Challenges in measuring wisdom-relevant constructs in young adult undergraduate students

ABSTRACT

University settings present a unique opportunity for young adults to develop characteristics constitutive of wisdom. One challenge for educators working to support this development involves effectively measuring these characteristics. In this article, we present results from a secondary analysis of cognitive interviews to examine challenges that may arise when young adult undergraduate students respond to self-report measures of Meaning, Identification with all Humanity and Dedication to Lifelong Service—three characteristics of personality-focused accounts of wisdom. Although the items had well-fitting exploratory and confirmatory latent variable models, between 12.5% and 87.5% of students (n = 8 for each item) provided unintended interpretations for each item. This mismatch between students’ interpretations and the intended interpretations can threaten item validity and obfuscate findings from applications such as pre-post assessments. Further research is needed to better understand the factors affecting young adults’ responses to measures of wisdom-relevant characteristics.     

Preventive Conservation: People,Objects, Place and Time in the Philippines

ABSTRACT

Preventive conservation, with its origins grounded in the material fabric of cultural material, is in a period of transformation, with numerous practitioners, in and outside of the field of conservation, considering its broader and holistic objectives. The conventional tools for the assertion of preventive conservation principles, namely the assessment and management of risks to cultural material from the ‘ten agents of deterioration’, have a central focus on the primacy of physical materials and degradation, with less clear relationships with people, place, and time in their modelling. With a case study focus on collections in the Philippines, this paper argues for a practice of preventive conservation that incorporates a balanced assessment and broader thinking around the contexts of objects, people, place, and time. The case studies of ecclesiastical Church collections, and museum environments in the Philippines, demonstrate how the interdependency of objects, people, place and time forms a holistic and conceptual preventive conservation framework. Through a cyclic renegotiation of these four parameters, this paper speculates on the gaps and opportunities for an inclusive view of preventive conservation that is current and more sustainable.     

Sexual Socialization Messages in Television Programming Produced for Adolescents

This study examined sexual content in American prime-time programs popular among the tween (9–14 years of age) audience on broadcast networks and programs aired on the most popular adolescent TV networks—an understudied area of media research. Consistent with past research, the majority of broadcast shows contained sexual talk and behaviors, as did adolescent shows. No significant difference was observed between the two types of shows regarding the frequency with which sexual behaviors were presented in a given hour of TV programming. The amount of scene focus paid to sexual themes varied, but studio audiences were almost always heard positively reinforcing these messages. The findings are discussed with respect to social cognitive and cultivation theories.     

Who Publishes More Books in U.S. English Departments,Men or Women?

The “gender gap” in the U.S. publication of English language and literature scholarly books has not been fully investigated. In order to investigate gender disparity, we collected, aggregated, and analyzed data on 1633 faculty members who authored or edited 4835 scholarly books at the top 50 U.S. English Ph.D. departments. Despite the fact that more women than men have received Ph.D.s in English since 1987, the top 50 departments are predominantly male, and male faculty members publish more books on a per capita basis. However, who publishes more books in these departments varies: (1) with the department that the faculty member is in (with grater parity in the middle 30 departments); and (2) when the faculty member published their first book, with female faculty who published their first book after 1998 publishing as many books on a per person basis as male faculty. This paper also offers recommendations on how marketing strategies can be used to ameliorate the “gender gap” in this academic field.     

Procrastination,conscientiousness, anxiety,and goals: Exploring the measurement and correlates of procrastination among school‐aged children

We explore the reliability and validity of a self‐report measure of procrastination and conscientiousness designed for use with third‐ to fifth‐grade students. The responses of 120 students are compared with teacher and parent ratings of the student. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were also used to examine the structure of the scale. Procrastination and conscientiousness are highly correlated (inversely); evidence suggests that procrastination and conscientiousness are aspects of the same construct. Procrastination and conscientiousness are correlated with the Physiological Anxiety subscale of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, and with the Task (Mastery) and Avoidance (Task Aversiveness) subscales of Skaalvik's (1997) Goal Orientation Scales. Both theoretical implications and implications for interventions are discussed. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

《暮色》:走进斯蒂芬妮·梅尔的吸血鬼世界

如果不是因为这部电影,Grace根本不知道暮光之城这套书,更不会知道原来它在美国已经热卖了好几年。只看情节,似乎看不出这个吸血鬼故事有什么特别,但能在这个吸血鬼小说、电影和电视剧泛滥的年代打出名堂,肯定有其过人之处。如果想知道《暮色》讲什么但又懒得看小说,这部电影是个不错的选择。再透露一个消息:《暮色》原定今年12月上映,但由于《哈利·波特与混血王子》的上映日期由原来的11月推迟到明年7月,于是制作《暮色》的电影公司决定填补这个空挡。如果你对小说感兴趣,还可以翻到本期的美文共享栏目读一读节选,说不定你也会喜欢上它哦。     

A Comparison of Linking Methods for Estimating National Trends in International Comparative Large‐Scale Assessments in the Presence of Cross‐National DIF

Trend estimation in international comparative large‐scale assessments relies on measurement invariance between countries. However, cross‐national differential item functioning (DIF) has been repeatedly documented. We ran a simulation study using national item parameters, which required trends to be computed separately for each country, to compare trend estimation performances to two linking methods employing international item parameters across several conditions. The trend estimates based on the national item parameters were more accurate than the trend estimates based on the international item parameters when cross‐national DIF was present. Moreover, the use of fixed common item parameter calibrations led to biased trend estimates. The detection and elimination of DIF can reduce this bias but is also likely to increase the total error.     

Evaluating a Multidimensional Reading Comprehension Program and Reconsidering the Lowly Reputation of Tests of Near‐Transfer

We conducted a 14‐week experimental study of 2 versions of a relatively comprehensive RC intervention that involved 50 classroom teachers, 15 tutors, and 116 children drawn in equal proportions from grades 3 and 5 in 13 schools in a large urban school district. Students were randomly assigned in equal numbers to the two tutoring conditions and a control group. Results indicated that students in the two tutored groups tended to perform comparably on all tests and to outperform controls (more so in grade 5 than grade 3) on near‐transfer but not far‐transfer measures of RC. This differential pattern of program effects for near‐ versus far‐transfer measures raises questions about how tests of near‐transfer and far‐transfer are conventionally understood.