Huber Inventory of Trainee Self‐efficacy: Assessment of measurement models

The purpose of this study was to further examine the factor structure of the Huber Inventory of Trainee Self‐Efficacy (HITS), a measure of school psychology trainee self‐efficacy. Lockwood et al. (2017, Psychol. Sch., Vol. 54, pp. 655–670) extant data set, collected from 520 school psychology trainees, was utilized. Four measurement models were examined for model fit and factor loadings. Of the four models, a bifactor model with a single latent general self‐efficacy (GSE) and latent domain‐specific factors (i.e., Multidimensional Assessment Skills, Counseling Skills, Professional Interpersonal Skills, and Research Skills) was the most parsimonious. However, standardized loadings indicated that all practice‐related items loaded more significantly onto GSE than their domain‐specific factors, indicating the utility of GSE for practice‐related skills. Of note, the Research Skills factor displayed greater domain‐specific loadings than general loadings. These findings suggest that GSE may be the best indicator of trainee self‐efficacy, though a two‐factor model that represents practical skills versus research skills may also be appropriate. Additionally, reliability scores indicate that subscale interpretation may also be reasonable. Limitations, implications for trainers of school psychologists, and for future research directions are discussed.     

Self‐directed learning in gross human anatomy: Assessment outcomes and student perceptions

Speech pathology students enrolled in a lecture‐based gross human anatomy program completed two out of nine topics in self‐directed mode. Student performance in quizzes was compared for the two modes, and the students completed questionnaires on their perceptions of the self‐directed mode of delivery. Students performed as well in the first self‐directed topic as they did in lecture‐based material, but performance declined significantly on the second self‐directed topic. Correlations showed that students who performed well in lecture‐based topics also performed well on self‐directed topics. The major issues that arose in the student questionnaires were primarily related to the amount of content in the topics and the length of time required for completion. We conclude that there is a strong need for appropriate design of distance education materials to reflect student perceptions of length, content, and time investment, and more importantly that there is a need to ensure extensive communication and support of students studying in distance education/self‐directed modes for the first time. Anat Sci Ed 2008. © 2008 American Association of Anatomists.     

Speaking Through the Body: The Incidence of Self‐Injury,Piercing, and Tattooing Among College Students

Self‐injurious behaviors were compared with tattooing and piercing in a college population. Findings indicate a high prevalence of self‐injury. Students who self‐injured were motivated by a desire to alleviate emotional pain; students who tattooed and pierced by self‐expression. Students who self‐injured scored higher than students who tattooed and pierced on measures of depression and scored lower on self‐esteem and sense of control scales. The incidence of all 3 body‐altering behaviors was higher among participants reporting physical/sexual abuse or eating disorders.     

Self‐Efficacy of First‐Generation and Non‐First‐Generation College Students: The Relationship With Academic Performance and College Adjustment

The authors examined whether self‐efficacy mediated the relationship between generational status and 2 academic outcome indicators of 192 college students. A mediation effect was not found with either academic performance or college adjustment. However, high self‐efficacy at the beginning of the year predicted better college adjustment at the end of the 1st year. For college students in general, high self‐efficacy was related to better college adjustment. Recommendations for counselors are discussed.     

The Skilled Counselor Training Model: Skills Acquisition,Self‐Assessment,and Cognitive Complexity

The authors evaluated the effectiveness of the Skilled Counselor Training Model (SCTM; M. H. Smaby, C. D. Maddux, E. Torres‐Rivera, & R. Zimmick, 1999) in teaching counseling skills and in fostering counselor cognitive complexity. Counselor trainees who completed the SCTM had better counseling skills and higher levels of cognitive complexity than did counselor trainees who did not receive the training. Before training, both experimental and control group participants overestimated their skills performance. The control group persisted in this overestimation after training, whereas students who completed the SCTM had a much more accurate self‐assessment. Results suggest that skills‐based training may improve counseling skills and cognitive complexity in counselor trainees.     

The Gateway Science Workshop Program: Enhancing Student Performance and Retention in the Sciences Through Peer-Facilitated Discussion

Minority student attrition and underachievement is a long-standing and widespread concern in higher education. It is especially acute in introductory science courses which are prerequisites for students planning to pursue science-related careers. Poor performance in these courses often results in attrition of minorities from the science fields. This is a particular concern at selective universities where minority students enter with excellent academic credentials but receive lower average grades and have lower retention rates than majority students with similar credentials. This paper reports the first year results of a large scale peer-facilitated workshop program designed to increase performance and retention in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics at a selective research university. After adjusting for grade point average or SAT-Math score, workshop participants earned higher final grades than nonparticipants in Biology and Chemistry, but not in Physics. Similar effects on retention were found. While, positive effects of the program were observed in both majority and minority students, effect sizes were generally largest for minority students. Because of practical constraints in Physics, implementation of the program was not optimal, possibly accounting for the differential success of the program across disciplines.     

Investigating Preschoolers’ Categorical Thinking About Gender Through Imitation,Attention, and the Use of Self‐Categories

Whereas traditional theories of gender development have focused on individualistic paths, recent analyses have argued for a more social categorical approach to children’s understanding of gender. Using a modeling paradigm based on K. Bussey and A. Bandura (1984) , 3 experiments (N = 62, N = 32, and N = 64) examined preschoolers’ (M age = 52.9 months) imitation of, and memory for, behaviors of same‐sex and opposite‐sex children and adults. In all experiments, children’s imitation of models varied according to the emphasis given to the particular category of models, despite equal attention being paid to both categories. It is suggested that the categorical nature of gender, or age, informs children’s choice of imitative behaviors.     

The Impact of Performance Feedback on Counseling Self‐Efficacy and Counselor Anxiety

Based on the Social Cognitive Model of Counselor Training (L. M. Larson, 1998), this study explored the effects of bogus performance feedback on counseling self‐efficacy and counselor anxiety. After a 10‐minute mock counseling session, 45 master's‐level trainees received either positive or negative bogus feedback regarding their performance. Results showed that (a) participants altered their counseling self‐efficacy depending on the performance feedback they received, and (b) participants reported changes in anxiety following performance feedback.     

Comparing the Effectiveness of Self‐Paced and Collaborative Frame‐of‐Reference Training on Rater Accuracy in a Large‐Scale Writing Assessment

There is a large body of research on the effectiveness of rater training methods in the industrial and organizational psychology literature. Less has been reported in the measurement literature on large‐scale writing assessments. This study compared the effectiveness of two widely used rater training methods—self‐paced and collaborative frame‐of‐reference training—in the context of a large‐scale writing assessment. Sixty‐six raters were randomly assigned to the training methods. After training, all raters scored the same 50 representative essays prescored by a group of expert raters. A series of generalized linear mixed models were then fitted to the rating data. Results suggested that the self‐paced method was equivalent in effectiveness to the more time‐intensive and expensive collaborative method. Implications for large‐scale writing assessments and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

An Examination of College Students' Problem‐Solving Self‐Efficacy,Academic Self‐Efficacy,Motivation, Test Performance,and Expected Grade in Introductory‐Level Economics Courses

This study investigated whether self‐efficacy influenced students’ educational outcomes in introductory‐level economics courses. First, this study investigated the correlations between problem‐solving self‐efficacy, academic self‐efficacy, and motivation. Second, this study investigated whether problem‐solving and academic self‐efficacy served as predictors of students’ motivation, test performance, and expected grade. Correlational analyses suggest that problem‐solving and academic self‐efficacy are correlated with student motivation. Results show that problem‐solving self‐efficacy was a predictor of student motivation and test performance. Academic self‐efficacy and problem‐solving self‐efficacy were also predictors of their expected grade. Implications and future directions for economics education are also discussed.     

Anxious Solitude and Self‐Compassion and Self‐Criticism Trajectories in Early Adolescence: Attachment Security as a Moderator

Youths’ attachment representations with their parents were tested as moderators of the relation between peer‐reported anxious solitude and self‐compassion and self‐criticism trajectories from fifth to seventh grades. Participants were 213 youth, 57% girls, M = 10.65 years of age. Growth curves revealed that attachment representations with both parents moderated the relation between AS and self‐processes such that AS youth with (a) dual secure attachments demonstrated the most adaptive self‐processes, (b) one secure attachment demonstrated intermediately adaptive self‐processes, and (c) dual insecure attachments demonstrated the least adaptive self‐processes over time. AS youth with dual insecure attachments are of most concern because they demonstrated elevated and increasing self‐criticism over time, given evidence for relations between self‐criticism and internalizing psychopathology.     

Prepracticum Service‐Learning: Examining the Relationship With Counselor Self‐Efficacy and Anxiety

Prepracticum service‐learning is an integral part of the curriculum for counselor education students at a large southwestern university. Service‐learning is accomplished by placing novice students in school or community agency settings to acquire early, practical, field‐based experience. Activities are more structured and supervised than in an internship or practicum. Analysis indicated that prepracticum service‐learning had a positive significant relationship with counselor self‐efficacy and a significant negative relationship with student anxiety. However, substantial counseling course work and experience with counseling‐related work both had a stronger influence than did prepracticum service‐learning, indicating that the latter is more appropriate for novice students.     

Examining the Relationship between Math Self‐Efficacy and Statistics Motivation in the Introductory Business Statistics Course: Self‐Compassion as a Mediator

Because business statistics students often experience a lack of statistical motivation, business educators need to understand the factors that influence students’ motivation levels in undergraduate‐level business statistics courses. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of math self‐efficacy and self‐compassion on students’ motivation levels and the gender differences among the main variables. The regression results showed that math self‐efficacy was a positive predictor of statistics motivation. Self‐compassion was also found to be a partial mediator of the relationship between math self‐efficacy and statistics motivation. Gender differences were also found in business students’ math self‐efficacy, self‐compassion, and statistics motivation.     

When Peer Performance Matters: Effects of Expertise and Traits on Children's Self‐Evaluations After Social Comparison

The present research examined the influence of peer characteristics on children's reactions to upward social comparisons. In Experiment 1, one hundred twenty‐six 5‐, 8‐, and 10‐year‐olds were told that they were outperformed by an expert or novice peer. Older children reported higher self‐evaluations after comparisons with an expert rather than a novice, whereas 5‐year‐olds reported high self‐evaluations broadly. In Experiment 2, ninety‐eight 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds and 9‐ to 10‐year‐olds were told that the peer possessed a positive or negative trait that was task relevant (i.e., intelligence) or task irrelevant (i.e., athleticism). Older children reported higher self‐evaluations after hearing about positive rather than negative traits, irrespective of relevance. Younger children reported high self‐evaluations indiscriminately. Results inform the understanding of social comparison development in childhood.     

Virtue through Challenge: Moral Development and Self‐transformation

In this article, I argue that although the Aristotelian ideal of leading a virtuous life for its own sake is admirable, conventional Aristotelian and neo‐Aristotelian accounts of how it might be realised are empirically inadequate: Habituation is unlikely to produce ‘a love of virtue’, practical experience cannot then produce practical judgement or phronesis, and Aristotle's conception of a virtuous life excludes all but an idealised elite. Instead, I argue that two conceptually distinct aspects of moral development can be identified: the ‘Aristotelian’ and the ‘Humean’. In the former, the desire to lead a virtuous life for its own sake is produced through certain forms of challenging experience which, by disturbing and decentring the egoistic self, evoke a personal moral transformation. In the latter, the capacity to act well in specific social situations is the outcome of a process of socialisation, first in upbringing and later through initiation into the practices of adult life. Both aspects should be promoted in moral education for together they produce something akin to full virtue in the Aristotelian sense: Practical wisdom and practical judgement—or phronesis. Moreover, ‘the good life’ is best conceived as encompassing a variety of transcendent goods. To live a virtuous life for its own sake constitutes one good or form of human flourishing; but it is not the only one.     

Waiting for the Second Treat: Developing Culture‐Specific Modes of Self‐Regulation

The development of self‐regulation has been studied primarily in Western middle‐class contexts and has, therefore, neglected what is known about culturally varying self‐concepts and socialization strategies. The research reported here compared the self‐regulatory competencies of German middle‐class (N = 125) and rural Cameroonian Nso preschoolers (N = 76) using the Marshmallow test (Mischel, 2014). Study 1 revealed that 4‐year‐old Nso children showed better delay‐of‐gratification performance than their German peers. Study 2 revealed that culture‐specific maternal socialization goals and interaction behaviors were related to delay‐of‐gratification performance. Nso mothers’ focus on hierarchical relational socialization goals and responsive control seems to support children's delay‐of‐gratification performance more than German middle‐class mothers’ emphasis on psychological autonomous socialization goals and sensitive, child‐centered parenting.     

Development of Scientific Thinking Facilitated by Reflective Self‐Assessment in a Communication‐Intensive Food Science and Human Nutrition Course

A one‐credit seminar on controversies in food science and human nutrition was a platform to introduce students to learning frameworks for thinking‐like‐a‐scientist. We hypothesized that explicitly engaging students in thinking about their thinking abilities within these frameworks would enhance their self‐perception of scientific thinking, an important general ability for food scientists. Our objectives were to assess thinking‐like‐a‐scientist using a student self‐assessment survey, and analyze their self‐reflections for evidence of such thinking. For students enrolled in one of the offerings of this course among 5 semesters from 2012 to 2014, differences in scores on a survey instrument for thinking‐like‐a‐scientist from the beginning to the end of the course showed gains in self‐assessed abilities (N = 21 to 22 students/semester). In each of the first 2 semesters in which we introduced thinking‐like‐a‐scientist frameworks, students thought they were better at defining problems scientifically by 13% to 14%. In the 3rd course offering, students’ self‐assessment of their abilities to seek evidence improved by 10%. In the 4th and 5th semester course offerings, students’ self‐assessed abilities to develop plans based on evidence improved by 7% to 14%. At the end of each semester, students’ self‐reflections on scientific thinking (N = 20 to 24/semester) included specific reference to asking questions (45% to 65% of reflections) and making plans based on evidence (26% to 50% of reflections). These data support the usefulness of self‐reflection tools as well as specific learning frameworks to help students to think about and practice thinking‐like‐a‐scientist.