Measuring Relationships between Personality,Knowledge, and Performance using Single‐response Situational Judgment Tests

We report two studies that investigate single‐response situational judgment tests (SJTs) as measures of job knowledge. Study 1 examines relationships between job knowledge measured by a single‐response SJT, personality, and performance for museum tour guides. Study 2 extends Study 1's findings with a sample of volunteers using a single‐response SJT about volunteerism. In both studies, personality was related to knowledge, and knowledge predicted performance. In Study 2, knowledge accounted for incremental variance in performance beyond personality, but personality added no incremental variance beyond knowledge. Results suggest that knowledge of effective behavior and knowledge of ineffective behavior are separate constructs. These studies demonstrate the validity of single‐response SJTs and provide evidence that knowing what to do and what not to do are separate domains.     

Influences on Newcomers' Adjustment Tactic Use

In recent years, organizational socialization research has focused increasingly on the tactics that newcomers use to guide their own adjustment. Various subsets of adjustment tactics have been studied, with minimal rationale as to why newcomers would use different behaviors. We present a typology for newcomer adjustment tactics, comprising opportunistic, self‐determined, and shared behaviors, to categorize and integrate all newcomer adjustment tactics identified to date. Next, we propose a model in which tactic use is a function of cost–benefit analyses – on performance, ego, and social dimensions – influenced by individual and contextual factors. This integrates the diverse literatures on socialization, adjustment, information seeking, feedback seeking, and coping. Integrating our initial tactics categorization and the cost–benefit model, we present a robust set of propositions that inform newcomers' perceptions and use of adjustment tactics. We conclude by presenting theoretical and practical implications for newcomer adjustment.     

Therapist competence, therapy quality, and therapist training

Large numbers of therapists worldwide wish to receive training in how to deliver psychological treatments. Current methods of training are poorly suited to this task as they are costly and require scarce expertise. New forms of training therefore need to be developed that are more cost-effective and scalable. Internet-based methods might fulfil these requirements whilst having the added advantage of being able to provide trainees with extensive exposure to the treatment as practised. New strategies and procedures for evaluating training outcome are also required. These need to be capable of assessing the therapist's knowledge of the treatment and its use, as well as the therapist's ability to apply this knowledge in clinical practice. Standardised role play-based techniques might be of value in this regard.     

Total Exertion: Zen,Psychoanalysis, Life

This paper integrates Zen and psychoanalytic concepts; introduces the Zen concept of total exertion; elaborates the profound implications that the notion of total exertion has for the psychoanalytic encounter and the psychotherapist’s capacity for maintaining an optimal attentional stance; addresses anxiety-driven interferences to both the psychoanalytic process and deepened Zen practice. Clinical vignettes, personal experiences, poetry and psychoanalytic theory serve to demonstrate the abstract aspects of the discussion.     

Personality disorder diagnostic thresholds correspond to different levels of latent pathology

To meet a diagnosis for a particular personality disorder (PD), among other requirements, a person must exhibit a specified minimum number of the features outlined for that PD, otherwise referred to as the diagnostic threshold. Despite many years of research on the DSM PDs, there is little empirical basis for the chosen thresholds. The present study used mechanisms of item response theory (IRT) to link the diagnostic thresholds of six PDs to their corresponding level of latent PD pathology. Consistent with our hypothesis, analyses of the data from 41,227 participants revealed that PD diagnostic thresholds corresponded to a wide range of latent pathology. For example, the diagnostic threshold for schizoid PD corresponded to 1.54 SDs of pathology whereas the threshold for dependent PD corresponded to 2.72 SDs of pathology. The current analyses have demonstrated for the first time that the latent pathology associated with each PD threshold varies widely, and thus has quantified what others accurately have speculated. Implications and considerations for the future directions of PD classification are discussed.     

The overview of reviews: Unique challenges and opportunities when research syntheses are the principal elements of new integrative scholarship

In the past two decades, a new form of scholarship has appeared in which researchers present an overview of previously conducted research syntheses on the same topic. In these efforts, research syntheses are the principal units of evidence. Overviews of reviews introduce unique problems that require unique solutions. This article describes what methods overviewers have developed or have adopted from other forms of scholarship. These methods concern how to (a) define the broader problem space of an overview, (b) conduct literature searches that specifically look for research syntheses, (c) address the overlap in evidence in related reviews, (d) evaluate the quality of both primary research and research syntheses, (e) integrate the outcomes of research syntheses, especially when they produce discordant results, (f) conduct a second-order meta-analysis, and (g) present findings. The limitations of overviews are also discussed, especially with regard to the age of the included evidence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Parental autonomy support and discrepancies between implicit and explicit sexual identities: dynamics of self-acceptance and defense

When individuals grow up with autonomy-thwarting parents, they may be prevented from exploring internally endorsed values and identities and as a result shut out aspects of the self perceived to be unacceptable. Given the stigmatization of homosexuality, individuals perceiving low autonomy support from parents may be especially motivated to conceal same-sex sexual attraction, leading to defensive processes such as reaction formation. Four studies tested a model wherein perceived parental autonomy support is associated with lower discrepancies between self-reported sexual orientation and implicit sexual orientation (assessed with a reaction time task). These indices interacted to predict anti-gay responding indicative of reaction formation. Studies 2-4 showed that an implicit/explicit discrepancy was particularly pronounced in participants who experienced their fathers as both low in autonomy support and homophobic, though results were inconsistent for mothers. Findings of Study 3 suggested contingent self-esteem as a link between parenting styles and discrepancies in sexual orientation measures.     

Masculinity threats influence evaluation of hypermasculine advertisements

ABSTRACT

The precarious manhood paradigm posits that many men view their gender as a social status that must be earned and maintained, and can be lost. The present study applied the precarious manhood paradigm to a hypermasculine advertisement. A sample of 208 men was collected online. Using a false feedback paradigm, men’s masculinity was either threatened, or not threatened. The men then viewed one of two commercials. One commercial was a neutral, control advertisement, and one was a hypermasculine advertisement. We also measured participants’ endorsement of masculine norms. Results of a moderated moderation analysis indicated that men in the threat condition were more likely to view the hypermasculine advertisement as being masculinity-enhancing, if they also endorsed the masculine norms of Winning, Heterosexual Self-Presentation, and Power over Women. Results for future research applying precarious manhood to advertising, and implications for clinical work with men, are discussed.