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Emotional intelligence (EI) is reported to be inversely associated with emotional distress, although the potential role of negative repetitive thoughts in this relationship has not yet been explored. The current investigation examined the links between four facets of trait EI and emotional distress (i.e., symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder [GAD], depression, and social anxiety), and the mediating roles of worry, rumination, and post-event processing (PEP) in a sample of university students (N = 126). The EI facets of recognizing and regulating emotions in the self correlated negatively with emotional distress and negative repetitive thoughts. Regulation of emotions in others correlated only with levels of social anxiety. The role of negative repetitive thoughts was tested using three multiple mediator models. Worry independently mediated the link between EI and symptoms of GAD. Worry, rumination, and PEP independently mediated the link between EI and depression. Worry and rumination independently mediated the link between EI and social anxiety. Results suggest lower trait EI may lead to greater negative repetitive thoughts, which may increase the experience of emotional distress.

We assessed the combined effects of cognitive ability, opportunity to fake, and trait job-relevance on faking self-report emotional intelligence and personality tests by having 150 undergraduates complete such tests honestly and then so as to appear ideal for one of three jobs: nurse practitioner, marketing manager, and computer programmer. Faking, as expected, was greater (a) in higher-g participants, (b) in those scoring lower under honest conditions (with greater opportunity to fake), and (c) on job-relevant traits. Predicted interactions accounted for additional unique variance in faking. Combining all three factors yielded a “perfect storm” standardized difference of around 2, more than double the overall .83 estimate. Implications for the study of faking are discussed.

Concerns about socially desirable responding on self-report personality tests are heightened in employment settings where motivation to fake is elevated. Building on prior faking models and the classical X = T + e measurement model, we offer a unique performance-based perspective, in which opportunity, ability, and motivation to fake are jointly critical (P = O × A × M). Trait activation theory is used to show how impression management and self-deception can express multiple abilities and traits beyond those targeted and how response biases might be reduced. Three sets of testable hypotheses are offered. That nontargeted traits (e.g., ambition) serving faking might contribute to the prediction of job performance supports the view that faking could benefit selection decisions. Several arguments against this perspective are proposed.

Growing interest in emotional intelligence (EI) led us to evaluate the factor structure of six core trait-EI facets from Salovey and Mayer (1990) , assess the stability of the core factor structure across student ( N = 184) and worker ( N = 225) samples, and explore relations between core EI dimensions and four proximal outcomes from the same model. A three-factor structure, including Self Orientation , Other Orientation , and Emotional Sharing , replicated well across samples (fit indices range: .93–.98 per sample). Relations involving EI outcomes were less consistent. We conclude that trait-EI warrants assessment as specific facets rather than a global construct, core trait-EI structure may be stable across populations, and EI applications are context-specific.

Through a national survey of municipal police departments, this study identifies current selection and psychological assessment practices for police officers. Of the 355 police agencies invited to participate in the survey, 155 returned completed questionnaires (43%). Analyses of the extent and nature of assessment procedures revealed that the majority of police departments perform a background investigation, medical exam, interview with applicant, drug test, physical fitness exam, and polygraph test. Furthermore, more than 90% of responding agencies require a psychological evaluation of applicants, which shows a significant increase from prior surveys. Results from this study shed light on the changes and trends that have occurred in police selection in the past decade. Overall, the majority of police departments that responded used extensive and sophisticated selection measures, especially those departments serving larger cities. However, many agencies are not following public policy guidelines and psychological assessment recommendations, suggesting the need for further refinements.

Two studies compared specific versus broad measures in linking personality with work behavior. In Study 1, 100 university students completed the 20 subscales of the Personality Research Form and an in-basket exercise scored on 16 distinct managerial behaviors. In Study 2, 335 market research field representatives completed the Hogan Personality Inventory, containing 41 specific trait scales organized into seven primary scales, and were rated by their supervisors on seven performance dimensions. In both studies, significant linkages between broad personality and criterion variables (e.g., factors) were explained by stronger relations among relatively few specific variables. Moreover, consistent with prior research, weak relations among broad measures obscured important linkages at the specific level, including several cases of cancellation (i.e., specific traits loading the same factor in the same direction correlated with criteria in opposite directions). Canonical correlations with appropriate shrinkage correction revealed notable improvements in criterion validity over inter-factor correlations and helped summarize the data while retaining the diagnostic advantages of specificity. Our findings are unique by demonstrating the value of specificity on both sides of the prediction equation. Implications for personnel selection are discussed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Guided by fit-oriented personality theories, we asked with whom people prefer to work, given their own and others' personality traits and in light of trait-relevant work situations. Participants (N = 185) completed the Personal- ity Research Form (Jackson, 1989) and rated preference for hypothetical co-work- ers at opposite poles of Dominance, Affiliation, Autonomy, Defendence, and Abase- ment in simulated job settings varying in work proximity and supervisory status. As expected, judges preferred co-workers providing opportunity for trait expres- sion (e.g., affiliative judges preferred affiliative co-workers), especially when ex- pecting to work together and in light of who would be in charge (e.g., low-autono- mous judges preferred dominant supervisors). Use of personality data in team building is discussed.

An interactionist principle of trait activation is proposed, emphasizing situation trait relevance (i.e., opportunity for trait expression) as a moderator of trait–behavior relations and cross-situational consistency (CSC). One hundred fifty-six students completed trait measures and expressed intentions in 10 scenarios targeted to each of five traits (e.g., risk taking). Trait–intention correlations within scenario sets were themselves correlated with mean situation trait relevance ratings provided by 26 proficient judges; CSCs in intentions (45 correlations per trait) were correlated with an index of shared trait relevance in situation pairs. In support of trait activation, (a) trait–intention relations for three traits were higher in more relevant situations (e.g., second-order r = .66 for risk taking) and (b) CSCs were higher in scenarios jointly high in targeted trait relevance (e.g., second-order r = .55 for risk taking). Discussion highlights applications of trait activation in diverse research domains.

In light of repeated prescriptions for theory-driven prediction of job performance (Guion & Gottier, 1965; Tett, Jackson, Rothstein, & Reddon, 1999), the complexity of the manager's role calls for a comprehensive performance taxonomy more detailed than those offered previously. Review of recent discussion of the fidelity-bandwidth tradeoff (e.g., Hogan & Roberts, 1996; Ones & Viswesvaran, 1996) and the need for greater articulation of job performance (Campbell, 1994; Murphy & Shiarella, 1997) raise important issues regarding construct specificity in considering managerial behavior. None of 12 earlier managerial performance taxonomies (e.g., Borman & Brush, 1993; Tornow & Pinto, 1976; Yukl & Lepsinger, 1992) offers adequate specificity for meeting key research challenges. A "hyperdimensional" taxonomy of managerial competencies, derived from the earlier models and developed using unique methods, was subjected to content validation by expert review in 3 studies. In the first 2, a total of 110 Academy of Man...

Standard meta-analysis (Hunter & Schmidt, 1990a) assumes unidirectional (i.e., all positive or all negative) predictor-criterion relations. We challenge this assumption in the context of personality-job performance linkages based on several lines of evi- dence supporting the coexistence of true positive and true negative correlations in- volving the same trait. Subjecting such bidirectional relations to standard meta-analysis will underestimate effect sizes to an unknown degree owing to cancel- lation of positive and negative values. A modification of standard procedures is pro- posed that accounts for the possibility of bidirectionality. It employs successive itera- tion of an initial estimate of the absolute correlation, accounting for sample sizes and the sampling distribution of the correlation.

Research on graphology has provided mixed results regarding its validity in applied settings. Increasing popularity of this method (Edwards & Armitage, 1991) calls for continued evaluation. The current study sought to validate a popular graphoanalysis method proposed by Bunker (1979), which links specific handwriting elements to personality traits. Content-neutral handwriting of 49 college students was analyzed for 30 elements (e.g. length of t-cross) by two trained coders working independently. Participants also completed the Jackson Personality Inventory—Revised (JPI-R; Jackson, 1994), which measures 15 normal personality traits. Inter-rater agreement in handwriting analysis was moderately high (median reliability = 0.80). Both predicted and non-predicted correlations between handwriting elements and JPI-R scales were significant at around chance levels (i.e. 5%). In particular, of the 119 predicted relations, only six (5.0%) were significant in the expected direction and five (4.1%) were significant in the opposite direction. All told, current findings replicate those of previous studies and suggest limited value in hand-writing analysis as a predictive tool.