Danielle Charbonneau

Typical and atypical antipsychotic medications differentially affect two nondeclarative memory tasks in schizophrenic patients: a double dissociation

Nondeclarative memory (NDM) has subtypes associated with different brain regions; learning of a probabilistic classification task is impaired by striatal damage and learning of a gambling task is impaired by ventromedial prefrontocortical damage. Typical and atypical antipsychotic medications differentially affect immediate early gene expression in the striatum and frontal cortex in normal rats. This suggested the hypothesis that schizophrenic patients treated with typical antipsychotics will have impaired probabilistic classification learning (PCL) and that similar patients treated with atypical antipsychotics will have impaired learning of the gambling task. Groups of schizophrenia patients treated with typical or atypical antipsychotics did not differ from each other on the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) or a number of indexes of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) but performed worse than normal controls on these instruments. In the first study, patients treated with typicals (n=20) but not atypicals (n=20) or normal controls (n=32) were impaired in probabilistic classification. In the second study, those treated with atypicals (n=18) but not typicals (n=18) or normal controls (n=18) were impaired in the gambling task. Results suggest that typical and atypical antipsychotics differentially affect nondeclarative memory mediated by different brain regions.

Emotional intelligence and leadership in adolescents

We tested the validity of two measures of emotional intelligence (EI) and we investigated the relation between EI and leadership in 191 adolescents (M=14.33 years) attending a 3-week military training camp. A scale by Schutte et al. [Personality and Individual Differences 25 (1998) 167] assessed primarily the intrapersonal aspect of EI, whereas selected items from the Weisinger [Emotional intelligence at work (1998) Dan Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass] scale measured primarily the interpersonal aspect. Participants were also rated by their peers and junior leaders on the Weisinger items. Leadership was assessed using a peer nomination system for task-goal and socio-emotional orientation [Schneider, Ehrhart, & Holcombe (in press) Leadership in adolescence: comparing peer and teacher perspectives and correlates, Leadership Quarterly]. Both measures, but especially the Schutte et al. scale, correlated with social desirability, suggesting problems of discriminant validity. Scores on the Schutte et al. scale did not correlate with any peer nominations, indicating questionable convergent validity. In contrast, scores on the Weisinger scale (self-report) correlated with peer nominations of socio-emotional leadership and task-goal leadership. However, the lack of correlation between the self-rated and the other-rated versions of the Weisinger scale is a concern.

Emotional intelligence and prosocial behaviors in adolescents.

The relationship between emotional intelligence and prosocial behaviors and sex differences in 134 adolescents involved in a 6-wk. training camp run by the military was investigated. They were asked to evaluate themselves on emotional intelligence and randomly chosen peers evaluated them on prosocial behaviors, indicated by organizational citizenship behaviors, a measure used in work organizations. Ratings of emotional intelligence significantly correlated with scores on two of the five organizational citizenship behavior factors: Altruism (r = .25, p<.01) and Civic virtue (r = .24, p < .01). The girls scored somewhat, but not significantly, higher than the boys on Emotional Intelligence, Altruism, Conscientiousness, and Civic virtue, an observation which might be explored further.

Influence tactics and perceptions of transformational leadership

The study examined the association between four influence tactics known to be effective in generating a targets commitment to a task and perceptions of transformational leadership. Eighty military personnel were rated by 181 peers on four influence tactics and four transformational leadership factors. The influence tactics of rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation and collaboration were expected to differentially predict idealized influence (behaviour), inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. Results show that rational persuasion significantly contributed to the variance in all four transformational leadership factors. Inspirational appeals made significant contributions to the variance in idealized influence and inspirational motivation. Consultation and collaboration did not significantly contribute to explaining the variance in any of the four transformational leadership factors. These results suggest that training in rational persuasion a...

Impaired incentive learning in treated Parkinson's disease

OBJECTIVE To quantify the performance of patients with Parkinsons disease (PD) in incentive learning, or learning to respond to stimuli that signal the imminent presentation of a reinforcer, and in paired-associate learning, or learning of word associations. METHODS The performance of 32 patients with idiopathic PD was compared to that of 25 healthy control subjects, and 32 subjects suffering from arthritis, matched for age and education. The PD and arthritic groups were comparable on a self-report measure of physical disability. All subjects were physically capable of satisfying the contingencies of the incentive learning task. The avoidance task that quantified incentive learning used money loss as an aversive stimulus. The word paired-associate learning task was presented on a computer and feedback was not given on performance. RESULTS The normal and arthritic groups performed equally well on the avoidance task, whereas the PD group was impaired despite dopaminergic replacement therapy. The groups did not differ significantly in paired-associate learning. CONCLUSIONS These findings are among the first to suggest that the nigrostriatal dopamine dysfunction associated with PD may play a role in incentive learning but not in paired-associate learning and are consistent with a role for dopamine in certain forms of learning and memory. The findings may highlight differences between tonic and modulated function in the nigrostriatal system.

Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation in a Canadian military sample

Three studies examined the role of self-selection and military socialization on the development of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA; Altemeyer, 1998) and social dominance orientation (SDO; Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle, 1994). The first study compared students who had applied to join a military officer training program with those who had not applied. The second study, a cross-sectional design, compared first-year and final-year military and civilian university students. The third study was a longitudinal study that examined changes on the measures over a period of 4 years. The results from Study 1 demonstrated that students who applied to join the military had lower SDO scores than students who did not apply to join the military. Study 2 revealed higher SDO scores for 4th-year military students compared to 1st year; no differences were found for the civilian samples. Finally, the longitudinal study revealed increases in SDO for military students. In the three studies, no significant increases were observed with RWA. The findings from this research suggest a renewed examination is required of civilian and military differences regarding RWA and SDO. Furthermore, military socialization, and not self-selection, can potentially explain why the military score high on SDO. These results suggest that military and/or educational training experiences could increase SDO scores.

Can Perceptions of Supervisor-Related Ethical Climate Influence How High-Impression Managers Admit Past Unethical Behavior?

In this study, we investigated how the perceptions of ethical climate as it relates to supervisor behavior and impression management are related to admission of past unethical behavior in a sample of Canadian Army personnel. We expected that among respondents who perceive less ethical supervisor-related climate, the relationship between Impression Management (IM) and the admission of past unethical behavior should be significant and positive. In contrast, among respondents who perceive a more ethical supervisor-related climate, the relationship between IM and self-report past unethical behavior should be weak or nonsignificant, and the frequency of admission of past unethical behavior should be low. Although moderation occurred, it was not as hypothesized. IM predicted admission of having obeyed, or witnessed others obey an unlawful command when perceptions of supervisor-related ethical climate were low, and not when perceptions of supervisor-related ethical climate were high. However, higher (vs. lower) impression managers admitted less past unethical behavior, regardless of their perceptions of supervisor-related ethical climate. These results suggest that high impression managers do not admit to having obeyed or witnessed others obey an unlawful command in the past, regardless of their perceptions of the ethical climate as it relates to supervisor behavior.

Antecedents and outcomes of unit cohesion and affective commitment to the Army

ABSTRACT Group cohesion and affective commitment have shown to have critical relevance to military organizations in particular. The relationship between cohesion and affective commitment is established, and the two constructs share a number of common organizational antecedents and employee outcomes. The authors explored the relationship between cohesion and affective commitment in a model that incorporates antecedents (effectiveness of immediate leadership and procedural justice) and consequences (organizational citizenship behaviors [OCBs] and turnover intentions) common to both. Respondents (N = 714, 102 women, 612 men) were Canadian Army personnel. The models suggest that cohesion partially mediates the relationships between (a) perceptions of immediate leadership and affective commitment to the Army and (b) perceptions of unit procedural justice and affective commitment to the Army. Furthermore, affective commitment to the Army partially mediates the relationship between unit cohesion and turnover intentions but fully mediates the relationship between unit cohesion and OCBs. This model helps explain some common variance between unit cohesion and organizational affective commitment.

Gender, self-efficacy, and warrior identification in Canadian Army personnel

ABSTRACT Our purpose was to explore attitudes towards the presence and capabilities of women within the Canadian Army, identify gender differences in soldier self-efficacy and warrior identity and investigate relationships among these constructs. Canadian Army personnel (N = 714, 102 women, 612 men) reported attitudes on (1) the success of women’s integration within the Canadian Army, (2) self-efficacy as a soldier, and for a subset of respondents (3) warrior identification and soldier pride. We conducted general linear models and found no gender differences in attitudes towards the presence and capabilities of women in the Army, and soldier pride. However, servicewomen reported lower levels of self-efficacy in various military domains, and less warrior identification relative to servicemen. Mediation analyses indicate that soldier self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between gender and warrior identification. Our findings were not explained by a number of covariates. These findings indicate that attitudes towards the integration of women in the Canadian Army are going in a positive direction, but that self-efficacy is one area that might be undermining women’s identification with being a warrior. The self-efficacy literature suggests that ensuring successful training experiences might be one such mechanism to improve soldier self-efficacy in servicewomen.