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Exploring psychological detachment, work-related rumination and role-centrality in working from home
Get PDFBackground The change in environment and commute from work to home help to signal psychological detachment, defined by physically and mentally disengaging from work-related thoughts (Smit, 2016). The combination of modern communication technology and a global pandemic has pushed many employees into working from home regularly, eliminating these signals for psychological detachment. Using effort-recovery theory (Meijman & Mulder, 1998), which suggests that investment of mental resources to deal with work-related demands leads to depletion, we hypothesize that work-related rumination will be associated with the inability to psychologically detach from work (Martin & Tesser, 1996). In addition, role centrality is hypothesized to moderate the relationship between work-related rumination and psychological detachment. Greater work-role centrality should make it harder to psychologically detach while at home, as individuals with greater work-role centrality place more emphasis on their work roles (Thoits, 1992; Krause, 1994). Furthermore, research suggests that women experience higher levels of work interference with family than men, even when job demands are equivalent (Mcelwain et al., 2005), therefore we will examine whether gender differences exist in these relationships. See Figure 1 for the proposed theoretical model. Method Participants will include 167 tenure-track and tenured academics employed by U.S. higher education institutions who completed a survey between April-May 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instructors and contingent faculty were unable to participate due to disparities in performance appraisal and promotion for rank. A Qualtrics link was sent to department heads from multiple universities and shared amongst their social networks. The survey consisted work and personal demographics, as well measures assessing role centrality (Paullay et al., 1994); psychological detachment (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2007); and work-related affective rumination (Cropley et al., 2008). Proposed Analyses Data will need to be cleaned and coded before using SPSS and M+ for statistical analysis. Analysis will include stepwise regression, nested model comparison to examine gender differences, and descriptive statistics such as correlation analysis to understand the sample. Preliminary Discussion We expect to see a negative association between psychological detachment and work-related rumination. Role centrality is expected to moderate the relationship between work-related rumination and psychological detachment such that those whose role centrality is focused on work will experience less psychological detachment. We also expect gender differences in these relationships because of the gender discrepancies in the division of household responsibilities. Our study will aid in understanding how this evolving work-family conflict affects well-being and the ability to psychologically detach from work responsibilities, as well as the gender differences involved in these relationships
Promoting Workplace Well-Being
Get PDFHire Ventures, Inc. is an HR consulting firm founded in Atlanta, GA. Their mission is to “enable clients to find and keep talent by implementing streamlined processes, leveraging the right technology, and delivering on-demand, scalable hourly HR consulting and hourly recruiting consulting services” (Hire Ventures, 2022). My internship at Hire Ventures, Inc. followed a short 8-week timeline that focused on the development of a workplace wellness campaign series. Role responsibilities included conducting an internal needs analysis to create the base framework for the wellness series, developing topics for a 10-week wellness blog series that targets the employees and employers of our clientele, researching current trends and best practices, writing blog ready information regarding each topic, and creating supplemental material (e.g., training videos, activity worksheets, etc.). Final topics included in the wellness series covered burnout, recovery, relaxation remorse, work stress, and work-life balance. Hire Ventures offered complete flexibility and autonomy over my work. This experience further solidified my interest in Occupational Health Psychology and instilled a confidence as an I-O practitioner. Within this role, I felt I was able to utilize my I-O training and make an impact on the organization. Following the wellness campaign, Hire Ventures, Inc. continues to make efforts in supporting their clients’ and employees’ wellbeing by implementing micro-break policies, encouraging PTO, posting wellness resources to their social media accounts (i.e., LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.) and more
Keeping up with unprecedented times: strategies for building resilience within your organization
Get PDFIn today’s world, we are constantly being inundated with news informing us of the latest local, national, or global crisis. As such, resilience is more important than ever to sustain us in both our personal and work lives. In this session, Meredyth Ring will guide you through the Center for Creative Leadership’s resilience framework for leaders. We will explore how to expand the resilience framework beyond the individual level and apply it to your organization. She will share tangible examples of what her organization is doing to create a more resilient workforce, with few additional resources. This session will offer opportunities to reflect and identify simple ways which you can implement resilience strategies in your own organization
Does cognitive control affect successful sandbagging of concussion symptoms?
Get PDFThe value of concussion baseline assessments is dependent upon athletes giving their best effort. If an athlete fakes poor performance or “sandbags”, a future injury may go undetected. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if the SportGait concussion baseline assessment detects differences between participants instructed to sandbag and those who are not. Furthermore, I examined whether participants’ cognitive control is related to their ability to fake poor performance on SportGait. Forty-four participants completed two cognitive control tasks, were randomly assigned to “sandbag” or do their best and completed the SportGait baseline concussion assessment. Results revealed that “sandbagging” participants endorsed more concussion symptoms, made more errors on the CPT-3, and demonstrated lower stride power in their gait. However, cognitive control did not predict sandbagging performance. Together these results indicate that SportGait detects sandbagging, but additional investigation of factors including the impact of coaching on faking behaviors is needed
#BlackLivesMatter: critical political implications of Twitter discourse in the wake of George Floyd
Get PDFAs we move forward into a digitalized age of communication, social media becomes increasingly powerful with each passing day. Digital forms of interaction foster an active political discourse and influence the behavior of both the public and government officials. The freedom to deliver public statements at will has been effectively utilized by individuals, local activists, and representatives of the legislative branch to interact in discourse concerning current events, therefore furthering the mobilization of social media to shape the American public policy stage as a whole. As a result of the accessibility of the internet, social media has become the most effective way for individual citizens to communicate directly with their representatives. Due to their prominence and accessibility, these virtual platforms have become integral to communication and political engagement in the United States, specifically among those concerned with social change. My research answers the question of how the Black Lives Matter movement has been categorized into major themes through online discourse with regard to who begins narratives, how they spread, and what they become through the use of Twitter. A critical discourse analysis of such findings reveals the nature of online political discourse, how the use of social media impacts the setting of the American political agenda, and what the future of further digitalized political engagement may look like
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and co-occurring disorders (CODs): Is there a relationship between ACEs, substance use, and mental health among inmates?
Get PDFPrevious literature has shown that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are a factor in future criminal behavior, victimization, and overall health (DeLisi et al., 2017; Mersky et al., 2013; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Research has also found that co-occurring disorders (CODs) are prevalent among inmates with approximately half of inmates meeting the criteria of mental health and substance use disorders in previous studies (Butler et al., 2011; James & Glaze, 2006). The current study explores the relationship between ACEs and CODs, specifically in the areas of substance use and mental health. This study utilizes a secondary data analysis of an Inmate History and Needs survey completed by 166 inmates (59 females, 107 males) from three different rural jails in a southern state. Specifically, I examine if there is a relationship between ACEs and CODs among inmates. Additionally, I explore if CODs differ among male and female inmates and the relationship between parents, CODs, and living with their children prior to arrest
Computational studies on polyunsaturated fatty acid uptake and its effects on antimicrobial resistance
Get PDFThe topic of this research was initiated by the discovery, in part by Dr. David Giles, that Vibrio cholerae, the enteric bacteria responsible for the disease cholera, has the ability to uptake and utilize long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids up to 22 carbon atoms long. Before this discovery was made, conventional belief was that fatty acids of greater than 18 carbons long were toxic to bacteria. Further investigations have revealed that this uptake is not unique to Vibrio cholerae, and a range of bacteria such as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, and even Escherichia coli have been found to uptake and use these longer chain fatty acids to varying degrees. This uptake has been linked to increased antimicrobial resistance, motility, biofilm formation, and virulence phenotypes. This research was a collaboration between Dr. David Giles and Dr. Bradley Harris to computationally investigate the uptake mechanism for the uptake of long chain fatty acids, as well as the effects these long-chain fatty acid integrated phospholipids have on antimicrobial resistance. The investigation was performed in two parts; the first involving the uptake of fatty acids by the long chain fatty acid transport protein FadL; the second a membrane system interacting with cationic antimicrobial peptides. The FadL uptake study involved the atomistic level modelling of various FadL homologs found in virulent V. cholerae serotypes. Docking of equilibrated FadL homologs presented information on the binding energies and binding locations of each fatty acid tested for a wide range of conformations. The summation of the binding locations revealed preferred binding sites and oftentimes the channels between them. To investigate cationic resistance, atomistic membrane systems were generated with varying fatty acids replacing the phospholipid tail groups. For each of the test membranes, various cationic antimicrobial peptides were pulled through the membrane systems using steered molecular dynamics. The membrane permeability for each fatty acid was analyzed from the energy required to move the cationic peptide through the membrane as well as the response of the membrane structure as the peptide passed through. Future suggested studies would include steered molecular dynamics for fatty acid transport through each FadL homolog. This would verify the found channels and investigate any conformational shifts in structure to accommodate the passage of the fatty acid. For the membrane permeability study, additional peptides could be tested as well as systems using the outer membrane of gram-negative bacteria. Additional studies using less complex membrane leaflets may also be insightful
First report of meiofauna biodiversity from the Tennessee River
Get PDFSmall-sized (\u3c 1mm) invertebrates, commonly known as meiofauna, are abundant and ubiquitous in all aquatic ecosystems, performing key functions such as nutrient cycling and sediment stability. Yet, their unexplored diversity and response to disturbances limit our capacity to understand, mitigate, and remediate the consequences of pollution and environmental changes. The biodiversity of meiofauna is largely overlooked especially in freshwater habitats. For example, the Tennessee River hosts more aquatic species than any other region in North America and contains one of the most diverse aquatic ecosystems in the world, however, little is known about its meiofaunal biodiversity. This work includes results obtained between 2019 and 2021 thanks to the contribution of research students working in Leasi’s lab and students enrolled in the Meiofauna Biodiversity class. An integrated morphological and molecular approach revealed the presence of over 200 meiofaunal species distributed across 10 phyla. Results support that the Tennessee River could be a hotspot of biodiversity for small-sized animals as well. Future works will focus on understanding how anthropogenic inputs affect meiofauna biodiversity in this important ecosystem
Who we are in the world: an investigation into psychology and worldview
Get PDFAt the heart of Psychology is the search for understanding — understanding ourselves, understanding others, and understanding our places in the world. At one point or another a person comes to ask themselves fundamental questions about human life, like “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?” and “What will happen to me?” Although these questions are not usually asked out loud, these attempts to make meaning of our lives serve as a reference for our worldviews. In part 1, I take a theory-driven approach to address the questions “What is a worldview?”, and “How is worldview studied psychologically?” In part 2, I introduce a new measure of worldview — The Philosophical Worldview Questionnaire (PWQ) — given to 159 students and address how they describe their worldview using worldview statements, what the benefits of taking the PWQ are, and how well the PWQ fits as a measure of worldview, with directions for the future
Sexual harassment in an overlooked occupation: experiences of CNA and the influence of nurses
Get PDFThe prevalence of sexual harassment (SH) in health care facilities has been documented in previous research, but few studies have focused on Certified Nursing assistants (CNA; Burgess et al., 2018; Dean, 2020; Deery et al., 2011; Hibino et al., 2006). The purpose of this study is to explore SH that CNA experience from their patients and what influence supervising nurses may have in impacting the negative outcomes of SH. Participants (N = 95) were recruited to take an online survey through social media and snowball recruiting. The hypotheses of this study were not supported by the data, but results may be limited due to sample-related limitations. A significant finding of this study was that 64% of participants reported experiencing SH within the last 12 months from a patient. Significant correlations were found with negative affect and reporting SH. Organizational implications are discussed related to promoting awareness, policy improvement, and simplifying the reporting process