Job Link: An Employment Counseling Program for Immigrants

A group employment counseling program for counseling immigrants is described. Evaluation results from the project are also presented.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF AN ORGANIZATIONAL-LEVEL ORIENTATION TRAINING PROGRAM IN THE SOCIALIZATION OF NEW HIRES

This quasi-experimental field study examined the impact of attending a voluntary, organizational-level new employee orientation training program on organizational socialization. Six content dimensions of socialization were measured before and 1 to 2 months following orientation training for a sample of 116 new employees in a variety of occupations. Results revealed that employees attending the orientation training were significantly more socialized on 3 of the 6 socialization content dimensions (goals/values, history, & people) than employees who did not attend the training. Employees attending the orientation training also had significantly higher levels of affective organizational commitment than nonattendees, a relationship that was fully mediated by the socialization content dimensions, primarily goals/values, and history.     

The Use and Consequences of Verbal Influence Strategies During Interpersonal Disagreements

Interpersonal influence refers to the strategies and tactics communicators use to establish, reinforce, or alter one another's cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. It is argued that influence functions to attain instrumental goals, manage the relationship, and preserve desired identities. These three functions guided the development of a categorical system for classifying 36 verbal influence tactics according to six major strategy types applicable to the context of resolving disagreements. Videotaped interactions of 50 married couples were coded for strategy use by eight trained raters. The most frequently used strategies were content validation, self-assertions, and other accusations, whereas content invalidation, self-defense, and other-support received far less use. Correlational results between strategy use and consequences revealed that: (a) males were more persuasive when using content validation and self-assertions and less persuasive when using content invalidation and other-accusations, (b) females were more persuasive when using other-support and less persuasive when using content invalidation, and (c) greater communication satisfaction was experienced by both partners when the other used supportive tactics and did not use accusatory ones. Analyses of couples'behavior suggests the predominant interaction pattern was reciprocal rather than compensatory.     

A tutorial on analyzing data from speed‐dating studies with heterosexual dyads

Speed‐dating studies provide a useful venue for studying attraction and other relationship initiation processes. They provide researchers with a unique opportunity to assess how much a dyadic behavior (e.g., attraction) is due to some relationship‐specific adjustment or the dispositional tendencies of the two people interacting. Researchers can also investigate the impact of individual difference variables on relationship initiation outcomes. This article shows researchers how to address such interesting questions by providing an extended treatment of how to apply the social relations model (D. A. Kenny & L. La Voie, 1984) to data from a typical speed‐dating study with heterosexual dyads. The statistical program SPSS is used given its widespread use and accessibility.     

PUBLICATION BIAS: A CASE STUDY OF FOUR TEST VENDORS

This article has 2 goals. First, we discuss publication bias and explain why it presents a potential problem for industrial and organizational psychology. After reviewing the traditional failsafe N, or file drawer analysis, we introduce a more sophisticated method of publication bias analysis (trim and fill), which has been developed in the medical literature but is largely unfamiliar to industrial and organizational psychology researchers. Second, we demonstrate trim and fill by applying it to validity information reported in the technical manuals of 4 test vendors. In doing so, we assess the likelihood that criterion-related validity information provided by test publishers may overestimate test validity. In our analysis of 18 validity distributions, we found evidence of either no or minimal bias for 2 of the vendors' distributions and evidence of moderate-to-severe bias in at least 1 distribution from each of the other 2 vendors. In both cases in which publication bias was found, we noted instances in which the publishers tended to report only statistically significant correlations and that this practice was detected using publication bias methodology.     

The current status of clinical geropsychology in Australia: A survey of practising psychologists

Little recent objective evidence exists to qualify past concerns regarding the low numbers of psychologists working with older adults in Australia. The present study reports on figures from two surveys of Australian psychologists, finding that of the 1,699 psychologists surveyed, only 6% specialise in treating older adults. This figure is comparable to those from studies conducted overseas, where more training and employment opportunities are available. Reasons for such low figures are explored together with recommendations to meet the future demand for psychological services as the proportion of elderly adults within the Australian population increases.