Emotion in organizations: A neglected topic in I/O psychology, But with a bright future

In this chapter we present a review of some of the main threads of research on the role played by emotion and affect in organizations. In this respect, we refute the notion that organizations are totally rational., where the role of emotion is something that can be discounted or 'managed' out of existence.

Social psychology

Product Description: An engaging, comprehensive and colourful introduction, Social Psychology is now fully revised and updated in its 4th edition. It remains accessible, involving and clearly structured, exploring key aspects of social psychology. Through its many features and lively approach, Social Psychology will inform and challenge students everywhere and will prove invaluable to anyone with an interest in the field. Social Psychology effectively consolidates European and North American perspectives to provide coverage with a unique global flavour.

Psychological science in Australia

This paper is a brief account of the Australian Strategic Review of the Psychology Discipline and its Research. Issues discussed include Australia's contribution to world research in psychological science, research funding, the age and qualifications of researchers, the social and economic benefits arising from the applications of research outcomes, multidisciplinary issues, the role of psychology in industry, links between the discipline and the profession of psychology, professional training, cross-cultural issues, and educational issues. Priorities for development of research and postgraduate training are identified, and include human factors and other areas related to technological change, clinical psychology with particular attention to health psychology, industrial and organizational psychology, and neuroscience and physiological psychology.

Anxious children and their parents: What do they expect?

Assigned 73 children, ages 7 to 14, to 1 of 3 groups (anxious, clinical control, and nonclinical control) according to their diagnostic status. Within the anxious group, children were assigned to 1 of 2 further groups on the basis of self-reported parental anxiety-either the child anxiety only group or the child + parent anxiety group. All children completed an experimental task (giving a brief talk in front of a video camera), which was the focus for a series of structured family discussions between the child and his or her parents. The aims of the study were to measure and compare across groups (a) the evaluations of children and their parents regarding the child's predicted anxiety and skill level and (b) the effect of the family discussion on children's expectations. Results indicated that, prior to the family discussion, anxious children's expectations of their future performance did not differ from those of control children. Similarly, there were no differences in children's expectations between the child anxiety group and the child + parent anxiety group. Second, compared to mothers in the child anxiety group, mothers in the child + parent anxiety group expected that their children would be more anxious and more likely to choose an avoidant problem solution (but not less skilled). Finally, the family discussion was found to produce no changes in anxious children's expectations of their future performance. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Psychological stress and disordered eating: An exploratory study with young Australian women

An exploratory study was conducted to examine whether the relationships between psychological stress and disordered eating, reported in many studies using American samples, would be found in a sample of young Australian women. A total of 212 women aged 18-22 years completed a questionnaire assessing a number of women's health issues, including life events stress, perceived stress levels, psychological distress, disordered eating behaviours, and concerns about weight and eating. While results showed few strong relationships between stress and eating variables for the sample overall, those women with high psychological stress levels appeared to be more likely to engage in disordered eating behaviours than women with low levels of stress. Results suggest that further investigation, targeting subgroups of women scoring highly on measures of psychological stress or disordered eating, may help clarify our understanding of the relationships between these factors in young Australian women.

Contemporary sexism - The relationships among hostility, benevolence, and neosexism

Previous research has examined the relationship between the Modern Sexism Scale (Swim, Aikin, Hall & Hunter, 1995) and the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI; Glick & Fiske, 1996) or the relationship between the Modern Sexism Scale and the Neosexism Scale (Campbell, Schellenberg, & Senn, 1997; Tougas, Brown, Beaten, & Joly, 1995). The present study examined the relationship between the ASI and the Neosexism Scale. Across three samples (N = 907), neosexism was found to be associated primarily with the hostile rather than the benevolent component of ambivalent sexism. Hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, and neosexism were all significantly associated with attitudes toward lesbians' and gay men's rights, and both hostile sexism and neosexism were significantly associated with attitudes toward women's rights. Neosexism and hostile sexism were negatively associated with a humanitarian-egalitarian orientation, whereas benevolent sexism was positively associated with a Protestant-ethic orientation. It is concluded that, although both the Neosexism Scale and ASI measure contemporary sexism, only the Benevolent Sexism subscale of the ASI taps the subjectively positive side of contemporary sexism.

Social identity and perceptions of media persuasion: Are we always less influenced than others?

People typically perceive negative media content (e.g., violence) to have more impact on others than on themselves (a third-person effect). To examine the perceived effects of positive content (e.g., public-service advertisements) and the moderating role of social identities, we examined students' perceptions of the impact of AIDS advertisements on self, students (in- group), nonstudents (out-group), and people in general. Perceived self-other differences varied with the salience of student identity. Low identifiers displayed the typical third-person effect, whereas high identifiers were more willing to acknowledge impact on themselves and the student in-group. Further, when influence was normatively accept able within the in-group, high identifiers perceived self and students (us) as more influenced than nonstudents (them). The theoretical and practical implications of this reversal in third-person perceptions are discussed.

Attachment style, assertive communication, and safer-sex behavior

This research tested the proposition that the effect of attachment security on safer-sex practice may be mediated by communication patterns. One hundred eighty-five undergraduate students completed questionnaire measures of attachment, assertiveness, and attitudes to communication about AIDS. Eight weeks later, they reported on their practice of safer sex in the period since the first testing session. Hierarchical regressions showed that at Step 1, anxiety about relationships (a measure of insecure attachment) was associated with less safer-sex practice, for all outcome measures. Attitudes to communication about AIDS added to the prediction of general reports of safer-sex practice: in line with the mediational model, anxiety about relationships became unimportant as a predictor when communication variables were included. Communication variables failed to add to the prediction of safer sex on the most recent encounter, and both anxiety about relationships and attitudes to communication about AIDS predicted condom use. Some gender differences in patterns of prediction were noted. The results are discussed in terms of attachment style and its links with the negotiation of sexual practice and relationship issues.

Subgroup relations: A comparison of mutual intergroup differentiation and common ingroup identity models of prejudice reduction

Two studies examined relations between groups (humanities and math-science students) that implicitly or explicitly share a common superordinate category (university student). In Experiment 1, 178 participants performed a noninteractive decision-making task during which category salience was manipulated in a 2 (superordinate category salience) x 2 (subordinate category salience) between-groups design. Consistent with the mutual intergroup differentiation model, participants for whom both categories were salient exhibited the lowest levels of bias, whereas bias was strongest when the superordinate category alone was made salient. This pattern of results was replicated in Experiment 2 (N = 135). In addition, Experiment 2 demonstrated that members of subgroups that are nested within a superordinate category are more sensitive to how the superordinate category is represented than are members of subgroups that extend beyond the boundaries of the superordinate category.

Occupation, hours worked, and leisure-time physical activity

Background. International research indicates that blue-collar employees typically exhibit lower rates of leisure-time physical activity. While lack of time and work demands are commonly reported barriers to activity, the extent to which time-at-work mediates the relationship between occupation and leisure-time physical activity is unclear. This study investigated the association between occupation, time spent in paid employment, and participation in leisure-time physical activity. Methods. This was a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from the 1995 Australian Health Survey, focusing on employed persons ages 18-64 years (n = 24,454), Occupation was coded as per the Australian Standard Classification of Occupations and collapsed into three categories (professional, white-collar, blue-collar). Hours worked was categorized into eight levels, ranging from 1-14 to more than 50 h per week. Participation in leisure-time physical activity was categorized as either insufficient or sufficient for health, consistent with recommended levels of energy expenditure (1600 METS-min/fortnight). The relationship between occupation, hours worked, and leisure-time physical activity was examined using logistic regression. Analyses were conducted separately for male and female, and the results are presented as a series of models that successively adjust for a range of potential covariates: age, living arrangement, smoking status, body mass index, and self-reported health. Results. Individuals in blue-collar occupations were approximately 50% more likely to be classified as insufficiently active. This occupational variability in leisure-time physical activity was not explained by hours worked. There was a suggested relationship between hours worked and leisure-time physical activity; however, this differed between men and women, and was difficult to interpret. Conclusions. Occupational variability in leisure-time physical activity cannot be explained by hours worked. Therefore, reports that work constitutes a barrier to participation should be explored further. Identification of the factors contributing to occupational variability in leisure-time physical activity will add to our understanding of why population subgroups differ in their health risk profiles, and assist in the development of health promotion strategies to reduce rates of sedentariness and health inequalities. (C) 2000 American Health Foundation and Academic Press.

The moderating role of social support in Karasek's job strain model

This paper examines whether social support is a boundary-determining criterion in the job strain model of Karasek (1979). The particular focus is the extent to which different sources of social support, work overload and task control influence job satisfaction, depersonalization and supervisor assessments of work performance. Hypotheses are tested using prospective survey data from 80 clerical staff in a university setting. Results revealed 3-way interactions among levels of support (supervisor, co-worker, non-work), perceived task control and work overload on levels of work performance and employee adjustment (self-report). After controlling for levels of negative affect in all analyses, there was evidence that high levels of supervisor support mitigated against the negative effects of high strain jobs on levels of job satisfaction and reduced reported levels of depersonalization. Moreover, high levels of non-work support and co-worker support also mitigated against the negative effects of high strain jobs on levels of work performance. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of social support networks both at, and beyond, the work context.

Passive smoking and lung cancer: a cumulative meta-analysis

Objective: To review the epidemiological evidence for the association between passive smoking and lung cancer. Method: Primary studies and meta-analyses examining the relationship between passive smoking and lung cancer were identified through a computerised literature search of Medline and Embase, secondary references, and experts in the field of passive smoking. Primary studies meeting the inclusion criteria were meta-analysed. Results From 1981 to the end of 1999 there have been 76 primary epidemiological studies of passive smoking and lung cancer, and 20 meta-analyses. There were 43 primary studies that met the inclusion criteria for this meta-analysis; more studies than previous assessments. The pooled relative risk (RR) for never-smoking women exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) from spouses, compared with unexposed never-smoking women was 1.29 (95% CI 1.17-1.43). Sequential cumulative meta-analysed results for each year from 1981 were calculated: since 1992 the RR has been greater than 1.25. For Western industrialised countries the RR for never-smoking women exposed to ETS compared with unexposed never-smoking women, was 1.21 (95% CI 1.10-1.33). Previously published international spousal meta-analyses have all produced statistically significant RRs greater than 1.17. Conclusions The abundance of evidence in this paper, and the consistency of findings across domestic and workplace primary studies, dosimetric extrapolations and meta-analyses, clearly indicates that non-smokers exposed to ETS are at increased risk of lung cancer. Implications: The recommended public health policy is for a total ban on smoking in enclosed public places and work sites.