THE COMPARATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF WEB-BASED AND CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION: A META-ANALYSIS

Meta-analytic techniques were used to examine the effectiveness of Web-based instruction (WBI) relative to classroom instruction (CI) and to examine moderators of the comparative effectiveness of the 2 delivery media. The overall results indicated WBI was 6% more effective than CI for teaching declarative knowledge, the 2 delivery media were equally effective for teaching procedural knowledge, and trainees were equally satisfied with WBI and CI. However, WBI and CI were equally effective for teaching declarative knowledge when the same instructional methods were used to deliver both WBI and CI, suggesting media effects are spurious and supporting Clark's (1983, 1994) theory. Finally, WBI was 19% more effective than CI for teaching declarative knowledge when Web-based trainees were provided with control, in long courses, and when trainees practiced the training material and received feedback during training. Study limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Religious Free Riders: The Impact of Market Share

Free riders can be a problem in large congregations. Many studies have shown that large congregations attract members who are less active and who contribute smaller sums of money. We extend this literature by studying the impact of denominational market share on free-riding behavior. We hypothesize that people who want the benefit of a church affiliation without contributing to its mission may be drawn to the more popular denominations in their region. For example, in an area dominated by Lutherans, membership in a Lutheran congregation may offer potential free riders more social acceptance and connections. However, where Lutherans are in a distinct minority, free riders may perceive less benefit in being Lutheran. If so, only those who are serious about being a Lutheran are likely to join and free-riding behavior should be less evident. Tests using data for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) congregations are consistent with our hypothesis.     

Tactile orientation constancy: Do proprioception and attention affect the tactile vertical?1

Abstract: Tactile vertical, defined as the edge orientation that participants perceive to be vertical, was examined in four experiments. In Experiment 1, we touched the participants’ cheek, lips, or hand with an edge and asked them to judge its orientation with regard to gravitational vertical, both when the stimulated body part was upright (or, in the case of the lips, aligned), and when it was tilted (lips, distorted). We found that when the head or hand was tilted forward 30°, or when the lower lip was distorted approximately 38° to the left or right, the tactile vertical shifted in the same direction by only a fraction (8.7, 8.6, and 36.3% for the cheek, lips, and hand, respectively) of the change in orientation of the stimulated region. The results indicated considerable, but usually incomplete, orientation constancy. In Experiment 2, we measured tactile vertical on the hand for forward tilts from 0° to 45°. We found that as the hand was tilted, the tactile vertical increasingly shifted in the same direction as the hand (i.e., a tactile Aubert effect). In Experiment 3, the effect of attentional focus on tactile vertical was examined by comparing the tactile vertical of participants who attended to body‐centered coordinates, and others who attended to gravitation‐centered coordinates. We found that focusing on body‐centered coordinates caused a decrease in orientation constancy. We sought to examine the role of attention further in Experiment 4, measuring tactile vertical on the cheek of persons with temporomandibular disorders. Compared with normal participants, these participants displayed significantly lower constancy. The results were accounted for by a narrowing of attention to painful signals, so that proprioceptive information was attended to less. In conclusion, the degree of tactile orientation constancy that participants demonstrate varies as a function of body site and attentional focus.     

The Religious Dynamics of Decision Making on Gay Rights Issues in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1993–2002

In recent decades, homosexuality has emerged as a truly national political issue. As a result, the U.S. Congress is increasingly called upon to consider and set policy on an array of issues related to the status of gay men and lesbians. This article investigates legislator decision making pertaining to gay issues in the U.S. House of Representatives. Specifically, we examine the effect of several indicators on legislator support for progressive gay policies, including ideology, partisanship, and the characteristics of district religious affiliation. We use additive indices of legislator support for progressive gay policies, and use logit and ordered logit to derive estimates of influence. The findings indicate that even while legislator partisanship and ideology largely structure decision making, legislators are also highly responsive to the presence of conservative Protestants and (to a lesser extent) Roman Catholics in their constituency .     

ARE WE GETTING FOOLED AGAIN? COMING TO TERMS WITH LIMITATIONS IN THE USE OF PERSONALITY TESTS FOR PERSONNEL SELECTION

We recently published an article in which we highlighted a number of issues associated with the use of self-report personality tests in personnel selection contexts ( Morgeson et al., 2007 ). Both Ones, Dilchert, Viswesvaran, and Judge (2007) and Tett and Christiansen (2007) have written responses to this article. In our response to these articles we address many of the issues raised by Ones et al. and Tett and Christiansen. In addition to a detailed response, we make the following 4 key points: (1) Our criticisms of personality testing apply only to the selection context, not to all research on personality; (2) the observed validities of personality tests predicting job performance criteria are low and have not changed much over time; (3) when evaluating the usefulness of using personality tests to select applicants, one must not ignore the observed, uncorrected validity; and (4) when discussing the value of personality tests for selection contexts, the most important criteria are those that reflect job performance. Implications for personality testing research and practice are discussed.     

Empathic accuracy of intimate partners in violent versus nonviolent relationships

This study compared the empathic accuracy of men and women who had perpetrated physical intimate partner violence with that of partners in nonviolent but distressed and nonviolent and nondistressed relationships. Examined was the empathic accuracy (a) of partners for one another’s thoughts and feelings during a relationship problem discussion in the laboratory, (b) of partners’ empathic accuracy for each other with the empathic accuracy of objective observers who watched the couples’ interactions, and (c) the males’ empathic accuracy for their female partner to their empathic accuracy for female strangers. No significant group differences were found among women’s empathic accuracy, but the data suggest that violent men exhibit poor empathic accuracy when attempting to understand their female partner’s thoughts and feelings.     

Adaptation of the Preventive Intervention Program for Depression for Use with Predominantly Low-Income Latino Families

This paper describes the process for and safety/feasibility of adapting the Beardslee Preventive Intervention Program for Depression for use with predominantly low income, Latino families. Utilizing a Stage I model for protocol development, the adaptation involved literature review, focus groups, pilot testing of the adapted manual, and open trial of the adapted intervention with 9 families experiencing maternal depression. Adaptations included conducting the intervention in either Spanish or English, expanding the intervention to include the contextual experience of Latino families in the United States with special attention to cultural metaphors, and using a strength-based, family-centered approach. The families completed preintervention measures for maternal depression, child behavioral difficulties, global functioning, life stresses, and an interview that included questions about acculturative stressors, resiliency, and family awareness of parental depression. The postintervention interview focused on satisfaction, distress, benefits of the adapted intervention, and therapeutic alliance. The results revealed that the adaptation was nonstressful, perceived as helpful by family members, had effects that seem to be similar to the original intervention, and the preventionists could maintain fidelity to the revised manual. The therapeutic alliance with the preventionists was experienced as quite positive by the mothers. A case example illustrates how the intervention was adapted.