Estimating Coefficients of Equivalence and Stability for Job Performance Ratings: The importance of controlling for transient error on criterion measurement

Previous research on measurement error in job performance ratings estimated reliability using coefficients: alpha, test–retest, and interrater correlation. None of these three coefficients control for the four main sources of error in performance ratings. For this reason, coefficient of equivalence and stability (CES) has been suggested as the ideal estimate of reliability. This article presents the estimates of CES for a time interval of 1, 2, and 3 years. The values obtained for a single rater were .51, .48, and .44, respectively. For two raters, the values were .59, .55, and .51. The findings suggest that previous reliability estimates based on alpha, test–retest, and interrater coefficients overestimated the reliability of job performance ratings. In the present study, the interrater coefficient overestimates reliability by 13.6–25.4% for an interval time of 1–3 years, as it does not control for transient error. Results also showed that the importance of transient error increases as the length of the interval between the measures increases. Based on the results, it is suggested that corrected validities based on interrater reliability underestimate the magnitude of the validity. The implications of these findings for future efforts to estimate criterion reliability and predictor validity are discussed.     

Exploring the Association Between Peace of Mind and Academic Engagement: Cross-Sectional and Cross-Lagged Panel Studies in the Philippine Context

Peace of mind (PoM) has been associated with positive psychological and well-being outcomes. However, it seems that limited research has been done to assess the role of PoM in the educational setting. The present study addressed this gap through examining the association of PoM with academic engagement via a cross-sectional (Study 1) and a two-wave cross-lagged study (Study 2) in the Philippine setting. Results of hierarchical regression in Study 1 revealed that PoM was positively associated academic engagement even after controlling for relevant demographic variables, positive affect, and life satisfaction. In Study 2, results of the cross-lagged structural equation modeling showed that Time 1 PoM was associated with higher extent of Time 2 academic engagement even after controlling for autoregressor effects, Time 1 positive affect, and Time 1 life satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

“I Believe People Need to Know Us in Order to Integrate Us”: Immigrant Women’s Cultural Attitudes and Needs

The integration of immigrant women is crucial for achieving coexistence and social cohesion in diverse societies. In particular, the analysis of the role of migrant women has a recent but strong tradition within sociology literature. From a gender perspective, this paper analyzes how immigrant women conceive of themselves in a process of sociocultural integration. Methodologically, this is a qualitative investigation based on in-depth semi-structured interviews of 60 immigrant women. The interviews were conducted in Galicia (Spain) and include diverse nationalities from Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Following an intersectional approach, the analysis of their responses showed that the value they placed on themselves, their cultures, and/or their languages of origin in a receiving society varied depending on the co-articulation of variables such as class, race, and formal level of education. For example, being the level of education the categorizing variable, participants from the higher-educated (HE) group stressed the importance of bringing attention to their cultural particularities in order to favor immigrants’ integration, whereas those from the lower-educated (LE) group did not see any relationship between the preservation of their cultural background and the process of integration.     

Event centrality of positive and negative autobiographical memories to identity and life story across cultures

The aim of this study was to investigate whether cultural differences exist in event centrality, emotional distress and well-being in a total of 565 adults above age 40 from Mexico, Greenland, China and Denmark. Participants completed questionnaires to determine their level of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms, and of life satisfaction. They also completed event centrality scales for their most positive and most negative life events. Across cultures, participants rated positive events as more central to their identity and life stories, compared with negative events. Furthermore, participants with higher levels of emotional distress rated negative events as more central to their identity and life story, compared with participants with lower scores. However, a converse pattern was not found for positive events. Finally, participants with higher scores of life satisfaction tended to rate positive events as more central and negative events as less central to their identity and life story, compared with participants with lower scores. It is concluded that across cultures, positive events are considered more central to identity and life story than negative events and that event centrality ratings tend to be affected in similar ways by higher versus lower levels of emotional distress or well-being.     

Cognitive and GMA Testing in the European Community: Issues and Evidence

This article reviews the evidence on General Mental Ability (GMA) and cognitive ability tests in connection with employment in the European Community (EC). Five themes are reviewed: prevalence, applicant reactions, testing standards, criterion validity, and recent advances. The first section shows that GMA and cognitive ability tests are used more often in Europe than in America. The second section, regarding applicant reactions, shows that the studies carried out in the EC have shown that there are no differences between Europe and America. The third section shows that there is an initiative to harmonize the standards used across the European countries. In the fourth section, we report on a validity generalization study carried out using the primary studies conducted in Great Britain and Spain. The results showed that GMA and cognitive tests are valid predictors of job performance and training success in both countries and they generalize validity across occupations. Furthermore, the size of the observed validity estimates is similar to those found in the American meta-analyses. Finally, two recent advances are mentioned: the British "Project B" and the use of virtual reality technology for predicting job performance.     

Towards a characterization of a motive whose ultimate goal is to increase the welfare of the world: Quixoteism

We use the term Quixoteism to refer to a new social motive. The characterization of this motive deals with two aspects: the definition of the ultimate goal (i.e., to increase the welfare of the world) and the proposal of a process that activates it (i.e., a transcendental-change orientation). Three studies were conducted to test this characterization. In Study 1 we developed an empirical measure of the transcendental-change orientation. The participants in Studies 2 and 3 were presented with a need situation. Results showed that the centrality of such an orientation was directly related to an interpretation consistent with the ultimate goal of Quixoteism (Study 2), and that its salience increases the likelihood of performing a high-cost prosocial behavior (Study 3).     

Cultural Differences in Newcomer Feedback Seeking: A Comparison of the United States and Hong Kong

Les travaux sur la recherche de feedback de la part des nouveaux arrivants peuvent s’appuyer sur des présupposés qui ne sont pas universellement valides, à savoir que les nouveaux arrivants font preuve d’auto‐affirmation, qu’ils jugent leur patron accessible (faible distance hiérarchique) et qu’ils doivent faire preuve d’initiative pour obtenir l’information dont il ont besoin, ce qui relève d’un processus de socialisation individuelle et informelle. Dans cette étude sur les nouveax arrivants, les Americains signalèrent plus de demandes de feedback que les gens de Hong Kong. Cette divergence est à rapporter aux différences culturelles dans l’auto‐affirmation et la distance hiérarchique. Ces résultats suggèrent que certains des présupposés implicites concernant la recherche de feedback de la part des nouveaux arrivants peuvent voir leur validité remise en cause en debors des Etats‐Unis. En particulier, les nouveaux arrivants vivant dans des sociétés communautariste et à grande distance hiérarchique sont moins susceptibles de faire appel à la rétroaction centrée sur le supérieur pour réduire l’incertitude et gérer leur efficacité professionnelle. Research on newcomer feedback seeking may be based on assumptions that are not universally valid: that newcomers are self‐assertive, that they perceive their boss as approachable (low power distance), and that they need to be proactive to obtain the information that they need (informal, individual socialisation process). In this study, individuals from the United States reported more newcomer feedback inquiry than individuals from Hong Kong. This difference was related to cultural differences in self‐assertiveness and power distance. These results suggest that some of the implicit assumptions about newcomer feedback seeking may be less valid outside of the US. In particular, newcomers within low‐individualism and high power distance societies may be less likely to rely on supervisor‐focused feedback inquiry for reducing uncertainty and managing their performance.     

Book Review: Cultural Psychotherapy: Working with Culture in the Clinical Encounter. By Karen M. Seeley. Northvale,NJ: Jason Aronson,Inc., 2000, 266 pp., ISBN 0-7657-0224-X, $40.00 hardcover

Pastoral Psychology -