Ecological validity and cultural sensitivity for outcome research: Issues for the cultural adaptation and development of psychosocial treatments with Hispanics

This article has two objectives. The first is to provide a culturally sensitive perspective to treatment outcome research as a resource to augment the ecological validity of treatment research. The relationships between external validity, ecological validity, and culturally sensitive research are reviewed. The second objective is to present a preliminary framework for culturally sensitive interventions that strengthen ecological validity for treatment outcome research. The framework, consisting of eight dimensions of treatment interventions (language, persons, metaphors, content, concepts, goals, methods, and context) can serve as a guide for developing culturally sensitive treatments and adapting existing psychosocial treatments to specific ethnic minority groups. Examples of culturally sensitive elements for each dimension of the intervention are offered. Although the focus of the article is on Hispanic populations, the framework may be valuable to other ethnic and minority groups.     

“Everything Is Interrelated”

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that “everything is interrelated,” especially in relation to health, ecology, economy, and climate change, as various authors have stated. The motto is the leitmotif of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’ and leads to his proposal of an integral ecology. This article deepens the implications of the latter in the encyclical and in other works and shows how the Catholic Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region is an example of the reception and application of integral ecology in a given context. Based on this, the article proposes some conclusions, taking into account the theme of the next assembly of the World Council of Churches in 2022.     

Illegitimacy improves goal pursuit in powerless individuals

The effects of power legitimacy on self-regulation during goal pursuit were examined. Study 1 focused on goal-setting and goal-striving. Specifically, it examined how much time legitimate and illegitimate powerless individuals needed to set goals, and how many means they generated to pursue these goals. Study 2 examined persistence in the face of difficulties. Consistently across these studies illegitimacy improved self-regulation in powerless individuals. Illegitimate powerless individuals behaved similarly as control participants. They took less time to decide on a course of action, used more flexible means to strive for goals, and persisted longer in the face of difficulties, compared to their legitimate counterparts. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

An Introduction to Everyday Aesthetics in Education

Studies in Philosophy and Education - The purpose of this paper is to introduce everyday aesthetics in education. First, it presents everyday aesthetics as a subdiscipline within philosophical...     

International Semiotics: Item Difficulty and the Complexity of Science Item Illustrations in the PISA-2009 International Test Comparison

We examined multimodality (the representation of information in multiple semiotic modes) in the context of international test comparisons. Using Program of International Student Assessment (PISA)-2009 data, we examined the correlation of the difficulty of science items and the complexity of their illustrations. We observed statistically significant mean correlation coefficient differences favoring higher-ranking over lower-ranking jurisdictions and non-Western over Western jurisdictions. We examined this correlation as a function of the variety of forms of representation of information used in illustrations. For the highest-ranking jurisdictions, the correlation tended to be positive and its magnitude tended to increase with the number of forms of representation. For the lowest-ranking jurisdictions, the correlation tended to be negative and its magnitude tended to increase with the number of forms of representation. Increased illustration complexity appears to be an affordance in making sense of science items for students from the highest-ranking jurisdictions and a challenge for students from the lowest-ranking jurisdictions. Our findings support the notion that integrating information provided in multiple semiotic modes is critical to science achievement and underscore the importance for science standards and international assessment frameworks to address this skill as intrinsic to (rather than an aspect of) science proficiency.