Teachers’ professional development as a pathway for educational reform in Egypt

This study explores teachers’ reflections on the professional development (PD) provided by the Egyptian Ministry of Education as part of a national reform plan implemented right before the political changes in Egypt. The study took place in three national language schools and focused on English as Foreign Language teachers’ perspectives on the PD and the successes and challenges they faced implementing it. Results highlight teachers’ critical reflections on the quality and duration of the PD. Despite the effort, they expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of support and follow up from the administration, in addition to the lack of practical examples that characterized the PD.     

Infant Predictors of Toddler Effortful Control: A Multi‐method Developmentally Sensitive Approach

Effortful control (EC) is a form of self‐regulation characterized by inhibition of dominant responses in favour of more adaptive subdominant responses. In the present study, temperamental antecedents in infancy were examined in relationship to toddler EC. Parents reported on infant temperament at 6, 8, 10, and 12 months, using the regulatory capacity/orienting (RCO) factor of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire‐Revised. Laboratory indicators of this temperamental construct were also collected at each time point via the Temperament Laboratory Assessment. Relations between changes in temperament across the first year of life and toddler EC (mean age = 22 months) were examined using multilevel modelling. Parent‐reported RCO and the component subscale of cuddliness more specifically were the only temperamental variables that prospectively predicted toddler EC. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mind-wandering: phenomenology and function as assessed with a novel experience sampling method

Mind-wandering refers to the occurrence of thoughts whose content is both decoupled from stimuli present in the current environment and unrelated to the task being carried out at the moment of their occurrence. The core of this phenomenon is therefore stimulus-independent and task-unrelated thoughts (SITUTs). In the present study, we designed a novel experience sampling method which permitted to isolate SITUTs from other kinds of distractions (i.e., irrelevant interoceptive/exteroceptive sensory perceptions and interfering thoughts related to the appraisal of the current task). In Experiment 1, we examined the impact of SITUTs on the performance of the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART; a Go/No-Go task). Analyses demonstrated that SITUTs impair SART performance to the same extent as irrelevant sensory perceptions. In Experiment 2, we further examined SITUTs in order to assess the possible functions of mind-wandering. We observed that the content of most of reported SITUTs refers to the anticipation and planning of future events. Furthermore, this “prospective bias” was increased when participants' attention had been oriented toward their personal goals before performing the SART. These data support the view that an important function of mind-wandering relates to the anticipation and planning of the future.     

Randomised controlled trial of a guided self-help treatment on the Internet for binge eating disorder

Binge eating disorder (BED) is a common and under-treated condition with major health implications. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) self-help manuals have proved to be efficient in BED treatment. Increasing evidence also support the use of new technology to improve treatment access and dissemination. This is the first randomised controlled study to evaluate the efficacy of an Internet guided self-help treatment programme, based on CBT, for adults with threshold and subthreshold BED. Seventy-four women were randomised into two groups. The first group received the six-month online programme with a six-month follow-up. The second group was placed in a six-month waiting list before participating in the six-month intervention. Guidance consisted of a regular e-mail contact with a coach during the whole intervention. Binge eating behaviour, drive for thinness, body dissatisfaction and interoceptive awareness significantly improved after the Internet self-help treatment intervention. The number of objective binge episodes, overall eating disorder symptoms score and perceived hunger also decreased. Improvements were maintained at six-month follow-up. Dropouts exhibited more shape concern and a higher drive for thinness. Overall, a transfer of CBT-based self-help techniques to the Internet was well accepted by patients, and showed positive results for eating disorders psychopathology.     

Factors for radical creativity, incremental creativity, and routine, noncreative performance

This study extends theory and research by differentiating between routine, noncreative performance and 2 distinct types of creativity: radical and incremental. We also use a sensemaking perspective to examine the interplay of social and personal factors that may influence a person's engagement in a certain level of creative action versus routine, noncreative work. Results demonstrate that willingness to take risks, resources for creativity, and career commitment are associated primarily with radical creativity; that the presence of creative coworkers and organizational identification are associated with incremental creativity; and that conformity and organizational identification are linked with routine performance. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

Actions taken by schools when tobacco policies are violated: associations with adolescent smoking prevalence

This study examined the association of adolescent smoking prevalence with actions taken by schools (i.e., informing parents or disciplining pupils at school) for violating the school tobacco policy. Interaction terms between actions taken by schools and role models' smoking behavior or support for adolescents were also examined. Data were collected using self-completed questionnaires from a nationally representative Norwegian sample of 15-year-olds (1,404 pupils, 51% males) and 73 staff members. Informing parents when the school tobacco policy was violated by contrast with other actions taken by schools was not associated with lower levels of adolescent smoking. Disciplining pupils was associated with lower levels of adolescent smoking but the association was no longer significant when examined together with parents' and teachers' smoking behavior or support. Exposure to parents' and teachers' smoking, and teachers' support were associated with adolescent smoking prevalence, irrespective of actions taken by schools. Identifying the mechanism under which these different home and school factors relate to adolescent smoking may be worthwhile to inform intervention initiatives.     

A Stale Challenge to the Philosophy of Science

In his article “Is psychology based on a methodological error?” and based on a quite convincing empirical basis, Michael Schwarz offers a methodological critique of one of mainstream psychology’s key test theoretical axioms, i.e., that of the in principle normal distribution of personality variables. It is characteristic of this paper—and at first seems to be a strength of it—that the author positions his critique within a frame of philosophy of science, particularly positioning himself in the tradition of Karl Popper’s critical rationalism. When scrutinizing Schwarz’s arguments, however, we find Schwarz’s critique profound only as an immanent critique of test theoretical axioms. We raise doubts, however, as to Schwarz’s alleged ‘challenge’ to the philosophy of science because the author not at all seems to be in touch with the state of the art of contemporary philosophy of science. Above all, we question the universalist undercurrent that Schwarz’s ‘bio-psycho-social model’ of human judgment boils down to. In contrast to such position, we close our commentary with a plea for a context- and culture sensitive philosophy of science.     

Background music stints creativity: Evidence from compound remote associate tasks

Background music has been claimed to enhance people's creativity. In three experiments, we investigated the impact of background music on performance of Compound Remote Associate Tasks (CRATs), which are widely thought to tap creativity. Background music with foreign (unfamiliar) lyrics (Experiment 1), instrumental music without lyrics (Experiment 2), and music with familiar lyrics (Experiment 3) all significantly impaired CRAT performance in comparison with quiet background conditions. Furthermore, Experiment 3 demonstrated that background music impaired CRAT performance regardless of whether the music induced a positive mood or whether participants typically studied in the presence of music. The findings challenge the view that background music enhances creativity and are discussed in terms of an auditory distraction account (interference‐by‐process) and the processing disfluency account.     

Durable and generalized effects of spatial experience on mental rotation: gender differences in growth patterns

This study addressed questions about improvement in mental rotation skills: (1) whether growth trajectories differ for men and women with higher or lower spatial experience, (2) whether videogame training has effects on performance and leads to transfer, (3) whether effects of repeated testing or training effects are durable and (4) whether transfer is durable. Undergraduates participated in repeated testing on the MRT or played the videogame Tetris. Analyses showed large improvements in mental rotation with both repeated testing and training; these gains were maintained several months later. MRT scores of men and women did not converge, but men showed faster initial growth and women showed more improvement later. Videogame training showed greater initial growth than repeated testing alone, but final performance did not differ. Effects of videogame training transferred to other spatial tasks exceeding the effects of repeated testing, and this transfer advantage was still evident after several months. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Clarifying the role of impulsivity in dietary restraint: A structural equation modeling approach

This study was designed to clarify the relationship between the four dimensions of impulsivity in Whiteside and Lynam’s (2001) model and the two aspects of dietary restraint (Concern for Dieting and Weight Fluctuation) in a non-clinical sample. Data were collected from a volunteer community sample (N = 216) of women who responded to two self-report instruments related to impulsivity (UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale, Whiteside & Lynam, 2001) and dietary restraint (Restraint Scale, Polivy, Herman, & Warsh, 1978). A structural equation model was tested. The model provided a good fit to the data (χ²/df = 1.64, p < .0001, RMSEA = 0.054, 90% CI = 0.050–0.058, p-value for test of close fit (RMSEA > 0.05) = .035) and revealed that Concern for Dieting was positively related to Urgency (standardized β = 0.25, p < .01). Weight Fluctuation was related to lack of Perseverance (standardized β = 0.25, p < .01) and tended to relate to Sensation Seeking (standardized β = 0.17, p = .056). Urgency and lack of Perseverance were found to play a significant role in predicting Concern for Dieting and Weight Fluctuation.