Different needs, interests, and abilities of effective and ineffective counselor trainees: Implications for counselor selection.

Compared the scores obtained on the Minnesota Importance Questionnaire, the SVIB, and the General Aptitude Test Battery by groups of relatively effective and relatively ineffective counselor trainees. The trainees completed the tests prior to their first practicum experience and were evaluated by their practicum supervisors at the end of each of their practica. 32 Ss were classified as relatively effective, 30 as relatively ineffective, and 12 as indeterminant on the basis of their practicum supervisor's evaluations. The scores of the relatively effective and relatively ineffective trainees were compared using 1-way analyses of variance. The data reveal significant differences in the needs, interests, and abilities of the groups. The relevance of these findings for the selection of counselor trainees is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of participatory and supervisory leadership on group creativity.

This study compares the creativity of 4-man groups under 2 conditions of leadership. The Ss were 90 freshmen and sophomore Navy ROTC midshipmen and 30 NROTC seniors who served as group leaders. In 15 of the groups, the leaders acted as chairmen who directed the group discussions and contributed to the task solution. In the other 15 groups, leaders acted in a supervisory capacity: they directed and guided group discussion and they were allowed to encourage members or to reject ideas, but the leaders were prohibited from contributing to the solution of the task. Groups having participatory leaders were generally superior in quantity of output while groups under supervisory leaders were superior in the quality of the product. Although leaders in the 2 conditions did not differ in their satisfaction with the group product, the participatory leaders were more satisfied with their own individual contribution to the task. The leadership styles did not produce differences in the members' esteem for the leader or in the members' morale and satisfaction with the task. Differences were found in the influence of the leader intelligence and ability scores on group creativity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A naturalistic study of children's social understanding.

Examined developmental aspects of social understanding in 3 related contexts: a one-to-one interview, a real-life activity group, and related group discussions. 24 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders, homogeneous with respect to level of reflective social understanding (as expressed in the interview), were assigned to each of 4 small activity groups. Each group met for 12 consecutive school weeks in adult-supervised after-school cooperative group activities and discussions about group functioning. Discussions from each group meeting were coded for instances of verbally expressed communicative competencies. Results suggest a relation between level of social understanding, reflectively expressed, and frequency of competent communications expressed in the course of the group discussions. Ss' strategies for task-related negotiations were also coded. The number of developmentally advanced strategies was significantly lower for the group of young Ss with low-level reflective social understanding as compared to the other 3 groups. Results are discussed in the context of problems associated with assessing developmental levels of social understanding in natural settings. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classroom dyadic interaction: Factor structure of process variables and achievement correlates.

Obtained data from 28 2nd- and 3rd-grade teachers who were consistent in obtaining student achievement gains on the Metropolitan Achievement Test. 21 dyadic interaction process variables obtained from the Texas Teacher Effectiveness Project Coding System were entered into factor analyses which showed more congruence between the factor structures of the whole-class contexts (morning and afternoon) than between those data subsets and reading group factors. Resulting factor scores were correlated with achievement criteria. Although significant correlations were few in number, the data suggest that in higher socioeconomic status classes, verbal praise was particularly ineffective; also, successful teachers in lower social status classrooms interacted privately with students (instead of during public discussions). Effective teachers in lower and higher social status classes placed an emphasis on fast-paced activities during reading groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role assignment and interpersonal influence.

15-minute discussions of the desegregation issue were held by 34 groups of 3 college students, 2 whose attitude scores had reflected nonsegregationist views and a 3rd who was E's accomplice and always expressed segregationist views. "When specific roles were not assigned [in half the groups], the nonaccomplice Ss: (a) had greater confidence in their appraisals of the accomplice's attitudes, (b) indicated greater sociometric preference for one another (rather than for the accomplice) at the conclusion of the discussion period, (c) produced shorter communications, and (d) yielded more to the segregationist arguments expressed by the accomplice. Contrary to expectation, when no roles were assigned, Ss did not indicate less esteem for the accomplice than was the case when roles were assigned." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Amount of participation, coalescence, and profitability of decision making discussions.

51 groups of 255 ROTC cadets, varying in motivation and stratification, were examined in groups of 5 as they discussed the correct rankings of the familiarity of words. Measures of time talked, coalescence, and profit from discussion were collected on each of 10 problems solved by each group. Where members were equal in status, much participation was associates with increased decision accuracy, particularly when members were highly motivated; but the converse was true when groups were stratified, particularly where they were also unmotivated. Coalescence was associated with increased accuracy of decisions in moderately motivated groups, and in unstratified groups. Individual attempts to lead were more likely to be successful where members were motivated and where members varied in status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An examination of differences between managerial effectiveness and response patterns on a structured job analysis questionnaire.

Three cost-related measures of effectiveness were obtained for each of 146 store managers. Multivariate ANOVA revealed that no significant differences exist in the way effective and ineffective store managers rated the importance of and time spent on 7 major work activities as well as the importance of 30 worker characteristics needed for successful job performance. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-confidence and leadership.

The object of this study was to examine the relationship between lack of confidence in one's leadership ability and reliance upon passive leadership techniques to cope with supervisory problems. 77 Navy petty officers were given a questionnaire containing 20 supervisory problems and were asked to evaluate the desirability of each of 5 ways of solving each problem. Ss also evaluated how satisfied they were with their leadership abilities. Principal findings were: (a) Ss were highly consistent in the extent to which they endorsed each of 5 approaches to correcting performance, (b) there was a correlation of .52 between endorsing the use of administrative procedures to solve the problem and informally asking a superior to solve the problem, and (c) Ss who lacked confidence in their leadership abilities were significantly less willing to hold face-to-face discussions with subordinates and significantly more often endorsed both referring the subordinate to a superior and relying upon the use of administrative rules to solve the supervisory problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transformational leadership and employee safety performance: A within-person, between-jobs design.

We investigated the extent to which the safety performance (i.e., self-reported safety compliance and safety participation) of employees with 2 jobs was predicted by their respective supervisors' transformational leadership behaviors. We compared 2 within-person models: a context-specific model (i.e., transformational leadership experienced by employees in 1 context related to those same employees' safety performance only in that context) and a context-spillover model (i.e., transformational leadership experienced by employees in 1 context related to those same employees' safety performance in the same and other contexts). Our sample comprised 159 “moonlighters” (73 men, 86 women): employees who simultaneously hold 2 different jobs, each with a different supervisor, providing within-person data on the influence of different supervisors on employee safety performance across 2 job contexts. Having controlled for individual differences (negative affectivity and conscientiousness) and work characteristics (e.g., hours worked and length of relationship with supervisor), the context-specific model provided the best fit to the data among alternative nested models. Implications for the role of transformational leadership in promoting workplace safety are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Women and objectified body consciousness: Mothers' and daughters' body experience in cultural, developmental, and familial context.

Hypotheses about age-related differences in objectified body consciousness (OBC; McKinley & Hyde, 1996) based on the cultural, developmental, and familial contexts of women's body experience were tested on 151 undergraduate women and their middle-aged mothers. Mothers had lower levels of surveillance (watching the body as an outside observer) and body shame (feeling one is a bad person when appearance does not meet cultural standards) than daughters. No differences were found in appearance control beliefs, body esteem, or restricted eating, even though mothers weighed more and were less satisfied with their weight than daughters. OBC was related to measures of psychological well-being in both age groups; body esteem was more strongly related to some measures of daughters' psychological well-being than mothers'. Relationships of partner and family approval and OBC and body esteem were also examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationship between scores on the Omnibus Personality Inventory and counselor trainee effectiveness.

Compared the scores obtained on the Omnibus Personality Inventory by groups of relatively effective and relatively ineffective counselor trainees. The trainees (61 students in their 1st yr of a counseling psychology program) completed the tests prior to their 1st practicum experience and were evaluated by their practicum supervisors (PhD or master's-level counselors with more than 5 yrs of experience at supervision) at the end of each of their practica. Ss were classified as relatively effective, relatively ineffective, or indeterminant (ns?=?32, 30, and 12, respectively) on the basis of their practicum supervisor's evaluations. The scores of the relatively effective and relatively ineffective trainees were compared using 1-way analyses of variance. Data revealed significant differences in the personality characteristics of the groups. The relevance of these findings for the selection of counselor trainees is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Men, Women, and Leadership Centralization in Groups Over Time.

The authors propose a model for predicting the emergence of group norms from the demographic composition of groups. They use this model to study gender and leadership centralization in groups over time. Results from 2 longitudinal studies were consistent with their predictions: (a) Women, more than men, preferred equality norms in groups; (b) all-male and majority-male groups had relatively centralized leadership structures; (c) all-female groups had relatively decentralized leadership structures; and (d) balanced and majority-female groups were relatively centralized at the onset of group interaction but decreased in centralization over time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Leadership, participation, and self-orientation in observed and nonobserved groups.

Examined previous findings that leadership rank, dominance-ascendance, and participation rank tend to be intercorrelated in leaderless discussion groups. An analysis of data gathered from 20 groups of 5 male undergraduates each, who met either in the presence or the absence of an o, indicate that these variables are associated only in observed groups. M. Orne's (see pa, vol. 37:5917) and H. Riecken's (see pa, vol. 38:60) models of the experiment as a social situation are used to explain these results. (22 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interacting effects of control, motivation, group practice, and problem difficulty on attempted leadership.

"Fifty-one groups of five subjects each were studied on ten brief trials to examine the effects of differing motivation and amount of control in the tendency to attempt leadership in a group situation." Results suggest "that a member's attempted leadership is higher, the higher his control and the higher the group's motivation." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological education: A skill-oriented approach.

Tested the hypothesis that a 3-wk program based on a microcounseling paradigm would facilitate the acquisition of 3 specific problem-solving skills: (a) problem definition, (b) generation of alternatives, and (c) goal selection. 30 6th graders were randomly assigned either to a training group, to a group exposed to films and discussions related to each problem-solving skill, or to a no-treatment control group. Each group was tested immediately after training and 2 wks later. Results indicate that the microtraining group generated more alternatives than the other groups. Over time, all groups improved their problem-definition skills, while their ability to select appropriate goals decreased. Questions concerning the measures, issues in psychological education, and implications for program development are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliability, sex differences, and validity in the leaderless group discussion technique.

"Three leaderless Group Discussion judging techniques involving leadership rankings by observers, recorders, and participants were applied to 228 college subjects arranged in 19 all male and 19 mixed sex groups of six each. Judging-agreement within and among ranking conditions was high." Sex was not important. The results were so promising that this approach is recommended as both a predictor and a criterion. From Psyc Abstracts 36:05:5GF45K. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transformational leadership, transactional leadership, locus of control, and support for innovation: Key predictors of consolidated-business-unit performance.

Used measures of leadership, locus of control, and support for innovation to predict the consolidated-unit performance of 78 managers. Results reveal that 3 transformational-leadership measures were associated with a higher internal locus of control and significantly and positively predicted business-unit performance over a 1-yr interval. Transactional measures of leadership, including contingent reward and management by exception (active and passive), were each negatively related to business-unit performance. Causal relationships between the transformational-leadership behaviors and unit performance were moderated by the level of support for innovation in the business unit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental representation of the body: Stability and change in response to illness and disability.

Body concept and body esteem were examined among 147 male patients (mean ages 45–58 yrs) in 4 medical groups (cardiac, spinal-cord injured, alcoholic, and domiciliary). To study body concept, multidimensional scaling was used to extract the dimensions organizing 33 body parts. Three dimensions, head–body, arm-leg, and inside–outside, organized bodily experience for the groups. To study body esteem, a principal components analysis was applied to esteem ratings of the same body parts; head and body dimensions emerged, suggesting correspondence between cognition and affect. Body concept was stable across medical groups, whereas body esteem underwent dramatic, illness-related changes. A serial chain model of body concept is proposed to synthesize these and related findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)