Negativity (and positivity) in performance evaluation: Three field studies.

Because of a lack of powerful nonlinear models, there is little research about nonlinearity in performance evaluation in nonexperimental, real-world data. Nonlinearity in 3 real-world data sets of performance evaluation was examined by using various versions of a nonlinear model labeled the scatter model. The findings indicate that performance evaluations tend to be conjunctive, that is, more weight is given to negative attributes than to positive attributes. However, this basic tendency disappears when the overall level of evaluation is high, as a result of inconsistency resolution—the tendency to resolve inconsistency between 2 or more aspects of the input information on the basis of an overall evaluation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negotiation as a form of persuasion: Arguments in first offers.

In this article we examined aspects of negotiation within a persuasion framework. Specifically, we investigated how the provision of arguments that justified the first offer in a negotiation affected the behavior of the parties, namely, how it influenced counteroffers and settlement prices. In a series of 4 experiments and 2 pilot studies, we demonstrated that when the generation of counterarguments was easy, negotiators who did not add arguments to their first offers achieved superior results compared with negotiators who used arguments to justify their first offer. We hypothesized and provided evidence that adding arguments to a first offer was likely to cause the responding party to search for counterarguments, and this, in turn, led him or her to present counteroffers that were further away from the first offer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of filmed versus personal after-event reviews on task performance: The mediating and moderating role of self-efficacy.

In the current study, we compared the effect of personal and filmed after-event reviews (AERs) on performance, and the role that self-efficacy plays in moderating and mediating the effects of these 2 types of AER on performance. The setting was one in which 49 men and 63 women participated twice in a simulated business decision-making task. In between, participants received a personal AER, watched a filmed AER, or had a break. We found that individuals who participated in an AER, whether personal or filmed, improved their performance significantly more than those who did not participate in a review. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in performance improvement between the personal and the filmed AER, which suggests that the 2 are quite similar in their effect. We also found that the differences in performance improvement between the personal AER group and the control group were somewhat greater than those found in the filmed AER group. Self-efficacy mediated the effect of AER on performance improvement in both types of AER. In addition, the effect of AER on performance improvement was moderated by initial self-efficacy in the personal but not in the filmed AER: The personal AER was more effective, the higher the initial self-efficacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Misleading interaction and curvilinear terms.

This article examines the relationships between interaction (product) terms and curvilinear (quadratic) terms in regression models in which the independent variables are correlated. The author uses 2 substantive examples to demonstrate the following outcomes: (a) If the appropriate quadratic terms are not added to the estimated model, then the observed interaction may indicate a synergistic (offsetting) relationship between the independent variables, whereas the true relationship is, in fact, offsetting (synergistic). (b) If the appropriate product terms are not added to the equation, then the estimated model may indicate concave (convex) relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variable, whereas the true relationship is, in fact, convex (concave). (c) If the appropriate product and quadratic terms are not examined simultaneously, then the observed interactive or curvilinear relationships may be nonsignificant when such relationships exist. The implications of these results for the examination of interaction and quadratic effects in multiple regression analysis are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theory and configurality in clinical judgments of expert and novice psychologists.

This article shows that in judging the degree of pathology of mental patients, expert psychologists, more than novices, assign heavier weight to the more pathological information. This difference is explained in terms of the professional socialization process of clinical psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theory and configurality in expert and layperson judgment.

Examined configurality in expert and layperson multiattribute judgments in the domain of child abuse. Important differences were found in the configural rules used by the 2 groups. Laypersons were disjunctive in both assessing risk of abuse and recommending intervention, but their disjunctivity in recommending intervention may have been entirely mediated by prior risk judgments. Experts were less disjunctive in assessing risk and were conjunctive in recommending intervention. These differences are explained in terms of dissimilarities in the underlying theories that experts and laypersons hold about the relationships between attributes and appropriate judgment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nonlinear models of clinical judgment: Meehl's data revisited.

Previous attempts to detect nonlinearity in clinical judgments have not succeeded because of a lack of good nonlinear models. Much research in this area was based on data collected by P. Meehl, which include clinicians' judgments of mental disorder on the basis of MMPI profiles. In this article, Meehl's data are reanalyzed using several versions of the scatter model in which nonlinearity is represented by the within profile scatter(s) of the cues. The author finds that these versions give a better fit to the data than does the linear model. He also finds systematic patterns of nonlinearity that lend themselves to psychological interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)