INFLUENCE OF RATERS SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS AND APPRAISAL PURPOSE ON LENIENCY AND ACCURACY OF PERFORMANCE RATINGS - A CRITIQUE

Theoretically, evidence challenges the construct validity of the self- consciousness scales used by Jawahar and Stone. The demand characteris tics introduced by the experimental procedures called into question th e validity of their findings. Moreover, the statistically significant results for both measures of rating leniency and accuracy as operation alized was likely an artifact of using a leniency measure which shares considerable overlapping variance with the accuracy measure. Although self-consciousness as a moderator has theoretical interest, further w ork is needed to provide evidence for self-consciousness as a moderato r variable in the rating process. In short, we are skeptical of the fi ndings and share the authors' caveat in interpreting the results.