Differential utility of three indexes of risky drinking for predicting alcohol problems in college students.

This study evaluated the relationship between alcohol-related problems and 3 indexes of risky drinking in college student drinkers: number of drinks consumed per week, frequency of binge drinking, and estimated blood alcohol levels (BALs). Use of 2 independent samples (N??=?204, N??=?181) allowed a cross-validation of obtained associations. Results indicated that neither binge drinking frequency nor BAL were more highly related to alcohol-related problems than was weekly drinking. Furthermore, BAL did not provide unique explanatory power in accounting for alcohol-related problems; mixed results were obtained regarding the relationship of binge drinking estimates with problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A note on the readability on the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ).

The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) is a structured job analysis questionnaire composed of worker-oriented job elements. 4 readability indexes--the Date-Chall, the Flesch, the FOG (R. Gunning), and the SMOG (H. McLaughlin)--were applied to both the directions and questions of the PAQ. The PAQ directions reach a college readability level using the Flesch and SMOG indexes and reach the college graduate level using the Dale-Chall and FOG indexes. The PAQ questions reach the college graduate readability level on all 4 indexes. Implications regarding the use of the PAQ in light of its difficult level of readability are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitude accessibility following a self-perception process.

Two experiments with 170 undergraduates investigated the accessibility of attitudes from memory following self-inference from behavior. It is noted that self-perception processes have been postulated to occur only to the extent that initial attitudes are weak. Exp I examined the consequence for attitude accessibility of reviewing and considering previously performed religious behaviors that were recent and primarily unmanded vs distant in time and manded in nature. Exp II involved the performance of a new behavior that was either required or freely chosen. In each case, control Ss either did not review prior behaviors or did not perform a new behavior. Results show that in both experiments, attitude accessibility, as measured by the latency of response to attitudinal inquiries, was enhanced by the consideration or performance of unmanded behavior, but not by manded behavior. The relevance of this finding to issues regarding attitude–behavior consistency and attitudinal persistence is discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender, Alcohol Consumption, and Differing Alcohol Expectancy Dimensions in College Drinkers.

Examinations of gender differences in alcohol expectancies among college drinkers typically have used self-report measures to assess single expectancy dimensions and often have been confounded by drinking level. This study examined gender differences in alcohol expectancies using 2 assessment methods. College students (N = 88) completed self-report questionnaires, including expectancy likelihood and subjective evaluation endorsements of expectancies, and a computerized expectancy accessibility task. Expectancy accessibility and endorsement were modestly correlated, with higher alcohol consumption and female gender linked to greater accessibility and endorsement of social enhancement expectancies. Gender moderated the relation between consumption and sociability expectancy accessibility; among men, heavier drinking was associated with more rapid activation of expectancies. Findings suggest complexity in associations among these variables and underscore the need to capture the multidimensionality of the expectancy construct and its relationship to alcohol use. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Global self-evaluation as determined by the desirability and controllability of trait adjectives.

164 undergraduates rated the degree to which various traits represented desirable characteristics and the degree to which it was possible for a person to exert control over each of these characteristics. From these initial ratings, 154 trait adjectives for which 4 levels of desirability were crossed with 2 levels of controllability were selected. 88 undergraduates then rated the degree to which each of these traits characterized the self and the average college student. Results support the prediction that self-ratings in relation to average college student ratings would be increasingly positive as traits increased in desirability and that in conditions of high desirability, self-ratings in relation to average college student ratings would be greater for high- than for low-controllable traits, whereas in conditions of low desirability the opposite would occur. Results are discussed in terms of the adaptive advantages of maintaining a global self-concept that implies that positive characteristics are under personal control and that negative characteristics are caused by factors outside of personal control. Mean preratings of desirability and controllability are appended. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A group assessment procedure as a predictor of on-the-job performance of teachers.

The predictive power of a streamlined group assessment (GA) procedure (derived from assessment center methodology) for evaluating candidates for a teacher education program was investigated. Results were compared with principals' evaluations of on-the-job teaching success and with college faculty evaluations. The study population included 231 graduates of a teacher's college, who had been assessed by the procedure at time of admission. Ss were reevaluated by college faculty 3 yrs later at graduation and again by principals 2–5 yrs after graduation. Of the original Ss, 122 were traced after graduation; 78 were employed. Results indicate that the GA procedure was significantly predictive of success on the job, as well as in the training program. The study demonstrated the meaningful, long-term predictive validity of the GA procedure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An approach to steady-state staffing in a psychology department.

Discusses the budgetary and academic consequences of the decrease in growth of university and college psychology departments and the mobility of department members. A model of staffing used in one university psychology department is presented which minimized the difficulties described and helped the department reach a stable staffing conception. In this model, staff members are employed on 1- or 2-yr contracts until steady-state staffing can be implemented. Advantages and disadvantages of the model are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of 4-year college student performance using cognitive and noncognitive predictors and the impact on demographic status of admitted students.

This study was conducted to determine the validity of noncognitive and cognitive predictors of the performance of college students at the end of their 4th year in college. Results indicate that the primary predictors of cumulative college grade point average (GPA) were Scholastic Assessment Test/American College Testing Assessment (SAT/ACT) scores and high school GPA (HSGPA) though biographical data and situational judgment measures added incrementally to this prediction. SAT/ACT scores and HSGPA were collected and used in various ways by participating institutions in the admissions process while situational judgment measures and biodata were collected for research purposes only during the first few weeks of the participating students’ freshman year. Alternative outcomes such as a self-report of performance on a range of student performance dimensions and a measure of organizational citizenship behavior, as well as class absenteeism, were best predicted by noncognitive measures. The racial composition of a student body selected with only cognitive measures or both cognitive and noncognitive measures under various levels of selectivity as well as the performance of students admitted under these scenarios is also reported. The authors concluded that both the biodata and situational judgment measures could be useful supplements to cognitive indexes of student potential in college admissions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender and power in organizations: A longitudinal perspective.

This article advances a longitudinal, resource development model of power in organizations and uses it to organize a review of empirical research and related theory concerning differences between the genders in power. The review incorporates four levels of analysis—social-systems, organizational, interpersonal, and individual—and emphasizes the accumulation of resources for power at critical career transitions. Research reveals a consistent difference favoring men in accessibility to, and utility of, resources for power. It suggests that the processes involved in the development of power differ for men and women and that the path to power for women resembles an obstacle course. Implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Priming of mediators in causal attribution.

According to H. H. Kelley (1967), the process of making person, stimulus, and circumstance attributions is based on the 3 informational criteria of consensus, consistency, and distinctiveness. Two experiments assessed how the relative accessibility of these 3 process-relevant criteria affected the time required to make the 3 attributions. In Exp I, 93 college students were primed for either all 3 process-relevant criteria or 3 pieces of attributionally irrelevant information. 30 sec after the accessibility manipulation, Ss scaled a person, stimulus, or circumstance attribution. Priming the process-relevant information decreased subsequent attribution decision time relative to the control group. In Exp II, 137 college students were primed for consensus, distinctiveness, or consistency after which they were scaled for 1 of 3 attributions. As expected, attribution decision times were lower when all 3 factors were primed (Exp I) than when only 1 of the 3 factors was primed (Exp II). In addition, stimulus and person attributions were made fastest when consensus and distinctiveness, respectively, were primed. Finally, priming cognitive access to a single factor made that factor dominate the scaled attributions. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cultural difference in attribution of performance: An integration-theoretical analysis.

F. Heider's (1958) suggestion that Performance?=?Motivation?×?Ability has been empirically confirmed by N. H. Anderson and C. A. Butzin (1974) and by A. Kum et al (1974), using American students as Ss. This multiplying process failed to appear in the present 3 experiments performed with 56 male Indian college students. Contrary to the predicted linear fan pattern, the plot of Motivation?×?Ability effect displayed clear parallelism. An equal-weight averaging rule was able to account for the results obtained in both group and single-S analyses. Perhaps the integration rules underlying achievement judgments are culture-specific, and Indian college students average motivation and ability information in attribution of future scholastic performance. Results illustrate the potential power that information integration theory provides for the cross-cultural study of social perception and cognition. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social desirability and adjustment in the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank.

Examined the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (ISB) scoring system and social desirability (SD). The ISB adjustment-maladjustment scale values assigned to 385 response examples from college males were intercorrelated with the SD ratings of 6 female judges for each item. The mean interjudge Pearson correlation was .63. The correlation between SD ratings for each ISB item and item adjustment scores was .74. Results indicate that ISB scores are confounded by SD and challenge ISB "trait" validity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Do I know you?": The role of significant others in general social perception.

This research used an idiographic method to examine the proposition that significant others are mentally represented as well-organized person categories that can influence social perception even more than representations of nonsignificant others, stereotypes, or traits. Together, Studies 1 and 2 showed that significant-other representations are richer, more distinctive, and more cognitively accessible than the other categories. Study 3 replicated the accessibility data and gauged inferential power by indirectly activating each category in a learning trial about a fictional person and then testing recognition memory. The results showed that participants made more category-consistent false-positive errors about targets who activated significant others vs. any other category. This constitutes the first experimental demonstration of transference and has implications both for social categorization and for basic personality processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential effects of induced mood on retrieval of pleasant and unpleasant events from episodic memory.

Examined the effect of depressed mood on the accessibility of memories of past real-life experiences of a pleasant or unpleasant nature. By means of a mood induction procedure, 30 students (mean age 19.2 yrs) were made happy on one occasion and depressed on another. The 2 mood states differed significantly on self-report, speech-rate, and recall-latency measures. Stimulus words to which Ss had to associate past pleasant or unpleasant experiences were presented in each mood condition, and latency of retrieval was measured. Time to retrieve pleasant memories, relative to time to retrieve unpleasant memories, was significantly longer when Ss were depressed than when they were happy, suggesting a differential effect of mood on the accessibility of these 2 types of memory. Results are considered in relation to state-dependent learning and activation of memories, and their implications for models and treatment of depression are discussed. It is suggested that cognitive models of depression need to be extended to include a reciprocal relation between thought content and depressed mood. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of stress on the draw-a-person test.

External stress was hypothesized to increase manifestations of anxiety on the DAP. Secondly, it was hypothesized that there are 2 sources of these manifestations of anxiety: (a) the laboratory stress situation and (b) anxiety producing intrapsychic processes, activated by drawing the human figure. 57 male college students drew a male, female, and automobile under stress and nonstress conditions. Both hypotheses were supported; 15 and 11 of the 21 indexes significantly differentiated between stress and nonstress conditions for the male and female drawings, respectively. 5 of 17 indexes differentiated for the auto drawings. 5 indexes differentiated in the opposite direction. Suggestions were made for the use of the auto drawing in checking out clinical hypotheses in a diagnostic evaluation. (17 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short- and long-term effects of fraternity and sorority membership on heavy drinking: A social norms perspective.

This study sought to determine whether the well-established relation between fraternity/sorority (Greek) membership and heavy alcohol use persists beyond the college years and whether some common third variables might account for the relation between Greek status and heavy drinking. During each of 4 years of college and 1 additional year, young adults (N ?=?319) completed measures of alcohol use, personality, alcohol expectancies, and environmental influences on drinking. Throughout the college years, Greeks consistently drank more heavily than non-Greeks. Statistically controlling for previous alcohol use did not eliminate this effect. However, Greek status did not predict postcollege heavy drinking levels. Also, perceived peer norms for heavy drinking mediated the relation between Greek affiliation and heavy alcohol use. Results are discussed in terms of situational determinants of heavy alcohol involvement in young adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accessibility of the fluorescent reporter group in native, silica-adsorbed, and covalently attached acrylodan-labeled serum albumins

Fluorescence quenching techniques are used to investigate the accessibility of a model biorecognition element-reporter group system when in buffer, surface-adsorbed, and covalently attached to a silica surface. The site-selective fluorescent reporter group, 6-acryloyl(dimethylamino)naphthalene (acrylodan, Ac), is attached covalently (at cysteine-34) to bovine and human serum albumin (BSA and HSA, respectively) and serves as a surrogate recognition element-reporter group system. Molecular oxygen is used to quench the Ac fluorescence and the accessibility, in the form of bimolecular rate constants (kq), in each model system is quantified. Although one might expect these systems to exhibit similar behavior, differences in quenching characteristics are observed, such as wavelength dependency of the Stern-Volmer quenching constant (KSV) for the native proteins in buffer. BSA-Ac exhibits wavelength dependent KSV values as well as a blue-shifted emission spectrum on O2 addition. Physisorption of BSA-Ac onto a fused-silica optical fiber lowers the accessibility of Ac to O2, whereas covalent attachment of BSA-Ac to APTES/glutaraldehyde-modified silica enhances the accessibility of the Ac reporter group to O2.     

Development and validation of the Need for Relatedness at College Questionnaire (NRC-Q).

Research indicates that reasons for attending college influence college success and that college students of color (CSC) can be motivated to attend college for different reasons than White college students (WCS). The Need for Relatedness at College Questionnaire (NRC-Q) was developed and tested to provide an instrument for identifying and understanding the various ways in which needs for relatedness, a salient motivator for many CSC, affect college success. On the basis of the recommendation from D. Guiffrida's (2006) cultural critique of V. Tinto's (1993) theory, the scale was developed with a self-determination theory (E. L. Deci & M. R. Ryan, 1991) perspective. Results support the content validity, internal consistency, temporal stability, and construct validity of the scale items, and a confirmatory factor analysis supported the underlying structures of the scale. Results also suggest that college students' needs for relatedness at home are more complex than previous research has suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)