Development and Preliminary Validation of a Chinese Version of the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire in a Population of Hong Kong Chinese

212 blind adults were administered the Sound Test, an auditory projective technique, to study their perceptual style and relate it to their functioning efficiency. The results indicated systematic significant differences between three employment criterion groups, employed in industry, in sheltered workshops and unemployed. The industry group demonstrated a higher ability to integrate, organize and differentiate the stimulus situations. The shop sample was stimulus bound, field dependent and rejected more stimulus situations. The unemployed group was significantly different from the industry and shop groups, exhibiting little or no effort to organize, integrate and differentiate. The results are discussed in terms of Witkin's principles of differentiation, field-dependency and field-independency. A cross validation study supports the results.     

The Levels Hypothesis and the Study of Stimulus Value of Projective Test Items

Summary

Anagrams and semantic differential (S-D) test responses of Ss for whom words were “loaded” on a free association test were compared with those of Ss for whom the words were neutral. No differences in rate of word building or mean productivity of the two groups on the anagrams test were found. Mean S-D scale values similarly failed to differentiate between the two groups. However, when numbers of neutral (0) and extreme (+3 and ?3) responses were compared, “loaded” Ss were found on the whole to rate words more neutrally or more positively. The conclusion was that the stimulus value of the words in the associative condition could not be directly determined from responses in other conditions. The strategy of studying stimulus value of projective test items by using those items as stimuli on tests eliciting different levels of response was, therefore, questioned. Several other related experimental strategies which may mix response levels were also discussed and more appropriate techniques were suggested.     

Validation of Assessment for Learning Questionnaires for teachers and students

Background. Assessment can be a powerful force in promoting student learning. Still, few measures exist to gauge Assessment for Learning (AFL) in the classroom. Literature on AFL suggests that it encompasses both a monitor to track student progress as well as a scaffold to show or help students recognize in what areas they need to improve. Aims. Based on a review of recent attempts to measure the AFL, we constructed Assessment for Learning Questionnaires for Teachers (TAFL‐Q) and for students (SAFL‐Q) for evaluating perceptions regarding AFL practices in classrooms using matching items. Sample. The total sample included 1,422 students (49% girls, 51% boys) and 237 teachers (43% females, 57% males) in lower vocational secondary education. Methods. The 28‐item questionnaires were examined by means of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using EQS on one random half of the sample. The CFA was cross‐validated on the second half. Measurement invariance tests were conducted to compare the students and teacher versions of the questionnaires. Results. CFA revealed a stable second‐order two‐factor structure that was cross‐validated: perceived monitoring, and perceived scaffolding subsumed under a common factor: AFL. Tests for measurement invariance showed that the parallel constructs were measured similarly for both students and teachers. Conclusion. The TAFL‐Q and SAFL‐Q capture the construct AFL in two subscales: Monitoring and Scaffolding, and allows for comparisons between teacher and student perceptions. The instruments can be useful tools for teachers and students alike to identify and scrutinize assessment practices in classroom.     

God knows (but does God believe?)

The standard view in epistemology is that propositional knowledge entails belief. Positive arguments are seldom given for this entailment thesis, however; instead, its truth is typically assumed. Against the entailment thesis, Myers-Schulz and Schwitzgebel (Noûs, forthcoming) report that a non-trivial percentage of people think that there can be propositional knowledge without belief. In this paper, we add further fuel to the fire, presenting the results of four new studies. Based on our results, we argue that the entailment thesis does not deserve the default status that it is typically granted. We conclude by considering the alternative account of knowledge that Myers-Schulz and Schwitzgebel propose to explain their results, arguing that it does not explain ours. In its place we offer a different explanation of both sets of findings—the conviction account, according to which belief, but not knowledge, requires mental assent.     

Severe Social Withdrawal: Cultural Variation in Past Hikikomori Experiences of University Students in Nigeria,Singapore, and the United States

Hikikomori (social withdrawal that lasts six months or longer) is a growing problem among Japanese adolescents and young adults, with recent estimates that approximately 1% of Japanese youths will suffer from an episode of hikikomori in their lifetimes. What remains unclear is whether hikikomori is a culture-bound syndrome or a condition impacting youths around the globe. Hence, the self-reported prevalence and psychosocial correlates of past experiences with hikikomori were examined in cross-sectional samples of university students from Singapore (n?=?147), Nigeria (n?=?151), and the United States (n?=?301). Following tests of measurement invariance, comparisons showed that past experiences with hikikomori were related to elevated levels of current loneliness and depressive symptoms in each sample. However, analyses also revealed evidence of cultural variation in both the prevalence and the psychosocial correlates associated with past experiences of hikikomori, which taken together, provide preliminary evidence that the culture-bound characterization of hikikomori may not be appropriate.     

Maturational Changes in Canadian Adolescents' Cognitive Attitudinal Structure Concerning Marijuana

Thirty-four items concerning marijuana use were administered three times to a cohort of Canadian high school students between Grades 11 and 13, in 1977 (n = 439), 1978 (n = 419), and 1979 (n = 167). These items were designed to measure four distinct constructs: attitude, perceived peer approval or disapproval, concern about risks, and symbolic protest against conventional society. A cross-sectional factor analysis of the Grade 13 data supported the hypothesized factor structure, as had earlier work with college students. However, analogous analyses on the Grade 11 and Grade 12 data contradicted the hypothesized factor structure. Most notably, separate factors for positive and negative attitude appeared in the Grade 11 and 12 analyses. The data were interpreted primarily in terms of maturational changes, largely through elimination of alternative interpretations by internal analyses and previous findings. Implications were discussed for adolescent cognitive-attitudinal development, attitude theory, and analysis of panel data.     

Job Stress and Dyadic Synchrony in Police Marriages: A Preliminary Investigation

Despite reports documenting adverse effects of stress on police marriages, few empirical studies focus on actual emotional behaviors of officers and spouses. In this preliminary investigation, 17 male police officers and their nonpolice wives completed daily stress diaries for 1 week and then participated in a laboratory‐based discussion about their respective days. Conversations were video‐recorded and coded for specific emotional behaviors reflecting hostility and affection, which are strong predictors of marital outcomes. We examined associations between officers' job stress (per diaries and the Police Stress Survey) and couples' emotional behavior (mean levels and behavioral synchrony) using a dyadic repeated measures design capitalizing on the large number of observations available for each couple (1020 observations). When officers reported more job stress, they showed less hostility, less synchrony with their wives' hostility, and more synchrony with their wives' affection; their wives showed greater synchrony with officers' hostility and less synchrony with officers' affection. Therefore, for officers, greater job stress was associated with less behavioral negativity, potentially less attunement to wives' negativity, but potentially greater attunement to wives' affection—perhaps a compensatory strategy or attempt to buffer their marriage from stress. These attempts may be less effective, however, if, as our synchrony findings may suggest, wives are focusing on officers' hostility rather than affection. Although it will be important to replicate these results given the small sample, our findings reveal that patterns of behavioral synchrony may be a key means to better understand how job stress exacts a toll on police marriages.     

Scheduling Scaffolding: The Extent and Arrangement of Assistance During Training Impacts Test Performance

Various kinds of assistance, including prompts, worked examples, direct instruction, and modeling, are widely provided to learners across educational and training programs. Yet, the effectiveness of assistance during training on long-term learning is widely debated. The authors examined how the extent and schedule of assistance during training on a novel mouse movement task impacted unassisted test performance. Learners received different schedules of assistance during training, including constant assistance, no assistance, probabilistic assistance, alternating assistance, and faded assistance. Constant assistance led to better performance during training than no assistance. However, constant assistance during training resulted in the worst unassisted test performance. Faded assistance during training resulted in the best test performance. This suggests that fading may allow learners to create an internal model of the assistance without depending on the assistance in a manner that impedes successful transfer to unassisted circumstances.