Effects of psychological contract breach on performance of IT employees: The mediating role of affective commitment

In this study, we investigated the relationships between psychological contract breach, affective commitment, and two types of employee performance (i.e. civic virtue behaviour and in-role performance). It was predicted that an experience of contract breach can severely hurt the affective commitment of the employees and this, in turn, results in poor in-role performance and less civic virtue behaviours. Results revealed that affective commitment had differential mediating effects on the two types of employee performance. That is, affective commitment mediated the relationship between breach and self-reported and supervisor-rated civic virtue, but not the relationship between breach and in-role performance.

How innovation can alleviate negative consequences of demanding work contexts:The influence of climate for innovation on organizational outcomes

This study examines climate for innovation as a method by which negative organizational consequences of demanding work may be lessened. It was expected that a climate for innovation would enable employees to develop coping mechanisms or improved work-related processes which counteract negative consequences of work demands. Extending the job demands-resource model (Karasek, 1979), we predicted and found that among the sample of 22,696 respondents from 131 healthcare organizations, organizational climate for innovation alleviated the negative effects of work demands on organizational performance. Thus, this study informs climate theories and guides practitioners' efforts to support the employees. © 2007 The British Psychological Society.

The role of emotional labour and role stress on burnout and psychological strain in high contact service employees

This study examines the relationships between job demands (in the form of role stressors and emotional management) and employee burnout amongst high contact service employees. Employees in customer facing roles are frequently required to manage overwhelming, conflicting or ambiguous demands, which they may feel ill-equipped to handle. Simultaneously, they must manage the emotions they display towards customers, suppressing some, and expressing others, be they genuine or contrived. If the in-role effort required of employees exceeds their inherent capacity to cope, burnout may result. Burnout, in turn, can have serious detrimental consequences for the psychological well being of employees. We find that both emotional management and role stressors impact burnout. We also confirm that burnout predicts psychological strain. In line with the Job Demands and Resources Model, we examine the mitigating impact of perceived support on these relationships but do not find a significant mitigating impact.

Work-related stressors and psychological strain in the sales force:the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

The contemporary workplace appears rife with psychological strain, which can have considerable deleterious outcomes to the firm and the individual. However, research on strain in the sales force is underdeveloped. This paper reports the results of a study of the antecedents and consequences of psychological strain in the sales force, with particular attention to the roles of role ambiguity, emotional exhaustion, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Emotional exhaustion is found to increase strain. Intrinsic motivation reduces strain under conditions of relatively high role ambiguity, but leads to more strain under conditions of low role ambiguity. Strain is found to have a J-shaped relationship with turnover intentions, and is linearly related to lower job satisfaction and lower job performance.

Attentional inhibition has social-emotional consequences for unfamiliar faces

Visual attention studies often rely on response time measures to show the impact of attentional facilitation and inhibition. Here we extend the investigation of the effects of attention on behavior and show that prior attentional states associated with unfamiliar faces can influence subsequent social-emotional judgments about those faces. Participants were shown pairs of face images and were asked to withhold a response if a transparent stop-signal cue appeared over one of the faces. This served to associate the cued face with an inhibitory state. Later, when asked to make social-emotional choices about these face pairs, participants chose uncued faces more often than cued faces as "more trustworthy" and chose cued faces more often than uncued faces as "less trustworthy." For perceptual choices, there was no effect of how the question was framed (which face is "on a lighter background" vs. "on a darker background"). These results suggest that attentional inhibition can be associated with socially relevant stimuli, such as faces, and can have specific, deleterious effects on social-emotional judgments.

The role of illness perceptions:psychological distress and treatment seeking delay in patients with genital warts.

This study examined the relationships between illness perceptions, psychological distress and treatment-seeking delay in genital warts patients. Sixty-six genital warts patients were approached while attending a sexual health clinic. They completed a questionnaire assessing their illness perceptions, psychological distress and treatment-seeking delay. Negative perceptions of illness consequences and control and a perceived cyclical timeline were associated with increased psychological distress. Perceived illness consequences maintained significance in a multiple regression equation, which accounted for 25% variance in distress. Depression was associated with treatment-seeking delay (r = 0.28, P = 0.03). In conclusion, illness perceptions may play an important role in the experience of psychological distress in genital warts patients. The implications of these findings for the design of health-care interventions are discussed.

Learning from errors: Psychological, relational, and cultural aspects

Although errors might foster learning, they can also be perceived as something to avoid if they are associated with negative consequences (e.g., receiving a bad grade or being mocked by classmates). Such adverse perceptions may trigger negative emotions and error-avoidance attitudes, limiting the possibility to use errors for learning. These students’ reactions may be influenced by relational and cultural aspects of errors that characterise the learning environment. Accordingly, the main aim of this research was to investigate whether relational and cultural characteristics associated with errors affect psychological mechanisms triggered by making mistakes. In the theoretical part, we described the role of errors in learning using an integrated multilevel (i.e., psychological, relational, and cultural levels of analysis) approach. Then, we presented three studies that analysed how cultural and relational error-related variables affect psychological aspects. The studies adopted a specific empirical methodology (i.e., qualitative, experimental, and correlational) and investigated different samples (i.e., teachers, primary school pupils and middle school students). Findings of study one (cultural level) highlighted errors acquire different meanings that are associated with different teachers’ error-handling strategies (e.g., supporting or penalising errors). Study two (relational level) demonstrated that teachers’ supportive error-handling strategies promote students’ perceptions of being in a positive error climate. Findings of study three (relational and psychological level) showed that positive error climate foster students’ adaptive reactions towards errors and learning outcomes. Overall, our findings indicated that different variables influence students’ learning from errors process and teachers play an important role in conveying specific meanings of errors during learning activities, dealing with students’ mistakes supportively, and establishing an error-friendly classroom environment.

Clinical Consequences Of Tityus Bahiensis And Tityus Serrulatus Scorpion Stings In The Region Of Campinas, Southeastern Brazil.

Scorpion stings account for most envenomations by venomous animals in Brazil. A retrospective study (1994-2011) of the clinical consequences of Tityus scorpion stings in 1327 patients treated at a university hospital in Campinas, southeastern Brazil, is reported. The clinical classification, based on outcome, was: dry sting (no envenoming), class I (only local manifestations), class II (systemic manifestations), class III (life-threatening manifestations, such as shock and/or cardiac failure requiring inotropic/vasopressor agents, and/or respiratory failure), and fatal. The median patient age was 27 years (interquartile interval = 15-42 years). Scorpions were brought for identification in 47.2% of cases (Tityus bahiensis 27.7%; Tityus serrulatus 19.5%). Sting severity was classified and each accounted for the following percentage of cases: dry stings - 3.4%, class I - 79.6%, class II - 15.1%, class III - 1.8% and fatal - 0.1%. Pain was the primary local manifestation (95.5%). Systemic manifestations such as vomiting, agitation, sweating, dyspnea, bradycardia, tachycardia, tachypnea, somnolence/lethargy, cutaneous paleness, hypothermia and hypotension were detected in class II or class III + fatal groups, but were significantly more frequent in the latter group. Class III and fatal cases occurred only in children <15 years old, with scorpions being identified in 13/25 cases (T. serrulatus, n = 12; T. bahiensis, n = 1). Laboratory blood abnormalities (hyperglycemia, hypokalemia, leukocytosis, elevations in serum total CK, CK-MB and troponin T, bicarbonate consumption and an increase in base deficit and blood lactate), electrocardiographic changes (ST segment) and echocardiographic alterations (ventricular ejected fraction <54%) were frequently detected in class III patients. Seventeen patients developed pulmonary edema, 16 had cardiac failure and seven had cardiogenic shock. These results indicate that most scorpion stings involved only local manifestations, mainly pain; the greatest severity was associated with stings by T. serrulatus and in children <15 years old.

Sexual dysfunction in epilepsy: identifying the psychological variables

In order to evaluate the psychological variables that affect sexual dysfunction (SD) in epilepsy, where compared 60 epileptics (Group 1) with 60 healthy individuals (Group 2), through the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger et al., 1970), Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, 1974) and Sexual Behavior Interview (Souza, 1995). Sexual dysfunction (SD), anxiety and depression were found more frequently in Group 1 than in Group 2 and were not related to sex. Variables such as the onset duration and frequency of seizures as well as the use to medication were not associated with SD. Temporal lobe epilepsy was related to SD (p = 0.035) but not to anxiety or depression. Anxiety and depression were related to SD in both groups. Perception in controlling the seizures was closely related to anxiety (p = 0) and depression (p = 0.009). We conclude that psychological factors play an important role in the alteration of sexual behavior in epileptics and that suitable attention must be given to the control of these variables.

Machado de assis's epilepsy

Machado de Assis (1839-1908) is considered the most important Brazilian writer and a great universal literary figure. Little is know about his medical, personal and family history. He hid his «disease» as much as possible. Machado referred to «strange things» having happened to him in his childhood. He described seizures as «nervous phenomena», «absenses», «my illness». Laet observed a seizure and described it as: «... when Machado approached us and spoke to me in disconnected words. I looked at him in surprise and found his features altered. Knowing that from time to time he had nervous problems,... and only permitted Machado take the Laranjeiras Street car, when I saw that he was completely well». A photographically documented seizure is shown. Alencar wrote, «The preoccupation with health was frequent: either he was having the consequences of a fit or was foreboding one». It is clear that Machado presented localized symptomatic epilepsy with complex partial seizures secondarily generalized of unknown etiology. The seizures which began in infancy or childhood had remission in adolescence and then recurred in his thirties and became more frequent in his later years. His depression got markedly worse with age. In our opinion, the greatest consequence of Machado's epilepsy, was his psychological suffering due to the prejudice of the times. Despite this Machado showed all his genius, which is still actual and universal.

Psychological stress and recurrent aphthous stomatitis

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is the most common type of ulcerative disease of the oral mucosa. Despite its worldwide occurrence and the extensive amount of research that has been devoted to the subject, the etiology of RAS remains unclear. Nevertheless, several hereditary, nutritional, infectious and psychological factors have been associated with RAS. The aim of this case-control study was to assess the influence of psychological stress on the manifestation of RAS. METHOD: Fifty patients were enrolled in the trial. Twenty-five RAS patients constituted the study group and another 25 non-RAS patients who were similarly matched for sex, age and socioeconomic status constituted the control group. Each patient was evaluated in terms of the four domains of stress (emotional, physical, social and cognitive) using an internationally validated questionnaire, which was comprised of 59 items and measured the frequency and intensity of stress symptoms. The RAS group was interviewed during an active RAS episode. Completed questionnaires were submitted to proper analytical software and interpreted by an expert psychologist. RESULTS: There was a higher level of psychological stress among RAS group patients when compared to the control group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Psychological stress may play a role in the manifestation of RAS; it may serve as a trigger or a modifying factor rather than being a cause of the disease.

A closer look at multiple-clone Plasmodium vivax infections: detection methods, prevalence and consequences

The naturally occurring clonal diversity among field isolates of the major human malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax remained unexplored until the early 1990s, when improved molecular methods allowed the use of blood samples obtained directly from patients, without prior in vitro culture, for genotyping purposes. Here we briefly review the molecular strategies currently used to detect genetically distinct clones in patient-derived P. vivax samples, present evidence that multiple-clone P. vivax infections are commonly detected in areas with different levels of malaria transmission and discuss possible evolutionary and epidemiological consequences of the competition between genetically distinct clones in natural human infections. We suggest that, when two or more genetically distinct clones are present in the same host, intra-host competition for limited resources may select for P. vivax traits that represent major public health challenges, such as increased virulence, increased transmissibility and antimalarial drug resistance.

Limites do cuidado: representações e processos inconscientes sobre a população na porta de entrada de um hospital de emergência

Este artigo apresenta parte dos resultados de uma investigação voltada para a análise dos limites e possibilidades que os processos intersubjetivos e inconscientes presentes nos serviços de saúde estabelecem para o exercício da solidariedade, para a cooperação e para a produção do cuidado com a vida. Elegeu-se como estudo de caso um hospital público de emergência, situado no Município do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. A Psicossociologia francesa, de inspiração clínica psicanalítica, a teoria psicanalítica sobre os processos intersubjetivos e grupais e a Psicodinâmica do Trabalho são os referenciais centrais que orientaram o desenho da investigação e a análise do material empírico. As representações psíquicas e os processos inconscientes relativos à população e suas demandas, produzidos pelos trabalhadores de saúde do hospital estudado, foram analisados, discutindo-se suas conseqüências sobre a produção do cuidado. Algumas imagens se destacaram, como a "carência", utilizada como uma categoria encobridora da diversidade da demanda, num processo inconsciente de múltiplas reduções: da negação do sofrimento social à negação da condição de humanidade dos pacientes.

Plasmodium vivax circumsporozoite genotypes: a limited variation or new subspecies with major biological consequences?

Background: Plasmodium vivax circumsporozoite variants have been identified in several geographical areas. The real implication of the genetic variation in this region of the P. vivax genome has been questioned for a long time. Although previous studies have observed significant association between VK210 and the Duffy blood group, we present here that evidences of this variation are limited to the CSP central portion. Methods: The phylogenetic analyses were accomplished starting from the amplification of conserved domains of 18 SSU RNAr and Cyt B. The antibodies responses against the CSP peptides, MSP-1, AMA-1 and DBP were detected by ELISA, in plasma samples of individuals infected with two P. vivax CS genotypes: VK210 and P. vivax-like. Results: These analyses of the two markers demonstrate high similarity among the P. vivax CS genotypes and surprisingly showed diversity equal to zero between VK210 and P. vivax-like, positioning these CS genotypes in the same clade. A high frequency IgG antibody against the N- and C-terminal regions of the P. vivax CSP was found as compared to the immune response to the R- and V-repetitive regions (p = 0.0005, Fisher's Exact test). This difference was more pronounced when the P. vivax-like variant was present in the infection (p = 0.003, Fisher's Exact test). A high frequency of antibody response against MSP-1 and AMA-1 peptides was observed for all P. vivax CS genotypes in comparison to the same frequency for DBP. Conclusions: This results target that the differences among the P. vivax CS variants are restrict to the central repeated region of the protein, mostly nucleotide variation with important serological consequences.