Masculinity, Femininity, and the Bem Sex Role Inventory in Turkey

The aim of this study was to examine the masculinity and femininity scales of Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) among Turkish university students. Five hundred thirty-six students (280 men and 256 women) volunteered to complete the short-form of the BSRI and answer demographic questions. In factor analyses, the original factor structure (Bem, 1981) was found both in the mens and womens data. Comparisons of the factor structures with target rotation (Procrustes rotation) and comparison indexes showed no difference between the factor structures found among men and women. The internal consistency of the masculinity and femininity scales was acceptable, and t-tests showed that women scored higher on the femininity scale, and men scored higher on the masculinity scale. There were significant differences between men and women only on two masculinity items, but significant differences were found in 8 (of 10) femininity items.     

Measurement Structure of the Turkish Translation of the Child Behavior Checklist Using Confirmatory Factor Analytic Approaches to Validation of Syndromal Constructs

The new correlated 8-factor measurement structure of the Child Behavior Checklist for ages 6-18 (CBCL/6-18; T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2001) derived from an American sample was used as a benchmark to evaluate its generalizability to Turkish general population (N = 5,195) and clinical (N = 963) samples. Item-level confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate the adequacy of the correlated 8-factor model across 3 sample conditions (general population, clinical, and combined sample whose Total Problems scores were above the Turkish national median). The results supported the generalizability of the overall measurement structure of the CBCL to the Turkish population.     

“Seeing Conversion Whole”: Testing a Model of Religious Conversion

Rambo (1993) theorized that religious conversion consists of a process involving seven dimensions, labeled context, crisis, quest, encounter, interaction, commitment, and consequences. To test the Rambo model, a new measure, the 97-item Adult Religious Conversion Experiences Questionnaire (ARCEQ), was developed, revised on the basis of feedback from a focus group, and administered by mail to 110 adult volunteers who self-identified as having experienced conversion. Reliability analysis of the subscales of the ARCEQ resulted in five (crisis, quest, encounter, commitment, and consequences) meeting the criterion ( > .80). A sixth (interaction) achieved a reliability of .76 and was retained, but the seventh (context) was dropped. Principal components factor analysis with Varimax rotation produced factors labeled Redemptive Love, Zealous Dedication, Dysphoric Need, Openness to Uncertainty, Extrinsic Crisis, and Experiential Learning, which could readily be interpreted in relation to Rambo's model. Subsidiary analyses showed a number of significant correlations between demographic characteristics of the sample and differences in religious conversion experience.     

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire: Multiple factors or method effects?

The latent structure of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) was evaluated with confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) in 1200 outpatients with DSM-IV anxiety and mood disorders. Of particular interest was the comparative fit and interpretability of a two-factor solution (cf. Behaviour Research and Therapy 40 (2002) 313) vs. a one-factor model that specified method effects arising from five reverse-worded items. Consistent with prediction, the superiority of the one-factor model was demonstrated in split-sample CFA replications (ns=600). Multiple-group CFAs indicated that the measurement properties of the PSWQ were invariant in male and female patients. In addition to their direct relevance to the psychometrics of the PSWQ, the results are discussed in regard to methodological considerations for using factor analytic methods in the evaluation of psychological tests.     

A factor simplicity index

We propose an index for assessing the degree of factor simplicity in the context of principal components and exploratory factor analysis. The new index, which is called Loading Simplicity, is based on the idea that the communality of each variable should be related to few components, or factors, so that the loadings in each variable are either zero or as far from zero as possible. This index does not depend on the scale of the factors, and its maximum and minimum are only related to the degree of simplicity in the loading matrix. The aim of the index is to enable the degree of simplicity in loading matrices to be compared.The author would like to thank the review team for their insights and recommendations. This work was supported by a grant SEC2001-3821-C05-C02 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology.     

Orthomax rotation and perfect simple structure

A loading matrix has perfect simple structure if each row has at most one nonzero element. It is shown that if there is an orthogonal rotation of an initial loading matrix that has perfect simple structure, then orthomax rotation with 0 1 of the initial loading matrix will produce the perfect simple structure. In particular, varimax and quartimax will produce rotations with perfect simple structure whenever they exist.     

Model comparison of nonlinear structural equation models with fixed covariates

Recently, it has been recognized that the commonly used linear structural equation model is inadequate to deal with some complicated substantive theory. A new nonlinear structural equation model with fixed covariates is proposed in this article. A procedure, which utilizes the powerful path sampling for computing the Bayes factor, is developed for model comparison. In the implementation, the required random observations are simulated via a hybrid algorithm that combines the Gibbs sampler and the Metropolis-Hastings algorithm. It is shown that the proposed procedure is efficient and flexible; and it produces Bayesian estimates of the parameters, latent variables, and their highest posterior density intervals as by-products. Empirical performances of the proposed procedure such as sensitivity to prior inputs are illustrated by a simulation study and a real example.This research is fully supported by a grant from the Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. CUHK 4346/01H). The authors are thankful to the Editor, the Associate Editor, and anonymous reviewers for valuable comments which improve the paper significantly, and grateful to ICPSR and the relevant funding agency for allowing use of the data in the example. The assistance of Michael K.H. Leung and Esther L.S. Tam is gratefully acknowledged.     

The Göteborg discothèque fire, 1998

Findings from a study of 563 adolescents’ reactions following a discotheque fire that killed 63 young people in Göteborg in October 1998 are presented. The group answered a questionnaire seven months following the disaster. The questionnaire included the Impact of Event Scale (IES) and the Birleson Depression Self‐Rating Scale (DSRS). The level of trauma was found to be very high, while depression scores were less elevated. A little under a third of the students scored above a clinical cut‐off point (> 35) on the IES, indicating high posttraumatic stress levels. Girls evidenced more depression and traumatic stress reactions than boys. Levels of reactions increased with more closeness (knowing victims personally) and if the adolescents were of non‐Swedish origin.     

PUNISHMENT IN HUMAN CHOICE: DIRECT OR COMPETITIVE SUPPRESSION?

This investigation compared the predictions of two models describing the integration of reinforcement and punishment effects in operant choice. Deluty's (1976) competitive-suppression model (conceptually related to two-factor punishment theories) and de Villiers' (1980) direct-suppression model (conceptually related to one-factor punishment theories) have been tested previously in nonhumans but not at the individual level in humans. Mouse clicking by college students was maintained in a two-alternative concurrent schedule of variable-interval money reinforcement. Punishment consisted of variable-interval money losses. Experiment 1 verified that money loss was an effective punisher in this context. Experiment 2 consisted of qualitative model comparisons similar to those used in previous studies involving nonhumans. Following a no-punishment baseline, punishment was superimposed upon both response alternatives. Under schedule values for which the direct-suppression model, but not the competitive-suppression model, predicted distinct shifts from baseline performance, or vice versa, 12 of 14 individual-subject functions, generated by 7 subjects, supported the direct-suppression model. When the punishment models were converted to the form of the generalized matching law, least-squares linear regression fits for a direct-suppression model were superior to those of a competitive-suppression model for 6 of 7 subjects. In Experiment 3, a more thorough quantitative test of the modified models, fits for a direct-suppression model were superior in 11 of 13 cases. These results correspond well to those of investigations conducted with nonhumans and provide the first individual-subject evidence that a direct-suppression model, evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively, describes human punishment better than a competitive-suppression model. We discuss implications for developing better punishment models and future investigations of punishment in human choice.