Does perceived ostracism contribute to mental health concerns among veterans who have been deployed?

Posttraumatic stress-negative psychological experiences as a result of traumatic stressors-can hinder military veterans' reintegration into society and cause various mental health problems. Veterans need quality social relationships to facilitate reintegration and to cope with posttraumatic stress and related mental health problems; discrimination or other forms of interpersonal rejection can exacerbate these veterans' problems. Ostracism (i.e., being ignored and excluded) is a painful and psychologically distressing experience that may be one factor that contributes to the problems of veterans who are dealing with posttraumatic stress. To our knowledge, this connection has yet to be tested empirically. Thus, we investigated the correlation between posttraumatic stress, perceived ostracism, and other theoretically relevant variables (i.e., mental health problems, perceived social support, psychological need satisfaction) in a sample of veterans who have had at least one deployment. Our results provide preliminary empirical evidence suggesting that perceived ostracism may contribute to veteran' deployment-related psychological problems. Veterans' perceived ostracism correlated with psychological problems (i.e., posttraumatic stress symptoms, anxiety and psychological distress), and it explained additional variance in posttraumatic stress symptoms above and beyond common predictors of these symptoms (i.e., deployment stress, perceived military and civilian-based social support). Finally, perceived ostracism emerged as the most important predictor of posttraumatic stress symptoms in a relative weights analysis.

Vocational fit and counterproductive work behaviors: a self-regulation perspective.

This article focuses on establishing a link between vocational fit and 1 domain of job performance: counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). The authors offer a model explaining from a self-regulation perspective how the lack of vocational fit generates CWB and test this model in 2 studies and 3 multisource samples. The 1st study offers support for the mediation model linking vocational lack of fit to CWB through frustration. The 2nd study shows across 2 samples, using both self- and supervisor ratings of CWB, that vocational fit has incremental validity for the prediction of CWB over established predictors, such as broad and narrow personality traits and affect.

The structure of vocational interests in Romania.

Using data provided by the Self-Directed Search (SDS) on a sample of 1,519 participants comprising 3 subsamples containing high school students, university students, and working adults, the authors examine the structure of vocational interests in Romania. Three competing structural models of vocational interests (Holland's circumplex model and Gati's and Rounds and Tracey's hierarchical models) are analyzed with 3 different approaches: (a) frequency analysis of 2-letter codes, (b) randomization test of hypothesized order relations, and (c) structural equation modeling. The stability of the structure of vocational interests across age is also analyzed. The findings suggest mixed evidence for the 3 models, with Holland's model receiving more support from structural equation modeling, and Gati's and Rounds and Tracey's models receiving more support from the frequency analysis of 2-letter codes. The data conclusively show that the structure of vocational interests becomes clearer with age.