Stephen G. Atkins

Rating Tasks Versus Dimensions in Assessment Centers: A Psychometric Comparison

Assessment centers (ACs) have been widely criticized on the basis of measurement problems throughout the literature dating back to 1982. This study investigates whether an alternative to the prevailing trait paradigm would provide a more sensible treatment of AC ratings. All data were obtained in a real-world AC from the behavioral responses of 187 participants. Two paradigms of assessment were compared in a repeated measures design. The first model treated the AC data as though they comprised situationally specific behavioral samples. The second, more traditional model treated the data as though they were indicative of trait-based responses. Using generalizability theory, factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis, both models demonstrated similar psychometric characteristics, although only data treated under the situationally specific model held a conceptual justification in this study. These findings suggest that the situationally specific task-based model presents a more appropriate means by which to treat AC ratings in practice.

Frame of Reference Training for Assessment Centers: Effects on Interrater Reliability When Rating Behaviors and Ability Traits

Assessment centers have been widely criticized on the basis of measurement problems. The present study sought to present a methodological piece on the extent to which Frame of Reference (FOR) training would increase the interrater reliability associated with assessment center ratings provided by non-psychologist assessors. Five managerial assessors (with no psychological training) rated the behavior and the ability traits of a contrived participant on the basis of behaviors described in two alternative vignettes (detailing critical incidents of job performance). The ratings were obtained both before and following FOR training. It was found that agreement among assessors on their assessment of both behaviors and traits increased subsequent to the FOR training procedure. The implications of increasing the precision associated with assessment center ratings are discussed.

Compatibility effects based on stimulus and response numerosity

Four choice reaction time experiments documented a stimulus-response (S-R) compatibility effect involving the numbers of stimuli and responses. In Experiment 1, the stimulus consisted of one or two tones, and the correct response was either one or two taps of a response key. Responses were much faster with a compatible S-R assignment, in which the number of taps matched the number of tones, than with an incompatible assignment in which these numbers mismatched. Experiments 2 and 3 replicated this effect, using visual stimuli and bimodal stimuli, respectively, suggesting that auditory/manual rhythmic compatibility is not essential to it. Experiment 4 showed that an analogous but smaller effect is obtained when stimuli are the digits 1 and 2. This new numerosity-based compatibility effect has general theoretical implications regarding the mechanisms responsible for compatibility effects and practical implications for interface design.

Technology, Mobility, and Poverty Reduction

Information and Communication Technologies have had undeniable effects on global mobility. They not only facilitate the international mobility of goods, money, and people, they also enable the rapid, often instantaneous, transmission of thoughts, ideas, and data across the world, rendering knowledge, information, and networking opportunities essentially borderless. Depending on how they are cultivated and used, these trends can accelerate or impede efforts to advance peace, justice, and wellbeing. This chapter considers the implications of Information and Communication Technologies for global mobility and poverty reduction. First, the authors describe the technological climate in which developed and developing nations now operate. Trends and disparities in Internet usage are discussed, along with emerging changes that characterize contemporary Internet practices. The concepts of brain drain, gain, and circulation in today’s technology-infused society are then considered. Two points addressed in this discussion concern (i) the effects of Information and Communication Technologies on global mobility and (ii) how Information and Communication Technologies can change – perhaps even reverse – the effects of mobility on global inequalities. Finally, the authors emphasize technology’s potential to positively influence the world of aid and development by highlighting several promising initiatives which illustrate innovative uses of technology to promote humanitarian objectives. A key point conveyed throughout this chapter is that technology, if implemented effectively, has the potential to act as a social leveler by creating opportunities for all, particularly those who risk being left behind and being further marginalized. Accomplishing this aim requires active participation from a range of professionals, including psychologists, who are well-trained to deal with issues pertaining to technology acceptance, usability, virtual collaboration, and other aspects of computer-supported cooperative work. Expertise in areas such as these is essential if technology is to reduce poverty and turn global mobility into a source of “information gain” for impoverished regions of the world.

Online Volunteers and SmartAid

Volunteer aid delivery is central to humanitarian work, whether the work is in response to an unexpected disaster or directed at poverty reduction and international development more broadly. Many times, volunteer work assignments are relatively limited in duration. Short-term international volunteer aid has generated a great deal of controversy, criticism, and concern over the years, some of it warranted. Challenges and opportunities abound for humanitarian work psychology (HWP), which is poised to address many of these concerns. This chapter focuses on how industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology and information technology (IT) can be combined to improve the effectiveness and well-being of those receiving and delivering aid. Such is the focus of an emerging programme of work within the HWP community, known as SmartAid. This chapter begins with an overview of various problems stemming from international volunteer aid delivery, followed by a discussion of opportunities afforded by emerging trends in online volunteerism. It then describes the SmartAid concept, which entails addressing concerns pertaining to aid work by combining information and communication technologies with I-O psychology principles and interventions.

Poverty and Research

This chapter argues that aid advertisements, designed to help relieve poverty, are creating social problems of their own. Not only are the global aid media unintentionally fuelling local backlashes, in the form of negative stereotypes about “the poor” (Carr, Mc Auliffe, & MacLachlan, 1998). They are also encouraging implicit versions of those stereotypes, i.e., the negative stereotypes themselves are not available to consciousness. As a result, they pass by unrecognised and unmanaged, whilst latent prejudice and social division continue to grow. The reasons why this counterintuitive and insidious “rebound effect” happens are found in classical social psychological theory on reactions to social pressure, as well as the latest research on social cognition and affect. This chapter integrates these strands into a compelling case for rethinking current practice in aid advertising.

Numerosity and rhythmicity in stimulus-response compatibility

When people must respond discriminatively to 1 or 2 stimuli by making 1 or 2 taps of a response key, they initiate the response more rapidly when the correct number of taps matches the number of stimuli (compatible condition) than when it mismatches (incompatible condition; J. O. Miller, S. G. Atkins, & F. Van Nes, 2005). Miller et al. sometimes found an effect of compatibility on response execution time, as reflected in the interresponse intervals between successive taps. The authors report 2 further experiments (N=8 participants) in which they generalized the numerosity compatibility effects on response-initiation time and interresponse intervals to 2- versus 3-stimulus sequences. In addition, they varied gap length between stimuli to see whether the rhythm of the stimulus would influence that of the response. Weak rhythmicity effects were repeatedly found, but those were too small to suggest a plausible alternative explanation for the numerosity compatibility effect on response-initiation time.