Job stress, job strain, and psychological withdrawal among Dutch university staff: towards a dualprocess model for the effects of occupational stress

This study examined the antecedents of job strain (emotional exhaustion, health complaints) and withdrawal behaviour (e.g. lowered organizational commitment) among a cross-sectional sample of 131 academic staff members of the law department of a large Dutch university. Conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989) provided the theoretical background for this study. Strains and withdrawal behaviours were expected to be most prominent among those who reported having few resources and/or who reported high job demands. Structural equation modelling revealed that this was indeed the case. As predicted, differential patterns of effects emerged for job demands and job resources. Analysis of the effects of four job-specific stressors revealed that especially the structural aspects of a staff member's teaching task (e.g. the number of students in their classes) contributed strongly to perceived job demands. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.     

Display rule behavior and understanding in preschool children

Display rule behavior and understanding were compared in 72 4- to 6-year-old boys and girls. In Study 1, children listened to stories in which the protagonist was in a positive or in a negative mood. The motivation to hide his or her emotional state was either prosocial or self-centered. Stories with no discrepancy between feeling and expression were included as a control condition. Subjects were asked to identify the protagonist's real feelings and facial expression. Older children were more accurate than younger ones in recognizing that real and apparent emotions did not coincide in the self-centered and prosocial stories. Girls produced more correct answers than boys in the prosocial condition. In Study 2, children were examined in a situation in which they were expected to hide their disappointment about an unattractive gift. They were either observed (social situation) or not observed (nonsocial situation) by the experimenter when receiving the gift. Irrespective of age, preschoolers regulated their nonverbal behavior appropriately in the social situation. The comparison of both data sets revealed that even younger preschoolers follow display rules in their behavior before fully grasping the distinction between real and apparent emotions.This article is based on a portion of the author's doctoral dissertation. It is dedicated to the author's supervisor, Klaus Schneider, who died in January 1994. The author wishes to thank her second supervisor, Carolyn Saarni, for her many helpful suggestions. Thanks are extended to the children and teachers who participated in this research. Gratitude is also expressed to Monika Rüth for her assistance in data collection and coding.Portions of these data were presented at the 60th meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, New Orleans, March 1993.     

The Uniqueness of the Child–Father Attachment Relationship: Fathers' Sensitive and Challenging Play as a Pivotal Variable in a 16-year Longitudinal Study

This longitudinal study of forty‐four families explored fathers’ as compared to mothers’ specific contribution to their children's attachment representation at ages 6, 10, and 16 years. In toddlerhood, fathers’ and mothers’ play sensitivity was evaluated with a new assessment, the sensitive and challenging interactive play scale (SCIP). Fathers’ SCIP scores were predicted by fathers’ caregiving quality during the first year, were highly consistent across 4 years, and were closely linked to the fathers’ own internal working model of attachment. Qualities of attachment as assessed in the Strange Situation to both parents were antecedents for children's attachment security in the Separation Anxiety Test at age 6. Fathers’ play sensitivity and infant–mother quality of attachment predicted children's internal working model of attachment at age 10, but not vice versa. Dimensions of adolescents’ attachment representations were predicted by fathers’ play sensitivity only. The results confirmed our main assumption that fathers’ play sensitivity is a better predictor of the child's long‐term attachment representation than the early infant–father security of attachment. The ecological validity of measuring fathers’ sensitive and challenging interactive play behavior as compared to infant proximity seeking in times of distress is highlighted. Findings are discussed with respect to a wider view on attachment in that both parents shape their children's psychological security but each in his or her unique way.     

On the Limitations of Redundancies in the Improvement of System Reliability

Some program managers share a common belief that adding a redundant component to a system reduces the probability of failure by half. This is true only if the failures of the redundant components are independent events, which is rarely the case. For example, the redundant components may be subjected to the same external loads. There is, however, in general a decrease in the failure probability of the system. Nonetheless, the redundant element comes at a cost, even if it is less than that of developing the first one when both are based on the same design. Identical parts save the most in terms of design costs, but are subjected to common failure modes from possible design errors that limit the effectiveness of the redundancy. In the development of critical systems, managers thus need to decide if the costs of a parallel system are justified by the increase in the system's reliability. NASA, for example, has used redundant spacecraft to increase the chances of mission success, which worked well in the cases of the Viking and Voyager missions. These two successes, however, do not guarantee future ones. We present here a risk analysis framework accounting for dependencies to support the decision to launch at the same time a twin mission of identical spacecraft, given incremental costs and risk-reduction benefits of the second one. We illustrate this analytical approach with the case of the Mars Exploration Rovers launched by NASA in 2003, for which we had performed this assessment in 2001.     

Empirical likelihood tests for two‐sample problems via nonparametric density estimation

The authors study the problem of testing whether two populations have the same law by comparing kernel estimators of the two density functions. The proposed test statistic is based on a local empirical likelihood approach. They obtain the asymptotic distribution of the test statistic and propose a bootstrap approximation to calibrate the test. A simulation study is carried out in which the proposed method is compared with two competitors, and a procedure to select the bandwidth parameter is studied. The proposed test can be extended to more than two samples and to multivariate distributions.     

Integrating qualitative and quantitative methods in survey research on aging: An assessment

The benefits of triangulation have gained widespread acceptance and several notable studies have taken a combined-methods approach. However, to date there have been few analyses of attempts to extend survey research to include a qualitative component. This paper reports on what is essentially a survey research design in which three types of interviewing are triangulated: close-ended questions in a structured interview; open-ended questions embedded in the interview; and follow-up conversational interviews employing open-ended questions. This combined-methods approach is assessed in relation to elaboration of answers, interpretation and context, discovery in the field, and divergence. The author concludes that each source of data, as well as the divergence in findings among them, makes a valuable contribution to the research process.     

Global risk management

Industries that deal with hazardous systems are faced with the task of managing a spectrum of risks within resource contraints. They have essentially two options that can be combined in a global risk-management strategy: insurance (loss sharing) and risk mitigation through technical and organizational measures. In this article, global risk-management strategies based on probabilistic risk analysis and its extension to include management factors are described. Some issues and solutions are illustrated through practical examples, drawn mostly from the recent research of the Industrial Engineering Risk Research Group at Stanford (the tiles of the U.S. Space Shuttle, offshore platforms, marine pipelines, and anesthesia in modern hospitals).     

Supervision — ein Instrument zur Qualitätsentwicklung in der stationären Jugendhilfe

Supervision — an instrument of quality development in residential youth care The author summarizes the discussion about quality development in residential youth care with reference to fees. It also aims to clarify how this discussion influences the day-to-day work off the staff in residential institutions. The article demonstrates that supervision remains an indispensable instrument of quality development even when other quality instruments are being used. Supervisory processes have to considerate that the institutions must develop and implement instruments to ensure and evaluate their work.     

Women at work in workplaces designed for men: Anthropometry and ergonomics

This article considers one of the sources of stress faced by modern working women: that of having to work in environments largely designed for men. It outlines how this problem has arisen, and examines the different ways in which it can be overcome, pointing up some of the main ergonomic issues that should be addressed in the design of work environments and facilities.