On Methodology in the Study of Cognitive Abilities

From experiences in reanalyzing some 480 datasets in the factor-analytic literature of cognitive abilities (Carroll, 1993a), 1 report and defend opinions 1 have formed about methodological problems in this field - in particular with regard to: (a) study design in relation to the structure of cognitive abilities, (b) test design in relation to IRT procedures, factorial complexity, and cognitive processes; (c) separate treatment of level and speed aspects of ability; (d) the respective roles of exploratory and confirmatory techniques; and (e) the respective roles of principal component and principal factoring techniques, with suggestions concerning iterative procedures and the number-of-factors problem.     

Measuring Metasyntactic Abilities: On a Classification of Metasyntactic Tasks

Researchers working on metasyntactic abilities (i.e., the metalinguistic ability associated with syntax) face the problem of defining and measuring them. Metasyntactic abilities is a multifaceted concept, which encompasses various types of behaviours, from being able to intentionally manipulate syntactic structures to being able to state syntactic rules, and the way in which it is defined and measured varies greatly from one study to another. The present paper proposes a theoretically informed classification of syntax related tasks. The first part presents previous research defining and distinguishing various types of syntactic and metasyntactic abilities and their interrelations. In the second part, commonly used tasks are described and analyzed in terms of the framework presented, with the aim of better pinpointing the type of ability measured by each task. Ultimately, with this analysis of commonly used tasks, we hope to offer criteria for discriminating between the various measures of metasyntactic abilities.     

The Job Search Process: An Attitudinal and Behavioral Analysis

Job search attitudes and behaviors among college students were studied. Major job-seeking factors were identified and discussed in relation to job search experience.     

Innovative Community Services for Rape Victims: An Application of Multiple Case Study Methodology

A qualitative multiple case study design was used to examine communities across the United States that have developed coordinated community-based programs to assist rape victims. Previous studies have suggested that coordinated community programs help victims obtain needed resources and services. This study provided a follow-up examination of how and why these programs are helpful to rape victims. In-depth interviews were conducted with rape victim advocates, rape crisis center directors, police officers, prosecutors, doctors, nurses, and rape survivors from 22 communities with coordinated programs. A comparison sample of 22 communities with fewer coordinated programs was also obtained. Results indicated that the high coordination communities had three types of programs to address sexual assault: coordinated service programs, interagency training programs, and community-level reform groups. Although not all of these programs directly address service delivery for rape victims, they help create a community culture that is more responsive to victims' needs. The research team and participants developed an explanatory model of why these program are effective in addressing rape victims' needs. This model hypothesizes that coordinated programs reflect an understanding of the multiple contexts of service delivery and embody that knowledge in services that are consistent with victims' needs. Narrative data from the interviews with service providers and rape survivors are used to develop and support this model.     

The Relationship of Pregnancy Status to Job Satisfaction: An Exploratory Analysis

Forty-three women who had worked outside of the home prior to becoming pregnant and had returned to the same place of employment after the birth of their children participated in the study. To do so, they responded to a two-part questionnaire asking about their work lives (e.g., level of job satisfaction before, during, and after their pregnancies) and demographic characteristics (e.g., occupation). The results indicated that their job satisfaction was significantly greater before their pregnancies than either during or after their pregnancies. Job satisfaction during pregnancy had a significant, positive correlation with satisfaction with organizational maternity leave policies. Perceived reactions from women's coworkers and supervisors were also examined. Implications for these findings for organizations are discussed. Limitations of the study, and how they might be rectified in future research, are also addressed.     

Job Link: An Employment Counseling Program for Immigrants

A group employment counseling program for counseling immigrants is described. Evaluation results from the project are also presented.     

An Extension of Multiple Correspondence Analysis for Identifying Heterogeneous Subgroups of Respondents

An extension of multiple correspondence analysis is proposed that takes into account cluster-level heterogeneity in respondents’ preferences/choices. The method involves combining multiple correspondence analysis and k-means in a unified framework. The former is used for uncovering a low-dimensional space of multivariate categorical variables while the latter is used for identifying relatively homogeneous clusters of respondents. The proposed method offers an integrated graphical display that provides information on cluster-based structures inherent in multivariate categorical data as well as the interdependencies among the data. An empirical application is presented which demonstrates the usefulness of the proposed method and how it compares to several extant approaches. The work reported in this paper was supported by Grant 290439 and Grant A6394 from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada to the first and third authors, respectively. We wish to thank Ulf B?ckenholt, Paul Green, and Marc Tomiuk for their insightful comments on an earlier version of this paper. We also wish to thank Byunghwa Yang for generously providing us with his data.     

Evaluating Job Knowledge Criterion Components for Use in Classification Research

In this study, we examined the potential of job knowledge tests as surrogates for hands-on criteria in the development of classification systems that use the tests of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (McLaughlin, Rossmeisel, Wise Brandt, & Wang, 1984 McLaughlin, D. H., Rossmeisel, P. G., Wise, L. L., Brandt, D. A., & Wang, M. M. (1984). Validation of current and alternative ASVAB area composites based on training and SQT information of FY81 and FY82 enlisted accessions. Technical Report 651. Alexandria, VA: U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. [Google Scholar]). Based on U.S. Army data for 15 Military Occupational Specialties, the study compared the outcomes of an assignment simulation using 2 criterion measures: one containing only job knowledge and the other containing both job knowledge and hands-on components. In this study we found comparable predictive validities for the Army operational job families and a high positive mean correlation between the 2 types of criterion in the joint predictor–criterion space. Similarities also exist in the mean predicted performance produced by the assignment simulation using each criterion measure. This outcome equivalence suggests that job knowledge measures could be useful, affordable surrogates for hands-on criteria in developing classification procedures.     

Comparing Attribute Importance and Reason Methods for Understanding Behavior: An Application to Internet Job Searching

Pour tenter de comprendre le comportement de recherche d’emploi sur Internet, cette recherche compare les méthodes de l’importance attribuée et des causes motivationnelles. La méthode de l’importance attribuée évalue l’importance perçue de divers facteurs en jeu dans la décision d’utiliser Internet pour trouver un emploi. La méthode des causes motivationnelles évalue les facteurs spécifiques auxquels les gens font appel pour expliquer leur comportement à venir de recherche d’emploi sur Internet, ce qui implique une différenciation des raisons favorables ou non à l’adoption du comportement. A partir des données obtenues sur 224 demandeurs d’emploi ayant en moyenne 27.9 ans, une régression logislique montra que les variables d’importance attribuée expliquaient 5% de la variance du comportement objectivement mesuré de recherche d’emploi. Les variables de causes motivationnelles expliquaient 15% de la variance des comportements, ce qui représente un gain significatif en sus de ce que prédit la méthode de l’importance attribuée. De plus, la méthode des causes motivationnelles était en mesure d’identifier plusieurs antécédents du comportement de recherche d’emploi qui ěchappaient à la méthode de l’importance attribuée. Les résultats sont en faveur de l’exploitation des variables de causes motivationnelles par la recherche on psychologic appliquée. This study compared attribute importance and reason methods for understanding internet job search behavior. The attribute importance method assessed the perceived importance of various factors involved in decisions to use the internet for job search. The reason method assessed the specific factors people use to explain their anticipated internet job search behavior, which included a differentiation of reasons for and reasons against performing the behavior. Logistic regression results from 224 job searchers (mean age 27.9 years) indicated that attribute importance variables explained 5 per cent of the variance in objectively measured job search behavior. Reason variables explained 15 per cent of the variance in behavior, which represents a significant increment in prediction over and above that explained by the attribute importance method. Moreover, the reason method was able to identify several determinants of job search behavior that were unidentified by the attribute importance method. Results provide strong support for using reason variables in applied psychological research.     

The State of Dyadic Methodology: An Analysis of the Literature on Interventions for Military Couples

ABSTRACT

Military members and their spouses experience unique stressors compared with civilian couples, making them distinctively vulnerable to a number of marital and mental health concerns. However, the amount and quality of intervention research to guide treatment for military couples are unknown. Therefore, a systematic literature search of interventions for military couples was completed resulting in 10 articles that met the study's inclusion and exclusion criteria. Further, a rubric to assess dyadic methodology was created and utilized to determine the dyadic quality of the methodology of the sampled articles. The results of the systematic literature review revealed that (a) there are few evidence-based interventions for military couples in which both members of the dyad are included and (b) the methodology by which treatments are evaluated largely do not employ systemic or dyadic measures. Recommendations for future research with military couples includes the need for couple-focused interventions using experimental methodology, systemic theories to guide intervention and research, and appropriate dyadic assessment and analysis tools to determine the effectiveness of couple's interventions for military, reserve, and veteran populations.     

Job satisfaction: Identifying the important parts among computer sales and service personnel

This article examines overall and job facet satisfaction among computer salesN=552) and service (N=1489) personnel. Results of an anonymous questionnaire indicated that seven of nine job facets were similar in the two samples. However, facets in field service referring to the company and working conditions were replaced in sales by facets concerning work-related information and problem resolution. Existing multifacet measures of job satisfaction would not have identified problem resolution as an important facet. While they are valuable for basic research, standardized multifacet satisfaction measures may not be as useful when the goal is to improve the work situation by identifying issues of concern to employees in different occupations.     

Relative Validity of Distinct Spatial Abilities: An example with implications for diversity

Despite the increasingly recognized importance of spatial ability in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, research to date has largely ignored distinctions in the criterion‐related validity and subgroup differences associated with theoretically distinct spatial abilities. This study aims to enhance practical understanding by spotlighting a prominent military context as an example wherein specific spatial abilities may be both differentially relevant and differentially apt to result in adverse impact. Analyses compared the relative importance of (i) spatial orientation, (ii) visualization, (iii) closure flexibility, and (iv) perceptual speed for predicting U.S. Air Force pilot performance (N = 1440), and compared subgroup differences in a large applicant sample (N = 10,643). Given that specific spatial abilities vary substantially in the extent to which gender differences exist, this study highlights the practical implications associated with the choice of particular spatial ability measures in personnel selection.     

两种取向的工作满意度模型构建及实证研究

工作满意度一般被作为衡量员工工作中的幸福感的指标。幸福感的研究存在两种基本取向：享乐取向和完善取向。为验证两种取向的工作满意度结构,对485名MBA学生和864名企业员工进行了调查,探索性因素分析和进一步二阶探索性因素分析表明,工作满意度量表包含8个因素,这8个因素归于两个维度：享乐取向的满意度（包括享乐的工作结果、享乐的工作本身、享乐的人际关系、享乐的组织氛围）和完善取向的满意度（包括完善的工作结果、完善的工作本身、完善的人际关系、完善的组织氛围）。验证性因素分析支持两种取向工作满意度的结构模型。     

Job Attitude Organization: An Exploratory Study1

An exploratory study was conducted to examine the organization of three often used measures of job satisfaction. Employing a convenient sample of 144 workers, who also were enrolled in evening graduate school courses, relationships between these job satisfaction measures and affective (positive and negative) and cognitive attitudinal components were assessed. The job satisfaction measures were found to vary considerably in terms of their affective and cognitive content. These results were discussed in terms of their relevance to the study of job attitudes.     

变革型领导如何影响员工的工作结果：一个有中介的调节作用分析

本文通过对426名在职人员的调查,探讨了变革型领导对工作绩效与满意度的影响机制。最后采用SPSS 13.0和Lisrel 8.7 对数据进行多层级线性回归分析,并依据温忠麟等（2006）的统计步骤分析了有中介的调节作用,得到如下结果：（1）在控制了年龄、性别与任职年限之后,自我效能在变革型领导与工作绩效、工作满意度之间都起部分中介作用;（2）核心工作特征在变革型领导与工作绩效之间起调节作用,调节作用需要通过自我效能作为中介变量。文章最后讨论了本研究的理论和实践意义。     

Job Perception–Job Satisfaction Relations: An Empirical Comparison of Three Competing Theories

Alternative conceptions of the relationship between job perceptions and job satisfaction were tested using survey responses from 450 engineers. One model, based on Job Characteristics Theory (JCT) (e.g., Hackman & Lawler, 1971), predicted that job perceptions lead to job satisfaction (JP → Sat). A second model, based on Social Information Processing (SIP) theory (e.g., Salancik & Pfeffer, 1978) and Zajonc′s (1980) theory, predicted that job satisfaction leads to job perceptions (Sat → JP). A third model, which specified a reciprocal relationship between perceptions and satisfaction (JP ↔ Sat), was developed based on James′ theory (e.g., James, Hater, Gent, & Bruni, 1978). Supervisors′ ratings of departmental characteristics were used as contextual variables along with individual difference measures as antecedents of job perceptions and job satisfaction. Model contrasts performed using LISREL VII yielded clear support for the reciprocal model based on James′ theory, in contrast to the unidirectional models based on JCT and on SIP and Zajonc′s theory. The magnitudes of the two reciprocal paths linking job perceptions and job satisfaction did not differ significantly. Directions for future research and application were offered.     

General and Specific Cognitive and Psychomotor Abilities in Personnel Selection: The Prediction of Training and Job Performance

Use of ability tests in personnel selection is addressed beginning with methodological issues. Studies are reviewed that show that almost all the validity of cognitive tests comes from general cognitive ability, g. Psychomotor ability is reviewed and found to have both higher- and lower-order factors, contrary to long-held beliefs. It was found that the higher-order general psychomotor factor was one source of validity of psychomotor tests. Additionally, psychomotor tests were shown to contain measures of g and to increment the validity of g-based measures very little.     

Identifying Students at Risk: An Examination of Computer-Adaptive Measures and Latent Class Growth Analysis

Multitiered systems of support depend on screening technology to identify students at risk. The purpose of this study was to examine the use of a computer-adaptive test and latent class growth analysis (LCGA) to identify students at risk in reading with focus on the use of this methodology to characterize student performance in screening. Participants included 3,699 students in Grades 3–5. Three time points of administration (fall, winter, and spring) of the computer-adaptive reading measure were selected. LCGA results indicated 6–7 classes, depending on grade, informed by level and growth in student performance that significantly predicted failure on the statewide test administered at the end of the year. The lowest-performing classes had failure rates above 90% across all grades. The results indicate that identifying homogeneous groups of learners through LCGA may be valuable as an approach to determining students who need additional instruction. Practical implications and future directions are discussed.