Daily proactive problem-solving and next day stress appraisals: the moderating role of behavioral activation.

Drawing upon transactional theory, this study examined the interactive effects of daily problem-prevention behaviors and an aspect of personality relevant to stress responses (i.e., behavioral activation) on next-day stress appraisals of problem-solving demands.

Higher social cue utilisation improves communication, reduces perceived workload, and improves performance amongst ad hoc dyads in simulated rail control.

The objective was to examine whether ad hoc dyads with different collective social cue utilisation would record differences in performance and perceptions of workload during a simulated rail control task that incorporated distinct levels of demand. The frequency of two types of communicative statements was also examined as mediating factors: closing the loop and informative responding. A quasi-experimental design was employed using 40 dyadic teams.

The Role of Social Cue Utilization and Closing-the-Loop Communication in the Performance of Ad Hoc Dyads.

Objective: To examine whether social cue utilization impacts the performance of ad hoc dyads through its relationship with closing the loop, a communication process whereby team members respond more frequently to initiating statements made by others.

Background: There lacks unequivocal experimental evidence for any single cognitive-based process that might predict the performance of ad hoc teams.

Method: Using a quasi-experimental design, 80 participants were classified into 40 dyads based on their levels of social cue utilization and attempted a team problem-solving task.

Building resilience through exposure to stressors: The effects of challenges versus hindrances.

This paper explores the potential for certain types of stressors to build resilience in the occupational setting. Using the challenge-hindrance stressor framework (Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling, & Boudreau, 2000), we propose that challenge stressors have the potential to promote the capacity for resilience, whereas hindrance stressors experienced in the workplace erode resilient functioning. Employing a 2-wave longitudinal design we examined the effects of challenge and hindrance stressors on psychological resilience and strain 3 months later.

Hindrances are not threats: advancing the multidimensionality of work stress.

The challenge-hindrance framework has proved useful for explaining inconsistencies in relationships between work stressors and important outcomes. By introducing the distinction between threat and hindrance to this framework, we capture the potential for personal harm or loss (threat) associated with stressors, as distinct from the potential to block goal attainment (hindrance) or promote gain (challenge). In Study 1, survey data were collected from 609 retail workers, 220 of whom responded 6 months later.

The merits of measuring challenge and hindrance appraisals.

Background And Objectives: The challenge-hindrance framework has shown that challenge stressors (work characteristics associated with potential personal gain) tend to have positive outcomes, whereas hindrance stressors (those which obstruct goals) have negative outcomes. However, typical research methods assume that stressors allocated to these categories are appraised consistently by different people and across different situations. We validate new measures of challenge and hindrance appraisals and demonstrate their utility in stress research.

The capability of static and dynamic features to distinguish competent from genuinely expert practitioners in pediatric diagnosis.

Objective: The authors describe the development of a new, more objective method of distinguishing experienced competent nonexpert from expert practitioners within pediatric intensive care.

Background: Expert performance involves the acquisition and use of refined feature-event associations (cues) in the operational environment. Competent non-experts, although experienced, possess rudimentary cue associations in memory.

Does personal initiative training work as a stress management intervention?

An experimental trial is reported that compares 2 stress management intervention programs and a waitlist control. Both programs involved training in problem-focused strategies of identifying and changing the sources of stress. One of the programs contained additional content on how to display more personal initiative (PI).