A validation study of goal orientations and self-efficacy scales

The aim of the current study was to investigate the validity and reliability of goal orientation and self-efficacy scales. The scales were administered to 264 university students (154 from engineering departments, 110 from business administration). Two samples were used. In the first sample, the original factor model was tested with confirmatory factor analysis. In the second sample, the Turkish versions of the scales were factor analyzed. Principal components analysis resulted in three components for the Goal Orientation scale: Learning goal orientation, Performance-prove goal orientation, and Performance-avoid goal orientation. The Self-efficacy scale had one factor as expected. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were satisfactory. The results did not fully support the use of current Turkish versions of the scales. Results of the studies are discussed along with the strengths and limitations of the study and suggestions for further development of the scales.     

A French Approach to Minority Islam? A Study in Normative Confusion

In this paper, the author argues (1) that the normative model of the “Republican school” the school agents adhere to is not opposed to the expression of social or religious memberships: rather, it ignores them. (2) That this model of school is currently being deeply undermined by the visibility of the “second generation” of postcolonial immigrants. (3) That this generates various kinds of reactions in the school space: first, reactions from Muslim students themselves and secondly, erratic reactions from teachers and other school personal who try to manage issues they feel important, without having been trained at all to do so.     

Implicit learning in rule induction and problem solving

Using the Chinese Ring Puzzle (Kotovsky & Simon, ; P. J. Reber & Kotovsky, ), we studied the effect on rule discovery of having to plan actions or not in order to reach a goal state. This was done by asking participants to predict legal moves as in implicit learning tasks (Experiment 1) and by asking participants to make legal moves as in problem-solving tasks (Experiment 2). Our hypothesis was that having a specific goal state to reach has a dual effect on rule discovery. The first effect is positive and related to feedback from moves done in order to attain the goal: generalising the results of action and associating them to the conditions in which they were obtained allows discovery of the rule and learning it. The second effect is negative. In attempting to reach a specific goal, participants first tend to reduce the distance that separates the current state from the goal state (hill climbing) and so neglect the kind of exploration that facilitates rule and procedure discovery because this would seem to be a detour from the goal. Results show that having to plan actions improved performance in implicit learning tasks (Experiment 1), yet it impaired performance in problem-solving tasks (Experiment 2). Although implicit learning and problem solving are based on rule discovery, and entail noticing regularities in the material, in both cases, rule discovery processes appear to be task-dependent.     

Does Ramadan Fasting Alter Body Weight and Blood Lipids and Fasting Blood Glucose in a Healthy Population? A Meta-analysis

In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis of self-controlled cohort studies comparing body weights, blood levels of lipids and fasting blood glucose levels before and after Ramadan taking into account gender differences. Several databases were searched up to June 2012 for studies showing an effect of Ramadan fasting in healthy subjects, yielding 30 articles. The primary finding of this meta-analysis was that after Ramadan fasting, low-density lipoprotein (SMD = ?1.67, 95 % CI = ?2.48 to ?0.86) and fasting blood glucose levels (SMD = ?1.10, 95 % CI = ?1.62 to ?0.58) were decreased in both sex groups and also in the entire group compared to levels prior to Ramadan. In addition, in the female subgroup, body weight (SMD = ?0.04, 95 % CI = ?0.20, 0.12), total cholesterol (SMD = 0.05, 95 % CI = ?0.51 to 0.60), and triglyceride levels (SMD = 0.03, 95 % CI = ?0.31, 0.36) remained unchanged, while HDL levels (SMD = 0.86, 95 % CI = 0.11 to 1.61, p = 0.03) were increased. In males, Ramadan fasting resulted in weight loss (SMD = ?0.24, 95 % CI = ?0.36, ?0.12, p = 0.001). Also, a substantial reduction in total cholesterol (SMD = ?0.44, 95 % CI = ?0.77 to ?0.11) and LDL levels (SMD = ?2.22, 95 % CI = ?3.47 to ?0.96) and a small decrease in triglyceride levels (SMD = ?0.35, 95 % CI = ?0.67 to ?0.02) were observed in males. In conclusion, by looking at this data, it is evident that Ramadan fasting can effectively change body weight and some biochemical parameters in healthy subjects especially in males compared to pre-Ramadan period.     

Gesture is at the cutting edge of early language development

Children who produce one word at a time often use gesture to supplement their speech, turning a single word into an utterance that conveys a sentence-like meaning ('eat'+point at cookie). Interestingly, the age at which children first produce supplementary gesture-speech combinations of this sort reliably predicts the age at which they first produce two-word utterances. Gesture thus serves as a signal that a child will soon be ready to begin producing multi-word sentences. The question is what happens next. Gesture could continue to expand a child's communicative repertoire over development, combining with words to convey increasingly complex ideas. Alternatively, after serving as an opening wedge into language, gesture could cease its role as a forerunner of linguistic change. We addressed this question in a sample of 40 typically developing children, each observed at 14, 18, and 22 months. The number of supplementary gesture-speech combinations the children produced increased significantly from 14 to 22 months. More importantly, the types of supplementary combinations the children produced changed over time and presaged changes in their speech. Children produced three distinct constructions across the two modalities several months before these same constructions appeared entirely within speech. Gesture thus continues to be at the cutting edge of early language development, providing stepping-stones to increasingly complex linguistic constructions.     

Probabilistic numerical discrimination in mice

Previous studies showed that both human and non-human animals can discriminate between different quantities (i.e., time intervals, numerosities) with a limited level of precision due to their endogenous/representational uncertainty. In addition, other studies have shown that subjects can modulate their temporal categorization responses adaptively by incorporating information gathered regarding probabilistic contingencies into their time-based decisions. Despite the psychophysical similarities between the interval timing and nonverbal counting functions, the sensitivity of count-based decisions to probabilistic information remains an unanswered question. In the current study, we investigated whether exogenous probabilistic information can be integrated into numerosity-based judgments by mice. In the task employed in this study, reward was presented either after few (i.e., 10) or many (i.e., 20) lever presses, the last of which had to be emitted on the lever associated with the corresponding trial type. In order to investigate the effect of probabilistic information on performance in this task, we manipulated the relative frequency of different trial types across different experimental conditions. We evaluated the behavioral performance of the animals under models that differed in terms of their assumptions regarding the cost of responding (e.g., logarithmically increasing vs. no response cost). Our results showed for the first time that mice could adaptively modulate their count-based decisions based on the experienced probabilistic contingencies in directions predicted by optimality.     

Chronic Childhood Peer Rejection is Associated with Heightened Neural Responses to Social Exclusion During Adolescence

This functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) study examined subjective and neural responses to social exclusion in adolescents (age 12–15) who either had a stable accepted (n?=?27; 14 males) or a chronic rejected (n?=?19; 12 males) status among peers from age 6 to 12. Both groups of adolescents reported similar increases in distress after being excluded in a virtual ball-tossing game (Cyberball), but adolescents with a history of chronic peer rejection showed higher activity in brain regions previously linked to the detection of, and the distress caused by, social exclusion. Specifically, compared with stably accepted adolescents, chronically rejected adolescents displayed: 1) higher activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) during social exclusion and 2) higher activity in the dACC and anterior prefrontal cortex when they were incidentally excluded in a social interaction in which they were overall included. These findings demonstrate that chronic childhood peer rejection is associated with heightened neural responses to social exclusion during adolescence, which has implications for understanding the processes through which peer rejection may lead to adverse effects on mental health over time.     

Quantitative Empirical Studies on Women’s Issues in Islamic Cultures: Introduction to Special Issue

The special issue aimed to focus on quantitative research articles covering gender and women’s issues in Islamic cultures which have not received sufficient attention. The present issue of gender and women’s issues in these cultures adds important information about topics such as the roles of honor, religiosity, and sexism as they interact with gender. In the special issue there are six quantitative research articles focusing on various topics relevant to honor, sexism, economic, and health issues. A study from Turkey examines the associations among benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, religiosity, and the endorsement of honor beliefs in Turkey. Another explores the effects of religious affiliation, patriarchy, and gender on the perception of honor-related crimes in Morocco, Cameroon, and Italy. Views about family issues are explored in a paper from North Cyprus that explores the associations among hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, religiosity, and attitudes toward childlessness. In another paper, researchers from Turkey investigate job-relevant gender issues such as work engagement, job insecurity, and turnover intentions. Finally, women’s health in Muslim cultures is the focus of papers on health screening behaviors in Turkey and on factors relevant to menopausal symptoms of women in Pakistan. In the introduction, the main purposes of the special issue articles are introduced. Then, the importance of studying honor, sexism, religiosity, the economic situation of women, and women’s health issues in Islamic cultures are covered. Some suggestions for future studies and implication and applications of the research findings also are discussed. Finally, limitations of the special issue are presented.     

Utilitarian relevance and face management in the interpretation of ambiguous question/request statements

Often, requests are made in an indirect manner and phrased in such a way that they can also be construed as questions. For example, the sentence “Is there any coffee left?” can be construed either as a question about coffee or as a request for coffee. This article offers a combined test of some key predictions of two approaches to the disambiguation of question/request statements: (1) the face management approach, which gives a prominent role to variables such as status and potential loss of face; and (2) the utilitarian relevance approach, which gives a prominent role to the goals pursued by the speaker at the time he or she issues the statement. Ambiguous question/request statements provide a natural test bed for the latter approach in particular. A board game paradigm is developed to allow for a clean, orthogonal manipulation of all variables. The results wholly support the utilitarian relevance approach and offer new perspectives on the face management approach.