Overt and covert aggression and negative emotion in the workplace

This study explores indirect and direct aggression, emotion and aggressive behaviour in a male-dominated organisation, an Australian police force (APF). The study examines women’s experience of direct/overt and indirect/covert aggression in the workplace and whether their experience of aggression is higher in the presence of men than of other women; also, whether men’s experience of negative emotions is directly associated with their reported aggressive behaviour towards women. The study formed part of a larger project in which 144 women and 159 men employed in the APF completed a questionnaire. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications, and suggestions are made for future research into this important but difficult subject area.

Appearance-based comments, body dissatisfaction and drive for muscularity in males

This study examined the role of positive and negative appearance-based comments on body dissatisfaction and drive for muscularity among young adult males. The direct and moderating effect of self-esteem were also investigated; and BMI, age, and social desirability were included as covariates. The participants were 214 males aged between 18 and 30 years. More frequent negative comments were associated with higher body dissatisfaction whilst more frequent positive comments were associated with lower body dissatisfaction. However, both frequent negative and positive commentary were associated with higher drive for muscularity. Self-esteem was also associated with both body dissatisfaction and the drive for muscularity, but it did not moderate that influence of either positive or negative messages. Longitudinal research is now needed to determine the directionality of these relationships. Further research is required to establish the contexts in which positive and negative messages are associated with body dissatisfaction and the drive for muscularity.

Incorporating both positive and negative association rules into the analysis of outbound tourism in Hong Kong

This article presents a novel approach to data mining that incorporates both positive and negative association rules into the analysis of outbound travelers. Using datasets collected from three large-scale domestic tourism surveys on Hong Kong residents' outbound pleasure travel, different sets of targeted rules were generated to provide promising information that will allow practitioners and policy makers to better understand the important relationship between condition attributes and target attributes. This article will be of interest to readers who want to understand methods for integrating the latest data mining techniques into tourism research. It will also be of use to marketing managers in destinations to better formulate strategies for receiving outbound travelers from Hong Kong, and possibly elsewhere.

Positive and negative effects of phoretic mites on the reproductive output of an invasive bark beetle

When multiple species coexist upon a single host, their combined effect on the host can be unpredictable. We explored the effect of phoretic mites on the reproductive output of the five-spined bark beetle, Ips grandicollis. Using correlative approaches and experimental manipulation of mite numbers we examined how mite load affected the number, size and condition of bark beetle offspring produced. We found that mites have both negative and positive consequences on different aspects of bark beetle reproduction. Females from which mites were removed were more fecund and produced larger offspring than females with mites, implying a cost of mite loads. However, when mites were present on females, those bearing the highest mite loads produced offspring that were larger and in better condition, indicating a beneficial effect of mites. These data suggest that phoretic interactions between mites and bark beetles differ over the course of the host’s lifespan, with either the mites interacting in different ways with different life stages of the host (parasitic on adult, mutualistic with larvae), and/or the beetles being host to different mite assemblages over their lifetime.

A neuropsychological study of prefrontal lobe function in the positive and negative subtypes of schizophrenia.

The symptoms of schizophrenia are frequently divided into positive and negative subtypes. It has been suggested that the negative symptoms are similar to those seen with prefrontal lobe cortical dysfunction. Several neuropsychological investigations of that hypothesis have been carried out, but none have directly compared a negative symptom group with a positive symptom group on the same test battery. In the present study, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS; Kay, Fiszbein, & Opler, 1987) was used to distinguish two groups of 20 patients with schizophrenia with predominant positive or negative symptoms. A battery of 7 neuropsychological tests considered capable of isolating prefrontal lobe dysfunction was administered. A significant group difference was noted on 6 of the tests; the negative symptom group performed much worse than the positive symptom group. The results of this study support the hypothesis that a relationship exists between the negative symptoms of schizophrenia and prefrontal lobe dysfunction.

The role of positive and negative affectivity on job satisfaction and life satisfaction

This study examines the relationship between positive affectivity, negative affectivity, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction using a sample of 558 urban employees from Dalian. Positive and negative affectivity were measured with Watson's PANAS scale, job satisfaction was measured with Spector's JSS scale, and life satisfaction was measured with the International Wellbeing Group's PWI scale. All the scales are well established multi-item scales that have been validated both in English speaking populations and in China. The statistical analysis found that affectivity is a source of both job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Job satisfaction is positively related to life satisfaction, supporting the spillover theory. Job satisfaction partly mediates the relationship between affectivity and life satisfaction. The practical implications for managers is that because of the dispositional source of job and life satisfaction, managers need to put more emphasis on improving job satisfaction and subjective quality of life by improving the workplace environment. ©2009 IEEE.

A sword with two edges: propagation studies on both positive and negative information in online social networks

Online social networks (OSN) have become one of the major platforms for people to exchange information. Both positive information (e.g., ideas, news and opinions) and negative information (e.g., rumors and gossips) spreading in social media can greatly influence our lives. Previously, researchers have proposed models to understand their propagation dynamics. However, those were merely simulations in nature and only focused on the spread of one type of information. Due to the human-related factors involved, simultaneous spread of negative and positive information cannot be thought of the superposition of two independent propagations. In order to fix these deficiencies, we propose an analytical model which is built stochastically from a node level up. It can present the temporal dynamics of spread such as the time people check newly arrived messages or forward them. Moreover, it is capable of capturing people's behavioral differences in preferring what to believe or disbelieve. We studied the social parameters impact on propagation using this model. We found that some factors such as people's preference and the injection time of the opposing information are critical to the propagation but some others such as the hearsay forwarding intention have little impact on it. The extensive simulations conducted on the real topologies confirm the high accuracy of our model.

Personality differences and hotel web design study using targeted positive and negative association rule mining

As people have unique tastes, the way to satisfy a small group of targeted customers or to be generic to meet most people's preference has been a traditional question to many fashion designers and website developers. This study examined the relationship between individuals' personality differences and their web design preferences. Each individual's personality is represented by a combination of five traits, and 15 website design-related features are considered to test the users' preference. We introduced a data mining technique called targeted positive and negative association rule mining to analyze a dataset containing the survey results collected from undergraduate students. The results of this study not only suggest the importance of providing specific designs to attract individual customers, but also provide valuable input on the Big Five personality traits in their entirety.