Characteristics of Valid Biographical Items

This study assessed the relationships between characteristics of biographical items from the Armed Services Applicant Profile and the items' validity in predicting the retention of enlisted military personnel. Item characteristics were appraised with ratings by expert judges and test takers, word and alternative counts, and response latencies. Item content was also appraised with ratings by expert judges. The more valid items involved overt behavior or experiences, dealt with discrete behavior or experiences, and had heterogeneous content. After controlling for item content, only the latter characteristic was related to validity. Item characteristics and item content interacted in several instances.     

E.O. Wilson's Lapdog: Michael ruse on sociobiology

Taking Darwin Seriously, by Michael Ruse, Blackwell, 1986, 303 pages, hb £27.50, pb £7.95     

Aversive Affect Versus Racism as Predictors of Racial Discrimination in Helping

We examined aversive affect and racism as predictors of differences in helping White versus Black targets. According to aversive racism theory, Whites may express egalitarian attitudes but experience discomfort in interracial interactions, producing discrimination. Participants completed racism measures and reported their likelihood of helping White or Black targets. Racism negligibly predicted discriminatory helping across studies. In Studies 2 and 3, participants experiencing aversive affect were less likely to help Black than White targets. Results demonstrate negative feelings, more so than racial biases, impacts discriminatory helping. We hope to inspire future research examining why White bystanders experience aversion in interracial helping.     

The role of social relationships and culture in the cognitive representation of emotions

There are individual and cultural differences in how memories of our emotions are cognitively represented. This article examines the cognitive representation of emotions in different cultures, as a result of emotional (in)consistency in different cultures. Using a continuous semantic priming task, we showed in two studies that individuals who were less emotionally consistent across relationships have stronger associations of their emotions within those relationships. Further, we found (in Study 2) that in a culture characterised by higher levels of emotional inconsistency across relationships (Singapore), stronger associations between emotions within relationships were found than in a culture characterised by emotional consistency (USA). This cultural difference in cognitive representation was fully mediated by individual differences in cross-situational consistency levels.     

The Implications of Adolescents’ Academic Word Knowledge for Achievement and Instruction

The purpose of the current study was to determine relationships between orthographic and morphological awareness of academic words and achievement across content areas. Participants (n = 256), diverse seventh and eighth graders, took three word knowledge measures; two standardized achievement measures were used as outcomes. Orthographic awareness of academic words explained variance in achievement, beyond overall breadth of vocabulary knowledge, with significant changes in R² ranging from 0.02 to 0.08. Morphological awareness of academic words explained variance in achievement, beyond overall breadth of vocabulary knowledge, with significant changes in R² ranging from 0.06 to 0.16.     

Social-Cognitive Moderators of the Relationship between Peer Victimization and Suicidal Ideation among Psychiatrically Hospitalized Adolescents

Peer victimization among children and adolescents is a major public health concern, given its widespread individual and societal ramifications. Victims of peer aggression often face significant levels of psychological distress and social difficulties, such as depression, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and social rejection. The purpose of this study was to examine whether cognitive distortions and perceptions of social support moderate the association between peer victimization and suicidal thoughts among psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents. Participants included 183 psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents (ages 13 to 18). In multiple regression analyses that controlled for gender, social and cognitive factors served as significant resource factors. Cognitive factors also moderated the relationship between peer victimization and suicidal ideation.     

Instantiation as Partial Identity: Replies to Critics

One of the advantages of my account in the essay “Instantiation as Partial Identity” was capturing the contingency of instantiation—something David Armstrong gave up in his experiment with a similar view. What made the contingency possible for me was my own non-standard account of identity, complete with the apparatus of counts and aspects. The need remains to lift some obscurity from the account in order to display its virtues to greater advantage. To that end, I propose to respond to those who have grappled with it in print. There are various criticisms by commentators: that it is rendered absurd by the transitivity of identity, that it makes instantiation necessary instead of contingent, that it is unclear what counts are, that aspects are simply tropes, that my view does not capture multiple location, that I make an unclear reference to a theory of composition as identity, that the account suffers from problems with polyadicity, and that it is not a realist account of universals after all. I give responses to these objections.     

Tracking job performance trajectories over time: A six-year longitudinal study

There is considerable interest in moving beyond static investigations of job performance to studying the dynamics of job performance over relatively long periods of time. In the present research, we investigated the development of job performance using a large sample of 420 employees followed over a six-year period for which yearly job performance evaluations by managers were available. Latent growth models indicated the presence of a nonlinear trajectory, with alternating phases of stability, sharp increase, and abrupt decrease. Level of education, the perception of one’s direct supervisor, and self-efficacy significantly predicted individual job performance levels observed at Wave 2. Quadratic job tenure, level of education, the perception of one’s direct supervisor, and self-efficacy were found to be significant predictors of job performance development. Findings are discussed in the light of their implications for future studies examining job performance longitudinally.