We demonstrated a general strategy for detecting motives that people wish to conceal. The strategy consists of having people choose between two alternatives, one of which happens to satisfy the motive. By counterbalancing which one does so, it is possible to distill the motive by examining the pattern of choices that people make. The motive used in the demonstration is the desire we believe most people have to avoid the physically handicapped. Because they do not wish to reveal this desire, we predicted that they would be more likely to act on it if they could appear to choose on some other basis. In two studies we found that people avoided the handicapped more often if the decision to do so was also a decision between two movies and avoidance of the handicapped could masquerade as a movie preference.

The reliability of a method of adjusting grade point averages for differences in departmental grading standards was examined, as were the effects of such adjustments on the predictive validity of high school grades, SAT scores, and achievement test scores. The index of differential grading standards for all on-time graduates of the Dartmouth College class of 1986 was quite reliable, and its use in adjusting grade averages increased predictive validity, reduced its erosion over years, reduced the apparent underprediction of women, and improved predictions for blacks. Differential group enrollment in courses in the science division seems to account for much of the effect of adjustment on grades. Improvement in the reliability of the criterial grade averages also was shown to have similar effects on gender and race prediction in another data set,In an earlier paper (Strenta & Elliott, 1987) we showed that the prediction by Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores of first-year grade point averages (GPA1) or four-year cumulative (CUM) grade point averages were improved when the variance in the GPA criterion associated with different departmental grading standards was reduced, either by adjusting the grades by an index of differential grading rigor, or by employing as a criterion a course or courses in which grading standards were nearly uniform. The data came from all the members of the Dartmouth class of 1983 and from all psychology majors over a period of 9 years.In the present investigation, using data from all on-time graduates of the class of 1986, we extended the prior analyses in several ways. First, we speculated that adjusting for within as well as between-department standards would improve prediction, and we made such adjustments here. Second, we extended the between-department analysis from 18 to 33 departments and programs in order to make the index more complete. Third, we employed all three traditional predictors--SAT, Achievement Test scores (ACH), and high school rank (HSR)--in the analyses. Fourth, we analyzed the prediction of independently and annually computed GPAs (GPAI, GPA2, etc.) to examine the effect of criterion adjustment on the course of prediction over the undergraduate career. Fifth, we examined the effect of criterion adjustment on prediction by ethnicity and by gender, using current as well as earlier data not heretofore reported.The circumstances that occasion GPA adjustments are these: Certain depart-333