Sex Differences in a Causal Model of Career Maturity

Existing theories of career development are based primarily on observations of White, middle-class men. This has prompted many writers to question the validity of these theories and to consider the development of a separate theory of career development for women. But before a separate theory can be justified, it must be established that sex differences in the career development process do exist. The purpose of this study was twofold: first, to determine if sex differences exist in the way six independent variables interact in a causal model of career maturity, and, second, to compare the relative strengths of each variable's effect on career maturity for boys and for girls. The results suggest that, although the basic causal patterns are similar for adolescent boys and girls, significant sex differences exist as well. The observed differences are consistent with Gilligan's hypothesized “relational component of identity.”     

A REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF THE PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE JOB DIAGNOSTIC SURVEY

Empirical research is reviewed to evaluate the test-retest reliability, internal consistency, scale discrimination, factorial validity, convergent validity across raters and methods, and methods bias of the Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) of Hackman and Oldham (1975, 1980). The review shows that the JDS has important psychometric limitations, but is able–when used properly–to provide useful information about perceived job properties. Suggestions are made for improving the JDS and for developing additional instruments that assess a broader array of job dimensions and that assess them more objectively than current measures. Job characteristics researchers need a diverse portfolio of measures to accomplish different purposes.     

The relationship between psychological test results and EEG patterns in healthy children

222 children (112 girls and 110 boys) aged 5–16 years with different types of EEG pattern, selected according to well defined normal criteria in order to exclude cerebral lesion elements, were investigated by current child-psychiatric diagnostic methods, including the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children (WISC), which gave a mean IQ of 116.5. With two so-called tests of organicity (Bender Gestalt Test and Benton's Revised Visual Retention Test) poor performances indicating brain damage were shown in 22% and 24% of the children respectively. Various EEG patterns showed few significant correlations with the test variables. According to clinical judgement "slight symptoms of cerebral dysfunction" was found in some children, but no correlation appeared between such symptoms and poor performance in the psychological tests. The high frequency of defective scores in the Bender and Benton tests in this selected material of healthy children means that these tests cannot be used in clinical work for diagnosing brain injury in individual children. Nor can they be used to throw light on the clinical significance of the different EEG variables studied.     

Concepts of Creativity: Similarities and Differences among Mainland,Hong Kong and Taiwanese Chinese

Aspects of creativity concepts across different Chinese populations were examined. A Likert style questionnaire consisting of 60 adjectives was administered to 451 undergraduates from Beijing, Guangzhou, Taipei and Hong Kong. The results show that: (a) the core characteristics of creativity identical in all the samples are: “originality”, “innovativeness”, “thinking” and “observational skills”, “flexibility”, “willingness to try”, “self confidence”, and “imagination”; (b) the Taipei sample, unlike the other three samples, does not associate “wisdom”, “assertiveness”, and “individualism” with creativity; (c) in all Chinese populations the three factors labeled innovative, dynamic, and intellectual were distinguishable in the concept of creativity; (d) “artistic” and “humorous” were missing in the Chinese perception of creativity; (e) creativity characteristics received relatively low ratings on the desirability scale.     

The Social and Economic Imperative of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Supportive Organizational Policies

The central premise of this article is that organizations have social and economic interests in building policies and practices that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) workers. This argument is based on empirical evidence that (a) LGBT workers continue to face discrimination at work from which they are not protected under federal law, and (b) discrimination has negative consequences for individual's mental and physical health, and on reasoning that (c) organizations share responsibility for the social good of the communities in which they operate. We offer practical suggestions for creating LGBT-supportive organizations and propose that industrial–organizational psychologists have an ethical obligation to support such efforts.