The Effects of the Structured Interview on Reducing Biases Against Pregnant Job Applicants

Some research has been conducted on the discrimination faced by pregnant women in the workplace. Few studies, however, have specifically investigated how this bias is manifested in employment or hiring decisions. The current study was designed to examine possible bias during structured interviews. Participants watched a videotaped scenario in which candidates were interviewed for a job. The 2 × 2 × 2 experimental conditions were varied to represent a structured or an unstructured interview, a pregnant or nonpregnant interviewee, and the open position of either a high school teacher or sales representative. Results indicate an overall bias against pregnant women and suggested that the structured interview reduces this bias.     

Work-family Conflict,Work-family Culture,and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Among Teachers

Two hundred three teachers completed measures of work-family culture, work-family conflict, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Pearson correlations indicated that OCB was related negatively to work-family conflict, and positively to work-family culture, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that work-family culture predicts work-family conflict, and that various forms of work-family conflict predict OCB. Analyses also showed that work-family culture predicts both organizational commitment and OCB, and that organizational commitment does not mediate the relationship between work-family culture and OCB. The findings support the importance for schools to foster a positive work-family culture.     

The personal style inventory: Preliminary validation studies of new measures of sociotropy and autonomy

We conducted five studies with depressed patients, demographically matched controls, and college students to develop and psychometrically evaluate new measures of concerns about interpersonal relationships (sociotropy) and autonomous achievement (autonomy), constructs that have been proposed to confer vulnerability to depression. The final version of the Personal Style Inventory (PSI) Sociotropy and Autonomy scales showed a good factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and test-retest stability, a low correlation with each other, and weak or no gender differences. Convergent and discriminant validity were examined with respect to depressive symptom levels, the Dependency and Self-Criticism scales of the Revised Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, and a social desirability scale and were generally acceptable. Further evaluations of the construct validity of the PSI are indicated.     

Loosening the link between childhood poverty and adolescent smoking and obesity: the protective effects of social capital

Pervasive, lifelong inequalities in physical health begin in early childhood and are driven, in part, by social gradients in risk factors such as smoking and obesity. Yet not all low-income children have elevated physical-health risks as adults. The relation between income-to-needs ratio at age 9 and smoking prevalence and body fat (body mass index) at age 17 was examined in a sample of 196 rural adolescents. Income-to-needs ratio is the U.S. federal government's defined index of household income as a proportion of the poverty line. This is the first study to show that links between childhood poverty and subsequent physical-health outcomes can be loosened. At-risk youth in communities with a relatively rich array of social capital did not smoke more or have greater excess body fat compared with their more affluent counterparts.     

Measures of depressive dimensions: are they interchangeable?

Several theorists have posited two focuses for depressive experience and/or vulnerability: dependency and rejection, and self-criticism and failure. In turn, three instruments have emerged, each addressing these two components, respectively: the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ; Dependent and Self-Critical scales), the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scales (SAS), and the Anaclitic and Introjective Dysfunctional Attitude Scales (DAS). In this study, we addressed the relations within and among these three pairs of scales in a large undergraduate sample. Generally, the DEQ-Dependent, SAS-Sociotrophy, and DAS-Anaclitic scales showed substantial convergent and discriminant validity. Although this was true also for the DEQ-Self-Critical and DAS-Introjective scales, neither scale was closely related to the SAS-Autonomy scale, which appeared instead to be a better measure of counter dependency than a measure of self-critical, introjective features.     

How Interviewees Consider Content and Context Cues to Person–Organization Fit

The interview is an ideal opportunity for job candidates to assess their fit with potential employers. While research shows that candidates' perceptions of person–organization (PO) fit lead to important outcomes, fewer studies explore how such perceptions are formed. A policy‐capturing study modeled how job candidates detect and interpret cues from the interview to inform their determinations of PO fit. A total of 213 participants read a series of vignettes representing interview scenarios, and rated each in terms of his/her perceived PO fit. Evidence showed that participants considered context factors (interview procedure practices and interviewer behaviors) more than the values‐relevant content of interview questions when assessing their level of PO fit.     

When success breeds failure: history,hysteresis, and delayed exit decisions

The effects of feedback equivocality, information availability, and prior decision-making history on escalation and persistence were investigated. Replicating the findings of J.L. Bragger, D.H. Bragger, D.A. Hantula, and J.P. Kirnan (1998), this study found that participants receiving equivocal feedback on their decisions invested more money and invested across more opportunities; those who could purchase information invested fewer resources than did participants who did not have the opportunity to purchase information. There was an inverse linear relationship between the percentage of opportunities in which participants purchased information and the delay to exit decisions and total resources invested. Six weeks earlier, some participants took part in a more profitable investment scenario, and prior experience led to later increased investing when participants were faced with failure, even above that invested in a preceding, succeeding scenario. These results are consistent with an equivocality theory account of escalation.