A SURVEY OF INDIVIDUAL ASSESSMENT PRACTICES BY I/O PSYCHOLOGISTS

Individual assessment, defined as one psychologist making an assessment decision for a personnel-related purpose about one individual, was the focus of a survey of a segment of the Division of Industrial and Organizational Psychology of the American Psychological Association. A response rate of 31.6% was obtained. The responses of 163 individuals who conduct individual assessment to questions about their practices and of 153 individuals who do not conduct individual assessment to questions concerning their attitudes toward individual assessment were examined. Findings regarding what types of assessment are typically conducted, how methods are chosen, what methods are typically used, how findings are relayed to client organizations and assessees, and how practices are evaluated are reported. Implications for training and practice as well as areas for research are discussed.     

Value-Orientation Analysis: The Adaptation of an Anthropological Model for Counseling Research

This article proposes the adaptation of Florence Kluckhohn's theory of Variation in Value Orientations for use in counseling research. The author summarizes Kluckhohn's theory and presents guidelines for its adaptation.     

Helping Mom Fail: A Case of a Stalemated Divorcing Process

This article describes a systems approach to the problem of a child who had become symptomatic as a result of her parents' separation. Elements of the divorcing process that can create a symptomatic child are highlighted. Family members cope with separation and divorce by devising strategies for navigating the divorcing process. These strategies can mesh to create dysfunctional sequences in which family members get “stuck.” Case material illustrates the development of a stalemated divorcing process, in which a dysfunctional sequence keeps the child uncontrollable and mother incompetent. Family therapy breaks the stalemate and allows family members to proceed with appropriate developmental tasks.     

Family participation in the treatment of alcoholism

The effect of family involvement on the efficacy of alcoholic treatment was investigated. Degree of family involvement, as measured by the participation of the wives of 60 alcoholics in a hospital family lecture series, was compared to recidivism rates and to completion of the in-patient treatment program. The wives' participation was closely related to whether or not their husbands completed in-patient treatment. Participation also appeared to be related to recidivism although additional services in the area of counseling for discharged alcoholic patients and their families are obviously needed.     

COMMUNICATING PEER FEEDBACK IN A TASK GROUP

Through an analysis of a feedback session among members of a small task-oriented group, the multifaceted nature of feedback was explored. Dynamism, trust, clarity, mood, and criticism emerged as important underlying dimensions of peer feedback. Additionally, this study explored the communicator style in giving feedback. Significant communicative differences across group members were found in their manner of giving feedback. Effectiveness of feedback was significantly related to the feedback's dynamism and with a verbally assertive style. This study appears to demonstrate that both feedback content and form influence judgments of feedback effectiveness.     

Parental marital conflict and divorce,parent–child relationships,and social support among Latino‐American young adults

Based on research documenting the harmful consequences of parental conflict and divorce, this self‐report study examined parental conflict, divorce, and social outcomes of Latino‐American young adults. Undergraduate students (N = 431) from divorced and intact families completed measures of parental conflict, quality of parent–adult child relationships, and perceptions of social support. As hypothesized, conflict was associated with poorer parent–adult child relationships, divorce was associated with poorer father–adult child relationships and higher quality mother–adult child relationships, and quality of relationships with parents was positively related to perceived social support. Contrary to expectations, perceptions of social support were not related to parental conflict. Results are discussed in terms of features of Latino families, including extended family networks as important sources of social support.     

Levels of Meaning in Family Stress Theory

Major stressful life events, particularly those that have chronic hardships, create a crisis for families that often leads to reorganization in the family's style of functioning. A major factor in this reorganization is the meaning the family gives to the stressful event. Often the meaning extends beyond the event itself and leads to a changed view of the family system and even to a changed view of the world. Building on other family stress models, we elaborate the family's definition of the stressor into three levels of family meanings: (1) situational meanings, (2) family identity, and (3) family world view. Examples from clinical work and studies of families adapting to chronic illness are used to illustrate the relationship between these three levels of meaning, particularly as they change in response to crisis. Implications for clinical and empirical work are discussed.     

Perceived benefits and costs of romantic relationships for women and men: Implications for exchange theory

This investigation examined the perceived benefits and costs of romantic (i.e., reciprocal dating) relationships. In Study 1, subjects provided open-ended reports regarding the benefits and costs associated with romantic involvement. Different groups of subjects ranked (Study 2) and rated (Study 3) these benefits and costs for importance. Companionship, happiness, and feeling loved or loving another were among the most important benefits accompanying romantic involvement. The most serious costs included stress and worry about the relationship, social and nonsocial sacrifices, and increased dependence on the partner. Compared to males, females regarded intimacy, self-growth, self-understanding, and positive self-esteem as more important benefits, and regarded loss of identity and innocence about relationships and love as more important costs Alternatively, males regarded sexual gratification as a more important benefit, and monetary losses as a more serious cost than did females Implications for exchange theory are highlighted.