Using the Internet for Organizational Research: A Study of Cynicism in the Workplace

The Internet can be a valuable data collection tool for organizational psychology researchers. It can be less expensive than traditional paper-and-pencil survey methods, and the potential pool of participants is much larger. In addition, it can be used in situations where traditional data collection methods are not feasible, such as research involving sensitive issues such as negative employee attitudes or deviant behaviors at work. In this study, we examined the organizational attitudes of employees from various companies using (a) a snowball sample, who completed a traditional paper and pencil survey (n = 135), and (b) a sample recruited over the Internet, who completed an on-line survey (n = 220). Participants in both the non- Internet and the Internet group were asked to describe a negative incident involving their company, and answer a number of questions regarding how they felt about their company and how they behaved toward their company following the negative event. They also completed measures of organizational cynicism and job satisfaction. The two groups were compared on demographic characteristics and on their attitudes toward their organization. There were very few demographic differences between the two groups. The Internet group tended to be more cynical and to judge their organization more harshly than the non-Internet group; however, the response patterns of both groups were similar. These results suggest that, when used with caution, the Internet can be a viable method of conducting organizational research

Effective teaching in the college classroom: current perspectives and future directions

La efectividad de la enseñanza en la educación superior es importante tanto para los estudiantes, profesores e investigadores, como para los administradores, y, en consecuencia, ha originado un considerable interés. El propósito de este artículo es realizar una revisión de las evidencias empíricas acerca de cuál sea la enseñanza más eficaz en el nivel universitario, con el objetivo puesto en los siguientes problemas: las cualidades o conductas que caracterizan al profesor eficaz; el impacto que estas conductas tienen en los estudiantes, y las implicaciones de los hallazgos empíricos en la mejora de la enseñanza eficaz que se extraen de diversas experiencias, como son las de organización, claridad y expresividad; las distintas perspectivas principales para la obtención y acumulación de resultados de investigación, fundamentalmente, la descriptiva, la correlaciona y la experimental, y, por último, algunas de las virtualidades y limitaciones conceptuales y metodológicas de estas perspectivas. Esperamos que este artículo proporcione al lector una idea suficiente acerca del estado actual, métodos y preocupaciones de la investigación sobre la enseñanza en las instituciones universitarias de América del Norte

Erratum to: 36th International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s13054-016-1208-6.]

The Conscientious Responders Scale

This investigation introduces a novel tool for identifying conscientious responders (CRs) and random responders (RRs) in psychological inventory data. The Conscientious Responders Scale (CRS) is a five-item validity measure that uses instructional items to identify responders. Because each item instructs responders exactly how to answer that particular item, each response can be scored as either correct or incorrect. Given the long odds of answering a CRS item correctly by chance alone on a 7-point scale (14.29%), we reasoned that RRs would answer most items incorrectly, whereas CRs would answer them correctly. This rationale was evaluated in two experiments in which CRs’ CRS scores were compared against RRs’ scores. As predicted, results showed large differences in CRS scores across responder groups. Moreover, the CRS correctly classified responders as either conscientious or random with greater than 93% accuracy. Implications for the reliability and effectiveness of the CRS are discussed

Fit to Forgive: Effect of Mode of Exercise on Capacity to Override Grudges and Forgiveness

Forgiveness is important for repairing relationships that have been damaged by transgressions. In this research we explored the notion that the mode of physical exercise that victims of transgressions engage in and their capacity to override grudges are important in the process of forgiveness. Two exploratory studies that varied in samples (community non-student adults, undergraduate students) and research methods (non-experimental, experimental) were used to test these predictions. Findings showed that, compared to anaerobic or no exercise, aerobic and flexibility exercise facilitated self-control over grudges and forgiveness (Studies 1 and 2), and self-control over grudges explained the relation between exercise and forgiveness (Study 2). Possible mechanisms for future research are discussed

Decreasing the burden of mental illness: final report

Report for the Provincial Government of the Western CapeFollowing an initiative from the Head of the Western Cape Provincial Department of Health, a Project Task Team was appointed to delineate the extent of, and identify the main contributors to, the burden of disease (BoD) in the province. Five disease groups were identified as the largest contributors to the total burden of disease in the Western Cape. Five corresponding workgroups were constituted to develop policies for the prevention of these diseases to significantly decrease the burden of disease in the Province. With this background in mind, the Mental Health Workgroup was established as a consortium of multi-sectoral and intergovermental public health and mental health experts. The workgroup was asked to make recommendations with regard to those interventions which might reduce the burden of mental illness in the province. A further consideration was for the group to focus on preventing common mental disorders such as: depression, substance abuse, childhood behavioural disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder. By implication, the aim was to suggest interventions which might promote and sustain good mental health

Shimmering Surfaces, Toxic Atmospheres, Incendiary Miracles: Public Housing and the Aesthetics of Re-Valorization in Salford UK

Our work does not seek to enter the long-standing debate surrounding the critical definitions of gentrification; consequently, we tend to employ an alternative vocabulary, such as development, redevelopment, displacement, social cleansing, and accumulation by dispossession. We place emphasis on observing, identifying, analyzing, and in some sense artistically inhabiting the processes at work in a particular scenario, rather than searching for an essence or immutable set of characteristics. In the area of Salford, UK, where we are based, there are many redevelopment projects and each one manifests particular localized interventions, public–private partnerships, and distinct urban imaginaries. These must be placed within the wider context of local government attempts to transform post-industrial Salford into a “global city” by 2025 (Salford 2025). As artists living and working collaboratively in the area, we witness at a granular level the impact of the spatialization of capital as it unfolds around us. For thirteen years, our longitudinal study has recorded through photography and site writing what Knox (1991) termed “the restless urban landscape” of Salford as it changes. Utilizing methods such as urban walks, re-photography, site writing, and the production of walking tours, we have attempted to produce a critical spatial practice that acts as a counternarrative to the persuasive corporate discourses of the alleged regeneration around us. No doubt we are part of what Scott and Swenson (2015) term “a groundswell of art” since the turn of the millennium that “has engaged the politics of land use.” A central object of our paper is an analysis of the visual culture of gentrification. This includes the way developers in Salford have utilized certain aesthetically charged materials, surfaces, and spaces to orchestrate landscapes and environments in order to communicate to the potential city dweller or investor. The coordinated iconography of these elements frames redevelopment within a conceptual and affective reading for these key publics. These transformed areas provide a stark contrast to the city’s former industrial or postwar welfare landscapes and are instrumentalized in narratives of regeneration. In addition, we analyze the placemaking and marketing materials produced by developers. These materials find form in photographs, films, and brochures, both in print and online. These visualizations provide a highly seductive aesthetic and sensory vision of urban life, blending aspiration and fantasy to produce emotive geographies (Jansson and Lagerkvist 2007). Making “sites into sights” (Gregory 1999) through such marketing material is now an established part of the visual economy of gentrification but one that has often eluded the extensive gaze of academic researchers (Bodi et al. 2017)