Personality complexes in adolescence: Traits, interests, work values, and self-evaluations

Following the recent trend in psychology towards a more integrative view of personality, the study attempted to establish the connections and underlying complexes of fundamental personality dispositions within two cohorts of Swiss adolescents in eighth and eleventh grade (N = 492, ages 13 to 19): Big-Five basic traits, big six vocational interests, work values, and generalized self-efficacy and externality of control beliefs. Five factors were identified which accounted for 60% of variance among the relations of the variables: (1) enterprisingconventional interests, (2) favorable personality dispositions, (3) social-artistic personality characteristics, (4) investigative-realistic interests, and (5) work value endorsement. Crosssectional findings indicate that particularly agreeableness and conscientiousness become closer related to interests and work values with increasing grade-level.

The dual impact of gender and the influence of timing of parenthood on men’s and women’s career development: Longitudinal findings

This study investigated the impact of gender, the gender-related self-concept (agency and communion), and the timing of parenthood on objective career success of 1,015 highly educated professionals. Hypotheses derived from a dual-impact model of gender and career-related processes were tested in a 5-wave longitudinal study over a time span of 10 years starting with participants’ career entry. In line with our hypotheses we found that the communal component of the gender self-concept had an impact on parenthood, and the agentic component influenced work hours and objective career success (salary, status) of both women and men. Parenthood had a negative direct influence on women’s work hours and a negative indirect influence on women’s objective career success. Women who had their first child around career entry were relatively least successful over the observation period. Men’s career success was independent of parenthood. Sixty-five percent of variance in women’s career success and 33% of variance in men’s career success was explained by the factors analyzed here. Mothers with partners working full time reduced their work hours more than mothers with partners not working full time. A test for a possible reverse influence of career success on the decision to become a parent revealed no effect for men and equivocal effects for women. We conclude that the transition to parenthood still is a crucial factor for women’s career development both from an external gender perspective (expectations, gender roles) and from an internal perspective (gender-related self-concept).

Visual avoidance in phobia: particularities in neural activity, autonomic responding, and cognitive risk evaluations.

We investigated the neural mechanisms and the autonomic and cognitive responses associated with visual avoidance behavior in spider phobia. Spider phobic and control participants imagined visiting different forest locations with the possibility of encountering spiders, snakes, or birds (neutral reference category). In each experimental trial, participants saw a picture of a forest location followed by a picture of a spider, snake, or bird, and then rated their personal risk of encountering these animals in this context, as well as their fear. The greater the visual avoidance of spiders that a phobic participant demonstrated (as measured by eye tracking), the higher were her autonomic arousal and neural activity in the amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and precuneus at picture onset. Visual avoidance of spiders in phobics also went hand in hand with subsequently reduced cognitive risk of encounters. Control participants, in contrast, displayed a positive relationship between gaze duration toward spiders, on the one hand, and autonomic responding, as well as OFC, ACC, and precuneus activity, on the other hand. In addition, they showed reduced encounter risk estimates when they looked longer at the animal pictures. Our data are consistent with the idea that one reason for phobics to avoid phobic information may be grounded in heightened activity in the fear circuit, which signals potential threat. Because of the absence of alternative efficient regulation strategies, visual avoidance may then function to down-regulate cognitive risk evaluations for threatening information about the phobic stimuli. Control participants, in contrast, may be characterized by a different coping style, whereby paying visual attention to potentially threatening information may help them to actively down-regulate cognitive evaluations of risk.

Does a reference to evaluations contribute to discourse quality? The case of Swiss direct-democratic campaigns on school policy: a conceptual framework

This article examines how references to evaluations in school policy debates contribute to discourse quality. The article consists of two parts: First, it presents a descriptive overview of the references to evidence in direct-democratic campaigns. These results are based on a quantitative content analysis of the newspaper coverage and governmental information documents of 103 direct-democratic Swiss school policy votes. In a second step, it discusses these findings in view of the question of whether the incorporation of evaluation results in policy debates contributes to discourse quality. It presents a conceptual framework, including hypotheses and a research design to answer this question.

Reducing women’s lack of fit with leadership? Effects of the wording of job advertisements

Linguistic forms which refer to individuals impact mental representations of these individuals: When masculine generics are used, women tend to be cognitively underrepresented, whereas feminine–masculine word pairs are associated with a higher cognitive inclusion of women. The present research investigates whether linguistic forms affect women’s perceived lack of fit with leadership positions, which is particularly pronounced for high-status leadership positions. In a hiring-simulation experiment (N = 363), we tested the effects of different linguistic forms used in German-language job advertisements: (1) masculine forms (e.g., Geschäftsführer, ‘CEO, masc.’); (2) masculine forms with (m/f) (e.g., Geschäftsführer (m/w), ‘CEO, masc. (m/f)’); and (3) word pairs (e.g., Geschäftsführerin/Geschäftsführer, ‘CEO, fem./CEO, masc.’). The job ads announced either a high- or low-status leadership position. Results showed that female applicants were perceived to fit less well with the high-status position than male applicants when either the masculine or the masculine form with (m/f) was used––even though they were perceived to be equally competent. However, female and male applicants were perceived as fitting the high-status leadership position similarly well when word pairs were used.

Assessment of Functioning when Conducting Occupational Capacity Evaluations - What is "Evidence-Based"?

Aim: Occupational capacity evaluations have previously been subject to criticism for lacking in quality and consistency. To the authors' knowledge, there is no clear consensus on the best way to formally assess functioning within capacity evaluations. In this review we investigated different instruments that are used to assess functioning in occupational capacity evaluations. Methods: Systematic review of the literature. Results: Though several instruments that assess functional capacity were found in our search, a specific validated instrument assessing occupational capacity as part of a larger psychiatric evaluation was not found. The limitations of the existing instruments on assessing functional capacity are discussed. Conclusion: Medical experts relying on instruments to conduct functional capacity evaluations should be cognizant of their limitations. The findings call for the development and use of an instrument specifically designed to assess the functional and occupational capacity of psychiatric patients, which is also likely to improve the quality of these reports.

How policy interventions may enhance women’s striving for leadership positions

This research examined how policy interventions which vary in strictness affect women’s and men’s interest in leadership positions. Results showed that only certain affirmative action policies enhance women’s inclination to apply through an increased self-ascribed fit with the position. Moreover, men were not affected by the policy interventions.

Field-Based Evaluations of Horizontal Flat-Plate Fish Screens

Diversions from streams are often screened to prevent the loss of or injury to fish. Hydraulic criteria meant to protect fish that encounter screens have been developed, but primarily for screens that are vertical to the water flow rather than horizontal. For this reason, we measured selected hydraulic variables and released wild rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss over two types of horizontal flat-plate fish screens in the field. Our goal was to assess the efficacy of these screens under a variety of conditions in the field and provide information that could be used to develop criteria for safe fish passage. We evaluated three different inverted-weir screens over a range of strewn (0.24-1.77 m(3)/s) and diversion flows (0.10-0.31 m(3)/s). Approach velocities (AVs) ranged from 3 to 8 cm/s and sweeping velocities (SVs) from 69 to 143 cm/s. We also evaluated a simple backwatered screen over stream flows of 0.23-0.79 m(3)/s and diversion flows of 0.08-0.32 m(3)/s. The mean SVs for this screen ranged from 15 to 66 cm/s and the mean AVs from 1 to 5 cm/s. The survival rates of fish held for 24 h after passage over these screens exceeded 98%. Overall, the number of fish-screen contacts was low and the injuries related to passage were infrequent and consisted primarily of minor fin injuries. Our results indicate that screens of this type have great potential as safe and effective fish screens for small diversions. Care must be taken, however, to avoid operating conditions that produce shallow or no water over the screen surface, situations of high AVs and low SVs at backwatered screens, and situations producing a localized high AV with spiraling flow.

A systematic review of economic evaluations for interventions of cardiovascular diseases

Background. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) exhibits the most striking public health significance due to its high prevalence and mortality as well as huge economic burdens all over the world, especially in industrialized countries. Major risk factors of CVDs have been the targets of population-wide prevention in the United States. Economic evaluations provide structured information in regard to the efficiency of resource utilization which can inform decisions of resource allocation. The main purpose of this review is to investigate the pattern of study design of economic evaluations for interventions of CVDs. ^ Methods. Primary journal articles published during 2003-2008 were systematically retrieved via relevant keywords from Medline, NHS Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED) and EBSCO Academic Search Complete. Only full economic evaluations for narrowly defined CVD interventions were included for this review. The methodological data of interest were extracted from the eligible articles and reorganized in Microsoft Access database. Chi-square tests in SPSS were used to analyze the associations between pairs of categorical data. ^ Results. One hundred and twenty eligible articles were reviewed after two steps of literature selection with explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria. Descriptive statistics were reported regarding the evaluated interventions, outcome measures, unit costing and cost reports. The chi-square test of the association between prevention level of intervention and category of time horizon showed no statistical significance. The chi-square test showed that sponsor type was significantly associated with whether new or standard intervention being concluded as more cost effective. ^ Conclusions. Tertiary prevention and medication interventions are the major interests for economic evaluators. The majority of the evaluations were claimed from either a provider’s or a payer’s perspective. Almost all evaluations adopted gross costing strategy for unit cost data rather than micro costing. EQ-5D is the most commonly used instrument for subjective outcome measurement. More than half of the evaluations used decision analytic modeling techniques. The lack of consistency in study design standards in published evaluations appears in several aspects. Prevention level of intervention is not likely to be a factor for evaluators to decide whether to design an evaluation in a lifetime horizon or not. Published evaluations sponsored by industry are more likely to conclude that new intervention is more cost effective than standard intervention.^

Comparison of hand hygiene evaluations: A literature review

Background. Because our hands are the most common mode of transmission for bacteria causing hospital acquired infections, hand hygiene practices are the most effective method of preventing the spread of these pathogens, limiting the occurrence of healthcare-associated infections and reducing transmission of multi-drug resistant organisms. Yet, compliance rates are below 40% on the average. ^ Objective. This culminating experience project is primarily a literature review on hand hygiene to help determine the barriers to hand hygiene compliance and offer solutions on improving these rates and to build on a hand hygiene evaluation performed during my infection control internship completed at Memorial Hermann Hospital during the fall semester of 2005. ^ Method. A review of peer-reviewed literature using Ovid Medline, Ebsco Medline and PubMed databases using keywords: hand hygiene, hand hygiene compliance, alcohol based handrub, healthcare-associated infections, hospital-acquired infections, and infection control. ^ Results. A total of eight hand hygiene studies are highlighted. At a children's hospital in Seattle, hand hygiene compliance rates increases from 62% to 81% after five periods of interventions. In Thailand, 26 nurses dramatically increased compliance from 6.3% to 81.2% after just 7 months of training. Automated alcohol based handrub dispensers improved compliance rates in Chicago from 36.3% to 70.1%. Using education and increased distribution of alcohol based handrubs increased hand hygiene rates from 59% to 79% for Ebnother, from 54% to 85% for Hussein and from 32% to 63% for Randle. Spartanburg Regional Medical Center increased their rates from 72.5% to 90.3%. A level III NICU achieved 100% compliance after a month long educational campaign but fell back down to its baseline rate of 89% after 3 months. ^ Discussion. The interventions used to promote hand hygiene in the highlighted studies varied from low tech approaches such as printed materials to advanced electronic gadgets that alerted individuals automatically to perform hand hygiene. All approaches were effective and increased compliance rates. Overcoming hand hygiene barriers, receiving and accepting feedback is the key to maintaining consistently high hand hygiene adherence. ^

Women’s experiences with the use of medical abortion in a legally restricted context: the case of Argentina

This article presents the findings of a qualitative study exploring the experiences of women living in Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, Argentina, with the use of misoprostol for inducing an abortion. We asked women about the range of decisions they had to make, their emotions, the physical experience, strategies they needed to use, including seeking health care advice and in dealing with a clandestine medical abortion, and their overall evaluation of the experience. An in-depth interview schedule was used. The women had either used misoprostol and sought counselling or care at a public hospital (n=24) or had used misoprostol based on the advice of a local hotline, information from the internet or from other women (n=21). Four stages in the women’s experiences were identified: how the decision to terminate the pregnancy was taken, how the medication was obtained, how the tablets were used, and reflections on the outcome whether or not they sought medical advice. Safety and privacy were key in deciding to use medical abortion. Access to the medication was the main obstacle, requiring a prescription or a friendly drugstore. Correct information about the number of pills to use and dosage intervals was the least easy to obtain and caused concerns. The possibility of choosing a time of privacy and having the company of a close one was highlighted as a unique advantage of medical abortion. Efforts to improve abortion law, policy and service provision in Argentina in order to ensure the best possible conditions for use of medical abortion by women should be redoubled.

Mid-term impact estimation on evaluations of rural development programs

Mid-term evaluations are carried out during the implementation of the program and shall indicate whether it is necessary to redirect and make corrections before the ex-post evaluation, or for the next programming period. One of the core elements within these evaluations is the estimation of programs expected impacts. This is especially important for the Commission in order to support sound decision making, but also a very challenging task, as many evaluators have pointed out, mainly due to the lack of available data at the time the study had to be carried out. The aim of this study is therefore to analyze how impact estimation has been done in all European Union regions, as well as the problems encountered by evaluators.

Perceptions Surrounding the Implementation of Colorado Senate Bill 10-191's New Teacher Evaluations

In 2013, many public education reform efforts in the United States of America center on testing and accountability. Recent data revealed that teachers have the single greatest in-school impact on student learning; however, the methods to assess teacher effectiveness are widely criticized for not holding teachers accountable and, consequently, are experiencing significant legislative attention. In 2010, Colorado passed Senate Bill 10-191: The Great Teachers and Leaders Act to improve student learning by revising teacher and principal evaluations, including linking them to student learning data, and eradicating tenure. Teachers, administrators, and policymakers hold critical roles in the implementation of this bill, yet little is known about how members of each group perceive their respective roles in the implementation. This explanatory sequential mixed methods study was designed to gather perception data from these three groups, through surveys and interviews. Data revealed that teachers and administrators do not have similar perceptions of many matters related to teacher evaluations, education reform, and the implementation of Senate Bill 10-191 (SB 191). The data also revealed that teachers and administrators expected they would agree on these matters. These collective findings led to multiple recommendations, such as the need for increased dialogue between teachers and administrators about their own perceptions of education reforms.