84 research outputs found
The role of social support in treatment seeking and treatment retention in the military: Examining the function and source of support
Service members of the United States military occupy jobs that are unlike most in the exposure to exceptional stress and the potential for life-threatening and traumatic on-the-job experiences. Because of the nature of the job tasks and duties, many soldiers are vulnerable to developing mental health problems. Even more problematic, many soldiers experiencing mental health symptoms are not getting the treatment they need. The present study examined how social support can influence a soldier\u27s decision to engage in treatment and stay in treatment. More specifically, the study examined the unique influence of family and friends, fellow unit members, and leaders in the soldier\u27s decision to seek treatment, as well as different supportive behaviors from leaders that affect treatment seeking and retention. Using data from active duty soldiers surveyed at two time points, results indicated that support for treatment seeking is related to whether or not soldiers seek treatment through positively affecting their attitude toward treatment. Support from family members and friends was found to be most related to attitude and treatment decisions. These relationships were further moderated by functional impairment, where the effect of support on treatment seeking through attitude was strongest for those with problems causing low or moderate impairment. In terms of leader supportive behaviors, instrumental leader support was rated as the most influential to soldiers\u27 treatment decisions. Lastly, in terms of treatment retention, initial evidence was found that support from family members and spouses may influence whether or not soldiers drop out of treatment. Results from this study are intended to be informative for application in enhancing social support resources that are most effective for getting soldiers into treatment and increasing retention
Political Skill as a Predictor of Performance and Work Relationship Quality
This study investigates the relationship between political skill and multi-faceted job performance as well as work relationship quality. Political skill is “the ability to effectively understand others at work and to use such knowledge to influence others to act in ways that enhance one’s personal and/or organizational objectives” (Ferris, 2005, p. 127). Ferris (2005) specifically provided four underlying dimensions of political skill: networking ability, apparent sincerity, social astuteness, and interpersonal influence. Prior meta-analytic evidence supports a significant positive correlation between political skill and task performance (r = .26; Munyon et al., 2015). While the relationship with job performance has received a good deal of research attention, less is known about how political skill may impact interpersonal relationships at work. Some evidence suggests that political skill can relate to interpersonal citizenship behavior (Andrews, Kacmar, & Harris, 2009), but specific relationship quality has not been sufficiently examined. The present study tested the relationship between political skill and performance in a diverse employee sample (N = 752) that was recruited via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. In addition, we examined political skill as a predictor of relationship quality with both coworkers and supervisors. We examined these relationships using a longitudinal design, with political skill measured at Time 1 and performance and relationship quality measured two months later at Time 2. Using a series of regression analyses, we found support that political skill was positively related to performance, assessed as task performance, co-worker support, and teamwork, and positively related to both supervisor and co-worker relationship quality. When examined at the subscale level, there were some nuances in which aspects of political skill related to performance domain and relationship quality. We expect that our results could have implications for Industrial-Organizational psychology, in clarifying the literature on the outcomes of political skill. In addition, our results could have practical implications for the development of interpersonal skills training and leadership development
2008 Ruby Yearbook
A digitized copy of the 2008 Ruby, the Ursinus College yearbook.https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/ruby/1111/thumbnail.jp
Hey, Are You Busy Right Now? Stressor Appraisals of Interruptions to Workflow
Academic research has studied interruptions to workflow under the pretext that all face-to-face interruptions are negative events, finding that frequent interruptions cause increases in employee stress and productivity loss. However, it is likely that not all interruptions are perceived as stressful by employees. Some interruptions could even be considered rejuvenating experiences that provide employees with renewed energy to return to their work tasks. We propose that employees’ stressor appraisals of various interruption events vary due to the characteristics of the event such as the content of the conversation and the length of the interaction. The proposed study is designed to tap into a largely unexplored dimension in the relationship between workflow interruptions and employee stress and well-being. It will explore three different interruption characteristics and determine whether or not they cause variability in employee well-being. Specifically, the study aims to explore how employee stressor appraisals and perceived energy change when the domain (work vs social), duration (long vs short), and urgency (high vs low) of an interruption are manipulated using a vignette technique
Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Towards Mental Health Treatment
The present study assessed implicit and explicit attitudes toward mental health treatment, and whether the different attitude assessments were related to treatment-seeking. Undergraduate students (N=192) completed three Implicit Association Tests (IAT), which were computer-based reaction time tasks where participants responded to terms for mental health and medical treatments that were paired with the attributes good versus bad, effective versus ineffective, and honoring versus humiliating. Survey items assessed explicit ratings of mental health treatment and medical treatment on these attributes, as well as more general attitudes toward mental health treatment. The IAT results revealed a significant negative implicit bias toward mental health treatment as being less effective, good, and honoring than medical treatment. Explicit survey measures also showed more negative responses toward mental health treatment. Some correspondence was also obtained between the implicit biases reflected by the IAT and the explicit biases shown on the self-report survey. Finally, students who had sought mental health treatment had more positive explicit attitudes toward mental health treatment than those who had not sought treatment, but no differences were obtained on the implicit attitude measures. The current study helps to progress research working to reduce stigma towards mental health treatment and increase treatment-seeking behaviors
Uncoupling of complex regulatory patterning during evolution of larval development in echinoderms
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Conservation of orthologous regulatory gene expression domains, especially along the neuroectodermal anterior-posterior axis, in animals as disparate as flies and vertebrates suggests that common patterning mechanisms have been conserved since the base of Bilateria. The homology of axial patterning is far less clear for the many marine animals that undergo a radical transformation in body plan during metamorphosis. The embryos of these animals are microscopic, feeding within the plankton until they metamorphose into their adult forms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We describe here the localization of 14 transcription factors within the ectoderm during early embryogenesis in <it>Patiria miniata</it>, a sea star with an indirectly developing planktonic bipinnaria larva. We find that the animal-vegetal axis of this very simple embryo is surprisingly well patterned. Furthermore, the patterning that we observe throughout the ectoderm generally corresponds to that of "head/anterior brain" patterning known for hemichordates and vertebrates, which share a common ancestor with the sea star. While we suggest here that aspects of head/anterior brain patterning are generally conserved, we show that another suite of genes involved in retinal determination is absent from the ectoderm of these echinoderms and instead operates within the mesoderm.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our findings therefore extend, for the first time, evidence of a conserved axial pattering to echinoderm embryos exhibiting maximal indirect development. The dissociation of head/anterior brain patterning from "retinal specification" in echinoderm blastulae might reflect modular changes to a developmental gene regulatory network within the ectoderm that facilitates the evolution of these microscopic larvae.</p
Auditory Attention and Comprehension During a Simulated Night Shift: Effects of Task Characteristics
OBJECTIVE:
The current study investigated performance on a dual auditory task during a simulated night shift. BACKGROUND:
Night shifts and sleep deprivation negatively affect performance on vigilance-based tasks, but less is known about the effects on complex tasks. Because language processing is necessary for successful work performance, it is important to understand how it is affected by night work and sleep deprivation. METHOD:
Sixty-two participants completed a simulated night shift resulting in 28 hr of total sleep deprivation. Performance on a vigilance task and a dual auditory language task was examined across four testing sessions. RESULTS:
The results indicate that working at night negatively impacts vigilance, auditory attention, and comprehension. The effects on the auditory task varied based on the content of the auditory material. When the material was interesting and easy, the participants performed better. Night work had a greater negative effect when the auditory material was less interesting and more difficult. CONCLUSION:
These findings support research that vigilance decreases during the night. The results suggest that auditory comprehension suffers when individuals are required to work at night. Maintaining attention and controlling effort especially on passages that are less interesting or more difficult could improve performance during night shifts. APPLICATION:
The results from the current study apply to many work environments where decision making is necessary in response to complex auditory information. Better predicting the effects of night work on language processing is important for developing improved means of coping with shiftwork
Quality assessment of work recovery activities: Guidance for recovering from work-related demands
The proposed study is designed to test a revised work recovery process model and gather data to provide guidance for work recovery activities based on their recovery quality value. Using an integrated and modified model of the stress-recovery process, recovery quality will be measured in terms of potential for psychological detachment, mastery, and control, with relaxation serving as an outcome state associated with the proposed three core recovery mechanisms. Underlying theoretical frameworks such as the Conservation of Resources Theory, the Effort-Recovery Model, and the Job-Demands Resource model served as the foundation to describe the importance of recovering depleted resources. Past research suggests active forms of recovery in natural environments hold the greatest potential for work recovery, but research has been limited to broad activity category classifications. In this study we take a more holistic approach to identifying specific recovery activities and their associated recovery experience quality by asking participants to list, rank order, and provide quality-related details regarding their three most common recovery activities. A variety of analyses will be used to compare average ratings of recovery quality elements and identify common recovery themes
Longitudinal Predictors of Self-Reliance for Coping with Mental Health Problems in the Military
Military personnel encounter occupational hazards that make them vulnerable to developing mental health symptoms; however, many soldiers who experience a problem do not seek treatment. A major barrier to treatment is self-reliance, a preference to manage problems oneself rather than seek help from a professional. In the present study, we sought a more comprehensive understanding of factors that contribute to self-reliance. Active-duty soldiers (N = 485) were surveyed at two time points. The sample was 93% male, 67% Caucasian, and most were aged 20-24 (49%). The survey included: factors that affect treatment-seeking, deployment experiences, and mental health symptoms. Results indicated that stigmatizing beliefs about those who seek treatment and negative beliefs about treatment at Time 1 were related to higher preferences for self-reliance at Time 2, while positive beliefs about treatment at Time 1 were related to lower self-reliance. Combat exposure, mental health symptoms, social support for treatment-seeking, and stigma from others were not significant predictors. These results demonstrate that self-reliance may not be unique to combat soldiers and may not diminish as symptoms become severe. Instead one’s views of treatment and others who seek treatment may be more impactful, and should be the target of interventions to encourage treatment-seeking
Police officers' perception of community support for policing: implications for well-being
Purpose: Community-police relations have gained increasing public attention during the past decade. The purpose of the present study was to better understand the relationship between perceived community support and police officer burnout and engagement. Design/methodology/approach: Data were gathered via online survey from 117 officers from a city police department in the Southeastern United States. Findings: Community support was negatively correlated with burnout and positively correlated with engagement. Moreover, multiple regression analyses showed that community support explained significant incremental variance in most dimensions of burnout and engagement, above and beyond demographic factors and community stressors. Qualitative results showed that police officers had mixed perceptions of how they were viewed by the general public, with more negative than positive responses. However, officers felt more positively perceived in their own communities, but concerns were raised that national events affected the perceptions of officers even in positive relationships with their communities. Finally, officers felt that public perceptions impacted their job satisfaction, job performance and personal lives. Practical implications: The results have practical implications for how to encourage positive interactions between officers and their community, with recommendations for both law enforcement leaders and civilians. Originality/value: This study is one of the few that highlights the officers' perspective on how public perceptions affect their work. This is important in understanding how to maximize quality community interactions while minimizing conditions that would increase burnout
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