An investigation of the accuracy of standardized path coefficients

Given the popular and ever-increasing use of path analytic research paradigms in the social sciences, it is desirable to conduct an investigation into the accuracy of the standardized path coefficients that are often the end-product of these paradigms. In pursuit of this goal, population parameters were preset concerning the correlations between all of the variables and their reliability coefficients. Based on these parameters, thousands of experiments were generated with varying numbers of cases (n). For each experiment, at each level of n, standard path analyses were conducted, and standardized path coefficients were obtained. These standardized path coefficients were then compared against the population path coefficients on which the simulations were based to determine their accuracy. The findings indicate mixed evidence for the accuracy of path analysis research paradigms.     

Liking and identifying emotionally expressive music: age and gender differences

Adults and children 5, 8, and 11 years of age listened to short excerpts of unfamiliar music that sounded happy, scary, peaceful, or sad. Listeners initially rated how much they liked each excerpt. They subsequently made a forced-choice judgment about the emotion that each excerpt conveyed. Identification accuracy was higher for young girls than for young boys, but both genders reached adult-like levels by age 11. High-arousal emotions (happiness and fear) were better identified than low-arousal emotions (peacefulness and sadness), and this advantage was exaggerated among younger children. Whereas children of all ages preferred excerpts depicting high-arousal emotions, adults favored excerpts depicting positive emotions (happiness and peacefulness). A preference for positive emotions over negative emotions was also evident among females of all ages. As identification accuracy improved, liking for positively valenced music increased among 5- and 8-year-olds but decreased among 11-year-olds.     

Examination of the Psychometric Properties of the Spiritual Fitness Assessment

Using a sample of 196 undergraduate students, the present study investigated the psychometric properties of the Spiritual Fitness Assessment, a measure of spiritual fitness designed for use by health and fitness professionals. Examination of inter-item consistency produced satisfactory alpha coefficients for the total test and its three subscales. Correlations of the SFA with measures of spirituality and spiritual well-being provide support for convergent validity. Significant positive correlations with a measure of self-esteem suggest that the test has satisfactory criterion validity. Correlations with age, sex, and a measure of social desirability indicate that the SFA is significantly, though only moderately, affected by demographic variables and motivated response tendencies. Factor analysis of the SFA items indicate that the test is factorially complex and subscales may need to be refined to better measure their intended constructs. Overall, the results of the study suggest that the test may be useful for evaluations of spiritual fitness. Further research with samples drawn from different populations is needed on the test to better establish its reliability and validity.     

Meaning-making and resilience: case studies of a multifaceted process

Explanations of meaning-making generally prioritise intrapersonal processes. Although making meaning is an intrapersonal process, it is also strongly influenced by person-context interactions and cultural positioning. Nevertheless, the meaning-making literature has paid scant attention to how such interactivity and positioning shape meaning-making. In this article, we highlight the compound character of resilience-promoting meaning-making. To this end, we recount the instrumental cases of Ntando's and Sipho's resilience. The accounts of these black South African students’ positive adjustment to adversity richly illustrate how their lived experiences of a social ecology stimulated multifaceted meaning-making processes. In particular, Ntando's and Sipho's interpersonal experiences and Africentric worldviews gave rise to and/or moderated positive re-appraisal, revisioned goals, purposeful direction, application of spiritual beliefs, identification of benefits, sense-making and reflective problem-solving. Although both their stories drive an understanding of meaning-making as a helix-like process with inter-, intrapersonal and cultural strands, the differences in their accounts of meaning-making stimulate the need for deeper exploration into the complexity of resilience-promoting meaning-making processes.     

Positive affect and learning: exploring the “Eureka Effect” in dogs

Animals may experience positive affective states in response to their own achievements. We investigated emotional responses to problem-solving in dogs, separating these from reactions to rewards per se using a yoked control design. We also questioned whether the intensity of reaction would vary with reward type. We examined the response (behavior and heart rate) of dogs as they learned to gain access to different rewards: (1) food (2) human contact, and (3) dog contact. Twelve beagles were assigned to matched pairs, and each dog served as both an experimental and a control animal during different stages of the experiment. We trained all dogs to perform distinct operant tasks and exposed them to additional devices to which they were not trained. Later, dogs were tested in a new context. When acting as an experimental dog, access to the reward was granted immediately upon completion of trained operant tasks. When acting as a control, access to the reward was independent of the dog’s actions and was instead granted after a delay equal to their matched partner’s latency to complete their task. Thus, differences between the two situations could be attributed to experimental dogs having the opportunity to learn to control access to the reward. Experimental dogs showed signs of excitement (e.g., increased tail wagging and activity) in response to their achievements, whereas controls showed signs of frustration (e.g., chewing of the operant device) in response to the unpredictability of the situation. The intensity of emotional response in experimental dogs was influenced by the reward type, i.e., greatest response to food and least to another dog. Our results suggest that dogs react emotionally to problem-solving opportunities and that tail wagging may be a useful indicator of positive affective states in dogs.     

A First Step to Supporting the Coparenting Relationship and Reducing Child Behaviour Problems: A Delphi Consensus Study

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Parenting programs addressing coparenting skills are very effective in reducing problematic child behaviours. Barriers to participation in parenting programs...     

Message from a “Not So Wise Old Man”

At the start of the academic year, the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles has a Welcome Dinner during which the community gathers and is introduced to the new candidates training to become Jungian analysts and the new interns who work at the Kieffer E. Frantz Clinic, the first clinic to offer Jungian analysis on a sliding-fee scale. The staff is also invited to this event, held at a local restaurant with a large banquet room. It has become a tradition to invite a senior analyst to share their wisdom. Here is the talk given by Glenn Foy, the Institute's oldest member, at almost 97 years old.     

Individual differences in 10‐month‐olds' performance on the A‐not‐B task

This study used the classical A‐not‐B task (Piaget, 1954 ) to explore individual differences in cognitive flexibility in 10‐month‐old infants by: (1) examining how differences in search performance during A trials relate to search performance during B trials; (2) studying the relation between temperamental dimensions and A‐not‐B performance; and (3) investigating differences in search performance between looking and reaching responses within the same task. Forty infants were tested on a fixed‐design‐version of the A‐not‐B task, not allowing for training or individual adjustment, but instead eliciting additional search behaviors than the common correct responses in A trials and perseverative errors in B trials. Infants were also rated by their parents on the temperamental scales Activity level and Attention span. The main findings were: (1) performance on A trials affected B trial performance, with infants being more correct on A trials having more incorrect and less ‘no search’ responses on B trials; (2) activity level, but not attention span, was related to performance on the A‐not‐B task, with infants performing better on A trials having a lower activity level; and (3) there were a few differences in performance with regard to modality, indicating that responding correctly by looking may be less cognitively demanding than doing so by reaching. This study demonstrated that 10‐month‐olds show a wide variation of search behaviors on this A‐not‐B task, resulting in individual differences in performance. These differences are suggested to reflect variation in temperamental activity level as well as maturity of short term/working memory, inhibition and cognitive flexibility.