AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE PREDICTORS OF EXECUTIVE CAREER SUCCESS

This study examined the degree to which demographic, human capital, motivational, organizational, and industrylregion variables predicted executive career success. Career success was assumed to comprise objective (pay, ascendancy) and subjective (job satisfaction, career satisfaction) elements. Results obtained from a sample of 1,388 U.S. executives suggested that demographic, human capital, motivational, and organizational variables explained significant variance in objective career success and in career satisfaction. Particularly interesting were findings that educational level, quality, prestige, and degree type all predicted financial success. In contrast, only the motivational and organizational variables explained significant amounts of variance in job satisfaction. These findings suggest that the variables that lead to objective career success often are quite different from those that lead to subjectively defined success.     

ACHIEVING AND MAINTAINING COMPLIANCE WITH THE KETOGENIC DIET

The ketogenic diet, a treatment for intractable epilepsy, is rarely initiated because it requires strict compliance with a diet that is perceived to be unpalatable. In a case study of a 15-year-old girl with uncontrolled epilepsy, we used a stimulus-choice procedure to assess relative preferences of 33 foods from the diet and to develop two treatments based on Premack's principle. The results of a multielement analysis showed that both treatments increased dietary compliance. Compliance was maintained with generalization of treatment across settings, and was associated with a 40% reduction in seizures.     

Predicting and scaling hens' preferences for topographically different responses

Six hens were exposed to several concurrent (second-order) variable-interval schedules in which the response requirements on the alternatives were varied. The response requirements were one key peck versus five key pecks, one key peck versus one door push, and five key pecks versus one door push. Response- and time-allocation ratios undermatched the obtained reinforcement ratios but were well described by the generalized matching law. Time and response bias estimates from two pairs of response requirements were used to predict bias in the third pairing. The predicted values were close to those obtained; this result supports the notion that both numerically and topographically different responses act as constant sources of bias within the generalized matching law. The differences between the response and time biases could be accounted for by the different times needed to complete each response requirement. The results also suggest that the door push is a useful operant for research with domestic hens.     

Self-Deceptive Coping: Adaptive Only in Ambiguous Contexts

ABSTRACT Two experiments investigated claims for the efficacy of self-deceptive coping (e.g., Sackeim, 1983, 1988). In Study I the performance of self-deceivers on solvable anagrams was found to he remarkably poor relative to that of non-self-deceivers after both groups were exposed to unsolvable problems. The starkly unambiguous failure experience may have precluded self-deception. Therefore, in Study 2 participants were exposed to unsolvable problems either with or without an excuse. Self-deceivers who encountered failure with an excuse subsequently performed much better on the solvable tasks than those without an excuse. These findings suggest that the use of self-deception following threat is constrained by the availability of contextual ambiguity (e.g., excuses). The effect of the excuse was not related to participants' mood or attributions for performance.     

Maximizing internal and external validity in MMPI malingering research: a study of a military population

The authors investigated the effectiveness of various commonly used Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI; Hathaway & McKinley, 1943) indices of exaggeration and malingering in detecting suspected malingering in a military sample of 121 enlisted men. To maximize external validity, only men undergoing psychological evaluation were used as participants. Forty-one participants were identified as suspected malingerers through multiple criteria and were contrasted with schizophrenic-spectrum and clinic outpatient groups. To improve internal validity, the 41 suspected malingering participants were asked to retake the test without exaggerating. Results revealed that there were many false positives and fewer, but nonetheless many, false negatives with standard malingering indices. It appeared that the Gough Dissimulation scale (Gough, 1947) might hold the most promise as a measure of malingering, but other scales are also useful. Individual comparisons between different samples and implications for MMPI-2 (Butcher et al., 1989) are presented.     

Origin and history of the Thematic Apperception Test images

The origin and history of each of the images appearing on the 1943/1971 edition of the Thematic Apperception Test is presented. This information corrects and supplements that provided by Murray (1943/1971) in the test manual. Authorship of the test, including the contributions of Christiana Morgan, is discussed. The material presented expands the historical record and may serve as an aid in test interpretation.     

Self-control and impulsiveness in children and adults: Effects of food preferences

Experiment 1 used 6 preschool boys and Experiment 2 used 6 adult women to explore the effects of food preference on humans' choice in self-control paradigms. The boys showed a higher proportion of responses for more delayed, larger reinforcers (a measure of self-control) when those choices resulted in receipt of the most preferred food compared to when those choices resulted in the least preferred food. Further, the boys chose the less delayed, smaller reinforcers significantly more often when only those choices, as opposed to both choices, resulted in the most preferred food. Conversely, they chose the more delayed, larger reinforcers significantly more often when only those choices, as opposed to both choices, resulted in the most preferred food. Finally, the women demonstrated significantly less sensitivity to reinforcer amount relative to sensitivity to reinforcer delay (another measure of self-control) when they had a higher preference for the juice received as the less delayed, smaller reinforcer than for the juice received as the more delayed, larger reinforcer. Together, the results show that subjects' food preferences can influence self-control for food reinforcers.