THE BRITISH ABILITY SCALES SPEED OF INFORMATION PROCESSING SUBTEST: WHAT DOES IT MEASURE?

Summary . Recent theory and research has focused on the relationship between speed of performing elementary cognitive operations and general intelligence. The developers of the British Ability Scales (BAS) included the Speed of Information Processing (SOIP) subtest as a measure of mental processing speed. To test the validity of the SOIP subtest, a group of 12-year-old children were given the BAS short-form, including the SOIP subtest, and a series of electronically timed reaction time (RT) tasks. Correlations between RT and SOIP were higher than correlations between RT and other BAS subtests, suggesting convergent and discriminant validity. A hierarchical factor analysis of the data shows that the BAS SOIP subtest is related more to speed of apprehension (RT) than to speed of making the motor response, or movement time (MT).     

A Study of Group Counseling with Disadvantaged Workers in an Industrial Setting

The purpose of the study was to examine the process and effectiveness of group counseling as a part of a training program conducted through a Labor Department grant. Trainees in a JOBS program at the Westinghouse plant in Athens, Georgia, who were certified by the Georgia State Training and Employment Service as disadvantaged, received a 90-minute counseling session each week. Members of the training group had better work attendance and less employee turnover than a comparable group not in the training program. The tapes of one counselor—three five-minute segments at the beginning, middle, and end of each tape—were used for analysis, which was done by an affect-topic method. The counselor of the group analyzed presents some personal observations of the counseling process. Some suggestions for improvements of group counseling in similar contexts are also presented.     

Microteaching: A Proposal For Manpower Development and Training Improvement

Microteaching, using videotape equipment as a training aid, may enhance the skills and effectiveness of trainees in Manpower Development Training centers. Microteaching allows the trainee to learn through manipulative experience and to receive immediate feedback regarding his performance. Moreover, this procedure provides program coordinators with a means of evaluating the efficiency, effectiveness, and utility of the center and its facilities as well as providing a starting point for trainee improvement. In addition, videotaped experiences offer increased knowledge to counselors, thus promoting vocational direction best suited to trainee needs.     

The politics of counseling

The career of the counselor is influenced by the bureaucratic structure of his institution, whether secondary school, university, or public agency. Important elements in the client-counselor interaction are found in the limitations imposed upon the counselor by the values and modus operandi of the institution and its preconceptions of the client's problem. To cope effectively with such matters, counselors should be trained as social critics and develop a greater awareness of how their professional roles are shaped by institutional power structures.     

THE WORLD OF NONWORK: SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR JOB RE-DESIGN EFFORTS1

The compensatory and spillover models of adjustment to work are described. Data from a pharmaceutical firm and two different research and development organizations are examined to illustrate the operation of these two models. Evidence of both the compensatory and spillover models were found for several different groups of workers. Furthermore, some groups of workers displayed complex combinations of both compensatory and spillover adjustments to their work experiences. Implications of these results for job re-design efforts are described.     

Effects of Eye Contact on the Evaluation of Job Applicants

This experiment attempted to determine if eye contact affects job interviewers' evaluations of applicants. Photographs were taken of a male and a female in two eye positions: looking straight into the camera and looking downward. Forty-four job interviewers in an employment agency were randomly assigned to one of the four photographs. Each subject was told to assume that he or she was interviewing the stimulus person for a job as a management trainee and was instructed to rate the stimulus person on a series of scales. The findings supported the hypothesis that eye contact is a determinant of the decision to hire. The findings also suggested that the effects of eye contact are mediated by the perceived attributes of applicants; that is, eye contact affected the interviewers' evaluations of the applicants, and those evaluations were related to the decision to hire.     

JOB ORIENTATION OF BLACK AND WHITE COLLEGE GRADUATES IN BUSINESS

Differences in job orientation between black and white male and female business college graduates were examined. Significant race differences were found on 10 of 25 job characteristics, with blacks rating 9 of these more important than whites. Significant race by sex interactions exist on four characteristics, while sex differences were found on nine. Factor analysis indicates that blacks value long-range career objectives and structure considerably more than do whites, while their preference for intrinsic and extrinsic factors was less pronounced. Methods by which organizations can satisfy the greater importance placed on many job characteristics by blacks are explored.