Who helps and harms whom? Relational antecedents of interpersonal helping and harming in organizations.

Antecedents of interpersonally directed forms of citizenship and counterproductive behaviors (i.e., interpersonal helping and harming, respectively) have been studied most often under the broad categories of individual differences and job attitudes. Although these behaviors often are exhibited within the confines of interpersonal relationships, the impact of relationship quality and context on such behaviors has been understudied. The present study uses a social networks framework to examine the relational antecedents of interpersonal helping and harming in a sample of 62 members of a college sorority house. Results indicate that relational variables--direct, third-party, and structural or positional characteristics of positive and negative affective networks, and the frequency of voluntary interaction--explain substantial incremental variance (beyond traditional predictors) in helping and harming. Moreover, helping and harming were themselves weakly positively interrelated. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disentangling role perceptions: How perceived role breadth, discretion, instrumentality, and efficacy relate to helping and taking charge.

The objective of this study was to empirically disentangle role perceptions related to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) that have been confounded in past research, investigate their unique relationships with both an affiliative (helping) and a challenging (taking charge) form of OCB, and determine their relative importance in explaining these 2 forms of OCB. The authors also examined whether role discretion and role breadth independently moderate the procedural justice-to-OCB relationship. The authors surveyed 225 engineers in India and their direct supervisors. The results showed that 3 of the 4 facets of OCB role perception explain unique variance in either helping or taking charge, and that role breadth moderates the relationships between procedural justice and both helping and taking charge. The authors discuss implications of these findings for OCB theory and research, as well as for managerial practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An additional antecedent of empathic concern: Valuing the welfare of the person in need.

Two experiments examined the role of valuing the welfare of a person in need as an antecedent of empathic concern. Specifically, these experiments explored the relation of such valuing to a well-known antecedent--perspective taking. In Experiment 1, both perspective taking and valuing were manipulated, and each independently increased empathic concern, which, in turn, increased helping behavior. In Experiment 2, only valuing was manipulated. Manipulated valuing increased measured perspective taking and, in part as a result, increased empathic concern, which, in turn, increased helping. Valuing appears to be an important, largely overlooked, situational antecedent of feeling empathy for a person in need. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Agreeableness, empathy, and helping: A person × situation perspective.

This research program explored links among prosocial motives, empathy, and helping behavior. Preliminary work found significant relations among components of self-reported empathy and personality (N = 223). In Study 1, the authors examined the generality of prosocial behavior across situations and group memberships of victims (N = 622). In Study 2, empathic focus and the victim's outgroup status were experimentally manipulated (N = 87). Study 3 (N = 245) replicated and extended Study 2 by collecting measures of prosocial emotions before helping. In Study 4 (N = 244), empathic focus and cost of helping as predictors of helping behavior were experimentally manipulated. Overall, prosocial motivation is linked to (a) Agreeableness as a dimension of personality, (b) proximal prosocial cognition and motives, and (c) helping behavior across a range of situations and victims. In persons low in prosocial motivation, when costs of helping are high, efforts to induce empathy situationally can undermine prosocial behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

浙江制造业高技能人才培养模式的研究

高技能人才的短缺,已成为制约中国制造业发展的瓶颈。浙江积极打造全国先进制造业的基地也同样面临着这个严峻问题。从浙江省先进制造业技能人才的现状出发,以高技能人才培养模式为目的,提出了政府、企业、高职院校共同参与构建的融合区域经济、校企合作的高技能人才培养模式,从而有效解决高技能人才培养中的关键环节。     

Mental health professionals' adaptive responses to racial microaggressions: An exploratory study.

This study examines adaptive responses that mental health professionals of color use to cope with racial microaggressions in their professional lives. Twenty-four mental health professionals from diverse ethnic backgrounds in the United States and Canada participated in focus groups discussing their experiences with racial microagressions and how they cope with them. Results of the analysis indicated that 8 primary coping themes illustrated strategies used by the participants. These include: identifying key issues in responding to racial microaggressions, self-care, spirituality, confrontation, support, documentation, mentoring, and collective organizing. Suggestions for mentoring professionals of color are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reducing stigmatizing attitudes held by future health professionals: The person is the message.

This study represents a continuation of our efforts to identify a cost-effective, doable, practical intervention that, when added to the curriculum of future health professionals, results in the reduction of stigmatizing attitudes toward people living with mental illness. The authors reasoned that a personal presentation from a recovering person would, unlike previous educational efforts described, encompass the elements of personal relevance and inspiration and thus be effective. Measures of stigma, as well as of courtesy stigma, were used. The results support the hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extrinsic rewards undermine altruistic tendencies in 20-month-olds.

The current study investigated the influence of rewards on very young children's helping behavior. After 20-month-old infants received a material reward during a treatment phase, they subsequently were less likely to engage in further helping during a test phase as compared with infants who had previously received social praise or no reward at all. This so-called overjustification effect suggests that even the earliest helping behaviors of young children are intrinsically motivated and that socialization practices involving extrinsic rewards can undermine this tendency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short-term group play therapy with Chinese earthquake victims: Effects on anxiety, depression and adjustment.

Investigated the effectiveness of short-term child-centered group play therapy in elementary school settings with Chinese children in Taiwan who experienced an earthquake in 1999. 65 children (aged 8-12 yrs) were screened. Children in the experimental group scored significantly lower on anxiety level and suicide risk after play therapy than did children in the control group. The effects of the treatment support previous studies of play therapy with American children. These findings reveal the possibility of disaster intervention services adopting Western helping techniques with school children of non-Western cultures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What's wrong with believing in repression?: A review for legal professionals.

Some courts in recent years have tarnished their credibility by willingly and blindly adopting the theory of repressed memory. Such acceptance can destroy the reputations of falsely accused individuals, and, by failing to pay due attention to scientific evidence, gives credence to pseudoscience and demeans the scientific method. This paper was written to inform judges and attorneys about the relevant evidence, which shows that: (a) the concepts of repressed and recovered memory are not generally accepted in the psychological and psychiatric community; (b) the studies cited to support these concepts reveal significant flaws; (c) much empirical evidence has been accumulated against the theory of repression; (d) the studies using the best methodology offer the least support for the repression hypothesis; and (e) there is no evidence that recovered memories accurately reveal the specifics of long-ago events. Repressed- and recovered-memory theory is not supported by science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)