Wedded to the job: Moderating effects of job involvement on the consequences of job insecurity.

Two hundred eighty-three public-sector employees experiencing a workplace reorganization completed surveys assessing the relationships between job involvement and job insecurity on self-report measures of psychological, behavioral, and physical outcomes. Using C. L. Hulin's (see record 1993-97200-008) job adaptation theory, differential predictions were made regarding the specific outcomes of job insecurity for high job involvement versus low job involvement employees. Results indicate that employees who were highly invested in their jobs were most adversely affected by job insecurity. Specifically, they reported more negative job attitudes, more health problems, and a higher level of psychological distress than their less involved counterparts when they perceived their jobs to be threatened. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Traditional tests and job simulations: Minority and majority performance and test validities.

Performance of 565 minority and 414 majority job applicants on traditional paper-and-pencil tests and on a telephone simulation that measured similar constructs was assessed. Models of the measurement characteristics of these 2 test batteries indicated larger subgroup mean differences on the traditional tests than on the simulation. Correlations between traditional tests were lower in the majority sample than in the minority sample, and the variance of the minority candidates' scores on the traditional tests was much larger than the variance of majority applicants' scores on the same measures. The validity of the simulation was lower than the validity of the traditional tests. This study replicates previous laboratory research that has indicated smaller subgroup differences on simulations than on paper-and-pencil tests and extends this research by providing evidence of the relative validity of these 2 types of measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comprehensive meta-analysis of integrity test validities: Findings and implications for personnel selection and theories of job performance.

Conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis based on 665 validity coefficients across 576,460 data points to investigate whether integrity test validities are generalizable and to estimate differences in validity due to potential moderating influences. Results indicate that integrity test validities are substantial for predicting job performance and counterproductive behaviors on the job, such as theft, disciplinary problems, and absenteeism. The estimated mean operational predictive validity of integrity test for predicting supervisory ratings of job performance is .41. Results from predictive validity studies conducted on applicants and using external criterion measures (i.e., excluding self-reports) indicate that integrity tests predict the broad criterion of organizationally disruptive behaviors better than they predict employee theft alone. Despite the influence of moderators, integrity test validities are positive across situations and settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Estimation of employment test validities by expert judgment.

Compared the relative accuracy of 2 methods of estimating employment test validity: expert judgment and small sample criterion-related validation studies. The study was based on US Navy data from samples of over 3,000 for each of 9 jobs, with validity results on 6 tests for each job. 20 experienced psychologists estimated the observed validity for each of the 54 test–job combinations. Both the random and systematic error in the expert judgments were evaluated. Psychologists typically underestimated the validity by a small amount (an average systematic error of .019). On the average, to equal the accuracy of a single judge, the sample size of a criterion-related validation study would have to be 92. To match the accuracy of an average across 4 judges, the sample size must be 326. The sample size must be 1,164 to match the accuracy of the pooled judgment of 30 judges. Results indicate that, given highly trained and experienced judges, expert judgment may provide more accurate estimates of validity for cognitive tests than do local criterion-related validation studies. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of personnel replacement on an information-processing crew.

Which is right: the theory that the human element in a man-machine system is "interchangeable," implying that personnel turnover is irrelevant to the working of the system; or the theory of "crew integrity," implying that performance is hurt by personnel turnover? "The questions posed were specific to information-processing systems and training… . The seven-man information-processing system used in this study was a simple analog of the surveillance and identification sections of the manual aircraft control and warning system (ACW)." Many "crews" were used. They were divided into crews with and without turnover. The indication of performance "was the ratio of the number of task units processed to the number requiring processing." Turnover had bad effects and no training methods tried changed this outcome. From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:3LH91R. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The work-family interface and job performance: Moderating effects of conscientiousness and perceived organizational support.

Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors hypothesized that two aspects of the work-family interface--family-to-work conflict (FWC) and family-to-work enrichment (FWE)--are related to job performance. The authors also hypothesized that two variables moderate those relationships--individual differences in conscientiousness and aspects of the work environment in terms of perceived organizational support (POS). Data collected from a matched set of 136 private sector workers and their respective supervisors revealed that high FWC was more strongly related to lower job performance: (1) among high- than low-conscientiousness workers and (2) among workers reporting low rather than high levels of organizational support. However, FWE was unrelated to job performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moderating influence of self-esteem on relationships between job complexity, performance, and satisfaction.

Administered the Job Diagnostic Survey, the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale, and measures of job complexity, job performance, and sense of competence to 166 15–22 yr old 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-yr electrical apprentices. The measures were readministered 20 mo later to 92 of the original 1st- and 2nd-yr Ss to investigate the moderating influence of employee self-esteem on relationships between organizational variables. Analysis showed that global self-esteem and sense of competence did not moderate relationships between (1) job satisfaction and job performance and (2) job complexity and job performance or job satisfaction. It is suggested that the moderating effect of self-esteem on relationships involving job satisfaction, performance, and complexity may have little practical consequence. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specificity of meta-emotion effects on moral decision-making.

A recently proposed dual process theory of moral decision-making posits that utilitarian reasoning (approving of harmful actions that maximize good consequences) is the result of cognitive control of emotion. This suggests that deficits in emotional awareness will contribute to increased utilitarianism. The present study explored the relative contributions of the different facets of alexithymia and the closely related constructs of emotional intelligence and mood awareness to utilitarian decision making. Participants (N = 86) completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Trait Meta Mood Scale, the Mood Awareness Scale, and a series of high-conflict, personal moral dilemmas validated by Greene et al. (2008). A brief neuropsychological battery was also administered to assess the possible confounds of verbal reasoning and abstract thinking ability. Principal components analysis revealed two latent factors—clarity of emotion and attention to emotion—which cut across all three meta-emotion instruments. Of these, low clarity of emotion—reflecting difficulty in reasoning thoughtfully about one's emotions—predicted utilitarian outcomes and provided unique variance beyond that of verbal and abstract reasoning abilities. Results are discussed in the context of individual differences in emotion regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship of age to ten dimensions of job performance.

Previous reviews of the literature on the relationship between age and job performance have largely focused on core task performance but have paid much less attention to other job behaviors that also contribute to productivity. The current study provides an expanded meta-analysis on the relationship between age and job performance that includes 10 dimensions of job performance: core task performance, creativity, performance in training programs, organizational citizenship behaviors, safety performance, general counterproductive work behaviors, workplace aggression, on-the-job substance use, tardiness, and absenteeism. Results show that although age was largely unrelated to core task performance, creativity, and performance in training programs, it demonstrated stronger relationships with the other 7 performance dimensions. Results also highlight that the relationships of age with core task performance and with counterproductive work behaviors are curvilinear in nature and that several sample characteristics and data collection characteristics moderate age-performance relationships. The article concludes with a discussion of key research design issues that may further knowledge about the age-performance relationship in the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of group diffusion of cognitive effort on attitudes: An information-processing view.

232 undergraduates participated in 2 experiments that tested whether persons process a stimulus less extensively when they are part of a group that is responsible for the task than when they are individually responsible. In addition to a group size manipulation, the quality of the stimulus to be evaluated was varied to determine the mediator of the different evaluation of stimuli provided by group (GEs) and individual evaluators (IEs). When evaluating a high quality stimulus, IEs generated more favorable thoughts and evaluated the stimulus more positively than did GEs (Exps I and II); but when evaluating a stimulus of low quality, IEs generated more unfavorable thoughts and evaluated the stimulus more negatively than did GEs (Exp II). This result favors an information-processing view over dissonance, deindividuation, and commodity theory interpretations. Together the studies indicate that Ss will diffuse the responsibility for a cognitive task. The reduction in individual processing that accompanies an increase in the number of persons responsible can thus lead to either enhanced or reduced evaluations, depending on the subjective quality of the stimulus to be evaluated. (37 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A prospective test of the negative affect model of substance abuse: Moderating effects of social support.

The authors tested whether dimensions of negative affect--specifically, trait levels of negative emotionality and state levels of depressive symptoms--increased risk for substance abuse onset and whether perceived social support moderated this relation using data from a 5-year prospective study of 496 school-recruited adolescent girls. Initial negative emotionality, but not depressive symptoms, and deficits in parental, but not peer, support predicted future substance abuse onset in a multivariate hazard model. Tests of the interaction between negative affect dimensions and social support suggested that support did not moderate the relation of negative affect to risk for substance abuse onset. Results provide prospective support for the etiological role in the onset of substance abuse of trait-linked negative affect and of parental support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role ambiguity, Type A behavior, and job satisfaction: Moderating effects on cardiovascular and biochemical responses associated with coronary risk.

Studied 217 male managers (mean age 44 yrs), classified as Type A (coronary-prone) or Type B (non-coronary-prone), to examine the effects of job satisfaction as a moderator between a common job stressor (role ambiguity) and coronary risk indicators. For Type A's, the results support the hypotheses that changes in ambiguity are associated with changes in blood pressure and that intrinsic job satisfaction has both a direct and moderating effect on these changes. Few similar effects were found for extrinsic job satisfaction. For Type B's, the effects on systolic blood pressure were opposite to those for type A's. It is suggested that either Type A's and Type B's differ in autonomic and cardiovascular response or that ambiguity as a stressor may have differential effects for Type A's and Type B's, indicating that their "fit" with ambiguous environments may be opposite. (53 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moderating effects and differential reliability and validity.

Classic psychometric theory holds that errors of measurement and of prediction are of the same magnitude for all individuals. Interactive effects are not recognized, and the psychological structure of all individuals is taken to be the same. To increase reliability and validity of measurement, then, attention is entirely focused on improvement of measuring devices. However, a substantial body of evidence indicates there are systematic individual differences in error, and in the importance a given trait has in determining a particular performance. Reliability and validity of measurement can be increased by the use of moderator variables which predict individual differences in error and in the importance of traits. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The information-processing theory of mind.

H. A. Simon expresses his thanks for receiving the American Psychological Association citation for outstanding lifetime contribution to psychology. He describes cognitive psychology as a progressive science that, building on behaviorist and Gestalt foundations, has continually broadened and deepened the phenomena that it can predict and explain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparative validities of forced-choice and single-stimulus tests.

The generalization that forced-choice personality inventories are more valid than single-stimulus forms of the same tests is not supported by critical consideration of relevant evidence. Only 1 study that claimed superior validity of the forced-choice format appeared to have used identical items in the 2 forms. Other studies either did not employ single-stimulus forms for comparison, or did not hold item content constant between the 2 forms, or else yielded nonconfirming results. The most tenable conclusion at present is that test validity does not depend on this characteristic of item format under the circumstances in which these self-report inventories are typically administered. This was also the conclusion from the writer's investigation of 3 tests: the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values, and Scott's value scales. (45 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some effects of computerized interviewing on job applicant responses.

We examined the effects of computerized interviewing on applicant responses within the context of a laboratory simulation in which subjects were interviewed for either a low- or high-status position (clerk or management trainee) under one of four interview conditions: computerized, paper-and-pencil, or face-to-face with a warm or a cold behaving interviewer. The results indicated that subjects in nonsocial (computer or paper-and-pencil) interview conditions both scored lower on the Marlowe-Crowne measure of socially desirable responding (SDR) and reported their grade point averages and scholastic aptitude scores more accurately (with less inflation) than those in the face-to-face interview conditions. However, the use of nonsocial screening interviews for the high-status position engendered significantly higher levels of applicant resentment about the interview, relative to the conditions in which the interview procedure was appropriate (or more than appropriate) for the position level. This unintended behavioral consequence suggests one of the bounds that may influence the effectiveness of computerized interviewing. Contrary to expectations, we did not find the interpersonal style of the interviewer to significantly affect applicant resentment or SDR. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Moderating effects of respondent knowledge in public opinion research.

Surveying 288 residents (median age 46 yrs) of a small community where a nuclear power plant is under construction, this study examined the relationship of residents' knowledge about the installation and (a) acceptance of the nuclear plant and (b) perceived likelihood of potential effects of the plant. Results of standardized home interviews by local interviewers showed no differences between low- and high-knowledge groups in either acceptance of the plant or perceived likelihood of effects. However, as hypothesized, the correlations between acceptance and perceived likelihood of 3 groups of effects (social disruption, hazards, and economic benefit) were higher for Ss with high knowledge than for those with low knowledge. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)