Comparison of three systems for psychotechnical assessment used in Turkey

The aim of this study was to compare three different psychotechnical test batteries in Turkey (Act and React Test system – ART2020, TRAFIKENT, and Vienna Test System) which are used to evaluate safe driving-related ability traits and to evaluate the construct validity of the tests included in these three test systems that claim to measure the same cognitive structures. Therefore, 176 drivers (19–63 years old), who owned a driving license for at least one year and had driven at least 5000 km, were tested in all three systems. Both professional and amateur drivers as well as drivers whose licenses were detained due to speeding, DWI or other violations were included in order to form a heterogeneous and representative sample for the Turkish driver population. Participants completed the three psychotechnical batteries which tested their cognitive and psychomotor skills in a period of two or three days. The analysis of the findings revealed that the three batteries were more compatible for some cognitive abilities whereas they were less compatible for other abilities. For instance, there were higher similarities among the systems in skills such as reasoning, visual memory, and attention, while there were lower similarities in terms of reaction speed, visual continuity, coordination, speed distance estimation, and visual field. The results were discussed and evaluated so as to improve traffic safety in Turkey, and further suggestions for enhancement in traffic situations followed.     

Valid representation of a highly dynamic collision avoidance scenario in a driving simulator

In Germany the second-most frequent accidents in road traffic are rear-end collisions. For this reason rear-end collisions are quite important for accident research and the development of driving safety systems. To examine the functionality and to design the human–machine-interface of new driving safety systems, especially in the early development phase, subject tests are necessary. Because of the great hazard potential of such safety critical scenarios for the test persons, they are often conducted in a driving simulator (DS). Accordingly, validity is an important qualification to ensure that the findings collected in a simulated test environment can be directly transferred to the real world.This paper regards the question of driving behavior validity of DS in critical situations. There are hardly any validation studies which analyze the driving behavior in a specific collision avoidance situation.The validation study described in this paper aims to evaluate the behavioral validity of a fixed-base simulator in a collision avoidance situation. For this reason a field study from 2007 was replicated in a fixed-base simulator environment.The main questions of this validation study were if the driver can notice an active hazard braking system and if the driving behavior in a static simulator can be valid in such a critical situation.The key finding of the study states that there is no driving behavior validity in a static driving simulator for the tested dynamic scenario. The missing vestibular feedback causes a different behavior of the participants in field and simulator. The resulting absence of comparability leads to non-valid performance indicators. But these indicators are key parameters for analyzing the function and acceptance of active braking systems. So the question arises, which motion performance does a motion base have to provide in order to achieve valid acceleration simulation of such a highly dynamic collision avoidance scenario. The DS’s performance is measured in workspace, velocity and acceleration.     

Measuring work styles: Towards an understanding of the dynamic components of the theory of work adjustment

Work styles are an important yet largely unexplored component of the theory of work adjustment (TWA), describing a dynamic component of how individuals maintain and adjust fit with their work environment. The active work style (AWS) scale is the first attempt to develop a specific self-report measure of work styles suitable for longitudinal research. Results from three studies support Dawis and Lofquist's (1984) proposed four factor structure, but these factors are related through a second-order factor describing a person's generalised level of work activity and effort across time. The AWS scale demonstrated good evidence for reliability and validity, and strong measurement invariance across time signifying its suitability for longitudinal research. In line with expectations, overall work style was positively related to conscientiousness and work engagement yet unrelated to stress. When controlling for these variables, AWS was positively related to demands–abilities fit, but not needs–supplies fit. Limitations and possibilities for future research are also discussed.     

The translation and validation of the Mini‐K scale in Japanese

The purpose of this study was to validate the 20‐item Mini‐K scale, which is the short form of the Arizona Life History Battery, as translated into Japanese. Two samples of Japanese adults (N = 2000; 50.0% men; Mage = 40.9 for the first survey; N = 400; 50.0% men; Mage = 42.2 for the second survey) completed a web‐based questionnaire, including the Japanese translation of the Mini‐K. The results showed that the psychometric properties of the Japanese Mini‐K scale were comparable to those of the original English version. The scale had good reliability based on Cronbach's α and McDonald's ω. Convergent validity was demonstrated by the correlation between the Mini‐K scores and life history indicators. In addition, the Mini‐K score was related to both personality and psychosomatic health. The translated scale provides a valid and reliable instrument in Japanese that measures human life‐history strategy.     

The concurrent validity of the N-back task as a working memory measure

The N-back task is used extensively in literature as a working memory (WM) paradigm and it is increasingly used as a measure of individual differences. However, not much is known about the psychometric properties of this task and the current study aims to shed more light on this issue. We first review the current literature on the psychometric properties of the N-back task. With three experiments using task variants with different stimuli and load levels, we then investigate the nature of the N-back task by investigating its relationship to WM, and its role as an inter-individual difference measure. Consistent with previous literature, our data suggest that the N-back task is not a useful measure of individual differences in WM, partly because of its insufficient reliability. Nevertheless, the task seems to be useful for experimental research in WM and also well predicts inter-individual differences in other higher cognitive functions, such as fluid intelligence, especially when used at higher levels of load.     

临床护士心理弹性现状及其影响因素的研究

了解临床护士心理弹性现状,分析影响护士心理弹性的因素,为管理者掌握临床护士心理健康状况,提高心理弹性水平提供参考依据。采用中文版心理弹性量表（CD—RISC）,对535名临床护士进行调查。结果显示,临床护士心理弹性总分为（56．78±18．43）分;其心理弹性在不同人口统计学方面差异均有统计学意义（P〈0．05）;多元逐步回归分析显示心理弹性的主要影响因素是：工作年限和是否为独生子女。临床护士心理弹性处于中等水平,医院管理者应重视培养个体心理弹性素质,有针对性地开展弹性拓展训练,提高护理质量。     

Latent self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism: Tests of factorial,convergent, and discriminant validity using self- and informant reports

Using latent variables for self-oriented perfectionism (i.e., demanding perfection of oneself) and socially prescribed perfectionism (i.e., perceiving others are demanding perfection of oneself) has advantages. However, few studies have specifically examined the psychometric properties of these latent variables. The present study addresses this shortcoming by testing the factorial, convergent, and discriminant validity of self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables using self- and informant reports. It was hypothesized that (a) the factor structure of the self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables would be supported, (b) self- and informant reports would moderately converge, and (c) the self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables would be discriminable. A sample of 242 undergraduate women and 378 informants (218 mothers, 160 fathers) was recruited. Undergraduate women completed self-reports, and mothers and fathers completed informant reports. Results were consistent with hypotheses, thereby supporting (a) the factorial validity of the self-oriented and socially prescribed latent variables using self- and informant reports, (b) the convergent validity of the self-oriented and socially prescribed latent variables via moderately to strongly correlated self- and informant reports, and (c) the discriminant validity of the self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism latent variables. Findings suggest research using these latent variables is warranted.     

Item grouping and item randomization in personality measurement

This paper describes a study examining the impact of item order in personality measurement on reliability, measurement equivalence and scale-level correlations. A large sample of university students completed one of three forms of the International Personality Item Pool version of the Big Five personality inventory: items sorted at random, items sorted by factor, and items cycled through factors. Results showed that the underlying measurement model and the internal consistency of the IPIP-Big Five scale was unaffected by differences in item order. Also, most of the scale-level correlations among factors were not significantly different across forms. Implications for the administration of tests and interpretation of test scores are discussed, and future research directions are offered.     

Sick? Or slow? On the origins of intelligence as a psychological object

This paper examines the first moments of the emergence of “psychometrics” as a discipline, using a history of the Binet–Simon test (precursor to the Stanford–Binet) to engage the question of how intelligence became a “psychological object.” To begin to answer this, we used a previously-unexamined set of French texts to highlight the negotiations and collaborations that led Alfred Binet (1857–1911) to identify “mental testing” as a research area worth pursuing. This included a long-standing rivalry with Désiré-Magloire Bourneville (1840–1909), who argued for decades that psychiatrists ought to be the professional arbiters of which children would be removed from the standard curriculum and referred to special education classes in asylums. In contrast, Binet sought to keep children in schools and conceived of a way for psychologists to do this. Supported by the Société libre de l'étude psychologique de l'enfant [Free society for the psychological study of the child], and by a number of collaborators and friends, he thus undertook to create a “metric” scale of intelligence—and the associated testing apparatus—to legitimize the role of psychologists in a to-that-point psychiatric domain: identifying and treating “the abnormal”. The result was a change in the earlier law requiring all healthy French children to attend school, between the ages of 6 and 13, to recognize instead that otherwise normal children sometimes need special help: they are “slow” (arriéré), but not “sick.” This conceptualization of intelligence was then carried forward, through the test's influence on Lewis Terman (1877–1956) and Lightner Witmer (1867–1956), to shape virtually all subsequent thinking about intelligence testing and its role in society.