Browsing by Author "Kell, Harrison J."

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    Commenting on the “Great Debate”: General Abilities, Specific Abilities, and the Tools of the Trade
    (MDPI, 2019) Beier, Margaret E.; Kell, Harrison J.; Lang, Jonas W.B.
    We review papers in the special issue regarding the great debate on general and specific abilities. Papers in the special issue either provided an empirical examination of the debate using a uniform dataset or they provided a debate commentary. Themes that run through the papers and that are discussed further here are that: (1) the importance of general and specific ability predictors will largely depend on the outcome to be predicted, (2) the effectiveness of both general and specific predictors will largely depend on the quality and breadth of how the manifest indicators are measured, and (3) research on general and specific ability predictors is alive and well and more research is warranted. We conclude by providing a review of potentially fruitful areas of future research.
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    Predicting Professional and Technical Performance among Medical Students: Personality, Cognitive Ability, and the Mediating Role of Knowledge
    (2012) Kell, Harrison J.; Motowidlo, Stephan J.
    The distinction between technical and contextual performance is widely recognized in the Industrial/Organization Psychology literature (Sackett & Lievens, 2008). Less well-understood are the causal antecedents of performance in these domains and how those antecedents relate to each other. Motowidlo, Borman, and Schmit (1997) proposed that technical performance is determined largely by cognitive ability, which acts through the mediator technical knowledge to influence technical performance. They also proposed that contextual performance is mainly determined by personality traits and that these traits influence contextual performance via the mediating variable contextual knowledge. Although prior research has examined some of the causal antecedents proposed by Motowidlo et al. (1997), no study has examined these four variables simultaneously, in addition to gathering information about performance criteria in the two domains. This study examined these six variables in a sample of medical students. In keeping with the verbiage used in the medical literature, students' contextual knowledge is referred to as professional knowledge and their contextual performance is referred to as professional performance. Medical students (N = 209) beginning their third year at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston completed measures of professional knowledge and the Big Five personality traits and consented to have their MCAT scores (a proxy for cognitive ability) and their first- and second-year course grades (grade point average; a measure of their technical knowledge) gathered for this investigation. Performance criteria consisted of attending physicians' ratings of students' professional and technical performance during their clinical rotations. Rotations were grouped according to whether they fell into the domain of Primary Care or the Specialties. Notable findings are summarized by a path analytic model. Agreeableness exerted a causal influence on professional knowledge (β = .38) and Primary Care professional performance (β = .14). Extraversion causally affected professional knowledge (β = -.22). Professional knowledge accounted for variance in Primary Care professional (β = .19) and technical performance (β = .22). Openness to experience and conscientiousness influenced technical knowledge (β's -.19 and .25). Cognitive ability was directly related to technical knowledge (β = .43) and Specialties professional (β = -.21) and technical performance (β = -.19). Technical knowledge was related to Primary Care professional (β = .32) and technical performance (β = .42) and also Specialties professional (β = .46) and technical performance (β = .57). Results generally suggest that separate causal paths underlie performance in Primary Care and the Specialties, respectively.
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    Prosocial knowledge mediates effects of agreeableness and emotional intelligence on prosocial behavior
    (Elsevier, 2016) Martin-Raugh, Michelle P.; Kell, Harrison J.; Motowidlo, Stephan J.
    We present two studies that replicate and extend predictions made by implicit trait policy theory about the association between basic traits, knowledge, and behavior. Study 1 examined relations between personality traits, prosocial knowledge, and performance in a role-play casting participants (N = 102) as a physician dealing with challenging interpersonal situations. Study 2 (N = 197) replicated and extended these findings to include emotional intelligence (EI). In both studies, participants with higher prosocial knowledge scores behaved more prosocially. Mediation analyses suggest the relationship between individual differences, such as agreeableness and EI, and prosocial behavior is mediated by prosocial knowledge. Findings suggest basic traits influence prosocial behavior indirectly, through the acquisition of knowledge about how to behave in interpersonally challenging situations.