Primary Prevention in University Residence Halls: Paraprofessional-Led Relationship Enhancement Groups for College Roommates

The author examined the effect of Relationship Enhancement training as a preventive intervention with college roommates. Trained paraprofessional counselors (resident assistants) led 20 Relationship Skills Workshops for students in their living units. The workshops (four 2-hour sessions each) were based on the Relationship Enhancement method and involved training students in expressive (subjective self-disclosure) and empathic (demonstrating understanding) skills. Students were randomly assigned to workshops either early (experimental group) or late (delayed treatment control group) in the semester. Assessments of students' expressive and empathic skills when discussing personal concerns and conflicts with their roommates were made on all participants at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester. Results show significantly higher level skills for the trained experimental group in comparison to the as-yet untrained delayed-treatment control group at the middle of the semester, and that significant improvement occurred in both groups following their respective participation in training, suggesting training was effective.     

Criteria Used by College Students to Select Employment Referents

Content analysis of college students' rationales for selecting employment referents suggests that their choices do not always match with what employers value in reference reports. The concluding section of the article offers suggestions for effective referent selection.     

Choosing Outcome Assessment Devices: An Organizational and Conceptual Scheme

The assessment of counseling outcome is an important issue that has theoretical, ethical, empirical, and practical significance. Our examination of the state of the science, however, revealed much diversity and disorder. To impose order on this chaos, an organizational and conceptual scheme consisting of content, source, technology, and time orientation dimensions was proposed. The scheme's utility was demonstrated through a review of and application to outcome studies found in two leading counseling journals over the past 3 years. The conceptual scheme was further illustrated through an in-depth application to one specific outcome study. This scheme may guide future outcome research efforts, and its utility may be broadened to include the selection of outcome instruments in career counseling and supervision research.     

AGE AND VOLUNTARY TURNOVER: A QUANTITATIVE REVIEW

The bivariate relationship between chronological age and voluntary turnover was examined. Using a database that spans the years 1959-1993 and contains 46 samples with a total of 42,625 individuals, meta-analyses were performed. In contrast to previous reviews (Cotton & Tuttle, 1986; Rhodes, 1983), the relationship between age and turnover was small and near zero ( p = -.08). Job tenure did not appear to moderate the relationship to any substantial extent. We conclude that age is not meaningfully related to an individual's decision to leave an organization.     

Dissociative effects of elaboration on memory of enacted and non-enacted events: A case of a negative effect

One experiment compared the effect of elaboration on enacted and non-enacted events. The commands were either presented in a basic form (e.g., "wave your hands") or in an enriched form. The commands were enriched by adding statements to the commands of how to perform the actions (e.g., "wave your hands as a conductor"). Free- and cued-recall data showed elaboration to have a dissociative effect on enacted and non-enacted events. Memory for the non-enacted events benefited from enrichment, whereas simple enacted events were remembered to a higher extent than complex enacted events. Lack of benefit from elaboration on memory of enacted events is suggested to be due to enactment leading to a sufficient degree of item-specific processing, and a negative effect of elaboration is suggested to occur when the way of manipulating item complexity decreases the familiarity of the actions. Familiarity ratings of the items by two independent groups of subjects supported this interpretation.     

Promoting Forgiveness: A Comparison of Two Brief Psychoeducational Group Interventions With a Waiting-List Control

The authors studied the effects of 2 brief psychoeducational group interventions on participants' forgiveness for an offender and compared them with a waiting-list control. The Self-Enhancement group justified forgiveness because of its physical and psychological benefits to the forgiver. The Interpersonal group justified forgiveness because of its utility in restoring interpersonal relationships. Both groups led to decreased feelings of revenge, increased positive feelings toward the offender, and greater reports of conciliatory behavior. The Self-Enhancement group also increased affirming attributions toward the offender, decreased feelings of revenge, and increased conciliatory behavior more effectively than did the Interpersonal group.     

Creativity in the Workplace: People,Problems, and Structures

In a dynamic global economy, creativity and innovation are essential requirements for organizational success. Creativity, unfortunately, has not always been seen as playing an important role in the design and structure of organizations. In this article, we argue that creativity and innovation are key requirements for the growth and adaptation of organizations. Subsequently, we review a series of articles, appearing in this issue, about how we might encourage creativity and innovation in the workplace. Some potentially useful directions for future research are discussed along with the methodological issues likely to arise as we seek to understand creativity in the workplace.     

Thinking Creatively at Work: Organization Influences on Creative Problem Solving

In this article, we consider how peoples' creative problem solving efforts are influenced by characteristics of the organizations in which they work. We begin examining the situations which call for creative problem solving at work. We then consider the kinds of processes people must apply to solve these problems. Additionally, we describe certain organizational variables that might help or hinder effective application of these processes.' Some conclusions-are drawn concerning how these variables act to influence creative problem solving at work. The implications of these observations for future research are discussed.     

RATER-RATEE RACE EFFECTS IN DEVELOPMENTAL PERFORMANCE RATINGS OF MANAGERS

The effects of rater and ratee race on performance ratings of managers were examined. Ratings were obtained from peers, subordinates and bosses as part of a multirater, developmental feedback program for managers. Two data sets were created for purposes of this study. The between-subjects data set consisted of ratings from over 20,000 bosses, over 50,000 peers, and over 40,000 subordinates. The repeated measures data set was substantially smaller because it included only those Black and White managers who were rated by both a Black and White rater from each of the three perspectives. Results for rater race indicated that Black raters from all perspectives (peers, subordinates, and bosses) assigned more favorable ratings to ratees of their own race. Results for White raters differed according to the particular rating source. White bosses assigned more favorable ratings to ratees of their own race, but White subordinates did not. White peers assigned more favorable ratings to Whites in the repeated measures analysis, but not in the between-subjects analysis. Results for ratee race indicated that both White and Black managers received higher ratings from Black raters than from White raters, and the effect was more pronounced for ratings assigned to Black managers.