All in the timing: Considering time at multiple stages of group research

The role of time in measuring group and team temporality constitutes more than a methodological issue—it is a theoretical question. That is, if group interaction is theorized as processual and processes occur through time, then research on team temporality, as well as a range of other issues, must grapple with the methodological implications of our theories. This article contributes to ingroup's aim to advance theory and methods for understanding groups by exploring methodological approaches that allow us to capture a variety of team processes over time. Three case studies address the practical issues involved with employing various types of time-sensitive data collection, time-dependent coding, and time-based analysis, including their advantages and disadvantages. Together, the authors describe diverse field and analytical methods useful for interrogating theoretical assumptions about time in groups. Doing so expands the notion of group temporality to consider the role of both epochal and fungible times at multiple stages of group research

Letters of Recommendation: An Evolutionary Psychological Perspective

This article develops a theoretical framework for understanding the appeal and tone of letters of recommendation using an evolutionary psychological perspective. Several hypotheses derived from this framework are developed and tested. The authors’ theoretical argument makes two major points. First, over the course of human evolution, people developed a preference for narrative information about people, and the format of letters of recommendation is compatible with that preference. Second, because recommenders are acquaintances of applicants, the tone of letters should reflect the degree to which the relationship with the applicant favors the recommender’s interests. We hypothesized that, over and above an applicant’s objective qualifications, letters of recommendation will reflect cooperative, status and mating interests of recommenders. We used 532 letters of recommendation written for 169 applicants for faculty positions to test our hypotheses. The results indicated that the strength of the cooperative relationship between recommenders and applicants influenced the favorability and length of letters. In addition, male recommenders wrote more favorable letters for female than male applicants, suggesting that male mating interests may influence letter favorability. We conclude with implications for practice and future research

Dissecting the fine details of assembly of a T=3 capsid

The RNA bacteriophages represent ideal model systems in which to probe the detailed assembly pathway for the formation of a T?=?3 quasi-equivalent capsid. For MS2, the assembly reaction can be probed in vitro using acid disassembled coat protein subunits and a short (19 nt) RNA stem-loop that acts as the translational operator of the replicase gene and leads to sequence-specific sequestration and packaging of the cognate phage RNA in vivo. Reassembly reactions can be initiated by mixing these components at neutral pH. The molecular basis of the sequence-specific RNA–protein interaction is now well understood. Recent NMR studies on the protein demonstrate extensive mobility in the loops of the polypeptide that alter their conformations to form the quasi-equivalent conformers of the final capsid. It seems reasonable to assume that RNA binding results in reduction of this flexibility. However, mass spectrometry suggests that these RNA–protein complexes may only provide one type of quasi-equivalent capsid building block competent to form five-fold axes but not the full shell. Work with longer RNAs suggests that the RNA may actively template the assembly pathway providing a partial explanation of how conformers are selected in the growing shell