The Effects of Classroom Guidance on Children's Success in School

The authors investigated the effects of classroom guidance on children's classroom behavior, attitudes toward school, and achievement in language arts and mathematics. Pretreatment and posttreatment data were collected on each variable for the treatment and control groups. The study involved 896 children (grades 4 and 5) from 18 different schools in North Carolina. The children came from virtually every geographic region of North Carolina and represented varying economic, social, and cultural environments. Eighteen school counselors volunteered to lead the guidance sessions for children in the treatment group. Results showed the treatment group (n = 453) improving and the control group (n = 443) declining on two measures of classroom behavior and on a single measure of attitude toward school. The differences in score changes between the groups on all these measures were statistically significant (p<.001). The results showed no significant differences in language and math grade changes between the groups. The differences in language grade changes between the groups approached significance (p<.10, however, with the treatment group's language grades improving and the control group's language grades not changing.     

The Relationship Between Religiosity and Narcissism

Intrinsic religiosity correlated negatively and specifically with the maladaptive exploitiveness dimension of narcissism. Data are discussed in terms of the contemporary controversy regarding humanistic-theistic values.     

THE EFFECTS OF PERCEIVED SYSTEM KNOWLEDGE ON THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN SELF-RATINGS AND SUPERVISOR RATINGS

The viability of self-assessment in the performance appraisal process has been the focus of recent work. Although some contend that self-appraisals can be beneficial, the consistent finding of lenient and inaccurate self-ratings has led others to discount and doubt their usefulness. Recent research (Farh & Dobbins, 1989a,b) has investigated the influence of a variety of factors in improving the accuracy of self-ratings. The present study was conducted to examine the effect of perceived system knowledge (PSK) on the discrepancy between self- and supervisor ratings. Seventy-three employees of two banking institutions participated by completing a questionnaire on their perceived knowledge of the performance appraisal system. The results of moderated regression analyses suggest that the level of knowledge did in fact influence the agreement among subordinates and supervisors. Self-ratings were more congruent with supervisors'ratings when the subordinates reported high levels of perceived system knowledge. Implications of these findings for organizations and areas for future research are discussed.     

Values Preferences by Gender for Nontraditional College Students Between 1992 and 1982

This study compared gender trends for self-reported work values of 384 nontraditional college students in 1982 and 335 different nontraditional college students in 1992. Results measured by D. Nevill and D. E. Super's (1989) Values Scale indicated that female values preferences moved toward Altruism and Variety and away from Autonomy and Advancement. Male values preferences remained relatively constant, except for a significant drop in Aesthetics. The most important finding was that there were many more similarities than differences in men's and women's values preferences for both 1982 and 1992. The top 3 rankings for both years were identical: Economic Security, Achievement, and Ability Utilization.     

Temporal Patterning in the Family

The authors propose that time be considered as a variable in family process. Previous theory and research on human temporal patterning and experience are reviewed, and empirical generalizations from an initial pilot study concerned with marital and family members' orientation to "morningness" and "nightness" are presented. Further implications from this work-in-progress are delineated.     

Existential Confrontation and Religiosity

Recent research suggests that religious intrinsicness should predict a failure to confront existential problems whereas an interactional orientation should promote the opposite influence. This study, however, demonstrated that intrinsicness is associated only with traditional religious resolutions of such difficulties and that the interactional approach is essentially unrelated to confrontation with existential realities. These data therefore failed to support claims that orthodox, intrinsic individuals are rigid in their approach to the basic existential questions of life; the data also illustrated the importance of differentiating thought content from thought process in analyzing religious influences on psychological functioning.     

THE ROLE OF THE TRADITIONAL RESEARCH DESIGN IN UNDERESTIMATING THE VALIDITY OF THE EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW

Building upon the suggestions of Arvey and Campion (1982) and Zedeck, Tziner, and Middlestadt (1983), this paper calls into question the traditional approach to validating the employment interview. A general review of the literature reveals that individuals are likely to differ in their ability to provide accurate predictions of employee behavior and that interviewers often differ in their constant tendency to make favorable or unfavorable ratings. A review of published validation studies shows that most researchers fail to consider these tendencies and, therefore, may be inappropriately collapsing data across multiple interviewers. Through analytic argument we conclude that reviews of the existing literature will likely underestimate the usefulness of this widely used technique.     

DEVELOPMENT OF A BEHAVIORALLY BASED PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM

This paper describes the development of a behaviorally based performance appraisal system. Blanz and Ghiselli's Mixed Standard Scale was used as the basis for developing the performance appraisal system for assessing the performance of highway patrol personnel. However, the particular developmental procedures described here differ in some respects from those reported in the literature. Rather than developing rating items describing general traits such as "diligence,""initiative," or "enthusiasm" in behavioral terms, the items in the present scale were developed to describe proficiency levels of specific job tasks. This characteristic is expected to enhance the objectivity of the evaluation system for both appraisal and job counseling purposes. The appraisal instrument was subjected to a series of reliability and validity tests that demonstrated its high reliability and validity. Although the content of the appraisal sytem desribed here included highway patrol tasks, a similar system could be developed using the procedures described for a wide variety and level of jobs.     

The “Shadow-of-Death” and Its Implications in Four Families,Each with a Hospitalized Schizophrenic Member

This paper summarizes the salient points from tape recordings of conjoint sessions with four families, each with a hospitalized schizophrenic member carrying a poor prognosis. As the sessions progressed, a profound and overwhelming sense of frustration, foreboding, doom and despair emerged, as if the family were attempting to preserve what seemed destined to die. Each family as a whole was involved in what can best be described as a vicious circle of displaced and distorted mourning for a dead family member. This had deep and unresolved emotional significance for one or other parent. This same parent was also more obviously involved with the schizophrenic child, whose own symbolic family role included both being protected from anything in life carrying the possibility of death and distracting others from the source of this “shadow-of-death.”