Who Uses the Cost-Benefit Rules of Choice? Implications for the Normative Status of Microeconomic Theory

We find three factors to be associated with use of cost-benefit rules in everyday decisions. These are effectiveness in achieving desirable life outcomes, intelligence, and training in economics. We argue that these empirical findings support the claim that cost-benefit reasoning is normative.     

Enhancing Consultee Problem-Solving Skills in Consultative Interactions

Selected empirical research on consultative problem solving is reviewed. Although there is general support for the effectiveness of consultation in resolving a variety of presenting problems and in improving consultees' skills for solving future problems, there is a need for additional methods to facilitate the process. Direct training of consultees in behavior management, communication, and consultation process skills is advocated as one means of attaining this goal.     

Standards for Organizational Consultation Assessment and Evaluation Instruments

Although consultation researchers and practitioners have called attention to the need for more psychometrically sound instruments, little advancement has occurred in this area. The authors outline key quantitative and qualitative psychometric standards for organizational consultation assessment and evaluation instruments. In addition, a framework and review of several existing questionnaires are presented. Implications for instrument use by practitioners and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

The concurrent validity of three self-report measures of borderline personality

The recent accumulation of self-report measures of borderline personality disorder (BPD) affords the opportunity to evaluate both the construct validity of the concept and the quality of these measures. This study examines the relationship among three recently developed self-report instruments for assessing BPD from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991), the MMPI Personality Disorders Scales (MPD; Morey, Waugh, & Blashfield, 1985), and the Bell Object Relations Inventory (BORI: Bell, Billington, & Becker, 1986). Data on the three measures were provided by 119 undergraduate subjects from a southeastern university. A correlational analysis addresses the convergence of these measures of BPD, their divergence from measures of different but related traits, and their independence from variance due to method. Application of the Campbell-Fiske (1959) criteria indicates adequate convergence for all the BPD measures but a lack of discriminant validity for the BORI scales. The fit of the data to a structural model of construct validity is tested using confirmatory factor analysis, and these results are consistent with the hypothesis of a latent borderline trait factor independent of measurement method factors. In sum, the construct validity of the borderline personality concept using self-report methodologies receives support, and a strong association between borderline personality and paranoid phenomena is also suggested.     

Research in Consultation: Toward Better Analogues and Outcome Measures

Recommendations for improving consultation research include (a) strengthening consultation analogue research by incorporating “boundary” conditions into research designs and (b) extending the outcome measures used.     

Grandparents Affected by Parental Divorce: A Population at Risk?

When parents divorce, grandparents who have bonded with grandchildren may be affected, particularly when denied visitation. In this article the author reviews normative aspects of grand-parenthood and how grandparents are affected by parental divorce. Legal and ethical issues and counseling interventions are discussed.     

Safety locus of control and employees' accidents

This study further established the criterion-related validity of the Safety Locus of Control Scale. The safety scale was designed to predict employment applicants' propensity for on-the-job accidents. In this study, 283 hospital employees with moreexternal safety locus of control orientations reported significantly more occupational accidents, as well as more severe and costly injuries, than workers with moreinternal safety attitudes (p<.05 in all cases). Implications of these results are discussed.Research study presented at the 1988 Annual Conference of the Association of Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior, Long Beach, California, October 26–29.     

Children's need for approval and achievement motivation: An interactional approach

This study examined the effects of children's need for approval (nApp) and a situational variable-frequency of expectancy statements-on children's achievement cognitions and behaviour. We replicated the Dweck and Gilliard (1975) paradigm, but also mea sured children's nApp. Ninety fifth grade boys and girls stated expectancies either prior to each trial, prior to the first and last trials, or prior to the last trial only. We found that although high and low nApp children lowered their expectancies after failure, high nApp children lowered them less than low nApp children. In contrast, persistence was influenced only by the frequency of expectancy statements and not by children's nApp. The results are discussed in the context of the interactional point of view in personality psychology.