Authentic Leadership: Getting Back to the Roots of the ‘Root Construct’?

In their 2011 review paper, Gardner et al. (Authentic Leadership: a review of the literature and research agenda. Leadership Quarterly, 22, pp. 1120–1145) concluded that the authentic leadership (AL) construct was still in the first stage of evolution, that of concept introduction and evaluation. At that time, the field was characterized by two types of contribution: conceptual expositions and largely quantitative research seeking to map out its antecedents and consequences, moderators and mediators. The current review aims to: (1) critically evaluate the development of the AL construct to the present time; and (2) taking this evaluation as a point of departure, propose the need for a radical re‐grounding of understanding of AL aimed at countering what the authors believe to be the substantive flaws in both its philosophical underpinnings and empirical grounding. The authors propose that these shortcomings have arisen owing to the failure of existential and other critiques of the dominant (normative and functionalist) discourse of AL to gain traction, and owing to an absence of practice‐based, qualitative research. As a strategic platform for the potential re‐grounding and relaunch of AL, the authors propose a radical return to the existential and practice roots of authenticity as the basis for a broader understanding of ‘authentic leadership’ as a ‘central organizing principle’ in leadership studies. Despite the flaws identified in the AL construct, the authors suggest that the notion of authenticity may still have a valuable role to play in the study of leadership: that role, however, can only be determined through a thorough understanding of AL as a practice‐based phenomenon.     

Sexual Practices and the Duration of Last Heterosexual Encounter: Findings from the Australian Longitudinal Study of Health and Relationships

This study investigated the association between sexual practices and duration of a sexual encounter. Using data from a population-based computer-assisted telephone survey of 8,656 Australians aged 16 to 64 years, four distinct patterns of sexual practices among respondents were found: “basic sexual encounter” (involving mainly kissing, cuddling, stroking one's partner and being stroked, and vaginal intercourse), “basic sexual encounter plus oral sex,” “all assessed sexual practices” (all sexual behaviors included in the survey), and “mainly vaginal intercourse” (characterized by lower levels of kissing, cuddling, and stroking). For both men and women, respondents classified in the basic sexual encounter plus oral sex, and all assessed sexual practices clusters reported significantly longer durations than those in the basic sexual encounter group, whereas respondents in the mainly vaginal intercourse cluster reported shorter durations. These differences were found even after allowing for demographic differences in sexual duration—specifically, age and partner type of the most recent opposite-sex partner. These findings add to the understanding of what typically happens in a sexual encounter. Overall, longer sexual encounters appear to be associated with the inclusion of the least common sexual practices—namely, oral sex and self-stimulation.     

Delinquent and aggressive behaviors in early-adopted adolescents: Longitudinal predictions from child temperament and maternal sensitivity

Background

160 early-adopted children were followed from infancy to adolescence. Central question was whether early and concurrent parenting and child temperament predicted adolescent delinquent and aggressive behaviors.

Methods

Structural equation modeling was used to test the relations between early and concurrent observed maternal sensitivity, mother reported effortful control and teacher reported delinquent and aggressive behaviors.

Results

This longitudinal adoption study showed that lower effortful control, concurrent as well as 7 years earlier, predicted higher levels of delinquency in adolescence and aggression in middle childhood and in adolescence. Lower levels of effortful control in infancy predicted higher levels of maternal sensitivity in adolescence which in its turn predicted less adolescent delinquent behavior.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that effortful control is an important predictor of both aggressive and delinquent behaviors. Maternal sensitivity also plays a role in the development of delinquent behavior, buffering a lack of effortful control, but is not related to aggression at age 14. It is important to note that these relations were found in a sample of parents and their genetically unrelated adopted children.     

Physiological Reactivity to Infant Crying and Observed Maternal Sensitivity

Relations between maternal sensitivity and physiological reactivity to infant crying were examined using measures of heart rate (HR) and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in 49 mothers of second‐born infants. Using the Ainsworth Sensitivity Scale, an independent assessment of maternal sensitivity was made during maternal free play and bathing of their infants. Physiological reactivity was measured while mothers listened to three blocks of infant cry sounds in a standard cry paradigm. Mothers scoring high on sensitivity were compared to less sensitive mothers on both their physiological reactivity to the presented crying sounds and their physiological mean‐level differences. Significant interaction effects were found for both HR and RSA. Highly sensitive mothers showed a larger increase in HR and stronger RSA withdrawal in response to the first block of cry sounds compared to less sensitive mothers. Main effects showed that highly sensitive mothers had lower mean overall HR, and higher mean RSA levels across all three blocks of crying sounds compared to less sensitive mothers. RSA withdrawal and accompanying HR increases are discussed from a polyvagal perspective as indicative of a better capability in responding to infant signals of negative affect.     

The One-Box Challenge: Providing a Federated Search That Benefits the Research Process

The one-box federated search of databases brings as many challenges as promises to database searching, especially in terms of adapting these systems to user needs and the effects this new mode of searching will have on users' research behaviors. This issue of “The Balance Point” presents several librarians with strong interests in reference and instruction, who tell the story of adapting a federated search system for their libraries and reflect upon how federated searching can change the way students do research and on the implications federated searching has on information literacy skills and the quality of results found.