AN EVALUATION OF METHODS TO SELECT RESPONDENTS TO STRUCTURED JOB-ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRES

The purpose was to evaluate methods for selecting respondents who would respond accurately to items on a job-analysis questionnaire. One general method involved obtaining from employees measures that assessed background, performance, and organizational information. This information could be used to identify respondents who were knowledgeable about the job and, therefore, able to rate the job accurately. A second general method involved collecting job-analysis data from all potential job-analysis respondents and, on the basis of indices computed on these data, selecting a subsample from them. Two indices were investigated: (1) the D index, which assessed similarity between an individual's ratings and the population's mean ratings, and (2) the carelessness index, which measured an individual's tendency to rate tasks known to be unrelated to the focal job as important. Both methods were applied to a sample of 343 mental-health workers. Four general postulates for job analysts were proposed on the basis of the results: (1) Different selection measures yield somewhat different job-analysis respondents. (2) Respondents are not equally accurate and, with the use of the carelessness index, may be screened for the tendency to make errors. (3) In some applications, the number of sampled respondents needs to be greater than three in order to obtain reliable results. (4) To the degree that the job is ill-defined and unstable, the selection of job-analysis respondents assumes greater importance and is riskier.     

A Counseling Practitioner's Primer to the Use of Multidimensional Scaling

Applications of multidimensional scaling (MDS) to counseling practice are discussed, and the author's use of MDS as a tool in a counseling training group is described.     

Suggestive Parallels between Kirton's A-I Theory of Creative Style and Koestler's Bisociative Theory of the Creative Act

ABSTRACT Kirton's Adaption-Innovation (A-I) theory of cognitive style was reviewed with particular regard to the three factors [Sufficiency of Originality, Efficiency, and Rule/Group Conformity] assumed to underlie the basic (AI) continuum. The basic additive model (AI = SO + E + R) set out by Kirton was then related to Koestler's bisociative theory of the creative act. The compatibility of the two theories offered mutual support for both. The intent of this paper is to explore connections between Kirton's Adaption-Innovation Theory and Koestler's theory of the creative act. In Koestler's distinctive term, the “bisociation” of the two theories offers interesting possibilities for reciprocal illumination. Kirton's work, initiated by the publication (Kirton, 1976) of his measure of creative style, the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI), will be sketched first, followed by a brief overview of Koestler's 1963 monograph (Koestler, 1967). Parallels between the two theories will be suggested in a final section that casts the three Kirton factor/traits into the conceptual framework of the creative act set out by Koestler.     

Multiple Authorship in the Personnel and Guidance Journal: A 12-Year Study

The increase of multiple authorship in the Personnel and Guidance Journal over a 12-year period is explored. Reasons for the growth are examined.     

The Symbiotic Survival Pattern: A Relational Theory of Schizophrenia

A theoretical formulation regarding schizophrenia and family functioning is presented that attempts to integrate individual and systems approaches. Despite these approaches dealing with phenomena at different levels, they interact, modify, and determine each other. A review of the literature in both psychoanalytic and family theory served as background and foundation. The symbiotic survival pattern found in families with a schizophrenic member is a mutually controlling system of interaction in which each individual feels responsible for the self-esteem and survival of the other. This involves at least three people, two of whom are expected to act out introjected images for the third. A paradigm of intrapsychic introjects, as well as an illustrative method of describing their use in family transactions, is developed.     

Marriage and Family Counseling in Counselor Education: National Trends and Implications

The authors report the results of a survey of 274 counselor education chairpersons asked to respond to a series of questions concerning the current status of marriage and family counseling in counselor education. Respondents indicated that marriage and family programs in counselor education are continuing to grow in popularity, identified courses most frequently employed in the training of such counselors, provided information about support that AACD could give to enhance the development of marriage and family counseling, and gave their opinions about how marriage and family counseling programs should be accredited.