CROWDING,TASK PERFORMANCE,AND COMMUNICATIVE INTERACTION IN YOUTH AND OLD AGE

Following Altman's privacy regulation model, this research was based on the assumption that the relationship between achieved and desired levels of privacy is a major determinant of the experience of crowding in small groups. Further, on the basis of evidence that advancing age is associated with a chronic lack of communicative interaction, it was assumed that the achieved level of privacy among elderly persons generally is greater than that experienced by young adults. Given these assumptions, it was predicted that the crowding threshold of young adults would be significantly lower than that of older persons. To test this hypothesis, the research varied conversation distance (close, far) and density (small room, large room) and assessed the quality of communicative interaction and task performance among small groups of college-age females and retired women over 60 years of age. Results showed that task performance among younger subjects deteriorated in close interaction conditions, whereas the performance of older subjects was improved by spatial intrusion. Further, older subjects exhibited positive communication behaviors in response to close conversation, high-density conditions, while younger subjects responded either with negative communication behaviors or were unaffected by spatial restriction. Finally, the research confirmed previous findings that conversation distance is a more important determinant of the experience of crowding in small groups than physical density. The significance of the results for Altman's privacy regulation model and their implications for the study of human communication behaviors were discussed.     

Change of preferences under time pressure: choices and judgements

Students made choices between student apartments judged to be equally attractive. When asked to choose the best apartment in each pair of alternatives, choices made by a group under time pressure were significantly different from those made by another group under no time pressure. The effect was so strong that preference reversals were obtained which could be explained by subjects over-evaluating negative aspects on the most important attribute under time pressure.     

PREDICTING NAVY EFFECTIVENESS: EXPECTATIONS, MOTIVATION, PERSONALITY, APTITUDE, AND BACKGROUND VARIABLES

The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of performance within seven Navy occupational groups. Life history, expectations, motivation, personality, and aptitude variables were used as predictors of a 2-year effectiveness criterion for 7,923 enlisted Navy men and women. Results of multiple regression analyses showed that the most powerful predictors included: years of schooling, school expulsions and suspensions, the two Comrey Personality Scales of Social Conformity and Orderliness, arrests, age, General Classification Test (aptitude), and Peer Cohesion (expectations). Comparisons across groups indicated that the development of separate equations for each occupation was not supported. Recommendations were made to improve selection procedures and to change several aspects of the organization, suggestions which would be expected to increase rates of effective performance.     

Attribution Retraining as a Structured Group Counseling Intervention

The efficacy of attribution retraining as a structured group counseling intervention was tested. Participants were classified as having either an adaptive or nonadaptive attributional style. Three groups of participants were then created: Adaptive Group, Nonadaptive Group, Treatment Group (nonadaptive attributional style participants who received treatment involving attribution retraining). Results indicated that participants in the Treatment Group made relatively more adaptive attributions (similar to the adaptive Group) for an experimentally induced uncontrollable failure and reported lower levels of depressive mood than the Nonadaptive Group. Results are discussed as providing partial support for the efficacy of attribution retraining as a structured group counseling intervention.     

Who Are the Handicapped?

Counselors and psychologists are increasingly involved with handicapped persons. The definition of various handicapping conditions is a major source of professional concern—what constitutes a disability and in what way(s) it impairs academic, social, or occupational functioning changes in relation to several variables. The more common and widely accepted categories of disability are intended to provide the reader with a basis for better understanding of the articles in this issue.     

PREFERENCE FOR MOTIVATOR AND HYGIENE FACTORS IN A HYPOTHETICAL INTERVIEW SITUATION: FURTHER FINDINGS AND SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR THE EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW

Managers, supervisory personnel, clerical workers, and high school students were administered questionnaires which asked them to indicate whether or not they would discuss various work-related factors if they were applicants in an employment interview situation. A systematic tendency was found for respondents to prefer to discuss "motivators" as opposed to "hygiene factors" as characteristics they would seek in a new job, or as reasons for dissatisfaction with a previous one. Responding to a modified version of the questionnaire, twenty professional employment interviewers indicated that it is in fact wise to emphasize motivators and deemphasize hygiene factors if the applicant's intent is to maximize the likelihood of being offered a job.     

THE PRICE OF VIRTUE

Abstract:   Aristotle famously held that there is a crucial difference between the person who merely acts rightly and the person who is wholehearted in what she does. He captures this contrast by insisting on a distinction between continence and full virtue. One way of accounting for the important difference here is to suppose that, for the genuinely virtuous person, the requirements of virtue "silence" competing reasons for action. I argue that the silencing interpretation is not compelling. As Aristotle rightly saw, virtue can have a cost, and a mark of the wise person is that she recognizes it.