Cross-ethnic friendships,psychological well-being,and academic outcomes: Study of South Asian and White children in the UK

We examined whether two interpersonal processes, self-disclosure and affirmation of ideal self, mediated the relationship between cross-ethnic friendships and psychological well-being and academic outcomes. We conducted a cross-sectional survey with 484 secondary school children (243 White European, 241 South Asian British; M_age = 11.10, 220 boys, 264 girls) recruited from 35 multiethnic classrooms. Results of multilevel structural equation modeling revealed mediational effects of self-disclosure between cross-ethnic friendships and psychological well-being for only South Asian children. Affirmation also mediated the association between cross-ethnic friendships and both psychological well-being and academic outcomes for South Asian children. For White European children, affirmation mediated the association between cross-ethnic friendships and psychological well-being. Further analyses demonstrated that self-disclosure resulting from cross-ethnic friendship quality facilitated affirmation, which in turn promoted both sets of outcomes. Findings demonstrate that cross-ethnic friendships in multiethnic settings contribute to well-being through the generation of positive interpersonal processes.     

Complementary Variable- and Person-Centered Approaches to the Dimensionality of Psychometric Constructs: Application to Psychological Wellbeing at Work

Purpose

This study illustrates complementary variable- and person-centered approaches allowing for a more complete investigation of the dimensionality of psychometric constructs. Psychometric measures often assess conceptually related facets of global overarching constructs based on the implicit or explicit assumption that these overarching constructs exist as global entities including conceptually related specificities mapped by the facets. Proper variable- and person-centered methodologies are required to adequately reflect the dimensionality of these constructs.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We illustrate these approaches using employees’ (N = 1077) ratings of their psychological wellbeing at work.

Findings

The results supported the added value of the variable-centered approach proposed here, showing that employees’ ratings of their own wellbeing simultaneously reflect a global overarching wellbeing construct, together with a variety of specific wellbeing dimensions. Similarly, the results show that anchoring person-centered analyses into these variable-centered results helps to achieve a more precise depiction of employees’ wellbeing profiles.

Implications

The variable-centered bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) framework provides a way to fully explore these sources of psychometric multidimensionality. Similarly, whenever constructs are characterized by the co-existence of overarching constructs with specific dimensions, it becomes important to properly disaggregate these two components in person-centered analyses. In this context, person-centered analyses need to be clearly anchored in the results of preliminary variable-centered analyses.

Originality/Value

Substantively, this study proposes an improved representation of employees’ wellbeing at work. Methodologically, this study aims to pedagogically illustrate the application of recent methodological innovations to organizational researchers.

     

Measuring procedural imitation aptitude in children: further validation of the Preschool Imitation and Praxis Scale (PIPS)

The Preschool Imitation and Praxis Scale (PIPS) was developed to measure bodily and procedural imitation aptitude in young children. However, the investigation of procedural imitation is more complex than that of bodily imitation. The procedural imitation tasks of the PIPS mainly consisted of unusual acts upon objects (for example, switching on a lamp in a toy animal with the forehead). This study assessed the suitability of these tasks by ruling out nonimitative learning in 15 typically developing children between 12 and 55 mo. of age (6 girls, 9 boys). Results indicated that the tasks seem novel and unlikely to be performed spontaneously by the children. In addition, the number of target acts performed by the children in the imitation condition was significantly higher than in the baseline, investigator-manipulation, and imitation-enhancement nonimitative control conditions. Finally, the tasks elicited more frequently imitative behaviour than end-state emulation. Therefore, the tasks appear appropriate to measure procedural imitation, and the findings support the theoretical validity of the PIPS.     

The effect of language cues on infants' representational flexibility in a deferred imitation task

Twelve- and 15-month-old infants who received simple verbal cues at encoding and retrieval exhibited superior representational flexibility on an imitation task compared to infants who did not receive those cues. Verbal cues can help early-verbal infants overcome perceptual dissimilarity and express knowledge in novel situations.     

Implicit and explicit adjustments to extrinsic visuo-motor transformations and their age-related changes

Humans have unique abilities in using tools. The skilled and goal-directed use of a tool implies that processes of motor control can be adjusted to the transformation of the movement of a part of the body into the movement of the effective part of the tool. A common example is the transformation of a hand movement in the motion of a cursor on a computer monitor. In part the adjustments to such transformations are implicit, that is, without conscious awareness of the novel transformation and the appropriate change of one’s own movements. However, the adjustments can also be explicit and intentional. We review a series of experiments which show that implicit and explicit adjustments to a novel visuo-motor gain are additive. This finding suggests that the processes which generate different types of adjustment are functionally independent. In a second series of experiments it turned out that at older adult age explicit adjustments to novel visuo-motor transformations are impaired, whereas implicit adjustments remain unaffected across working age.     

Ease of processing constrains the activation flow in the conceptual-lexical system during speech planning

In 3 picture-word interference experiments, speakers named a target object in the presence of an unrelated not-to-be-named context object. Distractor words, which were phonologically related or unrelated to the context object's name, were used to determine whether the context object had become phonologically activated. All objects had high frequency names, and the ease of processing of these objects was manipulated by a visual degradation technique. In Experiment 1, both objects were nondegraded; in Experiment 2, both objects were degraded; and in Experiment 3, either the target object or the context object was degraded. Distractor words, which were phonologically related to the context objects, interfered with the naming response when both objects were nondegraded, indicating that the context objects had become phonologically coactivated. The effect vanished when both objects were degraded, when only the context object was degraded, and when only the target object was degraded. These data demonstrate that the amount of available processing resources constrains the forward cascading of activation in the conceptual-lexical system. Context objects are likely to become phonologically coactivated if they are easily retrieved and if prioritized target processing leaves sufficient resources.     

Who took the "x" out of expectancy-value theory? A psychological mystery, a substantive-methodological synergy, and a cross-national generalization

Expectancy-value theory (EVT) is a dominant theory of human motivation. Historically, the Expectancy × Value interaction, in which motivation is high only if both expectancy and value are high, was central to EVT. However, the Expectancy × Value interaction mysteriously disappeared from published research more than 25 years ago. Using large representative samples of 15-year-olds (N = 398,750) from 57 diverse countries, we attempted to solve this mystery by testing Expectancy × Value interactions using latent-variable models with interactions. Expectancy (science self-concept), value (enjoyment of science), and the Expectancy × Value interaction all had statistically significant positive effects on both engagement in science activities and intentions of pursuing scientific careers; these results were similar for the total sample and for nearly all of the 57 countries considered separately. This study, apparently the strongest cross-national test of EVT ever undertaken, supports the generalizability of EVT predictions--including the "lost" Expectancy × Value interaction.     

Why are conservatives happier than liberals? Comparing different explanations based on system justification,multiple group membership,and positive adjustment

This study examined the relation between conservatism and life satisfaction. Analyses based on data from a representative German survey (ALLBUS 2010) revealed a positive relation between conservatism and self‐reported life satisfaction, thus supporting prior claims of this link. Different accounts have been proposed for this relationship, suggesting system justification, positive adjustment, or multiple group membership as potential mediators. Going beyond prior research, this study allowed for a comparison between these different mechanisms. Analyses revealed that system justification and one of the three examined constructs related to positive adjustment (i.e., religiosity) were significant mediators of the positive relationship between political conservatism and life satisfaction. Comparable results were obtained after controlling for a number of sociodemographic variables. The present findings indicate (i) that conservatives report to be more satisfied with their lives than liberals and (ii) that this difference is in part due to conservatives' system justification and religiosity.     

Phantom Behavioral Assimilation Effects: Systematic Biases in Social Comparison Choice Studies

ABSTRACT Consistent with social comparison theory (SCT), Blanton, Buunk, Gibbons, and Kuyper (1999) and Huguet, Dumas, Monteil, and Genestoux (2001) found that students tended to choose comparison targets who slightly outperformed them (i.e., upward comparison choices), and this had a beneficial effect on subsequent performance—a behavioral assimilation effect (BAE). We show (Studies 1 and 2) that this apparent BAE is due, in part, to uncontrolled measurement error in pretest achievement. However, using simulated data (Study 3), these phantom BAEs were eliminated with latent‐variable models with multiple indicators. In Studies 4 and 5, latent‐variable models were applied to the Blanton et al. and Huguet et al. data, resulting in substantially smaller but still significantly positive BAEs. More generally in personality research based on correlational data, failure to control measurement error in pretest/background variables will positively bias the apparent effects of personality variables of interest, but widely applicable approaches demonstrated here can correct for these biases.     

The Charm of Disenchantment: A Quest for the Intellectual Attraction of Secularization Theory

In the course of Western history, philosophy has proven to be an active participant in the process of secularization. This article seeks to examine that philosophical role more closely. The central question is how the role of philosophy must be rethought in light of the contemporary critique of classical secularization theory. The first part of the article sheds light on the current crisis of secularization theory. Drawing on recent scholarship in the social sciences, it explains why the classical tenets and assumptions of secularization theory are no longer being considered as plausible and empirically grounded hypotheses. Against that background, the second part turns to philosophy. It examines the implications for a philosophical tradition of religious criticism that has consciously operated within this once-undisputed model of secularization. The question is how this critique of religion must be rethought, if its prominent role in the history of modern philosophy can no longer be ascribed to a general secularization of the Western mind. The third and final part attempts to answer this question by focusing on one of the most frequently overlooked, yet most significant and crucial elements in the history of philosophical secularization: the intrinsic intellectual attraction of religious disenchantment.