Assessment and Screening: Identifying Successful Participants in Employment and Training Programs

In this study the authors explored the effectiveness of selected assessment and screening procedures for identifying successful and unsuccessful participants in employment and training programs conducted by the Program for Assessment, Counseling, and Employment of the Young Men's Christian Association of Greater New York.     

Why Do We Still Call Them “Paradoxes”

The fact that therapists label some events “paradoxical” may suggest that our current beliefs or theories are limited in their ability to adequately account for those phenomena. It is argued that our underlying belief in objectivity surrounds therapeutic “paradoxes” with a persistently paradoxical aura, and leads to confusion in our understanding of a variety of phenomena. Maturana's ideas regarding structure determinism, instructive interaction, and phenomenal domains are used to suggest an answer to these difficulties. It is claimed that the problematic status of many theoretical concepts (for example, communication, information, resistance, homeostasis, and pathology) is revealing of something quite important — that the experiential validity of instructive interaction repeatedly leads us into implicitly or explicitly employing instructive interaction in a domain where it can never be valid: the domain of theory and explanation.     

The Socialization of Highly Intelligent Boys: Case Material from Terman's Correspondence

Lewis M. Terman's letters to the parents of 42 boys with childhood IQs greater than 170 were examined and contrasted with those sent to parents of 42 boys with IQs between 135 and 159. Parents of boys with very high IQs were more frequently advised to restrain academic acceleration and to encourage mixing with agemates. The author places this advice in its historical context, suggests that the social needs of many highly intelligent children can best be satisfied in peer groups consisting of children of similar ability and interests, and concludes with a brief discussion of current options for jointly facilitating social and intellectual development.     

Children's Developmental Services: A Multidisciplinary Program of Psychological and Educational Services for Neonatal Intensive Care

Psychologists, counselors, and educators provide an innovative interdisciplinary program for hospital care and follow-up of premature infants at the University of Florida. This growing population of surviving neonates has a high risk of developmental disability, which can be reduced by developmental intervention.     

USER ACCEPTANCE OF PEER APPRAISALS IN AN INDUSTRIAL SETTING

A survey of 218 industrial employees who had used a peer evaluation system for over a year found a higher degree of user acceptance than that reported in previous research. Users were significantly more favorable in their attitudes toward peer appraisals when the appraisals were used for developmental rather than evaluative purposes. Favorable user reactions were positively associated with the satisfaction that employees expressed with prior peer ratings and with the amount of leniency perceived in the peer rating process. User reactions were negatively associated with perceived friendship bias and years of company experience. No relationship was found between peer or self-ratings of performance and reactions to the peer appraisal process.     

An empirical study of occupational families in the youth labour market

This research aims at identifying job families for use in broadly based training for young people. A total of 455 job incumbents in the youth labour market were interviewed using the Job Components Inventory (JCI). The job sample was heterogeneous, reflecting a wide range of industries and job titles; some of these were skilled but mainly they were semi- and unskilled. The JCI covers the use of tools and equipment, physical and perceptual skills, mathematical requirements, communication, decision making and responsibility. Cluster analysis of items identified 36 skill components. These formed the basis for job-holder profiles, which in turn were grouped by hierarchical clustering. The optimal solution resulted in six clusters, the characteristics of which were described in terms of JCI component scores. The six clusters were labelled as clerical, skilled interpersonal, operative, unskilled manual, intermediate skilled technical and skilled technical. The stability of these six clusters was assessed using split-half replications. Results are discussed and evaluated in the context of contemporary youth training needs.     

Chronic Smoking and Emotionality1

Self-report data were gathered on the chronic emotionality of smokers and nonsmokers in a number of samples. The results were discussed relative to the literature on sociopathy and recent studies that found smokers to be more emotional than nonsmokers. It was argued that an S's own emotional feelings must be distinguished from the behavioral observations of others, and that the smoking habit might well lead to a generally lowered level of felt emotionality.     

Community-based college guidance for the disadvantaged

New techniques of counseling and guidance must be developed in order to increase substantially the number of disadvantaged students going to college. One major effort should be an organized community guidance program whose essential elements are: (a) professional school and college counselors operating outside the school; (b) key community persons acting as links between potential college students and professional counselors; and (c) ongoing programs providing literature, speakers, and special services geared to motivate and help disadvantaged students to enroll in and be successful at college.     

EVALUATING THE CONCEPT OF ABSENTEE-PRONENESS WITH TWO MEASURES OF ABSENCE

This study addresses the concept of "absentee-proneness," the notion that a small percentage of employees are responsible for a great percentage of absenteeism. Two uncorrelated measures of absence (paid and unpaid) were recorded for each individual in a sample of 195 employees working in the accounting department of a large public utility. Data were recorded for seven consecutive quarters (e.g., 21 months). The results showed that a core of employees was responsible for the vast majority of absenteeism in any one quarter, but that core changed from quarter to quarter. The distribution of absence data over the full 21 month period did not differ from chance expectancy.