A Comparison of Gifted,General, and Special Learning Needs Students on Academic and Social Self-Concept

The purpose of this study was to compare students identified as gifted, general, and having special learning needs on academic and social self-concept. The three groups of students were identified by their schools according to their academic abilities. Gifted students were selected because of inordinately high academic abilities, those with special learning needs because of inordinate academic difficulties, and general students because their academic abilities were not at either extreme. Junior high school students (N = 243) completed the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale and the School Attitude Measure. These measures were given in September and then repeated in May of the same academic year. Gifted students tended to score highest on both academic and social self-concept, although this relationship was influenced somewhat by sex. Students with special learning needs scored lowest on all variables. Differences found in the September testing were maintained in May. Educational implications of these results are elaborated.     

USING SIGNAL-CONTINGENT EXPERIENCE SAMPLING METHODOLOGY TO STUDY WORK IN THE FIELD: A DISCUSSION AND ILLUSTRATION EXAMINING TASK PERCEPTIONS AND MOOD

In this article, the advantages and drawbacks of using Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM), especially signal-contingent ESM, to study psychological variables in the workplace are described. It is argued that ESM can be a valuable tool in the field study of work, with the potential to answer different research questions than can be answered by traditional cross-sectional research. To illustrate ESM, an application of signal-contingent ESM to the examination of mood and concurrent task perceptions at work is presented. Study results indicate that both perceived goal progress and skill on task influence task enjoyment and mood. Also described and illustrated is an adaptation of pooled time-series hierarchical regression for analyzing immediate, short-term retrospective (end-of-day), and individual difference variables in a single framework. In conjunction, ESM data collection and hierarchical regression analysis provide a useful approach for studies that examine immediate work experiences.     

KARL BARTH AND THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

It is commonly held that Karl Barth emphatically rejected the usefulness of philosophy for theology. In this essay I explore the implications of Barth's theological epistemology for the relationship and proper boundaries between philosophy and theology, given its origin in Barth's theology of revelation. I seek to clarify Barth's position with respect to philosophy by distinguishing the contingency of its offence from any necessary incompatibility. Barth does not reject philosophy per se, but the way in which philosophy is typically conducted. This is made explicit through an analysis of Barth's censure of the uncritical acceptance in theology of modernist philosophical presuppositions. I nuance Barth's response to a collection of philosophical assumptions that are rarely distinguished in theological literature. Finally, I highlight a representative instance of Barth's reflections on philosophy in relationship to theology, to demonstrate that the criterion for evaluating the usefulness of philosophical assumptions and methods in the service of theology is the same criterion by which theology is itself evaluated.     

SUBSET REALIZATION,PARTHOOD, AND CAUSAL OVERDETERMINATION

Defenders of the subset view of realization have claimed that we can resolve well‐known worries about mental‐physical causal overdetermination by holding that mental properties are subset realized by physical properties, that instances of subset realized properties are parts of physical realizers, and that part‐whole overdetermination is unproblematic. I challenge the claim that the overdetermination generated by the subset view can be legitimated by appealing to more mundane part‐whole overdetermination. I conclude that the subset view does not provide a unique solution to overdetermination worries.     

Social Networking Websites,Personality Ratings,and the Organizational Context: More Than Meets the Eye?1

We examined the psychometric properties of the Big Five personality traits assessed through social networking profiles in 2 studies consisting of 274 and 244 social networking website (SNW) users. First, SNW ratings demonstrated sufficient interrater reliability and internal consistency. Second, ratings via SNWs demonstrated convergent validity with self‐ratings of the Big Five traits. Third, SNW ratings correlated with job performance, hirability, and academic performance criteria; and the magnitude of these correlations was generally larger than for self‐ratings. Finally, SNW ratings accounted for significant variance in the criterion measures beyond self‐ratings of personality and cognitive ability. We suggest that SNWs may provide useful information for potential use in organizational research and practice, taking into consideration various legal and ethical issues.     

SYMMETRIES OF THE KINGDOM: SUGGESTIONS FROM GIRARD AND BONHOEFFER ON THINKING THE CHURCH—STATE RELATION

The work of René Girard invites us to re‐imagine a ‘religious–secular’ interactivity within social space in a way released from the violent dualisms of the ‘sacred/profane.’ Earlier Dietrich Bonhoeffer considered the same task and suggested directions for a positive theology of church‐state relations, even as the inherited forms of these institutions were collapsing about him. This paper explores the Girardian scenario for church and state becoming rivalrous ‘doubles’– whether it be secular utopic projects doubling religious narratives of redemption, or churches doubling the state as parallel yet purer societies – and suggests resources from Bonhoeffer by which a non‐rivalrous church‐state relationality ‐ both mutually‐constituting and mutually‐limiting ‐ may be configured.     

Explaining the Weak Relationship Between Job Performance and Ratings of Job Performance

Ratings of job performance are widely viewed as poor measures of job performance. Three models of the performance–performance rating relationship offer very different explanations and solutions for this seemingly weak relationship. One-factor models suggest that measurement error is the main difference between performance and performance ratings and they offer a simple solution—that is, the correction for attenuation. Multifactor models suggest that the effects of job performance on performance ratings are often masked by a range of systematic nonperformance factors that also influence these ratings. These models suggest isolating and dampening the effects of these nonperformance factors. Mediated models suggest that intentional distortions are a key reason that ratings often fail to reflect ratee performance. These models suggest that raters must be given both the tools and the incentive to perform well as measurement instruments and that systematic efforts to remove the negative consequences of giving honest performance ratings are needed if we hope to use performance ratings as serious measures of job performance.