The risky side of inspirational appeals in personal selling: when do customers infer ulterior salesperson motives?

In personal selling, the inspirational appeal (IA) is a widely promoted tactic that aims at stimulating customers' values and ideals, thereby evoking emotions and arousing their enthusiasm for a product. However, whether IAs in fact improve or undermine salespeople's success in sales talks remains controversial. Therefore, this study examines consequences and key contingencies of IAs in customer–salesperson interactions in a retailing context, using multisource data from several retailing industries for three quantitative studies, comprising a total sample of 590 customer and 174 salesperson responses. Drawing on the Multiple Inferences Model (MIM), the authors show that an IA is likely to drive the customer's inference that the salesperson holds ulterior motives. IAs seem to be particularly detrimental for salespeople with a lack of customer orientation. Beyond expanding research on influence tactics and the ambivalent role of IAs in retailing interactions, these findings can guide practitioners about when to refrain from using an IA.     

Transparency in Structured Interviews: Consequences for Construct and Criterion-Related Validity

Although researchers agree on the use of structured interviews in personnel selection, past research has been undecided on whether these interviews need to be conducted nontransparently (i.e., without giving interviewees any indication of the evaluated criteria) or transparently (i.e., by revealing to interviewees the dimensions assessed in the interview). This article presents two independent studies examining the effects of interview transparency on interviewees' performance and on the interview's construct and criterion-related validity in the context of an application training program. Results from both Study 1 (N = 123) and Study 2 (N = 269) indicate an improvement in interviewees' performance under transparent interview conditions. Both studies further support the assumption that transparent interviews show satisfactory construct validity, whereas nontransparent interviews do not. Moreover, Study 2 showed no significant difference between the interview's criterion-related validity under transparent versus nontransparent conditions. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

“I Know What You Want to Know”: The Impact of Interviewees' Ability to Identify Criteria on Interview Performance and Construct-Related Validity

The current study tested whether candidates' ability to identify the targeted interview dimensions fosters their interview success as well as the interviews' convergent and discriminant validity. Ninety-two interviewees participated in a simulated structured interview developed to measure three different dimensions. In line with the hypotheses, interviewees who were more proficient at identifying the targeted dimensions received better evaluations. Furthermore, interviewees' ability to identify these evaluation criteria accounted for substantial variance in predicting their performance even after controlling for cognitive ability. Finally, the interviewer ratings showed poor discriminant and convergent validity. However, we found some support for the hypothesis that the quality of the interviewer ratings improves when one only considers ratings from questions for which interviewees had correctly identified the intended dimensions.     

Familienplanung junger onkologischer Patienten

Cancer patients in young adulthood are affected by the cancer diagnosis in a period of life where future parenthood or fulfilling of a potential wish to have children plays an important role. To perform fertility preserving treatment, patients should be fully informed before any treatment is carried out. The following review broaches the issue of whether and how fertility concerns are discussed in the medical consultation. Therefore, relevant papers were identified by a database search between the years 2000 and 2010. A total of 21 studies were included which focussed on physician-patient communication from the point of view of the patients or healthcare professionals. Oncologists do not routinely speak to patients about fertility issues. Both oncologists and patients expressed communication difficulties. An improvement of the medical interview concerning family planning could be achieved by provision of guidelines, training for healthcare professionals, cooperation between oncologists and reproductive medicine and the provision of educational patient material.     

Gender characteristics of cerebral hemodynamics during complex cognitive functioning

Functional Transcranial Doppler sonography (fTCD) has been applied to assess peak mean cerebral blood flow velocity (MFV) with a high temporal resolution during cognitive activation. Yet, little attention has been devoted to gender-related alterations of MFV, including spectral analysis. In healthy subjects, fTCD was used to investigate a series of cerebral hemodynamic parameters in the middle cerebral arteries (MCA) during the Trail Making Tests (TMT), a means of selective attention and complex cognitive functioning. In females, there was a frequency peak at 0.375 Hz in both MCA, and we observed a dynamic shift in hemispheric dominance during that condition. Further, after the start phase, there was an MFV decline during complex functioning for the entire sample. These novel results suggest condition-specific features of cerebral hemodynamics in females, and it adds to the notion that gender is a fundamental confounder of brain physiology.     

Forging the Link Between Multicultural Competence and Ethical Counseling Practice: A Historical Perspective

Recognition of multicultural competence as an essential component of ethical counseling practice is a growing trend. This article presents a historical perspective of salient events that have contributed to forging a link between multicultural competence and ethical behavior. Multicultural counseling is traced from its beginnings to its emergence at a position of prominence in the profession, along with the development of ethical guidelines over time. This time line depicts the infusion of multicultural considerations into ethical standards and provides a perspective for examining the current status of multicultural competence as an ethical mandate. Implications for the counseling profession are offered.     

Legal and Ethical Implications of Refusing to Counsel Homosexual Clients

In 2001, a federal appeals court upheld the job termination of a counselor who requested being excused from counseling a lesbian client on relationship issues because homosexuality conflicted with the counselor's religious beliefs (Bruff v. North Mississippi Health Services, Inc., 2001). This article provides the facts of the case and the legal reasoning of the court. The authors also explore the legal and ethical issues related to this case.     

The Accuracy of the DSM-IV Pain Disorder and the ICD-10 Persistent Somatoform Pain Disorder in Chronic Pain Patients

Objectives. In this investigation we studied the relationships between different psychological relevant subgroups and the presence of different psychosomatic symptoms in a sample of chronic pain patients, testing the accuracy of the DSM- and ICD classification systems.Results. We found no evidence for a “pure” pain syndrome according to the DSM- and ICD systems. On the contrary, we found highly significant evidence of a mixed psychosomatic condition.Conclusion. The results suggest a broad somatoform classification, with subgroups based on personality characteristics taking a stress—coping model into account, including interpersonal attachment behaviour. An alternative model of a diagnostic approach is presented.