Personality, political skill, and job performance

Based on the socioanalytic perspective of performance prediction [Hogan, R. (1991). Personality and personality assessment. In M. D. Dunnette, L. Hough, (Eds.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (2nd ed., pp. 873–919). Chicago: Rand McNally; Hogan, R., & Shelton, D. (1998). A socioanalytic perspective on job performance. Human Performance, 11, 129–144.], the present study tests whether motives to get along and to get ahead produce greater performance when interactively combined with social effectiveness. Specifically, we investigated whether interactions of the Five-Factor Model constructs of agreeableness and conscientiousness with political skill predict job performance. Our results supported our hypothesis for the agreeableness-political skill interaction. Additionally, after correcting for the unreliability and restricted range of conscientiousness, we found that its interaction with political skill also significantly predicted job performance, although not precisely as hypothesized. Implications of the results and directions for future research are provided.     

A national certification program for behavior analysts

This paper describes a national certification program for behavior analysts and summarizes the background, content, policies, future development, and benefits of this program. The program focuses on applied behavior analysis in general and certifies behavior analysts at both baccalaureate and master's levels. Eligibility requirements to take either of the two examinations include both coursework and mentored or supervised experience. The paper details a number of benefits that may be expected from this professional credential, which are based on experiences in Florida, the source of the present examination. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When Arousal Influences Ad Evaluation and Valence Does Not (and Vice Versa)

This research examines, across 2 studies, the interplay between the valence and arousal components of affective states and the affective tone of a target ad. In the first study, music was used to induce a pleasant or unpleasant mood, while controlling for arousal. Participants were subsequently exposed to an ad that either had a positive‐affective tone or was ambiguous in its affective tone. As predicted, the valence of the affective state colored the evaluation of the ad in a mood‐congruent direction, but this coloring effect occurred only when the ad had an ambiguous‐affective tone. In the second study, the target ad had a clear positive or negative affective tone, and the valence and arousal dimensions of the mood state were manipulated independently. As predicted, the arousal dimension, but not the valence dimension, influenced ad evaluation. Ad evaluations were more polarized in the direction of the ad's affective tone under high arousal than under low arousal. This effect was more pronounced for self‐referent evaluations (e.g., “I like the ad”) than for object‐referent evaluations (e.g., “The ad is good”), favoring an attributional explanation—the excitation transfer hypothesis—over an attention‐narrowing explanation—the dynamic complexity hypothesis. Taken together, the results of the 2 studies stress the important contingency of the affective tone of the ad, when examining the effects of the valence and arousal dimensions of a person's affective state on ad evaluation. The results also provide additional insights into how and when affect serves as information in judgment processes.     

What Sort of Ethics Does Technology Require?

This essay critically examines thenon-essentialist and anti-deterministicphilosophy of technology developed in the workof Andrew Feenberg. As I interpret the work,Feenberg achieves an important``demystification' of technology. His analysispeels away the facade of ironclad efficiency,rationality, and necessity that permeates ourexperience of technology. Through theoreticalargument and rich examples, he illuminated thecontingent interests, values, meanings, andvoices that are built into specifictechnologies, often by experts. He shows howtechnology is transformed by lay actors whochallenge its design on behalf of a wideragenda of interests, values, meanings andvoices. My critique focuses on Feenberg'sattempt to argue from his demystification oftechnology to the full democratization of alltechnical design and decision-making. I arguethat Feenberg's framework lacks the ethicalresources required both to (1) justify thedemocratization of technical decisions, andmore basically, (2) to determine when laychallenges to technology do and when theydon't, advance democratic ideals, and why. Itrace these problems to ethical inadequacies inhis notions of interests, democratization, andan alternative modernity. A sub-theme of myargument is that our society's Lockeanmorality of property rights and market freedomsposes fundamental ethical objections to hisphilosophy of technology with which it isill-equipped to deal.     

Demands and capacities or demands and performance?

The Demands and Capacities Model of stuttering purportedly provides a framework for obtaining information concerning a child's capacities for fluency and the demands placed on the child by the environment and for integrating that information in devising individual therapy plans. The current paper analyzes the model, with specific attention to the status of the “capacities” component. It is suggested that the model is more accurately characterized as a Demands and Performance rather than a Demands and Capacity Model because capacities are not actually addressed.     

A test of torque-control and equilibrium-point models of motor control

Based upon predictions of equilibrium-point (EP) models of motor control, a recent article by Jaric et al. (1999) [Human Movement Sciences, 18, 49–66] reported that the peak velocity (PV) of an inertially loaded single degree-of-freedom elbow movement was not altered to a statistically distinguishable degree by the accuracy of the subject's expectation about the size of the load. They concluded that their results confirmed their EP models and were incompatible with what they described as torque-control models. A review of the literature and analysis of a more extensive set of data does not support that conclusion. To the contrary, if the actual load is heavier (or lighter) than expected, it is moved more slowly (or faster) than it would have been, had expectation matched reality. Torque-control models predict those consequences, EP models do not.     

Viewing artworks: Contributions of cognitive control and perceptual facilitation to aesthetic experience

When we view visual images in everyday life, our perception is oriented toward object identification. In contrast, when viewing visual images as artworks, we also tend to experience subjective reactions to their stylistic and structural properties. This experiment sought to determine how cognitive control and perceptual facilitation contribute to aesthetic perception along with the experience of emotion. Using functional MRI, we show that aesthetic perception activated bilateral insula which we attribute to the experience of emotion. Moreover, while adopting the aesthetic orientation activated the left lateral prefrontal cortex, paintings that facilitated visuospatial exploration activated the left superior parietal lobule. The results suggest that aesthetic experience is a function of the interaction between top-down orienting of attention and bottom-up perceptual facilitation.     

Using Prayer as an Intervention With Clients Who Are Substance Abusing and Addicted and Who Self‐Identify Personal Faith in God and Prayer as Recovery Resources

This article describes how the authors use prayer with clients who self‐identify their personal faith in God and who have used prayer as a helpful recovery agent or who believe prayer would be helpful to their personal recovery.     

Understanding Parent Participation in a Going-to-Scale Implementation Trial of the Early Risers Conduct Problems Prevention Program

We examined parent participation in the context of a going-to-scale implementation trial of the evidence-based, multi-component Early Risers conduct problems prevention program. In this study we examine the participation of parents in two parent/family-focused components of Early Risers that were delivered over 2 years across 21 rural school sites with 155 primarily Caucasian families. One component is a standardized “Parent Skills” curriculum delivered at participating schools and the second component delivers “Family Support” via tailored case management services through school and non-school site contacts. The study examines predictors of parent participation for each parent-focused component using multilevel modeling analyses. Previous research is extended by examining parent participation within the context of a going-to-scale trial and by looking at a broader array of child/parent/family and implementation context predictors. Parent participation in Parent Skills is predicted by higher level of parent’s frustration in parent–child relationships, while their participation in Family Support is related to lower family income. Implementers with higher previous work experience with children/families and lower education levels, as well as those manifesting more extroverted and less agreeable personality characteristics, elicit more participation in Parent Skills. Greater participation in Family Support is also predicted by lower levels of implementer neuroticism. Finally, implementers who achieve higher quality of delivery fidelity have greater participation in Parent Skills and a lower level of adherence fidelity predicts more participation in Family Support. The results are discussed within the context of going-to-scale service provision and in terms of implications for future prevention efforts.