On a connection between factor analysis and multidimensional unfolding

Given the preference ordering of each of a number of individuals over a set of stimuli, it is proposed that if the preference orderings are generated in a Euclidean space ofr dimensions which can be recovered by unfolding the preference orderings, then a factor analysis of the correlations between individual's preference orderings will yield a space ofr + 1 dimensions with the originalr-space embedded in it, and the additional dimension will be one of social utility. The proposition is clearly shown to be satisfied by means of the Monte Carlo technique for both random and lattice stimuli in three dimensions and for two other examples with random stimuli in one and two dimensions.The preparation of this paper was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation and in part by Project MICHIGAN, a project of the University of Michigan in the field of Combat Surveillance sponsored by the Department of the Army. The contract (DA-36-039 ac 78801) is administered by the U. S. Army Signal Corps. The authors are indebted to L. A. Raphael, Caroline K. Tefft, and F. M. Goode for programming assistance, and to L. W. Staugas for providing other computer services during various stages of this study.     

The development of English speech patterns of a 7-year-old Polish-speaking child

The silent period hypothesis was investigated by examining the speech development of AO, a Polish-speaking child, who emigrated to the U.S. at age 7 years, 5 months, and placed in the second grade of a rural Missouri school district in which there was no instruction of English as a second-language. AO was observed for 6 years, 8 months, in order to study the development of his English speech patterns. During this interval, recordings were made of five sentences produced by AO at five different age points and with recordings from a control group of native and nonnative speakers were rated by native American speakers. AO's accent showed a gradual decline during the first year of residence, receiving a rating of near-native speech. By age 14 years, 6 months, he was rated as having native speech performance. Observations of his language, social, and school development indicated that AO remained essentially silent during the first 6 months, using two- and three-word sentences only when necessary, that his social development was normal, and that his school achievement was not impeded by his placement in the grade level appropriate for his age. The conclusion was reached that AO's silent period experience contributed significantly to his development of English speech patterns.     

Pastoral care through small groups

Summary Pastoral care has for too long been conceived as the task of the ordained clergyman alone. The concept of shared leadership now offers us a unique tool to implement the pastoral care of the whole church—the laity as well as clergy. The small group, as a locus of care and concern and as a training tool, offers a unique way by which this ministry of the laity may become a reality, but training in small group process is vitally important to release this potential.     

Expectancy Accessibility and the Influence of Outcome Expectancies on Adolescent Smokeless Tobacco Use

This study investigated the moderating influence of expectancy accessibility on the relation between outcome expectancies and drug use intentions. Specifically, it was hypothesized that expectancies made temporarily more accessible would predict smokeless tobacco intentions to a greater degree than would less accessible expectancies. In addition, it was anticipated that expectancies regarding positive outcomes of smokeless tobacco use would be better predictors of intention than would expectancies about negative outcomes. Results partially supported the accessibility hypothesis, but this effect occurred for positive outcome expectancies only. In addition, the anticipated prepotency of positive over negative expectancies in predicting drug use intentions was strongly supported. These findings are consistent with theories of problem behavior which differentiate between positive and negative outcome expectancies and which postulate that accessibility of expectancies plays an important role in expectancy-behavior relations.     

Testing the assumptions and interpreting the results of the Rasch model using log-linear procedures in SPSS

This paper shows how to use the log-linear subroutine of SPSS to fit the Rasch model. It also shows how to fit less restrictive models obtained by relaxing specific assumptions of the Rasch model. Conditional maximum likelihood estimation was achieved by including dummy variables for the total scores as covariates in the models. This approach greatly simplifies the specification of the Rasch models. We illustrate these procedures in an analysis of four items selected from the Reiss Premarital Sexual Permissiveness Scale. We found that a modified version of the Rasch model with item dependencies fits the data significantly better than the simple Rasch model. We also found that the item difficulties are the same for men and women, but that the item dependencies are significantly greater for men. Apart from any substantive issues these results raise, the value of this exercise lies in its demonstration of how researchers can use the procedures of popular, accessible software packages to study an increasingly important set of measurement models.     

The black male urban barbershop as a sex-role socialization setting

Two hundred-eighty participants-as-observer hours and eight hours of informal interviewers with “informants” during a two-month period in summer 1983 were data sources in an analysis of a Black male urban barbershop in a midwestern city. The study focused on the barbershop as a sex-role socialization setting in which adult Black males actively negotiate masculinity while Black male youth passively negotiate masculinity and in all likelihood are socialized to become active negotiators. Content analyses of taped barbershop sessions and the researcher's written reports of the session revealed that the barbershop studied perpetuates sex-role stereotypes, encourages sexist attitudes toward women, and, in general, is a sex-role socialization setting that promotes sex-role inequality.     

Prevalence of renewal of problem behavior during context changes

Renewal is defined as the reemergence of a previously eliminated behavior following a context change. Determining the prevalence of this effect in clinical practice would allow clinicians to better anticipate the reemergence of problem behavior, such as when a patient is discharged from a treatment facility to return to their home. The current consecutive, case-series analysis determined the prevalence and magnitude of renewal when implementing behavioral treatments for problem behavior. Across 182 context changes, renewal was observed 77 times (42.3%). In the first session following the context change, problem behavior rates increased by a factor of 3 and then decreased across successive sessions. These results indicated that renewal effects may be common, but are also transient and return to rates observed before context changes.     

Changes in smoking behaviors from late childhood to adolescence: insights from the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth.

OBJECTIVE: To examine smoking behaviors in Canadian youth from late childhood to adolescence. By following participants from as young as 10 and 11 years, the authors proposed to identify distinct developmental pathways of smoking acquisition. DESIGN: Growth mixture modeling was used to identify developmental trajectories of smoking among 10- to 17-year-old participants of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Developmental trajectories of trying smoking, smoking frequency, and smoking intensity. Results: Five developmental trajectories related to smoking frequency were identified, of which 2 were acquisition patterns that led to daily smoking at age 16-17, and 3 were experimentation patterns that led to nonsmoking at age 16-17. The largest variability in changes in smoking behavior over time was the reported level of smoking frequency. CONCLUSION: Analysis showed that there is more than 1 way in which Canadian children and adolescents acquire smoking behaviors over time. The authors were able to differentiate patterns of experimentation from patterns of acquisition. Whereas experimentation has been generally considered as 1 of the stages in the smoking acquisition process leading to regular smoking, these results indicate that experimentation can be described as a distinct process in itself.