The Effect of a Mediation-Blocking Task on the Acquisition of Instructive Feedback Targets

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - The inclusion of instructive feedback in discrete-trial training has been shown to increase the efficiency of learning. However, the behavioral mechanism...     

Moderators of Career Calling and Job-Search Behaviors Among Unemployed Individuals

We examined the relationship between calling, job-search clarity, and job-search intensity in a cross-sectional study of Italian unemployed job seekers (N = 315). Structural equation modeling with observed variables and latent moderated structural equation models were adopted to test whether optimism, self-esteem, and perseverance moderate the relation between calling, job-search clarity, and job-search intensity. Perceiving a calling was positively related with job-search clarity and intensity, and these relations were stronger in individuals with lower levels of optimism, self-esteem, and perseverance. This study suggests that perceiving a calling is an important personal resource that is related to a clearer job-search goal and to more intense job-search activities and can support job seekers in personal adverse conditions. These results suggest integrating job-search behaviors in the work-as-calling theory and that incorporating the construct of calling into career counselors' practices may increase the efficacy of job-search activities.     

Research encounters,reflexivity and supervision

Reflexivity in qualitative and ethnographic social science research can provide a rich source of data, especially regarding the affective, performative and relational aspects of interviews with research subjects. This paper explores by means of three case examples different ways of accessing and using such reflexivity. The examples are drawn from an empirical psycho-social study into the identity transitions of first-time mothers in an inner-city multicultural environment. Fieldnotes and supervision were used to engage with researcher subjectivity, to enhance the productive use of reflexivity and to address the emotional work of research. The methodology of the supervision was psychoanalytic, in its use of a boundaried frame and of psychoanalytic forms of noticing oneself, of staying engaged emotionally as well as creating a reflective distance. The examples illustrate how this can enhance the knowledge gained about the research subjects.     

Predicting the Daily Covariance Matrix for S&P 100 Stocks Using Intraday Data—But Which Frequency to Use?

This article investigates the merits of high-frequency intraday data when forming mean-variance efficient stock portfolios with daily rebalancing from the individual constituents of the S&P 100 index. We focus on the issue of determining the optimal sampling frequency as judged by the performance of these portfolios. The optimal sampling frequency ranges between 30 and 65 minutes, considerably lower than the popular five-minute frequency, which typically is motivated by the aim of striking a balance between the variance and bias in covariance matrix estimates due to market microstructure effects such as non-synchronous trading and bid-ask bounce. Bias-correction procedures, based on combining low-frequency and high-frequency covariance matrix estimates and on the addition of leads and lags do not substantially affect the optimal sampling frequency or the portfolio performance. Our findings are also robust to the presence of transaction costs and to the portfolio rebalancing frequency.     

Getting Together to Get Ahead: The Impact of Social Structure on Women's Networking

This paper examines the impact of socio‐structural variables (i.e. perceptions of permeability, stability and legitimacy of intergroup relations) on the extent to which professional women perceive a women's network as a collective strategy for status enhancement. A survey among network members (n=166) suggests that the extent to which women support and consider a network to benefit women as a collective is dependent on perceptions of whether individual mobility is possible (permeability of group boundaries) and beliefs that organizational conditions will improve for women in the future (stability of conditions for women). Specifically, the network is less likely to be perceived as a collective vehicle for change when individual advancement is possible (because intergroup boundaries are perceived as permeable) and status improvement in the future is unlikely. However, regardless of beliefs about the future, when female participants perceive that many barriers to individual advancement exist (due to the impermeability of intergroup boundaries), the network is considered in more collective terms presumably because the only way to challenge the status quo is through a collective effort. The practical implications for organizations that wish to or have established a women's network are discussed.     

Sticking it all together: A critical assessment of the group cohesion–performance literature

Although group cohesion is a widely studied construct in the group dynamics literature, there is a considerable lack of consistency and agreement regarding the construct. This paper reviews the current state of the cohesiveness literature. Cohesion is now generally defined as the group members' inclinations to forge social bonds, resulting in the group sticking together and remaining united. Unfortunately, the large number of definitions and measures used by researchers has created a literature that is inconsistent and confusing. This review focuses on the considerable research on the cohesion–performance relationship. The general consensus of this research is that there is a generally positive association between cohesion and performance, but the theoretical and operational mechanisms creating this association are unclear. This lack of clarity may be due to the wide range of measures and assessments of cohesion and the cohesion–performance association. Two underlying contentious issues within this aspect of the literature are whether cohesion is unidimensional or multidimensional and the appropriate level of analysis required for measuring the construct. The resolution of these inconsistencies requires researchers to take a step back toward grounding the research in broader theoretical frameworks, to determine whether the cohesion–performance association has an underlying common cause, and to use longitudinal studies that use more sophisticated analytical models.     

保护加拿大的绿色力量

在加拿大,经常可以听到这样一句话:“环保就是力量。“那里,天空湛蓝,湖水清澈,空气清新,满山遍野覆盖着草地和森林,到处都有一种水洗过的感觉,用纤尘不染来形容一点也不为过,尤其夏秋季节,更是景色迷人。加拿大也和其他西方国家一样,走过一段“先污染,后治理“的工业