A work simulation was conducted to test the effects of workload on stress and performance. Social support was also investigated as a moderator variable. Two hypotheses were tested: (a) stress is an intervening variable between workload and performance and (b) social support moderates the workload-stress relation such that workload leads to lower stress when social support is high. For the 1st hypothesis, a path analysis showed an indirect relation between workload and performance with stress as an intervening variable. For the 2nd hypothesis, there was a significant 3-way interaction between workload, social support, and time. The interaction showed that, in the early Requests for reprints should be sent to Dale N. Glaser, Sharp Health Care, Clinical Outcomes Research,

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This study, conducted in a large public agency and a large private transportation company in the U.S., found strong relationships between organizational characteristics and frustration. Role ambiguity, role conflict, work constraints, and warmth and support predicted the level of frustration experienced by employees. In turn, frustration predicted supervisor-and self-reported aggression. Frustration also predicted self-reported criterion behaviors such as withdrawal, aggression turned inward, and abandonment of goal. Frustration mediated the relationships between organizational characteristics and the criteria. In the study we developed two scales: (1) a self-report scale of behavioral reactions to frustration, and (2) the Workplace Aggressive Behaviors Scale, a guideline to increase supervisors' ability to judge the seriousness of aggressive behaviors in the work environment.

Several major activities related to combat readiness will engage military psychologists for at least the remainder of the decade. The psychologist's role in dealing with problems of acquisition, retention, assignment, training of servicemembers, human factors engineering, and organizational productivity is discussed.During the symposium "What is Military Psychology" held at the 1979 American Psychological Association convention, Arima reminded his audience of Chason's observation that the "orientations of psychologists involved in military psychology are broadly representative of psychologists who work in civilian sectors" (Arima, 1980, p. 1). In many respects, the U.S. Military community is a microcosm of American society. As with their civilian counterparts who are involved in a diversity of professional concerns, psychologists who serve in the Department of Defense (DOD) work in a variety of areas that require expertise in the many subfields of professional psychology.The purpose of this article is to provide the non-DOD psychologist with a general understanding of the major current and future activities of their military colleagues. The article in no way purports to reflect official DOD policy but rather provides the authors' personal and, no doubt, somewhat subjective views of several important behavioral science problems that will face DOD psychologists for at least the remainder of this decade. Our emphasis is, primarily on research and development, organizational skill development, and ergonomic issues rather than on clinical-practice. This restriction is not intended to underemphasize the important role of clinical practice in the military context. Rather, clinical psychologists working in military activities perform functions that closely parallel those of their civilian professional counterparts-individual psychological assessment, psychotherapy, biofeedback, consultation, and so forth. The major differences between the civilian and military clinical settings are that the clinician in the military, probably more than his or her civilian counterparts, works within the traditional physical health care system and has more ability to influence the client's working and living situation because of the "total environment" nature of the military institution.The directions for research in military psychology derive primarily from defense doctrinal assumptions about the nature of anticipated combat situations. It is assumed that in a future combat situation, the American military force will confront an aggressor whose force is numerically superior and who is equipped with greater firepower potential than its own. Further, the military must plan for a "come as you are" war in which there will he no protracted initial buildup of personnel and armaments such as occurred in World War II and Vietnam. American counterstrategy is predicated on the assumption that the major quantitative superiorities of the enemy can be overcome by the qualitative advantages of personnel, leadership, training, and equipment of the Amer...

Factors influencing women's perceptions of a sexually hostile work environment including job type, gender mix of work contacts, level of resourcefulness, and perception of male work contacts' attitudes toward women were investigated to determine their relationship with perceptions of a sexually hostile work environment. One hundred seventy-seven working women participated in this investigation. Results suggest that a woman's job type and the gender mix of those with whom she works do not significantly influence her perception of a sexually hostile work environment. Rather, the more that women perceive their male work contacts as having traditional attitudes toward women and the less personally resourceful the women are, the more likely they are to perceive a sexually hostile work environment.