AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF SELF-APPRAISAL-BASED PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

This study investigated the effectiveness of a self-appraisal-based performance evaluation system (SABPE) that incorporates self-assessment into traditional supervisory evaluation procedures. Its subject sample consisted of 88 faculty members and their chairpersons at a land-grant state university. Results indicated that (1) there was high congruency between self- and chairperson ratings, (2) both ratings had moderate to high levels of criterion-related validity, and (3) both faculty members and chairpersons reported high SABPE acceptance. The implications of these results for future self-appraisal research are discussed.     

RATINGS OF MANAGERIAL CHARACTERISTICS: EVALUATION DIFFICULTY, CO-WORKER AGREEMENT, AND SELF-AWARENESS

This research examined variables contributing to self-awareness and coworker agreement on 30 managerial characteristics. The first study collected data from 233 management students on the difficulty of rating different characteristics. It also developed reliable measures of self-protection mechanisms that may negatively influence self-awareness. Four self-protection factors were identified: Denial, Giving Up, Self-Promotion, and Fear of Failure. The second study collected self-, supervisor, peer, and subordinate ratings of the managerial characteristics to derive multiple measures of self-awareness. There was a total of 283 co-worker ratings for 36 target middle managers. The results showed that within-sample co-worker disagreement measures from Study 2 were higher for items that were perceived by the sample in Study 1 as more difficult to rate. Self-ratings were more highly related to the average of co-worker ratings than to the ratings provided by any one co-worker alone. Co-workers' ratings of the target's use of self-protection mechanisms were negatively associated with self-awareness measures. Ideas are discussed for other correlates of self-awareness and ways to enhance the value of feedback processes.     

On the Problems of Eclecticism: A Call for Epistemologic Clarification and Human-Scale Theories

This paper addresses several contemporary theoretical issues in the family therapy field: clinicians' and students' selection of a theoretical orientation in light of the political struggles of competing schools of thought; problems of eclecticism for the practicing family therapist; the role of theory in clinical practice; and size and scope issues in theory-building. Finally, the paper suggests a periodic activity, termed an Epistemologic Declaration, designed to help therapists clarify and refine their basic therapeutic beliefs.     

Counseling Student Response To Affect Level

This research was designed to investigate whether 42 counseling students would respond differently to identical client statements in which the degree of affect was varied. Students viewed four people, each presenting four one-minute videotaped stimulus vignettes. There were four female high-affect statements, four female neutral-affect statements, four male high-affect statements, and four male neutral-affect statements. A 2 × 2 × 2 × 4 analysis of variance with repeated measures on the last measure was used to analyze the data, and Newman-Keuls post hoc comparisons were done. The analysis indicated that the affect level had a significant effect on the degree to which the counselor judged that the client needed help. There was also a difference in the ratings of female and male counselors and a difference in counselor response to female and male clients.     

The Formation of Social Relationships A Longitudinal Study of Social Penetration

This study investigated three levels of self-disclosure (public, semiprivate, private-personal) in the social penetration process. The study addressed three questions. (1) What is the nature of changes in the three levels of disclosure over time? (2) Is self-disclosure reciprocated at the three levels of intimacy? (3) Does reciprocity vary over time and, if so, how does it vary? Same-sex zero-history dyads participated in a six-week longitudinal study. The half-hour taped conversations were submitted to interaction analysis. Polynomial trend analyses and Markov analyses were used to analyze the data. The results showed: (1) a convex quadratic trend for private-personal disclosures over time; (2) reciprocity at the same level of intimacy as an interactional norm (especially at the beginning and end of the relationship); (3) a cyclical fluctuation of reciprocal interacts over time. These results were interpreted as elaborating the social penetration process.     

LANGUAGE AND THE TAO: SOME REFLECTIONS ON INEFFABILITY

Confucius withdrew and told his disciples, "I know a bird can fly; I know a fish can swim; I know animals can run. Creatures that run can be caught in nets; those that swim can be caught in wicker traps; those that fly can be hit by arrows. But the dragon is beyond my knowledge; it ascends into heaven on the clouds and the wind. Today 1 have seen Lao Tzu, and he is like the dragon!"     

Privilege and the counseling profession

By common law, attorneys possess the right of privileged communication, and in most states statutory law has extended the prerogative to physicians, clergymen, and psychologists. Whether or not the counselor-client relationship should also be entitled to the privilege is a matter that generates argument. This article examines the significance of the privilege, its present status in regard to the practicing counselor, and some of the reasons both for and against its extension.     

EFFECTS OF HANDICAP AND JOB CHARACTERISTICS ON SELECTION EVALUATIONS

An experiment was conducted using 211 upper division and graduate business administration students who evaluated hypothetical job applicants. The applicant was either an amputee, an epileptic, or "normal." The job either involved public contact or it did not; and, it either involved supervisory responsibilities or it did not. Generally, handicapped applicants were evaluated no differently than normal applicants. Epileptic applicants, however, were expected to establish better relationships with clients and customers as well as with other employees than were normal applicants. Further, amputees were offered a smaller salary than normals. Implications for future research and unfair discrimination are discussed.