Spiritual Development Across the Adult Life Course: Findings from a Longitudinal Study

Longitudinal data spanning early (30s) and older (late 60s/mid-70s) adulthood were used to study spiritual development across the adult life course in a sample of men and women belonging to a younger (born 1928/29) and an older (born 1920/21) age cohort. All participants, irrespective of gender and cohort, increased significantly in spirituality between late middle (mid-50s/early 60s) and older adulthood. Members of the younger cohort increased in spirituality throughout the adult life cycle. In the second half of adulthood, women increased more rapidly in spirituality than men. Spiritual involvement in older age was predicted by religious involvement and personality characteristics in early adulthood and subsequent experiences of negative life events.     

儿童早期数学认知能力的结构及其特点

从北京市10所幼儿园中选取234名3、4岁的儿童为被试,采用个别测查的方法对儿童早期数学认知能力的结构及其特点进行了考察。经验证性因素分析发现：(1)儿童早期数学认知能力的结构模型是合理的,可接受的,具有较好的构想效度,具体讲,数、计算、测量、空间／几何和模式认知能力五个维度共同解释着儿童早期的数学认知能力;(2)不同年龄儿童早期数学认知能力的结构具有稳定性,但是结构模型并不完全一致,某些项目的解释率有所不同;(3)男、女儿童早期数学认知能力的结构模型具有一致性。     

Validation of the Multidimensional Blood/Injury Phobia Inventory: Evidence for a Unitary Construct

The Multidimensional Blood/Injury Phobia Inventory (MBPI) was developed from a theoretical framework to characterize a broad range of feared stimuli and phobic reactions associated with this pathology. The MBPI consists of 40 items that cross 4 types of stimulus content (injections, hospitals, blood, injury), 5 types of phobic responses (fear, avoidance, worry, fainting, disgust), and a self versus other focus. This study reports on administration of the MBPI to 558 undergraduates, 9 of whom had blood/injury phobia. The instrument had a Cronbach's alpha of .91 and demonstrated good concurrent validity, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. One large factor emerged in an unrotated principal components analysis, suggesting that blood/injury phobia is a unitary psychometric construct. Exploratory factor analyses revealed a 6-factor solution defined by stimulus content domains and fainting, each of which may be important to consider clinically when assessing the unique concerns of treatment-seeking individuals.     

中文读写能力及其相关因素的结构模型

运用问卷调查法考查了中文儿童读写能力及其相关因素之间的关系.通过验证性因素分析对量表的信度和效度指标进行了分析,发现量表具有较好的项目信度和结构效度.结构模型分析发现阅读听写能力影响书面语意义理解和书写技能,而书面语意义理解和书写技能对书面表达有显著影响.家庭阅读背景影响儿童的口语能力和阅读听写能力,口语能力影响意义理解和阅读听写能力,基本知觉加工影响口语能力和阅读听写,动作技能影响书写技能.上述结果表明中文字词识别、书写技能和意义理解水平都影响书面表达,即段落产生能力.而口语能力、家庭阅读背景、基本知觉加工和动作技能分别对读写能力的不同侧面产生影响.本研究还分析了模型的年龄和性别特点.     

The Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale: Confirmatory Factor Analytic Findings

The psychometric properties of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) have recently been heavily examined. Specifically, a number of researchers have been interested in determining the factor structure of this scale to find whether it best forms a one, two, or three factor model. The present study continued this examination by considering different scaling models using confirmatory factor analysis with a sample of individuals diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). One hundred and forty-six individuals diagnosed with OCD participated and were administered the Y-BOCS and scales measuring depression (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale) and anxiety (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale). It was found that the Y-BOCS forms two different two-factor models. One model consisted of an obsessions and compulsions factor; the other composed of disturbance and symptom severity factors. It was likewise found that depression and anxiety were related to both factors in one model (disturbance and symptom severity). The finding that depression was related to obsessions and anxiety to compulsions was found, as in a previous factor analysis of the Y-BOCS. These findings suggest that OCD may be best characterized as a multidimensional syndrome that may not be adequately examined by a single unitary factor as described in the Y-BOCS.     

Conditions for factor (in)determinacy in factor analysis

The subject of factor indeterminacy has a vast history in factor analysis (Guttman, 1955; Lederman, 1938; Wilson, 1928). It has lead to strong differences in opinion (Steiger, 1979). The current paper gives necessary and sufficient conditions for observability of factors in terms of the parameter matrices and a finite number of variables. Five conditions are given which rigorously define indeterminacy. It is shown that (un)observable factors are (in)determinate. Specifically, the indeterminacy proof by Guttman is extended to Heywood cases. The results are illustrated by two examples and implications for indeterminacy are discussed.     

Integrating personality and career adaptability into vocational interest space

The relations between interests, personality and career adaptability were explored in two separate studies. In the first study, the RIASEC measure Occupational Preference Scale was applied along with personality inventories HEXACO-PI-(R)-100 and IPIP-50 on a sample of 602 university students and young adults. In the second study, PGI-Short, HEXACO-60 and Career Adapt-Abilities Scale were applied on a sample of 981 high-school graduates. Results from both studies were discussed together, and general conclusions about overlapping of interests, personality and career adaptability domains were drawn on the basis of correlational analyses and property vector fitting. Both studies have shown weak to moderate relations between interests and personality. In the HEXACO framework, it was found that Openness to Experience was positively related to creative interests, Emotionality was positively related to social interests and negatively related to technical interests, Extraversion was positively related to social and managing interests, and Honesty–Humility was negatively related to interests for business and finance. In the Big Five framework, Agreeableness was related to Social and Artistic interests, and Intellect to Artistic interests. The HEXACO personality domains showed predictive advantage for explaining interests in comparison to Big Five dimensions. The relation between career adaptability and interests was weak, and almost negligible when personality was included in hierarchical regression analysis. Career adaptability was weakly related to highly prestigious interests. Adaptability facets Concern, Control and Confidence were oriented toward data pole of interest space. The general factor of interests was weakly correlated with Openness Extraversion, Career Adaptability, and adaptability facets Confidence and Curiosity. Observed findings are as expected and in line with previous research.