CROWDING,TASK PERFORMANCE,AND COMMUNICATIVE INTERACTION IN YOUTH AND OLD AGE

Following Altman's privacy regulation model, this research was based on the assumption that the relationship between achieved and desired levels of privacy is a major determinant of the experience of crowding in small groups. Further, on the basis of evidence that advancing age is associated with a chronic lack of communicative interaction, it was assumed that the achieved level of privacy among elderly persons generally is greater than that experienced by young adults. Given these assumptions, it was predicted that the crowding threshold of young adults would be significantly lower than that of older persons. To test this hypothesis, the research varied conversation distance (close, far) and density (small room, large room) and assessed the quality of communicative interaction and task performance among small groups of college-age females and retired women over 60 years of age. Results showed that task performance among younger subjects deteriorated in close interaction conditions, whereas the performance of older subjects was improved by spatial intrusion. Further, older subjects exhibited positive communication behaviors in response to close conversation, high-density conditions, while younger subjects responded either with negative communication behaviors or were unaffected by spatial restriction. Finally, the research confirmed previous findings that conversation distance is a more important determinant of the experience of crowding in small groups than physical density. The significance of the results for Altman's privacy regulation model and their implications for the study of human communication behaviors were discussed.     

PREDICTING ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS FROM COMMUNICATION ACTIVITIES: A MULTIPLE INDICATOR MODEL

This study examines the effects of certain communication variables (member integration, boundary communication, environmental uncertainty, and system autonomy) on organizational effectiveness. While often discussed in the literature, these variables have not been precisely defined. As a result, a multiple indicator model using maximum likelihood estimates for each variable was created. Interviews with managers from 82 different organizations from a variety of industries are used to test the model. The results suggest that member integration and environmental uncertainty, when the latter is mediated by boundary communication, provide an excellent predictor of organizational effectiveness (R= .64). The results are discussed in light of the proposed theory along with implications for future research using intertypical sampling methods and LISREL analysis.     

Computerized Career Information and Guidance Systems: Caveat Emptor

Computerized career information and guidance systems, although now commonplace, have received little psychometric scrutiny. The authors argue for examining these systems in the same way in which paper and pencil instruments are assessed. Consideration is also given to issues related to programming, technical-service problems, and staffing.     

Creating a Career Hotline for Rural Residents

The authors describe a career information hotline for rural and farm residents affected by the farm crisis as one way a university career center and extension division can make their resources more generally available to residents. The rural crisis is real, but a crisis brings opportunities. There are opportunities to provide needed services and help ease the personal cost for families and reduce the declining quality of life in rural communities. (Heffernan & Heffernan, 1985, p. 17)     

The Primary Self and Related Concepts in Jung, Klein, and Isaacs

In this paper, I have tried to re-examine my understanding of early psychic processes and contents. This has involved comparing and contrasting the ideas of Jung, Klein, Isaacs, and Fordham, with an emphasis on the contributions of Fordham. Fordham's postulate of a primary self that deintegrates and reintegrates is a model of the mind that combines structure and dynamics, and which, moreover, helps to describe what is observed in infant observations and infant research. Infant observation has been used to illustrate these concepts, and clinical material used to show how the same concepts can be used to describe impairments to psychic development. To pursue this study I have had to construct for myself models that describe and explain. I am aware that they are just as inaccurate as they might be accurate, because they imply that there is an answer to the questions I am asking, and that there is a way of describing and explaining what 'the answer' is. 'Nature is always too strong for principle', wrote Hume (Hume 1751, p. 121), and this is particularly true of the ultimately unknowable self.     

A LONGITUDINAL INVESTIGATION OF INTEREST CONGRUENCE AND GENDER CONCENTRATION AS PREDICTORS OF JOB SATISFACTION

Based on a rationale derived from discrepancy theories of job satisfaction, person-environment congruence was examined for its prediction of job satisfaction among college graduates over a 7-year period. Data were from university records and a survey of 253 graduates who were employed full time. Congruence of the students'college majors and their jobs predicted their subsequent job satisfaction regardless of whether this congruence was a perceptual or a more objective measure, while congruence between the interests the participants expressed on an interest inventory (the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory) during their freshman orientation did not. A three-way interaction of gender, gender concentration of Occupation, and interest congruence predicting job satisfaction was hypothesized. Although a three-way interaction was significant, it was not as predicted. Potential explanations involving the nature of decisions involving college majors and jobs and the stage of career development of participants are discussed.     

KIRKPATRICK'S LEVELS OF TRAINING CRITERIA: THIRTY YEARS LATER

Kirkpatrick's model (1959a, 1959b, 1960a, 1960b) of training evaluation criteria has had widespread and enduring popularity. This model proposed four "levels" of training evaluation criteria: reactions, learning, behavior, and results. Three problematic assumptions of the model may be identified: (1) The levels are arranged in ascending order of information provided. (2) The levels are causally linked. (3) The levels are positively intercorrelated. This article examines the validity of these assumptions, the frequency of each level in published evaluation studies, correlations from the literature in regard to Assumptions 2 and 3, and implications for the researcher and training manager.     

Toward a Woman-Centered Perspective of Careers: The Quilt Metaphor

The author proposes the artist and her quilt as a metaphor for the woman and her career. She suggests that quilts and quilting provide a woman-centered context to help counselors gain an understanding of women's lives and work.