Examining Spirituality Over Time: Latent Growth Curve and Individual Growth Curve Analyses

SUMMARY

Research on spirituality and religiousness has gained growing attention in recent years; however, most studies have used cross-sectional designs. As research on this topic evolves, there has been increasing recognition of the need to examine these constructs and their effects through the use of longitudinal designs. Beyond repeated-measures ANOVA and OLS regression models, what tools are available to examine these constructs over time? The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of two cutting-edge statistical techniques that will facilitate longitudinal investigations of spirituality and religiousness: latent growth curve analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM) and individual growth curve models. The SEM growth curve approach examines change at the group level, with change over time expressed as a single latent growth factor. In contrast, individual growth curve models consider longitudinal change at the level of the person. While similar results may be obtained using either method, researchers may opt for one over the other due to the strengths and weaknesses associated with these methods. Examples of applications of both approaches to longitudinal studies of spirituality and religiousness are presented and discussed, along with design and data considerations when employing these modeling techniques.     

童年中晚期孤独感的发展轨迹：一项潜变量增长模型分析

使用问卷法和同伴提名法对884名小学二年级学生进行历时三年的四次追踪测试, 采用潜变量增长模型建模, 检验小学2~5年级学生孤独感的变化趋势, 并考察不同性别儿童孤独感变化的差异性以及同伴接纳对孤独感变化的影响。结果发现：(1) 2~5年级小学生孤独感呈曲线递减趋势, 递减速度逐渐减缓, 起始水平及发展速度均存在显著的个体差异; (2)女孩起始的孤独感水平显著低于男孩, 而发展速度、加速度则不存在显著的性别差异; (3)较高的同伴接纳对当时儿童孤独感的降低具有显著的促进作用。研究采用孤独感发展的情境观, 并结合儿童认知、自我发展的特点对结果进行了分析。     

初中生积极适应的发展轨迹:基于潜变量增长模型的分析

采用问卷法对290名初中生在初中三年间积极适应的发展状况进行四次追踪测试,利用潜变量增长模型检验个体积极适应的变化趋势,同时考察了随时间稳定变量(学校转换)和随时间变化变量(压力知觉)对积极适应的影响。结果发现:1、从初一到初三,个体积极适应的自我肯定和行事效率维度呈曲线上升趋势,且上升速度逐年下降;亲社会倾向呈线性上升趋势;积极应对呈线性下降趋势;2、学校转变对初中生积极适应发展的影响较小;3、压力知觉可显著抑制当时初中生的积极适应。     

如何描述发展趋势的差异：潜变量混合增长模型

在追踪研究中,研究者不仅关心某一特质随时间的发展趋势,而且关注个体之间发展趋势的差异及其存在差异的原因。在总体发展同质的情形下,多层线性模型和潜变量增长曲线模型为解决这一问题提供了切实有效的方法。但是如果所研究的总体本身不同质,就需要一种能够描述总体中不同质子总体的不同发展特点的方法。该文简要介绍了一种能够描述不同群体不同发展趋势特征的统计模型——潜变量混合增长模型,并通过一个实际例子介绍了这一方法的应用过程,同时说明了潜变量混合增长模型与多层线性模型和潜变量增长曲线模型之间的关系     

潜在类别分析技术在心理学研究中的应用

潜在类别分析是通过对类别型的外显变量和潜在变量之间的关系建立统计模型,根据模型参数得到各种潜在类别的具体外在表现的潜在特征分类技术。该分析方法主要应用于心理行为特征的分类、控制认知心理实验中被试个体差异引起的系统误差、评价临床心理诊断的精确性,以及心理测验中的项目分析、信度分析、结构分析等。对此方法的优劣进行分析比较,表明:该方法可以与其他测量理论相结合进一步拓展其在心理测量中的应用,也可在纵向数据和多水平数据中应用。在应用中亦有提升方法技术的空间。     

模糊痕迹理论:对经典认知发展理论的挑战

近几十年来,推理和记忆的发展涌现出来的大量的实验结果对经典认知发展理论构成了挑战。对此,Reyna和Bminerd提出模糊痕迹理论试图解释以上研究成果。本文对该理论的核心内容和主要应用领域作了介绍。文末,对该理论作了简评。     

A Latent Growth Curve Modeling Approach to Pooled Interrupted Time Series Analyses

This paper presents a latent variable approach for the estimation of treatment effects within a pooled interrupted time series (ITS) design. Although considered quasi-experimental, the ITS design has been noted as representing one of the strongest alternatives to the randomized experiment, making it highly appropriate for use in documenting the presence of effects that might warrant further evaluation in a large-scale randomized study. Results suggest that the latent variable growth modeling (LGM) is capable of detecting simultaneous differences in both level and slope, and provides tests of significance for these two necessary indicators of an ITS intervention effect. As shown in the analyses, the LGM framework provides a comprehensive and flexible approach to research design and data analysis, making available to a wide audience of researchers an analytical framework for a variety of analyses of growth and developmental processes.     

Estimating Age-Based Developmental Trajectories Using Latent Change Score Models Based on Measurement Occasion

Abstract

Accelerated longitudinal designs (ALDs) are designs in which participants from different cohorts provide repeated measures covering a fraction of the time range of the study. ALDs allow researchers to study developmental processes spanning long periods within a relatively shorter time framework. The common trajectory is studied by aggregating the information provided by the different cohorts. Latent change score (LCS) models provide a powerful analytical framework to analyze data from ALDs. With developmental data, LCS models can be specified using measurement occasion as the time metric. This provides a number of benefits, but has an important limitation: It makes it not possible to characterize the longitudinal changes as a function of a developmental process such as age or biological maturation. To overcome this limitation, we propose an extension of an occasion-based LCS model that includes age differences at the first measurement occasion. We conducted a Monte Carlo study and compared the results of including different transformations of the age variable. Our results indicate that some of the proposed transformations resulted in accurate expectations for the studied process across all the ages in the study, and excellent model fit. We discuss these results and provide the R code for our analysis.     

儿童社交淡漠与学业成绩的发展轨迹：基于潜变量增长模型

采用同伴提名和教师评价对535名小学3~4年级儿童社交淡漠与学业成绩的发展进行了三次追踪研究,通过平行潜变量增长模型考察社交淡漠与学业成绩的发展轨迹及其相互作用模式。结果发现：（1）儿童社交淡漠和学业成绩在三年中较为稳定,三年中社交淡漠与学业成绩均呈负相关;（2）儿童学业成绩的初始水平可以负向预测社交淡漠的发展速度。该结果揭示学业成绩可能是儿童社交淡漠发展过程的重要保护因素,为儿童社会行为的健康发展提供了新的实证依据。     

潜在剖面分析在区分抑郁情绪患者的应用

目的：使用情绪启动的研究范式,探讨情绪启动对抑郁情绪患者的分类效果.方法：抽取35名抑郁情绪患者和35名正常被试,分别完成6种条件的实验任务,采用潜在剖面分析和logistic回归分析,分析6种条件对两组被试的分类结果.结果：两组被试在6种条件下对人脸表情判断的正确数和反应时存在显著差异,抑郁患者的反应时间明显延长,识别的正确数比正常被试少,潜在剖面分析的结果与真实结果具有较高的一致性.结论：潜在剖面分析能较好地区分正常组与抑郁组患者,为鉴别正常人与抑郁情绪患者提供新的途径.     

发展性阅读障碍的理论及眼动研究

关于发展性阅读障碍,国外研究者,基于认知和生物因素,先后提出了语音缺陷论、小脑缺陷论、一般性大细胞功能障碍论等对发展性阅读障碍进行解释,并考察了患者的眼动特征,提出了有效的诊治方法。目前,汉语发展性阅读障碍研究主要局限在语音和正字法领域,也涉及局部脑区的功能缺陷,但还未从多角度测查其成因,如眼动。这里,在理论梳理的基础上,系统探讨了发展性阅读障碍者的眼动特征,如注视时间、注视次数、眼跳、回视等,及视觉加工的眼动机制     

Application of Latent Semantic Analysis to Divergent Thinking is Biased by Elaboration

Scoring divergent‐thinking response sets has always been challenging because such responses are not only open‐ended in terms of number of ideas, but each idea may also be expressed by a varying number of concepts and, thus, by a varying number of words (elaboration). While many current studies have attempted to score the semantic distance in divergent‐thinking responses by applying latent semantic analysis (LSA), it is known from other areas of research that LSA‐based approaches are biased according to the number of words in a response. Thus, the current article aimed to identify and demonstrate this elaboration bias in LSA‐based divergent‐thinking scores by means of a simulation. In addition, we show that this elaboration bias can be reduced by removing the stop words (for example, and, or, for and so forth) prior to analysis. Furthermore, the residual bias after stop word removal can be reduced by simulation‐based corrections. Finally, we give an empirical illustration for alternate uses and consequences tasks. Results suggest that when both stop word removal and simulation‐based bias correction are applied, convergent validity should be expected to be highest.     

分歧中的互补:皮亚杰和维果茨基发展心理学理论的比较研究

目前对皮亚杰和维果茨基发展心理学理论的比较研究多采用比较差异性和寻找相似点的方法,而该文试图在皮亚杰和维果茨基的心理学理论的分歧点中探寻两者的互补性：从儿童自我中心言语的理论分歧中看人类发展方向的互补性;从对发展过程本质的不同理解看互补性;从理解成人和同伴对儿童发展的影响中看互补性;从理解发展阶段普遍性的分歧看互补性：从心理调节观的分歧看互补性。     

发展性阅读障碍的遗传关联分析

发展性阅读障碍是一种遗传性很高的认知功能缺陷, 运用关联分析对其遗传机制进行研究是近年来的新趋势。从研究方法的视角可以将现有的关联分析研究归为以下三类：家系法研究、病例-控制法研究和数量性状关联分析研究。阅读障碍关联分析研究的新趋势主要体现在与全基因组扫描技术、神经成像技术以及基因功能研究的结合上, 促进了从“基因-大脑-行为”层面对发展性阅读障碍的遗传机制进行理解。     

幼儿教师情绪劳动策略与职业倦怠的关系:基于潜在剖面分析

基于个体中心的视角考察幼儿教师情绪劳动策略和职业倦怠的关系,采用幼儿教师情绪劳动策略量表和职业倦怠量表对495名幼儿教师进行问卷调查。运用潜在剖面分析方法进行数据分析,结果表明：（1）幼儿教师情绪劳动策略可以分为四种潜在类别：积极型、内热型、珍爱型和冷淡型,其中积极型人数最多,冷淡型人数最少;（2）幼儿教师的职业倦怠得分在这四种潜在类别上有显著差异,冷淡型的职业倦怠得分最高,积极型次之,内热型和珍爱型的职业倦怠得分最低且无显著差异。研究结果为幼儿教师情绪劳动与职业倦怠的关系探讨提供了新的视角。     

大学生进食障碍症状的潜在剖面分析及其与抑郁的关系

为了解大学生进食障碍症状的类别特征及其与抑郁和性别的关系,使用进食障碍检查自评问卷6.0和9项患者健康问卷对575名大学生施测,采用带预测变量（抑郁）和分类结果变量（性别）的潜在剖面法进行数据分析。结果表明：大学生进食障碍症状可划分为体形关注组（62.4%）、体像顾虑组（28.0%）和进食障碍风险组（9.6%）;抑郁得分越高,个体被归为体像顾虑组或进食障碍风险组的可能性越大;女性属于体像顾虑组和进食障碍风险组的可能性比男性高。     

发展性障碍儿童的脑发育特点及干预

随着发展认知神经科学的兴起, 研究者借助脑成像等技术探讨了发展性障碍儿童的脑结构发育特点, 发展缺陷与脑功能损伤的关系以及障碍干预和脑功能改善的机制等, 这为揭示发展性障碍儿童异常神经机制的共性和特异性, 进而为早期诊断和干预提供了重要的生物学标记。针对儿童期常见的发展性障碍, 从脑结构损伤、脑激活异常、脑网络连接和脑功能康复等方面对相关研究进行了总结, 指出未来研究应拓展角度, 注重揭示各发展性障碍之间异常脑发育特点的共性和特异性的具体表现、病理机制及基因基础等; 临床工作者应注重将脑发育的异常和功能改善用于辅助各类障碍的早期识别和干预效果评估。     

因子混合模型:潜在类别分析与因子分析的整合

因子混合模型(FMM)是考虑了群体潜在异质性后的因子分析模型,它将潜在类别分析(LCA)与传统的因子分析(FA)整合在同一框架内,既保留了两种分析技术的优点,同时又展现出独特优势。FMM的应用主要包括描述变量的潜在结构、对被试进行分组以及探测社会称许偏差等。我们建议分别采用FA、LCA与FMM三种模型拟合数据,参考拟合指数和模型可解释性选择最优模型。总结了FMM的分析步骤以及软件使用,并用于探讨大学生社会面子意识的测量模型。未来研究应关注FMM分析过程的简化,继续深化对拟合指数等方面的探讨。     

Collaboration Talk: The Folk Theories of Nano Research

The nano initiative in the US and elsewhere encourages and promotes various forms of multi-stakeholder activities, such as industrial collaborations. Forming part of the discourse of expectations around emerging technologies, collaboration is an important resource holding together different practices of knowledge production. In the conversations between policy and science, collaboration becomes a measurable entity and a measure in itself, figuring in the evaluations of the performance of individual faculty and research centres; however, the policy metaphor of ‘collaboration’ stands for a variety of different forms and shapes of interactions between university and industry. From a discourse analysis perspective, ‘folk theories’ of nano collaboration help to explore the dynamics of the university/industry boundary in the scientific organisational discourse as in a recent series of interactions with scientists, university officials and technology transfer officers in a number of US universities. What does the introduction of the new entity (nano) mean for scientists, and for university practices of technology transfer and commercialisation, in terms of trying to accommodate individual ‘nano’ cases into university regulations and procedures? How are these practices and experiences discussed in terms of collaboration? Assessments of value of collaboration ranged between polarised views, raising questions about occasions, audiences and communities of assessors invoked in the construction of acceptable accounts of nano collaboration. Metaphors and analogies were used to mobilise specific meanings in the discourses of the innovative potential of emerging fields. As such, assessments of the potential of terms pertinent to the emerging discourses, such as collaboration, would be better based on the assumption of shared meanings, not fixed and given, but actively achieved.