Ethics and Marginal Cases: the rights of the mentally handicapped

ABSTRACT  Some beings, including children, animals and the mentally handicapped, seem to deserve moral consideration, despite the fact that they are not rational or moral agents. These so-called marginal cases create a problem for theories that heavily stress the role of moral and/or rational agency in ethics: the latter seem unable to account for the former's moral status. This paper discusses the recent and original attempt of Loren Lomasky to solve this problem. It is argued that Lomasky's arguments are self-defeating because they can only succeed by relying on common-sense morality and, thus, by giving up the heavy stress on the role of rational agency in ethics.     

JOB CLASSIFICATION APPROACHES AND THE IMPLEMENTATION OF VALIDITY GENERALIZATION RESULTS

This paper compares two job classification methods for showing the appropriateness of cognitive tests in settings that were not involved in supplying data for a validity generalization analysis. One approach was an elaborate quantitative procedure that involved a lengthy job inventory and a multivariate item analysis. This approach was shown to be highly successful when applied to the responses from 1179 job inventories collected in 54 petroleum-petrochemical plants from 30 different companies. The other procedure involved simple job classification judgments by supervisors and incumbents. This latter approach was shown to be as effective, but was much less time consuming and costly. Professional and legal implications of these findings are discussed.     

A META-ANALYSIS OF THE VALIDITY OF METHODS FOR RATING TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE IN PERSONNEL SELECTION

This paper reviews the validity evidence for systematic methods used to evaluate training and experience (T&E) ratings in personnel selection. Meta-analytic summaries of the data indicate that validity varies with the type of T&E evaluation procedure used. The lllinois job element and behavioral consistency methods each demonstrated useful levels of validity (.20 and .45, respectively) with small corrected standard deviations, thus supporting validity generalization. Both the point and task methods yielded low mean validities (.11 and .15, respectively) with larger variability. The authors hypothesized that both the point and task methods were affected by a job experience moderator. Partial support for this hypothesis was found. Moderator analyses suggested that the point method was most valid when the applicant pool had low mean levels of job experience and was least valid with an experienced applicant pool. Additional research is desirable on all T&E methods to decrease the potential impact of second-order sampling error in the meta-analytic results. Further research is also needed to explicate the constructs measured by T&E evaluations.     

Negative affectivity as a mediator of the association between adult attachment and marital satisfaction

Although the association between adult attachment and marital satisfaction is well documented, research has not examined processes by which attachment affects satisfaction. Drawing on attachment-oriented conceptualizations of affect regulation, the present study tested the hypothesis that negative affectivity mediates the association between attachment and marital satisfaction. Data from two samples of married couples were used to test the hypothesis. In both samples, negative affectivity mediated the association between some aspects of attachment insecurity and marital dissatisfaction, although attachment also retained a direct association with marital satisfaction in a number of cases. Results are discussed in terms of attachment-oriented conceptualizations of the function of negative emotion in marriage, and the empirical and conceptual overlap between attachment and negative affectivity.     

Time Management as a Stressor for Helping Professionals: Implications for Employment

This study summarizes and compares the findings of 5 studies completed between 1984 and 1994 that dealt with the factors that cause stress for 4 groups of helping professionals: regular classroom teachers, special education teachers, nurses in a tertiary care hospital, and social workers in child welfare. Time and its effective management proved to be the most significant stressor category for all groups. Possible explanations for the persistence of time management concerns in these helping professions, and possible implications for employment counselors, both as helpers and information providers to those who seek to enter such professions, are proposed.     

THE INFLUENCE OF RATER AND RATEE AGE ON TWO PERFORMANCE JUDGMENTS

The influences of rater age and rater age on performance evaluations of 513 exempt managers from a large manufacturing organization were examined. Two general performance criteria and six specific performance criteria were used. Results showed small but significant age influences on two of the specific performance measures, Self-Development and Interpersonal Skills. Older workers received lower ratings than younger workers on both of these dimensions. In addition, younger raters gave significantly higher ratings than older raters on Interpersonal Skills. Small but significant age interactions were found in both Interpersonal Skills ratings and Self-Development ratings. The findings were replicated in a second sample ( N =178). The influence of age on performance ratings is consistent with previous research and is compared. The extent of the influence is smaller in the present study than in previous research.     

FURTHER TESTS OF THE SCHMIDT-HUNTER BAYESIAN VALIDITY GENERALIZATION PROCEDURE1

Using an improved version of the Bayesian validity generalization model presented in Schmidt and Hunter (1977), this study showed that most of the between-study variation in observed validity coefficients of various aptitude and ability tests for two types of clerical work and for the job of first-line supervisor is artifactual in nature. These results cast additional doubt on the traditional belief that employment test validities are situationally specific. In addition, the results showed that generalization of validities to new settings was justified even where the hypothesis of situational specificity could not be rejected under the standards used in this study. Implications for the use of aptitude and ability tests in selection and for theory development in industrial-organizational psychology are discussed.     

JOB ANALYSIS: THE COMPOSITION OF SME SAMPLES

It is common for job analysts to solicit information from incumbents and supervisors (Subject Matter Experts or SMEs) when conducting a job analysis. These SMEs are asked to provide ratings on salient dimensions (e.g., frequency and importance of tasks that comprise the job). In constructing samples of SMEs for this purpose, it is reasonable to consider any possible influences that might bias or systematically influence the task ratings. The present paper considers the possible influence of SME demographic characteristics on task ratings of frequency. The tasks comprising the job of patrol officer in a large city were rated for frequency by approximately 700 incumbents. These ratings were gathered in two different years, 1982 and 1984. The total data set was used to conduct a components analysis of the 444-item task inventory. The first eight principal components were considered the dependent variables and four demographic characteristics the independent variables in an analysis of the 1982 data set. Analysis of variance and follow-up tests indicated that incumbent experience had a substantial influence on task ratings. Educational level and race had minimal effects on ratings. The sex factor was confounded by the experience factor, making interpretation of the sex effect equivocal. Mechanisms that might account for the experience effect are discussed. It was concluded that incumbent experience is a salient issue in job analysis using SME groups.