PERSONALITY MEASURES AS PREDICTORS OF JOB PERFORMANCE: A META-ANALYTIC REVIEW

The purpose of this study was to investigate conflicting findings in previous research on personality and job performance. Meta-analysis was used to (a) assess the overall validity of personality measures as predictors of job performance, (b) investigate the moderating effects of several study characteristics on personality scale validity, and (c) appraise the predictability of job performance as a function of eight distinct categories of personality content, including the "Big Five" personality factors. Based on review of 494 studies, usable results were identified for 97 independent samples (total N = 13,521). Consistent with predictions, studies using confirmatory research strategies produced a corrected mean personality scale validity (.29) that was more than twice as high as that based on studies adopting exploratory strategies (.12). An even higher mean validity (.38) was obtained based on studies using job analysis explicitly in the selection of personality measures. Validities were also found to be higher in longer tenured samples and in published articles versus dissertations. Corrected mean validities for the "Big Five" factors ranged from .16 for Extroversion to .33 for Agreeableness. Weaknesses in the reporting of validation study characteristics are noted, and recommendations for future research in this area are provided. Contrary to conclusions of certain past reviews, the present findings provide some grounds for optimism concerning the use of personality measures in employee selection.     

GENERALIZING ABOUT MESSAGES: SUGGESTIONS FOR DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTS

Current research practices in communication create problems for both internal and external validity. One serious design flaw, which involves use of a single message to represent a category of messages, occurs in nearly all of the experimental research on communication effects. The problem with such a design is that an observed difference between categories may reflect only differences between individual, idiosyncratic cases. A related error, the “language-as-fixed-effect fallacy,” involves use of several replications of each category, but analysis of the cases as fixed effects. The consequence is that findings cannot be generalized beyond the sample used. Future research should use multiple cases within each message category studied and treat cases as nested random effects. Since the cases cannot be true random samples from message populations, care must be taken to avoid known sources of bias or other barriers to generalization.     

A Fourth Subject Position of Care

Analyses of care work typically speak of three necessary roles of care: the care worker, the care recipient, and an economic provider who makes care materially possible. This model provides no place for addressing the difficult political questions care poses for liberal representative democracy. I propose to fill this space with a new caring role to connect the care unit to the political sphere, as the economic provider connects the care unit to the economic sphere. I call this role that of the “care claimant.” The labor of claiming care consists in the development, expression, and advancement of the interests of the care unit. The argument for employing this fourth care role begins by comparing Nel Noddings's phenomenological care unit to Sara Ruddick's family‐based analysis. It then moves to discuss the way Eva Kittay emphasizes the dependency of the charge and its political ramifications to illustrate the need for a care claimant. After distinguishing the care claimant from the other roles of care, I examine the power relationships in the care unit and the position of the care claimant in the public sphere.     

Group Identification and University Involvement1

Campus involvement has been identified as an important predictor of academic persistence and success. We propose a group identification approach to campus involvement and present the results of 3 studies. Study 1 established that group identity was strongly related to campus involvement. Study 2 determined that group identity mediated the relationship between student residency (on‐campus vs. off‐campus) and campus involvement. Study 3 replicated the prior results, but used a longitudinal design to help rule out alternative explanations. We conclude that group identification, particularly the affective component, plays an important role in campus involvement, and offer suggestions for enhancing group identification and for further research.     

“THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS”: KANT ON THE HANG ZUM BÖSEN AND THE UNIVERSAL EVIL OF HUMANITY

This paper offers a new interpretation of the propensity to evil and its relation to Kant's claim that the human race is universally evil. Unlike most of its competitors, the interpretation presented here neither trivializes Kant's claims about the universal evil of humanity nor attributes a position to him that is incompatible with his repeated insistence that we are blameworthy for actions only when we could have acted differently. This interpretation also accounts for a number of otherwise bewildering claims in the Religion and makes sense of the analogy Kant draws between the propensity to evil and addiction.     

Melanie Klein in Buenos Aires: Beginnings and developments1

In the first decades of the 20th century, Freud was known and quoted in Latin America by an elite of enlightened minds. In the 1940s a convergence took place in Buenos Aires of European exiles with local pioneers, and thus the Argentine Psychoanalytical Association was founded in 1942. Since then psychoanalysis has grown steadily and has spread into hospitals and universities, infiuencing culture at large. The socioeconomic situation of that time permitted this phenomenon to develop, to the astonishment of observers. In this paper the authors study the strong infiuence of Kleinian thought during the first 30 years of this development. The original works of local thinkers constitute the intellectual capital that sustains the idea of an Argentine psychoanalytic school. During the 1970s, both society and psychoanalysis endured deep and complex changes. Lacan's teachings gained support and Klein's infiuence began to decline. At present the Buenos Aires Kleinians keep working, while their relationship with Lacanians and other schools is calmer. Respectful discussions became thus possible, oriented to strictly scientific differences.     

疼痛表征在自我和他人间的一致性效应

在以往研究中“pain matrix”被认为是加工自我和他人疼痛信息的特异性神经机制, 也可能是个体对他人疼痛共情的原因。但是最近的研究发现非疼痛的感觉刺激也能激活该脑区, 因此疼痛表征在自我和他人间是否存在一致性受到质疑。研究采用启动范式从两个方面入手探索自身疼痛和疼痛共情间是否存在一致性关系。实验一使用疼痛和非疼痛图片为启动刺激, 疼痛或热刺激为靶刺激, 发现相对于非疼痛图片, 疼痛图片启动下被试对自身疼痛刺激的反应时减少, 疼痛水平和情绪反应增强。实验二使用疼痛和热刺激为启动刺激, 疼痛或非疼痛图片为靶刺激, 发现相对于热刺激, 疼痛刺激启动下被试对疼痛图片的反应时减少。同时, 在两个实验中非疼痛的靶刺激都不受启动刺激的影响。这说明疼痛表征在自我和他人间存在一致性效应。     

疼痛恐惧的形成及其对疼痛知觉的影响

脑岛、杏仁核是疼痛恐惧形成的重要神经网络中心。疼痛恐惧增强了慢性疼痛患者的疼痛知觉体验, 进而加剧抑郁、焦虑情绪和功能损伤程度。脑岛、杏仁核、前额皮层和前扣带回是疼痛恐惧影响疼痛知觉的重要神经基础。通过认知方法干预疼痛恐惧可以改善患者的抑郁、焦虑情绪, 减少功能损伤。未来研究应拓展疼痛恐惧的测量工具, 采用功能磁共振成像技术进一步揭示疼痛恐惧影响慢性疼痛患者疼痛知觉的神经机制。