Police Officer Selection validation project: The multijurisdictional Police Officer Examination

This study presents the results of a predictive validity study of the Multijurisdictional Police Officer Examination (MPOE). The MPOE is a paper-and-pencil test of cognitive abilities developed to select entry level police officers. Criterion measures for the study included training performance, supervisory performance ratings and a file composite measure of negative work related incidents (e.g., use of force). There were 159 (120 majority and 39 minority group) members in the final validation sample. Results indicated that the MPOE was predictive of the three performance indices. Cumulation of results across seven studies (including the present effort) revealed a weighted average correlation between the MPOE and performance ratings of .20 (N=913). The potential generalizability of the results to other police departments is discussed.     

The Psychology of Global Environmental Change: Some Basic Data and an Agenda for Cooperative International Research

In the first part of this paper existing evidence (mostly from earth and atmospheric sciences) on global climatic changes and their dependence (and effect) upon human action is briefly reviewed. Reference is made to existing major international programmes of research focusing on these climatic changes. The main part of the paper concentrates on the study of global change within the framework of the social sciences. Five psychological characteristics of global environmental change are explained which would account for the human inability to respond adequately without the supportive means of information presentation and processing. Future research on psychological dimensions of global change should explore these in greater detail and study modes of social communication that will become instrumental in implementing such support systems.     

Forschungsprogramm und Wissenschaftsentwicklung

For Imre Lakatos hismethodology of scientific research programmes was not only a philosophical theory of science and scientific change but also the conceptual foundation of empirical and historical studies of science. At least terminologically this view is today widely accepted: The concept of aresearch programme is used in all sorts of literature on science. In the present paper I argue that this concept can lead to serious distortions of empirical and historical studies of science if it is not detached from the Lakatosian philosophical framework. Themethodology of scientific research programmes has three main pitfalls, which may lead to disorientations of empirical and historical studies of science: (1) Contrary to what the term research programme may suggest, it offers no perspective on scientific research as an object of analysissui generis; (2) its concept of science is too narrow and covers only minor parts of what counts as science in the real world; (3) it reduces history of science to a mere sequence of research programmes and thereby eliminates the fact that there is an evolution of the structure of research programmes, too.

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Der vorliegende Beitrag ist die überarbeitete und erweiterte Fassung eines Vortrages, den der Verfasser im Juli 1988 auf einem vomInstitut für Gesellschaft und Wissenschaft gemeinsam mit demInterdisziplinären Institut für Wissenschaftstheorie und Wissenschaftsgeschichte der Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg veranstalteten Kolloqium gehalten hat.     

Industrial and Organizational Psychology Programme at the University of Colorado at Denver

This article describes the Industrial and Organizational Psychology Programme at the University of Colorado at Denver (CU-Denver). First, we provide an overview of the programme's most salient characteristics and objectives. Next, we summarize five ongoing research programmes being conducted at CU-Denver: (a) Social Power and Influence in Organizations, (b) Personnel Selection, (c) Applied Research Methods, (d) Training Evaluation, and (e) Cognitive Assessment. For each research programme we describe (a) primary questions addressed, (b) selective recent findings, and (c) current projects and future directions. Finally, we describe the role and current activities of the Centre for Applied Psychology     

Alcohol First Use and Attitudes Among Young Children

We describe the attitudes and first use of alcohol by children, grades 3-6, who participated in the Bogalusa Heart Study, 1993-94. Questionnaire data reflected that more than one-third of the children had experimented with alcohol at the time of the study. The dominant environmental factor in experimentation was family modeling, and the dominant personal factor was curiosity, regardless of race, gender, or grade. Most children believed that alcohol use can lead to accidents, that drinking has negative social consequences, and that alcohol use hurts only if done to excess. Indications are that young children generally have negative attitudes regarding alcohol use, and that public and family alcohol education efforts need to be more specific about deleterious effects of even low levels of alcohol use in the young.     

Beitrag zu den Grundlagenproblemen in der Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung

Zusammenfassung Es wird gezeigt, daß man zwei Gruppen von Erscheinungen unterscheiden muß, solche, bei denen bestimmte Voraussagen unter Angabe gabe des größten Fehlerintervalles Sinn haben, und solche, bei denen bestimmte Voraussagen leer sind. Über die zweite Gruppe von Erscheinungen können jedoch Wahrscheinlichkeitsvoraussagen gemacht werden, das sind solche Aussagen, die nicht exakt, sondern nur praktisch bestätigt oder widerlegt werden können. Am Beispiel des Roulette wird gezeigt, wie man aus einigen Wahrscheinlichkeitsaussagen über die Erscheinungen beim Roulette unter Zugrundelegung von gewissen Rechenvorschriften weitere Wahrscheinlichkeitsaussagen über dieselben Erscheinungen gewinnen kann. Aus der praktischen Bestätigung der abgeleiteten Wahrscheinlichkeitsaussagen ergibt sich die Berechtigung für die Anwendung der gennanten Rechenvorschriften. In Verallgemeinerung der Erscheinungen bei dem Roulette wird die Definition eines Kollektivs in Wahrscheinlichkeitsaussagen gegeben.     

Der Mensch in der Masse

Ohne ZusammenfassungPrivaat docent aan de Gemeente Universiteit van Amsterdam     

"...As we forgive those who trespass against us...": theological reflections on sin and guilt in the hospital environment.

In general parlance the term sin has lost its existential meaning. Originally a Jewish-Christian term within a purely religious context, referring to a wrongdoing with regard to God, sin has slowly become reduced to guilt in the course of the secularization process. Guilt refers to a wrongdoing, especially with regard to fellow human beings. It also refers to errors of judgement with what can be tragic consequences. These errors can occur whenever human beings are called upon to act, including the hospital environment. A Christian hospital has to address the issue of how to deal not only with guilt-ridden misdemeanors, but also with wrongdoing unto God, which overshadows every instance of guilt-ridden human behavior. Here, as in every parish, the Church Service is the place to acknowledge sin, confess sin, and forgive sin, beyond the boundaries of the parish itself.     

The self-regulation of automatic associations and behavioral impulses

The distinction between automatic processes and controlled processes is a central organizational theme across areas of psychology. However, this dichotomy conceals important differences among qualitatively different processes that independently contribute to ongoing behavior. The Quadruple process model is a multinomial model that provides quantitative estimates of 4 distinct processes in a single task: the likelihood that an automatic response tendency is activated; the likelihood that a contextually appropriate response can be determined; the likelihood that automatic response tendencies are overcome when necessary; and the likelihood that in the absence of other information, behavior is driven by a general response bias. The model integrates dual-process models from many domains of inquiry and offers a generalized, more nuanced framework of impulse regulation across these domains. The model offers insights into many central questions surrounding the operation and the interaction of automatic and controlled processes. Applications of the model to empirical and theoretical concerns in a variety of areas of psychology are discussed.