Impact of interpersonal problem-solving training on preschoolers' social competency

In order to test Shure and Spivack's theoretical position that a child's ability to verbally generate solutions to interpersonal problems and think about their consequences is directly related to the child's behavioral adjustment, preschoolers were tested on verbal problem-solving skills and their classroom behavior was rated by their teachers. Further, their behavior was observed by independent observers. No significant relationship between problem-solving skills and behavior was found. Following assessment, 54 of these children completed an 11-week training program, designed by Shure and Spivack, to improve their ability to think through and verbally generate solutions to interpersonal problems and to examine the possibility of mediation of such training to behavioral improvement. Preschoolers' ability to verbally generate alternative solutions to problems significantly increased due to training, however, this increase did not have an ameliorative effect on behavioral adjustment.     

Subjective evaluations of employer attributes by administration students

The paper is an application of the conjoint measurement methodology. An exploratory study was conducted of the trade-off relationships among four organizational attributes—dynamism, societal concern, functional/administrative emphasis, and relative size—as they relate to the selection of an employer by students of administration. Preference ranks of 36 employer concepts obtained from 86 graduate students of business, public, and hospital administration were analyzed according to the additive conjoint measurement model yielding implicit rank-ordering of the four organizational attributes as choice criteria. Irrespective of the program of study, dynamism and societal concern emerged as the most important determinants in employer selection, but differences existed among programs, year of study, and explicitly vs implicitly elicited weights.     

Achieving consistency: A Study of basketball officiating

This study investigates the characteristics of professional basketball referees which can account for their successful or unsuccessful performance on the court. Several role inactment skills such as achievement via independence contribute to the prediction of this performance. The main determinant identified, however, is at the group or organizational level. Superior referees have less interindividual variance than do average or relatively unsuccessful referees. This result is discussed in terms of the role requirements of performance in this case. Interpersonal consistency of judgment is relied on for matters permitting only consensual validity. Extensions of these findings to other role enactments are suggested.