Opportunities For Rewards Research Articles

Scientific rewards and conflicts of ethical choices in human subjects research.

The primary responsibility of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Committee on Standards in Research (CSR) is to advise the APA on issues and standards related to the protection of human participants in psychological research. A related goal is to enhance the use of good ethical practices by APA members. The purpose of this article is to foster the view of research ethics not as an affront to the integrity of sound research, but as opportunities for scientific rewards, including increased understanding of the meaning of data, enhanced recruitment, and the inclusion of more representative samples. Three ethical practices are discussed as examples of this general premise: respect for confidentiality, use of debriefing, and assurance that participants are noncoerced volunteers. The Committee's intent is to promote consideration of these issues, not to promulgate specific guidelines or procedures.

Consumer Journalism: A Unique Nursing Opportunity

Consumer magazines have become a major source of health education. Yet most health articles are written by journalists, or "medical writers," who lack the background and training in patient education that nurses have. For nurses who know how to write, or who are willing to learn, the field of consumer journalism provides a way to share their expertise with millions of readers and offers innumerable opportunities for financial reward, professional growth and personal satisfaction.

Extraversion, neuroticism and appraisal of stressful academic events

The present research was conducted to assess the relationship between personality and appraisal of stressful events as threats or as challenges. Appraisals are thought to arise from an evaluation of resources available to cope with events. Evaluation of resources as being relatively more inadequate or adequate should lead to relatively greater threat or challenge appraisals, respectively. Because high neurotic individuals' resources are taxed by negative cognitions, they should evaluate available resources to be inadequate, leading to a positive relationship between Neuroticism (N) and threat. Stable individuals should appraise stressors as challenges. Moreover, thinking of N as sensitivity to punishment and Extraversion (E) as sensitivity to reward suggests that Extraverts should appraise stressful events as challenges because these individuals should see situations as opportunities for reward, not for punishment. Thus, N should be positively related to threat appraisals and negatively related to challenge appraisals, while E should be positively related to challenge appraisals, but not related to threat appraisals. The hypotheses were supported. Future research should consider the process underlying the observed relationships.

The outcomes of job change

A longitudinal study of job change among 1100 British managers is described. Repeated measures of perceived work characteristics, self concepts, and work preferences reveal that particular types of job change—employer moves, status shifts (up and lateral), and function change—have characteristic outcomes. Interorganizational movers and upward status movers in particular appear to benefit from job change. Job change is associated with increases in perceived opportunities for growth and material rewards, whereas immobility is associated with decreased opportunities. The results are discussed in relation to stress coping and environmental mastery perspectives on job change, and their implications for organizational, career and human resources development policies are briefly considered.

Open-Space Schools: The Opportunity to Become Ambitious

Ambition in womeni teachlers is analyzed in relation to opportunities available in the work setting. Open-space elementary schools with team teaching, in contrast to traditional schools, provide the teachler with greater opportunities for interactiotn, influence and informal rewards. These opportunities are associated withl a high frequency of ambition among women teachers in the open-space schlool and account for a positive association between ambition and job saitisfaction that is found only among these teachlers. Vcrtical ambition hlas a consistent negative relationship with job satisfaction in bothl settings; this relationship is interpreted as a function of limited opportunities for women teachers in either setting to gain administrative jobs. Implications of innovations in work organization and barriers to upward mobility for ambitious women teachers are discussed. THE FUNDAMENTAL PECULIARITY of the occupation of public elementary school teaching is the flatness of the reward structure. Whether teachers are more or less committed to their profession or more or less skillful in performance has little effect on the rewards they receive. Tenure and salary relate mainly to years of service rather than to skill and commitment. Indeed, evaluation by organizational superiors is infrequent for all but probationary teachers. There are relatively few opportunities for professional advancement in elementary school teaching. Ambitious classroom teachers cannot look forward to an increase in responsibility and influence without somehow leaving the classroom. They may leave education altogether; they may return to schools of education in search of credits or advanced degrees; or they may move into the field of school administration. At this time, however, the possi* This research is supported by funds from the United States Officc of EducaLioin, Departmcnt of Hcalth, Education, and Welfare. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the position, policy, or endorsement of the Office of Education. (Contract No. OEC 6-10-078, Project No. 5-0252-0307.)