A close-up comparison of the misclassification error distance and the adjusted Rand index for external clustering evaluation

The misclassification error distance and the adjusted Rand index are two of the most common criteria used to evaluate the performance of clustering algorithms. This paper provides an in-depth comparison of the two criteria, with the aim of better understand exactly what they measure, their properties and their differences. Starting from their population origins, the investigation includes many data analysis examples and the study of particular cases in great detail. An exhaustive simulation study provides insight into the criteria distributions and reveals some previous misconceptions.     

Work–family conflicts,cognitive appraisal,and burnout: Testing the mediation effect with structural equation modelling

Work–family conflict constitutes an important source of occupational stress predicting teachers’ burnout, and cognitive variables have shown to be core structures in explaining human adaptation to stress. Nevertheless, the role of cognitive appraisal needs to be fully analysed to comprehend how it can mediate the relationship between stress and burnout. In order to understand the potential mediation of cognitive appraisal in the relationship between stress and burnout, we adopted conceptual models of stress that highlighted the value of cognitive appraisal on positive and negative reactions to work demands. Also, we analysed the potential moderation of sex and age in the relationship between work–family conflict, cognitive appraisal, and burnout due to inconsistent findings on how these personal variables can interfere on these relations. In this study, we used structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the mediating of cognitive appraisal in the relationship between work–family conflicts and burnout. A survey with measures of work–family conflicts, cognitive appraisal, and burnout was administered to the participants consisting of 438 Portuguese teachers from kindergarten through high school, aged between 28 and 67 years (M = 46.85; SD = 7.88), 304 of whom were females (69.41%). The results confirmed that cognitive appraisal partially mediated the relationship between work–family conflict and burnout. The mediation effect of cognitive appraisal on the relationship between work–family conflict and burnout was invariant regardless of teachers’ sex or age. In sum, cognitive appraisal should be considered in order to understand teachers’ adaptation to work.     

Measurement invariance of the Phubbing Scale across 20 countries

Mobile phone addiction is a robust phenomenon observed throughout the world. The social aspect of mobile phone use is crucial; therefore, phubbing is a part of the mobile phone addiction phenomenon. Phubbing is defined as ignoring an interlocutor by glancing at one's mobile phone during a face-to-face conversation. The main aim of this study was to investigate how the Phubbing Scale (containing 10 items) might vary across countries, and between genders. Data were collected in 20 countries: Belarus, Brazil, China, Croatia, Ecuador, India, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, UK, Ukraine and USA. The mean age across the sample (N = 7696, 65.8% women, 34.2% men) was 25.32 years (SD = 9.50). The cross-cultural invariance of the scale was investigated using multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (MGCFA) as well as the invariance analyses. Additionally, data from each country were assessed individually via confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs). We obtained two factors, based on only eight of the items: (a) communication disturbances and (b) phone obsession. The 8 items Phubbing Scale.     

The “Big Two” and socially induced emotions: Agency and communion jointly influence emotional contagion and emotional mimicry

Motivation and Emotion - Three studies investigated the effects of two fundamental dimensions of social perception on emotional contagion (i.e., the transfer of emotions between people). Rooting...     

Emotional eating and cognitive conflicts as predictors of binge eating disorder in patients with obesity

Background/Objectives: Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is often associated with obesity. In order to identify the variables that allow to better detect the presence of BED, people with overnutrition were compared with and without BED in the presence of cognitive conflicts, eating symptoms and anxious-depressive symptoms. The inclusion of cognitive conflicts had been relevant in bulimia studies but had not been investigated with respect to BED. Method: Two groups with obesity were evaluated, one without BED (OB, n = 54) and the other with BED (OB-BED, n = 48), using a social-demographic questionnaire as well as a semi-structured interview to assess BED, questionnaires (DASS-21, EDE-Q, EEQ) and the Repertory Grid Technique. Results: Overall, the OB-BED group presented more conflicts and more symptoms. The model that best differentiated between the groups included emotional eating and level of cognitive conflicts, correctly classifying 91.4% of the sample. Conclusion: These results highlight the role played by cognitive conflicts and emotional eating as differentiating elements between OB and OB-BED, with a high level of predictive accuracy.     

Assembling Upstream Engagement: the Case of the Portuguese Deliberative Forum on Nanotechnologies

This article analyzes a deliberative forum on nanotechnologies, organized in Portugal within the scope of the research project DEEPEN—Deepening Ethical Engagement and Participation in Emerging Nanotechnologies. This event included scientists, science communicators and members of the “lay public”, and resulted in a position document which summarizes collective aspirations and concerns related to nano. Drawing upon our previous experience with focus groups on nanotechnologies—characterized by methodological innovations that aimed at suspending epistemological inequalities between participants—this paper delves into the performativity of the deliberative event, exploring some of the tensions and power/knowledge asymmetries generated by the forum. Recognizing that the design of participatory assemblages matters, we reflect on our role as facilitators and explore the difficulties in organizing exercises of upstream engagement with emerging technologies.     

Implicit processing during change blindness revealed with mouse-contingent and gaze-contingent displays

People often miss salient events that occur right in front of them. This phenomenon, known as change blindness, reveals the limits of visual awareness. Here, we investigate the role of implicit processing in change blindness using an approach that allows partial dissociation of covert and overt attention. Traditional gaze-contingent paradigms adapt the display in real time according to current gaze position. We compare such a paradigm with a newly designed mouse-contingent paradigm where the visual display changes according to the real-time location of a user-controlled mouse cursor, effectively allowing comparison of change detection with mainly overt attention (gaze-contingent display; Experiment 2) and untethered overt and covert attention (mouse-contingent display; Experiment 1). We investigate implicit indices of target detection during change blindness in eye movement and behavioral data, and test whether affective devaluation of unnoticed targets may contribute to change blindness. The results show that unnoticed targets are processed implicitly, but that the processing is shallower than if the target is consciously detected. Additionally, the partial untethering of covert attention with the mouse-contingent display changes the pattern of search and leads to faster detection of the changing target. Finally, although it remains possible that the deployment of covert attention is linked to implicit processing, the results fall short of establishing a direct connection.     

Blood pressure responses of defensive hostile women when facing a real stress task

Objective: This study investigated the importance of the combination of the hostility and defensiveness variables as psychosocial factors that predict the risk of cardiovascular dysfunction. We examined the impact of a stressful situation on blood pressure responses, using a continuous psychophysiological assessment approach.

Design: We measured the evolution of these responses over three experimental phases (adaptation, task and recovery), also considering a minute-by-minute analysis within each phase.

Main Outcome Measures: We used the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale and the Social Desirability Questionnaire to form four groups (high hostility and high defensiveness, high hostility and low defensiveness, low hostility and high defensiveness, and low hostility and low defensiveness).

Results: We expected the group of hostile defensive women to record higher activation (task phase: an academic exam) and slower habituation (recovery phase) compared to the other groups. The results confirmed our hypothesis, as the profile of the hostile defensive individuals was one of constant or sensitization during the task phase, while during the recovery phase those individuals underwent a slow recovery.

Conclusion: Therefore, it can be indicated that the low hostility and low defensive group is the most adaptive, as recorded very little activation in response, and rapid recovery.     

Revealing the Hidden Curriculum in Higher Education

The so-called ‘hidden curriculum’ (HC) is often presented as a counterproductive element in education, and many scholars argue that it should be eliminated, by being made explicit, in education in general and specifically in higher education (HE). The problem of the HC has not been solved by the transition from a teacher-centered education to a student-centered educational model that takes the student’s experience as the starting point of learning. In this article we turn to several philosophers of education (Dewey, Kohlberg, Whitehead, Peters and Knowles) to propose that HC can be made explicit in HE when the teacher recognizes and lives his/her teaching as a personal issue, not merely a technical one; and that the students’ experience of the learning process is not merely individual but emerges through their interpersonal relationship with the teacher. We suggest ways in which this interpersonal relationship can be strengthened despite current challenges in HE.