Uncertainties about the new Strong Interest Blanks

Many SVIB materials were published in 1969, and the new men's and women's revisions are now largely complete. Because these inventories are such fundamental instruments for vocational counseling, the revisions merit careful examination at this point. Consideration is given to necessary technical information, the Basic Interest Scales, new occupational scale reference groups, scale development and validation, an illustrative scale, and other factors. Because the SVIB's are more complex than ever, and involve uncertainties yet to be resolved, they need to be approached with caution.     

Bulimic Beliefs: Food for Thought

Individuals suffering from bulimia nervosa share a characteristic pattern of thinking which needs to be understood if effective treatment is to take place. This article presents these beliefs, gathered by clinical experience and a review of the literature, in a format which describes each belief, discusses the common causes for its development, and suggests therapeutic interventions.     

BRIDGING DIFFERENCE THROUGH DIALOGUE: A CONSTRUCTIVIST PERSPECTIVE

Differences in culture invariably underpin the communication failures and misunderstandings that lead to social conflict and dissension. In contemporary organizations, for example, conflicts in values between different occupational groups have the potential to create significant organizational dysfunction. Equally, however, bridging between these conflicts may present an opportunity for organizational learning and insight. Dialogue provides a means of bridging between such differences, but it is notoriously difficult to implement. In this article, we explore the potential of Personal Construct Theory as a way into dialogue. We illustrate our argument with the results of a workshop that involved senior managers and clinicians from a large public hospital.     

Refusals and Rejections Designing Messages to Serve Multiple Goals

This experiment was conducted to test a rational model of the elaboration of themes found in rejection messages. The experiment involved a situation in which a candidate for membership in an organization must be rejected by an agent of the organization. The model proposed that five themes would be found in the rejection messages, elaborated selectively as a function of the relationship between organizational agent and candidate (friend vs. stranger) and the basis for the rejection (qualified vs. unqualified candidate). The experiment was replicated with American and Japanese participants in the role of organizational agent; no differences due to nationality were anticipated. Results showed partial support for the initial rational model, but the findings also pointed toward two key revisions of the hypothesized model: First, two new themes in rejection messages were identified; and second, there were substantial differences in the way Americans and Japanese elaborated themes to serve their goals.     

UNDERSTANDING SELF-OTHER AGREEMENT: A LOOK AT RATER AND RATEE CHARACTERISTICS, CONTEXT, AND OUTCOMES

This study investigated (a) the relative importance of a number of biographic (e.g., age, race, gender) and contextual (e.g., span of control, functional area) variables and their interactions on self-other agreement and (b) the relationship between self-other agreement and outcome variables such as performance and compensation. Usable data were collected from 3,217 managers and their multi-source raters in 527 organizations. Multivariate regression procedures (as opposed to categorization procedures) were used to determine the sources of rating disagreement. Results indicated that a significant portion of variance in self-other ratings was accounted for by the set of background/context variables. Self-other agreement was also related to performance, compensation, and organizational level, though rating patterns differed.     

Some Implications of Denominational Heterogeneity and Church Attendance for Alcohol Consumption Among Hispanics

This article evaluates complementary perspectives on the relationship between religion and alcohol among Hispanics. In particular, it examines whether religion may be related to alcohol consumption through two mechanisms, one deriving primarily from doctrinally specific norms, and the other a denominationally independent effect of social integration. The basic premise is that these mechanisms may operate in relative independence. Thus, the article argues that in a fully specified model, variations in alcohol use that are associated with prohibitive norms can be distinguished from those that are associated with membership in a religious community (irrespective of its alcohol norms). The former effect is unique to members of Protestant denominations that object to the use of alcohol; the latter also accrues to the Catholics. A separate, exploratory analysis looks at whether these effects differ by gender. The results indicate that both mechanisms reduce the likelihood of alcohol consumption, but that the doctrinally specific normative one is more powerful. Furthermore, it appears that alcohol-use norms are more salient for men than for women, although the findings are not as robust as expected.