A SITUATIONAL JUDGMENT TEST OF PERSONAL INITIATIVE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO PERFORMANCE

Although situational judgment tests have been found to be valid predictors of performance, they have rarely been used to measure particular constructs. In this study, we apply the situational judgment test method to the measurement of personal initiative, a construct defined as situated action. We used respondents' situated preferences in mental simulations of work scenarios as formative indicators of their overall level of personal initiative at work. Results from a validation study showed that the situational judgment test of personal initiative (SJT-PI) had adequate validity and complemented a Likert-type self-report measure of personal initiative in predicting behavioral criteria. Situated preferences for personal initiative were hypothesized to be proximal predictors of actual behavior and were accordingly found to mediate the relationship between generalized self-efficacy, felt responsibility, and actual behavior. Furthermore, situated preferences for personal initiative could be differentiated empirically from organizational citizenship behavior. We conclude that situational judgment tests are a promising method for measuring personal initiative and may be a general means of improving the validity of measurement in organizations.     

Affective Synchrony in Dual‐ and Single‐Smoker Couples: Further Evidence of “Symptom‐System Fit”?

Couples in which one or both partners smoked despite one of them having a heart or lung problem discussed a health-related disagreement before and during a period of laboratory smoking. Immediately afterwards, the partners in these 25 couples used independent joysticks to recall their continuous emotional experience during the interaction while watching themselves on video. A couple-level index of affective synchrony, reflecting correlated moment-to-moment change in the two partners' joystick ratings, tended to increase from baseline to smoking for 9 dual-smoker couples but decrease for 16 single-smoker couples. Results suggest that coregulation of shared emotional experience could be a factor in smoking persistence, particularly when both partners in a couple smoke. Relationship-focused interventions addressing this fit between symptom and system may help smokers achieve stable cessation.     

Calvin's Christ: A Dogmatic Matrix for Discussion of Christ's Human Nature

Abstract:  Discussion regarding the type of human nature assumed by the second person of the Trinity has intensified recently. Judgements regarding dogmatic coherence have not been as forthcoming. John Calvin's Christology is presented here as a helpful context within which the fallenness position may be advanced. Calvin's doctrine of original sin allows for fallen nature to be considered distinct from guilt. Calvin's doctrine of the communicatio idiomatum also allows for the predication of fallenness to Christ's human nature without necessitating the contamination of the divine nature.