THE INTERVIEWER AS HYPOTHESIS TESTER: THE EFFECTS OF IMPRESSIONS OF AN APPLICANT ON INTERVIEWER QUESTIONING STRATEGY

Recent findings in the impression formation literature suggest that individuals seek evidence to confirm initial hypotheses, or preconceptions, which they form about other people prior to interaction, and that seeking confirmatory evidence makes it likely that a hypothesis will be confirmed (Snyder and Swann, 1978). Snyder and Swann suggest that the employment interview is one context in which this process can be expected to operate. Four studies are reported which examine the generalizability of these findings to the employment interview. Consistent use of confirmatory hypothesis testing strategies was not found when experienced interviewers, rather than college students, were used as subjects, nor when the study was set specifically in an employment interview setting, nor when hypotheses about characteristics other than those examined by Snyder and Swann were studied.     

The Cybernetic Metaphor: A Critical Examination of Ecosystemic Epistemology as a Foundation of Family Therapy

This article proposes that recent disputes between two groups of family therapists, represented by Watzlawick and Keeney, have a substantive base as yet unexplicated in current literature. However, guiding principles of the approach known as ecosystemic epistemology have received considerable attention by Wittgenstein, a colleague of Russell's, and Rorty, a contemporary philosopher. Both contend that the prospect of systematizing language and culture may be ill advised. The article suggests that discussion regarding the nature and practice of family therapy ought not be confined to epistemological thinking.     

Continuum of Counseling Goals: A Framework for Differentiating Counseling Strategies

Counseling process goals are presented in a developmental continuum similar in concept to Maslow's hierarchy of needs with implications for counseling practice.     

Validity generalization: Some critical remarks on the Schmidt-Hunter procedure*

This article presents some critical comments on the validity generalization procedure which has been presented by Schmidt, Hunter and others. They have put forward a method for testing the hypothesis that the variance in validity coefficients across situations for job-test combinations is due to what they consider to be statistical artifacts. The Schmidt-Hunter approach is criticized on the following points: the compilation of validity data, the use of criterion measures, and the test of the hypothesis of no situational specificity. Further, the relation between the concepts ‘situational specificity’ and ‘validity generalization’ is considered. In addition, it is noted that Schmidt, Hunter and others have defined the concept ‘situation’ in a different way than classical writers. It is concluded that the Schmidt-Hunter approach to validity generalization shows fundamental shortcomings. As a consequence their far-reaching conclusions for the practice of personnel selection should be considered premature.     

A mixed‐method approach to sense of coherence,health behaviors,self‐efficacy and optimism: Towards the operationalization of positive health attitudes

Posadzki, P., Stockl, A., Musonda, P. & Tsouroufli, M. (2010). A mixed‐method approach to sense of coherence, health behaviors, self‐efficacy and optimism: Towards the operationalization of positive health attitudes. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51, 246–252. This study discusses the results of a cross‐sectional survey of healthy college students in Poland. More specifically, it describes, explores, and explains the relationships between psychological variables/models such as health behaviors (HB), sense of coherence (SOC), level of optimism (LOO), and self‐efficacy (SE) among college students. These separate constructs have also been used to operationalize a positive health attitude (PHA) as a novel construct. The social survey was carried out at three higher education institutions in Poland in January 2006. The random sample of 455 undergraduate students was taken from five different faculties: Physiotherapy, Physical Education, Tourism and Recreation, English Philology and Polish Philology. Four reliable and validated research tools were used to collect the data: Juczynsky’s Health Behaviour Inventory (HBI); Antonovsky’s Sense of Coherence Questionnaire (SOC‐29); Schwarzer & Jerusalem’s Generalized Self‐Efficacy Scale (GSES); and Seligman’s Scale (SS). The results indicate statistically significant differences (p < 0.001) between these four variables: for example, the healthier health behaviors the stronger the sense of coherence, level of optimism and self‐efficacy. It was also demonstrated that LOO, SOC, SE, and HB correlate with one another. Finally, these variables create an explicit empirical‐theoretical pattern. All the research results from REGWQ tests, Pearson’s correlation coefficient and cluster analysis suggest the existence of conceptual similarities between these four variables and/or the existence of some broader scientific construct such as PHA. However, this needs to be examined further. These results could be a good indicator for future research among different faculties or age groups.     

A META-ANALYSIS OF CONDITIONAL REASONING TESTS OF AGGRESSION

James et al. (2005) reported an estimate of criterion-related validity (corrected only for dichotomization of criteria) of r = .44 across 11 conditional reasoning test of aggression (CRT-Aggression) validity studies. This meta-analysis incorporated a total sample size more than twice that of James et al. Our comparable validity estimate for CRT-Aggression scales predicting counterproductive work behaviors was r = .16. Validity for the current, commercially marketed test version (CRT-A) was lower (r = .10). These validity estimates increased somewhat (into the .24–.26 range) if studies using dichotomous criteria with low base rates were excluded from the meta-analysis. CRT-Aggression scales were correlated r = .14 with measures of job performance. As we differed with James et al. in some of our coding decisions, we reran all analyses using James et al.'s coding decisions and arrived at extremely similar results.