Philip K. Berger

A Path Analysis of Preventive Health Care Decision Models

A behavioral intention model and a health belief model were compared on the basis of their conceptual strength and predictive validity in a study of flu inoculation behavior. The results suggest that models incorporating evaluative components, normative influences, emotional factors, and intervening summary concepts may yield a greater understanding of health care decisions.

The Contribution of Sex Distribution, Job Content, and Occupational Classification to Job Sextyping: Two Studies.

Abstract The distribution of males and females on a job, occupational classification, and job content as defined by the DOT analysis of job activity demands were examined as predictors of job sex stereotypes in two studies. Results indicate that the actual base rate of males and females in the job is the most important predictor of job sextypes, accounting for 48 and 70% of the adjusted variance in sextypes in the two studies. The results lend little support to the proposition that job content makes a significant contribution to the perception of job sextypes.

Antecedents of Psychological Stress

In an effort to further understand the antecedents of psychological stress, this study tested two competing stress formulations. One formulation, called the traditional model, proposes that stress is a multiplicative function of perceived consequences and the degree of disparity between perceived demand and perceived ability. Given high consequences, stress is presumed to reach its maximum when demand is substantially greater than ability (overload) or when ability is substantially greater than demand (underload). The other formulation, the revised model, proposes that stress is a multiplicative function of perceived consequences and the degree of correspondence between perceived demand and perceived ability. Stress is presumed to reach its maximum when high consequences are combined with a close match between demand and ability resulting in high uncertainty. The formulations were tested in a naturally occurring stress setting, a classroom which required students to give class presentations. The results offered substantial support for the proposition that overload situations are stress inducing, no support for the traditional models position that overload and underload conditions are equally stressing, and no support for the revised model. Also, stress varied independently of perceived consequences. Several methodological issues were discussed, including a crucial one questioning the use of absolute levels of discrepancy rather than signed levels of discrepancy between perceived ability and demand in the models.

Masculinity-femininity perceptions of job requirements and their relationship to job-sex stereotypes

Abstract Perceived sex appropriateness of the work situation is believed to constrain work opportunities, particularly for women. However, sex appropriateness may be defined either with respect to the entire job or with respect to the tasks which comprise the job. In this study sex appropriateness of job tasks was examined by obtaining subjective estimates of the masculinity-femininity of the job requirement dimensions defined by the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). Results indicate that interacting with things is perceived as masculine, interacting with people is perceived as feminine, and interacting with data is perceived as falling between the other two. There is less agreement on the masculinity-femininity of specific types of interactions with data, people, and things. Sex appropriateness of specific requirements was found to be only moderately associated with the DOTs assessment of the complexity of those requirements. Further, sex appropriateness of job requirements was not highly related to the job sextypes established by Shinar ( Shinar, E. H. Journal of Vocational Behavior , 1975 , 7 , 99–110) and Krefting et al. ( Krefting, L. A., Berger, P. K., and Wallace, M. J. Jr. Journal of Vocational Behavior , 1978 , 13 , 181–191). This suggests that sex appropriateness of a job and sex appropriateness of the tasks which comprise the job are distinct, separate concepts.

Analogues between Medical and Industrial Safety Research on Compliance Behavior

Medical care compliance refers to the extent to which a person’s behavior coincides with medical or health advice. The advice is usually in the form of a prescription for the regular use of a medication or a regimen to change a life-style pattern, such as modification of diet, increasing exercise, flossing teeth, and similar activities designed to maintain or restore health.

Birth Order and Managerial Achievement

The article discusses a study that tested the generalizability of the relationship between birth order and achievement in a sample of middle managers. The measure of achievement in the study was de...

Estimating the Impact of Health and Safety Training Using the Retrospective Pretest Design

Abstract An alternative to the traditional pretest/postest method of assessing training program effectiveness from hazardous waste worker training, called the retrospective pretest design, is explored in this study. In the retrospective pretest design, trainee self-reports about their knowledge, skills, abilities, and/or attitudes are obtained only after the completion of the training, not before. Trainees provide two types of self-reports: (1) the traditional posttraining outcome responses and (2) responses on how they would have answered those same outcome items before they participated in the health and safety program. These latter responses are known as retrospective pretests, and comparison of the two responses for an item is considered a better measure of true change due to training than the traditional pretraining and posttraining responses to the same item. Data from five types of hazardous waste worker health and safety training curricula (40-hour site worker; 24-hour treatment, storage, and disp...

ADVISABILITY OF PRETEST DESIGNS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

The advantages, disadvantages, and appropriateness of pretest designs vis-a-vis posttest-only investigations are reviewed from a pragmatic perspective. Generally, pretests provide information on pretreatment states of nature and allow analysis of change scores, but they also tend to introduce main effects and interactions as well as difficulties in analysis which preclude an unambiguous interpretation of treatment effects. These problems are illustrated with data from a field experiment conducted in the manner of a Solomon (1949) design. The results showed that three alternative analyses of pretested subjects yielded conclusions which conflicted with those obtained in both an after-only group analysis and a factorial analysis of the complete Solomon design. It was concluded that pretesting may introduce more interpretative problems than it resolves and that the cost-efficient posttest-only design may be adequate in many cases.

Behaviorally Based Measures for Assessing the Non-Clinical Performance of Expanded Function Dental Auxiliaries in Team Settings

Retranslation of expectations technique was used to develop behaviorally-anchored scales for evaluating the performance effectiveness of expanded function dental auxiliaries (EFDAs) working in extended dental health teams. The resulting instrument focuses on the evaluators judgment of specific acts in eight dimensions of performance.

Job Content, Job Sextype and Sex Segregation in Employment: Three Tests of Conventional Wisdom.

Job content, occupational group and base rate of males and females on a job are examined as predictors of Job sextype. In addition, job content is examined as a predictor of relative proportions of males holding a job. Results lend little support to the idea that job content (and presumed male-female ability differences) have an impact on sextypes or relative proportions of males on a job.