Bernadette H. Schell

Death Anxiety Scale Means and Standard Deviations for Ontario Undergraduates and Funeral Directors

Templers Death Anxiety Scale is a 15-item true-false inventory designed to assess death anxiety in individuals. This procedure, developed and tested in the United States, has here been applied to a Canadian sample of 340 respondents: 42 community college computer science students, 93 university students, 56 community college funeral service students, and 149 licensed funeral service directors in Ontario. In doing so, the stability of previous USA findings and the reliability and generalizability of the instrument have also been investigated. The instrument was distributed to all respondents by mail. A major finding was that funeral directors appear to have lower death anxiety than college students. Implications of this research along educational lines are discussed.

Factors Affecting Censorship by Canadian Librarians

ABSTRACT This study investigated the risk propensity and self-actualization of public librarians with regard to censorship behavior. A sample of 169 librarians from the province of Ontario responded to a 124-item mail questionnaire that incorporated a number of previously validated instruments, including the Adorno F Scale (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswick, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950), the Short Index of Self-Actualization (Jones & Crandall, 1986), and the Choice Dilemmas Questionnaire (Kogan & Wallach, 1964). Analyses indicated that the librarians were generally liberal in attitude but conservative in behavior with respect to censorship and book selection. Moreover, they appear to have been averse to taking risks and not selfactualized. These results are discussed in terms of cognitive dissonance theory and risk propensity theory.

Geophysical variables and behavior: XXIX. Impact of atmospheric conditions on occurrences of individual violence among Canadian penitentiary populations.

This project studied the effects of weather variables and size of the population on minor and major violence rates within six prisons in the Kingston, Ontario, Canada area from January, 1980 through December, 1983. While weather variables have been studied in relation to mood changes within the general population, this study was the first to analyze the impact of weather variables on rates of violence within the prison setting using forward inclusion multiple regression. Analysis showed that (1) population size consistently appeared positively correlated with assaults on other inmates among the male medium-security prisoners during the summer months. (2) In the summer months, temperature tended to be positively related to some minor kinds of offenses, but in the winter months the relationship was negative. (3) Humidity, rain, sunshine hours, snow, and snow on the ground were not consistently related to incidences of minor and major violence. (4) Indices of geomagnetic disturbances had statistically significant inverse relationships with attempted suicide/self-inflicted injury rates among the male prisoners during the summer months. (5) Over 12 months, wind was generally negatively correlated with incidences of major and minor violence among the male inmates. For 6-mo. periods, wind was generally positively correlated with violence rates during the winter months and negatively correlated during the summer months among the male inmates. (6) The findings relating weather variables to violence rates is the womens prison were consistently in opposition to those found for male prisoners during the 4-yr. period.

TASK-ACHIEVEMENT, OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE, TYPE A TRAITS, AND JOB SATISFACTION OF PROFESSIONALS IN PUBLIC PRACTICE ACCOUNTING

This paper contains a description of the results of a two-year study of task-achievement, obsessive-compulsive, Type A traits, and job satisfaction within randomly selected groups of 499 public practice accountants in Ontario, Canada. The results supported the notion that this profession attracts and conditions personalities with task-oriented, order-driven, Type A characteristics. With the exception of those who were advanced partners, the majority of public practice accountants were only moderately job-satisfied and were reportedly not committed to staying in their present jobs until retirement.

The Prevalence of Sexual Harassment, Stalking, and False Victimization Syndrome (FVS) Cases and Related Human Resource Management Policies in a Cross-Section of Canadian Companies from January 1995 Through January 2000

This study used a questionnaire design to investigate the relative prevalence of reported sexual harassment, stalking, and False Victimization Syndrome (FVS) cases in a cross-section of 46 Canadian companies from January 1995 through January 2000. This study also investigated the number of companies having policies related to these three constructs, inside and outside interventions relied upon by the targets for coping with such aggressive incidents, and the injuries reported by the targets as a result of such incidents. Implications for Human Resource managers are discussed.

PERSONALITY AND ATTITUDINAL PREDICTORS OF COMMITMENT FOR FRANCHISEES

ABSTRACT This paper presents the findings of a mail survey distributed to franchisees in five major centres in Ontario. The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of attitudinal predictors and Type A behaviour predisposition on long-term and short-term commitment to the franchise operation. The major findings were that the average franchisee had Type A2 behavioural traits, and that these traits and a few key attitudinal variables were important predictors of commitment. Implications for franchisors were discussed.

AN INVESTIGATION OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION, JOB SATISFACTION, AND JOB COMMITMENT FOR ONTARIO FUNERAL DIRECTORS

This study was the first of its kind to investigate the job satisfaction, job commitment, and self-actualization of funeral directors. A Canadian sample of 149 funeral directors responded to a 293-item mail questionnaire covering such areas as biographical data, self-esteem, death anxiety, career preference for the funeral directing profession, perceived productivity within the profession, job satisfaction, self-actualization satiation, and job commitment. Analyses indicated that funeral directors appear to have low levels of career preference for this occupation, perceived low productivity of members, and moderate job satisfaction and job commitment. The major reason cited for remaining in the funeral-directing profession was their perceived personal growth and social need returns relative to their personal and financial investments.

The Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator and its Usefulness for Problem Solving by Mining Industry Personnel

This article describes the results of a survey study in the mining industry in northeastern Ontario, Canada, to determine if the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Project Planning Situation exercise could be used to assess mining personnels information-processing types and their problem-solving capabilities. Over a 2-year period, 610 males from a metal-mining firm and a uranium-mining firm completed these two inventories. The results of this study showed that the four-letter MBTI typings of ISTJ (introverted, sensing, thinking, and judging) and ESTJ (extroverted, sensing, thinking, and judging) were the most prevalent in the study sample. Implications of the findings for group and individual problem solving in these industries were discussed.

An investigation of Worldmindedness, satisfaction, and commitment for hirers of foreign student exchanges

Sampson and Smiths Worldmindedness scale is a 32-item disagree-agree inventory designed to assess worldminded values in individuals. This procedure, developed and tested in the United States, has here been applied to a Canadian sample of 91 company hirers of foreign students and 21 company nonhirers of such. In doing so, the stability of previous findings for USA students and the reliability of the instrument have also been assessed. Also, using a series of disagree-agree attitudinal items, the hirers were asked about their satisfaction with and commitment to foreign student exchange programs and services. The instrument was distributed to all respondents by mail. A primary finding was that hirers of foreign students appear to have higher worldmindedness scores than North American students and nonhirers of foreign students. Implications of this research along marketing lines are discussed.

HOW TYPE A FRANCHISEES COPE WITH FAILED BUSINESSES: AN ANALYSIS OF MICRO- AND MACRO-SYSTEM FACTORS

ABSTRACT This report presents the results of a questionnaire study investigating the Type A, cognitive complexity, general well-being, and stress-coping profiles of 37 Canadian franchisees whose businesses had failed. It also discusses the important role of marketing in preventing franchise failure. The study group included both international and local franchise representatives. Consistent with the study hypotheses, the findings showed that the franchisee whose business has failed can best be described as a moderate Type A2, rather impatient and hard-driving personality, with above-average cognitive complexity, moderate Type B3 job involvement, and within-normal-range life satisfaction. Moreover, the findings indicated that this occupation generally draws “copers” rather than “victims” of stress, an empirical finding supporting the detachment rather than the aggravation thesis. Significantly different stress-coping mechanisms were noted for the positive-affect and negative-affect Type A franchisees.