The personal belief in a just world and domain-specific beliefs about justice at school and in the family: A longitudinal study with adolescents

This article investigates the relationship between the personal belief in a just world (BJW) and domain-specific beliefs about justice and examines how justice cognitions impact on adolescents' development, particularly on their achievement at school and their subjective well-being. A longitudinal questionnaire study with German adolescents aged 14-19 years was conducted over a period of five to eight months. The pattern of results revealed that evaluations of the school climate and of the family climate as being just were two distinct phenomena, both of which impacted on the personal BJW, which in turn affected the domain-specific beliefs about justice. However, the domain-specific beliefs about justice did not impact on each other directly. Moreover, an evaluation of the family climate (but not of the school climate) as being just reduced depressive symptoms, whereas depressive symptoms did not weaken the evaluation of one's family as being just. The evaluation of the school climate as being just improved the grades received in the next school report, whereas the grades received did not affect the justice evaluation of the school climate. Finally, all relationships persisted when controlling for age and gender. In sum, the pattern of findings supports the notion that justice cognitions impact on development during adolescence

Workplace productivity and office type: an evaluation of office occupier differences based on age and gender

Purpose Open plan office environments are considered to offer workplace productivity benefits because of the opportunities that they create for interaction and knowledge exchange, but more recent research has highlighted noise, distraction and loss of privacy as significant productivity penalties with this office layout. This study aims to investigate if the purported productivity benefits of open plan outweigh the potential productivity penalties. Design/methodology/approach Previous research suggests that office environments are experienced differently according to the gender and age of the occupier across both open-plan and enclosed configurations. Empirical research undertaken with office occupiers in the Middle East (N=220) led to evaluations to establish the impact different offices had on perceived productivity. Factor analysis was used to establish five underlying components of office productivity. The five factors are subsequently used as the basis for comparison between office occupiers based on age, gender and office type. Findings This research shows that benefits and penalties to workplace productivity are experienced equally across open-plan and enclosed office environments. The greatest impact on perceived workplace productivity however was availability of a variety of physical layouts, control over interaction and the 'downtime' offered by social interaction points. Male occupiers and those from younger generations were also found to consider the office environment to have more of a negative impact on their perceived workplace productivity compared to female and older occupiers. Originality/value The originality of this paper is that it develops the concept of profiling office occupiers with the aim of better matching office provision. This paper aims to establish different occupier profiles based on age, gender and office type. Data analysis techniques such as factor analysis and t-test analysis identify the need for different spaces so that occupiers can choose the most appropriate space to best undertake a particular work task. In addition, it emphasises the value that occupiers place on ‘downtime’ leading to the need for appropriate social space

Predicting Two Components of Career Maturity in School Based Adolescents

Three hundred and sixty-seven secondary school students across five year levels (8–12) were assessed for levels of career maturity (attitude and knowledge), work commitment, work value, career decidedness (indecision and certainty), career decision-making self-efficacy and self-esteem, and indicated their age, gender, socioeconomic status, school achievement and work experience. Using two multiple regression analyses, the predictor variables were able to account for 52% of the variance of career maturity attitude, and account for 41% of the variance of career maturity knowledge. Self-efficacy, age, career decidedness (certainty) and work commitment were the main predictors of career maturity attitude. Age, gender, career decidedness (certainty), work commitment and career decidedness (indecision) were the main predictors of career maturity knowledge. Results demonstrated the importance of examining two aspects of career maturity (attitude and knowledge), and were discussed in the context of Super’s (1957, 1990) theory of career development

Ideal Point Discriminant Analysis Revisited with a Special Emphasis on Visualization

classification, Euclidean distance, (multinomial) logistic regression,

Extended bandwidth real-ear measurement accuracy and repeatability to 10 kHz

Objective: Direct real-ear measurement to the 4–6 kHz range can be measured with suitable accuracy and repeatability. This study evaluates extended bandwidth measurement accuracy and repeatability using narrowband and wideband signal analysis. Design: White noise was measured in female ear canals at four insertion depths using one-third and one-twenty-fourth octave band averaging. Study sample: Fourteen female adults with reported normal hearing and middle-ear function participated in the study. Results: Test-retest differences were within ±2 dB for typical frequency bandwidths at insertion depths administered in clinical practice, and for up to 8 kHz at the experimental 30 mm insertion depth. The 28 mm insertion depth was the best predictor of ear canal levels measured at the 30 mm insertion depth. There was no effect of signal analysis bandwidth on accuracy or repeatability. Conclusions: Clinically feasible 28 mm probe tube insertions reliably measured up to 8 kHz and predicted intensities up to 10 kHz measured at the 30 mm insertion depth more accurately than did shallower insertion depths. Signal analysis bandwidth may not be an important clinical issue at least for one-third and one-twenty-fourth octave band analyses