Personality development in emerging adulthood: Integrating evidence from self-ratings and spouse ratings.

The authors examined self-ratings and spouse ratings in a young adult newlywed sample across a 2-year interval. Rank-order stability correlations were consistently high and did not differ across the 2 types of ratings. As expected, self-ratings showed significant increases in conscientiousness and agreeableness- and declines in neuroticism/negative affectivity- over time. Spouse ratings yielded a very different pattern, however, showing significant decreases in conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion, and openness across the study interval. Spouse ratings also showed evidence of a "honeymoon effect," such that they tended to be more positive than self-ratings at Time 1. This effect had dissipated by the 2nd assessment; in fact, the spouse ratings tended to be more negative at Time 2. Analyses of individual-level change revealed little convergence between self- and spouse-rated change, using both raw change scores and reliable change index scores. Finally, correlational and regression analyses indicated that changes in spouse ratings were significantly associated with changes in marital satisfaction; in contrast, changes in self-ratings essentially were unrelated to marital satisfaction. These results highlight the value of collecting multimethod data in studies of adult personality development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of comparative performance information on the accuracy of self-ratings and agreement between self- and supervisor ratings.

The manner in which social comparison performance information affects the accuracy of self-ratings and the agreement between self- and supervisor ratings was investigated in a laboratory experiment using 163 undergraduates. Ss proofread a series of articles for 30 min and then made self-ratings of work performance. Half of the subjects received social comparison information prior to making self-ratings. Correlations between self- and supervisor evaluations and between self-evaluations and objective performance indicators were significantly larger when self-raters were presented with the same comparative performance information that was available to supervisors. Implications of the findings for future research on self- and supervisor evaluations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling session impact as viewed by novice counselors and their clients.

The Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ) was used to measure the perspectives of 17 graduate-student counselors and their 72 17–39 yr old clients on 942 individual counseling sessions along 2 evaluative dimensions—depth and smoothness—and 2 dimensions of postsession mood—positivity and arousal. A components-of-variance analysis showed that, from both perspectives, SEQ ratings varied greatly from session to session; ratings were only modestly predictable from differences among counselors or among counselor–client dyads. However, averages across 6–20 sessions permitted adequately reliable differentiation among dyads, for example, for comparisons with outcome measures. Correlations between corresponding counselor and client dimensions ranged from moderate to negligible, whether calulated across sessions, across clients, or across counselors, Novice counselors' judgments of session depth and value may have had little relation to their clients' evaluations. On the other hand, counselors' comfort in sessions and postsession positive mood were moderately predictive of client reactions. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of control on betting: Paradoxical betting on items of high confidence with low value.

Traditional decision theories emphasize the probabilities and values of possible outcomes, but decisions may also be influenced by perceived control, with control defined as probability alterability. In 3 experiments, participants were offered bets on their own answers to general knowledge questions, bets that are characterized by control. The bets were fair if participants' reported confidence was well calibrated, positively valued if participants were underconfident, but unfavorable when participants were overconfident. Bet acceptance was a steep, linear, increasing function of confidence that is termed paradoxical betting. This pattern was generally contrary to the value of bets (considered either as average outcome or as subjective utility) and was steeper in slope than matched bets on apparently random events in Experiment 3. The author argues that control is a fundamental determinant of decision making that is readily incorporated in some existing models of decision weighting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for items and their spatial locations by young and elderly adults.

112 15–18 yr olds and 112 62–75 yr olds studied a spatial display that included 16 items in specific locations. The items were either small objects or the 1-word verbal label for each. Two tests followed to independently assess free recall of the items and the accuracy of spatial relocation. Young Ss were more accurate on both tests. This finding was consistent for both verbal and visual items. The age differences in memory are explained in terms of age differences in encoding and rehearsal strategies. This study resolves, in part, the conflicting results regarding age differences in spatial memory accuracy reported by P. D. McCormack (see record 1982-23301-001) and M. Perlmutter et al (1981). (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-related changes in children's perceptions of aggression and withdrawal in their peers.

Collected peer ratings of aggression, withdrawal, and likeability using the Pupil Evaluation Inventory (PEI) with 326 1st graders, 356 4th graders, and 298 7th graders. Measures of the perceived similarity of all possible pairs of PEI items were derived by computing the frequency with which Ss at each grade level were concurrently nominated by their peers for both items comprising each pair of items. Multidimensional scaling was then employed to elucidate the structure underlying these indices of interitem similarity. Structure ratios denoting the cohesiveness of the clusters of aggression, withdrawal, and likeability items were computed from the results of these analyses. Data show that for Ss of all ages, aggression items and likeability items comprised highly cohesive categories of behaviors that were distinct from each other. Withdrawal items, in contrast, clustered poorly at Grade 1 but became an increasingly cohesive category of behaviors and increasingly distinct from aggression as grade level increased. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of patients' relationships with peers and staff on their psychiatric treatment.

"The major findings of this research is that a patient's relationship with his peers and his physician relate to the type of treatment program he receives as well or better than indices of his social class or his psychiatric diagnosis or prognosis." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fathers' ratings in the assessment of their child's anxiety symptoms: A comparison to mothers' ratings and their associations with paternal symptomatology.

We examined the comparability between mothers' and fathers' ratings in the assessment of their child's anxiety symptoms. The sample consisted of 78 youth (6 to 17 years) and their mothers and fathers who presented to a childhood anxiety disorders specialty research clinic. Using intraclass correlation coefficients, mother?father agreement of their child's anxiety symptoms was found to be moderate. Mean differences between mothers' and fathers' ratings of their child's anxiety were not significantly different. Both maternal and paternal self-ratings of psychopathology predicted respective ratings of their child's anxiety. Although either mothers or fathers can provide useful information, use of multiple informants is encouraged, especially when parental psychopathology is present. Additional implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's beliefs about familiar and unfamiliar peers in relation to their sociometric status.

Examined children's general beliefs about familiar and unfamiliar peers in relationship to their sociometric status and their experience with parents. In the initial phase involving 886 4th and 5th graders, submissive rejected children but not aggressive rejected children reported less positive beliefs about peers than average status children. In the 2nd portion, which included 77 boys and girls from the larger sample, no relationship between children's sociometric status and their beliefs about unfamiliar peers was found. Beliefs about unfamiliar peers were related, however, to children's perception of the amount of acceptance and support they received from parents. Implications of these findings for children's social competence are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of divided attention on memory for items and their context.

Examined differences between item and context memory using divided attention at encoding and retrieval. Ss, in 3 experiments, were presented with word lists and were instructed to learn the items (i.e., words), the intrinsic context (i.e., the color of the cards on which each word was presented), and the extrinsic context (i.e., the temporal order of the words). In Exp 1 24 undergraduates (aged 20–32 yrs) participated in a digit-monitoring and memory tasks. In Exp 2 the authors examined the effect of divided attention at retrieval using 24 undergraduates (aged 18–29 yrs). In Exp 3 the authors examined memory performance when divided attention was employed at encoding on all lists, and attentional load was manipulated at retrieval using 24 undergraduates (aged 19–32 yrs). Among young adults, in comparison to conditions of full attention, divided attention applied at encoding only or retrieval only resulted in equally lower performance on all memory tasks; in contrast, divided attention applied at both encoding and retrieval resulted in lower performance only on memory for temporal order. The findings support the idea that memory for temporal order requires greater attentional resources and strategic processing than memory for items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of aging and divided attention on memory for items and their contexts.

It is commonly found that memory for context declines disproportionately with aging, arguably due to a general age-related deficit in associative memory processes. One possible mechanism for such deficits is an age-related reduction in available processing resources. In two experiments we compared the effects of aging to the effects of division of attention in younger adults on memory for items and context. Using a technique proposed by Craik (1989), linear functions relating memory performance for items and their contexts were derived for a Young Full Attention group, a Young Divided Attention group, and an Older Adult group. Results suggested that the Old group showed an additional deficit in associative memory that was not mimicked by divided attention. It is speculated that both divided attention and aging are associated with a loss of available processing resources that may reflect inefficient frontal lobe functioning, whereas the additional age-related decrement in associative memory may reflect inefficient processing in medial-temporal regions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of observer ratings of multicultural counseling competence in Black, Latino, and White American trainees.

Using transcribed intake sessions of 52 counselor–client dyads, this study explored the relative contributions of (a) counselor and client race or ethnicity, (b) counselor–client racial or ethnic match, (c) previous academic training in multicultural counseling, and (d) self-reported multicultural counseling competence to observer ratings of trainees' multicultural counseling competence. Results revealed that (a) Black American and Latino American counselor trainees were rated as more multiculturally competent than their White American peers, and (b) prior multicultural training was positively predictive of observer-rated multicultural counseling competence. Implications of the findings for counselor training and practice are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of religious affiliation, religious involvement, and sex on the social desirability ratings of MMPI religion items.

Because efforts to account for individual differences in social desirability responding have been largely unsuccessful, an investigation was undertaken to determine whether meaningful relationships can be found if S characteristics relevant to the items being rated are selected. Religion items from the MMPI were rated by 90 Ss classified by religious affiliation, degree of religious participation, and sex. The 1st 2 factors and item content markedly influenced Ss' perception of the statements, attesting to the effectiveness of this more precise approach. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer acceptance and school-related variables in an integrated junior high school.

Interracial peer acceptance at the junior high school level was related to 9 predictor variables: grade point average (GPA), IQ, attendance, self-concept of academic ability, sex, race, age, years in the school, and classroom racial composition. 322 7th- and 8th-grade students from predominantly lower-middle-class backgrounds were administered modified Syracuse Scales of Human Relations, measuring academic and social acceptance. Analysis of variance results show that White Ss slightly preferred Whites for the satisfaction of their academic and social needs. However, with stepwise multiple regression analysis, race was not a significant predictor variable for academic or social acceptance by White Ss. GPA and sex were the most prominent predictors of acceptance. Black Ss accepted both Black peers and White peers equally for academic interaction but preferred Blacks for social interaction. Race was a significant predictor variable for academic and social acceptance by Black Ss. However, race was secondary to GPA and/or sex for academic acceptance by Black females and Black males. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coaches' feedback and changes in children's perceptions of their physical competence.

Examined the relation between 5 junior high school softball coaches' feedback and changes in 72 of their female athletes' self-perceptions. Data collection procedures involved observation of coaches' game and practice behaviors, as well as pre- and postseason assessments of the players' self-perceptions (e.g., perceived competence, perceived performance control, expectancy for success). Data were collected during a 9-wk season. Multivariate regression analyses revealed that a significant portion of the variance in the players' psychosocial growth was a function of both the players' demonstrated sport competence and the behaviors of their coach in response to their skill performance. Coaches' practice behaviors were significantly associated with changes in players' self-perceptions, but their game behaviors were not. Although skill competence was the largest contributor, certain coaching behaviors were also influential in explaining changes in players' perceptions of competence. The salience of these coaching behaviors can be interpreted in light of their contingency to players' performance and their role in providing players with clear and consistent evaluation of their performance. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distributional ratings, judgment decomposition, and their impact on interrater agreement and rating accuracy.

One strategy suggested for improving the accuracy of the complex evaluative judgments involved in performance evaluation is to decompose them into a series of simpler judgments. Another is to collect observations in a distributional rating scheme in which raters estimate the frequencies of different classes of behavior and performance is assessed in terms of the relative frequencies of effective and ineffective behaviors. Distributional ratings were compared to Likert-type ratings of videotaped lectures at 3 levels of dimensional decomposition; ratings were evaluated in terms of interrater agreement and rating accuracy. Decomposition led to increased agreement and accuracy, but the use of distributional ratings did not. The practical implications of the results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of appraisal instrument on managerial perceptions of fairness and satisfaction with appraisals from their peers.

Examined whether the type of appraisal instrument (behavioral observation scales [BOS], behaviorally anchored rating scales [BARS], trait scales, or using no formal appraisal instrument) affected satisfaction with a peer appraisal and perceptions of fairness. 91 managers, while working in teams on a simulated task, provided one another with feedback. Satisfaction with peer appraisals was higher when BOS, BARS, or no formal instrument (control) was used to give feedback than was the case with a trait scale. Procedural justice was perceived as higher when either BOS or no instrument was used to give feedback than when the feedback was based on a trait scale. Trait scales were not perceived to be an acceptable instrument by peers for assessing their performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)