Current Patterns of Training in Personality Assessment During Internship.

OBJECTIVE: Training in broad-based objective and projective personality assessments has been a mainstay of applied psychology. Stedman (2007) and Piotrowski (2015) have documented a decline in projective training during internship. This study investigated internship directors' current expectations regarding graduate school training with objective and projective instruments, their ratings of the importance of that training, and current training patterns with objective and projective instruments during internship. METHOD: Participants were 355 psychology internship programs, representing 46.1% of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers. RESULTS: Results indicated the following current internship training patterns: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (68% to 51%), Personality Assessment Inventory (59% to 25%), Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (51% to 34%), Rorschach (35 to 26%), story telling (41% to 19%), sentence completion (41% to 18%), and drawings (36% to 9%). Adult program directors reported higher percentages for objective tests; child program directors reported higher percentages for projective tests. CONCLUSION: A decreased valuation of projective techniques is now typical of current internship training programs.

Reflections on the Journal of Applied Psychology for 1989 to 1994: Changes in major research themes and practices over 25 years.

Informal observations concerning journal content indicates that research investigating organizational behavior topics, including work on the structure of groups and determinants and consequences of group process along with the role of leadership in groups, has increased. Some topics have disappeared (e.g., job analysis, human factors, union-related work, consumer behavior) and others are declining (e.g., research methods, psychometrics). Perhaps the biggest change is in the length of articles, which is mostly a function of the inclusion of greater numbers of references and appendix material. Publishing some of this material in supplementary online materials is now current practice in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Concerns about use of journal space may also be entirely moot, if electronic publishing as opposed to print publishing becomes the norm. (PsycINFO Database Record

Reflections on the Journal of Applied Psychology for 2003 to 2008.

The topic and theme content of the articles published during my term as editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology (2003-2008) are presented and discussed. The analysis of the content and trends is discussed in the context of attempts by my editorial team to influence what content was to be considered for publication as well as to engage in special efforts to generate more "theory" as well as alternative methodological approaches (e.g., qualitative data, content analysis, and the like) into the journal. The bigger issue for the perspective is whether the editorial team can influence what is published (yes) as opposed to what is researched (unlikely). The bottom line of the analysis is a call for future research that takes an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary approach to the study of applied problems in a work setting. (PsycINFO Database Record

Reflections on the Journal of Applied Psychology for 2009 to 2014: Infrastructure, operations, innovations, impact, evolution, and desirable directions.

In this reflection on my experiences as editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology, I consider 6 foci including (a) information on the background, infrastructure, and mechanics of running this top-tier journal; (b) statistics on journal operations across the 7 years of editorial activity (i.e., incoming plus 6 years on the masthead); (c) innovations that my senior editorial team introduced (i.e., transparency via supplemental materials, revival of monographs, initiation of integrative conceptual reviews); (d) impact and influence with respect to articles, authors, and institutions; (e) latent sematic analysis findings to illustrate the evolution and change of journal content over a 33-year comparison period (i.e., it has evolved substantially); and desirable directions for future evolution of the journal (i.e., strengthen our scientific foundation, increase multidisciplinary linkages, focus on multilevel system dynamics as core capabilities, and improve the translation of industrial and organizational science to evidence-based practice and vice versa). (PsycINFO Database Record

Reflections on the Journal of Applied Psychology for 1997 to 2002.

Major trends in articles published during my term as Editor (1997-2000) are reviewed, including the number of articles received (approximately 500-600 per year) and the types of articles published. More than half of the articles published during this period fell into six broad categories: job attitudes and affect (82 articles); individual differences and measurement (52 articles); forensic psychology (50 articles); diversity and discrimination (46 articles); research methods, design, and analysis (41 articles); and performance appraisal and performance management (41 articles). Notable articles and advances within each of these areas are described. (PsycINFO Database Record

The evolution and future of diversity at work.

This article examines the evolution of diversity in the Journal of Applied Psychology. To begin, we explore foundations of the concept of diversity, including its appearance in both applied contexts and the scholarly literature. We then review the literature on diversity, including the development of its conceptualization and operationalizations over time, in the Journal and in the field of applied psychological science at large. We also examine the processes underlying the effects of diversity, and specific outcomes of diversity in organizations. To conclude, we offer a future research agenda that highlights diversity-related topics and issues important for advancing an understanding of diversity and moving the field forward, especially within the Journal. This work makes several contributions to research on diversity in organizations. First, we provide a lens for examining change in the study of diversity over time as well as a critical examination of the benefits and challenges associated with these changes. Second, we review the underlying mechanisms and key contextual influences on diversity effects in organizations. Third, our review examines the explanatory power of current diversity research and then uses this to develop a research agenda. By organizing the broad body of literature that exists on diversity, our article offers a sharp picture of what gaps in knowledge exist and where future research should focus. (PsycINFO Database Record

One hundred years of discrimination research in the Journal of Applied Psychology: A sobering synopsis.

Employment discrimination-a legal, social, moral, and practical problem-has been a persistent focus of narrow scholarship in the Journal of Applied Psychology since its inception. Indeed, this article identifies the environmental characteristics, conceptual underpinnings, dominant methodologies, research questions and findings across 508 articles published on discrimination in the journal over the last 100 years. Emergent themes document signs of stability and change in 3 eras: an era wherein discrimination research was itself discriminatory (1917-1969), the heyday of discrimination research (1970-1989), and an era of unsteady progress (1990-2014). This synthesis suggests that, although increasingly sophisticated methodological approaches have been applied to this topic, the targets of focus and theories driving research have largely been static. Additionally, research published on discrimination in the Journal of Applied Psychology has often trailed too far behind the times. Specific recommendations for advancing the psychological study of employment discrimination in applied contexts are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record

Over a half-century encapsulated: a multicultural content analysis of the Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1954-2009.

Articles including multicultural content published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology (JCP), from 1954 to 2009, were examined for themes. Multicultural content in this study was broadly defined to include the following identities: race/ethnicity, gender/sex, religion/spirituality, sexual orientation, social status, disability, age, and intersections. Inclusion of articles focused on each of these identity domains was reported by decade. Gender/sex was the most prevalent multicultural identity found in the JCP, followed by race/ethnicity. The most common themes for multicultural articles, in order, were counseling process, vocation/career, and psychological processes/interventions. Academic achievement, discrimination/minority stress, and research methodology were the other common themes that were found across multicultural research. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Formative versus reflective measurement: an illustration using work-family balance.

The aim of this article is to propose the formative measurement approach that can be used in various constructs of applied psychology. To illustrate this approach, the authors will (a) discuss the distinction between commonly used principal-factor (reflective) measures in comparison to the composite (formative) latent variable model, which is often applied in other disciplines such as marketing or engineering, and (b) point out the advantages and limitations of formative specifications using the example of the work-family balance (WFB) construct. Data collected from 2 large cross-sectional field studies confirm the reliability and validity of formative WFB measures as well as its predictive value regarding criteria of WFB (i.e., job satisfaction, family satisfaction, and life satisfaction). Last, the specific informational value of each formative indicator will be demonstrated and discussed in terms of practical implications for the assessment in different psychological fields.

Psychology through international congresses: differences between regions, countries, and congresses.

A published database of presentations from the seven most recent International Congresses of Applied Psychology (ICAPs) was compared to a similar but unpublished database (Adair, Anguas-Plata, Unik, & Radons, 2009) on the International Congresses of Psychology (ICPs) for the years 1996-2004. Analyses revealed phenomena characteristic of attendance at both international congresses: Participation rates spike dramatically for host countries; less dramatic regional surges in participation occur when the congress is held in a neighbouring country. Psychologists from 117 different countries participated in the seven recent congresses (ICAP and ICP) from 1994 to 2006. Overall ICP was double the size of ICAP, and represented a larger set of countries at each of its congresses. Regardless of location, most participants at both congresses came from the same 11 economically advantaged and seven majority-world countries. Congress presentations are dispersed across a much larger number of countries than are journal publications. The USA, for example, had modest 14.4% (ICAP) and 11.6% (ICP) presentation rates, much smaller than its majority share of publications (Adair, 2009 ). By contrast, the USA had the greater share of invited addresses at both ICAP (33.7%) and ICP (28.9%) congresses. Nonetheless, the majority-world countries contributing to both ICAP and ICP are clearly indicative of where the discipline is gaining strength and importance to international psychology. The emergence of Iran as a new leading national contributor to the two most recent international congresses, and the rise in the proportion of presentations by majority-world psychologists at ICAPs from only about one in five to more than one of every three presentations in recent congresses are findings consistent with Zakaria's (2008) analysis of changes taking place in the world. Within international congresses, certainly, the "rise of the rest" is changing the face of international psychology.

A graded response model for measuring person reliability.

This paper extends Lumsden's fluctuation model to the graded response case and, from the resulting basic scaling model, develops a one-dimensional item response theory graded response model (GRM). Under some additional assumptions, it follows that the item category response functions (ICRFs) can be closely approximated by the ICRFs of the standard GRM with equal item discrimination. For fixed item locations, the item responses depend on two individual differences parameters: the person central location and the person reliability. Procedures for estimating the person parameters and for addressing the goodness of fit of the proposed model as compared to the standard GRM are discussed. The accuracy of the person estimates is assessed by means of simulation studies. Finally, all the developments are illustrated using three empirical examples in personality measurement.

Methods for integrating moderation and mediation: a general analytical framework using moderated path analysis.

Studies that combine moderation and mediation are prevalent in basic and applied psychology research. Typically, these studies are framed in terms of moderated mediation or mediated moderation, both of which involve similar analytical approaches. Unfortunately, these approaches have important shortcomings that conceal the nature of the moderated and the mediated effects under investigation. This article presents a general analytical framework for combining moderation and mediation that integrates moderated regression analysis and path analysis. This framework clarifies how moderator variables influence the paths that constitute the direct, indirect, and total effects of mediated models. The authors empirically illustrate this framework and give step-by-step instructions for estimation and interpretation. They summarize the advantages of their framework over current approaches, explain how it subsumes moderated mediation and mediated moderation, and describe how it can accommodate additional moderator and mediator variables, curvilinear relationships, and structural equation models with latent variables.

Bias in cross-sectional analyses of longitudinal mediation.

Most empirical tests of mediation utilize cross-sectional data despite the fact that mediation consists of causal processes that unfold over time. The authors considered the possibility that longitudinal mediation might occur under either of two different models of change: (a) an autoregressive model or (b) a random effects model. For both models, the authors demonstrated that cross-sectional approaches to mediation typically generate substantially biased estimates of longitudinal parameters even under the ideal conditions when mediation is complete. In longitudinal models where variable M completely mediates the effect of X on Y, cross-sectional estimates of the direct effect of X on Y, the indirect effect of X on Y through M, and the proportion of the total effect mediated by M are often highly misleading.

Count data in psychological applied research.

As some authors have noticed in fields other than psychology, level of measurement and distributional characteristics of count data are commonly not taken into account, so that they are analysed as normally distributed continuous variables, and therefore some general linear model is applied. In this work, we review a random sample of 457 articles published in the last four years in journals with the highest impact factor in the Journal Citation Reports (JCR Social Sciences Edition) of the Institute for Scientific Information. The goals are to know how often count variables appear in psychological applied research and which data analyses are used when dealing with count response variables. Examination showed that there is a notable presence of count variables, especially in some topics in psychology and a remarkable misapplication of the general linear model. One deals with causes and consequences of this approach to data analysis and suggests the use of specific models to analyse count data.

The incremental validity of psychological testing and assessment: conceptual, methodological, and statistical issues.

There has been insufficient effort in most areas of applied psychology to evaluate incremental validity. To further this kind of validity research, the authors examined applicable research designs, including those to assess the incremental validity of test instruments, of test-informed clinical inferences, and of newly developed measures. The authors also considered key statistical and measurement issues that can influence incremental validity findings, including the entry order of predictor variables, how to interpret the size of a validity increment, and possible artifactual effects in the criteria selected for incremental validity research. The authors concluded by suggesting steps for building a cumulative research base concerning incremental validity and by describing challenges associated with applying nomothetic research findings to individual clinical cases.

Accurate tests of statistical significance for r(WG) and average deviation interrater agreement indexes.

The authors demonstrated that the most common statistical significance test used with r(WG)-type interrater agreement indexes in applied psychology, based on the chi-square distribution, is flawed and inaccurate. The chi-square test is shown to be extremely conservative even for modest, standard significance levels (e.g., .05). The authors present an alternative statistical significance test, based on Monte Carlo procedures, that produces the equivalent of an approximate randomization test for the null hypothesis that the actual distribution of responding is rectangular and demonstrate its superiority to the chi-square test. Finally, the authors provide tables of critical values and offer downloadable software to implement the approximate randomization test for r(WG)-type and for average deviation (AD)-type interrater agreement indexes. The implications of these results for studying a broad range of interrater agreement problems in applied psychology are discussed.

The decade 1989-1998 in Spanish psychology: an analysis of research in basic psychological processes, history of psychology, and other related topics.

This article presents a review of research published by Spanish Faculty from the area of basic psychology in the decade 1989-1998. It provides information about research on basic psychological processes commonly studied under the labels of experimental and cognitive psychology, plus a number of topics from other research areas, including some applied psychology issues. The review analyzes the work of 241 faculty members from 27 different Spanish universities, as reflected in 1,882 published papers, book chapters, and books. The analyses carried out in this report include a description of the main research trends found in each area, with some representative references of the published materials, and statistics showing the distribution of this research work in various relevant publications (both Spanish and foreign), with figures that reveal the impact of this work both at a national and international scale.

Smoothing enhances the detection of common structure from multiple time series.

The effects of smoothing (i.e., temporal averaging) on the detection of intraindividual interdependency from between-subjects aggregated (i.e., multiple) bivariate time series were examined. A simple moving average smoother was applied to different types of simulated processes that included error. The results indicated that smoothing facilitates the detection of common intraindividual structure from multiple time series. The efficacy of smoothing was dependent on the characteristics of the underlying process. It is suggested that smoothing increases the efficiency of the detection of common structure by increasing the signal-to-noise ratio (i.e., temporal reliability) of the time series. The issue and application of smoothing is further discussed in terms of signal extraction and classical test theory.

Ethnic representation in a sample of the literature of applied psychology.

A number of authors have raised concerns over the external validity of psychological research. This study examined the extent to which empirical articles include human participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Articles published over a 5-year period in 14 selected journals representing 3 applied sub-disciplines of psychology were examined. Of the 2,536 articles coded, only 61% indicated the ethnicity of the participants. For those articles, the ethnic compositions approximated U.S. Census estimates, with the exception of an overrepresentation of African Americans and an underrepresentation of Hispanic Americans. The results imply that although the field is apparently adequately recruiting English speakers, representation of non-English speakers should be increased. To further enhance the external validity of psychological research, ethnicity of participants should be not only specified but also analyzed in relation to the results of a study.

Reliability generalization: a viable key for establishing validity generalization.

Even with radical restriction of range, reliability coefficients from 10 studies gave an average interstudy value of .74, suggesting constancy of reliability over diverse experiments. A value from a new test can help index reliability of tests not previously studied.