M. Anthony Machin

The role of workload and driver coping styles in predicting bus drivers’ need for recovery, positive and negative affect, and physical symptoms

Abstract A survey was conducted on a sample of 159 Australian bus drivers to determine the extent to which workload and self-reported driver coping styles predicted their subjective health status. The model that was proposed incorporated the hours spent driving as a measure of workload, both adaptive and maladaptive driver coping styles, and self-report measures of need for recovery (i.e., fatigue), positive and negative affect (PA and NA), and physical symptoms. The results of hierarchical regression analyses revealed that the workload was a significant predictor of drivers’ need for recovery, but not of their PA and NA nor of their physical symptoms. Need for recovery was in turn a significant predictor of PA and NA and of their physical symptoms, indicating that it mediates the influence of workload on PA and NA and physical symptoms. Two maladaptive coping strategies added to the prediction of need for recovery, as well as to the prediction of NA, even after controlling for the influence of need for recovery. One adaptive coping strategy added to the prediction of PA. Strategies for management of fatigue in bus drivers should focus on the assessment and remediation of maladaptive coping strategies which impact of drivers’ need for recovery, which in turn predicts PA and NA and physical symptoms.

The Development and Preliminary Testing of a Scale to Measure the Latent and Manifest Benefits of Employment

Abstract. Theorists have argued the importance of the latent and manifest benefits of employment and their relationship with psychological well-being. However, no one scale has been devised that adequately and reliably measures all five latent and one manifest benefit together. The aims of this study were to develop such a scale that would satisfy standards for psychometric adequacy, and to present evidence for its validity. In the scale development phase, in-depth interviews with 33 unemployed adults and comments from labor market experts were used in the item generation process. In Study 1, 307 unemployed adults were surveyed, and item analysis, interitem and item-total correlations and factor analysis were used to reduce the item pool to a 36-item scale, with six homogeneous and reliable subscales. In Study 2, 250 unemployed adults were surveyed and the scale was subjected to confirmatory factor analysis and tested for associations with psychological distress, neuroticism, and various demographic varia...

The impact of reemployment on access to the latent and manifest benefits of employment and mental health

This study focused on the impact of reemployment on access to both the latent and manifest benefits of employment, and mental health. Existing theories predicted that reemployment would positively affect these variables. One hundred and fifteen unemployed participants in South East Queensland, Australia, completed two paper-and pencil surveys administered 6 months apart that included measures of financial hardship, financial strain, access to the latent benefits (collective purpose, social contact, status, activity, and time structure), and mental health (as measured by the GHQ-12). Participants who gained employment (N = 58) were better off financially, reported greater access to social contact and time structure and had significant improvements in their mental health at Time 2. Participants who remained unemployed showed no change over time. Whilst these results highlight that there is a strong positive impact of reemployment, it is acknowledged that the picture is much more complex than what we have reported here. We recommend that structured programs be available before unemployment is experienced, particularly those that have a beneficial preventive effect on mental health among those participants most at risk of psychological disorders.

Understanding the differential benefits of training for the unemployed

This study examined the connection between background variables (such as length of unemployment and number of previous training courses), contextual variables (perceptions of training climate), dispositional variables (positive affect and negative affect), and psychological outcomes for unemployed trainees who attended either a 5-week occupational skills training program (control group) or the same 5-week program with an additional 2-day intervention before the start of the program (treatment group). The trainees in both the treatment and control conditions were found to reduce their levels of psychological distress over the course of a 5-week training program. Trainees in the treatment condition who started with the lowest levels of general self-efficacy and the highest levels of psychological distress showed the greatest improvements at time 2 (T2). The measures of length of unemployment, number of previous training courses, and the perceptions of the training climate (with one exception) did not accoun...

Multidimensional properties of the access to categories of experience scale

This paper tests the factor structure and construct validity of the Access to Categories of Experience scale (ACE; Evans, 1986), which has been widely used to measure the five latent benefits of employment proposed by Jahoda (1981). The ACE and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ; Goldberg, 1972) were administered to 425 unemployed individuals. This original sample was randomly split into two subsamples. Exploratory factor analyses conducted on the first subsample demonstrated four rather than the five separate factors for the ACE scale, which has been asserted by its development and its previous use. The scale was dominated by one major factor of Activity. Confirmatory factor analysis conducted on the second subsample demonstrated a better fit for the four factors rather than the five. Construct validity was established for the ACE scale. When the identified ACE factors were correlated with the GHQ, higher levels of access to the latent benefits was associated with lower levels of psychological distress, although this result was not identified for all factors. The implications of this finding for the latent deprivation model (Jahoda, 1981) are discussed, and recommendations are made in relation to the use of the ACE scale in this area of research.

Maintaining Wellbeing during Unemployment.

A survey of 371 unemployed people in South East Queensland explored whether deprivation of the latent benefits of employment was able to predict psychological distress after controlling for other key correlates. A standard multiple regression found that the latent benefits (timestructure, social contact, collective purpose, enforced activity, and status) accounted for a significant 13 per cent of the variance in psychological distress, with time structure being the most important unique predictor. However, after controlling for self-esteem, positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), satisfaction with employment status, employment commitment, and financial strain, the latent benefits did not significantly add to the prediction of distress. The results are discussed in terms of their practical implications for career development.

Some Implications of the Psychological Experience of Unemployment

This paper presents a summary of some of the implications gleaned from a research project which investigated the psychological influences on the experience of unemployment. Drawing from deprivation theory and the stress and coping literature, the research project explored coping resources, cognitive appraisals, coping behaviours, mental health and re-employment. The results highlight the importance of considering a range of factors that could impact on the psychological wellbeing, job search behaviour and re-employment prospects for unemployed individuals. some of those factors include core self-evaluations, appraisals of deprivation or hardship, and activities that individuals pursue in their spare time. suggestions are made for intervention strategies that can be tailored to the specific need of the individual.

Employee Participation in Non-Mandatory Professional Development--The Role of Core Proactive Motivation Processes.

With a focus on the self‐initiated efforts of employees, this study examined a model of core proactive motivation processes for participation in non‐mandatory professional development (PD) within a proactive motivation framework using the Self‐Determination Theory perspective. A multi‐group SEM analysis conducted across 439 academic and general employees of an Australian regional University provided initial support for the model. Results indicated that when employees are autonomously motivated to participate in non‐mandatory PD, intrinsic benefits are the most salient aspiration that also mediate the influence of autonomous motivation on transfer implementation intentions. Extrinsic benefits are likely to be a secondary outcome which does not directly relate to transfer implementation intentions. Further research should replicate and extend this core model in other organizational settings where participation in non‐mandatory PD is a critical factor in the effectiveness of the organization.

Identification and Description of Novel Mood Profile Clusters

Mood profiling has been a popular assessment strategy since the 1970s, although little evidence exists of distinct mood profiles beyond the realm of sport and exercise. In the present study, we investigated clusters of mood profiles derived from the six subscales of the Brunel Mood Scale using the In The Mood website. Mood responses in three samples (n = 2,364, n = 2,303, n = 1,865) were analyzed using agglomerative, hierarchical cluster analysis, which distinguished six distinct and theoretically meaningful profiles. K-means clustering further refined the final parameter solution. Mood profiles identified were termed the iceberg, inverse iceberg, inverse Everest, shark fin, surface, and submerged profiles. Simultaneous multiple discriminant function analysis showed that cluster membership was correctly classified with a high degree of accuracy. Chi-squared tests indicated that the six mood profiles were unequally distributed according to the gender, age, and education of participants. Future research should investigate the antecedents, correlates and consequences of these six mood profile clusters.