A VIEW FROM ALBEMARLE1

This paper was originally delivered in July of 1975, within a few weeks of the Supreme Court's decision in the case of Albemarle Paper Company v. Moody. The law, of course, does not stand still. Less than a year after the Albemarle decision, the Supreme Court's decision in Washington v. Davis appeared to turn sharply away from the proposition that the EEOC guidelines are to be applied mechanically as the only legal touchstone of the job relatedness of a test. The Washington decision contains many obscurities and ambiguities, and at the time of writing (October 1976) it appears that at least one more Supreme Court case will be necessary in order to clarify this question. Though the present paper is outdated in some respects because of the Washington decision, it is hoped that it will continue to be of interest for the light it may shed on the interrelationship between the practice of industrial psychology and the judicial process in operation.     

RATER-RATEE RACE EFFECTS IN DEVELOPMENTAL PERFORMANCE RATINGS OF MANAGERS

The effects of rater and ratee race on performance ratings of managers were examined. Ratings were obtained from peers, subordinates and bosses as part of a multirater, developmental feedback program for managers. Two data sets were created for purposes of this study. The between-subjects data set consisted of ratings from over 20,000 bosses, over 50,000 peers, and over 40,000 subordinates. The repeated measures data set was substantially smaller because it included only those Black and White managers who were rated by both a Black and White rater from each of the three perspectives. Results for rater race indicated that Black raters from all perspectives (peers, subordinates, and bosses) assigned more favorable ratings to ratees of their own race. Results for White raters differed according to the particular rating source. White bosses assigned more favorable ratings to ratees of their own race, but White subordinates did not. White peers assigned more favorable ratings to Whites in the repeated measures analysis, but not in the between-subjects analysis. Results for ratee race indicated that both White and Black managers received higher ratings from Black raters than from White raters, and the effect was more pronounced for ratings assigned to Black managers.     

Toward a Grounded Theory of the Psychosocial Competencies and Environmental Conditions Associated with Soccer Success

The purposes of this study were to identify and examine psychosocial competencies among elite male adolescent soccer players in order to present a grounded theory of factors associated with soccer success. Participants (N = 40) were 20 Canadian international youth soccer players (M age = 16.8 years), 14 English professional youth soccer players (M age = 16.2 years), and 6 English professional coaches. Using grounded theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1998 Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. 1998. Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory, Newbury Park, CA: Sage. (2nd ed.) [Google Scholar]), data analysis followed several coding procedures geared toward theory development. Four major psychosocial competencies that appear to be central to success in elite youth soccer emerged from the data. The competencies were labeled Discipline (i.e., conforming dedication to the sport and a willingness to sacrifice), Commitment (i.e., strong motives and career planning goals), Resilience (i.e., the ability to use coping strategies to overcome obstacles), and Social Support (i.e., the ability to use emotional, informational, and tangible support). These results are compared to existing sport talent development research and a grounded theory of the psychosocial competencies and environmental conditions associated with becoming a professional soccer player is presented. Research and practical implications arising from this exploratory theory are discussed.     

Help seeking and social competence mediate the parental attachment–college student adjustment relation

This short‐term longitudinal study investigated whether attitudes about academic help seeking, social competence, and self‐compassion mediated the relations between parental attachment and college student adjustment. Two hundred and four first‐year students completed measures of parental attachment and the proposed mediators at the beginning of their first semester. At the end of the semester, students reported on their academic, social, and personal/emotional adjustment. Results showed that attitudes about academic help seeking mediated the attachment–academic adjustment relation and social competence mediated the attachment–social adjustment relation. Personal/emotional adjustment largely was predicted by initial personal/emotional adjustment. These findings suggest that help‐seeking attitudes and social competence could be fruitful targets of intervention for personnel working with college students who have strained parental relationships.     

Energetic Cost and Stability During Human Walking at the Preferred Stride Velocity

The possibility that preferred modes of locomotion emerge from dynamical and optimality constraints and the energetic and dynamical constraints on preferred and predicted walking frequency are explored in this article. Participants were required to walk on a treadmill at their preferred frequency, at a frequency predicted as the resonance of a hybrid pendulum-spring model of the legs, and at frequencies +/-15%, +/-25%, +/-35% of the predicted frequency. Walking at the preferred and predicted frequencies resulted in minimal metabolic costs and maximal stability of the head and joint actions. Mechanical energy conservation was constant across conditions. The head was more stable than the joints. The joints appeared to be in service of the head in maintaining a stable trajectory. The major findings of this study suggest a complementary relationship between energetic (physiological) and stability constraints in the adoption of a preferred frequency of walking. Multiple subsystems may be involved in constraining observed macroscopic behavior in intact biological systems. The approach and results of the study imply that a useful tack in understanding how dynamical control structures arise is to study the potential criteria that serve to act as constraints on skilled movement patterns in unimpaired and impaired populations.     

Intracerebroventricular Administration of Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antisense Oligonucleotides Attenuates Salt Appetite in the Rat

The anterior ventral third ventricle (AV3V) region of the brain contains high concentrations of mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) and glucocorticoid receptors (GR) that are important in the maintenance of body fluid and electrolyte balance as well as other physiological processes. Daily intracerebroventricular pulse injections of MR antisense oligonucleotides significantly suppressed deoxycorticosterone acetate (DOCA) induced salt appetite in a dose-related manner. Similar administration of GR antisense or scrambled/sense oligonucleotide into the third ventricle failed to inhibit salt appetite. Salt appetite aroused after adrenalectomy was not suppressed by MR antisense oligonucleotide treatments but was suppressed by an antisense oligonucleotide directed against the angiotensin II AT1 receptor subtype. Receptor binding analysis demonstrated that MR and GR oligonucleotide treatments each reduced their respective receptor subtypes. Finally, although GR antisense oligonucleotide treatment was ineffective in suppressing DOCA-induced salt appetite, this treatment did increase stress induced corticosterone release as well as delayed the recovery of corticosterone to basal levels after stress.     

Effects of relationship education on emerging adults' relationship beliefs and behaviors

In this multisite study, we used a randomized controlled trial to examine how a relationship education intervention affected emerging adults' maladaptive relationship beliefs, mutuality, relationship decision making, relationship quality, and psychological distress. In addition, we explored whether one intervention modality (i.e., facilitated group discussion) was more/less effective than another (i.e., self‐facilitated online) and whether there were differential effects for participants in a relationship. We found that the facilitated group evidenced a decline in maladaptive relationship beliefs and an improvement in deliberate decision making. Moreover, facilitated group participants in a relationship reported higher levels of mutuality. Contrary to our hypothesis, there were no changes in relationship quality or psychological distress. Implications for the content and delivery of relationship education for emerging adults are discussed.