Exploration of Predictors of Teaching Effectiveness: The Professor’s Perspective

This research is an exploratory investigation of what attributions college professors place upon the cause of teaching effectiveness and success. Student evaluations of teaching are used as a proxy for teaching effectiveness. The study is supported by Attribution Theory in that perceptions and attributions of causality affect motivation and success. The research evaluates data that supported Attribution Theory. The data was collected using Qualtrics through a web-based survey. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the survey data, with interesting conclusions. The most interesting difference was that between the perceptions of causal attribution of tenured and non-tenured professors. The data show that tenured professors attribute teaching effectiveness to factors outside their control such as characteristics of the students and the institution, while non-tenured professors do not attribute teaching effectiveness to external factors. The implications of this study are support for Attribution Theory in the college teaching context, and may be useful for university administration in motivating professors for effective teaching. Future research includes deductive study to further explore the scope and boundary conditions of Attribution Theory in college teaching.     

Nonrelativist Ethical Standards for Goal Setting in Psychotherapy

A number of authors have commented on the topic of mandated reporting in cases of suspected child maltreatment and the application of this requirement to researchers. Most of these commentaries focus on the interpretation of current legal standards and offer opinions for or against the imposition of mandated reporting laws on research activities. Authors on both sides of the issue offer ethical arguments, although a direct comparison and analysis of these opposing arguments is rare. This article critically examines the ethical arguments made by authors on both sides of the debate. The conclusion is reached that researchers should be mandated reporters of child maltreatment because the current arguments do not justify their exclusion from current ethical and legal standards. The author makes recommendations for the ethically responsible conduct of research in regard to this topic and legal implications are discussed.     

Conscious thoughts from reflex-like processes: A new experimental paradigm for consciousness research

The contents of our conscious mind can seem unpredictable, whimsical, and free from external control. When instructed to attend to a stimulus in a work setting, for example, one might find oneself thinking about household chores. Conscious content thus appears different in nature from reflex action. Under the appropriate conditions, reflexes occur predictably, reliably, and via external control. Despite these intuitions, theorists have proposed that, under certain conditions, conscious content resembles reflexes and arises reliably via external control. We introduce the Reflexive Imagery Task, a paradigm in which, as a function of external control, conscious content is triggered reliably and unintentionally: When instructed to not subvocalize the name of a stimulus object, participants reliably failed to suppress the set-related imagery. This stimulus-elicited content is considered ‘high-level’ content and, in terms of stages of processing, occurs late in the processing stream. We discuss the implications of this paradigm for consciousness research.     

NSGC Practice Guideline: Prenatal Screening and Diagnostic Testing Options for Chromosome Aneuploidy

The BUN and FASTER studies, two prospective multicenter trials in the United States, validated the accuracy and detection rates of first and second trimester screening previously reported abroad. These studies, coupled with the 2007 release of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Practice Bulletin that endorsed first trimester screening as an alternative to traditional second trimester multiple marker screening, led to an explosion of screening options available to pregnant women. ACOG also recommended that invasive diagnostic testing for chromosome aneuploidy be made available to all women regardless of maternal age. More recently, another option known as Non-invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) became available to screen for chromosome aneuploidy. While screening and testing options may be limited due to a variety of factors, healthcare providers need to be aware of the options in their area in order to provide their patients with accurate and reliable information. If not presented clearly, patients may feel overwhelmed at the number of choices available. The following guideline includes recommendations for healthcare providers regarding which screening or diagnostic test should be offered based on availability, insurance coverage, and timing of a patient’s entry into prenatal care, as well as a triage assessment so that a general process can be adapted to unique situations.     

The Obedience of the Eternal Son

According to Karl Barth, the obedience of the eternal Son in the economy of salvation is the proper mode whereby he enacts the undivided work of the Trinity ‘for us and our salvation’. This thesis now enjoys rather wide acceptance among contemporary theologians. In many instances, adopting this viewpoint has resulted in significant revisions of traditional trinitarian metaphysics. The purpose of the present article is to demonstrate that adopting Barth's thesis does not require such revision and that this thesis can and should be appropriated within the orbit of traditional trinitarian theology. We will endeavor to establish our claim by considering the relationship between the Son's eternal generation and his economic obedience, and by addressing three major objections that might be raised against our claim.     

Understanding physical activity behavior and cognitions in pregnant women: An application of self-determination theory

ObjectivesAlthough regular exercise during pregnancy is linked with improved health outcomes for both mother and foetus, many pregnant women are inactive. The purpose of this study was to use organismic integration theory (OIT) as the guiding theory for examining the relationship between autonomous and controlled motives for (a) exercise behavior reported over a typical week and barriers to exercise and (b) exercise and stage of pregnancy (i.e., trimester).DesignCross-sectional.MethodsParticipants (N = 75) were pregnant women who completed a multi-component, Internet-based survey.ResultsMultiple regression analyses showed that identified regulation predicted greater exercise behavior and fewer exercise barriers, irrespective of trimester. Further analyses indicated that women in the first trimester reported significantly higher identified regulation compared to women in either second or third trimesters.ConclusionsOverall, these findings reinforce the importance of distinguishing controlled from autonomous exercise motives and demonstrate the tenability of OIT for enhancing our understanding of exercise behavior and barriers during pregnancy.     

Psychological Openness and Counselor Effectiveness: A Further Investigation

The purpose of this study was to crossvalidate previous findings which lend credence to the widely hypothesized positive relationship between a student's psychological openness and his effectiveness as a counselor. Rorschach indicators of psychological openness were compared with supervisor ratings of competence and scores obtained from the application of the Truax Scales of accurate empathy, genuineness, and nonpossessive warmth to tapes of actual counseling sessions. The data offer further support for the hypothesis that psychological openness is an important predictor of success in counselor training.     

The Effects of Educational Diversity in a National Sample of Law Students: Fitting Multilevel Latent Variable Models in Data With Categorical Indicators

Controversy surrounding the use of race-conscious admissions can be partially resolved with improved empirical knowledge of the effects of racial diversity in educational settings. We use a national sample of law students nested in 64 law schools to test the complex and largely untested theory regarding the effects of educational diversity on student outcomes. Social scientists who study these outcomes frequently encounter both latent variables and nested data within a single analysis. Yet, until recently, an appropriate modeling technique has been computationally infeasible, and consequently few applied researchers have estimated appropriate models to test their theories, sometimes limiting the scope of their research question. Our results, based on disaggregated multilevel structural equation models, show that racial diversity is related to a reduction in prejudiced attitudes and increased perceived exposure to diverse ideas and that these effects are mediated by more frequent interpersonal contact with diverse peers. These findings provide support for the idea that administrative manipulation of educational diversity may lead to improved student outcomes. Admitting a racially/ethnically diverse student body provides an educational experience that encourages increased exposure to diverse ideas and belief systems.     

Work–Family Conflict and Flexible Work Arrangements: Deconstructing Flexibility

Workplace flexibility has been a topic of considerable interest to researchers, practitioners, and public policy advocates as a tool to help individuals manage work and family roles. In this study, meta‐analysis is used to clarify what is known about the relationship between flexible work arrangements and work–family conflict by deconstructing the flexibility construct. We found that the direction of work–family conflict (work interference with family vs. family interference with work) and the specific form of flexibility (flextime vs. flexplace; use vs. availability) make a difference in the effects found. Overall, the significant effects were small in magnitude.