Effect of Framing on Applicants' Reactions to Personnel Selection Methods

This research demonstrates the effect of framing on applicants' reactions to two personnel selection methods: undergraduate grade point average and personnel interview scores. Presenting a selection situation framed positively (to accept applicants) caused applicants to rate both selection methods more favorably relative to presenting them with an identical selection situation framed negatively (to reject the remaining applicants). Framing affected reactions that emphasized distributive justice aspects of the selection situation and procedural justice aspects. The results are consistent with Prospect theory and with Fairness Heuristic theory. The paper offers a theoretical explanation for the effect of framing on applicants' reactions to personnel selection methods, discusses the implications of this effect, and suggests directions for future research.     

发展心理学研究中个体定向的理论与方法

长期以来, 发展心理学研究主要采取变量定向的方法。近年来, 随着发展心理学理论的发展和人类发展个体差异的科学事实的积累, 个体定向的方法得以发展并且成为发展心理学研究的主要方法思路之一。个体定向的方法关注作为整体的个体, 旨在确定有意义的同质性个体类别或亚组。个体定向的方法包括一系列的基本理论原则, 具体数据分析方法包括传统聚类分析、基于模型的聚类方法以及配置频次分析等。发展心理学研究需综合运用个体定向的方法与变量定向的方法。     

Illustrating a Hierarchical Approach for Selecting Personality Traits in Personnel Decisions: An Application of the 3M Model

Recent research indicates that managers are not aware of the latest developments in theory regarding the use of personality inventories in personnel selection decisions. This article presents a systematic approach to selecting traits for use in personnel selection that is based on recent developments in hierarchical personality models. Results from a study of real estate sales associates indicate that the new approach does have much to offer the area. Results are discussed along with managerial implications.     

The importance of distinguishing between constructs and methods when comparing predictors in personnel selection research and practice

The authors highlight the importance and discuss the criticality of distinguishing between constructs and methods when comparing predictors. They note that comparisons of constructs and methods in comparative evaluations of predictors result in outcomes that are theoretically to conceptually uninterpretable and thus potentially misleading. The theoretical and practical implications of the distinction between predictor constructs and predictor methods are discussed, with three important streams of personnel psychology research being used to frame this discussion. Researchers, editors, reviewers, educators, and consumers of research are urged to carefully consider the extent to which the construct-method distinction is made and maintained in their own research and that of others, especially when predictors are being compared. It is hoped that this discussion will reorient researchers and practitioners toward a more construct-oriented approach that is aligned with a scientific emphasis in personnel selection research and practice.     

Psychoanalytic attitudes towards homosexuality: An empirical research

Homosexuality is a challenging subject for the psychoanalytic community, which is now rethinking some of its basic theoretical and institutional assumptions. In recent decades psychoanalytic theory has changed, and the classical psychosexual model has been challenged. After a short review of major psychoanalytical theories of homosexuality, the authors focus on the existence of contrasting attitudes towards homosexuality. This plurality of theories and their clinical and institutional consequences stimulated the authors to investigate the relationship between the individual analyst's theoretical model and his/her clinical practice. The authors present the results of empirical research conducted in the Italian psychoanalytic community on the attitude of psychoanalysts towards homosexuality and the implications for cultural, theoretical and institutional issues. A questionnaire was sent to 600 psychoanalysts (206 of which responded), members of the five main Italian psychoanalytic institutions. First, analysts' personal characteristics and preferred theoretical models were investigated. Second, the respondents responded to statements eliciting their theoretical and clinical approach towards homosexuality. Results indicate that: a) cultural and theoretical background influences the analysts' attitudes towards homosexuality more than gender; b) there is a discrepancy between analysts' theoretical position and their clinical practice; and c) IPA institutes are more discriminatory towards homosexual colleagues than are Jungian ones.     

Why mindfulness belongs in counseling psychology: A synergistic clinical and research agenda

Mindfulness has become an increasingly visible part of the landscape in psychology and medicine in the past several decades. Only recently has this same interest in mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions appeared in counseling psychology. This article provides a brief synopsis of the mindfulness literature and explores the theoretical, ideological, and practical overlap between core values of counseling psychology and this burgeoning area of research and practice. In addition, the article explores ways in which counseling psychology can contribute uniquely to mindfulness research and practice through a focus on multiculturalism and social justice, psychotherapy process and outcome, and supervision and training. Further, ways in which mindfulness can inform counseling psychology’s mission are examined, including offering a strengths-based approach to psychological intervention and prevention and informing supervision and training. Lastly, five specific recommendations for a synergistic research agenda marrying mindfulness and counseling psychology are offered.     

Industrial Sales Force Selection: Current Knowledge and Needed Research

Abstract

Selection of sales force members is a critical function of sales management from both time and financial perspectives, yet little published research specific to this function exists in the marketing and sales management literature. Research in personnel selection has emphasized examination of the relative importance of a few variables in a single decision context. This approach does not consider the possible effects of the multi-decision process presently used in sales force selection. This article presents a conceptual framework of the selection process, reviews the marketing, sales management, and relevant personnel selection literature, and considers necessary future research directions.     

To Accept or to Reject: The Effect of Framing on Attitudes Toward Affirmative Action1

Two experiments examined the effect of framing on attitudes toward an affirmative‐action program of preferential treatment. Participants' attitudes were consistently more favorable toward the affirmative‐action program presented in a positive frame—preferring a target group's applicant over a majority group's applicant—than when the very same program was presented in a negative frame—rejecting the majority group's applicant in favor of the target group's applicant. Similar effects were evident for 3 target groups in the context of higher education selection and personnel selection. Two theoretical explanations for the effect of framing on attitudes toward affirmative‐action programs are suggested. The implications of this effect are discussed, and the challenges facing future research of this phenomenon are outlined.     

Managerial competency modelling and the development of organizational psychology: A Chinese approach

In recent years, China has undergone rapid economic reform and dynamic organizational changes. Several major developments have given special momentum to those changes: China entering the WTO, opening the western regions of China, building up an information network, transforming new management systems nationwide, and encouraging innovations and entrepreneurship. These developments call for more comprehensive and adaptive competencies and new approaches to organizational psychology in China. This provides a national and cultural context of personnel assessment, selection, and development of organizational psychology. Organizational psychology is one of the most active fields for research and application in psychology in China. Three aspects of recent trends are described under a framework of managerial competency modelling. (1) Leadership competence assessment for personnel selection and development has become one of the key aspects of human resources (HR) management in China. Based upon the results from the structured interview and strategic hierarchical job analysis, a model of leadership competency with four dimensions of leadership characteristics and the managerial performance was proposed. The four dimensions are: psychological traits; leadership predispositions; managerial skills; and professional knowledge. (2) HR competency for person‐job‐organization fit. This includes competencies for compensation and motivational strategies, organizational commitment and career management competence, team competence, and group decision‐making skills. (3) Organizational competency for culture and change. This includes an integrative approach to link values with culture, and cross‐cultural leadership skills. On the basis of the recent practice and research developments, a Chinese approach to organizational psychology with important characteristics is summarized: active theoretical development and conceptualization; continuous methodological improvement; close link with HR and management practices; and systematic cross‐cultural socioeconomic perspective. This becomes a key framework for understanding organizational psychology. New directions for research and application in China are highlighted.     

Reviewing,Categorizing, and Analyzing the Literature on Black–White Mean Differences for Predictors of Job Performance: Verifying Some perceptions and Updating/Correcting Others

In both theoretical and applied literatures, there is confusion regarding accurate values for expected Black–White subgroup differences in personnel selection test scores. Much confusion arises because empirical estimates of standardized subgroup differences (d) are subject to many of the same biasing factors associated with validity coefficients (i.e., d is functionally related to a point‐biserial r). To address such issues, we review/cumulate, categorize, and analyze a systematic set of many predictor‐specific meta‐analyses in the literature. We focus on confounds due to general use of concurrent, versus applicant, samples in the literature on Black–White d. We also focus on potential confusion due to different constructs being assessed within the same selection test method, as well as the influence of those constructs on d. It is shown that many types of predictors (such as biodata inventories or assessment centers) can have magnitudes of d that are much larger than previously thought. Indeed, some predictors (such as work samples) can have ds similar to that associated with paper‐and‐pencil tests of cognitive ability. We present more realistic values of d for both researcher and practitioner use. Implications for practice and future research are noted.     

Using priors to formalize theory: Optimal attention and the generalized context model

Formal models in psychology are used to make theoretical ideas precise and allow them to be evaluated quantitatively against data. We focus on one important??but under-used and incorrectly maligned??method for building theoretical assumptions into formal models, offered by the Bayesian statistical approach. This method involves capturing theoretical assumptions about the psychological variables in models by placing informative prior distributions on the parameters representing those variables. We demonstrate this approach of casting basic theoretical assumptions in an informative prior by considering a case study that involves the generalized context model (GCM) of category learning. We capture existing theorizing about the optimal allocation of attention in an informative prior distribution to yield a model that is higher in psychological content and lower in complexity than the standard implementation. We also highlight that formalizing psychological theory within an informative prior distribution allows standard Bayesian model selection methods to be applied without concerns about the sensitivity of results to the prior. We then use Bayesian model selection to test the theoretical assumptions about optimal allocation formalized in the prior. We argue that the general approach of using psychological theory to guide the specification of informative prior distributions is widely applicable and should be routinely used in psychological modeling.     

Modern application of evolutionary theory to psychology: key concepts and clarifications

Darwinian selection has become the centerpiece of biology, and in the past few decades many psychologists and anthropologists have recognized the value of using an evolutionary perspective to guide their work. With a focus on evolved psychological mechanisms and associated information processing features, evolutionary psychology has risen as a compelling and fruitful approach to the study of human psychology and behavior. In this article we review the instrument of evolution: natural selection, the products of evolution, and the impact of evolutionary thinking on modern psychological science. We conclude that as prejudicial barriers are overcome, as more evolutionary psychological work is conducted, and as hypothesized psychological mechanisms are substantiated in other disciplines, evolutionary psychology will emerge as the metatheory for psychology.     

Selection Test Anxiety: Investigating applicants' self‐ vs other‐referenced anxiety in a real selection setting

Test anxiety has received limited attention in personnel selection research, although it may impair the test performance of applicants. This paper describes the development and validation of a new two‐dimensional measure of applicants' test anxiety, namely the Self‐ versus Other‐Referenced Anxiety Questionnaire (SOAQ), that embeds worrisome cognitions of anxious applicants in the social evaluative context of ‘self’ (Self‐Referenced Anxiety) and ‘significant others’ (Other‐Referenced Anxiety). An exploratory factor analysis (calibration sample), followed by a confirmatory factor analysis (validation sample) and correlations with several proximal and distal theoretical constructs indicated satisfactory psychometric properties and construct validity for both SOAQ scales. Structural equation modeling further showed a differential impact of Self‐ and Other‐Referenced Anxiety on applicants' test performance within a real personnel selection context. The scientific and practical relevance of these findings are discussed.     

ASSESSING THE CANDIDATE AS A WHOLE: A HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT FOR PERSONNEL DECISION MAKING

Although individual assessment is a thriving area of professional practice in industry, it receives little, if any, attention from textbooks on industrial psychology or personnel management. This article is an attempt to establish individual assessment's place in the history of personnel selection, and to examine why the practice has survived despite receiving little attention in research and graduate training. It is argued that the clinical, holistic approach that has characterized individual-assessment practice has survived primarily because the "elementalistic" testing approach, focusing on traits and abilities, has often been dismissed as inadequate for addressing the complexities of the executive profile. Moreover, public displeasure with standard paper-and-pencil testing in the 1960s and 1970s made the holistic approach to assessment an attractive, alternative. The article contrasts individual assessment practice with the current state of knowledge on psychological assessment and personnel decision making. Like psychotherapy in the 1950s, individual psychological assessment appears to have achieved the status of functional autonomy within psychology.     

Development and learning: a TASC-based perspective of the acquisition of perceptual-motor behaviors

The concepts of development and learning are discussed in terms of different theoretical orientations to the study of motor behavior. It is argued that although these concepts are commonly used to discuss various aspects of change across the life span, there is little agreement regarding the definition of these terms and even whether these are useful concepts for researchers studying change over time. A theoretical approach, the TASC-based approach is presented as an alternative account for examining change over time. The TASC label stands for a focus on particular tasks, adaptation and selection of behaviors as a function of constraints. This account is grounded in evolutionary theory and assumes that variability, selection, and adaptation are central to change over time within individuals. Emphasis is placed on the tasks individuals attempt to solve in achieving particular goals given the constraints of the local environment and the organism. An alternative manner to conceptualize the concepts of development and learning are presented within the TASC-based approach.     

Personality and absenteeism: a meta‐analysis of integrity tests

Until recently, research focus has been on a variety of demographic, attitudinal, and organizational variables in predicting and explaining absenteeism. If personality traits predict absenteeism, then it may be possible to use measures of these traits to identify and select job applicants and thereby reduce absenteeism rates. In this research, our goal was to examine whether integrity tests could be used to predict absenteeism. Meta‐analysis was applied to studies of the validity of pre‐employment integrity tests for predicting voluntary absenteeism. Twenty‐eight studies based on a total sample of 13 972 were meta‐analysed. The estimated mean predictive validity of personality‐based integrity tests was 0.33. This operational validity generalized across various predictor scales, organizations, settings, and jobs (SD_ρ = 0.00). Overt integrity tests, however, showed much lower predictive validity for absenteeism and greater variability than personality‐based tests (ρ = 0.09; SD_ρ = 0.16). The results indicate that a personnel selection approach to reducing absenteeism in organizations may be a useful strategy, particularly if personality‐based integrity tests are utilized. Potential explanations for differences between these results and those found for Big Five measures of personality are offered. Future research investigating models of absenteeism should incorporate the personality constructs assessed by integrity tests. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exposure to successful women: Antidote to sex discrimination in applicant screening decisions?

This research is designed to examine the proposition that exposure to the successes of women in traditionally male occupations will mitigate against subsequent sex bias in selection decisions. Prior to making initial screening decisions about a male or female applicant for a traditionally male job, i.e., finance manager trainee, 147 college students read an editorial documenting the successful performance of an individual woman or a group of women employed in a nontraditional job that either was or was not related to the job about which the personnel recommendations were to be made. A neutral information group read an editorial unrelated to women or work. As predicted, the discrepant ratings of male and female applicants in the neutral baseline condition were significantly reduced only when the information presented concerned a group of women and there also was a direct connection between the occupation in which they were successful and the occupation for which the screening decision was being made. Additional analyses supported the idea that this effect was due to the lessening of the stereotypie attributes used to characterize the female applicants. These results suggest that although exposure to successful women in heretofore male dominated occupations can reduce sex bias in personnel selection decisions, the conditions under which this is likely to occur are very limited. The implications of these results, both theoretical and practical, are discussed.     

Claiming hidden memories as one's own: A review of inadvertent plagiarism

Inadvertent plagiarism, or cryptomnesia, occurs when an individual claims another's idea as his or her own with no recollection of having been exposed to the idea before. Although some variation exists in the explanations of this occurrence, the source monitoring framework has emerged as the most plausible account. The purpose of this paper is to review the core body of research that has been conducted on cryptomnesia over the past two decades, with particular focus on the factors that affect the propensity of this phenomenon and how these influences inform a theoretical explanation of cryptomnesia. This paper also includes some suggestions for how future research might continue to explore the phenomenon of inadvertent plagiarism.     

DESIGNING, PLANNING, AND SELLING PROJECT A

Because of its size and its focus on an entire personnel system, Project A represents an unusual chapter in the support of personnel research and development (R & D) by a funding agency. This paper describes the events that led up to the decision to create such a Request for Proposals (RFP), and the conditions that made it possible. The conditions that seem necessary to maintain such a project over the course of its life cycle are also discussed.     

履历数据测评的效度分析

履历数据是人员测评的重要手段, 但其组织情景性限制使得国外同类工具不能适用于国内人事选拔, 国内也缺乏实证研究验证其信度、效度。本研究结合某通信企业的招募选拔工作, 开发履历数据分析工具, 选取250名应聘者的履历数据、一般认知能力、大五个性和面试结果数据, 通过效标关联效度、增量效度思想, 分析履历数据有效性。结果表明, 以面试结果为效标, 履历数据具有良好的效标关联效度, 与其他测评工具组合使用时有良好的增量效度。