Harold W. Goldstein

Examining the Relationship Between Race-Based Differential Item Functioning and Item Difficulty:

Recent research examining racial differences on standardized cognitive tests has focused on the impact of test item difficulty. Studies using data from the SAT and GRE have reported a correlation between item difficulty and differential item functioning (DIF) such that minority test takers are less likely than majority test takers to respond correctly to easy test items. The statistical techniques used and the effect sizes reported in these studies have been heavily criticized. This study addresses these criticisms by examining the relationship between item difficulty and DIF by using alternative statistical techniques based on item response theory and a different standardized test. The results replicate previous research and provide support for the generalizability of the findings.

Sensation seeking and arousal: Effects of strong stimulation of electrodermal activation and memory task performance

Abstract The frequently observed behavioral effects of the sensation-seeking dimension may be based in a biological substrate involving the reticulocortical activation system and the catecholamine system. Under this theory, high sensation seekers should exhibit elevated levels of psychophysiological arousal as compared with low sensation seekers. Subjects in the present study were exposed to a series of auditory sexual and violent stimuli at three levels of intensity and later required to perform recall and recognition memory tasks involving these stimuli. A vigilance task was also employed. Results showed that phasic electrodermal response amplitude was significantly higher in high than low sensation seekers on a variety of measures, including initial response amplitude and intertrial amplitude. Moreover, the size of these personality group differences increased as a function of increasing stimulus intensity. Findings were interpreted as supporting the theory that high sensation seekers should be more responsive to stimulation as a result of their hypothetically more exitable central nervous systems.

Seeking explanations in people, not in the results of their behavior: Twenty-plus years of the attraction-selection-attrition model.

Without question, one of Ben Schneider’s most important contributions has been to formulate and test the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) model (e.g., Schneider, 1987). One can view his 1987 seminal paper in the context of research and debates that preceded it, particularly through the theoretical lens of the person-situation debate. Though psychologists had long struggled to answer the nature-nurture question of whether stable person characteristics or situational attributes account for more variation in behavior, the debate became most heated after Walter Mischel wrote a treatise on the primacy of situations in 1968. Many, such as Block (1978) and Bowers (1973), argued against Mischel’s initial position. Most researchers in organizational psychology now accept that behavior is a function of characteristics of the person and the environment (Magnusson & Endler, 1977). The challenge, however, as Schneider (1987) astutely noted, has been to develop concepts and methods that determine not only

Training as an Approach for Organisations to the Challenges of Human Resource Issues in the Year 2000

The training challenges facing organisations resulting from changes over the next several decades are described. These include a decreasing number of persons available for entry level positions including a growing proportion of undereducated young people. Also, jobs will become more complex as a result of technological developments and yet will require more interpersonal interaction between individuals who have different values and who come from different cultures. These changes will result in the need for training systems to maximise the potential of each individual, including basic skill and support programmes for unskilled young people who will need to perform more cognitively complex tasks. Training will also be necessary to help managers work with a more diverse workforce including helping individuals understand how to provide support for persons who have not traditionally been a part of their work organisation.