Applicant Perceptions of Selection Procedures: The Role of Selection Information,Belief in Tests,and Comparative Anxiety

This study addresses the effects of the provision of information on the reliability and validity of selection procedures and the effects of test–taker attitudes (i.e., belief in tests and comparative anxiety) on fairness perceptions. Prior to an actual selection process, applicants (N= 118) were given either information about the reliability and validity of various selection procedures or no information. Next, they evaluated the fairness of eight selection procedures. No significant effect of selection information was found. Belief in tests had significant effects, with applicants high on test belief giving higher fairness ratings than applicants low on test belief. In addition, an interaction effect between test belief and selection procedure was found. For example, test belief had larger effects on fairness for structured interviews, personality inventories, and cognitive ability tests. No significant effect of comparative anxiety on fairness was found.     

Imitation promotes affiliation in infant macaques at risk for impaired social behaviors

Parental responsiveness and synchronization during early face‐to‐face interactions between mother and infant have been theorized to affect a broad spectrum of positive developmental outcomes in social and cognitive infant growth and to facilitate the development of a sense of self in the baby. Here we show that being imitated can significantly affect the behavior of nursery‐reared infant monkeys, which are at an increased risk for developing aberrant social behaviors. Infants look longer and lipsmack more at an experimenter both during imitation and after being imitated. These results demonstrate that from early in life imitation might be used as a privileged form of communication by adults to enhance infants' visual engagement and their social communication. Imitation may therefore be useful to counteract the negative effects of early social adversities.     

Social Capital, Social Networks, and Political Participation

Social Capital is created through the patterns of interdependence andsocial interaction that occur within a population, and we attempt to understand the participatory consequences of these patterns relative to the effects of human capital and organizational involvement. The production of social capital in personal networks was examined with the use of social network and participation data from the 1992 American study of the Cross National Election Project. The results suggest that politically relevant social capital (that is, social capital that facilitates political engagement) is generated in personal networks, that it is a by-product of the social interactions with a citizen's discussants, and that increasing levels of politically relevant social capital enhance the likelihood that a citizen will be engaged in politics. Further, the production of politically relevant social capital is a function of the political expertise within an individual's network of relations, the frequency of political interaction within the network, and the size or extensiveness of the network. These results are sustained even while taking account of a person's individual characteristics and organizational involvement. Hence, the consequences of social relations within networks are not readily explained away on the basis of either human capital effects or the effects of organizational engagement.     

New frameworks for careers guidance: developing a conceptual model of the interview

Recent research has highlighted limitations in our understanding of the dynamics occurring within the careers guidance interview. A study was conducted of how the client and practitioner engage in the exchange within the interview and how meanings are negotiated and received by each of the participants. The objectives for the study were to examine a sample of guidance interviews in order to: (i) identify which interventions by practitioners are perceived as helpful and unhelpful by clients and practitioners; (ii) establish how helpful and unhelpful interventions relate to change in understanding; and (iii) compare and contrast the identification and commentaries by practitioners and clients. The results showed that practitioners reported significantly more helpful interventions than clients and that there was limited agreement in the identification of interventions. Three thematic categories were derived to group the helpful interventions. This analysis provided the basis for the development of a conceptual model of the interview. Further research to test the model and assess its potential to inform careers guidance training and practice is outlined.