Criterion validation of two approaches to performance appraisal: The behavioral observation scale and the relative percentile method

We compared the criterion validity of a new relative performance appraisal format (percentile-based ranking) to that of an absolute format (BOS) in a sample of 88 unit managers. Overall, our results suggest that the relative format has higher criterion-related validity than does the absolute format. These findings contradict conventional wisdom that format-related differences in measures of performance are minimal and that relative approaches to performance appraisal are inferior.This research was supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) to Richard D. Goffin, Douglas N. Jackson, John P. Meyer, Sampo V. Paunonen, and Mitchell G. Rothstein. Additional funding provided by a research grant from Imperial Oil Ltd. to Douglas N. Jackson.A version of these results was presented at the 7th Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Montreal, Canada, May, 1992. Limited portions of these data, addressing distinctly different research issues, were published in Gellatly, Paunonen, Meyer, Jackson, & Goffin (1991) and Meyer, Paunonen, Gellatly, Goffin, & Jackson (1989).     

The Perception of Ideal Best Friends by Chinese Adolescents

This study examines the characteristics of ideal best friends endorsed by Chinese adolescents. A comprehensive measure of person perception was used in order to assess those dimensions of personality where gender, similarity, and complementarity might be related to the rating of ideal best friends. Results indicated that ideal female best friends were rated higher on the communal dimension of Helpfulness; ideal male best friends were rated higher on the agentic dimensions of Extroversion, Assertiveness, and Application. Similarity effects were found for Openness to Experience, Extroversion, and Emotional Stability; complementarity effects for Assertiveness. These results were explained in terms of Chinese gender stereotypes and the requirements for harmonious dyadic interaction.     

Social support and psychosocial competence: Explaining the adaptation to college of ethnically diverse students

Examined relationships among social support, psychosocial competence, and adaptation to college in a sample of 357 African American, Asian American, Latino, and white college students. Social support and active coping were significant predictors of adaptation to college, whereas locus of control was not. However, there was an interaction between ethnicity and locus of control indicating that although internal African American, Latino, and white students had higher adaptation-to-college scores than external students, the opposite was true for Asian Americans. The relationships among social support, internality, and active coping were also explored. Satisfaction with social support and internality were positively related to active coping, but locus of control and social support were unrelated. Active coping and internality were significantly related to each other for all groups except for African Americans. Although most relationships were the same across groups, these findings call attention to the role of ethnicity as a moderator of college adjustment processes.     

Children’s acquisition of language: General linguistic competence or dimensions of style?

Previous studies have described children’s acquisition of language as reflecting either a referential or an expressive style. A multivariate approach, characterizing “referentiality” and “expressivity” as partially dissociable dimensions, is advantageous because it allows children to vary along one dimension as they vary along another, allowing children to have high or low degrees of both characteristics simultaneously. The present study applies multivariate techniques to an “exploratory” sample of 87 children, all of whom were 20 months old, and by subsequently validating the exploratory phase with 56 of the original children seen one month later. Using parental reports to assess children’s multiword productions, exploratory factor analyses revealed two correlated dimensions of language style which indeed reflected referential and expressive characteristics. Confirmatory factor analyses “confirmed” these factors in the test sample. This two-dimensional model of language acquisition was superior to a unidimensional, general linguistic competence model. There is also strong short-term stability for both dimensions across the one-month period.     

Co-morbidity of crying and feeding problems with sleeping problems in infancy: Concurrent and predictive associations

The co-morbidity of crying, feeding and sleeping problems at 5 months of age was investigated in a representative sample of 432 infants in South Germany. A crying, sleeping or feeding problem was reported in 32.7% of these infants by their parents and a further 14.6% had two or more of these problems. Little co-morbidity between crying and feeding problems was found. There were moderate to strong associations between crying and sleeping behaviours. Feeding problems showed little relationship to sleeping behaviour, but feeding type and frequency of feeds were related to night waking. Breastfed infants woke much more often at night. Crying and feeding problems at 5 months were poor predictors of sleeping behaviour at 20 or 56 months of age. Later sleeping behaviour was best predicted by infant sleeping behaviour. At 56 months, maternal distress due to sleeping and co-sleeping practices was predicted by maternal distress due to crying and feeding practices at 5 months of age. The predictions were significant but generally weak to modest in strength. Future studies on the consequences of crying or feeding problems should take into account patterns of co-morbidity. So-called ‘post-colicky’ sleep problems are not due to increased crying per se but rather appear to be the consequence of associated infant sleeping problems and parental caretaking patterns for dealing with night waking in infancy.     

Assessment of Major Life Events for Hong Kong Adolescents: The Chinese Adolescent Life Event Scale

Previous Chinese research on adolescent life stress adopted life event scales that were directly translated from Western measures. To address the methodological and cultural issues overlooked by the import approach, the present research aimed at constructing a life event scale for Hong Kong adolescents. Study 1 was conducted to congregate items for the Chinese Adolescent Life Event Scale (CALES). The CALES contains 44 items derived from 618 Hong Kong adolescents. Study 2 revealed adequate test–retest reliability and criterion-related validity for the CALES. Moreover, the CALES yielded stronger relationships with depression than did the translated life event measures. Results suggest that the CALES is appropriate for assessing life events for Hong Kong adolescents. Both unique features of the CALES and life events found only in the translated measures are examined. Implications for Chinese research on life stress are discussed.     

Eye-hand coordination: oculomotor control in rapid aimed limb movements

Three experiments are reported in which Ss produced rapid wrist rotations to a target while the position of their eyes was being monitored. In Experiment 1, Ss spontaneously executed a saccadic eye movement to the target around the same time as the wrist began to move. Experiment 2 revealed that wrist-rotation accuracy suffered if Ss were not allowed to move their eyes to the target, even when visual feedback about the moving wrist was unavailable. In Experiment 3, wrist rotations were equally accurate when Ss produced either a saccadic or a smooth-pursuit eye movement to the target. However, differences were observed in the initial-impulse and error-correction phases of the wrist rotations, depending on the type of eye movement involved. The results suggest that aimed limb movements use information from the oculomotor system about both the static position of the eyes and the dynamic characteristics of eye movements. Furthermore, the information that governs the initial impulse is different from that which guides final error corrections.     

Cholinergic modulation of tonic immobility in the rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus).

The present study was performed to determine the effects of the anticholinergic agent scopolamine and the cholinergic agent physostigmine on tonic immobility in rabbits. Recordings of the electroencephalographic (EEG) activity from cortex and hippocampus were also made before, during, and after each test session. Scopolamine significantly prolonged the response and produced large amplitude slow wave activity in the EEG of both cortex and hippocampus. Physostigmine significantly shortened the duration of immobility and increased rhythmic slow activity in the frequency range of 5.5-9.1 Hz in the hippocampus while producing a desynchronized cortical rhythm. It is suggested that the cortex and hippocampus play a role in modulating tonic immobility duration by inhibiting the brain-stem structures thought to control this response.     

Suppression of precocial copulation by progesterone implants in the male chick forebrain.

Precocial copulation in 2-wk.-old male chicks, described behaviorally as free mount, tread, posterior contact, waggle, peek, and seize, was developed through hand-training experience and androgen treatment. Crystalline progesterone was then implanted in various forebrain or midbrain regions. Results indicated that progesterone inhibited copulatory behavior when placed in the periventricular areas of the preoptic-hypothalamic continuum. Progesterone implants in the preoptic lateral forebrain bundle regions also suppressed precocial copulation. Forebrain implants of cholesterol did not result in copulatory inhibition. The suppression of copulatory behavior was not accompanied by loss of weight or deficits in general activity or comb growth. These data indicate that brain regions responsible for progesterone-induced copulatory inhibition are similar in neuroanatomical distribution to those involved in testosterone-induced copulatory activation.