Does whom you work with matter? Effects of referent group gender and age composition on managers' compensation.

Much research has examined gender and age effects on compensation, concluding that a wage gap exists favoring men and negative stereotypes against older workers persist. Although the effect of an employee's gender or age has been widely studied, little work has examined the impact of the demographic characteristics of a focal employee's immediate referent groups (e.g., subordinates, peers, or supervisors) on pay. The effect of the gender and age composition of a focal manager's subordinates, peers, and supervisor on the manager's compensation levels was investigated in a sample of 2,178 managers across a wide range of organizations and functional areas. After controlling for a number of human capital variables, results indicated that not only does a wage gap favoring men exist, but also managerial pay is lower when managers' referent groups are largely female, when subordinates are outside the prime age group, and when peers and supervisors are younger. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing Positive and Negative Changes in the Aftermath of Adversity: Psychometric Evaluation of the Changes in Outlook Questionnaire.

The Changes in Outlook Questionnaire (CiOQ; S. Joseph, R. Williams, & W. Yule, 1993) is a 26-item self-report measure that was designed to assess positive and negative changes in the aftermath of adversity. This article had 3 aims: 1st, to investigate the factor structure of the CiOQ; 2nd, to test for internal consistency reliability and convergent and discriminant validity; and, 3rd, to investigate the association between positive and negative changes in outlook, posttraumatic stress, and psychological distress. Three studies are reported. Study 1 provides evidence that positive and negative changes are statistically separable and that the 2-factor model is a better fit than the 1-factor model. Studies 2 and 3 provide evidence for internal consistency reliability, convergent and discriminant validity of the CiOQ, and its associations with posttraumatic stress and psychological distress. In conclusion, the CiOQ has much promise for research on responses to stressful and traumatic events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping With Stereotype Threat: Denial as an Impression Management Strategy.

Four experiments tested the hypothesis that people who are concerned with impression management cope with stereotype threat through denial. Consistent with this hypothesis, temporary employees threatened by a stereotype of incompetence (Study 1) and hostel-dwelling older adults (Study 2) were more likely to deny incompetence if they were high in impression management. African Americans (Study 3) showed a similar pattern of denying cognitive incompetence, which emerged primarily when they were interviewed by a White experimenter and had attended a predominantly Black high school. In Study 4, White students who expected to take an IQ test and were threatened by a stereotype of being less intelligent than Asians were more likely to deny that intelligence is important if they were high in impression management. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preparation and characterization of novel nanometer-scale platinum electrodes

Observation of the oxidation–reduction processes occurring at the nanoelectrode–solution interface demonstrates how electrochemical behavior depends upon nanoelectrode size. The use of a modified form of pulsed laser ablation as an improved method to synthesize nanometer-scaled electrode materials easily and consistently is reported. This method of fabrication enables platinum metal nanoparticles averaging 3 nm in diameter and approximately 5.0 × 10¹¹ particles/cm² to be deposited onto silicon substrates using optimum ablation parameters. A platinum silicide phase exists at the interface of the platinum and silicon as a result of the ablation process. Electrochemical results demonstrate the presence of a large number of isolated platinum particles (1.1 × 10⁷ particles/cm²), separated by an average edge to edge distance of 14 nm, which are electrochemically active nanoelectrodes.     

The younger siblings of teenage mothers: A follow-up of their pregnancy risk.

This study followed 243 younger brothers and younger sisters of parenting teens and nonparenting teens across a 1.5-year period. The average age of siblings was 13.6 years at Time 1 and 15 years at Time 2. Relative to other youths, the sisters of parenting teens exhibited a sharp increase in drug and alcohol use and partying behavior across time and had the highest pregnancy rate at Time 2 (15%). The siblings of parenting teens spent 10 hr a week caring for their sisters' children, and, for girls, many hours of child care was associated with negative outcomes including permissive sexual behavior. Findings suggest that the younger sisters of parenting teens are at very high risk of early pregnancy and that this risk becomes increasingly pronounced across time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactions between fat crystal networks and sodium caseinate at the sunflower oil-water interface

A Couette-type torsion wire surface shear viscometer was used to measure the apparent interfacial shear viscosity of pH 7 (I=0.05 M) buffered solutions of sodium caseinate in contact with sunflower oil. The sunflower oil contained 1% fat crystals in either the β or β′ polymorphic form, or was crystal free. In all cases, the fat crystals increased the interfacial shear viscosity synergistically, with the β′ crystals causing the biggest increase. Substituting the protein for a small-molecule surfactant (Tween-40) showed that this was not simply due to the protein lowering the interfacial tension. Sedimentation studies of the different fat crystal slurries suggested that the extent of the interfacial shear viscosity increase was related to the strength of crystal-crystal interactions in the oil phase. It seems likely that when protein is present at the interface, it fixes the adsorbed layer of fat crystals to the cross-linked protein film at the interface. When this film was sheared, the strength of the crystal-crystal interactions in the oil phase became important. However, when Tween-40 was in the aqueous phase instead of the protein, the crystal-crystal interactions were not relevant, presumably because the Tween-40 interfacial film simply flowed around the adsorbed crystals     

Meritocracy and opposition to affirmative action: Making concessions in the face of discrimination.

Typically, people who strongly endorse the merit principle and believe that outcomes should be given to those most deserving oppose affirmative action (AA) programs that violate this principle. However, how do they respond to AA when faced with a great deal of workplace discrimination? The authors hypothesized that people who care strongly about merit should be motivated to combat discrimination because it biases the assessment of merit. Consequently, these individuals should make concessions for AA. The authors found support for their hypothesis when investigating (a) participants' preexisting perceptions of workplace discrimination and (b) experimentally induced perceptions of discrimination. They discuss the implications of these results for the psychology of meritocracy and for resistance to AA. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating self and others in electronic and face-to-face groups.

After completing a decision task electronically or face to face, 105 students rated their own and other group members' contribution to the task completion and their degree of liking for group members. Actual contributions were the number of task relevant remarks each person contributed. Results indicated that self-ratings of contribution were more inflated and less accurate in electronic communication than in face-to-face communication. Liking accounted for significant variance in ratings of others' contributions in face-to-face groups, whereas actual contribution accounted for significant variance in ratings of others in electronic groups. Results suggest that rating biases stemming from liking are evident in ratings of others in face-to-face groups but not in electronic. Implications for online performance evaluations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)