EFFECTS OF ALTERNATIVE WEIGHTING METHODS IN A POLICY- CAPTURING APPROACH TO JOB EVALUATION: A REVIEW AND EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION

This research was designed to examine differences in the predictive power of alternative scale weighting methods in the context of job evaluation. Two different point-factor job evaluation instruments were used to evaluate 71 managerial and service jobs in a metropolitan university, and five different weighting models were compared in terms of predictive validity and salary classification. For the job evaluation system having high multicollinearity and validity concentration, no significant differences in accuracy were found among the weighting methods. However, in the more heterogeneous system, prediction models based upon unit weights, correlational weights, and multiple regression had significantly higher predictive validity than models based upon equal raw score weights or rational weights developed by a job evaluation committee. In addition, the weighting models differed substantially in terms of the predicted policy wages and classification structures.     

MULTIPLE-CHOICE AND CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE TESTS OF ABILITY: RACE-BASED SUBGROUP PERFORMANCE DIFFERENCES ON ALTERNATIVE PAPER-AND-PENCIL TEST FORMATS

We present an example of an innovative constructed response test format–a write-in/mark-in paper-and-pencil test–as an alternative to the traditional multiple-choice paper-and-pencil test, with the potential for reducing subgroup differences. We present subgroup differences data on these 2 paper-and-pencil test formats on an operational promotional exam in a sample of African American and White firefighters. The tests were designed to measure the same content domain. Using within-subjects data that compared the performance of 13 African American and 14 White fire captains, and between-subjects data that compared the performance of 21 African American and 49 White fire captains, several results were in the predicted direction such that subgroup differences were reduced on the constructed response test. However, these results did not reach statistical significance. Therefore, the study points to the need for additional research to further evaluate the promise of the constructed response test format.     

Affiliation with new peer acquaintances during two initial social support interactions

Abstract This investigation examined the influence of a prior social support interaction on a subsequent interaction between new peer acquaintances. Pairs of adolescent peers (recruited in a large metropolitan area in the United States) were videotaped as they met and discussed current life concerns in 2 separate interactions. Results indicated that (a) the behaviors of new interaction partners are coordinated within an interaction (social coordination hypothesis), (b) behaviors exhibited during an initial interaction predict behaviors exhibited during a subsequent interaction (influential interaction hypothesis), (c) individuals affiliate in similar ways across interactions (cross‐situational consistency hypothesis), and (d) behaviors reflecting greater comfort with interaction increase across interactions (uncertainty reduction hypothesis). The discussion focuses on implications of results and contributions to existing literatures.     

The supermom trap: Do involved dads erode moms' self‐competence?

Increasingly, husbands have been expected to share equally in the task of childrearing, especially when their wives are employed. This study examined reactions to these changes in a sample of 78 dual-earner couples with 8-month-old infants. When wives felt that their husbands were skillful caregivers, greater husbands' contribution to caregiving was associated with lower self-competence among wives. In contrast, wives' caregiving behavior was unrelated to their husbands' self-competence. None of these effects emerged for the self-liking component of self-esteem. Thus, despite increasingly egalitarian sex roles, employed mothers (but not their husbands) seem to be trapped between their desire for help with childrearing and the threat to their personal competence posed by failure to meet socially constructed ideals of motherhood.     

GOD INCARNATE AND THE DEFEAT OF EVIL

In this essay, I assess Marilyn McCord Adams's important and provocative incarnation-centered approach to the problem of evil. In particular, I examine the central theological components of her approach: her novel but also problematic conceptions of creation, sin, redemption, grace, and eschatological consummation. My further goal is to use my critical analysis of Adams's approach in order to begin to articulate and defend an alternative incarnation-centered approach, based on a more classically orthodox conception of divine defeat of evil, which is both immune to the criticisms I raise against Adams's approach and possesses a higher degree of explanatory power.