Psychology Research Digest
Journal of Applied Psychology - Vol 110, Iss 5
The Journal of Applied Psychology will emphasize the publication of original investigations that contribute new knowledge and understanding to fields of applied psychology.
Equity, openness, rigor, impact, and investing in people: The Journal of Applied Psychology’s values in action.
In this editorial, the author states that the Journal of Applied Psychology (JAP) publishes original empirical, theoretical, and conceptual research that advances our understanding of affective, motivational, cognitive, and behavioral phenomena in the context of work or employment. In terms of its values, JAP strongly endorses the American Psychological Association (APA) journals’ commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in all aspects of scholarly publishing. Consistent with APA’s support of openness and rigor in psychological science, the journal is a leader in promoting open science practices in the fields of industrial–organizational (I-O) psychology and management. In addition, JAP has a strong culture of developmental reviewing, which is carefully balanced with high expectations for methodological rigor, transparency, and reproducibility. Finally, the journal has taken measurable steps to increase the translational impact of work to better bridge the elusive gap between science and practice. Collectively, these characteristics position JAP as a unique outlet for societally relevant, methodologically rigorous, and reproducible science aimed at better understanding the experience of work, as well as improving employee and organizational outcomes. Next, the editorial expands on each of these points in turn. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Toward whole-person fit assessment: Integrating interests, values, skills, knowledge, and personality using the Occupational Information Network (O*NET).
Measuring person–occupation fit serves many important purposes, from helping young people explore majors and careers to helping jobseekers assess fit with available jobs. However, most existing fit measures are limited in that they focus on single individual difference domains without considering how fit may differ across multiple domains. For example, a jobseeker might be highly interested in a job, yet not possess the requisite skills or knowledge to perform the job well. The current research addresses this issue by evaluating an integrative set of person–occupation fit assessments that measure 88 fit dimensions across five domains: vocational interests, work values, knowledge, skills, and personality. These measures were either newly developed or adapted from existing assessments to directly correspond with occupational variables from the Occupational Information Network database. Across three studies with diverse samples, we obtained extensive reliability and validity evidence to evaluate the fit assessments. Results consistently showed that integrating across fit domains led to practical improvements in predictions of relevant outcomes, including career choice and subjective and objective career success. However, some fit measures (i.e., interests and knowledge) were generally more predictive of outcomes than others (i.e., personality), thus warranting greater consideration for use in research and applied contexts. We discuss how our results advance theoretical and practical knowledge concerning the measurement of person–occupation fit in the modern labor market. Moreover, to inspire additional research and applications involving whole-person fit measurement, we made all newly developed fit assessments publicly available, providing guidance for using them with the Occupational Information Network database. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 09 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Emboldened in the rap “game”: How severely stigmatized video models navigate disrespect and vulnerability to workplace mistreatment.
Moral stigma attached to an occupation can scar workers through discrediting, shaming, and denying respect. It can also open the door to interpersonal mistreatment, but little is known about how morally stigmatized workers navigate anticipated disrespect to potentially avoid harm. We explore this issue in a study of an occupation carrying severe moral stigma and where disrespect and workplace mistreatment are pervasive: models in hip-hop and rap music videos. Through analyses of 71 interviews with 48 video models and 19 industry informants, field observations, and archival data, we show how severe moral stigma and industry constraints promote generalized disrespect of video models (i.e., denial of worth to all role occupants) and, thus, each model’s personal vulnerability to mistreatment. Two distinct groups of models emerged from our analysis—those who viewed themselves as emboldened in their role identity and those who did not—and this emboldened role identity was associated with differing perceptions of their personal vulnerability to mistreatment and their behaviors to mitigate it. The first group of models, those reporting an emboldened role identity, perceived their vulnerability to mistreatment as controllable. They strategically used both assertive behaviors (that earned respect from others) and passive behaviors (that avoided disrespect from others) to mitigate mistreatment. By contrast, the second group perceived their vulnerability to mistreatment as uncontrollable and reported using only passive behaviors (to avoid disrespect) when mistreatment was imminent. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our findings, advancing knowledge of dirty work, workplace mistreatment, respect dynamics, and identity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>A tale of two narratives: The role of event disruption in employee affective and behavioral reactions to authoritarian leadership.
Extant research demonstrates the destructive nature of authoritarian leadership in the workplace, yet its widespread use suggests that a more balanced view of this leadership style may be needed to identify whether this form of leadership engenders favorable reactions in specific circumstances. Integrating insights from appraisal theory and the compensatory control model, we posit that authoritarian leadership can evoke anxiety among employees in less disruptive settings, whereas it evokes feelings of awe in highly disruptive contexts. These anxiety and awe reactions then influence employees’ downstream leader-focused behaviors (i.e., leader-directed avoidance and affiliation) and general work behaviors (i.e., counterproductive behavior and job performance). Thus, whether reactions to authoritarian leadership are dysfunctional or functional is contingent on event disruption as a key boundary condition. Results from an experience sampling study (Study 1), a multiwave and multisource field study (Study 2), and laboratory experiments (Studies 3a and 3b) largely confirm these predictions. The findings underscore the importance of event disruption for predicting employee reactions to authoritarian styles of leadership. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Beyond the prototype: Unpacking the intersectional identity and image work of female minority founders in a startup context.
It is well documented that female minority founders (FMFs) face disadvantages in starting and scaling their ventures. However, the causes of these disadvantages—as well as how FMFs navigate these challenges—are less understood. Our article adopts an intersectionality lens, which allows us to focus on and examine the multiple intersecting dimensions of FMFs (such as gender, ethnicity, migrant status, and social class) and how they influence their entrepreneurial experiences. Drawing upon an inductive study of FMFs operating in Berlin, we build a theory on intersectional identity and image work in startup contexts. We found key structural barriers that serve to sustain inequality and continue to favor more prototypical founders. However, we also identified sources of penalties and privileges that exacerbate (or mitigate) inequality and result in founder image discrepancy. Our analysis demonstrates how founder image discrepancy can prompt FMFs to engage in a progression of intersectional identity and image work that shapes their founder identity. These findings advance entrepreneurship and identity research by extending our understanding of how intersectional identity challenges and opportunities manifest and can be managed within startup contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Correction to “The dynamics of gender and alternatives in negotiation” by Dannals et al. (2021).
Reports an error in "The dynamics of gender and alternatives in negotiation" by Jennifer E. Dannals, Julian J. Zlatev, Nir Halevy and Margaret A. Neale (Journal of Applied Psychology, 2021[Nov], Vol 106[11], 1655-1672). In the article, “† p < .10” and “*** p < .001” were removed from the notes for Tables 3, 4, and 5. In Table 6, five values in the “Total dyads” column and three values in the “% Impasses” column were corrected in the male–female and male–male gender composition categories. In the first paragraph of the “Results and Discussion” section for Study 2, the B and SE values for differences in aspirations set by gender were corrected from B = −0.10, SE = 0.29, to B = −0.03, SE = 0.10. These corrections did not alter any of the article’s conclusions. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record
Euphemism as a powerful framing device that influences moral judgments and punitive responses after wrongdoing.
Euphemism—that is, softening words or phrases substituted for more direct language—has become pervasive in our everyday personal and professional lives. Leveraging theory and research on construal and framing effects, we conceptualize euphemism as a linguistic framing device that influences how observers construe situations and the people, groups, objects, and events within them. We then experimentally investigate the effects of euphemism as a linguistic framing device on third-party judgments about moral transgressions (i.e., bribery, fraud). Across studies (total N = 3,081) we find consistent evidence that employing euphemistic labels (relative to their noneuphemistic analogs) reduces the perceived severity of moral transgressions and, as a result, also reduces third-party motivations to punish transgressors. Overt experimental manipulations to reconstrue euphemistic labels into their noneuphemistic forms reduced, but did not entirely eliminate, the effects on moral severity and punishment judgments. Participants did not sufficiently adjust their judgments. These findings underscore the power of simple linguistic manipulations in influencing public opinion, and they have important implications for the possibility of creating a more just and fair society. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>Too much of a good thing? A multilevel examination of listening to music at work.
Music listening has proliferated in the workplace, yet its effects have been overlooked, and classic investigations offer conflicting results. To advance our understanding, we draw from self-regulation and resource allocation theories to suggest that listening to music has curvilinear effects on attentional focus and performance on work tasks and that willpower belief is a key boundary condition. We test these hypotheses across three studies: a pilot study of 108 employees from a software company who took part in a 2-week experience-sampling methodology study and self-rated their music listening and performance, a laboratory study (Study 1) of 252 undergraduate students in which task attentional focus and objective performance on proofreading tasks were captured across repeated trials while listening to music, and a 3-week experience-sampling methodology study (Study 2) of 247 employees that included a within-person manipulation of music listening (little to no music vs. 1 hr longer than usual vs. 3 hr longer than usual), daily self-ratings of task attentional focus and task performance, and weekly coworker ratings of task performance. We find mixed support for our hypotheses. Time spent listening to music exhibited an inverted, U-shaped relationship with self-rated (pilot study) and objective (Study 1) task performance. Individuals with higher willpower belief maintained higher levels of task attentional focus regardless of the amount of music they listened to (Studies 1 and 2), and the curvilinear relationship of reported music listening with self-rated task performance was more pronounced for individuals who believe that willpower is limited (pilot study and Study 2). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Publication date: Mon, 12 Aug 2024 00:00:00 GMT Access the article >>The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases.
- Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)
Reach Out