Demographic category membership and leadership in small groups: A social identity analysis

Developing the social identity theory of leadership (e.g., [Hogg, M. A. (2001). A social identity theory of leadership. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 184-200]), an experiment (N=257) tested the hypothesis that as group members identify more strongly with their group (salience) their evaluations of leadership effectiveness become more strongly influenced by the extent to which their demographic stereotype-based impressions of their leader match the norm of the group (prototypicality). Participants, with more or less traditional gender attitudes (orientation), were members, under high or low group salience conditions (salience), of non-interactive laboratory groups that had instrumental or expressive group norms (norm), and a male or female leader (leader gender). As predicted, these four variables interacted significantly to affect perceptions of leadership effectiveness. Reconfiguration of the eight conditions formed by orientation, norm and leader gender produced a single prototypicality variable. Irrespective of participant gender, prototypical leaders were considered more effective in high then low salience groups, and in high salience groups prototypical leaders were more effective than less prototypical leaders. Alternative explanations based on status characteristics and role incongruity theory do not account well for the findings. Implications of these results for the glass ceiling effect and for a wider social identity analysis of the impact of demographic group membership on leadership in small groups are discussed. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Parental attachment and conflict behavior: Implications for offspring's attachment, loneliness, and relationship satisfaction

This study assessed the implications of parental attachment security and parental conflict behavior for offspring's relational adjustment (attachment security, loneliness, and relationship satisfaction). Further, reports of parental conflict behavior were obtained from both parents and offspring, addressing questions regarding agreement between reporters and the origin and extent of discrepant perceptions. Results revealed consistent patterns of conflict behavior and moderate agreement between reporters. However, offspring reported parental conflict behavior more negatively than parents, especially when offspring or parents were anxious about relationships. Parental attachment security had direct associations with offspring's relationship anxiety, whereas associations between parental attachment and offspring's loneliness and discomfort with closeness were mediated by parental conflict behavior. Parental conflict behavior was also associated with offspring's relationship satisfaction. The results are discussed in terms of the mechanisms involved in the intergenerational transmission of relationship difficulties.

Phase behavior, crystallization, and nanostructures in thermoset blends of epoxy resin and amphiphilic star-shaped block copolymers

This article reports thermoset blends of bisphenol A-type epoxy resin (ER) and two amphiphilic four-arm star-shaped diblock copolymers based on hydrophilic poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and hydrophobic poly(propylene oxide) (PPO). 4,4'-Methylenedianiline (MDA) was used as a curing agent. The first star-shaped diblock copolymer with 70 wt% ethylene oxide (EO), denoted as (PPO-PEO)(4), consists of four PPO-PEO diblock arms with PPO blocks attached on an ethylenediamine core; the second one with 40 wt% EO, denoted as (PEO-PPO)(4), contains four PEO-PPO diblock arms with PEO blocks attached on an ethylenediamine core. The phase behavior, crystallization, and nanoscale structures were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, transmission electron microscopy, and small-angle X-ray scattering. It was found that the MDA-cured ER/(PPO-PEO)(4) blends are not macroscopically phase-separated over the entire blend composition range. There exist, however, two microphases in the ER/(PPO-PEO)(4) blends. The PPO blocks form a separated microphase, whereas the ER and the PEO blocks, which are miscible, form another microphase. The ER/(PPO-PEO)(4) blends show composition-dependent nanostructures on the order of 10-30 nm. The 80/20 ER/(PPO-PEO)(4) blend displays spherical PPO micelles uniformly dispersed in a continuous ER-rich matrix. The 60/40 ER/(PPO-PEO)(4) blend displays a combined morphology of worm-like micelles and spherical micelles with characteristic of a bicontinuous microphase structure. Macroscopic phase separation took place in the MDA-cured ER/(PEO-PPO)(4) blends. The MDA-cured ER/(PEO-PPO)(4) blends with (PEO-PPO)(4) content up to 50 wt% exhibit phase-separated structures on the order of 0.5-1 mu m. This can be considered to be due to the different EO content and block sequence of the (PEO-PPO)(4) copolymer. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Relationship between work performance and personality traits in Hong Kong organizational settings

Four hundred and thirty-seven employees from four Hong Kong organizations completed the Traditional Chinese versions of the Fifteen Factor Personality Questionnaire Plus (15FQ+) and the Cross-Cultural Personality Assessment Inventory (CPAI-2) (indigenous scales) and provided objective and memory-based recent performance appraisal scores. A number of significant bivariate correlations were found between personality and performance scores. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that a number of the scales from the 15FQ+ contributed to significantly predicting four of the performance competency dimensions, but that the CPAI-2 indigenous scales contributed no incremental validity in performance prediction over and above the 15FQ+. Results are discussed in the light of previous research and a call made for continued research to further develop and increase the reliability of the Chinese instruments used in the study and to enable generalization of the findings with confidence.

Social cognitive predictors of sun protection intention and behavior

The authors investigated sunbathing behavior and intention prospectively using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Before summer, 85 young adults who intended to sunbathe completed a TPB questionnaire. After summer, 46 of them completed a second questionnaire about their summertime sunbathing behavior The proposed model was successful in predicting both behavior and intention to use sun protection, with 45% of the variance of self-reported sunscreen use and 32% of the variance in intention explained by the TPB. Items designed to measure self-efficacy and perceived control loaded onto different factors and demonstrated discriminant validity. Self-efficacy predicted both intention and behavior (after controlling for all other TPB variables), but perceived behavioral control did not. The authors discuss the implications of the findings for potential interventions to improve sun protection behavior.

The feasibility and outcome of clinic plus Internet delivery of cognitive-behavior therapy for childhood anxiety

Seventy-two clinically anxious children, aged 7 to 14 years, were randomly allocated to clinic-based, cognitive-behavior therapy, the same treatment partially delivered Via the Internet. or a wait-list control (WL). Children in the clinic and clinic-plus-Internet conditions showed significantly greater reductions in anxiety from pre- to posttreatment and were more likely to be free of their anxiety diagnoses, compared with the WL group. Improvements were maintained at 12-month follow-up for both therapy conditions', with minimal difference in outcomes between interventions. The Internet treatment content was highly acceptable to families, with minimal dropout and a high level of therapy compliance.

With friends like these... The role of prejudice and situational norms on discriminatory helping behavior

An experiment was conducted to examine the impact of homophobic attitudes and situational norms for helping on discriminatory behavior against a gay male. In a partial replication of Frey and Gaertner (1986), participants were asked to provide help to a confederate portrayed to be either gay or heterosexual who either requested help for himself (ambiguous situational norm) or for whom a third party requested help (unambiguous situational norm). Participants' levels of homophobia were assessed either before or after the main helping task. The results indicated that when norms for helping were ambiguous those participants higher in homophobia discriminated against the gay male, but only on subtle indicators of discrimination. In the unambiguous norm condition, participants higher in homophobia discriminated against the heterosexual male. Those lower in homophobia did not discriminate under either norm condition. The results show that it may be sufficient for those with prejudiced attitudes just to believe that it is not the wrong thing to do for their attitudes to be translated into some form of discriminatory behavior.

Refining individualized consideration: Distinguishing developmental leadership and supportive leadership

This study explores the theoretical and empirical distinction between developmental leadership and supportive leadership, which are currently encompassed in a single sub dimension of transformational leadership, individualized consideration. Items were selected to assess these constructs, and hypotheses regarding the differential effects of developmental and supportive leadership were proposed. Confirmatory factor analyses provided support for the proposed distinction between developmental and supportive leadership, although these leadership factors were very strongly associated. Structural equation modelling and multi-level modelling results indicated that both developmental leadership and supportive leadership displayed unique relationships with theoretically selected outcome measures. Developmental leadership displayed significantly stronger relationships with job satisfaction, career certainty, affective commitment to the organization and role breadth self-efficacy than did supportive leadership. Results provide initial evidence in support of the discriminant validity of these two types of leadership. Discussion focuses on the need to further examine the construct of developmental leadership.

Are country and culture values interchangeable? A case example using occupational stress and coping

Cross cultural research in occupational stress and coping has produced a wealth of knowledge. Although advances have been made, there are still problems to be solved. One of these problems is the confusion generated in the literature by researchers claiming that nation or country represents cultural values, and the use of the two terms interchangeably. It remains unclear whether this practice is correct. The present article reported on this by using 511 full-time employees from Australia, Singapore and Sri Lanka to study occupational stress and coping. Results revealed that cultural value paradigms (i.e. Individualism–Collectivism) were distributed across the three nations such that over 60% of participants were either high or low in both I–C paradigms. The findings also indicated that the relationship between cultural value paradigm and country impacted on stress and coping differently. The study shows that significant differences exist within countries as well as between countries, such that any attempt to equate ‘culture’ with ‘country’ becomes problematic. Therefore these findings established that country or nation is not the same as culture values and cannot be used interchangeably.

The role of team identification in the dissimilarity-conflict relationship

This study examined the role of team identification in the dissimilarity and conflict relationship. We tested competing predictions that team identification would either mediate or moderate the positive associations between visible (age, gender and ethnic background), professional (background) and value dissimilarity and task and relationship conflict. Data was collected from 27 MBA student teams twice during a semester. Multilevel modelling and a longitudinal design were used. Results showed that value dissimilarity was positively associated with task and relationship conflict at Time 2. Its effects on relationship conflict at Time 1 were moderated by team identification. Team identification also moderated the effects of gender, age and ethnic dissimilarity on task conflict at Time 2, and the effects of gender and professional dissimilarity on relationship conflict at Time 2. No support was obtained for the mediating role of team identification on the associations between dissimilarity and conflict, or for changes in the effects of dissimilarity over time.