role of on-task and coping cognition reconsidered.

This study investigated cognition in children with high, moderate, and low test anxiety under naturalistic test-taking conditions. Children with high test anxiety not only reported more negative self evaluations and more off-task thoughts but also more on-task and coping thoughts. Consistent with previous research, no "task-facilitating" role for these on-task and coping cognitions was found. This finding lends support to the notion of "the power of non-negative thinking." The only facilitating role was for positive self-evaluations. It was hypothesized that positive cognition could be task-facilitating under certain conditions. Limited support was found for this idea. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Team Role Test: Development and validation of a team role knowledge situational judgment test.

The main objectives in this research were to introduce the concept of team role knowledge and to investigate its potential usefulness for team member selection. In Study 1, the authors developed a situational judgment test, called the Team Role Test, to measure knowledge of 10 roles relevant to the team context. The criterion-related validity of this measure was examined in 2 additional studies. In a sample of academic project teams (N = 93), team role knowledge predicted team member role performance (r = .34). Role knowledge also provided incremental validity beyond mental ability and the Big Five personality factors in the prediction of role performance. The results of Study 2 revealed that the predictive validity of role knowledge generalizes to team members in a work setting (N = 82, r = .30). The implications of the results for selection in team environments are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of situational demands and cognitive competencies in behavior organization and personality coherence.

Consistency in the natural organization of aggressive and prosocial (constructive) behavior, assessed repeatedly in vivo over a summer in a residential camp for children, was predicted from situational and personal characteristics. Similarity of situations in the types of competencies they demand in part predicted cross-situational consistency in individual differences in aggressive behaviors (Study 1). Study 2 examined the effect of cognitive competence on the discriminative patterning of behavior variation across situations. More cognitively competent Ss showed such discriminative patterning, which was reflected in greater Person?×?Situation interaction variance in their prosocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of core self-evaluations in the coping process.

In 2 studies, the authors investigated whether core self-evaluations (CSE) serve as an integrative framework for understanding individual differences in coping processes. A meta-analytic review demonstrated that CSEs were associated with fewer perceived stressors, lower strain, less avoidance coping, more problem-solving coping, and were not strongly related to emotion-focused coping. Consistent with the meta-analytic results, a daily diary study demonstrated that individuals with high CSE perceived fewer stressors, experienced less strain after controlling for stressors, and engaged in less avoidance coping. However, both studies demonstrated that emotional stability was uniquely related to the stress and coping process and that emotional stability moderated the relationship between stressors and strain. The discussion focuses on the distinction between depressive self-concept represented by CSE and the anxiety and worry represented by emotional stability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individuation, gender role, and dissent: Personality mediators of situational forces.

An experimental analysis of dissenting and conforming behavior in small groups revealed a significant interaction between personality and situational variables. Individual differences in gender role and in willingness to be "individuated" were predictive of subjects' choices to disagree or agree with the opinions of other group members. However, this link between personality and social behavior showed within-subjects variation as a function of two situational factors: group norm and opinion topic. Contrary to traditional expectations, personality was a better predictor of behavior on those trials when peer pressure was strong than when it was weak. Personality variables also differentially predicted responses to masculine opinion topics versus feminine ones. These results contribute to a new understanding of the interaction of person and situation, as well as to the psychological meaning of conformity and dissent. They also bear on the long-standing debate about sex differences in influenceability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived situational moderators of the relationship between subjective role ambiguity and role strain.

Examined situational moderators of the relationship between 1 organizational stress, role ambiguity, and 4 psychological strains: job dissatisfaction, life dissatisfaction, low self-esteem, and depressed mood. Three situational characteristics were hypothesized to moderate the relationship by reducing its strength: group cohesiveness, supervisor support, and autonomy. 651 adults in 5 midwestern work organizations were given 90-min structured interviews in their homes. Group cohesiveness moderated the relationship between role ambiguity and 2 of the role strains, but the direction of its moderating influence was inconsistent. Supervisor support showed a nonsignificant tendency to reduce the strength of the relationship between role ambiguity and role strain. Autonomy significantly moderated the relationship in the expected direction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of situational constraints, role stressors, and commitment on employee altruism.

This study investigated relations between 3 work-related stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict, and organizational constraints) and altruistic behavior in the workplace. It was predicted that each stressor would be negatively related to altruism and that these relations would be moderated by affective commitment (AC). Data from 144 incumbent-supervisor dyads revealed that all 3 stressors; were weakly and negatively related to altruism. Two of these relationships were moderated by AC, although not as predicted. Organizational constraints were positively related to altruism among those reporting high levels of AC but negatively related among those reporting low levels of AC. The pattern was exactly opposite for role conflict. Implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Risk and resilience factors in coping with daily stress in adulthood: The role of age, self-concept incoherence, and personal control.

This study observed young, middle-aged, and older adults (N = 239; Mage = 49.6 years; range = 18–89 years) for 30 consecutive days to examine the association between daily stress and negative affect, taking into account potential risk (i.e., self-concept incoherence) and resilience (i.e., age, perceived personal control) factors. Results indicated that younger individuals and individuals with a more incoherent self-concept showed higher average negative affect across the study. As well, individuals reported higher negative affect on days that they experienced more stress than usual and on days that they reported less control than usual. These main effects were qualified by significant interactions. In particular, the association between daily stress and negative affect was stronger on days on which adults reported low control compared with days on which they reported high control (i.e., perceptions of control buffered stress). Reactivity to daily stress did not differ for individuals of different ages or for individuals with different levels of self-concept incoherence. Although all individuals reported higher negative affect on days on which they reported less control than usual, this association was more pronounced among younger adults. The current study helps to elucidate the role of risk and resilience factors when adults are faced with daily stress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)