FIVE REASONS WHY THE "BIG FIVE" ARTICLE HAS BEEN FREQUENTLY CITED

This study investigated the relation of the "Big Five" personality dimensions (Extraversion, Emotional Stability, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience) to three job performance criteria (job proficiency, training proficiency, and personnel data) for five occupational groups (professionals, police, managers, sales, and skill/semi-skilled). Results indicated that one dimension of personality, Conscientiousness, showed consistent relations with all job performance criteria for all occupational groups. For the remaining personality dimensions, the estimated true score correlations varied by occupational group and criterion type. Extraversion was a valid predictor for two occupations involving social interaction, managers and sales (across criterion types). Also, both Openness to Experience and Extraversion were valid predictors of the training proficiency criterion (across occupations). Other personality dimensions were also found to be valid predictors for some occupations and some criterion types, but the magnitude of the estimated true score correlations was small ( p <10). Overall, the results illustrate the benefits of using the 5-factor model of personality to accumulate and communicate empirical findings. The findings have numerous implications for research and practice in personnel psychology, especially in the subfields of personnel selection, training and development, and performance appraisal.     

Men and Violence

The authors explore violence in men from cultural, historical, social, and individual perspectives. The many ways in which violence is expressed by men are examined. The remediation of violent behavior through counseling is studied, and a model for understanding that process is indicated. Resources, both organizational and bibliographical, are furnished. Violence … is as American as cherry pie. H. Rap Brown We've got to stop it, it's you and me, oh violence never did make a man. Geof Morgan     

Men in Hiding: A Challenge for the Counselor

Men in our society are culturally conditioned to conceal their emotions and innermost thoughts. This article discusses how men learn to hide, why counselors should bring them out of hiding, and how counselors can do so.     

Peer Counseling Strategies: Facilitating Self-Disclosure Among Sexually Victimized Juvenile Offenders

The purpose of this study was to investigate the childhood sexual victimizations reported among juvenile offenders and determine the intervention strategies considered most influential in facilitating the self-disclosure of those assaults. The results suggest significantly large numbers of adolescent males entering the juvenile justice system have been sexually victimized and clinicians might best reduce male victim denial with peer interventions which facilitate group cohesiveness, interpersonal support and hope, unconditional acceptance, and the altruistic helping of others. These findings are discussed in relation to the need for developing humanistic peer group intervention strategies within juvenile correctional facilities.     

PERSONALITY AND JOB PERFORMANCE: A CRITIQUE OF THE TETT, JACKSON, AND ROTHSTEIN (1991) META-ANALYSIS

Tett, Jackson, and Rothstein (1991) recently presented a meta-analysis of the relationship between personality and job performance. Many of their findings, particularly those pertaining to the Big Five personality dimensions, are at odds with one other large scale meta-analytic study (Barrick & Mount, 1991) investigating the relation between personality and performance. In order to reconcile these new results with previous findings, we examined differences in the sample sizes used, the process for assigning pre-existing scales to personality dimensions, and the nature of the jobs investigated. In addition, we found four technical errors in the Tett et al. moderator meta-analyses in computing sampling error, the bias correction, sampling error for bias corrected correlations, and computing sampling error variance across studies. These errors raise serious questions about the interpretation of their results for various moderators of the personality-job performance relationship.     

SELECTION AMONG EMPLOYER-SPONSORED PENSION PLANS: THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES

Recognizing the explosive growth and increasing importance of alternative forms of retirement plans, this study investigated determinants of employees' choice among the three major types of employer-sponsored pension plans: defined benefit, defined contribution, and hybrid cash balance. Using a field survey of 2,400 employees who participated in a state sponsored retirement system covering 60 participating employers, we tested a general model of public employee pension choice, and examined the roles of plan feature preferences, employee attitudes, and demographics in pension plan participation choices. The results identified primary predictors distinguishing plan selection and indicated that employees' preferences for plan features explained significant variation in their selection among pension plans. The results challenged the conventional wisdom regarding the nature of pension plan choice and highlighted the critical role played by individual differences.     

Enhancing relationship perceptions by reducing felt inferiority: The role of attachment style

To trust in a romantic partner’s acceptance and love, people need to believe they are just as good a person as their partner (and that their partner shares this perception). Yet, people low in attachment security may have difficulty sustaining these beliefs. Two experiments examined the consequences of reducing felt inferiority to the partner. Participants high in attachment anxiety (Experiment 1) and attachment avoidance (Experiment 2) reported greater confidence in their partner’s acceptance and love and attached greater value to their partner when led to feel (or to believe their partner saw them as) superior to their partner. Thus, reducing felt inferiority may effectively enhance relationship perceptions for people relatively low in attachment security.     

On Valuing Truth in Practice: Rome's Postmodern Challenge

Abstract:  This essay probes whether there can be any real and fruitful dialogue between Roman Catholic self-understanding in relation to truth and postmodern questioning of the value of all such truth-talk, at least as traditionally conceived. After an introductory section situating the essay in context, the exploration moves through four phases. First, there are some initial reflections on the place of truth in Catholic self-understanding and the significant shaping force this exerts on Catholic structure and practice. Second, attention shifts to asking after the motivating factors behind Rorty's trenchant disavowal of 'objectivity' in favour of 'solidarity', or localized agreement, as the only viable basis for interpreting and acting within the world. Having noted the challenges the Rorty's concerns pose to Catholic self-understanding, attention turns in the third part to review the counter-case that can be made for the lasting significance of a revised aspiration for truth as the articulation of reality. The final section further probes the challenge that this position in turn holds for the concern that Catholicism give appealing, inspiring, convincing, and, in this sense, authoritative witness to the task of discerning together the truth in love.