Belonging: The What, Why, and How for Working Mothers

For new mothers, feeling like you belong can be the difference between surviving or thriving in the transition back to work. In this paper, I explore belonging as a psychological construct, including how it is measured, experienced and cultivated in different contexts, and apply that to the realities of working motherhood. Mothers who successfully find belonging experience higher well-being as individuals. Organizations who are able to help new mothers find belonging positively impact the diversity of their workforces and can rectify the inequality in women’s work experiences. A sense of belonging can foster many elements of well-being. This paper not only reviews the literature on belonging, but also provides a roadmap for working mothers and those who support them at work

Personality-based affective adaptation methods for intelligent systems

In this article, we propose using personality assessment as a way to adapt affective intelligent systems. This psychologically-grounded mechanism will divide users into groups that differ in their reactions to affective stimuli for which the behaviour of the system can be adjusted. In order to verify the hypotheses, we conducted an experiment on 206 people, which consisted of two proof-of-concept demonstrations: a “classical” stimuli presentation part, and affective games that provide a rich and controllable environment for complex emotional stimuli. Several significant links between personality traits and the psychophysiological signals (electrocardiogram (ECG), galvanic skin response (GSR)), which were gathered while using the BITalino (r)evolution kit platform, as well as between personality traits and reactions to complex stimulus environment, are promising results that indicate the potential of the proposed adaptation mechanism

The new scale of occupational functional communication demands (SOFCD): developing a measure of competence required in workplace-communication-skills in jobs

A research project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Arts degree, by coursework and research report, for Organisational/Industrial Psychology in the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, August 2017Organisations cannot function without communication, however, it is the effectiveness and appropriateness of the communication that is vital to organisational effectiveness. The undisputed need for the assessment of communication competence skills is evident in selection and recruitment, job profiling, performance evaluation, and the development of focused skill orientated training. However, no existing individual instrument adequately measures communicative competence in South African workplaces as a number of unique barriers to interpersonal communication within SA workplaces are unaccounted for in established conceptualisations of workplace communication competence, informing communication assessment approaches and methodologies. Thus, the overarching aim of the current research is to develop a workplace communication assessment scale of routine verbal task-related communication skills, which is contextually and representationally valid, and accommodates contextual social features of South African organisations, relevant in judgments of communication competence. In realising this aim the development of an alternative conceptualisation of SA workplace communicative competence was required. The future establishment of criterion referenced norms for specific jobs would be of practical utility to Human Resources (HR) in the customisation of organisational and job specific communication assessment tools and focused interventions. Method In Phase 1 a broad, inclusive representative item pool was reduced by frequency analysis and collapsing/deleting semantically similar items to 69 retained routine SA workplace communication behaviours. In Phase 2, the 69-item experimental scale was administered to a 303 SA working sample. Competing factor structures were evaluated according to exploratory factor analysis (EFA) model fit indices, pre and post item deletion, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to differentiate superior model fit. Lastly, the psychometric properties of the resultant scale, in terms of convergent and divergent validity with two existing measures (CCQ (Monge, Bachman, Dillard, & Eisenberg, 1982)) and the SRC (Cupach & Spitzberg, 1981)), as well as reliability, were evaluated. Results The 63-item eight factor model demonstrated the best fit in terms of an even distribution of primary factor loading across the factors, a single non-loading item, no theoretically incompatible item crossloadings, an even distribution of variance across factors, and the most conceptually interpretable pattern of factor loadings. Additionally, Phase 2 provided evidence of the scale's content, structural, convergent, and discriminant validity, and reliability. Discussion SA respondents differentiated eight subcategories as a basis for evaluating how they communicate at work. This suggests greater dimensionality relative to other workplace communication competence measures. The differentiation of the Higher Order Language subscale (i.e. the understanding of abstract and inferential language) suggests a broader conceptualisation of workplace communication skills as required by competent communicators in SA workplaces. Conclusion This research has offered an alternative conceptualisation of workplace communication competence, and developed a valid, reliable, communication assessment scale, from diverse disciplines and theoretical orientations, that measures all dimensions of routinely occurring interactional task-related communication skills within SA workplaces. This communication competence framework facilitates the efficient production of tailored job-specific criterion referenced norms for the immediate customisation of job-specific communication assessment tools and focused interventions. The utility of the new scale extends beyond Industrial/Organisation Psychology practice to inform return to work (RTW) rehabilitation in Speech Language Pathology.XL201

Family Communication Motivating Athletics Over Generations: A Mixed Method Expansion of Self-Determination Theory

Mixed methods were utilized to test the communication within a model of self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 1985) in a multi-generational sports framework in order to argue for an update to self-determination theory (SDT) that includes a communication element. Fourteen qualitative research questions were posed to examine how communication functioned to move tennis players, golfers, and runners from the initial family influence in participating, to integrating family values to the extent that participants modeled athletic values to offspring and community members. Three hypotheses correlating the variables of self-efficacy, autonomy-controlling and autonomy-supportive family communication supported the argument that communication functioned to develop self-determined behavior in a sports context. The Perception of Parents Scale (Grolnick, Ryan, & Deci, 1991), the Revised Family Communication Patterns Scale (Richie & Fitzpatrick, 1990), and the Self-Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995) were used quantitatively, and qualitative interviews were conducted with 38 participants in the southern United States. Results indicated that in a family-based sports context, control does not always lead to introjection or rejection as predicted in SDT. In this setting, autonomy-control, when combined with involvement, led to integration of family sports values with autonomy-supportive communication such as support, validation, and rationale mediating SDT expectations of introjection. The conclusions were that 1) communication functioned to move participants between SDT elements supporting the need for SDT to be updated to include communication and a modeling effect; 2) mixed methodology was an effective approach to this case study; and 3) the variables of control and involvement merit further scrutiny beyond a family sports environment

An exploration of the experience of codependency through interpretative phenomenological analysis

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonCodependency is a highly contested construct featuring in the popular, clinical and research literature. Within the academic literature, the voices and lived experience of individuals who consider themselves codependents are mostly unavailable. This Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study explored the lived experiences of 8 individuals self-identified as codependents, who chose 12-Step recovery groups to frame their recovery process. This research addressed the following research question: What is the lived experience of codependency among people who have sought support from a 12-step recovery group for codependents? The idiographic, phenomenological and hermeneutic aspects of the study captured how participants made sense of their experiences of codependency and the meanings of the support group. The information was collected over 3-6 months by means of three in-depth semi-structured interviews and a visual method in which participants selected and analysed objects or photographs which, for them, expressed the meaning of codependency. Four main themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews: (1) Codependency experienced as real and tangible: ‘Codependency explains everything’. (2) Experiencing an undefined sense of self: ‘Codependency helps me to discover my sense of self.’ (3) Seesawing through extremes in life: ‘Like a seesaw, I feel out of control’. (4) Finding meaning in codependency through exploring family experiences: ‘Down to childhood’. The findings revealed that the experience of codependency frames these individuals’ sense of identity, their lifeworlds and the way they view and experience life difficulties. It also provided a highly nuanced and fine-grained analysis of the lived experience of codependency. The study brings a new perspective on the lived experiences of this client group. Although the findings are not straightforwardly generalizable, they may inform clinical practice. It is hoped that this study will raise awareness about this controversial topic, bring a better understanding of codependency and inspire further research

Three essays on malicious consumer deviance: The creation, dissemination, and elimination of misleading information

With the explosion of social media, consumers are gaining control in social reach and can utilize online platforms to create and share misleading information when doing so helps to meet an end. This dissertation, consisting of three separate essays, represents an attempt to address how misleading information is created, how it is disseminated, and how it can be eliminated. Essay One (Chapter 2) uses a mixed-method approach to explore the Dark Triad, proactivity, and vigilantism in driving self-created misleading information sharing. Additionally, this essay introduces a dual-process model of inoculation theory to the marketing and consumer literature that shows how consumers autoinoculate when building justification to engage in malicious behavior. This process includes both automatic and analytical components that initiate a Negative Cascade. Without a larger number of posts, these initial messages may be overlooked. However, herd inoculation can develop when a message begins to sway larger groups. Essay Two (Chapter 3) determines that authentic messages from the original poster are most believable and most likely to initiate a Negative Cascade. This confirmation through mere exposure can then initiate herd inoculation as it flows to other consumers and develops further credibility. The implicit bystander effect is active when in the presence of larger groups. Findings suggest herd inoculation may go unbroken since posters exposed to a positive counter-cascade are less likely to both participate in a forum and post positive messages. Essay Three (Chapter 4) shows that when a consumer shares a message that develops into a Negative Cascade, additional effort is required to halt the consumer herd inoculation. The studies uncover the need for an overt response from the original poster to stop future sharing of misleading information and the role of brand-enacted quarantines in the prevention of the autoinoculation of consumer vigilantes. This dissertation shows how one message can become a much bigger problem for a brand when misinformation spreads. Insights within the dissertation provide numerous outlets for future research and numerous tools and recommendations for both academics and practitioners that hope to understand how misleading information is created, disseminated, and can be eliminated

Gender, Risk, and Leadership

Daily human interactions are likely to bear the weight of society’s gendered expectations. Gender stereotypes (i.e., descriptive beliefs) manifested through such gendered expectations, garnered throughout history across cultures, define ideal male and female characteristics and dictate how exemplary men and women should behave. Gender roles are the sum of these stereotypes. Agentic (e.g., competitive, aggressive) characteristics are commonly considered typical male traits, whereas communal (e.g., warm, kind) characteristics are associated with the female. Without even consciously knowing, human minds learn how to view members of society based on these gendered traits, even though people usually have a mix of both agentic and communal characteristics regardless of their gender (e.g., Hyde, 2005; Larsen & Seidman, 1986). What happens when women do not comply with these deep-rooted gendered beliefs? The three essays comprising this doctoral dissertation explore women’s deviations from these shared expectations. Women are seen as defying societal expectations by acting agentic, such as taking risks and being in a top leadership position. Drawing upon behavioral economics, management, and applied psychology literature, this dissertation investigates women who do not fit into stereotypes

Relationship Between Non-Cognitive Skills And GPA In A Rural Maine Community College

The 21st century has altered the workscape, emphasizing non-cognitive skills required for success in the workforce. Community colleges that profess workforce readiness in their workreadiness programs use primarily cognitive assessment to ensure content and curricular learning. This quantitative study of rural Maine community college graduates examined non-cognitive workforce skills from this workforce readiness institution, correlating non-cognitive instrument scores to the standard cognitive score, cumulative grade point average (GPA). The Social-Emotional Health Survey-Higher Education (SEHS-HE) and the Review of Personal Experience with Locus of Control (ROPELOC) data were examined in relation to cumulative grade point average (GPA) to assess for the presence of non-cognitive schemas in graduating respondents. Statistical analysis of this data revealed that only 15% of the non-cognitive skills assessed were found to be correlated with GPA, while 35-40% of students responding to the surveys graduated from the institution with less than average non-cognitive scores, and scored an average of 35 points less than ideal scores, on both instruments. This study suggests there is little relationship between non-cognitive skills and GPA. Community colleges may need to refine assessments and practices to ensure graduates are truly being prepared for the 21st century workplace

The Need to Convey Experience

Online media has become a forum for heart-felt, first-hand accounts of what it’s like to live with Non-Verbal Living Disability (NVLD), an obscure, misunderstood neurological condition for which there is no clinical diagnosis. The personal stories of those with symptoms helps to validate the existence of their condition through the lived truths experienced. This Auto-Ethnographic study explores the question how might the researcher’s art practice support the NVLD community with a creative tool to convey their own lived experiences, and further, how can blog postings by the community offer insight and inspiration for the development of the tool? Narrative Inquiry is used as the primary method for data collection and analysis and the researcher acts as a proxy for the research subjects in the development of the visualized tool. The study reveals a range of common experiences from persons with NVLD and that these experiences are translatable into visual components (colour, shape, line etc.) that convey their lived experiences