How individuals perceive time in an anxious state: The mediating effect of attentional bias.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine group and individual differences in attentional bias toward and away from socially threatening facial stimuli among adolescents who stutter and age- and sex-matched typically fluent controls. Method Participants included 86 adolescents (43 stuttering, 43 controls) ranging in age from 13 to 19 years. They completed a computerized dot-probe task, which was modified to allow for separate measurement of attentional engagement with and attentional disengagement from facial stimuli (angry, fearful, neutral expressions). Their response time on this task was the dependent variable. Participants also completed the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) and provided a speech sample for analysis of stuttering-like behaviors. Results The adolescents who stutter were more likely to engage quickly with threatening faces than to maintain attention on neutral faces, and they were also more likely to disengage quickly from threatening faces than to maintain attention on those faces. The typically fluent controls did not show any attentional preference for the threatening faces over the neutral faces in either the engagement or disengagement conditions. The two groups demonstrated equivalent levels of social anxiety that were both, on average, very close to the clinical cutoff score for high social anxiety, although degree of social anxiety did not influence performance in either condition. Stuttering severity did not influence performance among the adolescents who stutter. Conclusion This study provides preliminary evidence for a vigilance–avoidance pattern of attentional allocation to threatening social stimuli among adolescents who stutter.

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Do Work Characteristics Mediate the Negative Effect of Transformational Leadership on Impaired Well-Being?

Zeitschrift für Arbeits- und Organisationspsychologie A&O ◽

10.1026/0932-4089/a000249 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 61 (4) ◽

pp. 167-180 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Sylvie Vincent-Höper ◽

Sabine Gregersen ◽

Albert Nienhaus

Keyword(s):

Transformational Leadership ◽

Focal Point ◽

Leadership Behavior ◽

Workplace Health Promotion ◽

Well Being ◽

Mediating Effect ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Related Factor ◽

Work Characteristics ◽

Role Clarity

Abstract: In recent years, transformational leadership as a health-related factor has become a focal point of interest in research and practice. However, the pathways and mechanisms underlying this association are not yet well understood. In order to gain knowledge on how or why transformational leadership and employee well-being are associated, we investigated the mediating effect of the work characteristics role clarity and predictability. The study was carried out on 618 employees working in the health-care sector in Germany. We tested the mediator effect using structural equation modeling. The results indicate that role clarity and predictability fully mediate the relation between transformational leadership and negative indicators of well-being. These results give credit to the notion that work characteristics play an important role in identifying health-relevant aspects of leadership behavior. Our findings advance the understanding of how to enhance employee well-being and have implications for the design of leadership-related interventions of workplace health promotion.

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Specifying the Contact Hypothesis in a Minority-Minority Context

Zeitschrift für Psychologie ◽

10.1027/2151-2604/a000152 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 221 (4) ◽

pp. 223-231 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tuuli Anna Mähönen ◽

Katriina Ihalainen ◽

Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti

Keyword(s):

Mediating Effect ◽

Survey Study ◽

Ethnic Identification ◽

Contact Hypothesis ◽

Negative Attitudes ◽

Intergroup Anxiety ◽

Intergroup Interactions ◽

Identity Processes ◽

Minority Adolescents ◽

Basic Tenet

This survey study focused on the attitudes of Russian-speaking minority youth (N = 132) toward other immigrant groups living in Finland. Along with testing the basic tenet of the contact hypothesis in a minority-minority context, the mediating effect of intergroup anxiety and the moderating effect of perceived social norms on the contact-attitude association were specified by taking into account the identity processes involved in intergroup interactions. The results indicated, first, that the experience of intergroup anxiety evoked by a negative intergroup encounter was reflected in negative outgroup attitudes only among the weakly identified. Second, negative contact experiences of minority adolescents were found not to be reflected in negative attitudes when their ethnic identification was attenuated, and when they perceived positive norms regarding intergroup attitudes.

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