Documenting the adverse impact of resume screening: degree of ethnic identification matters

We investigated adverse impact of resume screening taking into account the intersectionality of minority characteristics. A correspondence audit test showed hiring discrimination depended on the strength of applicants’ ethnic identification. The odds for rejection were 4-6 times higher for resumes with ethnic minority identifiers (Arab names; Arab affiliations) when compared to ethnic majority identifiers (Dutch names; Dutch affiliations). Sex moderated the ethnicity effect but the particular effect (ethnic prominence; double jeopardy against females or males) depended on the type and degree of ethnic identification, lending support for a within-category approach to study ethnic prejudice. The four-fifths rule resulted in similar findings. Theoretical implications regarding the intersectional effects of minority characteristics and practical implications regarding ways to avert adverse impact during resume-screening are discussed

Justice Expectations and Applicant Perceptions

Expectations, which are beliefs about a future state of affairs, constitute a basic psychological mechanism that underlies virtually all human behavior. Although expectations serve as a central component in many theories of organizational behavior, they have received limited attention in the organizational justice literature. The goal of this paper is to introduce the concept of justice expectations and explore its implications for understanding applicant perceptions. To conceptualize justice expectations, we draw on research on expectations conducted in multiple disciplines. We discuss the three sources of expectations – direct experience, indirect influences, and other beliefs - and use this typology to identify the likely antecedents of justice expectations in selection contexts. We also discuss the impact of expectations on attitudes, cognitions, and behaviors, focusing specifically on outcomes tied to selection environments. Finally, we explore the theoretical implications of incorporating expectations into research on applicant perceptions and discuss the practical significance of justice expectations in selection contexts

Intentional Weight Loss among Healthy Women: Behavior Patterns and Psychological Concerns

Although there is an extensive literature on women who are overweight, obese, or suffer from eating disorders, less is known about women who are at a healthy weight yet who are attempting to lose weight. To learn more about the psychological characteristics and behavioral patterns of such women, this study analyzed data from the American College Health Association\u27s National College Health Assessment (ACHA-NCHA-II). We compared these women with two groups of women: (a) those who are at a healthy weight but who are not attempting to lose weight and (b) overweight women who are attempting to lose weight. We employed numerous variables including BMI, depression, anxiety, academic performance, exercise, and diet strategies in these comparisons. In terms of psychological health and weight-related behavior, healthy women attempting weight loss are more similar to overweight women who are attempting weight loss than they are to healthy women who are not attempting to lose weight. We found comparatively high rates of depression, anxiety, and academic difficulty among our target population. Based on our findings and the relevant literature, we recommend that university health officials provide weight-related educational information to female students in an effort to promote psychological well-being and healthy weight practices

Photos, Facts and Fiction: Literary Texts and Mechanical Representation

As a mechanical mode of representation, both iconic and indexical, photography has a testimonial and documentary power matched only by film and audio recordings. As Roland Barthes put it, “contrary to [language-based] imitations, in Photography, I can never deny that the thing has been there.” Yet “the thing” can be faked, the recording can be manipulated, and the testimonial value of photos can be subverted in many ways. In this article, I examine the various roles that photos can play when connected to literary texts or to graphic novels. Several cases will be discussed: photos as factual documents that complement language in nonfictional literary texts such as autobiographies; deceptive use of photos in fictional texts that try to pass as or imitate factual texts (Wolfgang’s Hildesheimer’s Marbot); non-deceptive use of photos to break the frame of a fictionalized storyworld and assert the real-world reference of the text (Art Spiegelman’s Maus); ambiguous use of photos in texts that hover between the factual and the fictional (W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants); and the strange case of Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence, where photos as collector’s items are exhibited in a real-world museum that both refers to the text and remains independent of it, thereby documenting both the fictional and the real world

Assessing the Variability in Length of Juvenile Atlantic Salmon in Maine Streams Through a Long-term Electrofishing Dataset

Atlantic salmon Salmo salar are an endangered migratory fish with recovery projects in their last remaining habitats in Maine focused on juvenile stocking and habitat restoration efforts. Population productivity of Atlantic salmon has been linked to size of juveniles, suggesting that conditions that facilitate growth in stream habitats are important to recovery. Broadly, the objectives of my thesis were to examine how different habitat and biological variables affect the size of juvenile parr throughout Maine and to assess long-term trends (1969 – 2017) among four drainages (East Machias, Narraguagus, Sheepscot, and Penobscot). Extensive electrofishing surveys captured ~250,000 individual Atlantic salmon across the four drainages within 61 years (1956 – 2017). I fit generalized additive mixed models to determine relationships between parr size (fork length) and environmental and biological variables as well as through time. Site- and drainage-specific variables evaluated included temperature (mean summer air temperature in Chapter 2, and mean summer stream temperature in Chapter 3), elevation, mean channel width, juvenile salmon density, age-0 parr stocked, estimated fry stocked (a metric to combine egg and fry stocking efforts into one metric), and year. The averaged models for each of the drainages allowed for comparisons within and across drainages. The largest increase in parr size throughout the time period was ~5mm, with smolting occurring early at between 1 and 4 years of age. Consistently among the drainages, sites with low-elevation, wide channels, and warmer temperatures were associated with longer parr. The Sheepscot drainage demonstrated the most positive trend of size over time with a ~5mm increase in FL in both Chapters. Density dependence was evident in every model that included a density related variable. Stronger FL relationships were found with air temperature rather than stream temperature, which implied that temporal variations in temperature were more important to parr size than the difference between stream and air. Although my models found important linkages between parr size and environmental and biological factors, the percent deviance explained was only moderate (12% - 40% among all) and the inclusion of further variables (such as habitat complexity, distance from dams, and stream discharge) would improve further work. These studies conclude that rather than increasing stocking intensities, managers should prioritize stream restoration to improve habitat quality and access to better benefit parr growth

Activity Level as a Moderator of the Relationship between Child and Maternal Anxiety

Anxiety is excessive and impairing for approximately 30% of individuals. Families with anxiety problems tend to pass on those problems to their children, specifically due to a variety of factors: genetics, parenting style, and other environmental risks. On the other hand, promoting behaviors like positive activity scheduling, participation in clubs, and physical activity has been shown to decrease symptoms of anxiety. However, research has yet to focus on this relationship by increasing activity level (e.g., participation in organizations, hobbies, sports). The purpose of this study is to investigate if the relationship between maternal and child anxiety is dependent upon the child’s activity level. Participants were extracted from an existing database at Louisiana State University where they previously completed measures on child anxiety, maternal anxiety, and the number of hobbies, clubs, and sports the child participated in. Data was analyzed using three separate moderated hierarchical regression models. It was hypothesized that there would be a positive relationship between child-reported anxiety and mother self-reported anxiety. It was also hypothesized that the relationship between maternal and child anxiety would be most strongly moderated by the child’s reported level of sport participation; number of organizations and hobbies were hypothesized to also moderate this relationship. Overall, the relationship between maternal and child anxiety was not significant. For hobbies, data suggested that participating in more hobbies strengthens the relationship between maternal and child anxiety, which was unexpected. For organizations, those who participated in three organizations, compared to other groups, had lower anxiety scores. For three sports, compared to all other levels, the relationship was linear, and slightly less positive than the other levels