Foundations of Educational Psychology: Howard Gardner's Neoclassical Psyche

This article is a theoretical examination of the implications of Howard Gardner's work in developmental and educational psychology (1983, 1993, 1999a, 1999b) for the structure of the psyche. The author accepts as axiomatic, in the context of this article, Gardner's educational manifesto (1999a) that all students should be taught disciplinary understandings of truth, beauty, and goodness. Rational inferences are then made indicating that the psyche that Gardner intends to educate and help develop is in the form of a neoclassical psyche and that it is structured by the capacities to know truth, to love beauty, and to will goodness.     

Digit ratios,but not facial width-to-height ratios,are associated with the priority placed on attending to faces versus bodies

Testosterone has been linked to a sexual preference for bodies rather than faces. Low digit ratio (2D:4D) and high facial width-to-height ratio (WHR) are associated with high prenatal testosterone. We tested whether low 2D:4D and high facial WHR were correlated with a preference for bodies over faces. Our sample consisted of 109 college students (64 males). A two-way analysis of variance demonstrated a significant main effect of digit ratio on the priority placed on paying attention to faces or bodies such that low 2D:4D was linked to a preference for bodies, but the effect of sex was not significant. There were no significant interaction effects. Another two-way analysis of variance revealed no significant effects for facial WHR and attentional priority but significant associations between sex and attentional priority. There were no significant interaction effects. Our findings indicate that individuals with low digit ratios tended to pay more attention to bodies than to faces compared with individuals with higher digit ratios, independently of sex. We also found that males tended to pay more attention to bodies than to faces compared with females, independently of facial WHR.     

The factor structure and composite reliability of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale among ex-prisoners

The aim of this study was to examine the factor structure and composite reliability of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) using a sample of 669 ex-prisoners identified in the National Survey of American Life. Six distinct factor models, with uncorrelated measurement error terms, were specified and tested using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results indicated that the two-factor model consisting of positive and negative latent variables provided a better fit to the data than the alternative models. Moreover, only positive self-esteem was a significant predictor of recidivism. Composite reliability indicated that the two factors were measured with very good reliability. The results consequently provide additional support for a two-dimensional model of the RSES within offender populations.     

Resistance to a dynamic world view

The fact that people think is taken for granted. How we go about the thinking process is seldom reflected upon by the individual. In order to be able to grasp complex phenomena, and changing and interdependent relationships students participating in a systems course are required to become aware of their way of performing the thinking process. In discussions with them and based on ‘soft analysis’ it seems that there is resistance to a dynamic, multilevelled thinking process due to habits acquired at school, or perhaps even at an earlier age. The personality structure, and a coherent experience of a complete ‘self’ seems to enhance mental mobility, and the possibility of developing a dynamic world view.     

Introduction to the Meta-Structures Project: Prospective Applications

This research project proposes the modeling of collective behaviors such as flocks, industrial districts, and markets. Unlike many other approaches, the aim is to identify ways to recognize, change, and maintain the coherence of collective behaviors, as well as inducing their emergence in configurations of elements that only interact without acquiring properties. The basic assumption is that currently collective behavior is not adequately modeled for the purpose described above when intended as given by sequences of states adopted by the same system over time. Here the sequence of states of a collective behavior in time is considered as corresponding to sequences of different states adopted by systems made up of the same elements interacting with different structures. Sequences of structures are considered to establish meta-structures and their properties correspond to the coherence acquired. The project is based on the use of mesoscopic variables to represent such structural dynamics considered in turn to represent the continuous emergence of coherent collective behavior. Mesoscopic variables are specified and their properties considered as meta-structural properties (properties of sequences of structures). The purpose of this research project is to search for meta-structural properties within processes of computational emergence (computer simulated). I discuss the problem of prescribing meta-structural properties to non-coherent, disordered collective behaviors. I introduce possible approaches for applications to social systems.     

Spearman's law of diminishing returns: A statistical artifact?

Spearman's Law of Diminishing Returns (SLODR) is the idea that the structure of human cognitive ability is more differentiated and g a weaker determinant of cognitive performance at higher levels of ability. In this study, we distinguish between ‘traditional’ methods of testing SLODR and ‘contemporary’ methods of testing SLODR. It is the former set of methods from which the vast majority of the evidence base for SLODR derives. We demonstrated that it is easy to mimic SLODR and reverse SLODR effects in these traditional methods of assessing SLODR by using data with skewed observed variable distributions. The skewness magnitudes did not need to be large to produce these effects and they fell well within the range of values that are usually considered unproblematic for parametric statistic analysis. In simulated datasets, positive subtest skewness resulted in SLODR and negative subtest skewness resulted in reverse SLODR. In contemporary methods of testing SLODR, non-linear g-loadings or a skewed g are assumed to reflect evidence for SLODR. When we applied contemporary methods of testing SLODR to these data, there was evidence of heteroscedastic residuals but no evidence of non-linear g-loadings or skewed g distributions. We broadly replicated the effects of subtest skew from these simulated datasets in real data from the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart. Results imply that traditional methods of assessing SLODR cannot distinguish between effects due to subtest characteristics that have nothing to do with differences in ability structure at different levels of g and true SLODR effects. This calls into question the empirical support for SLODR.     

Ab initio investigation of electron-phonon interaction in LaSn3 and CaSn3

ABSTRACT

We present results for the structural, electronic, vibrational, and electron-phonon coupling properties of LaSn₃ and CaSn₃ adopting the simple cubic AuCu₃-type structure obtained using the the generalised gradient approximation of the density functional theory and plane wave ab initio pseudopotential method. Our electronic results show that both materials display metallic character with several bands, which have mainly Sn 5p character, crossing the Fermi level. The calculated phonon spectrum of LaSn₃ accords very well with reported experimental measurements. The weights of the peaks in the Eliashberg spectral function of both compounds are enhanced with the use of experimental lattice constant in our electron-phonon calculation, increasing the value of average electron phonon coupling parameter from 0.876 to 0.937 for LaSn₃ (by 7%) and from 0.642 to 0.725 for CaSn₃ (by 13%). The use of experimental lattice constant also improves the agreement between theoretical and experimental values of the superconducting temperature for both compounds.     

Structure of interest in a Caribbean sample: Application of the Personal Globe Inventory

The structural validity of the Personal Globe Inventory (PGI, Tracey, 2002) as applied to a Caribbean sample of university students in Jamaica (N = 103) and Trinidad (N = 118) was examined. The fit of the data to Holland's six-type RIASEC, the PGI eight-type model, and the PGI spherical structure was examined using the randomized test of hypothesized order relations. The results demonstrated that the circular structure (i.e. RIASEC and the eight-type model), unlike the spherical structure, fits the Caribbean data well. No structural differences were found between gender and nationality. Further examination of the cultural perception of prestige in a Caribbean sample is warranted. Overall, the results support the structural validity of the PGI in Caribbean applications.     

Anxiety reactivity and anxiety perseveration represent dissociable dimensions of anxiety vulnerability: A replication and extension

Trait anxiety is a unitary construct reflecting individual differences in the tendency to experience anxious symptomatology, typically measured with questionnaires such as the Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI‐T). Recent research by Rudaizky, Page, and MacLeod has found evidence that two different dimensions of trait anxiety account for independent variance in trait anxiety scores. These dimensions are anxiety reactivity (AR), reflecting the probability of experiencing an anxious reaction, and anxiety perseveration (AP), reflecting the persistence of anxious symptoms once elicited. There are two key issues addressed in this study: first, the replicability of Rudaizky et al.'s findings and second, the ability of the measures of AR and AP developed by Rudaizky et al. to predict independent variance in STAI‐T scores after statistically controlling for variance shared with a measure of depression. Regression analysis determined that AR and AP do account for independent variance in STAI‐T trait anxiety scores even after statistically controlling for depression. The implications of these findings for the understanding of anxiety vulnerability are discussed.     

An analysis of coping profiles and adjustment in persons with rheumatoid arthritis

This study examined dispositional and situative antecedents of vigilant and avoidant coping behavior. Seventy-two subjects were classified in coping style on the basis of their responses to the vigilance and cognitive avoidance scales of the Mainz Coping Inventory (MCI, Krohne, 1989), and alternatively, on their trait anxiety and defensiveness scores (cf. Weinberger, Schwartz, & Davidson, 1979). In a subsequent laboratory task, subjects were exposed to various conditions of predictability of an aversive event. In anticipation of an aversive loud tone, coping behavior was operationally defined as choosing to listen either to a warning channel (i.e., vigilance) or instead to music (i.e., avoidance). Probability of occurrence of a warning signal while listening to the warning channel varied across trials, being either 0%, 33%, 66%, or 100%. Subjects were exposed to each level and were informed about the respective probability in advance. In general, listening to the warning channel increased with an increase in the probability of the warning signal. However, four groups of subjects who differed in their pattern of coping behavior across trials were observed: rigid-avoidant copers (always listening to music), rigid-vigilant copers (always monitoring the warning channel), flexible copers (switching from music to warning channel with increasing probability of warning), and inconsistent copers (vacillating between music and warning channel regardless of probability of warning). Coping style classifications did not show substantial associations with coping behavior. However, subjects demonstrating the inconsistent coping pattern scored high on trait anxiety.