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Richard D. Goffin and Edward Helmes (Editors). Problems and Solutions in Human Assessment: Honoring Douglas N. Jackson at Seventy. Boston: Kluwer Academic, 2000, 357 pages, $130.00.
Reviewed by Theodore L. Hayes, Personnel Research Psychologist, U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service,1 Washington, D.C.
A salubrious effect of the renaissance in personality measurement is a renewed interest in the study of individual differences. Unfortunately, every year, more of the lions from the golden era of individual differences measurement depart this mortal coil. Thus, Douglas Jackson's continued contributions to psychological science as a researcher, colleague, mentor, and entrepreneur deserve celebration such as he receives in this volume, a festschrift of essays.
Honorary volumes require one to separate the evaluation of the material from the contributors' sentiments. Jackson seems a worthy subject of adulation. He seems to have launched, supported, or inspired the careers of some of the most notable psychological scientists of the day, and these men-almost all of the contributors to this volume are men clearly have great regard for Jackson in return. The breadth of the careers he has supported is remarkable. Topics covered in this volume include multivariate measurement techniques, the assessment of psychopathology, the interplay of intelligence and personality, the nature of validity, adult personality, goal and organizational commitment, personality in I-O psychology, and cross-cultural research issues. These readings are at an appropriate level for graduate students who are broadening their appreciation of individual differences assessment, or for upper-- level undergraduates who are learning how to combine their research method skills and their curiosity about psychology.
It's hard to imagine how a student of psychology could not find something interesting in these chapters. Velicer and Bentler contribute chapters on applied measurement techniques in construct assessment....