Research Note: An Exploratory Analysis of Salesperson Perceptions of the Criteria Used in Performance Appraisals,Job Satisfaction,and Organizational Commitment

In some sales organizations the performance appraisal is treated as a bureaucratic exercise required by some “higher-up” executive. As such, sales managers may essentially conduct appraisals in an arbitrary and perfunctory manner. This behavior could be the result of the manager's perception that conducting performance appraisals requires considerable amounts of time and effort, which provides few rewards, but adds considerably to the manager's level of conflict and stress. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships existing between one aspect of performance appraisals, salesperson perceptions of the appropriateness of the criteria used, and two other variables, organizational commitment and job satisfaction. A survey of retail salespeople provided the data required to evaluate the relationship between satisfaction, commitment, and the perceived appropriateness of the criteria used. The findings indicate that salesperson satisfaction levels are significantly correlated with the level of the perceived inappropriateness of the evaluation criteria used. However, the findings also indicate that the perceptions of the inappropriateness of the evaluation criteria are not significantly related to the salesperson's level of organizational commitment. Based on these findings, recommendations are made regarding the salesperson's role in the development of the performance appraisal process.     

Effects of a prevention program for divorced families on youth cortisol reactivity 15 years later

Objective: We examined whether an empirically based, randomised controlled trial of a preventive intervention for divorced mothers and children had a long-term impact on offspring cortisol regulation.

Design: Divorced mothers and children (age 9–12) were randomly assigned to a literature control condition or the 11-week New Beginnings Program, a family-focused group preventive intervention for mothers and children in newly divorced families.

Main Outcome Measures: Fifteen years after the trial, offspring salivary cortisol (n = 161) was measured before and after a social stress task.

Results: Multilevel mixed models were used to predict cortisol from internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, group assignment and potential moderators of intervention effects. Across the sample, higher externalizing symptoms were associated with lower cortisol reactivity. There was a significant group-by-age interaction such that older offspring in the control group had higher reactivity relative to the intervention group, and younger offspring in the control group exhibited a decline across the task relative to younger offspring in the intervention group.

Conclusions: Preventive interventions for youth from divorced families may have a long-term impact on cortisol reactivity to stress. Results highlight the importance of examining moderators of program effects.     

Matching health messages to health locus of control beliefs for promoting mammography utilization

This field experiment examined the persuasiveness of matching health messages to individuals’ health locus of control beliefs in an effort to promote screening mammography. Women (N = 499) who called the New England regional office of the Cancer Information Service were stratified by their health locus of control and randomly assigned to receive a telephone message and follow-up print materials matched to either an internal or external health locus of control orientation. As expected, women who received information consistent with their health locus of control beliefs generally were more likely to obtain a mammogram 6 and 12 months after the intervention than women who received information that was not consistent with their health locus of control orientation.     

Spouse and Family Functioning Before and After a Marine’s Suicide: Comparisons to Deaths by Accident and in Combat

The impact of service member suicides on families is not well understood. Civilian studies have demonstrated that family survivors of suicide deaths experience complicated grief, feel guilt and shame, and often do not receive sufficient social support. In this exploratory study, spouse survivors of Marines who died by suicide (N = 17), accident (N = 19), and in combat (N = 34) retrospectively reported on their immediate pre- and postmortem and current personal and family functioning. Nonparametric analyses revealed that several between-group differences existed. Observation of the means suggested that the spouses and families of Marines who died by suicide exhibited significantly poorer pre- and postmortem functioning compared with those whose spouses died in combat. Specific challenges included low family cohesion, high family conflict, perceived stigma, and shame. There were no differences in current spouse or family functioning, and there was weak evidence for posttraumatic growth among surviving spouses of those dying by suicide. These results should be considered preliminary and interpreted with caution given several methodological challenges.     

Cognitive and behavioral attention in children with math difficulties

Cognitive assessments and behavioral ratings of attention were used to examine the relation of inattention to math performance in children. Third grade students with math difficulties (MD; n?=?17) and math and reading difficulties (MDRD; n?=?35) were administered the Attentional Network Test (ANT), as well as achievement and intelligence measures. Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD-Symptoms and Normal-Behavior-IV (SWAN-IV) Inattention ratings were collected from teachers. Two comparison groups were also recruited: a typically achieving group (n?=?23) and a group that responded to a math-tutoring intervention (responders; n?=?54). On the ANT, children with MD and MDRD did not perform significantly different than typically achieving children or responders on measures of alerting and orienting attention and executive control. All subgroups did demonstrate performance patterns that were expected on the ANT. However, performance across blocks of the task was inconsistent, suggesting poor reliability. There were no relations between ANT performance and SWAN-IV behavioral inattention scores, though behavioral ratings of inattention correlated significantly with math performance. Children with MD and MDRD may have more difficulty with distraction and attention to detail in contextual situations, as opposed to impulsive responding in these settings. The lack of relation between cognitive attention and math performance may suggest that either the ANT does not assess the relevant attention constructs associated with math difficulties or may parallel studies of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in which cognitive and behavioral assessments are weakly related.     

Conners’ continuous performance test (CCPT-II) in children with ADHD,ODD, or a combined ADHD/ODD diagnosis

The current study investigated if results on the Conners’ Continuous Performance Test (CCPT-II) could discriminate between children with ADHD (n = 59), ODD (n = 10), ADHD+ODD (n = 15), and normal controls (n =160), and how the results are associated with and explained by the intellectual function of the child. The sample was derived from the Bergen Child Study (BCS), a longitudinal, ongoing, population-based study of children’s development and mental health. CCPT-II performance did not differentiate between the three diagnostic groups (i.e., ADHD, ODD, and ADHD+ODD). Children with ODD (with or without comorbid ADHD) did not differ from children in the control group on any CCPT-II parameters. Children with ADHD made statistically significant more errors of omissions and showed a more variable response time to targets than the control group. The correlations between CCPT-II measures and IQ were mild to moderate, and there was a statistically significant group difference in IQ: Children with ADHD, and children with ADHD+ODD, obtained lower IQ scores than normal controls. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that IQ, but not diagnostic group status, was significant predictors of CCPT-II performance. CCPT-II performance should be interpreted with caution when assessing ADHD and/or ODD in children.     

Effects of IQ on Executive Function Measures in Children with ADHD

The present study compared children with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and controls on a selected set of clinical measures of executive function (EF). A total of 92 children (51 ADHD, 41 control), ages 6-16, completed measures chosen from a larger neuropsychological battery to illustrate diverse components of the EF construct (planning, inhibitory control, response preparation, memory search). The selected measures were moderately correlated with one another, and moderately correlated with IQ. After controlling for age, sex, presence of learning disability (LD), ADHD, and IQ test version, Full Scale IQ was significantly related to four of the five selected EF measures. A second analysis showed group differences on the EF measures at different IQ levels. After covarying for age, there was a significant multivariate effect for IQ level (average, high average, superior) and a significant multivariate interaction between group (ADHD vs. control) and IQ level. Three of the five selected EF measures showed significant univariate group effects (controls performing better than ADHD) at the average IQ level; however, there were no significant group differences between children with ADHD and controls at high average or superior IQ levels. These results suggest that clinical measures of EF may differ among children with ADHD and controls at average IQ levels, but there is poorer discriminatory power for these measures among children with above average IQ.     

Neuropsychologic Deficits in Children with Sickle Cell Disease and Cerebral Infarction: Role of Lesion Site and Volume

Little is known about the correlation between the location and size of cerebral infarction in children and neuropsychologic deficits. We related lesion location and volume on magnetic resonance exams to neuropsychologic performance in 28 children with cerebral infarcts due to sickle cell disease. Seventeen healthy siblings served as a comparison group. Children with anterior cerebral infarcts (n = 7) showed deficits in attention and executive skills, whereas children with more widespread cerebral infarcts (n = 18) showed additional deficits in spatial skills. The volume of cerebral infarction was associated with spatial and language performance, but minimally related to performance in other cognitive domains. The location and volume of cerebral infarction are both important for defining the type and magnitude of cognitive sequelae in childhood stroke.     

Measuring Collective Efficacy Among Children in Community-based Afterschool Programs: Exploring Pathways toward Prevention and Positive Youth Development

Collective efficacy refers to a perceived sense of connectedness and willingness to intervene among youth, and is a potential aspect of positive youth development (Larson in Am Psychol 55:170–183, 2000; Lerner et al. in Child Dev 71:11–20, 2000; Sampson et al. in Science 277:918–924, 1997). Theoretically, those who feel connected to a group that is empowered to positively influence the behavior of their peers may demonstrate fewer problem behaviors. Few studies, however, have measured the impact of youth perceptions of collective efficacy. As a relatively new child-related research topic, there is much to be learned. One contribution to the foundation of this research agenda begins by evaluating the reliability and validity of a measure of collective efficacy with elementary children attending community-based afterschool programs. This paper describes the internal consistency reliability and various indicators of construct and concurrent validity of the Collective Efficacy Among Children Scale. The measure was found to have high internal consistency reliability. Construct validity was tested using exploratory factor analyses of collective efficacy including the dimensions of willingness to intervene and cohesion found in previous research (Sampson et al. in Science 277:918–924, 1997). Concurrent validity assessed relations between the scale and other measures in theoretically congruent ways. Using Hierarchical Linear Models to account for children's nestedness in after-school programs, connectedness was found to be more related to emotional adjustment, particularly children’s prosocial attitudes (caring about others and sharing). Children’s perception of the willingness of the group to intervene was found to be related to less problem behavior, (i.e. smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol, vandalism, and stealing). The implications suggest that future research should further explore children’s collective efficacy, and ways to foster its development in youth-serving afterschool settings.     

Changes in Rorschach Teaching

To investigate recent changes in Rorschach instruction, a double postcard questionnaire was distributed to all APA-approved doctoral programs in clinical psychology asking for information about the number and type of Rorschach courses. The data were compared with 1961 and 1966 surveys. A trend toward fewer Rorschach courses per university and a decrease in courses specifically on the Rorschach is evident. Changing views toward projective techniques may be a contributing factor, but the addition of areas such as behavior modification and community psychology into the training programs is also compressing the more traditional courses.