Education, Ethics, and History: The Peer Review Process in the US.

Despite the near-universal acceptance of the benefits of a sound peer review process (PRP), the topic of peer review remains a source of controversy among surgeons. The current PRP is plagued by heterogeneity across different hospital and institutional systems. These inconsistencies, combined with a perceived lack of fairness inherent to the PRP in some institutions, led to concerns among practicing surgeons. In this review of the relevant literature on the PRP, we attempted to provide some context and insight into the history of the PRP, its role, its shortcomings, its potential abuses, and some key requirements for its successful execution.

Performance appraisal and performance management: 100 years of progress?

We review 100 years of research on performance appraisal and performance management, highlighting the articles published in JAP, but including significant work from other journals as well. We discuss trends in eight substantive areas: (1) scale formats, (2) criteria for evaluating ratings, (3) training, (4) reactions to appraisal, (5) purpose of rating, (6) rating sources, (7) demographic differences in ratings, and (8) cognitive processes, and discuss what we have learned from research in each area. We also focus on trends during the heyday of performance appraisal research in JAP (1970-2000), noting which were more productive and which potentially hampered progress. Our overall conclusion is that JAP's role in this literature has not been to propose models and new ideas, but has been primarily to test ideas and models proposed elsewhere. Nonetheless, we conclude that the papers published in JAP made important contribution to the filed by addressing many of the critical questions raised by others. We also suggest several areas for future research, especially research focusing on performance management. (PsycINFO Database Record

Fearless dominance and the U.S. presidency: implications of psychopathic personality traits for successful and unsuccessful political leadership.

Although psychopathic personality (psychopathy) is marked largely by maladaptive traits (e.g., poor impulse control, lack of guilt), some authors have conjectured that some features of this condition (e.g., fearlessness, interpersonal dominance) are adaptive in certain occupations, including leadership positions. We tested this hypothesis in the 42 U.S. presidents up to and including George W. Bush using (a) psychopathy trait estimates derived from personality data completed by historical experts on each president, (b) independent historical surveys of presidential leadership, and (c) largely or entirely objective indicators of presidential performance. Fearless Dominance, which reflects the boldness associated with psychopathy, was associated with better rated presidential performance, leadership, persuasiveness, crisis management, Congressional relations, and allied variables; it was also associated with several largely or entirely objective indicators of presidential performance, such as initiating new projects and being viewed as a world figure. Most of these associations survived statistical control for covariates, including intellectual brilliance, five factor model personality traits, and need for power. In contrast, Impulsive Antisociality and related traits of psychopathy were generally unassociated with rated presidential performance, although they were linked to some largely or entirely objective indicators of negative job performance, including Congressional impeachment resolutions, tolerating unethical behavior in subordinates, and negative character. These findings indicate that the boldness associated with psychopathy is an important but heretofore neglected predictor of presidential performance, and suggest that certain features of psychopathy are tied to successful interpersonal behavior.

Selected topics in personnel selection: primarily in the early to mid-years of the 20th century.

A brief historical review is presented of the events in the USA relating to personnel selection in business and industry from 1903 to 2003. Emphasis is placed on the early periods of the century through the midyears. Involved in these events have been applied psychologists, the American Psychological Association, Government Agencies, Federal, Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the Supreme Court.

[Good work: "attending to responsibilities" and "greater expections": assessment pattern of attendant behavior and introduction of non-restraint]. / Gute Arbeit: ,,pflichtmässige Führung" und ,,höhere Anforderungen": Beurteilungsmuster des Wärterverhaltens und die Einführung des Non Restraint in der Charité in den 1860er Jahren.

According to influential alienists nurses and attendants played a decisive role in the non restraint system. When Wilhelm Griesinger tried to implement this mode of treatment at the Berlin Charité he harshly criticized the often uneducated attendants. In this article judgments of conduct and behaviour of nurses and attendants are interpreted. These judgments displayed different cultural patterns on the part of the superiors of the attendants. Whereas the ,,Hausvater" Krüger saw ,,diligence" as the core attribute of ,,good labour", Carl Westphal, then functioning head of the psychiatric ward before Griesingers appointment, rather emphasized the fulfillment of official regulations. Griesingers criteria however were different from that. Attendants not only had to be diligent, non restraint posed ,,higher requirements": Nurses and attendants should be more educated and humane. In contradiction to Krüger and Westphal he not only judged the behaviour but also the mentality of the personal.