Nuclear Attitudes Before and After Chernobyl: Change and Judgment1

This study examines the attitudes of residents of a small town in Dorset, England, toward nuclear and oil developments. The sample consisted of 135 respondents to a follow-up questionnaire sent in June 1986 to a group of 356 residents who had responded to a previous questionnaire immediately before the Chernobyl accident in April 1986. There were shifts in the direction of greater opposition to the existing local nuclear plant, and the building of more nuclear power stations elsewhere in the country; comparable shifts were not found in attitudes toward non-nuclear industrial developments. Post-Chernobyl attitudes were closely related to evaluations of statements offering alternative interpretations of the accident, in a manner predictable from research on social judgment.     

DEVELOPMENT OF A JOB ANALYSIS-BASED PROCEDURE FOR WEIGHTING AND COMBINING CONTENT RELATED TESTS INTO A SINGLE TEST BATTERY SCORE

By definition, content-related approaches to test validation do not rely on criterion data. As a consequence, regression and other statistical procedures for weighting and generating a composite score from a test battery are not applicable when a content-related validation strategy is used. This paper presents a procedure for determining the component weights for a test battery that has been developed on the basis of a content-related validity strategy. The Relative Content Contribution (RCC) weighting procedure is a logical extension of the conceptual basis underlying the rational developmental process used to demonstrate the validity of content-related tests. Results from field implementations of the procedure in the development of two promotional test batteries (fire and police) and an entry-level test battery (police) in two large metropolitan cities are presented to illustrate the procedure.     

Categorization,cognitive consistency and the concept of dimensional salience

Cognitive consistency theories predict changes in evaluation within an existing frame of reference. This frame of reference must be defined in terms of those dimensions or aspects of the situation that appear most salient to the individual concerned. The same siuation may appear balanced or unbalanced, depending on which dimensions are seen as salient. The tendency to maintain balance may therefore reveal itself in a tendency to see as salient those dimensions in terms of which a given situation will appear most balanced. This is consistent with evidence from the judgment of attitude statements, which suggests that individuals will regard as most salient those dimensions along which their own evaluations of a set of statements will be most congruent with the value connotations of the terms by which the judgment scale is labelled.     

Differences in relapse precipitants and coping behaviour between alcohol relapsers and survivors.

This paper details an empirical investigation into alcoholic relapse. The model underlying this work hypothesized that relapse in alcoholics is an interaction between (1) situations seen as dangerous in precipitating relapse, (2) the behaviour available within the individual's repertoire to cope with these situations, (3) the perceived effectiveness of ‘coping’ behaviour and (4) the degree of self-attributed alcohol dependence.The results of a principal components analysis indicated that relapse precipitants could be categorised as (1) unpleasant affect. (2) external events and euphoric feelings. (3) social anxiety and (4) lessened cognitive vigilance. Except for ‘external events’, these relapse precipitants seemed to be associated with certain styles of coping, but these coping styles were not necessarily effective in avoiding relapse.The findings also indicated that there may be important differences in relapse precipitants and coping styles between those alcoholics who relapse after treatment and those who survive. The results suggest that cognitive control and flexibility of coping are more characteristic of ‘survivors’. The predictive and therapeutic implications of these findings are discussed from the point of view of prevention of relapse.     

EFFECTS OF ALTERNATIVE WEIGHTING METHODS IN A POLICY- CAPTURING APPROACH TO JOB EVALUATION: A REVIEW AND EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

This research was designed to examine differences in the predictive power of alternative scale weighting methods in the context of job evaluation. Two different point-factor job evaluation instruments were used to evaluate 71 managerial and service jobs in a metropolitan university, and five different weighting models were compared in terms of predictive validity and salary classification. For the job evaluation system having high multicollinearity and validity concentration, no significant differences in accuracy were found among the weighting methods. However, in the more heterogeneous system, prediction models based upon unit weights, correlational weights, and multiple regression had significantly higher predictive validity than models based upon equal raw score weights or rational weights developed by a job evaluation committee. In addition, the weighting models differed substantially in terms of the predicted policy wages and classification structures.     

Affiliation with new peer acquaintances during two initial social support interactions

Abstract This investigation examined the influence of a prior social support interaction on a subsequent interaction between new peer acquaintances. Pairs of adolescent peers (recruited in a large metropolitan area in the United States) were videotaped as they met and discussed current life concerns in 2 separate interactions. Results indicated that (a) the behaviors of new interaction partners are coordinated within an interaction (social coordination hypothesis), (b) behaviors exhibited during an initial interaction predict behaviors exhibited during a subsequent interaction (influential interaction hypothesis), (c) individuals affiliate in similar ways across interactions (cross‐situational consistency hypothesis), and (d) behaviors reflecting greater comfort with interaction increase across interactions (uncertainty reduction hypothesis). The discussion focuses on implications of results and contributions to existing literatures.