East and West: Transpersonal Psychology and Cross-Cultural Counseling

In this article, the authors examine cross-cultural counseling (specifically Western counselor-Eastern client) within a transpersonal psychological framework. A meta-model is presented that allows counselors to adopt attitudes that transcend cultural differences. The benefit for counselors would be a superordinate framework in which various, specific counseling strategies could be better understood.     

“Did You Bring the Yarmulke for the Cabbage Patch Kid?” The Idiomatic Communication of Young Lovers

The relationships of various aspects of idiomatic communication to the interpersonal sentiments of 100 romantically involved heterosexual couples were examined. After completing measures of love, liking, commitment, and closeness, the partners of each dyad were questioned about any words, phrases, or nonverbal signs they had created that had meaning unique to their relationship. The 647 idioms reported were coded for their form (i.e., verbal versus nonverbal), context of use (i.e., private idioms, which were used only when others were not present, versus public idioms, which could be used in the presence of others), and function (i.e., confrontations, expressions of affection, labels for outsiders, nicknames, requests, sexual invitations, sexual references/euphemisms, and teasing insults). For both sexes, loving, commitment, and closeness were correlated with number of reported idioms that expressed affection, initiated sexual encounters, and referred to sexual matters. The only significant relationship for liking was between females' liking scores and the frequency of idioms with sexual referents. A log-linear analysis revealed a significant association between the function of the idioms and their form; labels for outsiders, nicknames, sexual references/euphemisms, and teasing insults were almost always verbal. A significant association was also found between idiom function and context of use; labels for outsiders and teasing insults were most often used in situations involving other people, whereas sexual invitations and sexual references/euphemisms were usually used in private situations. Finally, males were the inventors of idioms much more often than females.     

Ranken on Disharmony and Business Ethics

ABSTRACT  This article is a response to Nani Ranken's paper 'Morality in business: disharmony and its consequences' ( Journal of Applied Philosophy , Vol. 4, p. 41). There she attacked the analogy sometimes made between businesses and persons, and concluded that businesses cannot be regarded as moral agents. Her thesis relies centrally on a very strict notion of a person's 'true good'. By exploring and expanding the concepts of 'true good' and 'moral agency' we are able to recover a sense in which businesses are indeed members of the moral community. Moreover, admitting businesses to the moral community also provides a working framework to examine the claim that what is good for business is in harmony with the dictates of morality.     

DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTS OF LEARNER EFFORT AND GOAL ORIENTATION ON TWO LEARNING OUTCOMES

Training research is beginning to examine the trainee as an active participant in the learning process. One component of this process involves the choices learners make about the effort they will apply to the learning task. Learner effort was examined in two ways: amount of effort and type of effort. Both amount and type of effort were measured in multiple ways. The results indicated that mastery orientation and time on task were the strongest predictors of performance on the knowledge learning outcome, while perceived mental workload and the use of an example during learning predicted performance on the application learning outcome. Implications for training practice and research are discussed.     

SELECTION ACROSS TWO CULTURES: ADAPTING THE SELECTION OF AMERICAN ASSEMBLERS TO MEET JAPANESE JOB PERFORMANCE DEMANDS

Obstacles related to cultural differences between Japanese management concepts and American selection practices were overcome to develop a selection system for hiring American workers in a Japanese-American joint venture assembly plant. Job analysis procedures and traditional selection system design procedures were modified to accommodate the Japanese culture and management philosophy. This paper describes the process used to develop a cross-culturally valid selection system and outlines problems presented in validating the selection system to ensure compatibility with Japanese management demands regarding productivity, team orientation, quality standards, and formal employee performance evaluations.     

INTERRATER CORRELATIONS DO NOT ESTIMATE THE RELIABILITY OF JOB PERFORMANCE RATINGS

Interrater correlations are widely interpreted as estimates of the reliability of supervisory performance ratings, and are frequently used to correct the correlations between ratings and other measures (e.g., test scores) for attenuation. These interrater correlations do provide some useful information, but they are not reliability coefficients. There is clear evidence of systematic rater effects in performance appraisal, and variance associated with raters is not a source of random measurement error. We use generalizability theory to show why rater variance is not properly interpreted as measurement error, and show how such systematic rater effects can influence both reliability estimates and validity coefficients. We show conditions under which interrater correlations can either overestimate or underestimate reliability coefficients, and discuss reasons other than random measurement error for low interrater correlations.     

Recovering the Lost: Remeasuring U.S. Religious Affiliation

Over the past several decades, survey research has found a growing percentage of Americans claiming no religious affiliation. In this article, we introduce a modified religious traditions (RELTRAD) typology to measure religious affiliation. The approach benefits from a more detailed data collection and coding scheme of religious tradition based upon religious family, denomination, and congregation. Using new national survey data from the Baylor Religion Survey, we find: (1) improvement to survey design and measurement makes it possible to accurately locate more Americans within established religious traditions; (2) Americans remain connected to congregations, but less so to denominations or more generic religious identity labels; and (3) religious adherents are considerably more evangelical than prior studies have found. Finally, we consider how affiliation as a form of religious belonging relates to religious beliefs and behaviors.     

LEARNING WITHIN A LEARNER CONTROL TRAINING ENVIRONMENT: THE INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF GOAL ORIENTATION AND METACOGNITIVE INSTRUCTION ON LEARNING OUTCOMES

This study proposes that effective engagement in metacognitive activities is critical to success in high learner-control training environments. A model was developed that focuses on the interactive effects of goal orientation and a metacognitive training intervention on metacognitive activity and learning outcomes. Seventy-nine participants completed a Web-based training course on how to create Web pages. Consistent with expectations, learners reporting greater levels of metacognitive activity during training gained more declarative knowledge, performed better on a skill-based measure, and had higher levels of self-efficacy. Metacognitive activity was also found to partially mediate the relationship between goal orientation and learning outcomes. Finally, the expected goal orientation by intervention interaction was found. The metacognitive intervention was beneficial in enhancing metacognitive activity for trainees with low performance-avoidance orientations, but resulted in lower metacognitive activity among highly avoidant learners. Implications of these findings for research on self-regulation and training practice are discussed.     

MATCHING INDIVIDUALS TO OCCUPATIONS USING ABILITIES AND THE O*NET: ISSUES AND AN APPLICATION IN CAREER GUIDANCE

The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) is a modern computerized occupational database with the potential to be an important resource for numerous work-related applications. However, developing any O*NET-based application requires working through conceptual, methodological, and practical issues. This article discusses a set of major issues in the context of using the O*NET for person-occupation matching purposes, providing examples of how these issues were addressed in a systematic ability-based matching application developed for career guidance. Specifically, we (a) describe the O*NET and its potential for career guidance, (b) explain person-occupation fit and its positive consequences for individuals and organizations, (c) compare person-occupation fit with person-job fit, (d) discuss matching individuals to occupations empirically using abilities, (e) highlight issues faced in using the O*NJST in this process and give examples of how these issues were addressed in our matching application, and (f) evaluate the functioning of this example matching method.