Robert L. Ellison

Biographical predictors of scientific performance.

The biographical approach to the identification of scientific talent has shown significant results in a variety of situations which included different laboratories, fields of specialization, and age groups. Much remains to be accomplished, however. The biographical approach needs to be validated in other organizational settings employing relevant criteria. Although this kind of research is being initiated, a number of studies are needed to define the advantages and limitations. The use of biographical information to identify the creative and other talents of executives, composers, administrators, and artists has been largely unexplored. Furthermore, the meaning of the biographical items has not been correlated with existing psychological theory and knowledge. All evidence to date indicates that the investigation of biographical information and its relationship to various criteria of performance and other psychological measures is a rapidly expanding area of investigation which will make further contributions to the identification of talent in a variety of fields.

Human Resource Management: An Index and its Relationship to Readiness for Change

Employees who reported that human resources were poorly managed in their work group and that changing work group procedures could make a positive difference also tended to report that the needed changes were not likely to occur. Periodic monitoring of management practices and the work group environment to point out needs and stimulate a concerted effort toward change is seen as necessary to avoid organizational decline.

Searching for Student Talent Resources Relevant to Our USDE Types of Giftedness

&dquo;Our search for multiple talents should have higher priority than our search for natural resources, because the discovery and development of the latter are fully dependent upon the former.&dquo; Two years ago this statement was made by Walter D. Talbot, the long-time Utah State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The word &dquo;Gifted&dquo; as used herein is defined as being highly talented in one of the important types of talents or gifts, with an ultimate target focused upon those with the highest potentials to become gifted in their full career and life activities. For 25 years we have averaged over one biographical study per year, involving continual construction, validation, revision, and refinement of a series of 24 successive biographical inventories (see Taylor et al., 1958; Ellison, 1960, 1964). These 24 inventories have collectively included hundreds of multiple choice biographical’items. This approach has been described as yielding dynamic biographical inventories, not merely one static, stable one.’ This sustained measurement work, which has been well &dquo;ahead of its day,&dquo; has been focused upon searching for indicators of high-level talents, especially creative talents initially. We have used these newly constructed, &dquo;fresh start&dquo; measures as change agents or improvement agents in leading toward better identification and educational cultivation of high level talents. The Form U Biographical Inventory was designed specifically and produced in 1976 for elementary and secondary schools. The Form U Inventory yields four scores: Academic Performance, Creativity, Leadership and Artistic Potential. This Inventory and its scores are based upon sustained research across numerous studies, focused mainly on adults. The biographical items from these earlier inventories have been retooled for use at earlier school

Predicting career performance of physicians using the biographical inventory approach

Abstract Two critical problems face professional and technical schools and their admissions committees: (1) the criterion problem of defining what constitutes a “good” career practitioner, and (2) the predictor problem of assessing in advance which applicants to the various schools are most likely to become these “good” career practitioners (and not just good students). The present project, working with a 333 physician sample, was designed to establish such criteria and predictors in the field of medicine. Seven important composite and summary criteria were established and five of them were successfully predicted with cross-validities at levels beyond .40 and ranging as high as .56 by a 351-item biographical inventory. A triplecross validation item-analysis design was used.