The Abstracts of the 40th Annual Conference of the Australian Psychological Society
question formats, which did not differ from each other. To clarify issues raised by the results of Experiment 1, the second experiment investigated response biases to 2+O questions. A new sample of 48 four- and six-year-olds answered 2+O questions about the video, with the position of alternatives fully counterbalanced. The results indicated that children exhibited a bias to select the open option of unanswerable 2+O questions.
Prejudice in Australian adolescents: Factors associated with individual differences ROBINSON, J., & GUY, S. (Flinders University)
[email protected]
T
wo studies examined the relationship between personal values, motivation to respond without prejudice and individual differences in adolescents’ prejudice towards Indigenous Australians. Study 1 was completed by university students in late adolescence, 18-20 years, (n=76). Study 2 was completed by high school students in early adolescence, 12-15 years, (n=82) and middle adolescence, 16-17 years (n=63). Participants completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire (Schwartz et al., 2001) Internal Motivation to Respond Without Prejudice Scale and External Motivation to Respond Without Prejudice Scale (Plant & Devine, 1998) and the Attitudes Toward Indigenous Australians (Pedersen & Griffiths, 2003). Participants in Study 1 also completed the Modern Racism Scale-Australia (Augoustinos, Ahrens & Innes, 1994). There was little evidence of age-related changes in values, motivations or expressed prejudice. Personal values that were positively (conformity, security) and negatively (universalism) associated with expressed prejudice could be identified only in the late and middle adolescence groups. Internal motivation to respond without prejudice was negatively associated with expressed prejudice in all age groups. Despite several similarities in findings, the pattern of associations between variables differed in the three age groups. The nature of these differences has implications for theories about the development of values and for interventions that target values as a means of reducing prejudice.
An exploration of the relationship between workaholism and work-family conflict RUSSO, J., & WATERS, L. (University of Melbourne)
[email protected]
T
his field study explores the link between workaholism and work-family conflict (WFC) in a sample of 169 workers employed in the legal industry. Participants completed a questionnaire that assessed workaholism, work-family conflict, supervisor support and flexible scheduling. Workaholism was measured using 2 dimensions of the Spence and Robbins (1992) WorkBat: 1) drive to work and 2) work enjoyment, which produced 4 worker types (workaholics, enthusiastic workaholics, relaxed workers and uninvolved workers). Results demonstrated that workaholics and enthusiastic workaholics experienced significantly more WFC than relaxed and uninvolved workers. Worker type partially moderated the relationships between WFC and gender, number of children and schedule flexibility. Specifically female enthusiastic workaholics experienced more WFC than their male counterparts. Furthermore enthusiastic workaholics experienced declining WFC with increasing numbers of children and with access to flexible scheduling. Managers may use the results of the study to provide greater flexibility in scheduling for enthusiastic workaholics. However, managers need to be shown how to distinguish workaholics from enthusiastic workaholics, as there is evidence that these distinct types of workers will respond differentially to strategies designed to reduce WFC.
Testing a new question format: The influence of question format, question type, and age, on children’s event recall ROSEWELL, L., & HOWIE, P. (University of Sydney)
[email protected]
I
n the current study, two experiments were conducted to investigate the comparative utility of a three-option multiple-choice question with a third open option (2+O question), which, based upon predictions derived from theories of conversational awareness and linguistic pragmatics, was expected to overcome some of the problems associated with the use of 2op (two option multiple choice) questions. In Experiment 1, 48 four- and six-year-olds were asked answerable and unanswerable questions about a video they viewed one week earlier. The results for answerable questions indicated that questions framed in the 2+O format yielded more correct responses than 2op questions, and as many correct responses as ‘no’ questions. ‘Yes’ questions were answered more correctly than all the other formats. ‘Yes’ questions also elicited more accurate recall than all other
The organisational psychology of science: A review of psychological research on scientific eminence and research performance, highlighting the need for a greater understanding of the organisational research environment RYAN, JC. (Auckland University of Technology)
[email protected]
T
his paper reviews psychological research that has been undertaken in attempts to explain variations in scientific performance. In doing so it reports the relevant findings from research on heredity, gender, development, cognition, personality, and other research perspectives and evaluates their strengths and weakness. It also examines the potential
251
