Bringing Carl Rogers Back In: Exploring the Power of Positive Regard at Work

We draw on Carl Rogers’ client‐centred therapy theory and the theoretical lens of positive work relationships to explain why and how positive regard can be a powerful source for the development of employees’ sense of vitality, job performance and organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs). We theorize that when employees experience relationships characterized by a high level of regard with their co‐workers they are likely to develop a sense of vitality, which in turn results in enhanced job performance and OCBs. These relationships are examined in both experimental and field studies. The results of these multiple studies provide general support for the power of positive regard in augmenting a sense of vitality and enhancing both job performance and citizenship behaviours.     

Telomeres and human aging: facts and fibs

Can telomere dynamics, defined by telomere length and attrition rate, provide information about the biology of human aging above and beyond that provided by chronological age? Accruing data suggest that it can. White blood cells (WBCs) have been used as the primary model in attempts to decipher links between aging, aging-related disorders, and telomere dynamics in humans. The WBC model may be appropriate in clinical settings, provided that we fully appreciate its drawbacks and limitations. On the basis of WBC telomere data, it is evident that age-adjusted telomere length is highly variable, highly heritable, longer in women than men, and shorter in people who harbor a host of age-related disorders, whose common denominators may prove to be increased oxidative stress and inflammation. It appears that shorter age-adjusted WBC telomere length augurs a greater risk of morbidity and premature mortality in the elderly. However, it is unsettled whether human telomere dynamics is only a proxy for fundamental mechanisms that govern the course of aging or a key determinant in its progression.     

Die Umzugsentscheidung von Paaren als Verhandlungsproblem

Recently bargaining models became a popular theoretical concept within family research. Especially compared to household economic theory, bargaining models are less abstract and provide a tool for analysis of conflicting interests and their consequences in family relationships. However, although there are many different topics which can be tackled with this kind of theory, there is still a lack of direct empirical tests concerning this concept. The aim of this article is to provide such a test by using a special type of a quasi-experimental research design. With a so-called factorial design we vary systematically incentives for a household move in order to model different structural conditions of a relationship like earning possibilities or chances for a career of a partner. This allows us to observe varying power allocations within the relationship. The empirical results support the hypotheses derived from the bargaining model: the respondent anticipates a loss of his or her bargaining power as well as an increasing power of the partner. Consequently they answer such a change with a reduced tendency for a household move and a higher perceived potential for conflicts within the relationship. However, due to our limited knowledge about the validity of the quasi-experimental design these results need to be validated by future research.     

Parameters of Household Composition as Demographic Measures

Cross-sectional data, such as Census statistics, enable the re-enactment of household lifecourse through the construction of the household composition matrix, a tabulation of persons in households by their age and bythe age of their corresponding household-heads. Household lifecourse is represented in the household composition matrix somewhat analogously to survivorship in a life-table in demography. A measure of household lifecourse is the average household size, specific to age of household-head. Associated with the age-specific household size is the age-interval 0–4, which yields average number of children present in households, also by age of head. Trajectories of re-enacted household lifecourses for Phoenix and for the State ofArizona are depicted here to track the gamma probability density function. Through this relationship also the association between household size, children per household, and fertility emerges. To the extent that housing conditions or tenure impact average household size, or other aspects of household composition, fertility in particular is discerned as a housing- related demographic attribute of households. Household size and headship ratio, both specific to age of head, are here shown to be analytically related to the household composition matrix, their product yielding the age-specific headship coefficient. As a measure incorporating parameters of households and dwellers, thus also characterizingoccupied dwellingunits, the headshipcoefficient emerges as a demographic indicator of housing in a community.     

Eating and exercise disorders in young college men

The authors used the computerized Eating and Exercise Examination to investigate eating, weight, shape, and exercise behaviors in a convenience sample of 93 male college students. One fifth of the men worried about their weight and shape, followed rules about eating, and limited their food intake. Between 9% and 12% were unhappy with their body shape, felt fat, and seriously wanted to lose weight. Exercise was important for the self-esteem of 48% of the students. Thirty-four percent were distressed when they could not exercise as much as they wanted, 27% followed rules about exercising, and 14% worried about the amount of exercise they were doing. The respondents met clinical diagnoses for objective binge eating (3%), self-induced vomiting (3%), bulimia nervosa (2%), and exercise disorders (8%). Although 9% reported disordered eating, none had sought treatment. Health professionals should be aware that eating and exercise disorders may be present in college men and that screening may help in the early identification of these problems.     

Barriers to the implementation of medication-assisted treatment for substance use disorders: the importance of funding policies and medical infrastructure

Despite growing interest in the use of evidence-based treatment practices, adoption of pharmacotherapies for treating substance use disorders (SUDs) remains modest. Using data from telephone interviews with 250 administrators of publicly funded SUD treatment programs, this study estimated a model of adoption of medication assisted treatment (MAT) for SUDs and examined the relative importance of regulatory, cultural, medical resource, patient-level, and funding barriers to MAT implementation. MAT-adopting programs had significantly greater medical resources, as measured by the employment of physicians and nurses, than non-adopting programs. Administrators of non-adopting programs were asked to rate the importance of 18 barriers to MAT implementation. The most strongly endorsed barriers were regulatory prohibitions due to the program's lack of medical staff, funding barriers to implementing MAT, and lack of access to medical personnel with expertise in delivering MAT. Barriers related to insufficient information about MAT and unsupportive staff attitudes were not widely endorsed. These findings suggest that efforts to promote the implementation of MAT that are inattentive to funding barriers and weaknesses in medical infrastructure may achieve sub-optimal results.     

Bayesian regression under combinations of constraints

A Bayesian method for regression under several types of constraints is proposed. The constraints can be range-restricted and include shape restrictions, constraints on the value of the regression function, smoothness conditions and combinations of these types of constraints. The support of the prior distribution is included in the set of piecewise linear functions. It is shown that the proposed prior can be arbitrarily close to the distribution induced by the addition of a polynomial plus an (m−1)-fold integrated Brownian motion. Hence, despite its piecewise linearity, the regression function behaves (approximately) like an m−1 times continuously differentiable random function. Furthermore, thanks to the piecewise linear property, many combinations of constraints can easily be considered. The regression function is estimated by the posterior mode computed by a simulated annealing algorithm. The constraints on the shape and the values of the regression function are taken into account thanks to the proposal distribution, while the smoothness condition is handled by the acceptation step. Simulations from the posterior distribution are obtained by a Gibbs sampling algorithm.     

The role of the father in the family: Toward a gender-neutral family policy

A review of the literature suggests that: (a) Women are not the exclusive potential contributors to quality child care; (b) men can provide care equally well; (c) a growing number of men want to increase their involvement in child care. A number of obstacles impede, however, increased paternal involvement in child care; these include the existing societal value system, the present structure of the labor market, and the nature of many existing social services. Therefore, various aspects of social and family policy are examined and a variety of options are proposed.     

Variables Associated with Resilience in Divorced Families

The present study focuses on the salutogenicproperties of post-divorce families andattempts to identify factors that promoteresilience and family well-being. Within thesalutogenic paradigm the focus is on positivecharacteristics and strengths that contributetowards the growth and development of a system.Family coherence is used as an indication ofthe level of recovery after the crisis, and isused as the dependent measure with regard tothe present well-being of the family. Across-sectional survey research design wasused. The 98 participating families wereidentified on the grounds of the nature of thecrisis (divorce) and the developmental phase ofthe family. An open-ended question and thefollowing self-report questionnaires werecompleted by the parent and a child: abiographical questionnaire, the Relative andFriend Support Index, the Social Support Index,Family Crises Oriented Personal EvaluationScales, Family Sense of Coherence Scale, andthe Family Hardiness Index. Results show thatintra-family support, support of the extendedfamily, support of friends, religion, opencommunication amongst family members, and workand financial security were factors promotingresilience in these families.