EXPECTATIONS OF BEHAVIORALLY ANCHORED RATING SCALES

Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) are reviewed from two perspectives. First, the particular BARS methodology is assessed on the basis of its fulfilling three broad categories of "criteria for criteria:" (1) utilization criteria, (2) qualitative criteria, and (3) quantitative or psychometric criteria. These three broad categories are composed of 14 specific criteria by which performance evaluation methodologies can be assessed. The second perspective involves an evaluation of BARS in terms of psychometric criteria but with the literature broken down into studies concerned with (1) development of BARS, (2) utilization of BARS, (3) comparison of BARS to other methods, and (4) rater training in BARS use. Conclusions from these reviews indicate that BARS is no better or worse than other methods when assessed on a quantitative basis whereas it has greater potential when assessed on the utilization and qualitative criteria. Suggestions are offered for extending BARS research to process questions and to domains other than performance appraisal perse     

Career Information: A Critical Review

This article describes sources of occupational information available to the counselor in the field and indicates the advantages of each. The importance of career counseling in today's uncertain job market is discussed, especially the counselor's responsibility to discuss with the counselee the discrepancies between aspirations and aptitudes. Major schemes of classification in the world of work are identified: socioeconomic groups, interests, life span, and primary focus of activity and level of function. Each scheme is illustratively developed. Possible uses of the information derived from a counseling relationship are discussed. The request from the counselee for information is seen as the starting point of the counselor-counselee relationship, in which many problems can be worked through.     

Exploring the future: a counseling/curriculum project

This article proposes the establishment of a curriculum that will engage students in a study of the future. The goals of this curriculum are: to help students examine their views, assumptions, and values regarding the future; to help them develop a sense of personal agency toward their futures; and to help them acquire the skills involved in planning and decision making. Described in the article are several activities—including brainstorming, futures windowing, and scenario writing—designed to help achieve these learning goals. The author indicates that leading this learning process of exploring the future should be an inherent function of counselors, in their role as persons who help students make plans and decisions for their futures.     

INTERVIEWER VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY: AN INDIVIDUAL ANALYSIS APPROACH

Interviewer reliability, validity, and strategy for information integration were studied by analysis of data across interviewers and, also, by within, individual interviewer analysis. Candidates ( N = 412) for selection to a military division of a national defense organization were interviewed by 10 female interviewers and assessed on nine behaviorally anchored dimensions. Candidates ( N = 131) subsequently admitted to officers' training school were evaluated, for the purposes of this study, on 19 dimensions and on an overall evaluation taken at six and twelve week points. Results of analyses of data across interviewers indicated that interviewers functioned in a similar fashion, using few of the dimensions in their decisions whereas analyses of individual interviewers indicated higher reliability and individual differences among interviewers' strategy formation. Analysis across interviewers of the relationship of the interview decision to six and twelve week training performance evaluations indicated no validity for the interview decision. Analysis of individual interview strategies revealed differences among the interviewers only at the six week point. Results are discussed with regard to methodological problems, interview strategy differences, criteria dimensionality, fruitfulness of individual, within interviewer analyses, and purpose of the interview.     

OPEN A NEW WINDOW IN RATIONAL RESEARCH PLANNING: ADJUST ALPHA TO MAXIMIZE STATISTICAL POWER

Alternative strategies for optimizing statistical power in applied psychological research are considered. Increasing sample size and combining predictors in order to yield a useful effect size are well-known tactics for increasing power. A third approach, increasing alpha, is rarely used because of zealous adherence to convention. There are two related aspects in setting the alpha level. First, the relative seriousness of Type I and Type II errors must be considered. This assessment must then be qualified and redetermined after taking into account the prior probability that an effect exists. Procedures that make these processes objective are demonstrated. When sample size and effect size are both fixed, increasing alpha may be the only feasible strategy for maximizing power. It is concluded that a priori power analysis should be a major consideration in any test of an hypothesis, and that alpha level adjustment should be viewed as a useful strategy for increasing power.     

The Self-Report Questionnaire as a Change Agent In Family Therapy

Results of a recent study of the sexual behavior of a group of married couples indicated that the process of completing daily self-reports of sexual behavior induced changes in the activities measured. On the strength of these results and other reports indicating that self-monitoring may induce behavioral change, a procedure for using self-report questionnaires as agents of change for families in therapy was devised and clinically tested. Application of the procedure to a variety of clinical problems is described.