NEGLIGENT HIRING AND DEFAMATION: AREAS OF LIABILITY RELATED TO PRE-EMPLOYMENT INQUIRIES

Research on pre-employment inquiries has not been extensive. The limited validity and utility of employment references has been documented, but other types of background checks have not been adequately discussed. However, recent legal trends in the areas of negligent hiring and defamation are leading employers to reevaluate their use of pre-employment inquiries and, particularly, references in hiring. Principles of law in these two areas are discussed and issues of concern to I/O psychologists are presented.     

Meditation: The Forgotten Western Tradition

In this article we discuss aspects of the history of the demise of meditation in the West and its recent re-emergence as an Eastern system. Reasons for this phenomenon will be explored. The differences between Eastern and Western meditation, the psychology of meditation, research in the field, as well as applications of meditation to counseling will be discussed.     

A Model for Cultural Diversity Training

We are fast becoming a multicultural, multiracial, and multilingual society. Such demographic changes are having a major impact on economic, social, legal, political, educational, and cultural systems. For businesses and industries to survive, they will need to meet the inevitable challenge of cultural diversity. A model for incorporating cultural diversity in organizations is presented. The model is based on a 3 × 3 × 3 matrix, which analyzes an organization's functional focus (recruitment, retention, and promotion), barriers (differences, discrimination, and systemic factors), and cross-cultural competencies (beliefs/attitudes, knowledge, and skills). Although it was originally developed for business and industry, the model seems to have usefulness in application to education and mental health organizations as well. Estamos llegando a ser rápidamente una sociedad multicultural, multiracial, y multilingue. Estos cambios demográficos han tenido un gran impacto en los sistemas económico, social, legal, politico, educativo, y cultural. Para que los negocios e industrias sobrevivan, necesitarán enfrentarse al desafío inevitable de la diversidad cultural. Se presenta un modelo para incorporar la diversidad cultural en organizaciones. El modelo se basa en una metriz 3 × 3 × 3 que analiza el foco funcional de una organizacion (reclutamiento, retención, y promoción), bloques (diferencias, discriminación, y factores sistémicos), y competencias interculturales (creencias/actitudes, conocimientos, y habilidades). A la vez que se desarrolló el modelo originalmente para negocios e industria, se vio que el modelo también tiene utilidad para aplicarse en organizaciones educativas y de salud mental.     

EMPLOYEE ATTITUDE SURVEYS IN A MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATION: CONSIDERING LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN ASSESSING MEASUREMENT EQUIVALENCE

The cross-cultural equivalence of a multinational employee opinion survey was examined using multiple-groups covariance structure analysis to examine 4 scales in 4 countries. Cultural and linguistic influences were considered by assessing equivalence across 2 pairs of countries having the same language but different cultures (U.S. and Australia, Mexico and Spain) and across countries differing in culture and language (U.S. and Mexico). The measure was equivalent across U.S. and Australian samples only. Analyses indicated items that were the source of lack of invariance. One cause explored was translation problems. Practical issues in assessing measurement equivalence in employee opinion surveys are discussed.     

Still living in a war zone: Perceived health and wellbeing of partners of Vietnam veterans attending partners' support groups in New South Wales,Australia

Post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans is well documented, less so the long‐term impact on the health of their partners and families. The perceived health and wellbeing of women partners of Australian Vietnam veterans who were members of partners of veterans support groups is reported. This qualitative study used data from 76 participants in 10 focus groups in metropolitan, regional, and rural and remote areas of New South Wales (NSW). The data were tape‐recorded, transcribed and thematically analysed using constant comparison methods. The impact of living with a partner with war‐related PTSD appears to be significant and ongoing with women drawing parallels to living in a war zone. The biggest negative impact was on their mental health. They felt burdened as carers and struggled to find explanations for their husbands' problems. Support groups were very helpful. There are implications for partners of veterans who have returned from active military duty and from peacekeeping in current conflicts.     

Relationships and the self‐concept

Progress in the study of relationships has depended in part on the recognition that relationships have properties not relevant to interactions or to the behavior of individuals, and may require additional principles of explanation. This has led to an emphasis on relationships as linking individuals. In this article we argue that relationship processes occur in the heads of individuals, with the participants having their own idiosyncratic views of the relationship as well as a shared one. The relationship is both affected by and affects the self‐concepts of the participants, so that the influences of the self‐concept may be critical for understanding the properties and dynamics of relationships Furthermore, consideration of the self‐concept can assist in the integration of different but not necessarily incompatible explanations for the same relationship phenomena.     

Relationship experiences and change in attachment characteristics of young adults: The role of relationship breakups and conflict avoidance

This study examined whether close relationship experiences predict change in individuals’attachment Characteristics. Partners from 301 dating couples each rated their attachment characteristics and their conflict avoidance. Five months later 184 women and 138 men reported whether their relationships were intact or broken‐up, and they rated their attachment characteristics again. Women became less secure after a breakup and more secure after remaining together. There was a similar result for men who initially had insecure attachment characteristics. Additionally, women low in conflict avoidance became more secure over time, and those high in conflict avoidance became less secure. For men whose relationships remained intact, conflict avoidance was not related to change in attachment characteristics. For men whose relationships ended, however, initial conflict avoidance predicted increased attachment security. These results extend previous research on the stability of attachment characteristics by exploring predictors of change.     

Cross-modal effects of subliminal verbal stimuli

Abstract.— In a cross-modal version of an experiment by Smith et al. (1959), the effects of subliminal auditory cue words upon judgements of a supraliminal visual stimulus (a neutral face), were examined. Support was found for the hypothesis that material in an unattended channel is fully analysed for meaning, and may be integrated with material in an attended channel when it is relevant to the ongoing task. Contrary to expectations, the effects of the subliminal cues were found to carry over to trials on which the face was presented without concurrent auditory stimulation, thus providing support for the Poetzl phenomenon.     

The Mental Vulnerability Questionnaire: A psychometric evaluation

Eplov, L.F., Petersen, J., Jørgensen, T., Johansen, C., Birket‐Smith, M., Lyngberg, A. C. & Mortensen, E. L. (2010). The Mental Vulnerability Questionnaire: A psychometric evaluation. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 51, 548–554. The Mental Vulnerability Questionnaire was originally a 22 item scale, later reduced to a 12 item scale. In population studies the 12 item scale has been a significant predictor of health and illness. The scale has not been psychometrically evaluated for more than 30 years, and the aim of the present study was both to evaluate the psychometric properties of the 22 and 12 item scales and of three new scales. The main study sample was a community sample comprising more than 6,000 men and women. In this sample the coefficients of homogeneity were all over 0.30 for the three new scales, but below 0.30 for the 12 and the 22 item scales. All five Mental Vulnerability scales had positively skewed score distributions which were associated significantly with both SCL‐90‐R symptom scores and NEO‐PI‐R personality scales (primarily Neuroticism and Extraversion). Coefficient alpha was highest for the 22 and 12 item scales, and the two scales also showed the highest long‐term stability. The three new scales reflect relatively independent dimensions of Psychosomatic Symptoms, Mental Symptoms, and Interpersonal Problems, but because of reliability problems it remains an open question whether they will prove useful as predictors of health and morbidity.