Effects of crystallization on corrosion resistance and electron work function of Zr65Al7.5Cu17.5Ni10 amorphous alloys

The effects of crystallization on the electron work function and corrosion resistance of Zr₆₅Al_7.5Cu_17.5Ni₁₀ amorphous alloys have been studied. The single-phase amorphous alloy exhibits a better corrosion resistance and has a higher work function than the partially and fully crystallized alloys with the same composition. The close relationship between corrosion resistance and work function indicates that the Kelvin probe technique can be a powerful tool for characterizing the corrosion behaviour of amorphous alloy on an electronic level.     

Women’s preference of therapist based on sex of therapist and presenting problem: An analog study

An analog study was conducted to examine differences in women’s preference for and anticipated comfort self-disclosing to hypothetical therapists of different sexes based on the type of hypothetical presenting problem. The impact of general level of self-disclosure was also examined. Participants included female college students (n?=?187). Anticipated comfort self-disclosing to male or female therapist was rated by subjects when presented with therapists of each sex with the same qualifications. Women preferred and reported higher levels of anticipated comfort self-disclosing to a female therapist. The type of hypothetical presenting problem and general level of self-disclosure also impacted anticipated comfort self-disclosing. There was an interaction between general level self-disclosure and the sex of therapist on anticipated comfort self-disclosing. General level of self-disclosure only impacted anticipated comfort self-disclosing when the therapist was male. This information is relevant for therapists or organizations that provide psychosocial services to women. Organizations may want to inquire about a client’s preferences about sex of therapist beforehand and, if possible, cater to the client’s preference.     

The Contested Publics of the UK GM Controversy: A Tale of Entanglement and Purification

Ten years ago the UK held one of the largest, most complex and politically charged exercises in the turn towards public engagement in the governance of the biosciences. Called ‘GM Nation’ this experiment arose as an attempt to mediate public concerns in the run-up to a government decision on whether to allow some varieties of GM crops to be commercially cultivated in the UK. Formed to mediate a controversy, ‘GM Nation’ itself became a focus of controversy, with claims that many of its public participants were already engaged in the GM issue and were thus not representative of a general public. In this way, the category of the public became a contested category, with at least two different versions of the public featuring in the GM controversy. Particularly important was the contrast between engaged or issue publics that emerged entangled in and increasingly familiar with the objects and issues of the controversy, and a general public, identified through its distance and disengagement from the GM issue. These different forms of public were articulated through different modes of engagement ranging from engaged publics found in hybrid forums such as local village meetings, to versions of the general public brought into being in some of the closed parts of ‘GM Nation’. Throughout all this, a wider public institutional architecture, improvised to govern the controversy, became the site of complex boundary work that attempted to separate science from politics, a feature that conditioned how these different versions of public would be articulated and received.     

Remarks on an Avoidable Error in a Posteriori Testing

This article discusses a widespread error that occurs with a posteriori testing in factorial analyses of variance. Frequently, an incorrect sample size is used under the radical in the formula for computing a critical difference such as the Fisher least significance difference. This usually leads to an inappropriately large critical difference; thus, few if any significant differences are uncovered between the means. An interesting example of this error, from a journal article by Van Berschot (1979), is examined. Researchers are urged always to use under the radical the number of observations on which each mean being compared is based.     

Concordance Between the Quality of Maternal and Paternal Parenting Behavior Within Couples

There is compelling evidence that the quality of maternal and paternal parenting behavior bears critical importance for child development. Yet, less is known of the degree of similarity between maternal and paternal parenting behavior in families, and especially little is known about the factors that may explain variation in degrees of similarity. This article aims to examine (a) the concordance (similarity) between the quality of mothers’ and fathers’ interactive behavior with their child and (b) the sociodemographic determinants of this concordance. The sample included 74 families (mother, father, and their child). The quality of maternal and paternal interactive behavior was assessed independently, and rated with the Maternal Behavior Q-Sort (mother–infant, 12 months; D. R. Pederson et al., 1990) or the Mutually Responsive Orientation scale (father–toddler, 18 months; N. Aksan et al., 2006). The results indicated that the overall correlation between the quality of mothers’ and fathers’ behavior was moderate. The concordance was greater among higher socioeconomic status families or when interacting with a boy, but did not differ according to the presence or absence of siblings in the family.     

Information Transmission in Young Children: When Social Information Is More Important Than Nonsocial Information

The authors’ aim was to use a highly novel open diffusion paradigm to investigate the transmission of social information (i.e., gossip) and general knowledge within 2 groups of 10- and 11-year-old children. Four children, 2 from each group, acted as a primed information source, selected on the basis of sex and dominance ranking (high or low) within the group. Each source received 1 piece of gossip and 1 piece of general knowledge from the experimenter during natural class interaction, and the information was allowed to diffuse naturally within the group. Results revealed that gossip was transmitted more frequently than knowledge, and that male sources were more likely to transmit gossip than female sources. The relationship between characteristics of the source, and characteristics of the gossip recipient, also appeared influential with the dominant male source transmitting gossip to exclusively to friends, and the nondominant male source transmitting to individuals of higher peer regard than themselves.     

Improving Children's Mental Rotation Accuracy With Computer Game Playing

The authors investigated the relation between mental rotation (MR) and computer game-playing experience. Third grade boys (n = 24) and girls (n = 23) completed a 2-dimensional MR test before and after playing computer games (during 11 separate 30-min sessions), which either involved the use of MR skills (the experimental group) or did not involve the use of MR skills (the control group). The experimental group outperformed the control group on the MR posttest but not on the pretest. Boys outperformed girls on the pretest but not on the posttest. Children whose initial MR performance was low improved after playing computer games that entailed MR skills. The findings imply that computer-based instructional activities can be used in schools to enhance children's spatial abilities.     

Adolescents' Reactions to the Evacuation of the Sinai Settlements: A Longitudinal Study

This study investigated psychological reactions of adolescents to a severe stress situation—the evacuation of the Sinai settlements. The research focused on emotional reactions of anxiety and anger to this stress situation. Two central problems were investigated: (a) The intensity of the emotional responses of anxiety and anger of the adolescents to the stress situation, before and after the evacuation, and (b) the impact of three intervening variables on these emotional reactions—cognitive perception of the political situation, family functioning, and personality characteristics. Data for this study were collected in a regional high school in Israel from 418 pupils in 9th through 12th grades. Seventy-eight of the pupils lived in the Yamit area. Measurements were obtained at three points in time: 6 weeks and 1 week before the evacuation and 2 months after it. The results supported the predicted trend that adolescents in the Yamit group before the evacuation would score higher on state anxiety and state anger than would those in the comparison group. Two months after the evacuation there was a significant drop in those scores. The trait measures remained stable in both groups and no significant differences were found between the two groups on these scores. Concerning the impact of the three intervening variables on the intensity of the state emotional responses, the results did not support any of the hypotheses.     

Formative Versus Reflective Measurement: An Illustration Using Work–Family Balance

The aim of this article is to propose the formative measurement approach that can be used in various constructs of applied psychology. To illustrate this approach, the authors will (a) discuss the distinction between commonly used principal-factor (reflective) measures in comparison to the composite (formative) latent variable model, which is often applied in other disciplines such as marketing or engineering, and (b) point out the advantages and limitations of formative specifications using the example of the work–family balance (WFB) construct. Data collected from 2 large cross-sectional field studies confirm the reliability and validity of formative WFB measures as well as its predictive value regarding criteria of WFB (i.e., job satisfaction, family satisfaction, and life satisfaction). Last, the specific informational value of each formative indicator will be demonstrated and discussed in terms of practical implications for the assessment in different psychological fields.     

Gender Differences in Problem Solving: Expectancy and Problem Context

In this study, we investigated gender differences in problem solving as a function of problem context and expectations for success. Subjects were 90 women and 56 men from introductory psychology classes who were administered a set of mathematical problems varying in gender context under male-expectancy, female-expectancy, and neutral-expectancy conditions. No significant gender differences or interaction of gender with problem context were found. However, significant effects of problem context and expectancy were found. Both male and female subjects made higher scores on female-context problems and lower scores in the female-expectancy condition. When mathematics aptitude was used as a covariate, an interaction of gender with expectancy was found. Men in the female-expectancy condition made significantly lower scores than either men or women in the male-expectancy condition.