A Paradoxical Approach to Vocational Indecision

This article describes a case study in which a paradoxical intervention was employed in treating a vocationally indecisive college student and his overly involved parent.     

Seven years of the Journal: a review

This article reviews the contents of volumes 41 to 47 (1962 through 1969) of the Personnel and Guidance Journal, focusing on its composition, its authors, and several aspects of its articles such as methodology, setting, and contents. Relative emphases and trends are also identified and discussed.     

Chinese Cultural Collectivism and Work-Related Stress: Implications for Employment Counselors

The influence and damage of work-related stress on employees from different cultures may well be the same, but the form of stressors may not be so. Stress is influenced by cultural and social variables such as values, attitudes, and perceptions. The collectivism-individualism construct was suggested to measure cultural variables and attempt to explain the differences of some social behaviors between Eastern and Western people. Eastern cultures like the Chinese and the Japanese are collectivistic, whereas Western cultures such as the American and Canadian are individualistic. As members of an Asian collectivistic society, Hong Kong Chinese workers tend to interpret and handle work-related stress differently from Westerners, despite the fact that they have been exposed to western business practices. Like Asian Americans, they are often caught between their collectivistic tradition and an increasingly competetive individualistic market place. Employment counselors should take cultural issues into consideration as they provide consultation or counseling services to people who are searching for satisfying work environments.     

TELL ME SOME MORE: EXPLORING HOW VERBAL ABILITY AND ITEM VERIFIABILITY INFLUENCE RESPONSES TO BIODATA QUESTIONS IN A HIGH‐STAKES SELECTION CONTEXT

Although self‐rated or self‐scored selection measures are commonly used in selection contexts, they are potentially susceptible to applicant response distortion or faking. The response elaboration technique (RET), which requires job applicants to provide supporting information to justify their responses, has been identified as a potential way to minimize applicant response distortion. In a large‐scale, high‐stakes selection context (N= 16,304), we investigate the extent to which RET affects responding on a biodata test as well as the underlying reasons for any potential effect. We find that asking job applicants to elaborate their responses leads to overall lower scores on a biodata test. Item verifiability affects the extent to which RET decreases faking, which we suggest is due to increased accountability. In addition, verbal ability was more strongly related to biodata item scores when items require elaboration, although the effect of verbal ability was small. The implications of these findings for reducing faking in personnel selection are delineated.     

SO YOU DIDN'T GET THE JOB … NOW WHAT DO YOU THINK? EXAMINING OPPORTUNITY‐TO‐PERFORM FAIRNESS PERCEPTIONS

Although the last 10 years have witnessed an increased recognition of the importance of procedural fairness in selection contexts, most empirical research has focused on job relevance as the primary influence on fairness perceptions. There is reason to believe, however, that "opportunity-to-perform" (OTP) perceptions are also an important aspect of fairness perceptions and become particularly important following negative feedback (i.e., not receiving a job offer). Using both qualitative and quantitative data from a large sample of applicants to an agency of the U.S. government ( N = 754), we examine (a) how OTP relates to fairness judgments, (b) how receiving negative feedback affects this relationship, (c) differences in OTP across a variety of different selection methods, and (d) determinants of OTP perceptions. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses confirmed that OTP was an important predictor of overall procedural fairness and was the single most important procedural rule after receiving negative feedback. Practical implications of this pattern, the obtained differences in OTP across assessments, and results regarding the determinants of OTP are discussed.     

Work‐Stress Burnout in Emergency Medical Technicians and the Use of Early Recollections

Numerous studies have indicated the high work‐stress burnout and attrition rate of emergency medical technicians. Of these studies, none have attempted to use projective techniques to predict work‐stress burnout. Eight central themes of early recollections have been reported: getter, controller, driver, pleaser, martyr/victim, “aginner,” feeling avoider, and excitement seeker. This article discusses those early memories that are more representative of emergency medical technicians who may be susceptible to burnout, as well as other memories that may indicate an individual's resistance to burnout, and proposes research to substantiate the effectiveness of early recollections in predicting burnout in emergency medical technicians.