Fostering Creativity in the Classroom: Effects of Teachers' Epistemological Beliefs,Motivation, and Goal Orientation

The relationships of teachers' epistemological beliefs, motivation, and goal orientation to their instructional practices that foster student creativity were examined. Teachers' perceived instructional practices that facilitate the development of multiple perspectives in problem solving, transfer, task commitment, creative skill use, and collaboration were measured as indicators of their effort to foster creative thinking in students. Participants were 178 elementary‐school teachers of third‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐graders. Teachers' learning goal orientation was the most significant teacher attribute that demonstrated significant impacts on all five creativity‐fostering instructional practices. Teachers with sophisticated beliefs about knowledge and with high intrinsic motivation for creative work also reported supporting student creativity through some of their instructional practices. However, teachers' motivation for challenging work, beliefs about learning, or performance goals did not significantly predict most of the creativity‐fostering instructional practices. Educational implications of the current findings are offered.     

A COMPARISON OF HOLISTIC VERSUS DECOMPOSED RATING OF POSITION ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE WORK DIMENSIONS

Recent studies have attempted to reduce the cost and intrusiveness of the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) by limiting the amount of information provided to the analyst, with consistently negative results. We examined an alternative technique for improving the cost-effectiveness of the PAQ that avoids the need to rate the hundreds of items that constitute the instrument. Three groups of raters (professional job analysts, graduate students in industrial psychology who were familiar with the PAQ, and PAQ-unfamiliar undergraduates) made direct holistic ratings of the PAQ dimensions for four familiar jobs. The holistic ratings were compared with decomposed PAQ dimension profiles obtained from the item-level ratings of the professional analysts. Cronbach accuracy analyses indicated near-zero convergence between the holistic and decomposed dimension ratings, even for the professional PAQ job analysts. We conclude that holistic rating of dimensions is not an effective means of reducing the cost of a PAQ job analyses and that it is likely to be similarly ineffective with task- or ability-based instruments.     

A QUANTIFIED APPROACH TO MEASUREMENT OF JOB CONTENT: PROCEDURES AND PAYOFFS1

Procedures used for developing a quantified job analysis system for 1710 exempt employees in a power utility firm are described. Factor analysis of these data yielded 60 job dimensions which were used to describe position and job profiles. These job profiles then served as the basic input into the development of job clusters, defined as jobs at the same organizational level which have similar job content. The usefulness of information in this format for selection, promotion, transfer, compensation and training decisions is discussed.     

Purchasing Patterns of Migrant Groups: The Impact of Acculturation on Ethnocentric Behaviors

This study investigated the social psychology of Malaysian migrants and their ethnocentric purchase behavior as they assimilate into the local culture. A theoretical framework consisting of acculturation, consumer ethnocentrism, time, and demographics was assembled; and an exploratory study was undertaken involving 255 samples of Malaysian consumers residing in the UK. The findings suggest that levels of consumer ethnocentrism are inversely related to their length of residence in the host country. Hence, respondents who reside longest exhibit less ethnocentric behavior. Contrary to our prediction, no significant relationship exists between assimilation and consumer ethnocentrism. Of significance, however, highly assimilated individuals are likely to be young male and single persons, with low assimilation most likely found in middle‐aged to older married females.     

Parental Separation and Children's Behavioral/Emotional Problems: The Impact of Parental Representations and Family Conflict

In this longitudinal study, we examine whether the effect of parental separation on kindergarten children's behavioral/emotional problems varies according to the level of family conflict, and children's parental representations. One hundred and eighty seven children were assessed at ages 5 and 6. Family conflict was assessed using parents' ratings. Children's parental representations were assessed using a story-stem task. A multiinformant approach (parent, teacher, child) was employed to assess children's behavioral/emotional problems. Bivariate results showed that separation, family conflict, and negative parental representations were associated with children's behavioral/emotional problems. However, in multivariate analyses, when controlling for gender and symptoms at age 5, we found that children of separated parents who showed negative parental representations had a significantly greater increase in conduct problems between 5 and 6 than all other children. In terms of emotional symptoms and hyperactivity, symptoms at 5 and (for hyperactivity only) gender were the only predictors for symptoms 1 year later. Our results suggest that kindergarten children's representations of parent-child relationships moderate the impact of parental separation on the development of conduct problems, and underline play and narration as a possible route to access the thoughts and feelings of young children faced with parental separation.     

Seeing through your daughter's eyes: Factors associated with maternal meta‐accuracy

Dyadic meta‐accuracy reflects the ability to judge how one is viewed by a relationship partner. Drawing from the attachment literature on parental mentalization, it is tested whether maternal meta‐accuracy is associated with (a) mothers' history of maltreatment or maternal absence during her childhood and (b) observed relational behaviors during an interaction task. Participants included 182 low‐income mother–daughter dyads (adolescent mean age = 15.1). Mothers were modestly accurate in judging how daughters rated their warmth and hostility. Mothers with histories of maltreatment or maternal absence showed less meta‐accuracy, but the nature of their inaccuracies (e.g., self‐enhancement) differed. Differences in maternal meta‐accuracy were also associated with relationship quality as rated by independent observers. The relevance of meta‐accuracy for mentalization‐based interventions with families is discussed.