Professors are people too: The impact of informal evaluations of professors on students and professors

There are websites where individuals anonymously provide informal reviews of professors. What impact do such sites have on student and professor motivational factors? Research suggests that undergraduate students are affected (e.g. Edwards et?al. in J Comput Mediat Commun 14:368?C392, 2009; Kowai-Bell et?al. in Comput Hum Behav 27(5):1862?C1867, 2011). The goals of the present investigation are to (1) see if Master??s level students are also influenced and (2) investigate how professors are affected. We provided students (Study 1) and professors (Study 2) comments from an informal review website and they, respectively, took the perspective of a potential student or the professor described in the comments. In Study 1, consistent with prior research on undergraduates, Master??s level students were affected by the reviews (perceived control, outcome expectancies, affect toward taking the class, and likelihood of recommending to a friend), in accordance with the valence of the reviews. Among professors (Study 2), the valence of the reviews influenced affect and self-concept with respect to relational aspects of teaching (mood, affect toward teaching again, confidence that students liked them, and confidence that they would have rapport with future students) but did not have an effect on professor self-concept with respect to competence (teaching ability and teaching well in the future). Furthermore, preliminary evidence suggests that new professors are more susceptible than experienced professors. The results of these studies are relevant because of the degree to which students and instructors contribute to the socioemotional climate of the classroom (Frenzel et?al. in J Educ Psychol 103(3):705?C716, 2009; Radel et?al. in J Educ Psychol 102(3):577?C587, 2010).     

Modelling vagueness: what can we ignore?

A theory of vagueness gives a model of vague language and of reasoning within the language. Among the models that have been offered are Degree Theorists?? numerical models that assign values between 0 and 1 to sentences, rather than simply modelling sentences as true or false. In this paper, I ask whether we can benefit from employing a rich, well-understood numerical framework, while ignoring those aspects of it that impute a level of mathematical precision that is not present in the modelled phenomenon of vagueness. Can we ignore apparent implications for the phenomena by pointing out that it is ??just a model?? and that the unwanted features are mere artefacts? I explore the distinction between representors and artefacts and criticise the strategy of appealing to features as mere artefacts in defence of a theory. I focus largely on theories using numerical resources, but also consider other, related theories and strategies, including theories appealing to non-linear structures.     

Coping with COVID-19: Longitudinal Impact of the Pandemic on Adjustment and Links with Coping for Adolescents with and without ADHD

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Understanding factors that foster resilience and buffer against the negative psychological impact of COVID-19 is critical to inform efforts to...     

Efficacy of Guided iCBT for Depression and Mediation of Change by Cognitive Skill Acquisition

Guided internet CBT (iCBT) is a promising treatment for depression; however, it is less well known through what mechanisms iCBT works. Two possible mediators of change are the acquisition of cognitive skills and increases in behavioral activation. We report results of an 8-week waitlist controlled trial of guided iCBT, and test whether early change in cognitive skills or behavioral activation mediated subsequent change in depression. The sample was 89 individuals randomized to guided iCBT (n = 59) or waitlist (n = 30). Participants were 75% female, 72% Caucasian, and 33 years old on average. The PHQ9 was the primary outcome measure. Mediators were the Competencies of Cognitive Therapy Scale–Self Report and the Behavioral Activation Scale for Depression–Short Form. Treatment was Beating the Blues plus manualized coaching. Outcomes were analyzed using linear mixed models, and mediation with a bootstrap resampling approach. The iCBT group was superior to waitlist, with large effect sizes at posttreatment (Hedges’ g = 1.45). Dropout of iCBT was 29% versus 10% for waitlist. In the mediation analyses, the acquisition of cognitive skills mediated subsequent depression change (indirect effect = -.61, 95% bootstrapped biased corrected CI: -1.47, -0.09), but increases in behavioral activation did not. iCBT is an effective treatment for depression, but dropout rates remain high. Change in iCBT appears to be mediated by improvements in the use of cognitive skills, such as critically evaluating and restructuring negative thoughts.     

Understanding the role of configural processing in face emotion recognition in Parkinson’s disease

This investigation examined whether impairment in configural processing could explain deficits in face emotion recognition in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Stimuli from the Radboud Faces Database were used to compare recognition of four negative emotion expressions by older adults with PD (n = 16) and matched controls (n = 17). Participants were tasked with categorizing emotional expressions from upright and inverted whole faces and facial composites; it is difficult to derive configural information from these two types of stimuli so featural processing should play a larger than usual role in accurate recognition of emotional expressions. We found that the PD group were impaired relative to controls in recognizing anger, disgust and fearful expressions in upright faces. Then, consistent with a configural processing deficit, participants with PD showed no composite effect when attempting to identify facial expressions of anger, disgust and fear. A face inversion effect, however, was observed in the performance of all participants in both the whole faces and facial composites tasks. These findings can be explained in terms of a configural processing deficit if it is assumed that the disruption caused by facial composites was specific to configural processing, whereas inversion reduced performance by making it difficult to derive both featural and configural information from faces.     

Issues in using interpreters in therapeutic work with refugees. What is not being expressed?

‘Interpreting’ could be thought about as a legal equal opportunities or human rights issue. Whereas interpreters are likely to focus on the linguistic issues, and will be aware of the technical complexities of their work. Clinicians may worry about the impact on the therapeutic relationship of the interpreter's presence, how this will be managed and how it may depend on the match or mismatch of such factors as the client's gender, age and first or other language. This paper considers the issue on each of these levels to reveal the complexities and dilemmas of effective clinical work with interpreters, but also what can be achieved: the multiple layers of meaning concerning the client's experience and communication which can be elicited through effective working between interpreter and clinician.     

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A test designed to measure dimensions of intrafamilial attitudes was administered to the parents of 250 children. The children were tested on the School Motivation Analysis Test. Among the many relationships obtained the most consistent predictor of the child SMAT scores was that of interspouse hostility, which was positively related to the children's assertiveness and sex scores and negatively related to childrens' narcism, protectiveness, and superego scores. In the case of the child self-sentiment scores a reversal occurred, with the fathers' interspouse hostility being positively related and the mothers' negatively related. These results must necessarily stand as tentative pending cross-validation; and they are regarded by the authors as hypothesis generating rather than as hypothesis testing. Although the linear multiple regression model used is a powerful one, it would not be unreasonable to expect interactions among some of the family attitude factors and, further, interactions of these factors with sex of the child and family demographic variables.     

Perceived stressors and stress responses among hospital-based nursing trainees

Perceived sources and levels of stress were assessed with a rating scale describing the experience of stressors and stress responses and an unstructured self-report about the reasons of such ratings in 60 nursing students in their first and final year of hospital training. The results, which show a significantly higher report of stress in the latter group, also point to identifiable sources of stressors in hospital-based nursing training procedures. Several recommendations to alleviate these conditions are discussed.     

Gender Differences in Impression Management in Organizations: A Qualitative Review

In this article we review the literature on impression management to determine if there are substantial gender differences in the employment of impression management tactics in organizational contexts. Based on a social roles theory perspective (Eagly, 1987), we examined use of impression management tactics in organizational settings for gender differences in behavior. We expected that men and women would generally report using impression management tactics consistent with gender role expectations and that this might not be advantageous to women in the corporate world. Our review of the literature supported our expectations. We conclude with implications of these findings for an enriched understanding of organizational behavior.