Why House hearings on invasion of privacy.

Rep. Cornelius E. Gallagher (D-N. J.), Chairman of the Special Inquiry committee into psychoogical testing and personnel selection, addresses issues related the invasion of privacy involved with such tests. Rep. Gallagher contends that the Federal Government has been engaged in a more insidious type of search than going through someone's home, mail, or personal papers. It has been searching the minds of Federal employees and job applicants through personality testing. Federal employees and job applicants have been compelled to take these tests under Government direction, or lose positions, promotions, assignments, not only then but also in the future. There is little or no effective appeal procedure for our citizens who wish to challenge personality testing as an invasion of privacy, or contest interpretations of the findings in the event they do take the tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary.

The Statement for the American Psychological Association before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee of the Judiciary of the Senate, reprinted here, is a substantial share of the entire testimony given on behalf of the APA. It was read by the Executive Officer on June 8 before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee of the Judiciary. There followed a long period of questioning which the psychologists present felt was genuinely sympathetic or directed by an honest search for information. Representatives of other professional organizations shared the feeling that this was a serious fact-finding committee which gave a good reception to APA's testimony. The APA statement was prepared after consultation with officers of the Association, members of the Board of Directors and other committees, and with the appropriate staff persons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Youth privacy when educational records include psychological records.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA; 20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is an early and comprehensive federal statute protecting the privacy and release of educational records. FERPA provides parents or eligible students the right to restrict the release of educational records without their written approval; inspect any educational record; and request that the records be changed if the information is inaccurate, misleading, or violates the students’ privacy. When educational records include psychological records, FERPA rules will apply to psychological records as well, even though FERPA rules are sometimes misaligned with APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. These conflicts can be prevented by responsible psychological practices that foster strong partnerships with parents on behalf of their children, respect parents’ and students’ right to be informed about the records that are kept on their behalf, and honor their rights to privacy for information that is immaterial to educational decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Toward a better understanding of psychological contract breach: A study of customer service employees.

Experiences of psychological contract breach have been associated with a range of negative behavior. However, much of the research has focused on master of business administration alumni and managers and made use of self-reported outcomes. Studying a sample of customer service employees, the research found that psychological contract breach was related to lower organizational trust, which, in turn was associated with perceptions of less cooperative employment relations and higher levels of absenteeism. Furthermore, perceptions of external market pressures moderated the effect of psychological contract breach on absenteeism. The study indicated that psychological contract breach can arise when employees perceive discrepancies between an organization's espoused behavioral standards and its actual behavioral standards, and this can affect discretionary absence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

About Special Provilege--and Special Responsibility.

This issue of the American Psychologist presents a review of the controversy over psychological testing as it appeared in Washington in 1965. The controversy involved Congressional inquiry concerning the validity, reliability, and accuracy of psychological tests and psychiatric evaluations as methods for determining the fitness and suitability of applicants or employees for their jobs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Suggestions to the American Psychological Association.

The Peace Corps was one of the first to employ psychological tests in choosing volunteers for overseas duty. The Peace Corps feels that the success of its selection system is largely due to the use of these tests along with other procedures. The American Psychological Association played a significant role in helping the Peace Corps man its Selection Division. Perhaps the best evidence of the success of psychological tests for selection is the low rate of Peace Corps volunteers who return before completing their service. But quite obviously this success has been only relative. Whatever the number of volunteers who do not complete their service, it is too high. The author urges the American Psychological to continue with new research in order to improve selection procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues in personnel selection.

Industrial/organizational psychologists have made many contributions to the development of modern selection procedures. Such procedures are used by organizations in making decisions about individual employees (e.g., hiring and promoting). This article briefly reviews the methods used in selection (i.e., psychological tests, personal histories, projective techniques, and interviews); summarizes the professional and legal issues that their use has raised; and discusses current trends and future developments in selection. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reweaving deception's tangled web.

Recent trends in social psychological research toward greater use of field settings and unobtrusive measurement was reviewed. The following issues bear on this concern: (1) the general public may be more intolerant of being used as research subjects than are college students; (2) disguised observation may tend to aggravate a post-Watergate concern over invasion of privacy; (3) greater harm to participants in some field research may be likely because laboratory control is greatly lacking; (4) because concern with revealing social psychological data to the public may jeopardize future research, scant feedback is provided to participants. Other ethical problems and possible solutions were mentioned. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information privacy in organizations: Empowering creative and extrarole performance.

This article examines the relationship of employee perceptions of information privacy in their work organizations and important psychological and behavioral outcomes. A model is presented in which information privacy predicts psychological empowerment, which in turn predicts discretionary behaviors on the job, including creative performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Results from 2 studies (Study 1: single organization, N=310; Study 2: multiple organizations, N=303) confirm that information privacy entails judgments of information gathering control, information handling control, and legitimacy. Moreover, a model linking information privacy to empowerment and empowerment to creative performance and OCBs was supported. Findings are discussed in light of organizational attempts to control employees through the gathering and handling of their personal information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Presidential disability and the proposed Constitutional amendment.

A major legislative accomplishment of the Eighty-Ninth United States Congress was a proposal for a Constitutional amendment dealing with the issues of Presidential disability and executive succession. As a Constitutional amendment requires ratification by at least three-fourths of the states, it is important that the need for, and rationale of, the proposed amendment be understood by the citizenry. Of additional interest to psychologists and other behavioral scientists is the factor of psychological disability of the President, regardless of cause. The objective of this paper is a clarification and assessment of both the historical and the proposed methods of dealing with cases of Presidential disability. Special emphasis will be given the issue of psychological disability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of What emotions really are: The problem of psychological categories.

Reviews the book, What emotions really are: The problem of psychological categories by Paul E. Griffiths (see record 1997-30238-000). The author has made an important contribution toward integrating theory and research on emotions from fields as diverse as sociobiology, philosophy of language, evolutionary psychology, and neuroscience. Griffiths's provocative review of the major theoretical paradigms is disciplined in its attention to the historical contexts of the theories he considers. He demonstrates how those contexts shape the questions that particular theoretical models attempt to answer, and why models fail in their ambitions when they do fail. By laying out the competing paradigms and organizing them according to their basic assumptions, he creates a useful map of the issues confronting a general theory of emotion and argues convincingly for the revision of some basic psychological categories. He concludes that emotion as a general concept has no scientific utility and should be eliminated from psychological language because there is no single kind of process that underlies the behavior identified with emotion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Privacy, ethics, and confidentiality.

Discusses privacy and confidentiality with respect to primary providers of psychological services, focusing on the client–practitioner relationship, and does not attempt to resolve questions about data bases and the like. Confidential information should not be disclosed, except if required by law; but changes in laws should be sought where needed. Casual breaches in privacy should be avoided, and psychologists should generally not answer questions on the telephone. They should have a will calling for destruction of records or their being given to a responsible colleague for disposition, in case of death. All matters regarding confidentiality should be made clear to the client at the start of therapy. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exchange Relationships: Examining Psychological Contracts and Perceived Organizational Support.

The authors surveyed 347 public sector employees on 4 measurement occasions to investigate the conceptual distinctiveness of the psychological contract and perceived organizational support (POS) and how they are associated over time. Results support the distinctiveness of the 2 concepts. In terms of their interrelationships over time, by drawing on psychological contract theory the authors found little support for a reciprocal relationship between POS and psychological contract fulfillment. Under an alternative set of hypotheses, by drawing on organizational support theory and by separating psychological contract fulfillment into its 2 components (perceived employer obligations and inducements), the authors found that perceived employer inducements were positively related to POS, which, in turn, was negatively related to perceived employer obligations. The results suggest that POS and the components of psychological contract fulfillment are more important in predicting organizational citizenship behavior than psychological contract fulfillment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Current practices and problems in the use of college students for psychological research.

A survey of 60 leading Universities was made to determine present practices and policies regarding the use of college students as subjects in psychological research. The methodological implications arising from differences in procedures used for recruiting subjects and arranging their experimental appointments were noted. The study also examined procedures employed by investigators to protect the physical and psychological safety of the participating students. Current procedures were found to vary considerably and it was recommended that they be reexamined from both the methodological and ethical aspects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of computer surveillance on perceptions of privacy and procedural justice.

Electronic workplace surveillance is raising concerns about privacy and fairness. Integrating research on electronic performance monitoring, procedural justice, and organizational privacy, the author proposes a framework for understanding reactions to technologies used to monitor and control employees. To test the framework's plausibility, temporary workers performed computer/Web-based tasks under varying levels of computer surveillance. Results indicated that monitoring job-relevant activities (relevance) and affording those who were monitored input into the process (participation) reduced invasion of privacy and enhanced procedural justice. Moreover, invasion of privacy fully mediated the effect of relevance and partially mediated the effect of participation on procedural justice. The findings are encouraging for integrating theory and research on procedural justice and organizational privacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological assessment and public policy.

Reviews the nature and purposes of psychological assessment and the training and qualifications necessary to administer such services. Problems requiring careful attention in assessment include: (a) the protection of the individual from unwarranted inferences, (b) unfavorable evaluations based on obsolete information, and (c) unnecessary invasion of privacy. Standards to determine adequacy of assessment should be compatible with research requirements. Special problems of personality testing are discussed, including the more indirect nature of the behavior sampled and special considerations of privacy requirements. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The 1965 Congressional Inquiry into Testing: A Commentary.

The editorial advisors of the American Psychological Association has published the current issue of the American Psychologist to inform APA membership as fully as possible of the nature of the current attacks upon psychological testing and selection procedures. The attacks upon psychological testing and upon psychologist-guided selection methods reached a new height in 1965, climaxing in Congressional investigations by Senate and House Committees, accompanied by directives from the Executive side of the Government banning or restricting the uses of psychological instruments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological assessment procedures in sex offending.

While keeping in mind current psychological guidelines and legal criteria for psychological assessment activities, the author presents a 6-part framework for organizing and approaching the questions commonly asked in assessments related to sex offending: general psychological characteristics, deviant sexual interests, risk of reoffense, amenability to treatment, self-serving misrepresentation, and fit with specific formal criteria. Specialized instruments for sex offender assessments have little demonstrated empirical validity, although several active research programs related to risk assessment show promise. Recent proposals for the use of multistep and decision-making models also hold promise for increasing the quality of assessment procedures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What makes a theory psychological?

While much has been written about the general characteristics and functions of good theories, one of the questions usually overlooked is: What makes a theory psychological? In this article the author discusses different aspects of psychological theories and domains in order to answer this question. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)