PSYCHOLOGICAL CLIMATE: IMPLICATIONS FROM COGNITIVE SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY AND INTERACTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

Underlying assumptions and rationale of psychological climate are addressed from the perspectives of cognitive social learning theory and interactional psychology. Major emphasis is placed on the implications of these theoretical models for psychological climate. It is suggested that psychological climate (a) reflects psychologically meaningful, cognitive representations of situations rather than automatic reflections of specific situational events; (b) is generally more important than the objective situation in the prediction of many salient individual dependent variables; (c) is predicated on developmental experience, and frequently involves conflicting orientations generated by the preservation of valued and familiar schemas, on one hand, and openness to change in the interest of achieving adaptive and functional person-environment fits, on the other; and (d) is related reciprocally to memory, affect, and behavior in a causal model which predicts a reciprocal causation between perception and affect, and between individuals and environments. The suggestions above are employed to provide recommendations for future research.     

Personal and Organizational Characteristics of Employment Counselors

Eleven personal and organizational variables were measured in a large national sample of employment counselors. Data indicate that female counselors were younger than males, older counselors had higher educational levels than younger ones, and as the level of education increased, so did the number of professional association memberships and time spent in counseling activities. Employment counselors with first-line supervisors who had counseling experience tended to be older, spent more time in counseling activities, had higher education levels, and belonged to more professional associations than did counselors whose supervisors did not have counseling experience.     

Moral Judgment Research and the Cognitive-Developmental Approach to Moral Education

Describing Kohlberg's interview test and his own Defining Issues Test (DIT), Rest assures us that we now have usable, reliable ways of assessing an individual's moral judgment development level. There is evidence for accepting a developmental sequence in moral judgment, from low stage thinking to higher stage thinking. Rest reviews the evidence for three aspects of morality as part of the cognitive domain, although numerous other factors beyond moral judgment influence concrete behavior. The author offers impressions about educational interventions. Moral judgment theory is considered the current best choice for “theoretical richness, practical implications, validated findings.”     

FUNCTIONS OF LIFE INSURANCE AGENCY MANAGERS and RELATIONSHIPS WITH AGENCY CHARACTERISTICS and MANAGERIAL TENURE

A questionnaire completed by 1282 male life insurance agency managers from 50 companies was used to develop (via factor analysis) six behavorial functions of agency managers. The relationship between the frequency of activity in each function and five variables–number of agents, number of supervisors, tenure, type of agency and origin of agency–was examined using zero order and multiple correlation procedures. The two measures of size, number of agents and number of supervisors, were the most consistent correlates of behavior. The degree of shared variance among management functions and the five variables, though significant statistically, did not exceed 9%. Reasons cited for these results included: (1) policies and practices particular to individual companies; (2) the discretion managers have in choosing task activities; (3) the limited number of variables examined as correlates of managerial functions; and, (4) individual differences among agency managers. It was concluded, for practical reasons, that management research should include efforts to develop taxonomies that cut across technological categories of managers as well as defining the specific behavior functions of managers in particular technological categories. Such specific taxonomies are required for effective human resource management practices at managerial levels in organizations.     

Psychology and "ordinary language"—a critique of Smedslund

This article takes up methodological issues of the kind raised by Jan Smedslund in earlier issues of this journal, concerning the status of psychological enquiry as a discipline. Arguments are presented which aim to show that Smedslund has failed to establish the thesis that all generally valid theoretical statements in psychology are explications of conceptual relationships embedded in ordinary language, i.e., analytic statements. Some specific examples of what Smedslund takes to be "ordinary language theorems" are examined. Doubts are expressed concerning the validity of the proof procedure Smedslund employs in the "demonstration" of a number of his alleged theorems. Finally, it is argued that the results produced by the situation-bound and culture-bound empirical research of the psychologist need not be viewed as "arbitrary" in Smedslund's sense of that term.     

Intrinsic And Extrinsic Motivation and Attitudes Toward Professional Continuing Education: Implications for the Counselor

The purpose of this study was to investigate intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of individuals enrolled in a continuing education program. The types of couseling strategies and programs to help workers increase their self-confidence are discussed.     

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as an Alternative in Career Counseling

A process is described for using the Myers-Briggs Type indicator with career clients who are test aware and test expected or referred by colleagues.     

The Use of Hypnotic Elements and Audio Recordings with the Fantasy Relaxation Technique

The Fantasy Relaxation Technique, developed by Hugh Gunnison in 1976, is a simple method of gaining control over panic and anxiety. Two new components have been added to the original technique and they seem to enhance students' self-control during tests.     

DOES CONTEXT AFFECT STAFFING DECISIONS? THE CASE OF GENERAL MANAGERS

A resource dependency framework (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978) is applied to general manager (GM) selection decisions. Hypotheses are developed predicting associations between organizational contextual features (environmental instability, strategy, organizational performance, size) and background characteristics of GMs selected to head business units (organizational familiarity, functional experience, age). Data were collected on 40 recent GM selection decisions. Findings indicate that organizational contextual features influence the type of GM selected. Key results are that industry instability, organizational strategy, and organizational size were associated with GMs'organizational familiarity (i.e., tenure levels), and that organizational strategy was associated with the age of selected GMs. This study provides support for the application of a contingency perspective to human resource management.