The capacity to be an analyst: A contribution from attachment research to the study of candidate selection

In this paper the author discusses how the study of candidate selection, once a topic of vibrant research, has unfortunately languished. Certain qualities were thought to characterize the successful candidate. However, they were never successfully operationalized nor empirically tested. Possibly because of this lack of empirical data, selectors today have difficulty articulating their criteria and are relying on intuition. In order to provide a more rational basis for contemporary selection, the author looks to the attachment literature. This makes sense because attachment theory shares some basic assumptions of contemporary psychoanalysis. The Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) is a research tool that predicts the ability of a parent to convey attachment security. It is scored by attending to how a person speaks about his early attachment experiences. The AAI appears to tap into similar qualities to those selection researchers have sought in their candidates. Further, the scoring method of the AAI appears to be similar to the last attempt by selection researchers to operationalize them. Given these similarities, the author recommends an empirical study using the AAI to operationalize these qualities in analytic candidates. The study would test their importance for success in the training program, thus offering selectors some empirical grounding for their choices.     

Do you get what you pay for? Preventing insufficient effort responding in MTurk and student samples

Previous research has developed multiple indices to detect instances of insufficient effort responding (IER; Huang et al., 2015, 0.1037/a0038510). Although these techniques are largely successful, conflation between effort and insufficient effort leads to unnecessary data removal, thus warranting investigation into IER prevention strategies such as warning statements. For example, Brühlmann et al. (2020, 10.1016/j.metip.2020.100022) reported that close to 60% of participants were flagged for IER on at least one IER detection index. The current study used positive, negative, and no warning statements in two samples (MTurk and university participant pool) to examine their impact on two types of IER. Results do not support the use of warning statements to reduce IER covertly, overtly, or overall. Although slightly more university participants were flagged for IER for two of five IER indices, the remaining three indices did not differ between samples. This finding represents an important contribution to survey research literature by directly comparing samples on a variety of IER indices. Implications for survey research necessitate the examination of additional prevention strategies and sample differences in IER.     

Self-Efficacy for Enhancing Students’ Career and College Readiness: A Survey of Professional School Counselors

Grounded in Bandura’s (1997) self-efficacy theory and Savickas’s (2011) career construction theory, this study examined school counselors’ beliefs about whether they can perform specific tasks related to supporting students’ career and college readiness. A national sample of school counselors (N = 2,047) completed the School Counselor Self-Efficacy for Enhancing Student Career and College Readiness Scale (Baker, Parikh-Foxx, & Martinez, 2017). Findings from a survey research design indicated that the extent of related training and the challenges associated with implementation of career service delivery were of concern to participants. Recommendations for training, practice, and further research are presented.     

语言和文化对自我参照条件下提取诱发遗忘的影响——来自汉族人和摩梭人的证据

采用提取诱发遗忘范式考察摩梭人和汉族人在自我参照、母亲参照、姨母参照和他人参照条件下的加工规律, 发现摩梭被试在自我参照、母亲参照、姨母参照条件下都未出现提取诱发遗忘, 而在一般他人参照条件下出现了提取诱发遗忘; 汉族被试在自我参照、母亲参照条件下未出现提取诱发遗忘, 而在姨母参照、他人参照条件下出现了提取诱发遗忘。这表明, 不同的文化和语言影响人的自我构建, 在汉族人的自我结构中包含有母亲, 而摩梭人将母亲、姨母皆作为重要的他人纳入自我建构中, 使得母亲参照和姨母参照产生与自我参照同样的记忆优势。     

Examining arguments against quantitative research: “Case studies” illustrating the challenge of finding a sound philosophical basis for a human sciences approach to psychology

This article offers a close examination of critiques of quantitative research by Michell, 2011, Marecek, 2011, and Morawski (2011). One goal is to show that these three critics actually share with most mainstream quantitative researchers commitments to the Cartesian framework, even though this is not obvious because Cartesianism can appear in different guises. As a result of these commitments, the three theorists advance criticisms of mainstream quantitative research that fail to identify its key failings, put forward flawed views about how we should conduct research, and offer misguided criticisms of an approach I advocate called explicitly interpretive quantitative research. Another goal is to use the examination of the three critiques as a vehicle for clarifying the participatory perspective, a philosophical viewpoint that departs from the Cartesian framework. With regard to research methodology, the participatory perspective provides the basis for explicitly interpretive quantitative research, leads to ideas about changes we should make in how we conduct qualitative research, and treats quantitative and qualitative research as fundamentally similar because both should be pursued as interpretive modes of inquiry. I suggest that my analyses of the three critiques of quantitative research – or “case studies,” as I call these analyses – also may prove useful to researchers and theorists who want to develop a human sciences approach to other issues besides research methodology by helping them (1) recognize when lines of thinking that seem to depart from the mainstream actually represent variants of Cartesianism, and (2) consider what the participatory perspective might have to offer if they were to use it as the philosophical basis for their efforts.     

Report of the Working Group on Research

Prepared by the Working Group on Research from the November 1995 Georgetown conference sponsored by the Association of Medical School Psychologists, this paper focuses upon the challenges for psychologists who wish to maintain active research programs in academic medical settings. Six specific strategies are offered that, if followed, would increase opportunities and visibility of psychological research programs both within academic medical settings and within society at large.     

THE IMPACT OF APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS ON DIVERSE AREAS OF RESEARCH1

The impact of applied behavior analysis on various disciplines and areas of research was assessed through two major analyses. First, the relationship of applied behavior analysis to the general area of “behavior modification” was evaluated by examining the citation characteristics of journal articles in JABA and three other behavior-modification journals. Second, the penetration of applied behavior analysis into diverse areas and disciplines, including behavior modification, psychiatry, clinical psychology, education, special education, retardation, speech and hearing, counselling, and law enforcement and correction was assessed. Twenty-five journals representing diverse research areas were evaluated from 1968 to 1974 to assess the extent to which operant techniques were applied for therapeutic, rehabilitative, and educative purposes and the degree to which methodological desiderata of applied behavior analysis were met. The analyses revealed diverse publication outlets for applied behavior analysis in various disciplines.     

Social evaluation research: the evaluation of two police patrolling strategies

In most social evaluation research it is difficult to achieve the degree of experimental rigor possible in an applied behavioral study. This study illustrates how the evaluation researcher can increase experimental rigor in the analysis of social interventions. In the first evaluation, a variation of the time-series design that offered maximum experimental control given the limitations of the situation, was employed to evaluate the effects of a specialized home-burglary police patrol. This design revealed that no effects could be attributed to the patrol. In the second evaluation, a multiple baseline-like design was possible in determining the effects of a police walking patrol. This design revealed that the patrol produced an increase in crime reporting but not in arrests. Social interventions often occur in a manner that allows varying degrees of experimental analysis. The evaluation researcher must attain optimal experimental analysis given the limitations of each social intervention.