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Academic personal initiative (API) has rarely been studied with regard to literacy development. The purpose of this longitudinal study was therefore to examine the unique effects of API on the development of word comprehension as an indicator of word reading. To this end, the effects of previous word comprehension, intrinsic reading motivation, and basic cognitive ability (i.e., processing speed) were controlled for. A total of 1,515 German students participated in a longitudinal assessment starting in Grades 1 to 3, with a second point of measurement nine months later. Latent change score analyses revealed positive associations between API and gains in word comprehension, both in the total sample and at all grade levels. These relations were robust against the effects of previous word comprehension and intrinsic reading motivation. The findings suggest that children play an active role in their own reading development. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Workplace innovations often take the form of making suggestions about small-range improvements, for example, of processes and work procedures. Research on innovation suggests that people holding a novel idea will often consult their peers first in order to gauge their potential approval and support before proposing the idea to formal decision makers. We argue that peer evaluators’ intentions to support an innovative idea depend on the idea’s capacity to satisfy or threaten the evaluator’s achievement motive. Support intentions will be higher if the idea satisfies the evaluators’ achievement motive (idea-motive congruence), and lower if it threatens their achievement motive (idea-motive incongruence); evaluators’ affective response is proposed to mediate this effect. Moreover, the intentions attributed to the idea presenter are proposed to affect peers’ support intentions. The results of two scenario-based experiments (N = 153 and 123) confirm that motive-incongruent implications of an innovative idea, in particular regarding their fear of failure, reduce the likelihood for peers’ support intentions. Results on affective responses were inconsistent across studies, whereas perceiving the idea presenter to hold prosocial intentions was positively related to idea support. Implications for the evaluation of ideas are discussed.
People with mental disorders, especially personality disorders, often face low acceptance at work. This is particularly problematic when returning to work after sick leave, because it impedes reintegration into the former workplace. This study explores colleagues’ reactions towards a problematic worker dependent on the returning person’s reintegration strategy: The returning person undertaking changes in their behaviour is compared with the person requesting adjustments of the workplace. In an experimental study, 188 employed persons read one of four vignettes that described a return-to-work-situation of a problematic co-worker. Across all vignettes, the co-worker was depicted as having previously caused problems in the work team. In the first vignette, the co-worker did not change anything (control condition) when she returned to work; in the second, she asked for workplace adjustments; in the third vignette she initiated efforts to change her own behaviour; and the fourth vignette combined both workplace adjustments and behavioural change. Study participants were asked for their reactions towards the problematic co-worker. Vignettes that included a behavioural change evoked more positive reactions towards the co-worker than vignettes without any behavioural change. Asking for workplace adjustments alone did not yield more positive reactions compared to not initiating any change. When preparing employees with interactional problems for their return to work, it is not effective to only instruct them on their statutory entitlement for workplace adjustments. Instead, it is advisable to encourage them to proactively strive for behaviour changes.
Work anxiety is a potentially disabling mental health problem, which can cause (long-term) sickness absence. In many cases patients do not openly report their anxieties and tend to give externalizing explanations of inner problems. Therefore people with work anxiety may perceive their workplace more negatively than those without such anxiety. To investigate the relation between subjective work description and work anxiety. There were 148 inpatient participants and 8015 general population controls. Patients with work anxiety described their workplace significantly more negatively than patients without work anxiety and employees in the general population, with no differences in workplace descriptions between psychosomatic patients without work anxiety and the general population sample. The type of complaint about work conditions was related to the specific type of work anxiety. Reports about workplace burdens can be indicative of work anxiety and should prompt further in-depth assessments. The content of complaints about work conditions may point to the type of underlying work anxiety.
Although many behavioral studies have investigated the effect of processing fluency on subsequent recognition memory, little research has examined the neural mechanism of this phenomenon. The present study aimed to explore the electrophysiological correlates of the effects of processing fluency on subsequent recognition memory by using an event-related potential (ERP) approach. The masked repetition priming paradigm was used to manipulate processing fluency in the study phase, and the R/K paradigm was utilized to investigate which recognition memory process (familiarity or recollection) was affected by processing fluency in the test phase. Converging behavioral and ERP results indicated that increased processing fluency impaired subsequent recollection. Results from the analysis of ERP priming effects in the study phase indicated that increased perceptual processing fluency of object features, reflected by the N/P 190 priming effect, can hinder encoding activities, reflected by the LPC priming effect, which leads to worse subsequent recollection based recognition memory. These results support the idea that processing fluency can influence subsequent recognition memory and provide a potential neural mechanism underlying this effect. However, further studies are needed to examine whether processing fluency can affect subsequent familiarity.
Ein großer Anteil der Erwerbstätigen ist aufgrund gesundheitlicher Einschränkungen einmalig oder mehrfach in seiner Berufsbiografie längere Zeit arbeitsunfähig. Auf Grundlage etablierter psychologischer Konstrukte und empirischer Befunde wurde ein spezifisch arbeitsbezogenes Inventar für Job-Coping und Rückkehrintention (JoCoRi) entwickelt. Der Selbsteinschätzungsfragebogen wurde an drei unabhängigen Stichproben (N = 243, N = 337, N = 111) von Rehabilitationspatienten aus Psychosomatik, Orthopädie, Kardiologie und Neurologie geprüft. Faktorenanalytische Ergebnisse der ersten Stichprobe bestätigen eine mehrfaktorielle Struktur. Das Inventar enthält 30 Items in 7 Skalen: 1. Arbeitsbezogene Rückkehrintention und -planung, 2. Arbeitsbezogene Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung, 3. Arbeitsbezogene Selbstberuhigung und Selbstinstruktion, 4. Arbeitsbezogene externale Kontrollüberzeugung, 5. Aktives Coping am Arbeitsplatz, 6. Bedeutung der Arbeit, 7. Kontrollüberzeugung bzgl. der Arbeitsaufnahme. Die Varianzaufklärung liegt bei 68 %. 25 Items haben Hauptladungen > .60. Interne Konsistenzen und Trennschärfen sind überwiegend zufriedenstellend. Die Modellgüte der konfirmatorischen Faktorenanalyse ist überzeugend. Das Modell ist in einer unabhängigen Stichprobe stabil (N = 337). Die Skalen wurden mit inhaltlich analogen Globalkonstrukten validiert. Die mehrfaktorielle Struktur kann in der zweiten Stichprobe repliziert werden. Eine längsschnittliche Analyse der dritten Stichprobe prüft die prädiktive Validität der Rückkehrintentionsskala; sie wird hinsichtlich Arbeitsunfähigkeitsdauer und Arbeitsfähigkeitsstatus bestätigt.
Drawing on research on personal initiative in adults, this paper present the conceptualization of personal initiative in the middle childhood, and the development and validation of an eight-item teacher and parent rating scale of children's and adolescents' personal initiative. The psychometric properties and construct validity of the measure were tested in two samples of children in middle childhood (N = 1069–1657) and middle childhood to adolescence (N = 1533). Both the teacher and parent rating scale showed good item characteristics. Results of confirmatory factor analyses supported their hypothesized factorial structure. The agreement of teacher and parent ratings was satisfactory. Evidence on the construct validity of the scale was further derived from a nomological network comprising control cognitions, motivational orientations, and cognitive ability. The measures proved to be invariant across school years and raters. We discuss several avenues for future research on personal initiative in the fields of development and education.
Background: Occupational therapy is an important co-therapy in psychiatric therapy. It is a common belief that no risks are associated with occupational therapy. Negative effects caused by group therapy, especially occupational therapy, have not been in the focus of research yet. In this study we want to illustrate possible types and intensities of group side effects through occupational therapy. Patients and Methods: Patients of an inpatient rehabilitation facility filled out the Adverse Treatment Reaction Group Checklist. The checklist contains 47 items divided in six dimensions: group size, content, group participants, group outcome and global. The self-rating used a 5-point likert scale (0 = not at all; 4 = verymuch, extremely stressful) and gives information about types and intensities of the side effects. Results: 88.9 % of 45 patients reported negative effects of occupational group therapy. 28.9 % of the patients rated the side effect as at least severe. Discussion: Occupational therapy is associated with side effects as every other group therapy. Possible side effects caused by group therapy should be considered while planning and implementing occupational therapy.
Regulatory focus is a motivational construct that describes humans’ motivational orientation during goal pursuit. It is conceptualized as a chronic, trait-like, as well as a momentary, state-like orientation. Whereas there is a large number of measures to capture chronic regulatory focus, measures for its momentary assessment are only just emerging. This paper presents the development and validation of a measure of Momentary–Chronic Regulatory Focus. Our development incorporates the distinction between self-guide and reference-point definitions of regulatory focus. Ideals and ought striving are the promotion and prevention dimension in the self-guide system; gain and non-loss regulatory focus are the respective dimensions within the reference-point system. Three-survey-based studies test the structure, psychometric properties, and validity of the measure in its version to assess chronic regulatory focus (two samples of working participants, N = 389, N = 672; one student sample [time 1, N = 105; time 2, n = 91]). In two further studies, an experience sampling study with students (N = 84, k = 1649) and a daily-diary study with working individuals (N = 129, k = 1766), the measure was applied to assess momentary regulatory focus. Multilevel analyses test the momentary measure’s factorial structure, provide support for its sensitivity to capture within-person fluctuations, and provide evidence for concurrent construct validity.
Regulatory focus is a motivational construct that describes humans’ motivational orientation during goal pursuit. It is conceptualized as a chronic, trait-like, as well as a momentary, state-like orientation. Whereas there is a large number of measures to capture chronic regulatory focus, measures for its momentary assessment are only just emerging. This paper presents the development and validation of a measure of Momentary–Chronic Regulatory Focus. Our development incorporates the distinction between self-guide and reference-point definitions of regulatory focus. Ideals and ought striving are the promotion and prevention dimension in the self-guide system; gain and non-loss regulatory focus are the respective dimensions within the reference-point system. Three-survey-based studies test the structure, psychometric properties, and validity of the measure in its version to assess chronic regulatory focus (two samples of working participants, N = 389, N = 672; one student sample [time 1, N = 105; time 2, n = 91]). In two further studies, an experience sampling study with students (N = 84, k = 1649) and a daily-diary study with working individuals (N = 129, k = 1766), the measure was applied to assess momentary regulatory focus. Multilevel analyses test the momentary measure’s factorial structure, provide support for its sensitivity to capture within-person fluctuations, and provide evidence for concurrent construct validity.