A Review of North American Selection Procedures: Canada and the United States of America

This article reviews North American selection procedures used to make employment decisions (hiring, promotion, training, layoff and demotion) within public and private organizations in Canada and the United States of America. We present the conclusions of several surveys of selection practices including those conducted by the International Personnel Management Association and the American Management Association. We summarize the literature on assessment centers, biodata, computerized assessment, education and experience criteria, individual assessment, education and experience criteria, individual assessment, integrity testing, interviews, job knowledge tests, physical and psychomotor tests and written tests. We also describe selection procedures being used for a variety of occupations from Air Traffic Controller to Telephone Operator. We conclude by describing future trends in personnel assessment in North America and predict greater collaborative research efforts between our two countries.     

Gender role conflict: The interaction of gender,gender role,and occupation

One hundred forty-nine middle class individuals (69 males and 80 females), approximately 80% of whom were Caucasian, participated in the present study. The study was designed to test the hypothesis that individuals whose gender role and occupation did not match (i.e., feminine individuals in predominantly male occupations or masculine individuals in predominantly female occupations) would experience more gender role conflict than individuals whose gender role and occupation matched. The hypothesis was supported. A feminine gender role predicted higher gender role conflict in predominantly male occupations, and lower gender role conflict in predominantly female occupations than a masculine gender role. A masculine gender role predicted the lowest gender role conflict scores in predominantly male occupations, and the highest in predominantly female occupations. Furthermore, higher masculinity scores were related to greater gender role conflict for females than males in more predominantly male occupations.     

Relationships among accumulated lifetime life events,prosocial skills,and behavior problems in elementary school children

Relationships among life events, prosocial skills, and behavior problems for 91 first through fourth grade children were examined. The data were based on mothers' reports of their children's lifetime life events, current prosocial skills, and current behavior problems. Higher prosocial skills scores significantly predicted lower Externalizing behavior problem scores. Higher weighted life events scores significantly predicted higher Internalizing behavior problem scores. The weighted life event scores×prosocial skills scores interaction did not significantly predict either Externalizing or Internalizing behavior problem scores. The more parsimonious main effects conceptualization suggests that life events and prosocial skills are orthogonal in young, elementary school children.     

Strength of Subordinates’ Upward Influence Tactics and Gender Congruency Effects1

An empirical investigation with 117 superior-subordinate dyads examines the moderating effects of subordinate gender on the relationships between the strength of upward influence tactics and three outcome variables: performance ratings, psychosocial mentoring functions, and career-related mentoring functions. The results support predictions that men who employ stronger upward influence tactics obtain higher performance ratings and more career-related mentoring functions, and women who employ weaker upward influence tactics obtain more psychosocial mentoring functions. Implications of the findings for theory, research, and practice are discussed.     

Primary Femininity and Female Genital Anxiety

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Gender Differences in Population Versus Media Body Sizes: A Comparison over Four Decades

Mean body mass indices (BMIs, kg/m²)of North Americans aged 18 to 24 collected from 11national health surveys were compared to: Playboycenterfold models, Miss America Pageant winners,andPlaygirl models. The survey samples were representative of themix of different ethnic and racial groups in Canada andthe USA. No racial or ethnic information was availablefor either the Playboy women or the Miss America Pageant winners. Ninety percent of the Playgirlmen were white; 10%, black; 1.5%, Hispanic black; and.8%, American Samoan. From the 1950s to the present,while the body sizes of Miss America Pageant winners decreased significantly and the body sizes ofPlayboy centerfold models remained below normal bodyweight, the body sizes of Playgirl models and youngadult North American women and men increasedsignificantly. The increase in body size of Playgirl modelsappears to be due to an increase in muscularity, whereasthe increase in body size of young North American menand women is more likely due to an increase in body fat. Thus, in the 1990s, the body size andshape of the average young adult North American becameincreasingly different from the ideal being promoted bythe media. Furthermore the difference in male and female body sizes depicted by the media inthe 1990s was huge, whereas the difference between thebody sizes of 18- to 24-year-old North American womenand men was actually quite small. These discrepancies are discussed in relation to the differentsociocultural expectations for the two genders and theincreasing prevalence of body dissatisfaction reportedby both women and men.     

On the development of communicative understandings: An early strategy for interpreting and responding to messages

Young children's apparently sophisticated understanding of language is explained by a simple heuristic which produces responses fortuitously appropriate to many of the messages directed to them. Specifically, the strategy recruits action responses to language unless some element, either linguistic or nonlinguistic, indicates otherwise. Two experiments tested for the existence of the heuristic by examining the responses of children, 19–34 months of age, to sentences susceptible of more than one interpretation. In the first experiment such sentences were spoken in as neutral a context as possible. In the second, the same sorts of sentences were presented in contexts supporting either action or informing responses. The results of both experiments indicate that young children interpret and respond to language in terms of an action-based strategy. Moreover, the observed effects of context show that even young children engage in a continuous, context-sensitive process of interpretation. The data are discussed with regard to speech act theory and its role in a developmental theory of understanding.