IAAP Newsletter,

International Association of Applied Psychology

Newsletter: Volume 8, Issue 1, April, 1996

Contents

Editorial: Miriam Erez

Our own Newsletter, in particular, is designated to promote such collaboration and exchange. In this issue, Victoria del Barrio, President of Clinical and Community Psychology, shares with us her view of the crucial issues in the field of Clinical and Community Psychology. In addition, a survey of Spanish Clinical Psychology articles is summarized. K. Boenke and S. Rippl translated the abstract of their research on authoritarianism which was published in Spanish. The divisions of Organizational Psychology, Psychological Assessment and Evaluation, and Educational and School Psychology share information with their members.

I encourage all the readers of the Newsletter to send me their ideas and responses. These responses will appear under Letters to the Editor in thenext issue. The provocative paper by Peter Dachler, which appeared in Volume 7, issue 2, has stimulated numerous responses, including a request to publish it in another journal.

The October 1995 issue of our Newsletter can be reached here online

Finally, special thanks to Eva Gaster, from the Technion, Israel, for her help in preparing this Newsletter.

President's Letter: Bernhard Wilpert

AFFILIATE INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS MEMBERS

I am proud to report that procedures of affiliation have been initiated with the following Associations which have expressed their interest in such a link:

• International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS)
• International Association for the Psychology of Food & Nutrition (IAPFoN)
• International Academy of Family Psychology (IAFP)
• International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP)
• International Society for Health Psychology (ISHP)
• International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development (ISSBD)
• International Society for Political Psychology (ISPP)

The International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) has already accepted the invitation to become an Affiliate Member of IAAP. The ISPP President is Prof. Doris A. Graber, Dept. of Political Science, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 60607-7137, USA.

NEW MEMBERS OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

• Helio Carpintero, Spain;
• Frances M. Culbertson, USA;
• J. Mohan, India;
• A.B. Nsamenang, Cameroon;
• Euclides Sanchez Veliz, Venezuela.

CONTACTS TO INTERNATIONAL BODIES

IAAP NEEDS STUDY

Looking back and ahead suggests IAAPs achievements and new challenges. Lets together enjoy the former and tackle the latter.

In Translation: Selections from non-English language Journals

Did socialism produce authoritarianism?, (Produce autoritarismo el socialismo?) Psicología Politica, 10, 1995, 87-105,by Klaus Boehnke & Susanne Rippl

Did socialization in the formerly socialist states of Eastern Central Europe produce authoritarian personalities? This question is pursued in a cross-cultural study of East and West German high school students and high school students from the United States. The eruptions of right-wing extremist activities after the fall of the Wall gave a new focus to the idea of the authoritarian character. Especially in Germany there is an extensive debate about the authoritarian structure of the political system of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) and its effects on the development of individuals. One of the basic aims of the GDR was the education of a so-called socialist personality. To reach this aim the system tried to influence child-rearing modalities from early childhood on. Arato (1991) even speaks of an authoritarian socialist formation. Other authors emphasize the possibilities of retreat, the private isles free of ideology as places for development. Theoretically, the study is based on the theory of the authoritarian personality (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswick, Levinson & Stanford, 1950) Adorno et al. maintain that the development of prejudices are the expression of deeper structures in the character, which arise from rigid socialization practices in the early childhood. In more modern terminology, parental style during childhood and the family climate are seen as decisive factors. Empirical data of the present study stem from adolescent samples from West and East Germany from 1990 and 1991, collected in the phase of unification, and a sample from the United States (1991).

The study was originally started by Gerda Lederer in 1979 to analyze the extent of authoritarianism in post-war Germany in comparison to the United States. In the present study, differences and similarities in authoritarian attitudes between Eastern and Western societies are examined.

Furthermore, gender differences are analyzed. Thirdly, the assumption is tested, if an authoritarian (personality) syndrome can be assumed for the three cultural contexts.

Analyses of variance and confirmatory factor analyses (LISREL) are used to test the three hypotheses. The central finding is that an authoritarian personality syndrome, characterized by patterns of different facets of right-wing and rigid attitudes, exists in all three countries. This confirmation of the existence of an authoritarian character structure in different countries underscores findings of other studies which showed that one generally cannot empirically distinguish patriotic, xenophobic, intolerant, and related orientations from one another. People hold either all or none of these convictions. Furthermore, we found no evidence that state socialism produces more authoritarian personalities than Western democracies.

Gender-specific socialization practices seem to have more influence than does the educational intentions of the political system. In addition, the study revealed that adolescence is a hot phase for changes in the level of authoritarianism; with some cross-cultural variation, one can say that it declines with age. All in all, one can say that the assumption of an authoritarian syndrome proved to be a valid starting point of research. The evolution of the syndrome, however, seems to be influenced more by gender-specific socialization and by unique cultural influences on adolescent personality development than by crude influences of political systems.

Division of Psychological Assessment & Evaluation Esther Diamond

Message from the President - R. Fernández-Ballesteros:

The last few months of 1995 were very busy for psychological assessment and evaluation. In the first week of July, 13 scientific events on psychological assessment took place at the Fourth European Congress of Psychology in Athens. IAAP Division 2 presented a symposium titled Guidelines for Adapting Psychological Tests for Use in Multiple Languages and Cultures, which was convened by President-elect Ron Hambleton. The meeting also agreed to set up a taskforce, in collaboration with the Europe an Association of Psychological Assessment (EAPA) and other international organizations, to establish guidelines for the psychological assessment process.

It is commonly understood that psychological assessment is an extremely complex problem-solving process involving answering questions, checking hypotheses, and making decisions in order to describe, classify, predict, explain, or control target behaviors of a given subject or group. In other words, psychological assessment attempts to answer applied questions for diagnosis, counseling, personnel selection, and/or intervention. During this process, psychological tests are often used to collect relevant data.

Throughout the history of psychological assessment, standards have been developed mainly for tests and testing (e.g., APA and other American and international organizations are currently revising and/or developing such standards). However, in order to help assessors and evaluators of teaching and assessment, guidelines for the whole process of assessment are required. Sponsored by Division 2, EAPA and other international organizations, this task force plans to begin its work this year.

Similar concerns were voiced at the Third European Conference on Psychological Assessment, sponsored by the EAPA and held in Trier, Germany on August 28-30. Two hundred psychologists from 34 countries attended. Four invited lectures, five symposia, five thematic sessions, and more than 100 free papers were presented. Division 2 had an active role: Ron Hambleton and Fernando Silva were invited speakers, Rocío Fernández-Ballesteros chaired a symposium, and Niels Bomholt, EAPA executive and IAAP 2 Secretary, also participated. A highlight of the conference was the presentation of the first EAPA award.

UNITED CONCEPT OF VALIDITY

The newer unified concept of validity integrates consideration of all three aspects - content, construct, and criterion validity - into a construct framework for the empirical testing of rational hypotheses about score meaning and theoretical relationships, including those of an applied and scientific nature. Messick outlines six aspects of construct validity that address central issues implicit in the notion of validity as a unified concept: content, substantive, structural, generalizability, external, and consequential aspects of construct validity. These aspects function as general criteria or standards for all educational and psychological measurements, including performance assessment.

Messicks support of the unified concept of validity is expanded further in an article in the special Winter 1995 issue of Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, titled Values and Standards in Performance Assessment: Issues, Findings, and Viewpoints. Validity, reliability, comparability, and fairness, Messick states, are important psychometric principles, but they are also social values that have meaning outside of assessment, wherever evaluative judgments and decisions are made. Validity, he maintains, is not a property of the test or assessment as such, but of the meaning of the test scores. Scores, he explains further, are functions not only of the items or the stimulus conditions, but also of the persons responding and of the content of the assessment. As a salient social value, validity assumes both a scientific and a political role that cannot be fulfilled by a simple correlation coefficient between test score and a purported criterion, or by expert judgments that the content of the test is relevant to the purported test use.

Messick views validity as a summary of both the evidence for and the actual and potential consequences of score interpretation and use, integrating considerations of content, criteria, and consequences into a construct framework for empirically testing rational hypotheses about score meaning and utility. It is an empirical evaluation of the meaning and consequences of measurement, combining scientific inquiry with rational argument to justify or nullify score interpretation and use.

Issues of score meaning, relevance, utility, and social consequences are many-faceted and intertwined, Messick cautions, citing six aspects of general validity criteria:

1. The content aspect - evidence of content relevance, representativeness, and technical quality.
2. The substantive aspect - theoretical rationales for observed consistencies in test responses.
3. The structural aspect - the extent to which the internal structure of the assessment is reflected in the scores and the underlying dimensions. Is the task structure consistent with the structure of the construct domain at issue?
4. The generalizability aspect - the extent to which score properties and interpretations generalize to and across population groups, settings, and tasks, including the validity generalization of test-criterion relationships.
5. The external aspect - convergent and discriminant evidence from multi-trait and multi-method comparisons.
6. The consequential aspect - appraises value implications of score interpretations as a basis for action, as well as potential consequences of test use; sources of validity related to issues of bias, fairness, and distributive justice.

HERE AND THERE IN ASSESSMENT

The Kuder Book of People Who Like Their Work contains descriptions of 200 occupations in all 50 US states of people who enjoy their work. The data were compiled by John A. Hornday, a collaborator of Professor Frederic Kuder dating back to the development of the Kuder interest inventories, and Lucinda A. Gibson. The data was collected in the 1990s through open-ended questionnaires. The process continues, and more job descriptions in the words of job holders are planned for future editions.

The International Council of Psychologists has issued Volume I Number I of World Psychology. It stresses the importance of looking at psychology from a global perspective, exploring how psychology is conceptualized, practiced, and taught around the world. This first volume, for example, contains an article on international psychology in the coming century, one on the origins and development of Mexican ethnopsychology, one on psychology in Southn Africa, and one on women in the Antarctic.

Message from the Division Newsletter Editor - E. Diamond:

MENTAL ALERTNESS IN THE ELDERLY

Is cognitive decline in old age inevitable, as studies of normal aging have indicated? Education and good lung function predict how well people will function in old age, according to a recent study in Psychology and Aging, reported in the February APA Monitor. Researchers from Harvard, Yale and Duke Universities studied 1200 adults ages 70 to 79, assessing their cognitive abilities at the outset of the study and again two to two-and-a-half years later. They also measured variables such as alcohol intake, smoking, emotional support, education, social ties, level of activity, and HDL cholesterol level. Education was the best predictor of cognitive change; the more years that the people studied and attended school, the less the cognitive decline. Pulmonary-peak expiratory flow rate, a long-function measure, was the second best predictor. Strenuous activity throughout life also led to less cognitive decline. People with a high measure of self-efficacy-- their feelings about their ability to influence their fate -- also had less cognitive decline.

The authors of the study offered several possible explanations of why education is such a strong predictor of cognitive change in the elderly; education affects the brain early in life and provides for reserve capacity in later life. Also, according to another explanation, more education may enhance ability to perform well on cognitive tests, possibly making people better able to compensate for cognitive decline.

NEW VIEW OF STRUCTURE OF VOCATIONAL INTERESTS

A new view of the structure of vocational interests is presented in a special issue of the Journal of Vocational Behavior (February 1996). Terence Tracey and James Rounds present their research on a spherical structure of vocational interests. Six scholars -- five of them recognized experts in interest measurement -- follow with challenging critiques that promise to lead to empirical investigation and further debate and, eventually, deeper understanding of vocational interests and their measurement.

Based on a study with undergraduate college students asked to state their preferences to a sample of 229 occupational titles, a principal components analysis supported the existence of a prestige factor in addition to the people/things and data/ideas components. Using Hollands RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) model, Tracey and Rounds created 24 subscales for geometrically defined combinations of the prestige, people/things, and data/ideas components and found that they lay on the surface of the sphere. Examination of the spherical structure by two independent samples of students resulted in strong support for the structure.

A major implication, the authors concluded, was the need to incorporate prestige in all assessments of interests. Occupational preference could be represented in three substantive dimensions. An empirical test of the fit of the data to a perfect sphere confirmed the existence of a spherical interest structure. Cross-validation of the results on two separate samples further supported the generalizability of the spherical nature of vocaitonal interests.

WHAT MEASURES BEST PREDICT REAL-WORLD PERFORMANCE?

Claims for the success of intelligence tests and other measures of cognitive ability in predicting real-world performance have increasingly been questioned. As psychologist Robert J. Sternberg of Yale University, Richard K. Wagner of Florida State University, and Wendy M. Williams and Joseph A.Horvath, both of Yale, point out in Testing Common Sense in the November 1995 American Psychologist, we all know individuals who shone in school but failed in their real-life careers, or who failed in school but succeeded in their real-life careers. The major amount of variance in real-life performance is not accounted for by intelligence test scores. The average validity coefficient between cognitive ability tests and measures of job performance is approximately .2 and about .4 between cognitive ability tests and measures of performance in job training programs.

The need for better predictors of job performance have impelled researchers to explore new constructs in search of measures to supplement existing cognitive ability tests. The most promising construct so far, Sternberg et al.s report, is practical knowledge, or common sense --or tacit knowledge, which can be effectively measured. The tests typically used consist of a set of work-related situations, each of which poses a problem for the participant to solve. The participant rates the various response choices to indicate how she or he would solve the problem. Several scoring procedures are described.

Research on tacit knowledge measures has shown that the construct is important in predicting not only business performance, but performance in other domains as well. Tacit knowledge has also been shown to be instrumental to school success and, as the research has demonstrated, it can be taught effectively.

For the present and foreseeable future, Sternberg and his colleagues conclude, the most viable approach to increasing the variance accounted for in real-world criteria, such as job performance, is to supplement existing intelligence and aptitude tests with a measure based on new constructs, such as practical, or tacit, intelligence. Use of both kinds of measures --traditional cognitive-academic ability tests and tests of practical intelligence, the authors maintain, should result in more effective prediction than reliance on either type alone.

Division of Educational, Instructional & School Psychology Alison Elliot

In addition, Division 5, Educational, Instructional and School Psychology, has had two informal meetings of the Executive Committee members who were in attendance at the 1995 AERA meeting in April 1995 in San Francisco and those in attendance at the 1995 EARLI meeting in August 1995 in Nijmegen.

Here are the major decisions that affect our Division:

1. The overall theme for the conference will be: The Challenge for Applied Psychology: Bridging the Millenia. Given that we will be meeting two years before the millenia, the Scientific Program Committee would like to encourage sessions that look both forward to the 21st Century as well as those that look backward and give us a sense of our history and progress.
2. There will be one Keynote Speaker from each division with no other sessions of that division scheduled opposite the speaker. The speaker for Division 5 will be Zhang Houcan from Beijing University of China.
3. It is expected that there will be five invited speakers for our division. Speakers will be selected from a list generated by members. It is intended that speakers are representatives of diversity across gender, ethnicity, regions of world, and substantive area of research interest.
4. There will be five invited symposia for our Division. These include the following and all will attempt to address the theme of the conference regarding bridging the millenia.
   • a) Psychological aspects of education in the age of technology, Organizer: Gavriel Salomon, Israel.

   • b) Transfer of knowledge and skill - Organizer: Eric De Corte, Belgium.

   • c) Psychology of learning in different subject matter areas, Organizer: Stella Vosniadou.

   • d) Integrating cognitive and affective/motivational components of learning, Organizer: Monique Boekaerts, The Netherlands.

   • e) Learning to learn and teaching to learn, Organizer: to be decided.

   • f) Applying educational psychology to the improvement of schooling, Organizer: to be decided.

Forthcoming Conferences

May, 11-25,1996, Valencia, Spain, International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology.

May, 21-24, 1996, Mobile, Alabama, USA. 26th Information Exchange on What is new in O.D. and Human Resource Development.

July 24-28, 1996, Banff, Alberta, Canada, International Council of Psychologists 54th Annual Convention. Convention Theme: Education and Psychology in the 21st Century, Correspondence and Information:Banff ICP Convention Services, Dept. of Educational Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G2G5. Fax: (403) 492-1318; Phone: (403) 4921-3693, Bruce Bain, Scientific Program Chair and President Elect ICP.E-mail E-mail: bruce.bain@ualberta.ca Phone: (403) 492-0940, Deb Black, Banff ICP Convention Services Secretary.

July 30 - Aug. 4, 1996, Breckenridge, Colorado. ODAM. Organizational Psychology division is a co-sponsor of the IEA International, Symposium on Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management. Contact: Prof. Ogden Brown, Jr. ODAM 96, Belle Aire Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80906-4204, U.S.A. Tel and fax is: (719) 635-8881.

August, 12-16, 1996, Montreal, Canada, The 13th Cross Cultural Psychology Congress. Contact: COPLANOR CONGRES INC.511 Place dArmes, #600Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2Y 2W7 Tel.: (514) 848 1133; Fax: (514) 288 6469

August 16-21, 1996 26th International Congress of Psychology, Montreal, Canada.

Two IAAP-sponsored symposia have been accepted by organizers of the Congress:

- Cross-fertilization between basic and applied psychology, Chair: Michael Frese

- The Utility of Applied Psychological Research for Society, Chair: Bernhard Wilpert.

Further, it can be expected that many individual contributions from IAAP members will be submitted and accepted by the organizers.

Contact: Nicole Léger, Congress Manager. XXVI International Congress of Psychology National Research Council Canada, Montreal Road, Building M-19. Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA K1A OR6 Tel: (613) 993-9431; Fax: (613) 993-7250; E-mail E-mail: CONFMAIL@aspm.lan.nrc.ca Internet: http://www.nrc.ca/confserv/psych96/welcome.html

ADVANCED RESEARCH TRAINING SEMINARS (ARTS) 1996.

1.Qualitative Research Methods: Applications across Cultures and Ethnic Groups, organized by Dr. Alastair Ager of Queen Margaret College, Edinburgh, Dr. Marta Young of the University of Ottawa, and Dr. Chiwoza Bandawe of the University of Malawi. This ARTS wil be held in Ottawa on Aug. 22-25, 1996. Contact: Prof. Alastair Ager, Dept. of Management & Social Sciences, Queen Margaret College, Corstorphine Campus, Clerwood Terrace, Edingburgh EH12 8TS, UK. (Fax: 44 131 317 3605).

2.Early Intervention in Families and Other Settings for Infants and Young Children: Cross-Cultural Experience, organized by Dr. Pnina S. Klain of Bar-Ilan Univ. and Dr. Michael J. Hoivin of Spring Arbor College, Michigan.This ARTS will be held in Spring Arbor, Michigan either before the Int. Congress of Cross-Cultural Psychology or after the Int. Congress of Psychology. Contact: Prof. Pnina S. Klein, School of Education, Bar-Ilan University, 52900, Ramat Gan, Israel. (Fax: 972 3 535 3319).For further information, please contact: Cigdem Kagitcibaci, Coordinator,ARTS 1996, Koc University, 80860 Istinye, Istanbul, Turkey. Fax: 90 212 229 0680;E-mail E-mail: CKAGIT@ARES.KU.EDU.TR

August, 22-25, 1996, Montreal, Canada, Fifth International Conference on Work Values and Behavior, Organized by: The International Society for the Study of Work and Organizational Values (ISSWOV). For information , please contact: Dr. V. Baba Department of Management, Concordia University 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1M8 FAX: (514) 848-2839; E-mail: BABA@VAX2.concordia.ca or Dr. Rabi Kanungo, Faculty of Management, McGill University, 1001 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2G5 FAX: (514) 398-3876, E-mail E-mail: Kanungo@NS.management.mcgill.ca

September, 16-19, 1996, Aston University, British Academy of Management. Deadline for submission is Tuesday 2 April, 1996. Contact: Pat Clark, Aston Business School, Aston University, BAM Conference Office, 11th Floor South Wing, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, UK B47ET; Fax: 0121-333-5620; E-mail E-mail: P.A.Clark1@Aston.ac.uk

Oct. 29-Nov. 2, 1996, Cairo, Egypt.16th Organizational Development World Congress on Organization Development Technology: Adding Value.Contact : The O.D. Institute, 11234 Walnut Ridge Road, Chestland, Ohio 44026,USA.

Location to be fixed August 1996 in Montreal

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Last modified: March 29th, 1996