Negative Psychological Effects of Selection Methods: Construct Formulation and an Empirical Investigation into an Assessment Center

This paper defines and formulates the construct of negative psychological effects (NPEs) of selection and assessment methods upon applicants. The results of an empirical study into NPEs in an operational assessment center are also reported. Applicants (n=107) completed measures at three timepoints: Time 1 (just before the AC), Time 2 (immediately after the AC but before outcome decisions were known), and Time 3 (6 months after the AC). Both accepted and rejected candidates completed all three measures, which included self‐esteem, mental health, positive and negative affect, and career exploration behavior. No evidence of NPEs was found for rejected candidates despite significant between‐group differences on feedback reactions level items. Interestingly, well‐being and positive affect declined slightly for successful candidates at subsequent measurement compared against baseline Time 1 norms. Reactions level outcomes did, however, differ significantly between accepted and rejected candidates, with the latter rating feedback dimensions far less favorably. These results are discussed in relation to future research into the psychological impact of selection procedures upon candidates and the need for applied psychologists and HR practitioners to demonstrate that assessment methods do not exhibit NPEs upon applicants.     

Relationships between cognitive and behavioral measures of executive function in children with brain disease.

This study addressed the clinical and construct validity of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function. (BRIEF: Gioia, Isquith, Guy, & Kenworthy, 2000), a questionnaire designed to tap behavioral aspects of executive functions in children. BRIEF profiles in early treated phenylketonuria (PKU; n=44), early treated hydrocephalus (n=45), frontal focal lesions (n=20) and controls (n=80) were examined. Clinical validity was supported through significant between-group comparisons, especially between the frontal focal lesion group and other groups. To examine construct validity, raw scores on cognitive executive function measures including the Contingency Naming Test (CNT), Rey Complex Figure (RCF), Tower of London (TOL), and Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), were correlated with BRIEF scale scores. Few significant correlations were found, indicating cognitive and behavioral measures appear to tap different constructs within the executive function domain. A dissociation was found between behavioral and cognitive impairments in the frontal as opposed to PKU and hydrocephalus groups. This is discussed in relation to underlying pathology, the cognitive measures used, and possible limitations in the BRIEF's usefulness for measuring behavioral executive dysfunction in groups only mildly affected by neurological compromise.     

Coping with sexual harassment: reconceptualizing women's resistance

This study explored the underlying structure of women's coping with sexual harassment from a rational-empirical approach. On the basis of multidimensional scaling, clustering, and confirmatory factor analysis across 8 data sets, 4 clusters of coping behaviors emerged, with little variance across the data sets. These clusters bear resemblance to Moos and colleagues' (C. J. Holahan, R. H. Moos, & J. A. Schaefer, 1996; R. Moos, 1992; R. H. Moos & J. A. Schaefer, 1993) distinction between coping strategies that differ in both method and foci. The four clusters that emerged are behavioral engagement, behavioral disengagement, cognitive engagement, and cognitive disengagement. This framework provides insight into the complex forms that women's coping with sexual harassment takes and has important legal implications.     

Meet The Simpsons: top-down effects in face learning

We examined whether prior knowledge of a person affects the visual processes involved in learning a face. In two experiments, subjects were taught to associate human faces with characters they knew (from the TV show The Simpsons) or characters they did not (novel names). In each experiment, knowledge of the character predicted performance in a recognition memory test, relying only on old/new confidence ratings. In experiment 1, we established the technique and showed that there is a face-learning advantage for known people, even when face items are counterbalanced for familiarity across the experiment. In experiment 2 we replicated the effect in a setting which discouraged subjects from attending more to known than unknown people, and eliminated any visual association between face stimuli and a character from The Simpsons. We conclude that prior knowledge about a person can enhance learning of a new face.     

Divided attention and prerecognition processing of spoken words and nonwords

Three recognition memory experiments examined phonemic similarity and false recognition under conditions of divided attention. The manipulation was presumed to have little effect on automatic, perceptual influences of memory. Prior research demonstrated that false recognition of a test word (e.g., discrepancy) was higher if the study list included a nonword derived from the future test word by changing a phoneme near the end of the item (e.g., discrepan/l/y) relative to an early phoneme change (e.g., /l/iscrepancy). The difference has been attributed to automatic, implicit activation of test words during prerecognition processing of related nonwords. Three experiments demonstrated that the late-change condition also contributed to higher false recognition rates with divided attention at encoding. Dividing attention disrupted recognition memory of studied words in Experiments 1 and 3. Results are discussed in terms of their relevance for an interpretation emphasizing the automatic, implicit activation of candidate words that occurs in the course of identifying spoken words and nonwords.     

Evaluating the effectiveness of pixelation and blurring on masking the identity of familiar faces

Two experiments are reported that assess how well the identity of highly familiar (famous) faces can be masked from short naturalistic television clips. Recognition of identity was made more difficult by either pixelating (Experiment 1) or blurring (Experiment 2) the viewed face. Participants were asked to identify faces from both moving and static clips. Results indicated that participants were still able to recognize some of the viewed faces, despite these image degradations. In addition, moving images of faces were recognized better than static ones. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evaluating the influence of problem function on treatment acceptability

Direct care staff from community agencies serving individuals with developmental disabilities rated the acceptability of two treatments, time out and guided compliance, applied to a problem behavior maintained by attention or escape. The results showed that time out was significantly more acceptable than guided compliance regardless of problem function. The results indicate that the less restrictive treatment was rated as more acceptable. However, the functional treatment was not rated as more acceptable than the nonfunctional treatment. ©1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Matching the faces of robbers captured on video

Recent research has shown that unfamiliar face matching from both high‐ and low‐quality closed circuit television video images to photographs is highly prone to error, even when viewpoint and expression are matched as closely as possible. The current experiments made use of a filmed, staged reconstruction of a bank raid that was captured on CCTV and on high‐quality broadcasting video. Experiment 1 tested the ability of members of the public to match actors captured on CCTV to photo‐spreads containing similar‐looking distractors. Further experiments, each testing different groups of subjects, investigated matching ability using both high‐quality photographs (Experiment 2) and broadcast‐quality video material (Experiment 3). Experiment 3 also investigated the effect of disguising hairstyle, and varied whether or not the target was present in the photo line‐up. The results of these experiments confirm those of previous work, that matching the identity of unfamiliar faces is highly fallible, even when high‐quality footage is used. Experiments 4 and 5 tested matching ability using two‐alternative forced‐choice and single‐item verification tasks. Performance remained highly error‐prone even with the simplest question asked. The legal implications of the results are discussed. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.