Measurement invariance across gender and ethnicity on the Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0

This study investigated the measurement invariance of the Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0 across gender and ethnic groups in South Africa. The sample consisted of 1 144 working adults (female = 49.8%. black = 36.2%, white = 29.8%; other = 34%; age range = 18 to 74 years). Multiple group factor analysis was conducted to test for configural, metric, and scalar invariance. Results suggest that the assessment is largely invariant at configural and metric levels across gender and ethnic groups. At scalar level, full invariance was achieved for ten of the fifteen scales across gender and one scale across ethnicity. Partial scalar models were explored for all other scales. Overall, the evidence seems to suggest that the scores from the Emotional Quotient Inventory 2.0 scales had similar meanings for different gender and ethnic groups. However, for a few scales across gender, and more so for ethnicity, it seems that participant responses might also be influenced by factors other than the underlying latent constructs. Thus, while the scales of the assessment appears to be largely invariant at the configural and metric levels, a more nuanced picture emerged at scalar level with partially invariant models, especially across ethnic groups.     

A Short-term Psychodynamic Supportive Psychotherapy for Adolescents with Depressive Disorders: A New Approach

Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders in both adolescents and adults. In this article, we introduce Short-term Psychodynamic Supportive Psychotherapy (SPSP) for adolescents, a relatively new form of psychodynamic therapy for depression that has been studied in a range of randomized controlled trials with adult patients. SPSP emphasizes the relational aetiology and significance of depression and is characterized by a supportive attitude which focuses more on working in the here-and-now relational patterns rather than interpreting transference manifestations. The supportive attitude of the therapist is advocated to engage the adolescent in the therapeutic relationship and to foster his or her innate developmental capacities by attending to previously unaddressed developmental needs. The developmental perspective’s interest in defense styles and stagnation resulting from problems in past and current relationships opens up opportunities for acquiring insight and change. The focus on relational functioning makes it a promising approach for adolescents because they can implement any positive change immediately in their actual environment, immersed as they are in many new and varied relationships.     

Development and Validation of an Instrument for Measuring Individual Motives for Playing Digital Games

Individual motives for playing digital games have been studied from a variety of theoretical perspectives using different measurement instruments. However, an instrument that roots the social, rule-based narrative essence of digital games in a theory on human behavior acknowledging that not all behavior is consciously motivated has hitherto been lacking. A framework based on social cognitive theory that integrates these dimensions is proposed. After comparing the advantages of this framework to existing approaches, the development of a measurement instrument is discussed. This development concerns the generation and evaluation of an item pool and also testing the instrument for reliability and validity on different samples and different populations. Results suggest psychometric as well as theoretical soundness of the instrument.     

Reputation,Gossip, and Human Cooperation

Why do people cooperate? We address this classic question by analyzing and discussing the role of reputation: people cooperate to maintain a positive reputation in their social environment. Reputation is a key element fueling a system of indirect reciprocity, where cooperators establish a good reputation and are thus more likely to receive future benefits from third parties. The tendencies to monitor, spread, and manage each other's reputation help explain the abundance of human cooperation with unrelated strangers. We review research on the phenomenon of reputation‐based cooperation in the domains of how people manage their reputation in response to varying cues of reputation, when reputation can promote cooperation, and individual differences in reputation management. We also propose three directions for future research: group stability and reputation‐based cooperation, solutions to cope with noise and biased reputation, and the relative efficiency of positive versus negative reputation systems.     

Religious Involvement and Health Over Time: Predictive Effects in a National Sample of African Americans

In this study, two telephone interviews that assessed both religious involvement and health‐related quality of life were conducted approximately 2.5 years apart in a national sample of 290 African Americans. Religious involvement was assessed with an instrument that measured both personal religious beliefs (e.g., having a personal relationship with God) and more public religious behaviors (e.g., attending church services). Health‐related quality of life was measured with version 2 of the Medical Outcomes Study 12‐item short form (SF‐12v2). Structural equation models indicated that higher religious beliefs at baseline predicted better physical and mental health 2.5 years later. Higher religious behaviors at baseline contributed smaller, complementary suppression effects. Physical and mental health indicators from the SF‐12v2 at baseline did not predict changes in either religious beliefs or religious behaviors over time. These findings indicate that, for African Americans, personal religious beliefs lead to beneficial health effects over time, whereas individual differences in health do not appear to predict changes in religious involvement.     

Religious Quest Orientation and Anti‐Gay Sentiment: Nuancing the Relationship Between Religiosity and Negative Attitudes Toward Homosexuality Among Young Muslims and Christians in Flanders

Public opinion research has repeatedly shown that religious people generally report more prejudice against homosexuality. However, previous research exploring the general mechanisms that underpin this relationship mostly relied on Christian samples in North America. Studies outside North America are few in number and limited in the forms of religiosity they address. Of all indicators that have been studied so far, a religious quest orientation was found to be the only one negatively related to anti‐gay sentiments. This leaves open the question whether the mechanisms for different forms of religiosity can also be found outside North America. Against that background this research note assesses how religious quest orientation, self‐rated religiosity, religious behavior, and authoritarianism are related to prejudice against homosexuality among Christian and Muslim youth aged 14–23 in Flanders (N = 2,834). This study is the first that investigates the relationship between religious quest orientation and anti‐gay sentiments among Muslims. For both Christians and Muslims, we found that even taking into account a wide range of social background and religious characteristics, having a religious quest orientation is related to less prejudice toward homosexuality.     

Belief in a zero-sum game and subjective well-being across 35 countries

Current Psychology - This article presents a short research report on the relationship between perceived antagonism in social relations measured using the Belief in a Zero-Sum Game (BZSG) scale,...     

Teachers’ awareness in identifying microaggressive behaviors within the K-12 classroom

In the field of education, teachers are sentries for maintaining proper decorum, upholding school policies, and maintaining a social justice classroom, free of adversarial behaviors. While the premise of proper social and academic student engagement is expected, teachers are not always aware of or able to respond to inappropriate social interactions. This qualitative study using a narrative inquiry approach investigates and portrays the levels of awareness and decision-making processes teachers possess when addressing microaggression and microaggressive behaviors. Five public school teachers from varying grade levels in a culturally diverse school district participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews for this study. Emergent themes included: (a) awareness and recognition of microaggression as related to bullying, (b) microaggression as denigrating behavior directed toward others, and (c) microaggression with the school discipline framework. Findings suggest that teachers often lack awareness of microaggression as a concept distinct from bullying. But when the distinction is evident, teachers understand how microaggression can be a precursor to bullying which, if proactively addressed within the school discipline framework, may result in preventing bullying incidents before they start. Teachers were interested in receiving targeted professional development and adjusting school discipline policy to consider microaggression a unique concept. Guidance is offered to support educators, schools, and districts as clear guidelines and policies are established pertaining to identifying and addressing microaggression within the school community, thereby ensuring social and behavioral awareness.

     

One does not simply track students: the relationship between teachers’ perceived public track regard and their job satisfaction in a context of rigid tracking

Although there is a wealth of research on the educational and broader outcomes of tracking in education, there is virtually no research that investigates teachers’ track identities on such outcomes. Building on research that focuses on the determinants of teachers’ job satisfaction, tracking outcomes and social categorization theory, this study tests the relationship between the perceived public regard of a teachers’ track and their job satisfaction, in a Belgian context of within- (vocational, technical and general education tracks) and between-school tracking (multilateral versus categorical schools). Data of the Belgian SIS (School, Identity and Society)-survey, a large-scale dataset gathered in 2017, containing the self-reports of 324 teachers, clustered in 43 secondary schools is used to test particular hypotheses regarding this relationship. The results of a multilevel analysis show that the relationship between teachers’ public track regard and their job satisfaction varies according to the track they teach and whether they work in a categorical or multilateral school. The findings highlight the importance of carrying out further research on tracked identities in education.