English validation of the short form of the Physical Self-Inventory (PSI-S)

The study examined the psychometric properties of scores on the English version of the short Physical Self-Inventory (PSI-S) among 1368 English-Speaking and 224 French-Speaking adolescents. Participants completed the original PSI-S and a revised version including positively-worded reformulations of the original negatively-worded items. The results supported the a priori factor structure, composite reliability, and test-retest reliability (7–8 months) of scores on the revised PSI-S, and its equivalence with the French version. Compared to confirmatory factor analyses, exploratory structural equation modeling resulted in a superior solution, and more cleanly differentiated factors. PSI-S responses were longitudinally invariant across 7–8 months, and presented no evidence of differential item functioning as a function of age, gender, body mass index (BMI) and physical activity. The results showed latent mean differences as a function of gender, BMI (linear and curvilinear effects), and physical activity, supporting the criterion-related validity of the PSI-S factors.     

Assessing Mathematics Misunderstandings via Bayesian Inverse Planning

Online educational technologies offer opportunities for providing individualized feedback and detailed profiles of students' skills. Yet many technologies for mathematics education assess students based only on the correctness of either their final answers or responses to individual steps. In contrast, examining the choices students make for how to solve the equation and the ways in which they might answer incorrectly offers the opportunity to obtain a more nuanced perspective of their algebra skills. To automatically make sense of step-by-step solutions, we propose a Bayesian inverse planning model for equation solving that computes an assessment of a learner's skills based on her pattern of errors in individual steps and her choices about what sequence of problem-solving steps to take. Bayesian inverse planning builds on existing machine learning tools to create a generative model relating (mis)-understandings to equation solving choices. Two behavioral experiments demonstrate that the model can interpret people's equation solving and that its assessments are consistent with those of experienced teachers. A third experiment uses this model to tailor guidance for learners based on individual differences in misunderstandings, closing the loop between assessing understanding, and using that assessment within an educational technology. Finally, because the bottleneck in applying inverse planning to a new domain is in creating the model of possible student misunderstandings, we show how to combine inverse planning with an existing production rule model to make inferences about student misunderstandings of fraction arithmetic.     

Relationship between resilience,stress and burnout among civil servants in Beijing,China: Mediating and moderating effect analysis

This study aimed to explore the mediating and moderating effect in the relationship between resilience, stress and burnout among civil servants of Beijing, China. A cross-sectional study was conducted among civil servants in Beijing. Totally 541 civil servants completed a self-report questionnaire including three scales measuring civil servants’ resilience, stress and burnout. The data were analyzed with correlation, multiple regression and structural equation modeling. The results revealed that work stress rather than life and health stress could significantly predict burnout. Resilience played a partial mediating role between work stress and burnout, that is, work stress had both a direct and an indirect, via resilience, impact on burnout. Work stress played a partial mediating role between resilience and burnout, thus, resilience could prevent the development of burnout by relieving work stress, in addition to directly relieving it. Moreover, resilience was a moderator between work stress and burnout, and it could serve as a buffer to mitigate the adverse effects of work stress. These results suggest that resilience could be a positive personality trait for alleviating or eliminating work stress and combating burnout of civil servants of Beijing.     

Practicing psychology without an empirical evidence-base: The bricoleur model

The scientist-practitioner-model is rejected, based on an earlier critique of the current paradigm for psychological research. Ten cases exemplifying a bricoleur type of practice without a discernible empirical evidence-base are briefly presented. In the absence of useful empirical scientific evidence, the bricoleur model is proposed as a possible rationale for professional psychological practice.     

What you see is what you want to get: Perceived abilities outperform objective test performance in predicting mate appeal in speed dating

Are intelligent, creative, and emotionally competent people more desirable? Evolution-based theories and studies on the ideal partner suggest that they are. We aimed to assess whether verbal, numerical, and spatial intelligence, creativity, and intra- and interpersonal emotional competence are associated with higher real-life mate appeal. In speed dates, 87 women and 88 men met up to 14 members of the opposite sex (2188 observations). While only one measured ability—women’s creativity—was significantly associated with mate appeal, ability perceptions by speed-dating partners could broadly predict mate appeal. Effects of perceived and measured abilities were substantially reduced after controlling for physical attractiveness. These results suggest that the investigated abilities play a lesser role in initial attraction than proposed in the past.     

Causal Information-Seeking Strategies Change Across Childhood and Adolescence

Intervening on causal systems can illuminate their underlying structures. Past work has shown that, relative to adults, young children often make intervention decisions that appear to confirm a single hypothesis rather than those that optimally discriminate alternative hypotheses. Here, we investigated how the ability to make informative causal interventions changes across development. Ninety participants between the ages of 7 and 25 completed 40 different puzzles in which they had to intervene on various causal systems to determine their underlying structures. Each puzzle comprised a three- or four-node computer chip with hidden wires. On each trial, participants viewed two possible arrangements of the chip's hidden wires and had to select a single node to activate. After observing the outcome of their intervention, participants selected a wire configuration and rated their confidence in their selection. We characterized participant choices with a Bayesian measurement model that indexed the extent to which participants selected nodes that would best disambiguate the two possible causal structures versus those that had high causal centrality in one of the two causal hypotheses but did not necessarily discriminate between them. Our model estimates revealed that the use of a discriminatory strategy increased through early adolescence. Further, developmental improvements in intervention strategy were related to changes in the ability to accurately judge the strength of evidence that interventions revealed, as indexed by participants' confidence in their selections. Our results suggest that improvements in causal information-seeking extend into adolescence and may be driven by metacognitive sensitivity to the efficacy of previous interventions in discriminating competing ideas.     

The effects of a short-term mindfulness meditation intervention on coping flexibility

Background and objectives: Mindfulness meditation (MM) training promotes health and well-being. One potential mechanistic link between MM and health may be coping flexibility, (e.g., the ability to monitor and modify coping strategies based on situational needs and strategy effectiveness). We hypothesized that MM training would increase coping flexibility and also explored whether gains in coping flexibility continued to increase after training, or whether they were maintained or lost with time.

Methods and design: One hundred thirteen students (71 female, M_age?=?18.97) were randomly assigned to a waitlist control or MM condition. Participants in the MM condition were trained by a certified MM instructor and given guided recordings for one-week of at-home practice. Participants provided reports of coping flexibility over a three-week span.

Results: Results from multilevel modeling indicated that MM increased coping flexibility among those in the MM condition and among those who spent relatively more time meditating. Results further suggested that the gains in coping flexibility that were evident at post-test were not only maintained but increased in the two weeks after the intervention.

Conclusions: This study provides preliminary support for the assertion that MM increases the ability to monitor and modify coping strategies during times of stress.     

Playing the long game: A multivariate multilevel non-linear growth curve model of long-term effects in a randomized trial of the Good Behavior Game

This cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) examined the impact of the Good Behavior Game (GBG) on children's developmental trajectories of disruptive behavior, concentration problems, and prosocial behavior from middle childhood (ages 6–7 years) to early adolescence (ages 10–11 years). Seventy-seven schools in England were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Allocation was balanced by school size and the proportion of children eligible for free school meals. Children (N = 3084) ages 6–7 years at baseline were the target cohort. Outcome measures, assessed via the Teacher Observation of Child Adaptation Checklist, were taken prior to randomization (baseline – Time 1) and annually for the next 4 years (Time 2 to Time 5). During the 2-year main trial period (Time 1 to Time 3), teachers of this cohort in intervention schools implemented the GBG, whereas their counterparts in the control group continued their usual practice. A multivariate multilevel non-linear growth curve model indicated that the GBG reduced concentration problems over time. In addition, the model also revealed that the intervention improved prosocial behavior among at-risk children (e.g., those with elevated symptoms of conduct problems at Time 1, n = 485). No intervention effects were unequivocally found in relation to disruptive behavior. These findings are discussed in relation to the extant literature, strengths and limitations are noted, and practical and methodological implications are highlighted.