Developing a Validity Argument Through Abductive Reasoning with an Empirical Demonstration of the Latent Class Analysis

This article proposes and demonstrates a methodology for test score validation through abductive reasoning. It describes how abductive reasoning can be utilized in support of the claims made about test score validity. This methodology is demonstrated with a real data example of the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP)-General test—a program assessing functional English language ability in the community and workplace. Abductive reasoning seeks the enabling conditions through which a claim about a person's ability makes sense. For example, it makes sense that a person has strong functional language proficiency if he or she has been regularly using English to write emails and meet with colleagues at work. A valid test score should be affected by the extent of a person's engagement with such enabling conditions. Empirical evidence that warrants such an abductively reasoned claim is illustrated through a latent class analysis within a structural equation model. Evidence is examined to investigate whether certain classes of test takers who have been differentially engaging in the enabling conditions do, in fact, predict a person's CELPIP-General performance. The steps of the methodology are summarized in the closing section.     

Reputation,Gossip, and Human Cooperation

Why do people cooperate? We address this classic question by analyzing and discussing the role of reputation: people cooperate to maintain a positive reputation in their social environment. Reputation is a key element fueling a system of indirect reciprocity, where cooperators establish a good reputation and are thus more likely to receive future benefits from third parties. The tendencies to monitor, spread, and manage each other's reputation help explain the abundance of human cooperation with unrelated strangers. We review research on the phenomenon of reputation‐based cooperation in the domains of how people manage their reputation in response to varying cues of reputation, when reputation can promote cooperation, and individual differences in reputation management. We also propose three directions for future research: group stability and reputation‐based cooperation, solutions to cope with noise and biased reputation, and the relative efficiency of positive versus negative reputation systems.     

Personality change via work: A job demand–control model of Big-five personality changes

Based on the job demand–control model and Gray's biopsychological theory of personality, the author proposed a model to suggest that time demand and job control can drive changes in Big-five personality traits, especially neuroticism and extroversion, by shaping an individual's stress experiences at work. Five waves of data from 1814 employees over a five-year period from the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia Survey were analyzed. Time demand, job control and job stress were measured in all five waves, and Big-five personality was assessed in the first and last waves. The results showed that time demand and job control shaped job stress positively and negatively at a given time; and over time, an increase in time demand predicted an increase in job stress, which subsequently predicted an increase in neuroticism and a decrease in extroversion and conscientiousness. Results also showed that an increase in job control predicted an increase in agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness directly, but did not predict change in neuroticism and extroversion. Finally, the buffering effect of job control on the association between time demand and job stress was only observed in two of five waves and such buffering effect was not observed in a change process. The implications on personality development and work design research are discussed.     

Religious Problem-Solving Styles and Life Satisfaction: Exploring God,the Will and the Way

Journal of Religion and Health - A proliferation of empirical studies over the past few decades has examined the connection between religiosity and health; an extension of this literature has...     

The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism impacts victim's moral emotions following interpersonal transgression

Immoral behaviors make individuals abominate and punish transgressors. Inspired by the associations between the Val66Met polymorphism of brain‐derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) gene and emotional responses following negative events, we investigated whether this polymorphism was also associated moral emotions such as punishment and forgiveness following interpersonal transgression. To do so, we categorized 340 individuals according to the BDNF Val66Met and assessed moral emotions by using 12 hypothetic scenarios in different conditions of intention and interpersonal consequence. The results indicated that this polymorphism was significantly associated with moral aversion and punishment towards transgressors. Victims with the Val/Val genotype expressed less aversion and punishment than the Met carriers, regardless of intention and interpersonal consequence. Moreover, this polymorphism was associated with forgiveness. Victims with the Val/Val genotype expressed more forgiveness than the Met carriers. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of the BDNF Val66Met to moral emotions.     

情绪音乐影像库的初步编制与评定

音乐表演影像材料的情绪诱发功能有音乐和影像的共同优势,但目前缺乏以音乐表演为内容的情绪音乐影像库。试图建立可供相关研究使用的情绪音乐影像系统。根据前期研究使用过的材料、相关研究结果及音乐专业人士的建议,收集分别表达愤怒、恐惧、悲伤和开心的音乐,包括歌剧、交响乐、民乐等,剪辑为30秒左右的片段,非音乐专业被试对材料的情绪类型和强度进行评定,最终筛选出能有效诱发目标情绪的64条音乐影像材料。未来可在测量指标的客观性和审美性及被试和音乐材料的样本量两方面改进。     

4~8岁儿童认知风格的发展及其对问题解决的影响

认知风格是个体获取和加工信息的一贯模式,影响诸多认知活动。本研究测量了98名4-8岁儿童的认知风格和积木拼图中的问题解决行为,主要发现:（1）4-8岁儿童总体上表现为整体型认知风格,但分析型认知风格随着年龄增长在逐渐发展;（2）认知风格影响问题解决策略：越偏整体型认知风格的儿童越多使用主体参照策略（即先拼主体图形再补充其他部分）,并且越少使用线索推断策略（按照行/列的线索顺序依次拼图）和局部定位策略（根据某一局部图案的具体位置摆放积木）。本实验首次探索了低龄儿童认知风格的年龄差异,发现认知风格在发展早期就已影响问题解决行为。研究结果有助于理解儿童认知风格的发展及其作用,为儿童问题解决能力的培养实践提供一定的理论依据。     

Is personality stable in adolescence? Disentangling time-invariant and time-varying factors of personality in a trait–state–occasion model

This study applied trait–state–occasion (TSO) modelling to investigate the extent to which inter-individual differences in personality were accounted for by time-invariant and time-varying factors during adolescence. The participants were 753 high school students, and only 661 students were followed for 4 years. The mean age in the first year was 15.23 years and 52.8% were females. The results showed that the full TSO model had the best representation of adolescent personality, and the means of the proportions of variance explained by trait factors for the Big Five ranged between 56% and 83%, suggesting that inter-individual differences in personality are mainly accounted for by stable trait variance over the course of adolescence. Furthermore, the five dimensions of personality differed not only in the amounts of trait variance but also in the stability of time-varying factors. These findings have significant implications for personality research.     

An inverse Ruddlesden-Popper nitride Ca7(Li1−xFex)Te2N2 grown from Ca flux

Nitridoferrates containing monovalent iron ions are a class of materials of recent interest as potentially novel magnetic materials. Aiming at the exploration of nitridoferrates of calcium, we report the single crystal growth from Ca ?ux and crystal structure of the first member (n?=?2) of a series of inverse Ruddlesden-Popper nitrides with a general formula of A_n?1A'₂B_nX_3n+1, where A?=?Li/Fe, A'?=?Te, B?=?N, and X?=?Ca. Single crystal X-ray diffraction analyses indicate the crystal with a composition of Ca₇(Li_0.32(1)Fe_0.68(1))Te₂N₂ and the tetragonal space group I4/mmm (a?=?4.7884(1) Å, c?=?25.3723(4) Å, Z?=?2). The structure features alternately stacking NaCl-type A'X slabs and the perovskite-type ABX₃ slabs along the c axis. The Li/Fe atoms are located in cuboctahedral cavities surrounded by eight Ca₆N octahedra in the ABX₃ slab. This work demonstrates the viability of the Ca-rich ?ux as a suitable solvent for the exploration of new complex nitrides with interesting crystal structure and properties.