“Impressive?” Credentials,family photographs,and the perception of therapist qualities

The impact of the number of displayed credentials (0, 2, 4, or 9) and the presence or absence of family photographs on participants' judgments of a therapist's qualities was assessed. In a between-participants design, 227 participants made these judgments after viewing a projected digital image of a therapist's office. The judgments of the characteristics yielded three factors, Qualifications, Friendliness, and Energy. Analyses indicated that in general, the greater the number of credentials, the more positive the judgment of the therapist's Qualifications and Energy. The presence of family pictures had no significant impact on judgments. Results are discussed in terms of recommendations for the counseling environment.     

A meta-analytic test of the differential pathways linking ethical leadership to normative conduct

We test how ethical leadership influences normatively (in)appropriate work behavior through distinct mediating pathways, including one's exchange relationship with the leader, ethical culture, and identification with the organization. Our study also controls for transformational leadership as a predictor and trust in leader as a nonhypothesized alternative mechanism. We test our hypotheses using meta-analytic structural equation modeling based on our meta-analysis of 301 independent samples (N = 103,354) and relevant meta-analytic correlations reported in previous research. Supporting our prediction, we found that leader–member exchange, which represents social exchange theory, was the most potent mechanism that accounts for the positive relationship between ethical leadership and task performance. In contrast, ethical culture, which assesses a social learning mechanism, is the strongest predictor of counterproductive behavior. In addition, all three hypothesized mediators each contribute to understanding the positive relationship between ethical leadership and organizational citizenship behavior, although the indirect effect via organizational identification was the weakest. The findings hold after controlling for job satisfaction as another mediator parallel to the theoretical ones. Our results contribute to a precise theory about ethical leadership by differentiating the processes through which it affects employee behavior.     

Testing the capacity of clothing to act as a vector for non-native seed in protected areas

Although humans are a major mechanism for short and long distance seed dispersal, there is limited research testing clothing as a vector. The effect of different types of material (sports vs hiking socks), or different items of clothing (boots, socks, laces vs legs) or the same item (socks) worn in different places on seed composition were assessed in Kosciuszko National Park, Australia. Data was analyzed using Repeated Measures ANOVA, independent and paired t-tests, Multi-dimensional Scaling Ordinations and Analysis of Similarity. A total of 24,776 seeds from 70 taxa were collected from the 207 pieces of clothing sampled, with seed identified from 31 native and 19 non-native species. Socks worn off-track collected more native seeds while those worn on roadsides collected more non-native seeds. Sports socks collected a greater diversity of seeds and more native seeds than hiking socks. Boots, uncovered socks and laces collect more seeds than covered socks and laces, resulting in 17% fewer seeds collected when wearing trousers. With seeds from over 179 species (134 recognized weeds) collected on clothing in this, and nine other studies, it is clear that clothing contributes to unintended human mediated seed dispersal, including for many invasive species.