Overgeneral autobiographical memory predicts higher prospective levels of depressive symptoms and intrusions in borderline patients

Overgeneral memory (OGM), the tendency to retrieve categories of events from autobiographical memory instead of single events, is found to be a reliable predictor for future mood disturbances and post-traumatic symptom severity. Patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) often report co-morbid episodes of major depressive disorder (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore, we investigated whether OGM would predict depression severity and (post-traumatic) stress symptoms in BPD patients. At admission (N?=?54) and at six-month follow-up (N?≥?31), BPD patients completed the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders, the Assessment of DSM-IV Personality Disorders, the Autobiographical Memory Test, the Beck Depression Inventory—2nd edition (BDI-II), and the Impact of Event Scale. OGM at baseline predicted (a) higher levels of depressive symptoms at follow-up and (b) more intrusions related to a stressful event over and above baseline levels of borderline symptoms, depressive symptoms, and intrusions, respectively. No association was found between memory specificity and event-related avoidance at follow-up. Despite previous findings suggesting that OGM in BPD is less robust than in MDD and PTSD, our results suggest that memory specificity in BPD patients may have some relevance for the course of depressive and stress symptomatology in BPD.     

The effect of state core self-evaluations on task performance,organizational citizenship behaviour,and counterproductive work behaviour

Although the personality–performance relationship has been studied extensively, most studies focused on the relationship between between-person differences in the Big Five personality dimensions and between-person differences in job performance. The current paper extends this research in two ways. First, we build on core self-evaluations (CSEs): an alternative, broad personality dimension that has proven to be a good predictor of job performance. Second, we tested concurrent and lagged within-person relationships between CSEs and task performance, organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), and counterproductive work behaviour (CWB). To this end, we conducted two experience sampling studies; the first one assessing the relationship between state CSEs and levels of momentary task performance and OCB, and a second study in which employees reported on their level of state CSEs and momentary CWB. Results showed that there is substantial within-person variability in CSEs and that these within-person fluctuations relate to within-person variation in task performance, OCB, and CWB towards the organization, and CWB towards the individual. Moreover, CSEs prospectively predicted within-person differences in task performance and CWB towards the organization, whereas the reversed effect did not hold. These findings tentatively suggest that state CSEs predict performance, rather than the other way around.     

A Practical Procedure to Estimate the Quality and the Adverse Impact of Single–Stage Selection Decisions

The quandary posed by the conflicting goals of valid selection and a diverse workforce is one of the most perplexing problems facing the practice of personnel selection today. To help address the issue, the article presents a comprehensive method and a related computer program to estimate the expected adverse impact and the expected quality of the majority, the minority and the total selected work force. Compared to previous related procedures, the present method is much more general as it can address situations with both multiple predictor and multiple criterion dimensions. In addition, the expected effects can be computed given the overall selection ratio and the estimates are derived analytically and, hence, are accurate. To assist the selection practitioner, the method is made available as a free download from the Internet.     

Future Perspectives on Employee Selection: Key Directions for Future Research and Practice

Les recherches sur la sélection et l'évaluation sont abordées d'un point de vue tourné vers l'avenir. On recense quatre grand thèmes d'importance majeure dans le développement des futures recherches: la prédiction bimodale, l'adaptation polyvalente, les réactions et décisions pertinentes et les tensions entre la recherche et la pratique dans la sélection professionnelle. Pour chacun de ces thèmes, nous soulevons certains problèmes qui restent à traiter. On discute enfin des conséquences sur la patique et les avancées actuelles dans le domaine de la sélection, traditionnellement l'une des plus actives des disciplines centrales de la psychologie internationales du travail.
A future-oriented perspective for selection and assessment research is presented. Four superordinate themes of critical import to the development of future research are identified: (i) bimodal prediction, (ii) multilevel fit, (iii) applicant reactions and decision making, and (iv) tensions between research and practice in employee selection. Under each theme we pose a number of outstanding questions for research. Implications for practice and the ongoing advancement of the sub-field of selection, traditionally one of the most robust core disciplines in international IWO psychology, are discussed.     

Situational Tests in Student Selection: An Examination of Predictive Validity,Adverse Impact,and Construct Validity

The Flemish Admission Exam ‘Medical and Dental Studies’ is comprised of four cognitive ability tests and four situational tests, namely two work samples (i.e., a lecture and a medical text) and two video‐based situational judgement tests (i.e., a physician–patient interaction and a medical expert discussion). On the basis of the Admission Exam scores of 941 candidates (359 men, 582 women) this study shows that situational tests significantly can predict better than cognitive ability tests, with lecture and text emerging as significant predictors. When situational tests are combined with cognitive ability tests, there are no mean gender differences. Situational tests also enable us to measure a broader range of constructs. For example, in this study, the personality factor Openness is related to better situational test performance. Overall, this study demonstrates that situational tests may be a useful complement to traditional student selection procedures.     

The Sense of Touch: From Tactility to Tactual Probing

Because philosophical reflections on touch usually start from our ability to perceive properties of objects, they tend to overlook features of touch that are crucial to correct understanding of tactual perception. This paper brings out these features and uses them to develop a general reconception of the sense of touch. I start by taking a fresh look at our ability to feel, in order to reveal its vital role. This sheds a different light on the skin's perceptual potential. While it is commonly observed that tactile experiences have two intentional objects, an external object and one's own body, I will advance a more accurate alternative: in tactile experiences, one becomes aware of what one's body undergoes. This alternative not only fits better with tactility's vital role; it is also key to explaining how active touching provides for a unique contribution to our perceptual relation to material objects. By thus connecting tactility's vital role to the way we rely on touch while manipulating objects, this essay offers a cross-sectional survey of our tactile powers that reveals the interplay between sensing and touching.     

The Self Between Cacophony and Monologue: A Conceptualization and Empirical Examination of Dialogical Complexity

Theory of dialogical self distinguishes between cacophonous, monological, and dialogical structure of the self. So far these structures have not been examined within systematic quantitative studies. Focusing on this issue, we conceptualized the three structures as degrees on a dimension of dialogical complexity. To assess dialogical complexity, we proposed a numerical index derived from the personal position repertoire and examined it empirically. We compared the index of dialogical complexity with indices of cognitive complexity (derived from the repertory grid technique), integrative complexity, and presence of dialogical relationships in narratives (both derived from the thematic apperception test). In our sample of a total of 60 nonclinical respondents, the index of dialogical complexity was not correlated with cognitive complexity. It was weakly negatively but significantly correlated with integrative complexity. Respondents who yielded a higher score of dialogical relationships in narratives formed the dialogical structure of the self according to the dialogical complexity index. Respondents who yielded less dialogical relationships in narratives obtained a wider range of dialogical complexity scores that indicated more cacophonous or monological structures. We conclude that the relationships with integrative complexity and with presence of dialogical relationships in narratives support the original conceptualization of dialogical complexity. However, due to limitations of the study, the results are not decisive, and further examination of dialogical complexity including clinical samples is needed.     

Keeping up with the Joneses: a field study of the relationships among upward, lateral, and downward comparisons and pay level satisfaction

The authors examined the relationship between the direction of pay comparisons and pay level satisfaction. They hypothesized that upward pay comparisons would significantly predict pay level satisfaction, even when controlling for other comparisons. Results reported in 2 samples (U.S. sample, N = 295; Belgian sample, N = 67) generally supported this hypothesis. Analyses showed that individuals who were paid much less than their upward pay comparison were dissatisfied with their pay level. The highest levels of pay level satisfaction were observed when actual pay was congruent with the upward comparison pay level. There was also evidence that individuals who were paid much more than their upward pay comparison were dissatisfied with their pay level. However, the negative effects of overreward on pay satisfaction were considerably smaller than were those of underreward.     

Offline and online automatic number comparison

This paper focuses on automatic number processing as instantiated in the size congruity effect. It was recently argued that long-term "associations between individual digits and the attributes 'small' and 'large' create the size congruity effect" (Choplin and Logan 2003, abstract, p. 17). Moreover, these authors proposed the additional assumption that the relevant connections are acquired over a lifetime of experience with numbers. We show that at least one of these assumptions is not true: either the size congruity effect derives from an (online) comparison effect between two numbers at the time of stimulus presentation (violating the first assumption) or the relevant connections flexibly change (offline) between trials during the course of one experimental session (violating the second assumption).     

Pareto‐Optimal Predictor Composite Formation: A complementary approach to alleviating the selection quality/adverse impact dilemma

In our rejoinder to the comments of Kehoe (this issue) and Potosky, Bobko and Roth (this issue) we emphasize that our proposal on Pareto‐optimal predictor composite formation is a complementary and not a competitive alternative for reducing the tension between selection quality and adverse impact. Our work addresses the decisions to be made once one has decided to use a predictor composite. We also further clarify the basic features of Pareto‐optimal tradeoffs and Pareto‐optimal composites within the context of personnel selection. In particular, we indicate that Pareto‐optimal tradeoffs between validity and adverse impact emerge because these goals are different and not because of any dualism between them.