Karsten Ingmar Paul

Incongruence as an explanation for the negative mental health effects of unemployment: Meta-analytic evidence

The present paper is concerned with the effects of incongruence between a persons level of employment commitment (measured with scales of work involvement, Protestant work ethic or similar concepts) and his or her current employment situation (employed or not employed). We hypothesize that this kind of incongruence (a) is a typical characteristic of the unemployment situation and (b) is systematically associated with diminished well-being and mental health. Meta-analyses of empirical data endorse both hypotheses. (a) Employed people show only marginally stronger levels of employment commitment than unemployed people (d = 0.11, equivalent to r = .05). Both groups are characterized by high mean levels of employment commitment. Therefore, unemployed people are in an incongruent situation, while employed people are not. (b) Incongruent levels of employment commitment, that is, high levels among the unemployed and low levels among the employed, are significantly associated with psychological distress (mixed symptoms of distress: r = .19; depression: r = .19; anxiety: r = .14; subjective well-being/life satisfaction: r = .13; self-esteem: r = .08). In sum, available cross-sectional data clearly endorse the incongruence model. Meta-analyses of longitudinal data, although based on small sample sizes, are also consistent with the model.

Latent Deprivation among People who Are Employed, Unemployed, or Out of the Labor Force

Using a Web-based survey, the authors tested M. Jahodas (1981, 1982, 1997) latent deprivation model among employed, unemployed, and out-of-the-labor-force (OLF) people. The model predicted that employment is the main provider of 5 specific subconstructs of experience important to mental health: time structure, social contact, collective purpose, status, and activity. As expected, deprivation of these latent functions correlated with distress not only among employed and unemployed people, but also among OLF people. OLF people reported significantly more latent deprivation than did employed people, but they reported significantly less latent deprivation than did unemployed people. Furthermore, latent deprivation mediated the negative effects of unemployment and OLF status on mental health. When the authors statistically controlled the influence of manifest deprivation, the effect of latent deprivation on mental health remained stable.

Does latent deprivation lead to psychological distress? Investigating Jahoda's model in a four-wave study

Unemployment has serious negative effects on psychological health, and yet the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. According to the latent deprivation model, it is the lack of latent benefits of work associated with unemployment, which leads to psychological distress. In a four-wave study among employed persons, unemployed persons, and persons out of the labour force (OLF) (NT1= 1,026), this assumption was tested cross-sectionally as well as longitudinally. Multiple mediation analyses show the expected differences in distress between the employed, unemployed, and OLF persons and indicate that part of this difference can be explained by differential access to the latent benefits. Furthermore, cross-lagged structural equation modelling confirms that a deprivation of latent benefits leads to a decrease in psychological health 6 months later. Findings regarding the different quality of the latent benefits in relation to each other and over time when predicting psychological health are discussed.

What determines inter-coder agreement in manual annotations? a meta-analytic investigation

Recent discussions of annotator agreement have mostly centered around its calculation and interpretation, and the correct choice of indices. Although these discussions are important, they only consider the “back-end” of the story, namely, what to do once the data are collected. Just as important in our opinion is to know how agreement is reached in the first place and what factors influence coder agreement as part of the annotation process or setting, as this knowledge can provide concrete guidelines for the planning and set-up of annotation projects. To investigate whether there are factors that consistently impact annotator agreement we conducted a meta-analytic investigation of annotation studies reporting agreement percentages. Our meta-analysis synthesized factors reported in 96 annotation studies from three domains (word-sense disambiguation, prosodic transcriptions, and phonetic transcriptions) and was based on a total of 346 agreement indices. Our analysis identified seven factors that influence reported agreement values: annotation domain, number of categories in a coding scheme, number of annotators in a project, whether annotators received training, the intensity of annotator training, the annotation purpose, and the method used for the calculation of percentage agreements. Based on our results we develop practical recommendations for the assessment, interpretation, calculation, and reporting of coder agreement. We also briefly discuss theoretical implications for the concept of annotation quality.

Are workers in high-status jobs healthier than others? Assessing Jahoda's latent benefits of employment in two working populations.

Abstract It is known that employment is important for psychological health. The present paper claims that the reasons why employed persons report better well-being than unemployed persons might also explain why those in some occupations report better well-being than others. Jahodas latent deprivation theory (1982) was that employment provides a number of latent beneficial functions, which she identified as time structure, social contact, collective purpose, identity/status, and activity. We argue that this theory can be extended to account for differences in well-being between occupations with different levels of status. Data from two studies, one conducted on a representative German sample (n=565) and the other from a large-scale online study (n=826), largely support this argument. Group differences in well-being and access to latent benefits were found, and mediation was partly supported. The findings are discussed not only in relation to the latent deprivation model but also in relation to common approaches to job satisfaction and mental health.

Negatives psychisches Befinden als Wirkung und als Ursache von Arbeitslosigkeit: Ergebnisse einer Metaanalyse

Die Frage nach Ursache und Wirkung stellt sich fur die psychologische Arbeitslosigkeitsforschung als ein besonders schwieriges Problem dar. Das ein Zusammenhang zwischen Arbeitslosigkeit und psychischer Belastung existiert, wird heute von kaum einem Wissenschaftler noch ernsthaft in Zweifel gezogen. Ob die bei Arbeitslosen beobachtbaren psychischen Probleme aber die Folge der Arbeitslosigkeit sind, oder ob sie sich auf andere Ursachen zuruckfuhren lassen, ist eine wichtige und komplexe Frage, uber die bisher noch keine Einigkeit erzielt werden konnte (vgl. Fryer, 1997; Winefield, 1995). In dem hier vorliegenden Beitrag sollen nach einem Uberblick uber die Aussagen anderer Autoren die Ergebnisse einer Metaanalyse vorgestellt werden, die, wie wir hoffen, helfen werden, grosere Klarheit in dieses schwierige Problemfeld zu bringen.

Identifying Sources of Disagreement: Generalizability Theory in Manual Annotation Studies

Many annotation projects have shown that the quality of manual annotations often is not as good as would be desirable for reliable data analysis. Identifying the main sources responsible for poor annotation quality must thus be a major concern. Generalizability theory is a valuable tool for this purpose, because it allows for the differentiation and detailed analysis of factors that influence annotation quality. In this article we will present basic concepts of Generalizability Theory and give an example for its application based on published data.

Ursachen und Auswirkungen von Arbeitslosigkeit

Wir diskutieren ausgewahlte individuelle Ursachen von Arbeitslosigkeit sowie deren Auswirkungen auf die Betroffenen. Beispielhaft betrachten wir Personlichkeit und psychische Gesundheit als Determinanten von Arbeitslosigkeit sowie die Auswirkungen von Arbeitslosigkeit auf das seelische Wohlbefinden und die weitere Laufbahnentwicklung. Hinsichtlich moglicher Wege aus der Arbeitslosigkeit wird naher auf das Stellensuchverhalten von Arbeitslosen eingegangen, auf systematische Programme zur Forderung der Arbeitsplatzsuche sowie auf Outplacementberatung, Selbststandigkeit und Zeitarbeit. Zudem erfolgt eine Betrachtung des Themas Arbeitslosigkeit im Kontext klassischer und moderner Karrieretheorien.

Die Auswirkungen von Arbeitslosigkeit auf das Sinnerleben und die psychische Gesundheit

Beeintrachtigt Erwerbslosigkeit das Sinnempfinden der Betroffenen? Welche Auswirkungen hat dies auf die psychische Gesundheit? Welche alternativen Sinnquellen konnen Arbeitslose fur sich finden? Um diese und weitere Fragen zu beantworten, werden im vorliegenden Kapitel zunachst zwei theoretische Ansatze zum Zusammenhang von Arbeitslosigkeit und Sinnempfinden vorgestellt, namlich das Konzept der Arbeitslosigkeitsneurose von Viktor Frankl und die Deprivationstheorie von Marie Jahoda. Anschliesend werden Forschungsergebnisse referiert, die belegen, dass Arbeitslosigkeit in der Tat das Sinnempfinden der Betroffenen unterwandert. Langsschnittdaten zeigen zudem, dass es sich um einen kausalen Effekt der Arbeitslosigkeit selbst handelt, nicht nur um einen korrelativen Zusammenhang. Das eingeschrankte Sinnempfinden Arbeitsloser fuhrt dann zu einer Beeintrachtigung der psychischen Gesundheit, die sich insbesondere in Depressionssymptomen ausert. Forschungsbefunde zeigen auch, dass eine aktive und konstruktive Zeitverwendung Arbeitslosen helfen kann, ein existentielles Vakuum mit Gefuhlen tiefer Sinnlosigkeit und Leere zu vermeiden. Abschliesend werden Implikationen fur eine mogliche zukunftige Gesellschaft diskutiert, in der breite Bevolkerungsschichten unter Umstanden keiner Erwerbsarbeit mehr nachgehen werden.