The role of appraisal purpose: Effects of purpose on information acquisition and utilization

Past research on the role of appraisal purpose in the appraisal decision-making process has concentrated on the motivational role of purpose. Research has found that raters are less willing to give poor ratings when appraisals are to be used for some purposes rather than others. The present paper describes two experiments which explore how appraisal purpose might affect rater cognitive activities as well. The first experiment investigated how appraisal purpose and outcomes affect how raters differentially utilize information to make appraisal decisions. Few differences were found. The second experiment investigated how raters differentially search for performance information to make appraisal decisions for different purposes and outcomes. Raters were found to search for more comparative information when they had to select one of several ratees for some treatment. The results also indicated a discrepancy between how information is collected and how it is used. Implications for defining the role of purpose in the appraisal process, as well as for recent process approaches to performance appraisal, are discussed.     

Testing a self-determination theory process model for promoting glycemic control through diabetes self-management.

A longitudinal study tested the self-determination theory (SDT) process model of health behavior change for glycemic control within a randomized trial of patient activation versus passive education. Glycosylated hemoglobin for patients with Type 2 diabetes (n=159) was assessed at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. Autonomous motivation and perceived competence were assessed at baseline and 6 months, and the autonomy supportiveness of clinical practitioners was assessed at 3 months. Perceptions of autonomy and competence were promoted by perceived autonomy support, and changes in perceptions of autonomy and competence, in turn, predicted change in glycemic control. Self-management behaviors mediated the relation between change in perceived competence and change in glycemic control. The self-determination process model fit the data well.     

A Content Analysis of Female Body Imagery in Video Games

The 150 top-selling video games sold in the U.S. across nine platforms were content analyzed to study representations of female bodies. All human females in the games were captured via screenshot and body parts measured. These measurements were then compared to actual anthropometric data drawn from a representative sample of 3,000 American women. The results show that female video game characters at low levels of photorealism are systematically larger than the average American woman whereas female characters at the highest level of photorealism are systematically thinner. This study also found that games rated for children featured females that are thinner than characters in games rated for adults. These findings are discussed in terms of cultivation theory.