A radical change in counselor education and certification

The new Washington state certification plan for school counselors includes promising innovations. The plan calls for behaviorally stated performance standards related to client outcomes. Resulting programs for in-service as well as pre-service counselors are developed in a partnership among professional associations, school districts, and university counselor education personnel. Professional identity and involvement are encouraged through counselor self-assessment against specific performance criteria, individualized training and self-renewal programs, and lifelong professional development plans. A new role is developed of a counselor staff development specialist who functions as a school training consultant and counselor educator.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF THE FACTORS INFLUENCING EMPLOYEES' WILLINGNESS TO ACCEPT MOBILITY OPPORTUNITIES

This study investigated the influence of 1,076 state employees' career stage, family characteristics, job tenure and specialization, and perceptions of job favorability, movement, and career development opportunities on willingness to accept upward, lateral, and downward mobility opportunities. Results indicated that employees in early career stages with little community tenure who perceived a lack of congruence between their current jobs and their "ideal" jobs and expressed little desire to remain in their current jobs were more willing to accept mobility opportunities. Few differences were noted in regression models across different mobility opportunities. Implications for future research regarding employee mobility are discussed.     

AN EXPLORATION OF CLIMATES FOR TECHNICAL UPDATING AND PERFORMANCE

Rapid technological innovation has made updating the knowledge and skills of technical professionals, such as engineers, a key concern for many organizations. The facilitation of performance and updating activities to prevent obsolescence is thought to require the development of a congruent organizational climate. To date, this issue has received some theoretical but little research attention. This study assessed the efficacy of the concept of updating climate. It was hypothesized that the technical updating climate construct would (1) be able to distinguish among organizations under different pressures for technological innovation, (2) evidence interobserver consensus within organizations, and (3) be associated with relevant organizational context features and affective, performance, and updating responses. Data gathered from 447 engineers and their 218 supervisors drawn from 10 diverse organizations provided support for the hypotheses. It was concluded that the concept of updating climate provides a useful framework for understanding factors that facilitate technical competence and performance.     

PERCEIVED JOB CHARACTERISTICS AND JOB SATISFACTION: AN EXAMINATION OF RECIPROCAL CAUSATION

The following four assumptions were tested (a) satisfaction with job/task events and perceptions of job challenge, autonomy, and importance are direct, reciprocal causes of each other; (b) job perceptions are also caused directly by situation attributes, although perceptual distortions resulting for individual dispositions must also be considered; (c) job satisfaction is also cognitively consistent with (i.e., caused by) individual dispositions, although these individual dispositions are generally different from those associated with job perceptions; and (d) individuals reply on job perceptions, and not situational attributes, for information in formulating job satisfaction attitudes. The assumptions are tested on a sample of nonsupervisory subjects ( n = 642) from divergent work environments (e.g., production-lines and a computer software department). A nonrecursive, structural equation analysis, combined with tests of logical consistency, supported the assumptions above. The results were employed to recommend changes in current perspectives regarding perceptual/affective dichotomies and unidirectional causal models and moderator models that link job perceptions to job satisfaction.     

ASSESSING CONTENT VALIDITY: STANDARDS SET BY THE COURT1

Thirty-one court cases were reviewed in order to determine the standards set by the court in their assessment of the content validity of paper-and-pencil tests. The findings indicate that the courts have not acted upon a uniform set of standards. In some instances, tests are judged solely on the basis of their “face validity;” in others, extensive evidence is required. The discussion centered on the failure of the courts to consistently apply professionally developed selection guidelines. The implications for practitioners and psychologists were discussed.     

MULTI-STAGE SELECTION STRATEGIES: A MONTE CARLO INVESTIGATION OF EFFECTS ON PERFORMANCE AND MINORITY HIRING

This study explores alternative selection strategies available when a firm has two valid predictors that differ in the magnitude of subgroup differences. We examine 14 different selection rules (e.g., select on a composite of the two predictors versus screen on the first and then select on the second versus screen on the first and then select on a composite of the two), and document through a Monte Carlo simulation that the various selection rules can produce markedly different consequences in terms of the level of job performance achieved and the level of minority representation achieved. The selection rules examined include the use of within-group norming, whichwas restricted by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, and the study examines how selection rules that do and do not include within-group norming fare in terms of the tradeoffs between performance and minority representation. The study shows that the preferred selection strategy will depend on the relative value the firm places on performance and on minority representation, and that the effects of different screen-then-select selection strategies vary as a result of the selection ratios at the screening and selection stages, thus precluding simple conclusions about the merits of each selection strategy.     

Babytalk as a communication of intimate attachment: An initial study in adult romances and friendships

Babytalk is a speech register that has been studied most extensively as it is spoken by mothers to infants, but without attention to its possible role in emotional bonding. We suggest that babytalk plays such a role–that it expresses and facilitates intimate psychological connection, and in a variety of relationships. We first overview relevant literature to show that an association between babytalk and intimate attachment makes sense. Then we report a questionnaire study, which is the first to explore this association as well as the first empirical documentation that babytalk occurs in adult romances and friendships. Self-reported features and examples of the speech register (as spoken in a particular romance) verified it as babytalk. Individuals who had babytalked to friends or romantic partners tended to be more secure and less avoidant with regard to attachments in general. Within a particular romantic relationship, indicators of intimacy and attachment accounted for about 22% of the variance in babytalk frequency. Partner's babytalking was the strongest predictor, accounting for about 42% of the variance. Communication intentions accompanying babytalk paralleled the hallmarks of attachment, especially affection and play. These and other results suggest that babytalk functions in the process of intimate personal connection.