Can we trust self-reports of driving? Effects of impression management on driver behaviour questionnaire responses

Driver behaviour is often studied by using self-reports and questionnaires. Despite their obvious advantages, questionnaires are vulnerable to socially desirable response tendencies. In this study, the effects of socially desirable responding on self-reports of driving were studied by recording self-reports of driving in both public and private settings. In public settings, 47 applicants for a driving instructor training course completed the driver behaviour questionnaire (DBQ) and balanced inventory for socially desirable responding as a part of the entrance examination. In a private setting, 54 students of that training course completed the same questionnaires anonymously in the classroom. ANOVA results showed a difference between the two settings in six DBQ item scores, such that aberrant behaviours were reported less frequently in public than in private settings. The results indicated that bias caused by socially desirable responding is relatively small in DBQ responses.     

But I thought I knew that: using confidence estimation as a debiasing technique to improve classroom performance

Our assessments of how much we know about a particular topic can be affected by our confidence in our knowledge. Research in judgement and decision making has shown that people are generally overconfident in their judgements or decisions, and that this bias can be reduced with training. We present two studies designed to assess whether debiasing can be accomplished in a classroom setting and whether it has practical value for students. In Experiment 1 simply providing confidence estimates as questions were answered was enough to debias students in a series of course‐related quizzes. In Experiment 2, weekly quizzes were given in a computer‐administered format. Students were given feedback for each question as it was completed. We found that accuracy on quizzes improved as confidence declined. We also found that students performed better in the course when they received debiasing training. We suggest that debiasing training prompted students to develop and use metacognitive skills that allowed them to assess their knowledge more accurately. Given this, training for these skills has practical value in the classroom. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“Bounded” Empowerment: Analyzing Tensions in the Practice of Youth-Led Participatory Research in Urban Public Schools

This multi-method study examines tensions in the practice of youth-led participatory research (YPAR) in urban high schools among 15 semester-cohorts. Student participants in the present study were 77 ethnically diverse youth from four high schools in a major metropolitan school district. Data were gathered using systematic classroom observations, interviews with teachers and students involved in the projects, and participant observation. The two most commonly-constrained phases of the YPAR project were issue selection and action steps. A central tension in the issue selection phase for projects enacted across multiple semester cohorts was the tension between original inquiry and “traction:” Sticking with the same topic enabled sustained building of strategic alliances and expertise for making change, but limited the incoming cohort’s power to define the problem to be addressed. In further analyses, we identified processes that promoted student power despite continuity-related constraints—teachers’ framing and buy-in strategies, “micro-power” compensation, and alignment of students’ interests with the prior cohort—as well as constraints in other phases of the projects. This study’s findings regarding the promotion of youth power in the face of constraints advance the integration of theory and practice in youth-led research and have implications for participatory research more broadly.     

When Compassion is Making It Worse: Social Dynamics of Tabooing Victims of Child Sexual Abuse

The paper explores the social dynamics of tabooing, using sexual abuse of children as an example. Some social categories are problematic to embrace, because they entail socially problematic category bound activities in an emotional context of guilt and shame. This theoretical paper shows how a victim of sexual abuse as a child may suffer from two separate offenses, a sexual and a social; one caused by actions of the offender, one caused by actions of intended helpers. By ascribing an identity of ‘incest victim’ or ‘victim of child sexual abuse’ to a person, the taboo act becomes linked to the person. This may be an inescapable ascribed identity for the person, leading her/him to be subject of both sexual and social offenses. As a consequence, potential ‘victims’ may have troubled affiliation with such identity casting, and may fight a future tabooed role by not reporting tabooed abusive actions, hence not receiving the help needed to recover.     

Increasing Student Classroom Participation Through Self-Modeling

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the effect of self-modeling as an intervention to improve classroom participatory behavior and whether or not increased classroom participation influenced teacher's perceptions of the students' behavior. The study employed a multiple baseline design across five students, and a control, with a follow-up. All students evidenced an increase in classroom participation subsequent to viewing the intervention videotapes. In addition, teacher perceptions of students' behavior improved on several dimensions.     

Amplifying and Attenuating Inequity in Collaborative Learning: Toward an Analytical Framework

Abstract

Research on collaborative learning has focused on its potential to foster successful problem solving. Less attention, though, has been given to issues of equity. In this article, we investigate how inequity can become amplified and attenuated within collaborative learning through small interactional moves that accumulate to produce broader patterns of equity or inequity. Our theoretical perspective utilizes Boaler’s notion of relational equity and introduces what we term participatory equity. Research was conducted in a computer science course co-taught by the authors and taken by upper-elementary students. Data sources include audio recordings of students’ collaborative interactions, ethnographic field notes, student work, and student surveys. This article focuses on a single student, Jason, and his dyadic interactions, and builds upon our previous analyses of his interactions with four higher-performing partners. Findings reveal how the interplay between classroom structures and student enactments shaped two types of inequity during collaborative learning. We conclude by discussing implications for theorizing and analyzing equity and inequity, as well as pedagogical considerations for structuring collaborative learning to attenuate inequity.     

The Effect of Response Cards on Participation and Weekly Quiz Scores of University Students Enrolled in Introductory Psychology Courses

Increasing student participation in college classrooms is an overlooked yet socially valid endeavor. The present study attempted to increase student participation, accuracy of responding, and weekly quiz scores, by incorporating student response-cards. Measures of social validity were also addressed. One hundred twenty university students in two sections of an introductory course served as participants. An augmented incomplete ABA reversal design was used to compare the effects of review questions with and without response-cards. Results suggest that response cards can increase participation as well as measures of learning, in this case quiz scores. Also, students rated the intervention positively on a consumer satisfaction rating scale. In addition to improving rates of student participation and quiz scores, response-cards positively impacted both students and the instructor's subjective experience in the classroom.     

Psychology,Pedagogy, and Creative Expression in a Course on Evil

In this article, I describe my Psychology of Evil course, in which a majority of students chose to do creative projects rather than research papers or reports on readings. I explore the impact of the interdisciplinarity demanded by the topic and the texts, modeled by the professor, and brought to the course by the students. In addition, I discuss the effects of classroom environment, personality, intelligence, and especially shadow work (the repressed, feared, unwanted part of our personalities) on students' creative productions.     

Reading in Colors: Highlighting for Active Reading in Religious Studies

This note from the classroom suggests that multicolor highlighting is a useful study technique for religious studies students. The note first reviews the literature regarding the effectiveness of traditional highlighting, then discusses advantages of the modified technique. Monochrome highlighting works only if readers select text through a discriminating reading process. Reading in colors fosters this sort of active reading. It prompts readers to ask how and why a given term, phrase or passage is important. This technique can help students grasp the basic categories and concepts of the discipline and it can embody course requirements or learning outcomes. The note concludes with practical suggestions for using the technique in the classroom.     

Addressing a Divide in the Conceptualization of the Gender-Crime Relationship: A Comparative Test of Gender and Sex Using General Strain Theory

While criminology has long recognized the impact of gender on crime, many criminological theories continue to measure sex rather than socially constructed gender identities. Research has also struggled to directly compare these measures within a theoretical context. This study examines the impact of sex and gender identity variables using the framework of General Strain Theory. A total of 1,457 college students were surveyed on measures of General Strain Theory, biological sex, gender identity, and a range of deviant behaviors. Findings indicate that gender identity produced a stronger predictive model of deviance than biological sex, and suggest a means for research to account for gender when studying deviance.     

Aggression Norms in the Classroom Social Network: Contexts of Aggressive Behavior and Social Preference in Middle Childhood

In a cross‐sectional sample of African‐American 2nd–4th grade students (N = 681), we examine the moderating effects of classroom overt and relational aggression norms on peers’ social acceptance of classmates who exhibit overt and relational aggression in urban schools. Extending theory and research on classroom norms, we integrate social network data to adjust aggression norms based on children’s direct and indirect connections in the classroom. Results of multilevel models indicate that network‐based classroom aggression norms moderated relations between children’s aggressive behavior and their social preference. Specifically, children benefited socially when their form of aggressive behavior fit with what was normative in the classroom social context. The moderating effect of classroom aggression norms was stronger for the association between overt aggression and social preference than relational aggression and social preference. Relationally aggressive youth were socially preferred by peers regardless of the classroom norm, although this positive association was magnified in classrooms with higher levels of relational aggression. Future research focused on aggression norms within classroom social networks are discussed and implications for school prevention efforts are considered.     

Evaluation of a course in sex roles for secondary school students

As powerful socializing agents, schools can be important facilitators in changing social norms of gender-role expectations. This research study was designed to determine the impact of an interdisciplinary course in the effects of sex-role stereotyping on awareness and attitudes of the participants. The high school students in the experimental program increased their awareness of the stereotyping process and the effects of narrowly defined sex roles. These students perceived the roles of males and females in a more socially androgynous context than did students who did not take the course.     

Popular peers as change agents for the socially neglected child in the classroom

The present study investigated the use of popular students in promoting the acceptance of socially neglected children. A sociometric questionnaire was administered to 573 fifth- and sixth-grade students. Ninety-five socially neglected children were identified and randomly assigned to experimental or control groups. Four to eight popular students were also selected as student peer facilitators from each class included in the study. These students were instructed weekly in social skills and assigned to work with a target child within their own classroom. Assessment after treatment indicated that students in the experimental group increased significantly in peer acceptance, whereas no significant change occured in the control group.     

How do included and excluded students with SEBD function socially and academically after 1,5 year of special education services?

ABSTRACT

The present study tested three conflicting hypotheses as to how students with social/emotional/behavioural difficulties (SEBD), who showed similar social-emotional, behavioural and academic functioning prior to placement, function socially and academically after they have received additional support either in inclusive regular education or in exclusive special education. Thirty-six included and 15 excluded students with SEBD participated. We collected data from students and teachers with classroom surveys, individual testing sessions with students with SEBD, and from application files. Using Bayesian statistics, our results suggest that excluded students are better socially embedded in exclusive special education and that they perform better academically than comparable included students with SEBD. Special education services in exclusive settings may thus afford certain benefits to some students with SEBD, not typically found in regular education, which can be considered a first indication that there may be valid counterarguments against the ‘inclusion for all’ perspective on educational needs.     

Claiming,Resisting, and Exempting Pathology in the Identities of Self-Injurers

For this project, we analyzed in-depth life history materials from interviews with twelve former self-injurers. Eschewing a medical/psychological approach to self-injury, our primary goal was to discover how study participants used the discourse of self-injury as a narrative resource to construct their identity. Our study participants drew on pathology exemplars and alternative frames to make sense of their lives and selves. In this article, the lines between so-called self-injury and other socially sanctioned behaviors became blurred. We call for an approach to the topic that is more consciously aware of the socially constructed nature of the phenomenon.     

Terrorism, Identity, and Conflict Management

Social psychological research on the consequences and antecedents of terrorism are reviewed, and implications for conflict management are discussed. The research is theoretically and socially interesting because it deals with the intersection of identity and psychological threat with political choices in conflict. A model of identity politics and agentic normative influence is described which draws attention to the importance of stopping the spread of terrorist identity and norms as the key challenge in counter-terrorism. An identity politics approach would argue that terrorists should be defined narrowly, while non-violent leaders of the terrorists' constituents should be recognized and rewarded as representatives of their constituents. As such, the analysis suggests a pessimistic prospect for terror in the 2010s.     

Shifting Winds: Using Ancestry DNA to Explore Multiracial Individuals’ Patterns of Articulating Racial Identity

This study explored how genotype information affects identification narratives of multiracial individuals. Twenty-one multiracial individuals completed individual interviews before and after receiving a DNA analysis to clarify their genetically based racial ancestry. Based on results, this article proposes patterns of articulating racial identity by multiracial individuals. Four patterns extend evolving research in multiracial identification, namely (1) the individual articulates a monoracial identity; (2) the individual articulates one identity, but this can shift in response to various conditions; (3) the individual articulates an extraracial identity, opting out of traditional categories applied to race; and (4) the person distinguishes traditional categories of race from culture and owns the two identities in different ways. Implications of these findings are discussed. First, adding new ancestry DNA information further muddles the neat categories of race, consistent with the view of race as socially constructed. Second, results emphasize the fluidity of identification for multiracial individuals. Third, DNA information challenges the neat percentages people tend to associate with their backgrounds. Particularly for younger multiracial individuals, there was less of a sense that race was a real thing and more that culture played a big part in how they saw themselves.     

Comparison of group cohesion,class participation,and exam performance in live and online classes

Though class participation and group cohesion have shown some potential to promote student performance in conventional classrooms, their efficacy has not yet been demonstrated in an online-class setting. Group cohesion, defined as member attraction to and self-identification with a group, is thought to promote positive interdependence and the success of the group’s members. The current study sought to determine if group cohesion is significantly affected by the change of course setting from a live classroom to an asynchronous online-hybrid class in which students met in person only for course exams and otherwise interacted with each other through an online discussion board. Because peer interaction appears vital for the development of cohesion, we examined the relationship between participation in class discussion and students’ self-reported group cohesion and exam performance. With one exception, course requirements and materials were identical between the two class sections: students in the online-hybrid course completed homework assignments, whereas students in the live section were simply encouraged to do the same. Despite the advantage conferred by mandatory homework assignments, the findings heavily favored the conventional live classroom with respect to exam performance and self-reported group cohesion. Participation in class discussion was high in both class sections. The results indicated that both student performance and group cohesion were significantly lower in the hybrid classes.     

Classroom justice and psychological engagement: students’ and teachers’ representations

This article presents the results of a study carried out with the aim to: (1) analyze secondary school students’ and their teachers’ ideal representations of classroom justice, (2) deepen the topic of students’ sense of injustice, and (3) explore the links between students’ perceived injustice and their psychological engagement in school, measured on different aspects (identification with one’s own class, learning motivation, dialogue with teachers). A questionnaire was distributed to 400 Italian secondary school students and their 79 teachers. Results show that the representations of ideal classroom justice refer to communication, principle of equality and principles of effort/need, and that the positions of teachers and students on these representations differ. Moreover, students report a rather diffuse and shared feeling of being treated in an unjust manner by their teachers, and this affects their psychological engagement in school. Results are commented on their theoretical, methodological and applicative implications.