Use of interactive voice response (IVR) technology in health research with children

This article reports on the feasibility of using interactive voice response (IVR) technology to obtain daily reports of attitudes toward alcohol and tobacco use among children 9–13 years of age. Two studies were conducted. The first was an investigation of the use of IVR technology to obtain daily data from a sample of primary school children over a period of 8 weeks. The second was an extension of the research to a large sample of primary and secondary school children in urban and rural areas who provided daily data over a 4-week period. Retention and compliance rates comparable to those obtained with adults were evident in both studies, supporting the feasibility of this technology with children. The results are discussed in relation to the benefits of this methodology for health research, particularly for studies of sensitive topics conducted with children and adolescents.     

领导对建言反应的动机感知作用机制:基于归因理论的阐释

基于归因理论,从领导对建言行为动机的认知视角,解释领导对建言差异反应的原因。当领导认为员工建言基于组织关心动机、亲社会动机时,会给予表扬/认可、奖赏、执行等积极反应;当领导认为员工建言是基于挑战动机、疏离动机、印象管理动机或自我保护动机时,会给予批评/惩罚、忽视、报复等消极反应。此外,权力距离能够调节领导对建言动机的感知,即低权力距离领导,对建言行为更为接纳、支持,会增强专业性、建言氛围与积极动机感知的关系,减弱挑战性建言与消极动机感知的关系;而高权力距离领导,倾向于绝对优势的权力和对下属的控制,会减弱专业性、可信性及建言氛围与积极动机感知的关系,增强挑战性建言与消极动机感知的关系。最后,建议未来的研究关注以下几个方面:(1)将建言作为一个过程来探讨,研究领导对建言的反应如何影响员工后续的态度和行为;(2)研究建言氛围形成的原因及其作用;(3)关注情绪在建言行为中的功能机制等。     

Analysis of sensitive questions across cultures: An application of multigroup item randomized response theory to sexual attitudes and behavior

Answers to sensitive questions are prone to social desirability bias. If not properly addressed, the validity of the research can be suspect. This article presents multigroup item randomized response theory (MIRRT) to measure self-reported sensitive topics across cultures. The method was specifically developed to reduce social desirability bias by making an a priori change in the design of the survey. The change involves the use of a randomization device (e.g., a die) that preserves participants' privacy at the item level. In cases where multiple items measure a higher level theoretical construct, the researcher could still make inferences at the individual level. The method can correct for under- and overreporting, even if both occur in a sample of individuals or across nations. We present and illustrate MIRRT in a nontechnical manner, provide WinBugs software code so that researchers can directly implement it, and present 2 cross-national studies in which it was applied. The first study compared nonstudent samples from 2 countries (total n = 927) on permissive sexual attitudes and risky sexual behavior and related these to individual-level characteristics such as the Big Five personality traits. The second study compared nonstudent samples from 17 countries (total n = 6,195) on risky sexual behavior and related these to individual-level characteristics, such as gender and age, and to country-level characteristics, such as sex ratio. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Teachers' emotional experiences in response to daily events with individual students varying in perceived past disruptive behavior

Students' disruptive behavior during classroom events can elicit strong emotions in teachers and impact teachers' occupational wellbeing. This research was the first to test the proposition that teachers' emotional responses depend not solely on the specific classroom events themselves, but also on the perceived history of disruptive behavior of the student involved. Two complimentary studies examined whether teachers' perceptions of students' past disruptive behavior moderated the link between teachers' valence appraisals (i.e., how positive or negative an event was) and emotions in response to the event (i.e., enjoyment, anger, anxiety, self-, and other-related emotions). It was expected that teachers would be more emotionally reactive to events involving students whom they perceived as more disruptive in the past. Study 1 (N = 218 teachers) examined one teacher-selected relevant event of a workday with an individual student. Study 2 (N = 37 teachers) examined multiple events collected through daily diaries across the school year regarding two target students (N = 77) varying in perceived disruptive behavior. Both studies showed that teachers reacted more emotionally negative to students they perceived as more disruptive in the past compared to similarly appraised events with students perceived as less disruptive. Findings were most consistent for teachers' anger. In addition, Study 1 examined whether teachers' event-related emotions were related to their occupational wellbeing that workday. Teachers' anger was the only emotion associated with both teachers' emotional exhaustion and dedication. Intervention efforts to increase teachers' occupational wellbeing may profit from focusing on specific anger-evoking teacher-student dyads and try changing teachers' underlying judgments and associated emotions about disruptive students.     

An introduction to association rule mining: An application in counseling and help-seeking behavior of adolescents

Association rule mining (ARM) is a technique used to discover relationships among a large set of variables in a data set. It has been applied to a variety of industry settings and disciplines but has, to date, not been widely used in the social sciences, especially in education, counseling, and associated disciplines. This article thus introduces ARM and presents aspects of existing work that will be relevant and useful to researchers practitioners in the social sciences. Definitions and concepts are presented, and examples of ARM applications are highlighted to strengthen these ideas. We also discuss an example from our existing research to show that ARM can be used to investigate help-seeking behavior in a sample of secondary school students in Singapore. We also present some guidelines and recommendations for using ARM.     

An interactive program for observation and analysis of human behavior in a long-term continuous laboratory

An Apple II microcomputer is used for processing observations of human behavior in a long-term live-in laboratory. On-line analysis produces multiple measures of response strength and response pattern for experiments on the reinforcement value of ordinary human activities. An interactive program with an informative screen display monitors observers’ data input and operation of the experimental procedures, preventing certain classes of errors. Redundant storage is included to avoid loss of data in the event of equipment failure. The data are handled by humans only one time, as opposed to three with the previous system, reducing both expense and errors. Immediate availability of fine-grained analysis allows more sophistication in within-subjects designs.     

An INAR(1) negative multinomial regression model for longitudinal count data

This paper discusses a regression model for the analysis of longitudinal count data observed in a panel study. An integer-valued first-order autoregressive [INAR(1)] Poisson process is adapted to represent time-dependent correlations among the counts. By combining the INAR(1)-representation with a random effects approach, a new negative multinomial distribution is derived that includes the bivariate negative binomial distribution proposed by Edwards and Gurland (1961) and Subrahmaniam (1966) as a special case. A detailed analysis of the relationship between personality factors and daily emotion experiences illustrates the approach.This research was partially supported by NSF grant SBR-9409531. The author is grateful to Ulrich Schimmack and Ed Diener for providing the data set used in the application section and for helpful comments on this research.     

An application of visual interactive goal programming: a case in vendor selection decisions

This article presents the vendor selection problem of the hydraulic pump division of a US original equipment manufacturing company. The division wants to identify appropriate vendors and allocate purchase orders among them while minimizing product acquisition costs and maximizing total product quality and delivery reliability. Visual interactive goal programming is used as a multi‐criteria decision analysis tool. Interaction with decision makers during the model building and solution process, and implications are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An application of item response theory to alexithymia assessment among abstinent alcoholics.

An item response theory (IRT) model identified three dimensions assessed by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) in a sample of 130 male applicants for inpatient care at a Veterans Administration (VA) medical center alcoholism treatment program. A unidimensional solution did not capture all of alexithymia's theoretical features. Subjects with lower alexithymia scores gave positive responses to items tapping emotional awareness deficits; only those with higher alexithymia scores gave positive responses to items tapping external, operative cognitive style. Thus, a total TAS score may not represent alexithymia accurately in substance-abusing patient populations.