Abstract: Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to examine the degree to which the statistical power of moderated multiple regression (MMR) to detect the effects of a dichotomous moderator variable was affected by the main and interactive effects of (a) predictor variable range restriction, (b) total sample size, (c) sample sizes for 2 moderator variablebased subgroups, (d) predictor variable intercorrelation, and (e) magnitude of the moderating effect. Results showed that the main and interactive influences of these variables may have profound effects on power. Thus, future attempts to detect moderating effects with MMR should consider the power implications of both the main and interactive effects of the variables assessed in the present study. Otherwise, even moderating effects of substantial magnitude may go undetected.

Abstract: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the role of the sense of coherence (SOC) as a main effect on well-being and also its possible moderating role in the relationship between work characteristics and well-being in a sample of Finnish technical designers (n = 989). MANOVA/MANCOVA analysis with hierarchical decomposition was used so that the demographic variables (age, occupation gender) were controlled throughout. The results offered strong support for a main effect model of SOC: the stronger the SOC, the lower the level of psychosomatic symptoms and emotional exhaustion. Also, some support for a moderating role of SOC on the relationships between perceived work characteristics and well-being was found. However, these relationships explained only a small proportion of the variance of well-being was found. However, these relationships explained only a small proportion of the variance of well-being indicators. These results showed that the strong SOC subjects seemed to be better ...

Abstract: SUMMARY This paper reports the results of a meta-analytic review of comparative studies of racial identity and self-esteem in transra-cially/transethnically-adopted, inracially-adopted/same ethnic group, and biologic African-American and Mexican-American children. Six studies, including one longitudinal study with four phases, met the established criteria. Study level effect sizes were calculated. Twenty-nine dependent measure effect sizes were also calculated. There was an overall effect, in the negative direction, of transracial adoption on a combined variable of racial/ethnic identity and self-esteem (d = −0.3775, p = .001). The effect size increased when racial identity was considered separately (d = −0.5220, p < .01). Effect size associated with self-esteem was not statistically significant, although a positive direction was noted. Tests failed to achieve homogeneity among included studies. Age of study participant was a moderating variable. Several other potential moderators were also identified. Re...

Abstract: This paper examines factors that contribute to salespersons’ feelings of stress. Common situational factors (job stressors) related to the sales job are examined for their contribution to the understanding of salesperson stress. Locus of control is examined as a moderator of the stressor - stress relationship. Implications for managers and researchers are presented.

Abstract: Many environment—behavior (EB) researchers are interested in the effects of the physical environment on human behavior. However, many researchers appreciate the theoretical and methodological importance of scrutinizing other variables that can intercede in the EB relation (Evans & Cohen, 1987; Moore, 1988; Wachs, 1986; Wohlwill, 1983). Typically, one speaks of other variables that can moderate or mediate EB relations. Moderator variables are “third” variables that alter or qualify EB relations. In contrast, mediator variables interpret, or explain, EB relations.

Abstract: SUMMARY Studies of psychosocial risk and adolescent drag use among minority youth have been primarily descriptive in nature. This may be an unfortunate oversight, particularly because developmental studies indicate that cultural factors play an important role in the etiology of mental health problems. Utilizing data obtained from a sample of minority control students participating in a longitudinal school-based drag prevention trial, we examined the role of ethnic identity as it moderates the relations between several domains of psychosocial risk and alcohol and marijuana use. A risk-factor methodology was used to construct additive risk indices that reflected key domains of a psychosocial model of deviant behavior. Results of cross-sectional analyses indicated that ethnic identity moderated the effects of alcohol-related expectancies, knowledge, and social skills for alcohol use; whereas ethnic identity moderated the effects of social influences, competence, and social skills for marijuana use. Results o...

Abstract: The present study examined the variables influencing a teacher's decision to refer children suspected of having developmental or behavioral problems. Results indicated that younger children were not referred at a disproportionate rate for school psychological services as compared to their older classmates as suggested by earlier research, height and weight acted as moderator variables with respect to teacher referral patterns, African American children were referred at a disproportionate rate for developmental handicap services than were Caucasian children, and males were referred more than females for behavioral problems. These findings are discussed in terms of attribution and expectancy theories. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Abstract: Ethnographic descriptions suggest that compared to European Americans, Chinese Americans place a greater emphasis on emotional moderation. To assess whether such cultural differences influence actual emotional responding, we compared the physiologi­ cal responses and reported affect of 22 Chinese American and 20 European American college-age dating couples in an interpersonal context, that is, during conversations about areas of conflict in their relationship. Although some of our findings were consistent with ethnographic notions of greater emotional moderation in Chinese culture (Chinese Americans demonstrated less variable and less positive reported affect and less variable cardiac interbeat intervals than European Americans), other findings were not (Chinese Americans and European Americans did not differ in most measures of physiological responding and in reported negative affect).

Abstract: The moderator effect of gender on (i) the relation between adolescents' sexual experience on the one hand; and (ii) their orientations towards the type of relational and emotional commitment that they expect to be present before engaging in a sexual relationship, and (iii) having a steady partner on the other was examined. We hypothesized that the relations between these facets would be stronger for women. We utilized a random sample of 253 British adolescents interviewed twice with a 1-year interval LISREL multigroup analysis with mean structures was used to test the hypotheses, thus offering the opportunity of detecting moderator as well as main effects of gender. Differential effects of emotional and relational commitment and having a steady partner relationship on sexual experience supported the hypotheses.

Abstract: Many researchers are unfamiliar with suppressor variables and how they operate in multiple regression analyses. This paper describes the role suppressor variables play in a multiple regression model and provides practical examples that explain how they can change research results. A variable that when added as another predictor increases the total correlation coefficient squared (R squared) is a suppressor variable. Suppressor variables measure invalid variance in the predictor measures and serve to suppress this invalid variance. Two practical examples of the effect. oT suppressor variables are given. One involves the selection of airplane1 vilots and the other concerns the determination of behaviors that predict a woman's intention to have a Pap test. An appendix presents a classroom demonstration that demonstrates the importance of identifying suppressor variables and how they affect research outcomes. (Contains three figures and nine references.) (SLD) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************

Abstract: In a recent study that examined the moderating role of environmental turbulence and discretion on the relationship between top management team (TMT) size and firm performance, Haleblian and Finkelstein (1993) established the importance of top management team size as a factor that can affect firm performance. One reason the size of a firm's top management team is important stems from the impact that size has on the information processing capabilities of the top management team. In many ways a top management team can be considered the information-processing center of an organization (Thompson, 1967). Although the ability to process information is important for all firms, it becomes even more important as the level of a firm's international involvement increases. This is because, for most of these firms, a shift into international markets represents a major environmental shift (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1989). Even within particular industries, worldwide companies must develop very different strategic and organizational responses to changes in their environment (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1989). The increased complexities introduced by increased international activity force organizations to find a management team with the flexibility to develop adaptive strategies (Miller, 1991). As more and more businesses are finding it necessary to expand into international markets in order to remain competitive (Porter, 1990; Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1989, 1991; Lovelock and Yip, 1996), developing an understanding of how TMT size interacts with level of internationalization has become a more important issue. To date, the issue of whether or not a firm's level of foreign involvement moderates the relationship between a management team's size and firm performance has not been examined. As more firms venture into international markets, it becomes important to understand whether or not the relationship between TMT size and firm performance observed in the past (Haleblian and Finkelstein, 1993) will also be seen among firm's with varying levels of foreign involvement. The purpose of the current study is to explore the moderating effect of international involvement on the relationship between top management team size and firm performance. Specifically, it is proposed that in addition to the contributions made by team size and internationalization to the explanation of firm performance, the interaction between the size of a firm's top management team and a firm's level of international involvement will have performance implications. By exploring the moderating effects of international involvement, we may better predict the nature and direction of the influence of this "moderator" on the success of internationally active firms. In addition, results from the current study should provide the necessary foundation from which to develop more complex manager-performance models. CURRENT STATE OF THEORY Top Management Team Size For the most part, strategic management scholars have not done much research on the effects of top management team size on firm performance. Only four studies were found that specifically included team size as a predictor of firm performance. Cooper and Bruno (1977) and Eisenhardt and Schoonhoven (1990) were able to link team size with growth. Hambrick and D'Aveni (1992) found that firms facing bankruptcy were likely to have smaller teams than matched-paired survivors. Haleblian and Finkelstein (1993) argued that the effect of team size on performance depends on both the decision-making environment and the problem-solving task faced by the team. They suggest that smaller teams are more likely to be effective when operating in a relatively stable environment and faced with relatively routine decisions. On the other hand, when decisions are complex and nonroutine, and the environment more turbulent, larger teams, with greater information-processing ability, are more likely to be productive. This research suggests that there are advantages and disadvantages to both large and small top management teams. …

Abstract: This study demonstrates the substantial conceptual consequences in distinguishing a variable’s role as a moderator as opposed to a mediator. In particular, the study investigates the role of dietar...

Abstract: Two experiments tested how situational cues moderated the frame-outcome relationship. In Experiment 1 (E1), three moderating variables were examined: pay-off structure, partner's frame, and instruction set. A fourth moderator variable, no-settlement alternative, was introduced in Experiment 2 (E2). Results from both experiments showed that when issues were distributive, loss-framed negotiators were advantaged when partners were gain-framed; this advantage was increased by cooperative instructions. When issues were integrative, loss-framed negotiator behaviour was stable across experiments. Their performance was markedly worse under highly contentious conditions : when individualistic instructions combined with either a loss-framed partner (E1) or a high no-settlement alternative (E2). Gain-framed negotiator performance was more variable. Cooperative conditions (gain-framed partner, cooperative instructions) resulted in poor outcomes in E1; similar conditions (cooperative instructions, low no-settlement alternative) led to high outcomes in E2. Across all conditions, some of the variation in outcomes could be attributed to differences in concession rates; additional variation was attributed to differences in expectations about a fair outcome.

Abstract: Research on the relationship between life stress and psychological and medical outcomes began approximately 30 years ago. Despite researchers’ initial optimism, however, it soon became apparent that life stress accounted for only a small portion of variance, with correlations in the. 30–40 range. This led to an interest in variables that might moderate the stress-outcome relationship, that is, variables that might define the conditions affecting the predictive role of life events. Initially, the moderator variable of social support dominated research of this type; the empirical literature on the stress-buffering effects of social support is very large (Adler & Matthews, 1994; Cohen & Wills, 1985). In general, this literature provided some support for the stress-buffering role of perceived social support; received support and social network indices were found to be less consistent stress moderators (Cohen & Wills, 1985).

Abstract: Describes the moderation of role stress, specified by role ambiguity, conflict and overload, and job satisfaction by thinking styles. Individuals capable of successfully employing specific styles were successful in reducing the deletrious effects of role stress on job satisfaction. Principal findings included the moderation of the role ambiguity‐job satisfaction relationship by the global style; the role overload‐job satisfaction relationship by the hierarchic style and the judicial style acting jointly with task significance; role conflict due to conflicting requests by the hierarchic style with task identity and task significance; and role conflict from incompatible standards of evaluation by a liberal style with job autonomy and a judicial style with task significance. Discusses both theoretical and practical implications.

Abstract: This study reexamined Lightsey's (1994a) evidence that positive cognitions moderate the negative life event–dysphoria relation. In his research Lightsey failed to fully consider the relevance of the states of mind (SOM) ratio as an alternative moderator variable, and conducted an imprecise analysis of the predictiveness of the SOM model. The present study compared Lightsey's original analysis and an analysis based on the SOM model. The results replicated Lightsey's finding of a Positive Thoughts × Stress interaction but also supported a SOM × Stress interaction. Although the two models were equal in accounting for predicted variance, the present findings, plus Lightsey's (1994b) results from a second study, suggest that negative thoughts and the balance of positive and negative thoughts are important to consider. Limitations plus evidence that positive monologue, in contrast to positive dialogue, showed a greater stress-dampening effect (contrary to SOM model predictions) are discussed.

Abstract: Students took part in two experiments in which simulated performance appraisal reviews were conducted to test whether such reviews could be made participative when the evaluation was negative; and, if so, whether the effects would be constructive. 56 advanced undergraduate business students participated in the first study, in which the manager's and the employee's perceptions of feedback were manipulated as was the amount of the employee's job experience. The resulting participation and reaction to the review were measured. In the second experiment (N = 33) students' perceptions of performance were again manipulated, but a training intervention was used to increase participation in half the reviews. Less participation occurred when the subordinate had prior negative feedback from the job and where the manager's evaluation was inconsistent with previous feedback. Experience was a strong moderator of these effects. In both experiments participation had a positive effect. The results are interpreted in terms...

Abstract: Abstract The obvious question provoked by my title is: why make room for nature and tradition? Such talk, a liberal might assert, is the stuff of intellectual reaction, and we have had more than enough of that over the last few years, no more so than in the realms of sexuality and family life. The aim of this essay, however, is to argue that liberals would do well to reclaim certain traditional moral resources and certain insights about sexuality from their captivity in the domain of intellectual and political reaction. That domain is nowadays defined by a particular aversion to the ideals of equality and liberation that came to the fore in the 1960s. Reclaiming these resources requires liberals to acknowledge that the conservative critics of the 1960s are not all wrong. Conservatives are right, for example, to argue that decent, elevated forms of human sexuality require a self-restraint and moderation that are undermined by simplistic celebrations of liberation from inherited constraints, celebrations that ignore the potentially tyrannical nature of sexual passion.

Abstract: The focus of the paper is on the way in which university affiliation can be used to improve the teaching practice component of teacher training programmes. The model of affiliation used by the University of Botswana is described, and a rationale is offered for procedures used to maintain and improve standards in affiliated institutions. The role of external examining is assessed, the term moderation is defined in the context of affiliation, and the procedures used to moderate teaching practice are scrutinised. Using the moderation reports and data relating to the period 1991–96, the principal issues that have arisen are reviewed and analysed, and their significance is assessed. An evaluation of some of the main outcomes, in terms of the impact made on the affiliated institutions, is then undertaken, in tandem with the way in which experience has brought about modifications made to the moderation procedures. A resume´ is offered of the principal lessons learned to date, and how the University of Botswana model could be replicated. Finally, attention is given to the value of the University of Botswana experience to provide guidelines whereby universities could use a system of teaching practice moderation to raise standards and improve institutional practices in teacher training colleges.

Abstract: The phenomenon of stress is often illustrated by means of the demand-control-support model, a model that has inspired many research efforts in the area of psychosocial work environment. According to the model, work that is characterised by high demands, low decision latitude and low social support affects aversively health and well-being. Work control and social support may on the other hand act as buffers and protect against stress effects. However, there is no agreement on how this process works. The purpose of the present study was to contribute to the developing knowledge of the stress phenomenon by combining two perspectives (the expert- and the participatory one) in a study of stage artists, an occupation differing from those investigated previously. One of the perspectives, the expert one, has its roots in the "main stream" tradition in work psychology and social medicine focusing on statistical testing of the demand-control-support model. The other perspective, the participation one, stems from the psychosocial tradition started in Sweden by Bertil Gardell and his colleagues, focusing on the active role of employees in the research process. The combination of the perspectives was expected to provide knowledge, which is more contextualized and valid. The methods involved "research circles" and a survey distributed to 395 stage artists (actors, singers, dancers, choristers and musicians). "Research circles" served as a means of communication between researchers and artists shaping the survey's form and providing the interpretative frame for the results. In the statistical analysis of the survey data the main-, mediator and moderator effects of control and social support were tested. The results show that work demands, control and social support act through main effect on psychological well-being and health for stage artists. Using a path analysis, no mediator effect of social support and control was found. The hiearchial multiple regression analysis revealed no moderator effects. Creation of meaning involved in the personal identity formation was disclosed in the discussion as being of central importance in the understanding of the artistic work. The study highlights the importance of examining specific groups in working life in order to obtain a contextualized knowledge of stress. The results also show a need to use different epistemological and methodological approaches.

Abstract: The local assessment moderation process is described in terms of Science Education for Public Understanding Program (SEPUP) teachers' roles in the process of student evaluation and the subsequent use of that data for program evaluation. Teachers engaged in local assessment moderation function as a community of judgment, and this task engagement serves as a medium for teacher change. The principal challenge in evaluating the effect of local assessment moderation on teacher professional development was the multisite nature of the SEPUP "Issues, Evidence, and You" field test of a middle school science curriculum with embedded assessment. Teachers in SEPUP centers from Alaska to Washington, DC participated, so that interpretation of findings and presentation of results was complicated by differential organizational factors (leadership, institutional support, and teacher proximity and collaboration) and small sample size at the group level. Teachers from four Assessment Development Centers participated. The teacher change results were intriguing because they reflected a clear dissonance in teachers' minds about the rhetoric versus the reality of assessment reform. Teachers who used the assessment system were more likely to question its value in assessing learning, guiding instruction, and grading by the end of the year than those who were not required to use it. However, the latter group was more likely to use traditional assessment methods by the end of the year. In general the SEPUP Center most successful with local assessment moderation had higher means on measures of teacher change in assessment, collegial, and instructional practices than the less successful Centers. (Contains 4 figures, 3 tables, and 45 references.) (Author/SLD) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Evaluating Teacher Professional Development: Local Assessment Moderation and the Challenge of Multisite Evaluation

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine a model of personality and health. Specifically, this thesis examined perfectionism as a predictor of health status and health behaviours, as moderated by coping styles. A community sample of 813 young adults completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, the Coping Strategy Indicator, and measures of health symptoms, health care utilization, and various health behaviours. Multiple regression analyses revealed a number of significant findings. First, perfectionism and coping styles contributed significant main effects in predicting health status and health behaviours, although coping styles were not shown to moderate the perfectionism-health relationship. The data showed that perfectionism did constitute a health risk, both in terms of health status and health behaviours. Finally, an unexpected finding was that perfectionism also included adaptive features related to health. Specifically, some dimensions of perfectionism were also associated with reports of better health status and involvement in some positive health behaviours. 2

Abstract: The present study is a diagnostic case study of monozygotic twins with developmental language disorder. Twins who share genetic and Social background and school environment provide an excellent opportunity to illustrate the manifestation of the disability across age and the different diagnostic levels. In spite of congruent early development and striking similarities in basic competencies, increasing differences were observed between the twins in later school achievement and behaviour. Findings of the study emphasize the importance of Social and interactional moderator variables in the assessment process. The assessment model formulated by Taylor, Fletcher and Satz (1984) offers a useful frame of reference for assessing developmental disorders. This model consists of four elements: biological indices, manifest disabilities, basic competencies, and moderator variables. This case study emphasizes the meaning of Social interaction as an important variable in the development of children with language disorders.

Abstract: Abstract Those who undertake to research the nature and practice of hypnosis along with their clinical colleagues are no strangers to controversy. From long before the Viennese physician Mesmer (1734--1815) promoted the use of magnetism to cure patients of their physical ailments and Sigmund Freud (1856--1939) made the trip to the laboratory of Charcot (1825-1893) to apprentice himself to the famous neurologist, practitioners of hypnosis have been ambivalently held, and their craft has been the target of suspicion and criticism matched only by the overly enthusiastic claims of its champions. Over the years, due to the occasionally dramatic and underexplained amelioration of symptoms with hypnosis and the often theatrical personalities of some practitioners in this area, ‘‘the voice of moderation and reason has been rare.’’