Gender differences in the mean level,variability, and profile shape of student achievement: Results from 41 countries

A domain-specific hierarchical conceptualization of mathematics achievement can be represented by the standard psychometric model in which a single latent dimension accounts for observed individual differences in scores on the respective subdomains (e.g., quantity). Alternatively, a fully hierarchical conceptualization of achievement can be represented by a nested-factor model in which individual differences in subdomain-specific scores are explained by both general student achievement and specific mathematics achievement. The authors applied both models to study the gender similarity hypothesis, the greater male variability hypothesis, and the masking hypothesis, which predicts that gender differences in general student achievement mask gender differences in both the means and the variability of specific mathematics achievement. Representative data were obtained from 275,369 15-year-old students in 41 countries. The results supported these hypotheses in most countries, demonstrating that a fully hierarchical conceptualization of achievement in terms of the nested-factor model significantly contributes to a better understanding of gender differences in the mean level, variability, and shape of students' achievement profiles.     

Contents and peculiarities of the activity of psychologists in psychiatry and neurology under the conditions of a university hospital of neurological psychistry]

The qualification of clinical psychologists and their theoretically possible and practically realized employments are discussed from the practical psychologist's viewpoint and with reference to the historical development of clinical psychology.     

Delimitation and cooperation between pediatric neuropsychiatry, child health protection, psychology and pedagogy in the diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of behaviorally disturbed children with normal intelligence]

This article describes the complexity and dynamics of the disease with reference to the diagnosis of "behavioral disorder in the case of normal intelligence". In addition, the authors discuss differences in manifestation and the need for cooperation between experts in pedoneuropsychiatry and clinical psychology, on the one hand, and pedagogics and special education, on the other.     

Does Ideology Transcend Culture? A Preliminary Examination in Romania

This article represents a preliminary attempt to develop a culturally universal structural model of ideology. In Study 1, an indigenous model of Romanian ideology was developed. The structural model was created by converting 245 dictionary definitions of Romanian ideological concepts into questionnaire items. Using a sample of 420 Romanians, the most replicable structure indicated four broad dimensions that appeared to roughly correspond to the four factors in Saucier's (2000) American model of ideology. Study 2 replicated the structural model and compared it with existing ideological measures. Authoritarianism and traditional religiosity were a key component of the largest factor. Communism and some aspects of social dominance orientation were key components of the second largest factor. The findings may represent the beginnings of a culturally universal structure model of ideology.     

GESTURE, SPEECH, AND LEXICAL ACCESS:

Abstract— In a within-subjects design that varied whether speakers were allowed to gesture and the difficulty of lexical access, speakers were videotaped as they described animated action cartoons to a listener. When speakers were permitted to gesture, they gestured more often during phrases with spatial content than during phrases with other content. Speech with spatial content was less fluent when speakers could not gesture than when they could gesture, speech with nonspatial content was not affected by gesture condition. Preventing gesturing increased the relative frequency of nonjuncture filled pauses in speech with spatial content, but not in speech with other content. Overall, the effects of preventing speakers from gesturing resembled those of increasing the difficulty of lexical access by other means, except that the effects of gesture restriction were specific to speech with spatial content. The findings support the hypothesis that gestural accompaniments to spontaneous speech can facilitate access to the mental lexicon