Mechanical versus clinical data combination in selection and admissions decisions: a meta-analysis.

In employee selection and academic admission decisions, holistic (clinical) data combination methods continue to be relied upon and preferred by practitioners in our field. This meta-analysis examined and compared the relative predictive power of mechanical methods versus holistic methods in predicting multiple work (advancement, supervisory ratings of performance, and training performance) and academic (grade point average) criteria. There was consistent and substantial loss of validity when data were combined holistically-even by experts who are knowledgeable about the jobs and organizations in question-across multiple criteria in work and academic settings.

The social phobia and anxiety inventory: problem of underlying medical conditions.

The study investigated the possibility of score inflation in the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory due to underlying medical conditions in respondents. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders provides an exclusionary rule disallowing a diagnosis of social phobia when the fear is based on the presence of a medical condition. A computer-administered procedure, designed to simulate visually this paper-and-pencil inventory was created and compared to the original in a pilot study with r of .

Application patterns when applicants know the odds: implications for selection research and practice.

Unlike previous research that found small differences between population standard deviations and applicant pool standard deviations (P. R. Sackett & D.

Disgust as the source of false positive effects in the measurement of ophidiophobia.

Why many people who self-report high levels of fear on the Snake Anxiety Questionnaire (SNAQ; Klorman, Weerts, Hastings, Melamed, & Lang, 1974) do not show subsequent behavioral fear was investigated. Fear and disgust among 70 female under-graduates were assessed by self-report, behavioral ratings, and behavioral approach measures. The results suggest that the observed discordance occurs because the SNAQ is strongly confounded by the emotion of disgust.

Sex role orientation and fear.

Data from previous studies suggest that women report higher levels of fear than men do and that individuals who identify with the feminine sex role report higher levels of fear than do individuals who identify with the masculine sex role (Carey, Dusek, & Spector, 1988; Dillon, Wolf, & Katz, 1985). The relationship between sex role orientation and fear was investigated further in the present study, using self-report and behavioral measures. The female participants reported significantly higher levels of fear than did the male participants.

The measurement and mismeasurement of ophidiophobia in analogue research: a procedural review.

The adequacy of current paper-and-pencil measures of ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) was analyzed by reviewing the subject selection procedures in 24 published articles with the restriction that the procedures involve some form of self-report. The sample characteristics and selection procedures of these studies were reviewed in detail. We conclude that the recommendations and conclusions of these studies should not be accepted due to limited generalizability.

The non-standardization of the Fear Survey Schedule.

The Fear Survey Schedule-III was administered to 860 college students. The results are presented in the form of frequencies, in deliberate contrast to previous work which present results in the form of z-scores. The argument is made that these z-scores do not normalize the original item distributions and thus provide no opportunity for normative comparisons.

Problems in the Munz and Smouse procedure for operationalizing reactions to test anxiety: proposal of a new procedure.

Three problems in the Munz and Smouse procedure make it unacceptable as an operationalization of four reactions to test anxiety alluded to by Alpert and Haber. As a demonstration of two of the problems, the procedure was applied to the scores of 176 male and female college students. A new procedure for operationalizing the four reactions, which avoids the problems in the Munz and Smouse procedure, was described.