Search results

Nonspecific factors such as therapy alliance and treatment motivation have been shown to be predictive of therapy outcome. However, research investigating these factors among patients with personality disorders, or studies in the context of mandated treatment showed mixed results. A new theory furthermore speculates there may be differences between early formed therapeutic alliance (trait-like) versus alliance formed on the longer term (state-like). This paper aims to investigate the effects of therapy alliance and treatment motivation in 103 Dutch male forensic psychiatric patients with Cluster B personality disorders.

The authors used incidents as a measure of treatment outcome. They studied the effect of nonspecific factors on incidents in two phases, namely, 0 – 18 months and 18 – 36 months, along with known predictors of incidents (age, Historical items of the HCR-20 and psychopathy) as covariates.

Regression models predicting incidents in the first 18 months of treatment were nonsignificant. Incidents in the second 18 months were significantly predicted by models including alliance and motivation measured at the start of treatment, but not measures at 18 months and covariates. Predictors, except for age, were all nonsignificant.

These findings lend tentative support for the trait-like vs state-like theory of change through nonspecific factors. However, it may also be that other factors are more important in predicting therapy outcome in forensic psychiatric patients with Cluster B personality disorders.

The current study represents the first effort to study the effects of non-specific factors on therapeutic discourse in hospitalized offenders with Cluster B personality disorders.

To examine a possible link between substance use and risky sexual behaviour, a cross‐sectional study was conducted among 357 inmates across four South African prisons involved in a pre‐release intervention programme for parolees. About 93% of the participants reported using alcohol and 52% used marijuana prior to imprisonment, while 56% reported previous occurrence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Logistic regression analyses explored the impact of substance use on intention to reduce risky sexual behaviour. Age and inconsistent use of condoms were positively associated with having an STI prior to incarceration, while reported alcohol and marijuana intake had no effect. Never using condoms before was highly associated with lower intention to engage in preventive behaviours upon release. It can be concluded that inmates demonstrate high levels of substance use and engagement in risky sexual behaviours. Targeted pre‐release substance abuse interventions are essential to reduce the burden of disease amongst offenders.

Using social influence theory, this study examines the relationship between self-initiated expatriates' (SIE) political skill, as a measure of their social effectiveness, and cross-cultural adjustment (CCA). It also tests whether the host employer's psychological contract (PC) fulfillment mediates this relationship.

Partial least square structural equation modeling (covariance-based SEM) technique is employed to analyze a sample of 209 SIEs.

The study finds SIEs' political skill positively and significantly associated with SIEs' work-related adjustment. The relationship with interactional adjustment is only marginally significant. It also finds that SIEs' PC fulfillment mediates the relationship between SIEs' political skill and work-related adjustment. The mediation is marginally significant for the relationship between SIEs' political skill and general living adjustment.

The study adds to the literature on expatriates' skills and CCA by theorizing and testing the hitherto unexplored role of SIEs' political skill in their work and non-work CCA. It also theorizes and examines the host employer's PC fulfillment as a mediating mechanism, through which SIEs' political skill facilitates their CCA. Finally, it advances the literature on political skill by testing the construct's application in the cross-cultural and non-work domain.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically identify key factors of UK food supply chains (SCs) that significantly contribute to CO₂ emissions (CO2e) taking into account the life cycle assessment (LCA). The UK food supply chain includes imports from other countries.

This research develops a conceptual framework from extant literature. Secondary data obtained from ONS and FAOSTAT covering from 1990 to 2014 are analysed using Multilinear Regression (MLR) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) to identify the factors relating to CO₂ emissions significance, and the efficient contributions that are being made to their reduction in the UK food supply chains.

The study results suggest that Transportation and Sales/Distribution are the two key factors of CO₂ emissions in UK food supply chains. This is confirmed by two multivariate methods, MLR and SFA. MLR results show that transportation increases UK CO₂ emissions by 10 tonnes of CO₂ emissions from one tonne of fruits and vegetables imports from overseas to the UK Sales and Distribution reduces the UK CO₂ emissions by 1.3 tonnes of CO₂ emissions due to improved, technological operation activities in the UK. In addition, the SFA results confirm that the key factors are sufficient to predict an increase or decrease in CO₂ emissions in the UK food supply chains.

This study has focused on the LCA of the UK food supply chain from limited data. Future studies should consider Sustainability Impact Assessment of the UK food supply chain, identifying the social, economic, regulatory and environmental impacts of the food supply chain using a re-defined LCA (all-inclusive assessment) tool.

This research suggests that food supply chain professionals should improve efficiency, e.g. the use of solar energy and biogas, and also integrate low-carbon policies and practices in food supply chain operations. Furthermore, governments should encourage policies such as mobility management programmes, urban redevelopment and privatisation to enhance better transportation systems and infrastructure to continuously reduce CO₂e from the food trade.

Although logistics play a major role in CO₂ emissions, all logistics CO₂ emissions for other countries are not included in the ONS data. This research reveals some important insights into the UK food supply chains. Logistics and other food supply chain processes of importing countries significantly contribute to CO₂ emissions which are yet to be considered in the UK food SCs.

Organizational research has long been dominated by the assumption that relationships between variables are linear, which can be overly simplistic or even misleading. This study proposes and tests a model in which subordinate organizational justice perceptions influence the linearity of the relationship between leader–member exchange (LMX) and subordinate task performance.

A time-lagged anonymous survey study was conducted in Romania on a sample consisting of 274 subordinates nested under 42 leaders from a wide range of work settings. Supervisors rated the performance of their direct reports, while subordinates rated LMX and justice perceptions.

Hierarchical linear modeling results revealed that the associations of LMX and LMX affect with task performance were best described by an inverted U shape when perceptions of supervisory interpersonal justice were high. Relationship strength was also affected. No such moderating effects were confirmed for other types of justice. We also found an unmoderated nonlinear effect of LMX-professional respect on task performance.

Results suggest that for supervisors who are perceived as fair in terms of interpersonal justice, a moderate level of LMX (especially LMX affect), slightly above the mean, maximizes subordinate task performance, while high LMX is preferable otherwise. Similarly, a moderate level of LMX professional respect seems optimal for performance.

The present paper challenges the linearity assumption for the established LMX–performance association, demonstrating that both the linearity and strength of the association may be influenced by justice. Second, results suggest that the too-much-of-a-good-thing effect may be the result of additive effects. Third, differential effects of LMX and justice dimensions are revealed.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the interactive effects of message framing, perceived threat and efficacy appeals on attitudes/intentions toward consumer healthcare communications, particularly, cataract surgery.

This paper develops two conceptual models dealing with threat, efficacy and framing and tests them with data collected from two field experiments.

The results reveal that high efficacy messages in combination with high threat or loss-framed messages have a significant positive influence on consumer attitudes and intentions in the consumer healthcare arena.

The findings have managerial value and public policy implications for healthcare officials in developing effective communications material. Specifically, this paper recommends that high threat, high efficacy and loss-framed efficacy messages be used.

This research extends previous work by demonstrating the effectiveness of threat appeals and framing on consumer attitudes and intentions to undergo cataract surgery. It also demonstrates the use of communication models in the healthcare domain.

Treatment satisfaction of different mental disorders is still poorly understood, but of high clinical interest. Inpatients of a general psychiatric care hospital were asked to fill out questionnaires on satisfaction and clinical variables at admission and discharge. On the basis of an exploratory approach, differences in treatment satisfaction among diagnostic groups were examined by means of one-way analysis of variance. Potential associated clinical and socio-demographic variables were studied using multi/univariate tests. Patients with personality disorders (n=18) showed a significantly lower treatment satisfaction (ZUF-8, Zurich Satisfaction Questionnaire) and a slightly lower improvement of symptoms (CGI, Clinical Global Impression) and global functioning (GAF, Global Assessment of Functioning scale) than that of other diagnostic groups (n=95). Satisfaction in patients with personality disorders correlated much stronger with the symptom improvement and slightly with the functioning level than in patients without personality disorders. Interestingly, in patients with personality disorders psychopharmacological treatment in general (present versus not present) was independent from satisfaction. This exploratory investigation suggests that a lower satisfaction of patients with personality disorders in a general psychiatric hospital is mainly based on a reduced improvement of the symptoms and of the global functioning level.

The purpose of this paper is to examine pre- to post-change in two components of implicit cognitive functioning following craving induction – attentional bias (AB) and executive control – of patients in a long-term drug-free residential treatment center that incorporated dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) with usual therapeutic community (TC) practices.

Three groups of alcohol and cannabis dependent female adolescents were compared: pre-treatment (n=12), following four months of treatment (n=11), and following 12 months of treatment (n=7).

The results indicate significantly lower AB (as measured by visual probe task) and improved response inhibition (as measured by stop signal task) under craving conditions, after 12 months of DBT.

Naturalistic character of the study did not allow the use of repeated measures design, drug using control groups, randomized clinical trial, or performing a longitudinal follow-up. However, the findings show that DBT for drug abusing female adolescents in a long-term residential setting may be an effective intervention to enhance cognitive and executive functions critical to the risk chain involved in relapse and recidivism, supporting the implementation of DBT in TC residential settings.

This is the first research paper that examined effects of DBT+TC on substance dependent female adolescents’ cognitive mechanisms using well-validated behavioral tasks. The research provides some empirical evidence for the improvement in AB and response inhibition under craving conditions following treatment.

This study aims to explore students’ interests in multimodal texts by focusing on videos of social issues.

Data from 50 students in a first-year multilingual composition course were analyzed in two phases. Phase One examined 14 students’ reasons for self-selecting videos for multimodal analysis essays in one section of the course. Phase Two explored 50 students’ selected videos in four sections of the course across four semesters. The videos were classified as either problem- or solution-oriented to examine the students’ interests.

Analyzing the students’ responses in Phase One revealed that most of the selected videos included solutions to a social problem, and the students advocated the compelling ways in which the characters therein dealt with those problems. The findings for Phase Two revealed that the students’ selections were equally divided between problem- and solution-oriented videos. Nevertheless, a gradual increase in the selection of solution-oriented videos was observed over time.

A significant implication of this study is that it can help teachers expand their understanding of interesting and meaningful texts and make more engaging and effective instructional decisions.

The study contributes to the literature on text selection as it highlights students’ inclination toward what type of learning content interests them.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of affiliative-based humorous leadership on hotel employee outcomes (i.e. resistance to change and upward voice), underpinned by affective events theory. Further, this paper investigates psychological capital as a mediation effect and emotional intelligence as a moderation effect.

Using a structured questionnaire, 554 supervisors of 20 four- and five-star hotels in Sharm El-Sheikh responded based on a time-lagged approach. A Smart-partial least squares (Smart-PLS) v. 3.3.9 was used to analyze the data set.

The findings revealed that affiliative-based humorous leadership has a positive effect on psychological capital, and psychological capital has a positive association with employee upward voice. Psychological capital partially mediated the linkage of humorous leadership with employees' upward voices and resistance to change. According to the results, emotional intelligence strengthened the linkage of psychological capital with employee resistance to change and upward voice.

The findings contribute to the body of knowledge on humor and the development of new ideas in the hospitality literature. This paper adds to the hospitality literature on humorous leadership in developing countries, specifically in Egypt. This paper also provides practitioners with new perspectives as they develop strategies and use humor-related wise leadership styles in the workplace.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first studies to assess affiliative-based humor in leadership in the hospitality industry. This paper contributes to future studies on the crucial effect of workplace engagement and its association with employees’ novel and intriguing actions and offers a good guideline for organizations and enterprises wishing to better leverage leader humor.