Reviews research that is concerned with evaluating the psychometric qualities of data in the form of ratings (rating errors) and that has been plagued with conceptual and operational confusion and inconsistency. Following a brief historical survey, inconsistencies in definitions, quantifications, and methodologies are documented in a review of more than 20 relevant articles published in Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, and Personnel Psychology (1975–1977). Empirical implications of these inconsistencies are discussed, and a revised typology of rating criteria, combined with a multivariate analytic approach, is suggested. (65 ref)

The authors wish to thank Dallas Johnson for his valuable contributions to this article and to Patrick Shrout for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article. The authors also wish to thank Jerome L. Myers for his suggestions on deriving the limits of the ICC formulas.

A set of three studies replicated and extended Abbey's (1982) research, indicating that men perceive less friendliness, but more sexuality than women when observing women's social interactions. Study 1 was based on 49 previously unacquainted male‐female pairs who engaged in brief face‐to‐face discussions, and 48 males and 61 females who observed one of those discussions. Study 2 was based on videotaped exchanges between a male store manager and a female cashier, and Study 3 between a male professor and a female student; 75 males and 88 females participated in Study 2, while 98 males and 102 females participated in Study 3. In all three studies, the men saw less friendliness, but more “sexiness” in the woman's behavior than the women. These results support the idea that some of the less severe forms of sexual harassment in business and academic settings may be better understood eventually through research and theory development that considers these sex differences in social perceptions.

A 1977 review of the job involvement literature by Rabinowitz and Hall suggested that the relationships between involvement and three classes of variables (personal characteristics, situational characteristics, and work outcomes) are approximately equal in magnitude. The present study examined the portions of common variance shared by combinations of personal and situational characteristics and job involvement using data collected from 218 workers in a mediumsized manufacturing company. Bivariate correlations supported Rabinowitz and Hall's profile of the job-involved worker. Multivariate analyses suggested, however, that job involvement is better understood by dividing "personal" characteristics into personal-demographic (age, sex, etc.) and personal-psychological (higher order needs, Protestant work ethic endorsement, etc.) variables. Further, these analyses suggested that both the situational (job) characteristics and the personal-psychological variables shared more common variance with job involvement than did personal-demographic variables. The status of job involvement-work outcome relationships is discussed.

This study examined whether gender differences in sexually based perceptions of social interactions persist when traditional male–female power roles are reversed, when the interaction becomes progressively more sexually harassing, and when the response to the harassment is accepting or rejecting. A laboratory experiment was conducted in which 187 female and 165 male undergraduate students viewed a 5‐minute videotape. Twelve versions of a scenario depicting a professor interacting with a cross‐sex student were created which manipulated the sex of the powerholder, level of harassment, and response to harassment. Results indicated that men perceived the female target as behaving in a “sexier” manner regardless of her status, the level of harassment, or the victim's response. Women's sexually based perceptions of the most harassing male professor were greater than men's, however. Incorporating these gender differences in perceptions into a much‐needed comprehensive model of sexual harassment (Zedeck & Cascio, 1984) appears to be warranted.