AN EMPIRICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECTS OF AFFECTIVE RESPONSE IN THE MEASUREMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE*

The purpose of this study was to determine whether an affective response affects the dimensionality of perceptual measures of organizational climate. To accomplish this 8,938 nonsupervisory employees of a large utility completed both an organizational climate questionnaire and a measure of job satisfaction. The raw scores on the climate instrument were factor analyzed. Then the job satisfaction scores were partialed out of the intercorrelations of the items making up the climate instrument and the residual scores were submitted to a factor analysis. The results suggest that partialing job satisfaction out of responses to an organizational climate questionnaire served to improve the dimensionality of the climate instrument.     

Two logit models for external analysis of preferences

A logit vector model and a logit ideal point model are presented for external analysis of paired comparison preference judgments aggregated over a homogeneous group. The logit vector model is hierarchically nested within the logit ideal point model so that statistical tests are available to distinguish between these two models. Generalized least squares estimation procedures are developed to account for heteroscedastic sampling error variances and specification error variances. Two numerical illustrations deal with judgments concerning employee compensation plans and preferences for salt and sugar in the brine of canned green beans.     

Central auditory processing : III. The “cocktail party” effect and anterior temporal lobectomy

The capacity to selectively attend to only one of multiple, spatially separated, simultaneous sound sources—the “cocktail party” effect—was evaluated in normal subjects and in those with anterior temporal lobectomy using common environmental sounds. A significant deficit in this capacity was observed for those stimuli located on the side of space contralateral to the lobectomy, a finding consistent with the hypothesis that within each anterior temporal lobe is a mechanism that is normally capable of enhancing the perceptual salience of one acoustic stimulus on the opposite side of space, when other sound sources are present on that side. Damage to this mechanism also appears to be associated with a deficit of spatial localization for sounds contralateral to the lesion.     

An awareness approach to the covert symptoms of stuttering

Speech-language clinicians working with the confirmed stuttering client are often faced with the clinical management of the covert symptoms of stuttering in addition to the more observable and measurable overt symptoms. The authors report the successful use of awareness techniques to exaggerate the subjective experience of these covert symptoms and encourage the use of these techniques as an adjunct to the counseling and desensitization procedures traditionally employed. A transcribed clinical management session in which several awareness techniques are used to aid the client in an introspective examination of “anticipation of stuttering,” is analyzed in order to reach some specific recommendations for using awareness techniques in the clinical management of the covert symptoms of stuttering.     

The Counselor's Role in the Development of Staff Competence

This article describes competence assessment as a method by which counselors can relate staff development directly to success on the job.     

The Use of Hypnotic Elements and Audio Recordings with the Fantasy Relaxation Technique

The Fantasy Relaxation Technique, developed by Hugh Gunnison in 1976, is a simple method of gaining control over panic and anxiety. Two new components have been added to the original technique and they seem to enhance students' self-control during tests.     

Age and cohort effects on personality factor scores across sexes and racial/ethnic groups

Substantial differences exist across ethnic groups and sexes in generational changes in status among groups residing in Hawaii. Despite these generational differences across groups, age differences in personality are remarkably consistent across sexes and racial/ethnic groups, and the few Sex x Age, Ethnicity x Age or Sex x Ethnicity x Age interactions account for little variance in scores. It is concluded that age/generational differences in personality factor scores in these populations result from age and not, to any major degree, from cohort effects.     

CREATION AND EVOLUTION: ANOTHER ROUND IN AN ANCIENT STRUGGLE

Abstract. Creation and evolution were historic allies against eternalism. However, Darwinism seemed to undercut cosmological theism and human dignity, and modern reconcilers of evolution and theology have not convinced opponents that they can preserve these concerns. Creationists find divine handiwork in natural order and freedom in human uniqueness. For them, even entropy and continuity of kinds are emblematic of the unity of nature and the needfulness of salvation. Anti-evolutionists' impatience and frustration are not well answered by dogmatic or mythicized science. Neither is creation well served by reduction to merely empiric facts. Because creationism and evolutionism rest on the unabstractable categories of contingency and necessity, neither will disappear.     

Natural sniffing gives optimum odour perception for humans

The characteristics of human sniffing episodes during odour perception have been described in an earlier paper, where it has been suggested that the techniques used by individuals may be close to those providing optimum perception. To investigate this suggestion, threshold and intensity tests with butanol, cyclohexanone, and pentyl acetate have been carried out on twenty-one subjects. Olfactory responses obtained by using natural sniffing techniques were compared with those where the number of sniffs, interval between sniffs, and size of sniffs were varied. The results indicate that it is very difficult to improve on the efficiency of sniffing techniques of individuals and that a single natural sniff provides as much information about the presence and intensity of an odour as do seven or more sniffs. A single natural sniff and the first sniff of a a natural sniffing episode were shown to have similar characteristics and most significantly both were unaffected by changes in the concentration and type of odour. Overall, the results indicate that humans achieve optimum odour perception during threshold and intensity measures with their natural multiple-sniff technique or with a single sniff. For the 'average' human this occurs with a sniff of inhalation rate 30 1 min-1, volume 200 cm3, and duration 0.4 s. The use of several sniffs in a sniffing episode appears to be a confirmatory action rather than a necessary one, except for the perception of odour mixtures where several sniffs are likely to be needed to aid discrimination of the components. Data from the present and earlier study provide the information necessary for the development of a standard olfactometer and standard procedures for measuring the olfactory responses of humans.     

A comparison of observed and reported adult-infant interactions: Effects of perceived sex

Interactions of 16 adults (eight married couples whose youngest child was less than 2 1/2 years old) with a single actor infant, dressed as either a male or a female, were recorded and analyzed in four categories: direction of gaze, facial expression, physical contact with the infant, and toy used. After the interaction period, a 45-minute interview on child rearing was conducted with each member of the couple. Observed interactions were then compared with interview data. The results support previous studies which show that both male and female parents behave differently toward unfamiliar infants on the basis of perceived sex. However, parents, especially mothers, appeared unaware of their differential treatment of male and female infants. These results suggest subtle sex-typing of infants by adults.