The Effectiveness of Different Recruitment Sources: A Mediating Variable Analysis

Previous research suggests that one or more of three mediating variables account for the relationships between recruiting sources and applicant effectiveness. This paper offers a critical test of the three mediating variables: demographic characteristics, realistic expectations, and perceived person-job fit. Using a sample of 242 newly hired marketing representatives, the study found that employees recruited through college placement offices had better initial levels of performance than did employees recruited through newspaper advertisements. While all of the proposed mediating variables were associated with some recruitment sources, none of them mediated the effects of recruitment sources on performance or turnover. This paper suggests that there may be complex contingency relationships between recruitment sources and employee performance and turnover.     

The influence of parents and family context on children's involvement in household tasks

To determine the relative impact of a number of family variables on children's performance of gender-typed household tasks, this study took account of the gender of the child, the gender of a sibling within the same age range (8–14 years), whether a first or second child and three parental variables: the degree of encouragement given to perform masculineand femininetasks, parental involvement in the same tasks, and parents' general egalitarianism. The sample consisted of 191 white, mainly Anglo Australian two-parent families, with the two oldest children in a boy—boy, girl—girl, boy—girl, or girl—boy sequence. To check on the robustness of effects, measures were taken on two occasions, on average 16 months apart. Among the family context variables, the gender of the child was the strongest contributing variable, with girls doing more feminine tasks than boys and boys doing more masculine tasks than girls. There was limited support for the proposition that first children do more housework than second children of the same gender, while the results for gender of sibling were small and inconsistent. Among the parental variables, encouragement had strong positive effects for feminine tasks (i.e., more encouragement by parents corresponded to more involvement by children). In contrast, parental involvement in the same tasks (modeling) and parental egalitarianism predicted only the performance of masculine tasks, and the direction of the effects was mostly negative (e.g., the more a father was involved in masculine tasks, the less a child did of those tasks). The results point to involvement in gender-typed activities being influenced by multiple factors, with parental encouragement and gender of child being most prominent among these. They also point to the value of sampling on more than one occasion and of considering separately the performance of feminine and masculine tasks. This research was financially supported by the Australian Research Council. We are happy to acknowledge that support, together with the essential assistance of the Department of Education and the many parents and children who participated in the study.     

Cultural specificity of support sources,correlates and contexts: Three studies of African-American and Caucasian youth

Levels and correlates of parental support, peer support, partner support, and/or spiritual support among African American and Caucasian youth were examined in three contexts: adolescent pregnancy (Study 1), first year of college (Study 2), and adolescence and young adulthood (ages 15–29; Study 3). Partially consistent with a cultural specificity perspective, in different contexts different support sources were higher in level and/or more strongly related to adjustment for one ethnic group than the other. Among pregnant adolescents, levels of spiritual support were higher for African Americans than Caucasians; additionally, peer support was positively related to well-being only for African Americans whereas partner support was positively related to well-being only for Caucasians. Among college freshmen, family support was more strongly related to institutional and goal commitment for African Americans than Caucasians; conversely, peer support was more strongly related to institutional and goal commitment among Caucasians. Among 15 to 29-year-olds, levels of parental support and spiritual support were higher among African Americans than Caucasians; additionally, spiritual support was positively related to self-esteem for African Americans but not for Caucasians. Implications and limitations of the research are discussed. The third study was supported by National Institute of Mental Health Grant RO1 MH40963. We thank Monica Greene, Shea Lyda, Wendy Stevenson, and the many undergraduate students who contributed to the three research projects. We also acknowledge the very thoughtful and helpful comments of the anonymous reviewers and the editor, Edison Trickett.     

Fear of success,achievement-related motives and behavior in black college women1

This study was designed to test the hypothesis, derived from past research, that Fear of Success should be an insignificant motivational determinant among black college women. Fifty-five black undergraduates from Radcliffe College participated in two one-hour sessions where motive and performance measures in a series of achievement-related situations were obtained. Among middle-class women, nAchievement was the major positive determinant of the achievement-related behaviors under investigation while Fear of Success, measured by Horner's new experimentally derived scoring system, facilitated rather than inhibited performance. For women of working-class origin, Fear of Success exerted the strongest influence on behavior and inhibited achievement-striving in nontraditional directions. The findings among middle-class women support the prevailing opinion that black women are more achievement-oriented than their white counterparts, but the results for working-class women challenge the findings of earlier studies based upon the original measure of Fear of Success imagery and suggest that an internalized conflict over achievement and feminine identity may be a salient motivation among some black women.     

Stimulus-seeking behavior in hyperactive and nonhyperactive children

Auditory and visual stimulus-seeking behavior was measured in hyperactive and nonhyperactive youngsters. The design controlled for motor activity level. The results indicate that hyperactive children preferred auditory stimulation more than the control children. There were no differences in stimulus-seeking preferences in the visual modality. The groups did not differ in motor activity. It was concluded that abnormally high needs for stimulation are important in hyperactivity.The authors would like to express their appreciation to James Fogarty, Superintendent, Walter Galvin, Principal, and the many teachers, students, and parents of the Greene Avenue Learning Center of BOCES II in Sayville, New York for their cooperation and support in this study. We would also like to thank Susan O'Leary, Ph.D. Director of the Point of Woods Laboratory School and the students and parents for participation and support in this study.     

A decade of research and services for homeless mentally ill persons. Where do we stand?

Over the past decade, researchers have documented the range of needs and devised new methods for increasing our understanding of the homeless severely mentally ill population. Clinicians have developed an appreciation of the difficulty and complexity of effectively treating this population, and policymakers have become increasingly aware of the barriers to developing services and housing. In this article, the progress-to-date in research, the evolution of new service approaches, and the development of federal, state, and local policies to meet the needs of homeless mentally ill individuals are assessed. The many challenges that remain are also considered.     

The role of assembled phonology in reading comprehension

The contribution of assembled phonology to phonological effects in reading comprehension was assessed. In Experiment 1, subjects judged the acceptability of sentences with regular, exception, and nonword homophone substitutions and orthographic controls. Significantly more errors occurred to sentences with regular-word homophones than to exception words, and error rates for nonword homophones were low and not significant. Experiment 2 showed that this was not due to differences in the sentence frames. In Experiment 3, the subjects judged as unacceptable those sentences containing an exception word that sounded correct when read according to spelling-to-sound rules. Significantly higher error rates occurred only for low-frequency exception words. Experiment 4 showed that task conditions affect semantic-categorization error rates for nonword homophones. These results indicate that both assembled and addressed phonology contribute to sentence and word comprehension, but the low error rate for nonwords suggests that an early lexical check may be applied.     

The influence on recognition of spoken words that are misperceived

Two experiments were performed that involved an initial word-identification task in which the acoustic signal was degraded by either 50% or 60% compression of the recorded words. A control group was tested at the original recording rate (0% compression). The compression manipulation was successful in increasing the number of identification errors. During the second stage of the experiments, words were read at a normal rate. In Experiment 1, the subjects indicated whether each word had appeared on the prior list, and in Experiment 2, the subjects estimated the number of times each word had been read on the prior list. The false-negative rate decreased and frequency ratings increased as a function of the number of prior presentations (one, two, or three) of the target words. The most interesting result was that the effect of repetitions was present even for words that had been misperceived.