The Climate for Creativity and Change in Teams

This article reports the results of a study conducted to examine the ability of the Situational Outlook Questionnaire (SOQ^TM) to effectively discern climates that either encourage or discourage creativity and the ability to initiate change in a team setting. The purpose of the study is to examine the concurrent criterion–related validity of the SOQ. The article explores the characteristics in an organisational climate that promote teamwork and some of the tripwires one needs to be aware of in the formation and management of teams. Nine dimensions of the climate for creativity and change as measured by the Situational Outlook Questionnaire are put forward and defined in relation to teams. The methodology and results of the study are reported. The results show that when subjects (N7equals;154) complete the SOQ based on their recollection of a best– and worst–case team experience, the measure is able to consistently and significantly discriminate between the two types of experiences. Conclusions, implications, and areas for future research to further examine the validity of the SOQ are explored.     

Privileged communication in the psychologist–client relationship.

Determining the status of privileged communications between psychologists and clients is a complex task. There is considerable variation across states with respect to the scope of psychologist–client privilege, and several sections of state codes directly and indirectly influence its status. An analysis of state laws related to privileged communication in the psychologist–client relationship is presented and prevalent legal exceptions and trends related to client privilege are discussed. Implications for practice to assist psychologists in balancing their ethical and legal obligations also are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral effects of centrally administered arginine vasopressin in the rat fetus.

Arginine–8 vasopressin (AVP) was administered to rat fetuses on Embryonic Day 20 via intracisternal (IC), intrahemispheric (IH), or intrathecal (IT) injection. The IC administration of AVP promoted a 4-fold increase in motor activity, including the uncommon patterns of mouthing, licking, and facial wiping. The IH injection of AVP had little effect on fetal behavior, but IT injection resulted in pronounced increases in fetal activity, including mouthing, licking, and wiping. The IT administration of a V? antagonist blocked AVP effects, whereas IH injection potentiated AVP-induced changes in fetal behavior. The IC blockade of V? receptors suppressed facial wiping to a chemosensory fluid (lemon) and reduced oral grasping of an artificial nipple, whereas IH injection of the V? antagonist promoted facial wiping responses and increased grasping of the nipple. These data suggest that AVP may play a role in the development of responsiveness to stimuli encountered in the context of suckling. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral effects of milk in the rat fetus.

Intraoral infusion of milk to the rat fetus promoted changes in behavior (mouth and rearlimb movements), reduced responsiveness to perioral cutaneous stimulation, and resulted in expression of a fetal stretch response. Milk also altered the temporal organization of fetal movements over periods up to 30 min. The orosensory characteristics of milk, in the absence of ingestion, was sufficient to evoke these behavioral effects. Reduced responsiveness to a perioral stimulus had a rapid onset (     

Optimal allocation of assessment time in randomized pretest-posttest designs.

The widely used pretest–posttest design traditionally consists of a pretest and a posttest of equal lengths. However, greater statistical power can usually be achieved by using a posttest that is somewhat longer than the pretest. This article provides a method for calculating the optimal allocation of pretest and posttest assessment units so as to maximize power and presents the accompanying reduction in required sample size for a range of parameter values. When insufficient information is available to estimate the optimal location precisely, the effects of allocating 75% of the assessment units to the posttest are evaluated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex stereotyping in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins..

Comments on the article by S. T. Fiske et al (see record 1992-07509-001) praising the American Psychological Association's (APA's) amicus brief intended to inform the Supreme Court of current scientific thinking regarding gender stereotyping. A balanced perspective, it is argued, should include both research supporting an argument and findings that are inconsistent with that argument. The APA brief gave no indication of contradictory findings. Moreover, review of the research cited indicates that more than half of the studies do not support the argument for which they were cited. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model relating wearout to breakdown in thin oxides

A model has been developed relating wearout to breakdown in thin oxides. Wearout has been described in terms of trap generation inside of the oxide during high voltage stressing prior to breakdown. Breakdown occurred locally when the local density of traps exceeded a critical value and the product of the electric field and the higher leakage currents through the traps exceeded a critical energy density. The measurement techniques needed for determining the density of high-voltage stress generated traps have been described along with the method for coupling the wearout measurements to breakdown distributions. The average trap density immediately prior to breakdown was measured to be of the order of low-10¹⁹/cm³ in 10 nm thick oxides fabricated on p-type substrates stressed with negative gate voltages. The model has been used to describe several effects observed during measurements of time-dependent-dielectric-breakdown distributions. The area dependence of breakdown distributions, the differences in the breakdown distributions during constant current and constant voltage stressing, and the multi-modal distributions often observed were simulated using the model. The model contained the provision for incorporation of weak spots in the oxide     

A PET study of the neural systems of stuttering

The cause of stuttering is unknown. Failure to develop left-hemispheric dominance for speech is a long-standing theory although others implicated the motor system more broadly, often postulating hyperactivity of the right (language nondominant) cerebral hemisphere. As knowledge of motor circuitry has advanced, theories of stuttering have become more anatomically specific, postulating hyperactivity of premotor cortex, either directly or through connectivity with the thalamus and basal ganglia. Alternative theories target the auditory and speech production systems. By contrasting stuttering with fluent speech using positron emission tomography combined with chorus reading to induce fluency, we found support for each of these hypotheses. Stuttering induced widespread overactivations of the motor system in both cerebrum and cerebellum, with right cerebral dominance. Stuttered reading lacked left-lateralized activations of the auditory system, which are thought to support the self-monitoring of speech, and selectively deactivated a frontal-temporal system implicated in speech production. Induced fluency decreased or eliminated the overactivity in most motor areas, and largely reversed the auditory-system underactivations and the deactivation of the speech production system. Thus stuttering is a disorder affecting the multiple neural systems used for speaking.     

The promise of fuel cell-based automobiles

Fuel cell-based automobiles have gained attention in the last few years due to growing public concern about urban air pollution and consequent environmental problems. From an analysis of the power and energy requirements of a modern car, it is estimated that a base sustainable power ofca. 50 kW supplemented with short bursts up to 80 kW will suffice in most driving requirements. The energy demand depends greatly on driving characteristics but under normal usage is expected to be 200 Wh/km. The advantages and disadvantages of candidate fuel-cell systems and various fuels are considered together with the issue of whether the fuel should be converted directly in the fuel cell or should be reformed to hydrogen onboard the vehicle. For fuel cell vehicles to compete successfully with conventional internal-combustion engine vehicles, it appears that direct conversion fuel cells using probably hydrogen, but possibly methanol, are the only realistic contenders for road transportation applications. Among the available fuel cell technologies, polymer-electrolyte fuel cells directly fueled with hydrogen appear to be the best option for powering fuel cell vehicles as there is every prospect that these will exceed the performance of the internal-combustion engine vehicles but for their first cost. A target cost of $ 50/kW would be mandatory to make polymer-electrolyte fuel cells competitive with the internal combustion engines and can only be achieved with design changes that would substantially reduce the quantity of materials used. At present, prominent car manufacturers are deploying important research and development efforts to develop fuel cell vehicles and are projecting to start production by 2005.