Gender as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Job Demand and Quality of Work-Life of Police Personnel in Lagos, Nigeria

Previous studies have linked quality of work-life with functional job behaviours which may enhance the quality of services rendered by police personnel. However, there is a need to investigate how gender may moderate the connection between job demand and quality of work-life, especially among female police personnel who are often faced with challenges of balancing family and work responsibilities. Against this background, this study tested the level at which gender moderates the relationship between job demand and police personnel’s quality of work-life. Participants were 944 police personnel (429 females; 515 males) whose ages ranged from 24 to 60 years (M = 38.66 years, SD = 8.43). The study hypotheses were tested with 3-step hierarchical multiple regression. The results showed that job demand led to a significant decrease in quality of work-life of police personnel. Gender significantly moderated the relationship between job demand and quality of work-life, in such a way that female police personnel had better quality of work-life than their male counterparts. The findings of this study indicated that gender is an important factor in police personnel’s quality of work-life. In order to improve the quality of work-life of police personnel in Nigeria, police personnel should be exposed to adequate job rewards, which may balance out the adverse effects of job demand. Also, Ministry of Police Affairs in Nigeria should provide support to police personnel especially the males in order to improve their quality of work-life

A review for Nikolay R. Rachev's book „Rationality in cultural context“

A review for Nikolay Rachev's book “Rationality in cultural context” is presented

Large-Scale Brain Networks and Freudian Ego

Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, is predominantly known for his conception of the id, ego and super-ego, representing a part of his meta-psychology of the psychic apparatus. Nowadays, with the advancements in technology and science, his meta-psychological structural model of the psyche might be either confirmed or denied by comparing the account of the psychic apparatus of the classical psychoanalysis to the newest findings in neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. Indeed, the founded interdisciplinary project of neuro-psychoanalysis strives to answer such questions. In this article, the current thinking on the discussions around Freudian ego and its possible brain correlates is presented. In 2010, Robin Carhart-Harris and Karl Friston introduced a neuro-psychoanalytic account of the psychic apparatus, where the ego correlated with a large-scale brain network called the default-mode network. In the end of this paper, an original theoretical hypothesis is offered, supplemented with review of the literature, namely that the central-executive network and the salience network are viewed as the true representatives of Freudian ego. The offered hypothesis criticizes Carhart-Harris and Friston’s postulating of the default-mode network as being the brain representative of Freudian ego

Bullying in preschool children

The present article aims to shed light on exploring the issue of bullying in preschool children, with a special focus on early forms of anti-social and aggressive behaviour and suggestions about the role of the school, based on the presentation of prevention and intervention programmes in preschool education settings. The most typical forms of bullying in preschool education settings are physical aggressiveness, social exclusion and rumor spreading. Most studies indicate that physical aggressiveness is prevalent in boys, while relational and verbal aggressiveness is prevalent in girls. The role of preschool educators is crucial, as they need to learn to identify and manage early forms of aggressiveness. Therefore, their training is imperative, as they need to carefully evaluate each incident, while creating a positive learning environment and applying strategies for bullying prevention and intervention

I Am Physically and Personality-Wise Warmer When Wearing Round Eyeglasses: Shape Priming Influences Personality Judgments and Estimated Temperature

Shapes are considered to be related to different personality traits, and particularly, in terms of metaphorical associations, the round shape has been related to the warmth trait, and the square shape to the competence trait. The present study used a pre-post design to replicate these associations. Moreover, it was investigated whether round shapes enhanced the estimation of physical warmth as suggested by contemporary debates on cross-modal correspondences. The results indicated that the round shape increased the perception of warmth (p = .004) and the square shape enhanced the perception of competence (p = .025), which confirmed round-warm and square-competent associations. Furthermore, estimates of the room temperature were higher in the round condition, compared to the square condition (p = .023). The theoretical implications of these findings and directions for further research are discussed

Helping Shy Employees with Career Success: The Impact of Organizational Socialization

As shy people have been reported to experience interpersonal and professional difficulties at work, this study examined the extent to which shy employees have lower perceptions of their career success and whether organizational socialization could favorably moderate the relationship between shyness and subjective career success. Questionnaires containing personality and socialization measures were given to 375 full-time employees. Confirming the hypotheses, t-test results revealed that shy (compared to non-shy) employees scored significantly lower on Subjective Career Success, Self-Confidence, and Emotional Intelligence; while scoring significantly higher on work-related Emotional Exhaustion. Regressions revealed that the four facets of organizational socialization (Training, Understanding, Coworker Support, and Future Prospects) all had significant moderating effects that yielded increases in the levels of Subjective Career Success for the shy employees. Implications for management are discussed

Bulgarian Adaptation of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory for Adults (Form С)

An adaptation for Bulgarian conditions of the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory for Adults (Form C) was performed. 900 participants were studied. Some of them were university students from different majors in the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies – ULSIT, while others were recruited through an online questionnaire. The items had good psychometric characteristics and the test was highly reliable. The construct validity of the scale was checked by means of correlations with some instruments measuring values and life satisfaction. Three factors were extracted that deserved being interpreted (Personal self-esteem, Self-esteem derived from others, Self-esteem derived from parents). This questionnaire was normed on the Bulgarian sample of adults

Pretesting a Political Skill Scale in a Sample of Teacher-Leaders from Polytechnics in Northeast Nigeria

Although the Political Skill Inventory (PSI) is the benchmark measure of the political skill construct, the existence and frequent use of other measures suggest that the PSI fails to cover the content domain of the construct comprehensively. This study utilised the extant political skill measures in developing a robust and parsimonious political skill scale for assessing the political sensitivity of teacher-leaders in higher education. Cognitive tests, behaviour coding and respondent debriefing were conducted to evaluate a 38-item pool on political skill in a sample of 36 teacher-leaders drawn from nine polytechnics situated in Northeast Nigeria. The scale's interrater agreement was computed using Fleiss' κ statistic based on categorical data from five expert reviews. The results of our analyses revealed a 15-item Political Skill Scale (PSS) that reflects the social competence teacher-leaders need in performing the largely voluntary roles of teacher leadership. This work contributes towards contextual mapping of the political skill construct in an African setting. It also offers a new political skill measure

Survey on Om meditation: Its effects on the human body and Om meditation as a tool for stress management

Meditation and yoga both have positive effects on physical, as well as mental health. Om mantra chanting, a simple and easy to practice, also comes under the aspect of meditation. The “Om” mantra is also considered as the very name of the absolute. Om meditation not only affects the various parts of the brain, such as pre-frontal cortex, vagus nerve, amygdala and others but also affects the heart rate and respiratory rate. Considering the healing effects of Om meditation, through this paper, we are trying to explore all the relevant work done in the field of Om meditation. The survey includes a large number of papers covering the research previously conducted by many researchers, their results and different techniques adopted to study the effect of Om meditation on human beings. Studies on Om meditation are categorized under four different heads: Neuroimaging studies, EEG studies, evoked potentials studies and other methods studies. Even though the existing research evidenced capability of Om meditation in curing anxiety and depression, more rigorous studies with better design, with larger sample size and with different control groups are required. Especially the need to explore untouched research areas of Loud Om meditation using EEG is suggested in the paper. Furthermore, future research directions are also suggested

Positive Personality Model: Which Traits Relate to Complete Mental Health as Conceived by the Dual Factor Model?

The aim of this research was to study the association between the Positive Personality Model (PPM) traits and the state of complete mental health as conceived by the Dual Factor Model (DFM). The sample was composed of 1502 Argentinean adults from the general population (age: M = 39.79, SD = 14.23; gender: 50.1% male, 49.9% female). A cluster analysis replicated the four-group classification of the DFM: complete mental health, symptomatic but content, troubled and vulnerable. The complete mental health cluster showed a significantly higher presence of sprightliness, serenity, moderation and integrity than the other groups. As for humanity, the complete mental health and the symptomatic but content groups had the highest scores. Sprightliness and serenity increased the odds of belonging to the complete mental health group while integrity and humanity decreased these odds. Implications for the Argentinean population are discussed