Perceived equity of salary policies.

Three systems for distributing yearly salary raises to faculty according to merit were studied to determine which system is judged to be most equitable. In the relative system, persons with equal merit receive equal percentage raises. In the absolute system, persons with equal merit receive equal raises. In the adjustment system, persons who are equally underpaid receive equal raises. In Exp I, 20 faculty and 85 undergraduate judges were asked to assign raises to hypothetical faculty from a fixed raise pool. It was found that the assigned raises were greater for the lower paid of 2 people of equal merit, consistent with the adjustment system. In Exp II, 22 faculty and 103 undergraduate judges examined future salaries produced by the 3 different systems. Both groups judged the raises given by the adjustment system to be the most "equitable, just, and fair" and raises given by the relative system to be the least fair. In Exp III, 20 faculty members judged salary deserved as a function of merit and years of experience. This deservingness function was used to develop a specific policy for a particular situation in which raises are proportional to the deviations between actual salary and salary deserved. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An evaluation of interviewed versus noninterviewed clinical psychology students.

Over an 8-yr period, half of the entering classes of 1 American Psychological Association-accredited clinical program were interviewed prior to admission. 35 interviewed and 40 noninterviewed students were compared. Faculty judges were asked to rate the strength of their probable endorsement of these students for internship, clinical employment, and academic employment. Results show no significant differences between groups on the ratings for internship, clinical position, or academic position, nor were there any group differences on traditional admissions criteria (e.g., Graduate Record Examination scores). (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The category effect with rating scales: Number of categories, number of stimuli, and method of presentation.

Four experiments were conducted, using approximately 500 undergraduates, to compare category ratings of sets of stimuli with different skewing (i.e., positive and negative) under different conditions. Results indicate that squares received higher category ratings when the smaller sizes were presented more frequently than the larger sizes. This shift in the rating scale was greater when there were either fewer categories (the category effect) or more stimuli. Similar shifts were obtained whether the stimuli were presented successively for judgment or simultaneously. The category effect also occurred when Ss were not told how many categories to use until after the contextual stimuli had been presented. It is suggested that a simple range-frequency model describes most of the shifts in scale by variations in a single weighting parameter. However, these shifts are predicted by an elaborated model in which the number of representations of any stimulus in working memory is limited by a principle of consistent assignment of each stimulus to a single category. It is concluded that this elaborated model correctly predicts the disappearance of the category effect when contexts are manipulated by varying the spacing of stimulus values rather than by varying their relative frequencies. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Factors in reward distribution: Allocator motive, gender, and Protestant ethic endorsement.

106 female and 107 male undergraduates allocated bonus pay and salary increases in a hypothetical business setting. Allocations approximated a productivity-based equity norm when Ss were asked to reward fairly, a capability-based equity norm when asked to consider work productivity, and an equality norm when asked to consider worker relationships. No sex difference in fairness allocations was found, although males were more willing to deviate from their fairness allocations when the goal of productivity was made salient. High Protestant-ethic endorsers rewarded more on the basis of worker-controlled inputs than did low endorsers. Allocation effects were consistent with post-allocation measures of S attitudes. Motive- and S-variable effects were apparent when the relative level of worker deservingness was more ambiguous. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Salary as a predictor of salary: A 20-year study.

This study investigated the value of using salary after a few yr. in an organization as a predictor of, and therefore as an intermediate criterion for, salary at a later date. Salary data were collected for each yr. of the 20-yr. careers of 52 aircraft engineers. The salaries were combined to yield yearly distributions, 1 for beginning salary and 1 for each yr. of experience. The resulting distributions were intercorrelated and the following results obtained: (a) 92% of the intercorrelations were significant at the .01 level, (b) correlations between equidistant yr. became larger as tenure increased, and (c) the variance of salaries increased with increasing tenure. It is concluded that salary early in a man's career can be used as an intermediate criterion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intrapersonal and social comparison determinants of happiness: A range-frequency analysis.

Examined whether intrapersonal comparisons and social comparisons operate in similar ways to determine ratings of happiness. Events were varied to create positively and negatively skewed distributions. The events in each distribution were ascribed to either a single person or a group of people; Ss rated how happy they would feel if they experienced specific events within the distribution. Ratings for both intrapersonal and social comparisons were fit well by Parducci's (1984) range-frequency theory. Individual events received higher ratings when presented within the positively skewed context. Overall happiness, as measured by both the mean of the happiness ratings as well as direct ratings, was highest for the negatively skewed distributions. The effects of skewing were more pronounced for intrapersonal comparisons, but ratings were more closely defined by the range of experimental stimuli for social comparisons. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interview decisions as determined by competency and attitude similarity.

Asked 51 college students to assume that they worked for a large company and that the president had asked them to evaluate a candidate for a position as a vice president. The target's dossier and information concerning 10 of his attitudes were given to Ss as stimuli for the evaluation. 3 levels of the target's competency and 2 levels of attitude similarity between the S and the target were varied in a 3 * 2 design to examine their effects on subsequent job recommendations and suggested salaries. Similarity tended to influence the recommendation and significantly influenced salary. Competency significantly influenced both the recommendation and salary. Implications for industry are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A constructive-associative model of the contextual dependence of unidimensional similarity

Conditions under which pairwise dissimilarity ratings should reflect manipulations of the stimulus distribution were outlined by a model that proposed these effects. These conditions arise from either a context dependent process for constructing implicit scale values or a process that uses previously established stimulus-response associates. Consistent with the model, results from 3 experiments using unidimensional psychophysical stimuli demonstrated disordinal context effects on pairwise dissimilarity ratings when (a) there was a 3-s delay between presentation of pair members or (b) a unidimensional rating task preceded the pairwise dissimilarity ratings. Global effects of density were fit well by a model that extended A. Parducci's (1983) range-frequency theory to dissimilarity ratings. Local density effects were generally consistent with predictions from C.L.Krumhansl's (1978) distance-density theory.     

Theoretical partialing requires a defensible theory.

Argues that S. D. McLaughlin's (1980) comment on M. H. Birnbaum's (1979) article on sex bias in salaries of psychologists is not a definitive evaluation of either atheoretical or theoretical partialing. McLaughlin fails to support use of the partial correlation between sex and salary, with a measure of merit held constant, as the criterion of sex discrimination. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fair selection decisions.

Judges were asked to fairly assign priority ratings to hypothetical candidates applying to medical school, given information about their Medical College Aptitude Test scores, grade-point averages, and group memberships (majority or minority). The affirmative action goal and the qualifications of minorities relative to majorities in the applicant pool were also manipulated. When there is no specified affirmative action goal nor differences between groups in the applicant pool, minorities and majorities are treated similarly. When either group differences in the applicant pool occur or affirmative action goals are introduced, decision makers assign higher priority ratings to minorities than to equally qualified majority applicants. When both factors are operating, minorities receive an even bigger boost. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that decision makers evaluate minority and majority candidates in the same way; differences between groups occur in the response function. Equally qualified majority and minority candidates are assigned to different categories, depending on the size of the affirmative action goal and the extent to which the two groups differ in the applicant pool. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supervisory and administrative clinical psychologists in U. S. psychiatric hospitals.

An analysis of job titles, salary ranges, education and experience requirements, working hours, etc., of clinical psychology positions requiring supervisory and/or administrative duties. It was concluded that the APA "could assist in standardization of titles and duties, equalization of salaries, and the definition of proper training for such roles." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two-stimulus--two choice paradigm for psychophysics: range-frequency model and adaptation level theory in comparison

The predictions provided by the range-frequency model and the adaptation-level theory were compared in respect of size judgments in an averbal two-category experiment. Squares of different sizes were presented in two different frequency distributions. After a two stimulus-two choice training, in which the subjects (N = 64) learned to which of the two response categories a relative small or large square belonged, a generalization context-series test followed. The two test series represented the two different frequency distributions used (the arithmetic mean was either smaller or larger than the median or midpoint). The percentage of large responses was registered. Furthermore, to investigate which experimental design would be appropriate for this research paradigm, the study was carried out using both a between-subjects and a within-subjects design. For the two experimental designs, the results pointed to a confirmation of the predictions provided by the adaptation-level theory (D. R. Thomas, 1993) but not the range-frequency model (Parducci, 1983, 1995).     

Salary growth as a criterion of career progress.

As a possible improvement on absolute salary as a criterion, the authors computed the annual percentage growth of the salaries of 143 engineering graduates employed in industry. Although 1st-year salaries increased markedly from 1950 to 1955, and 1957 salaries varied with years of service, the growth rates were homogeneous. The rates for different professional groups were different 1st-year salary and salary growth were unrelated. Growth was related to academic grades, but absolute salary unexpectedly had a stronger relationship. Salary growth has some useful properties, but it is not uniformly applicable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explaining and simulating judgment biases as an aggregation phenomenon in probabilistic, multiple-cue environments.

Many judgment tasks refer to distal entities (e.g., risk, value) that cannot be perceived directly but must be inferred from probabilistic cues. The BIAS model (Brunswikian Induction Algorithm for Social Cognition) assumes a noisy stimulus matrix, with columns for stimuli and rows for mediating cues. Aggregation over multiple stimuli (matrix columns) serves to extract systematic information and to cancel error variance. Factors leading to extended aggregation (e.g., discussion, mental elaboration) facilitate the extraction process. The model simulates various judgment biases, including the mere-thinking effect, group polarization, illusory correlations, self-related biases, accentuation, out-group homogeneity, range-frequency effect, and category-split illusions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-ratings and judges' ratings of heterosexual social anxiety and skill: A generalizability study.

The performance of 79 male undergraduates in 2 heterosexual social situations was rated by questionnaires (including the Social Anxiety and Skill Questionnaire), self-ratings in role plays, self-ratings of videotapes of role plays, ratings by confederates, and ratings of videotaped role plays by judges. These ratings were characterized with respect to mode, method, and situation facets; the consistency of ratings was obtained under different conditions of these facets, which were investigated by use of a generalizability approach in which estimates of variance components and generalizability coefficients were calculated. Self-report and judges' ratings of anxiety and social skill based on a fairly large number of observations were found to be at best moderately generalizable across the various facets investigated; the relationship between anxiety and skill was found to vary considerably among the various methods; substantial proportions of variance, indicative of level differences, were found within judges for anxiety ratings and within judges and methods for skill ratings; and substantial proportions of variance were influenced by mode of measurement. The implications of these findings for obtaining reliable ratings of heterosexual social anxiety and skill are discussed. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A longitudinal examination of a merit pay system: Relationships among performance ratings, merit increases, and total pay increases.

Although considerable research has addressed the relationship between performance ratings and pay increases, this literature has been criticized for 2 reasons. First, most researchers have ignored the fact that performance ratings may have not only a direct effect on pay but also an indirect effect through promotions and market adjustments. Second, almost all of the research has been cross-sectional. We studied the relationships between performance ratings and salary raises by using longitudinal data and found that performance ratings correlated more with total pay increases than with merit pay increases. Compared with the average cross-sectional correlation, the use of aggregated data (over time) resulted in a larger performance rating–merit pay increase relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of transport stress on the content of endotoxin in blood of slaughter pigs

The concept of a merit profile has been evolved at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, whereby not only research achievements but also teaching, administrative and clinical skills and experience are each given merit ratings to produce an individual profile. This approach is based on the notion that all of these fields of activity constitute integregal facets of a scat of higher learning in medicine, and that a candidate's relative merits in each of these areas should be seen not only in relation to the overall academic goals but also to practical, professional considerations. The merit profile is intended to be used in selection for appointments and promotion, and as a basis for the continued enhancement of individual competence, and salary review.     

Adrenergic stimulation of Na/K pump current in adult rat cardiac myocytes in short-term culture

This research examined self-perception and the perception of age groups by young and elderly adults from the perspective of social identity theory and social categorization theory. Respondents rated either themselves or unfamiliar stimulus persons from three age categories in adulthood: young, middle-aged, and elderly. As expected, an ingroup bias was found in the evaluation of elderly adults. Specifically, compared to ratings made by younger adults, older adults evaluated elderly persons more favorably. Moreover, as predicted, elderly adults' self-evaluations and those of young adults asked to imagine themselves as elderly were more positive than the ratings made by respondents who evaluated an unfamiliar older adult (e.g., elderly woman, elderly man). Both cognitive and motivational processes were discussed as contributing to the phenomenon of self-other discrepancy in beliefs about and attitudes toward older adults.     

Attributions for real and hypothetical events: Their relation to self-esteem and depression.

Examined the association between attributional style, self-esteem, depressive symptoms, and general distress to test hypotheses derived from a learned helplessness model and B. Weiner's (see record 1979-28688-001) attributional model of motivation. 178 male and female undergraduates completed the Beck Depression Inventory, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and an attributional style questionnaire and were asked to make causal attributional ratings about 12 hypothetical events. 151 Ss also were asked to make diary ratings on 14 real events. Attributional ratings were internally consistent across events, but attributions about positive outcomes were either uncorrelated or positively correlated with attributions about negative outcomes, failing to support learned helplessness predictions that a single process underlies attributions about positive and negative events. As predicted, internal attributions for positive outcomes were primarily associated with high self-esteem. Only internal stable attributions for negative outcomes were related to depressive symptoms, consistent with Weiner's model. The pattern of correlation between attributions and general distress was essentially identical to that obtained with depressive symptoms. Attributions for real events were similar in their effects to ratings of hypothetical events. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)