Exploring the Dimensionality of "Religiosity" and "Spirituality" in the Fetzer Multidimensional Measure

Reliable and valid measures of religiosity and spiritual dimensions appropriate for ethnically diverse groups are needed. I examine the factor structure of the relatively new Fetzer multidimensional measure (Fetzer Institute 1999). Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) of national data collected in the 1998 General Social Survey are conducted to (1) test the fit of the proposed dimensionality of the Fetzer measure, specifically comparing the Fetzer structure with a simpler single-factor model suggested by preliminary exploratory factor analyses; and (2) evaluate ethnic differences in factor structure of the Fetzer items. Data from 1,201 adults, 1,019 whites and 182 African Americans, are examined to compare the fit of the multidimensional Fetzer model against an alternative single-factor ("unitary spirituality") model. CFA analyses indicated that only the Fetzer models had acceptable fit indices (NFI and/or NNFI approaching or reaching 0.90). Ethnic differences in loadings, while significant, were not substantively different. These findings suggest that a multidimensional measure like the Fetzer is useful for multiethnic research and that combining the daily spirituality and values/beliefs dimensions into a single factor provides a simpler model overall (compared to the Fetzer model separating these dimensions out) while providing acceptable fit.     

Evaluating Pastoral Effectiveness: To Measure or Not to Measure

Interviews were conducted with 101 senior pastoral leaders from a variety of denominations in order to identify the ways in which pastors and those in authority positions over senior pastoral leaders measure their own effectiveness. The findings of these interviews revealed 23 measures of effectiveness in five categories, including leader outcomes, congregational outcomes, and objective outcomes. Based on the effectiveness taxonomy described in the current study, a process is suggested for a preliminary discussion among church leadership teams, congregational boards, and denominations to identify their primary mission, constituencies served, and related effectiveness priorities.     

Measure development and the hermeneutic task

I examine the dynamics of measure development using two case studies: temperature, and health-related quality of life. I argue, following Bas van Fraassen and Leah McClimans that in each case these dynamics have a hermeneutic structure. Measure development is plagued by epistemic circularity, as is the task of interpreting a text, and similar strategies can be used in both measure development and hermeneutics to overcome that circularity. I show that Hans Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics in particular are an effective lens through which to examine the development of the temperature standard as described by Hasok Chang. Despite similar grounding in hermeneutics, I note an important difference between measure development for temperature and for health-related quality of life. Namely, while the meaning of temperature can be standardized, the meaning of health-related quality of life cannot. This standardization of meaning for the temperature concept represents a limit to the analogy with hermeneutics. Finally, I argue that the indeterminacy we find in health-related quality of life measurement is a result not only of analogy with the hermeneutic task, but of full-fledged participation in it.

     

基于体验效用的幸福及其测量

体验幸福是指基于体验效用的时刻评价方式获得的多重情感体验的整合结果。体验幸福的概念主要源于Kahneman等人对体验效应的重新发现与诠释。基于时刻评价的体验效用以及时刻效用的测量假设是测量体验幸福的理论依据。体验幸福的测量方法主要有体验取样法与日重现法。基于这两种方法的国民幸福账户与国民时间账户更加直接地分析了人们如何在各种日常活动中分配时间和进行情感体验。同时, 体验幸福的概念及其测量为公共政策的评价与制定提供了更加真实具体的、可供参考的科学依据。     

Development and Validation of a Brief Self-Report Measure of Agitation: The Brief Agitation Measure

Emerging evidence indicates that agitation is an ominous precursor to imminent death by suicide, yet measures of it are few, and to our knowledge, no self-report measure of agitation exists. To fill this gap, we have developed the Brief Agitation Measure (BAM), which is designed as a brief measure to assess agitation. In this article, we provide preliminary evidence from 2 studies examining the reliability and validity of the BAM in an undergraduate sample as well as a clinical sample. We close with a discussion of the limitations of the studies and implications of our findings.     

The Rugged Resilience Measure: Development and Preliminary Validation of a Brief Measure of Personal Resilience

Applied Research in Quality of Life - There is an increasing demand for brief measures of resilience that can distinguish different dimensions of successful adaptation and good quality of life...     

Measure and integral with purely ordinal scales

We develop a purely ordinal model for aggregation functionals for lattice-valued functions, comprising as special cases quantiles, the Ky Fan metric and the Sugeno integral. For modelling findings of psychological experiments like the reflection effect in decision behaviour under risk or uncertainty, we introduce reflection lattices. These are complete linear lattices endowed with an order reversing bijection like the reflection at 0 on the real interval [−1,1]. Mathematically we investigate the lattice of nonvoid intervals in a complete linear lattice, then the class of monotone interval-valued functions and their inner product.     

心理咨询:存在问题与解决方案

随着社会的发展,心理咨询也得到相应的进展.由于心理咨询本身的特殊性,要求它必须在一些特殊的规范下才能健康发展.然而,心理咨询当前的状况令人堪忧.从主办机构、培训招考和从业监督三个角度分析了当前存在的问题,并提出了相应的对策.     

欺负行为测量:问题及解决

近20年来,各国心理学家就欺负问题做了大量的研究工作。本文主要分析了欺负行为研究中对欺负行为的评价和测量上存在的局限以及相应的改进策略。目前欺负行为评价中的问题主要有：对欺负定义的理解和界定不一致;对欺负的评价角度不一致;测量工具在适用年龄上缺乏连续性;测量方法存在单一性;测量时间取样不明确等。针对上述问题,本研究提出了操作性定义的界定基础、研究工具的开发方向、测量方法的选取技巧和数据分组的原则等来提高对校园欺负行为研究的科学性。     

培训迁移的干预策略及其效果

在回顾了培训迁移的组织干预策略研究后,重点围绕培训前干预、培训中干预和培训后干预三个方面展开讨论,归纳出不同类型干预要素及其对培训迁移的影响效果,指出目前理论的局限性以及组织与个体相互作用等未来研究的方向     

社会发展速度与社会稳定的测量和定量调控

社会发展速度和社会稳定性的测量与定量调控,是社会学理论中具有很强应用价值、同时又蕴含重大理论意义的课题.本文从现实出发,论证了最佳发展速度和最佳社会稳定的存在性;提出了测量社会发展速度的概念,分析了测量发展速度的原理是"映射法",并通过对契约折旧过程的研究,给出了测量社会发展速度的指标"漂移率"及其公式;在此基础上讨论了定量控制发展速度和社会稳定的贴现原理及其贴现公式.     

道德认知的测量

文章研究梳理了道德认知研究中的测量方法的理论脉络及其演进。道德认知的测量始于皮亚杰和科尔伯格的临床访谈法。后来者从中汲取精髓,采用量表的形式进行道德认知测评,比如莱斯特的确定问题测验以及林德的道德判断测验。随着内隐社会认知理论的发展,研究者将实验测量方法(比如IAT)用于道德认知测评。文章研究分析了各种测量方法的优势和劣势,并对未来的道德认知测量作出展望。     

A Model and Measure of Mobile Communication Competence

This article deals with two studies that develop a measure and model of mobile communication competence (MCC). The first study examines the dimensionality of the measure by conducting an exploratory factor analysis on 350 students at a large university in the midwestern United States. Results identified six constructs across 24 items: willingness to use, mobile preference, asynchronous communication, communication efficacy, affect, and appropriate communication. The relationships of the constructs were theoretically synthesized in a proposed model of MCC. In the second study, the MCC model was submitted to confirmatory factor analysis on 212 university students in order to test the model's theoretical structure. Results indicate that the MCC model predicts 59% of the variance in mobile phone use.