Classical Psychophysics and the Assessment of Agreement and Accuracy In Judgments of Personality

ABSTRACT The just noticeable difference (jnd) unit of classical psycho-physics is introduced as a new way to describe accuracy and agreement in observer evaluations of personality. A formula for estimating jnd's from typically available summary statistics is derived from Thurstone's law of comparative judgment. A study examining four traits judged in 10 samples of subjects where the design permitted the calculation of jnd's by the method of paired comparisons indicated that the formula predicted the empirically derived jnd's associated with the mean judge ratings with considerable precision. Jnd's of criterion measures were also predicted, and while fit was somewhat less impressive in this case, there was still appreciable convergence between predicted and empirical values. The implications of jnd measures of agreement and accuracy are discussed. These implications include (a) possibilities for increased understanding of bias in observer judgments, (b) a new recognition that equal correlations to external criteria do not necessarily imply equal accuracy, and (c) alternative ways of describing the magnitude of effect in psychological research.     

The rationing of health care: A doctor's dilemma

Physicians are currently presented with very difficult ethical issues regarding who receives what level of medical care and for how long. A meaningful response to these perplexing issues necessitates a collaboration of doctors with others steeped in religious and ethical traditions. This paper addresses the complicated issue of the rationing of health care, and this issue is then addressed by responses from representatives of the religious community. This symposium took place at the New York Hospital—Cornell Medical Center in March 1991.The Rev. Curtis W. Hart, M.Div. is Director of Pastoral Care and Education at the New York Hospital—Cornell Medical Center.The Rev. Paul Conner, O.P., is Associate Professor and Director of the Master's Program in Public Health Care Ethics at New York Medical College. Larry Rasmussen, Th.D., is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Dr. Harlan J. Wechsler is Rabbi of Congregation Or Zarua and Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.     

What is a difficult mental health case? An empirical study of relationships among domain variables

A difficult case in psychotherapy can be defined in many ways. This study proposes a model for that definition, in which three domains (patient characteristics, case characteristics, and therapist characteristics) are considered to impact on that definition. A total of 264 professionals received a questionnaire to assess the relative importance of a series of variables within and across these domains. Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed-Ranks tests indicated that patient characteristics were considered more important than therapist or case characteristics in defining a difficult case. Case characteristics were considered more important than therapist characteristics. Pearson correlations, however, suggested that the three domains in the model are related. Correlations (for years of experience) and Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA for ranks (for professions) also indicated that participants were able to identify variables within domains as important in that definition regardless of years of experience or professions. Across domains, the most important variables included the motivation of the client (a patient characteristic), dropout/attrition and multiple diagnoses (case characteristics), and the degree of therapist-client racial similarity (a therapist characteristic).     

Profile of Rural College Reach-Out Students

This study focuses on the personality profile and career aspirations of rural, underachieving seventh-grade students from low socioeconomic families who were selected to participate in a college reach-out program. Implications for career counseling and educational planning are discussed.     

A Career Counseling Diagnostic Model: How to Assess and Counsel Career-Concerned Clients

This article provides a practical and proven diagnostic system that can be used by career counselors to assess and counsel their clients.     

Testing a stochastic foraging model in an operant simulation: Agreement with qualitative but not quantitative predictions

An operant simulation of foraging through baited and empty patches was studied with 4 pigeons. On a three-key panel, side keys were designated as patches, and successive opportunities to complete 16 fixed-ratio 10 schedules on side keys were defined as encounters with feeders. In a random half of the patches in any session, some of the fixed-ratio 10 schedules yielded reinforcement (baited feeders) and the other schedules yielded nonreinforcement (empty feeders). In the other half of the patches, all feeders were empty. Pigeons could travel between patches at any time by completing a fixed-ratio schedule on the center key. An optimal foraging model was tested in Experiments 1 and 2 by varying center-key travel time and number of baited feeders in baited patches. The ordinal predictions that number of feeders visited in empty patches would increase with travel time and decrease as number of baited feeders increased were supported, but pigeons visited far more feeders in empty patches than the optimal number predicted by the model to maximize energy/time. In Experiment 3, evidence was found to suggest that the number of empty feeders encountered before the first baited feeder in baited patches is an important factor controlling leaving empty patches.     

“That man’s father is my father’s son”: The roles of structure,strategy, and working memory in solving convoluted verbal problems

Normative data (N=896) collected on solutions to the traditional reasoning problem “Brothers and sisters have I none,/That man’s father is my father’s son” was the platform for a set of experiments to investigate the roles of problem structure, subject strategy, and working memory in error making in a class of verbal problems. The normative data revealed that the modal, but incorrect response to the brothers and sisters problem was “himself,” whereas the correct response of “son” was given by only 17% of subjects for the traditional version above, rising to 40% for a reordered novel version. This problem’s structure, identified as adouble-modifier structure, was found to produce similar response patterns across a range of verbal problems. Results from (1) syntactical structure manipulations (e.g., “My father’s son is the father of that man”), and (2) efforts to teach subjects to use a linear strategy (a sequence of steps), interpreted within a framework of Just and Carpenter’s (1992) capacity theory of comprehension, suggested that working memory overload varies across within-structure modifications and subjects. Further-more, this overload may be compounded by subjects’ choices of strategy.