COMMUNICATION FACTORS RELATED TO CLOSER INTERNATIONAL TIES

The question of what promotes closer ties between nations has long been central to the study of intercultural communication. This research develops and tests a model that specifies three factors drawn from social distance and systems perspectives that are posited to have an influence on the desire for closer ties between the U.S. and Mexico. Each of the factors, perceptions of homophily, shared interests, and threats, have previously been identified as occupying central positions in the development of international relationships. The sample used to test the model was drawn from eight elite occupational groups within Mexican urban centers (N = 800). The results were supportive of the model, with quite acceptable goodness of fit measures, with a high level of variance accounted for in the dependent variable, and with support for the paths between exogenous and endogenous variables as predicted in the model.     

Young romance in China: Effects of family,attachment, relationship confidence,and problem solving

Guided by the development of early adult romantic relationships (DEARR) model (Bryant & Conger, 2002), this study sought to examine associations between family dysfunction and relationship satisfaction via the mechanisms of anxious and avoidant attachment, relationship confidence, and problem solving in a sample of Chinese young adults (N = 189). Structural equation model results and bootstrap tests of indirect effects indicated several indirect pathways from family dysfunction to relationship satisfaction for Chinese young adults. Follow‐up moderation analyses suggest that men's relationship satisfaction is more intrapersonally driven whereas women's satisfaction is largely determined by interpersonal interaction. The present results provide additional support for the cross‐cultural applicability of DEARR model. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future exploration are discussed.     

VALIDATING SYNTHETIC VALIDATION: COMPARING TRADITIONAL AND SYNTHETIC VALIDITY COEFFICIENTS

We describe a unique application of a synthetic validation technique to a selection system development project in a large organization. Job analysis data were collected from 4,725 job incumbents and 619 supervisors, and were used to identify 11 job families and 27 job components. We developed 12 tests to predict performance on these job components and conducted a concurrent validation study to collect test and job component data for 1,926 incumbents. We created a test composite for each job component and then chose a test battery for each job family based on its relevant job components. Synthetic validity coefficients were computed for each test battery and compared to traditional validity coefficients that were computed within job families with large sample sizes. The synthetic validity coefficient was very close to the within-family validity coefficient for most job families and was within the bounds of sampling error for all job families. Validities tended to be highest when predictors were weighted according to the number of job components to which they were relevant and job component criterion measures were unit weighted.     

Missing a romantic partner: A prototype analysis

In this study, a prototype analysis of romantic missing was conducted. College‐age participants in the United States generated features of missing a partner (Study 1) and rated their centrality (Study 2). In a reaction time task, participants made category judgments for central features more quickly than for noncentral features (Study 3). In recognition and recall tasks, central features were more salient in participants’ memory, and participants evaluated individuals experiencing central features in vignettes as missing their partners more (Study 4). A prototype‐based measure of missing administered to individuals in long‐distance relationships (Study 5) correlated with commitment and attachment dimensions but only weakly with loneliness. Finally, level of missing differed based on whether individuals were in a geographically distant (vs. proximal) relationships (Study 6).     

CONSEQUENCES OF INDIVIDUALS' FIT AT WORK: A META-ANALYSIS OF PERSON–JOB, PERSON–ORGANIZATION, PERSON–GROUP, AND PERSON–SUPERVISOR FIT

This meta-analysis investigated the relationships between person–job (PJ), person–organization (PO), person–group, and person–supervisor fit with preentry (applicant attraction, job acceptance, intent to hire, job offer) and postentry individual-level criteria (attitudes, performance, withdrawal behaviors, strain, tenure). A search of published articles, conference presentations, dissertations, and working papers yielded 172 usable studies with 836 effect sizes. Nearly all of the credibility intervals did not include 0, indicating the broad generalizability of the relationships across situations. Various ways in which fit was conceptualized and measured, as well as issues of study design, were examined as moderators to these relationships in studies of PJ and PO fit. Interrelationships between the various types of fit are also meta-analyzed. 25 studies using polynomial regression as an analytic technique are reviewed separately, because of their unique approach to assessing fit. Broad themes emerging from the results are discussed to generate the implications for future research on fit.     

KANT's EMPIRICAL HEDONISM

Abstract: According to the long orthodox interpretation of Kant's theory of motivation, Kant recognized only two fundamental types of motives: moral motives and egoistic, hedonistic motives. Seeking to defend Kant against the ensuing charges of psychological simplism, Andrews Reath formulated a forceful and seminal repudiation of this interpretation in his 1989 essay “Hedonism, Heteronomy and Kant's Principle of Happiness.” The current paper aims to show that Reath's popular exegetical alternative is untenable. His arguments against the traditional view miss the mark, and his revisionist interpretation of Kant's theory of motivation cannot bear the considerable weight of the countervailing evidence.