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This article demonstrates the applicability of the cusp catastrophe model to a twostage validity study for personnel selection which can simultaneously assess the success of a training program. Personnel selection is of interest substantively since its literature spans psychology, education, economics, management science, political philosophy, statistics, and psychometric theory. The basic problem is, in turn, pertinent to the study of any individuals integrating into an organization, or a therapy or social program.In an empirical example regression coefficients for conventional and cusp-difference models were compared using partially real and partially simulated data. Subjects were 272 salespersons from a Midwestern firm, of which 17 were Spanish-speaking Americans. Group membership was the dummy coded bifurcation (moderator) factor. A composite of personality and ability test scores was the asymmetry factor. The cusp model was a more efficient predictor of performance (R" = .39) than the moderator model (R' = .04) or a control equation using a bimodal transformation (R" = .04). It was also possible to obtain implicit discriminant functions (IDFS) to predict the top performing 16% of the sample (R' = .71), and the low performing 16% (R" = 35). The results were interpreted as supporting the usefulness of the statistical catastrophe models for twostage personnel selection and training, and similar problems. Differential impact, moderator, and interaction effects in organizational literature were discussed vis-a-vis the bifurcation concept.

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This monograph advances and tests a model proposing that changes in performance levels, rates of absenteeism, and turnover are best described by a nonlinear interactive process that is controlled by the subject’s abilities, intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors, and organizational climate variables. In an application to academic performance, changes in grade point average from high school to college were observed for 272 freshmen at a midwestern technical university. Operationalized control variables were American College Test scores plus others selected from the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory. Squared multiple correlation coefficients for the nonlinear (polynomial with ordinary least squares regression) hypothesis ranged from .35 to .70 for various data treatments, which were larger than values obtained for conventional linear hypotheses (.02 to .09). It is argued that (a) the theory subsumes most known motivational effects and ideas and that (b) its predictive superiority in appropriate situations warrants further motivation research of its type, plus explorations of other applications of catastrophe theory in applied psychology.

We describe the importance of evaluating workplace safety interventions. Based on the literature and other scources, we list eight areas for which readers can assess the quality of reports evaluating these interventions. The areas are: intervention objectives and their conceptual basis; study design; external validity; outcome measurement; use of qualitative data; threats to internal validity; statistical analysis; and study conclusions. Good quality evaluations can help avoid wasting limited time, money and eort on ineective or even harmful interventions. #