Individual differences in customer sociability

Two studies examined the quality of clerk-customer interactions. In the first study, customers in a mall were followed from one purchase to another and retest reliability of customer sociability was found to be 0.73. A second study of the same and another mall found a retest reliability of 0.56 for customer sociability and a correlation of 0.57 between sociability of different salespersons serving the same customer. These results indicate that the sociability of salesperson—customer interactions is determined by stable individual differences in customer sociability, and suggest that salespeople do better to echo than to escalate customer sociability.     

Context-produced increase in visibility

Summary It has not been clearly shown that context (e. g., three lines of a square) increases the visibility of a feature (e. g., the fourth line of the same square). To investigate this possibility, four sets of context+feature, context, feature, and BLANK (empty field) stimuli were used. For three out of the four sets, the context+feature stimulus was less likely to be falsely identified as the context and BLANK stimuli (i. e., the stimuli without the feature) than was the feature stimulus. For the same three sets, discriminating between the context+feature and context stimuli produced fewer false identifications (FIs) than discriminating between the feature and BLANK stimuli. The conclusion: the context components of context+feature stimuli increased the visibility of the feature components of the same stimuli.     

Toward professionalism or voluntarism in pastoral care

In its modern evolution as a subprofession, pastoral counseling has increasingly developed professional criteria to determine who can and who cannot legitimately do pastoral counseling. This trend moves pastoral counseling toward the medical profession and away from the life and mission of the institutional church. As pastoral counseling seeks a legitimacy in close association with the medical profession it runs the risk of losing touch with the institutional church—the voluntary associations of Christians that have always been the ultimate source of legitimacy for the ministry in America. The present challenge facing the field of pastoral care is to shift attention from professional specialization outside the church to an effort within the church to train the laity to be effective agents of pastoral care.This article was first presented in the Seminary Series Lectures, The Graduate Seminary of Phillips University, Enid, Oklahoma, during the spring of 1975.     

Men in female-dominated professions: Distinguishing personality and background features

Personality and background features of men in female-dominated professions were assessed by comparing survey data on 54 men employed in atypical professions (A′s) with 63 men employed in sex-typical fields (S′s). Subjects were American born, college-educated males, under 50 years of age, employed in fields with over 75% male or female participation, and recruited in Atlanta in 1978. Subjects completed a biographical questionnaire, the Cattell 16 PF, and the Bem Sex Role Inventory under three instructional sets. In comparison with S′s the A′s showed lower adherence to traditional sex-role expectations on the Bem Sex Role Inventory, in the allotment of sex-typed household responsibilities, and in their greater “tender-minded” emotional sensitivity on the Cattell 16 PF. In terms of their personal histories, A′s more frequently reported having had employed mothers, having had distant relationships with their fathers, and having been positively influenced in their career choices by women. A′s more frequently experienced a death of a parent or sibling, or parental divorce or separation, and frequently mentioned such stresses as sensitizing them to their nurturant and emotional capabilities. There was also evidence that upward-mobility strivings may have contributed to atypical career choice, with A′s more frequently being members of racial minorities and/or of lower socioeconomic background. As expected, in contrast to S′s, A′s shared personality and socialization factors indicative of lower sex-typing, thus confirming the psychological significance of the sex composition of one's occupation for men as was confirmed earlier for women.     

Feminism and Psychological Autonomy: A Study in Decision Making

Women seeking to realize the feminist goal of autonomy, defined as self-interested decision making, encounter conflict and anxiety. This study reports a group experience that used life-space drawings and force-field analyses to reduce anxiety and foster autonomous decision making. The 15 women participants in the yearlong study reported at least one action in the area originally designated for decision making. Among the components in the process, participants cited identification with, and support and information from, other group members. The results suggest that for the women in this study, group participation enhanced individual autonomy. Autonomy for me is believing in my own ability to do what I want to do, … then taking productive, creative steps toward fulfilling my own goals. … Autonomy for me is a personal thing, an internal thing, feeling that I have power.*     

Personality profiles of effective leadership performance in assessment centers

Most research examining the relationship between effective leadership and personality has focused on individual personality traits. However, profiles of personality traits more fully describe individuals, and these profiles may be important as they relate to leadership. This study used latent class analysis to examine how personality traits combine and interact to form subpopulations of leaders and how these subpopulations relate to performance criteria. Using a sample of 2,461 executive-level leaders, six personality profiles were identified: Unpredictable Leaders with Low Diligence (7.3%); Conscientious, Backend Leaders (3.6%); Unpredictable Leaders (8.6%); Creative Communicators (20.8%); Power Players (32.4%); and Protocol Followers (27.1%). One profile performed well on all criteria in an assessment center; remaining profiles exhibited strengths and weaknesses across criteria. Implications and future directions for research are highlighted.