Growth and Hope after loss: How TAPS facilitates posttraumatic growth in those grieving military deaths.

We examined posttraumatic growth for 691 participants of the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS). Peer mentors of bereaved individuals experienced greater posttraumatic growth (PTG) and reported higher psychological health than those who were non-peer mentors. Active involvement in TAPS and resilience consistently and positively predicted all types of PTG. These prediction models were far stronger (R2, AIC) for the suicide-bereaved sample than those bereaved by other causes, and post-hoc analyses suggest suicide-bereaved benefitted more than those bereaved by other causes from active participation in TAPS.

The influence of group discussion on performance judgments: rating accuracy, contrast effects, and halo.

The authors investigated the effect of group discussion, such as may occur formally in panel interview scenarios, assessment centers, or 360-degree feedback situations, on judgments of performance. Research on group polarization suggests that the effect of group discussion combined with raters' preexisting impressions of ratees or interviewees should result in an extremitization of impressions. Thus, the authors hypothesized that group discussion would (a) make ratings less accurate, (b) polarize impressions that were already good or poor as reflected by greater contrast effects, and (c) increase positive halo. Results indicated that group discussion resulted in less accurate ratings and greater contrast effects. Additional analyses suggested that group discussion increased positive halo. The authors discuss implications for research on group or panel judgments.

Accountability and need for cognition effects on contrast, halo, and accuracy in performance ratings.

In the present study, the authors investigated the effects of accountability and need for cognition on contrast errors, halo, and accuracy of performance ratings examined in good and poor performance context conditions, as well as in a context-free control condition. The accountability manipulation reduced the contrast effect and also modified rater recall of good ratee behavior. Accountability reduced halo in ratings and increased rating accuracy in a poor performance context. Accountability also interacted with need for cognition in predicting individual rater halo.