The concept of validity in theory and practice

The concept of validity, as described in the literature, has changed over time to become a broad and rather complex issue. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if practice has followed theory, or if there is a gap between validity in theory and validity in practice. It compares the theoretical development of the concept of validity with the methodology adopted in validity studies over time. Important phases in the history of validity, and also common arguments for and against traditional and modern validity perspectives, are presented and discussed. Thereafter, three Swedish research projects aiming to validate instruments used for selection to higher education are described. The idea is to use these projects as examples of contemporary practice, and to compare their designs, research questions and outcomes with how validity was theoretically described during their specific period of time. The conclusions from these comparisons are that practices seem to have followed theory when it comes to how the validity research programmes have been designed, but not when it comes to how they then were carried out in practice. This gap between theory and practice seems to have increased with the introduction of broader and more modern validity perspectives. The scope of the research is more extensive but results are fragmented and there is no evidence of a ‘unified’ validity argument, which has been one of the central aspects in modern validity theory. This supports the arguments that validity theory is difficult to put into practice and that there is a need for guidance on how to prioritise validity questions and interpret validity evidence.     

Self–Efficacy Pathways Between Relational Aggression and Nonsuicidal Self–Injury

The authors recruited college students (N = 648) and investigated relationships among academic and social self–efficacy, relational aggression from parents and peers, and nonsuicidal self–injury (NSSI). Results indicated that both types of self–efficacy were related inversely to NSSI. Academic self–efficacy mediated the relationship between parental emotional abuse and NSSI, whereas social self–efficacy mediated the relationship between peer victimization and NSSI. Clinical implications of these findings for college counselors are discussed.     

You Need More Organization Bro: Relationship Building in Secondary Writing and Revision

In this article, we describe the peer-response workshop we conducted in an ethnically and linguistically diverse secondary school classroom in an urban center in the southwest. We show how the three main parts of the workshop combine to help students cultivate writing relationships in which they see writing as social and co-constructed, rather than as a solitary act performed for the teacher.     

Learning from scientific texts: personalizing the text increases transfer performance and task involvement

In an experiment with 65 high-school students, we tested the hypothesis that personalizing learning materials would increase students’ learning performance and motivation to study the learning materials. Students studied either a 915-word standard text on the anatomy and functionality of the human eye or a personalized version of the same text in which 60 definite articles (e.g., “the eye”) were replaced with 60 second-person possessive pronouns (e.g., “your eye”). Afterwards, participants answered comprehension and transfer questions. One week later, the participants were asked to restudy the text and to answer the same questions again with the aim to improve their performance. In the personalized text condition, students showed higher transfer performance, spent more time on restudying the text, and reported being more motivated than students in the standard text condition. However, only duration of restudying (not self-reported motivation) mediated the effect of personalization on transfer performance.     

Stress, Sport und Beschwerdewahrnehmung

Sport and physical activity are attributed with a positive influence on stress induced complaints due to their overall positive effect on health. The buffering effect on stress has not yet been clearly shown and the findings are inhomogeneous. The following article examines the buffering effect of sport and physical activity on different types of psychological and physical complaints. Therefore, a study was conducted questioning 453 people (M?=?53.56 years; SD?=?11.31) about chronic stress (Perceived Stress Scale), physical complaints (Gießener Beschwerdebogen) and their subjective physical activities (Energy consumption through physical activity – e.g. Soccer or Jogging) and energy consumption – daily bike and walking activity). A buffering effect on nearly all types of complaints could be shown through physical activity, but not through lifestyle activities. Physical activity acts complaint reducing on people suffering from increased stress. A more differentiated examination of the physical activity behaviour, the stress perception and the type of complaints might contribute to clearer findings.     

虚拟国际规范文档——连接德国国家图书馆和美国国会图书馆的规范文档

德国国家图书馆、美国国会图书馆和OCLC联机计算机图书馆中心联合开发了一个个人名称的虚拟国际规范文档(VIAF),它连接世界各国国家书目机构的规范记录,并免费提供网上检索,以证明自动连接不同国家规范文档的规范记录的可行性和优点.美国国会图书馆和德国国家图书馆的规范文档和书目文档被用来创建初始的VIAF,其中包括600多万个名称和50多万个连接.该项目的一个关键点是利用规范记录和其对应书目记录的信息开发自动名称匹配算法.该项目显示了用算法建立不同国家规范文档的个人名称之间连接的实用性.VIAF项目的长远目标是将许多国家图书馆和其他重要来源的规范名称结合起来,形成一个共享的全球规范服务.参考文献3.     

‘“COFO Is Not Godot’ The Free Southern Theater,the Black Freedom Movement,and the Search for a Usable Aesthetic”*

ABSTRACT

This article explores the home as a site of ‘scientific’ enquiry in eighteenth-century Britain and Ireland via the experiences of female experimenters. The focus of their investigation was the cultivation of silkworms for the purposes of making silk and substituting expensive foreign imports with domestic manufacture. This research argues that enquiry was just one of many domestic practices and that the relationship between domestic labour and intellectual work was enmeshed. The spaces and objects of home, alongside the tacit knowledge of its inhabitants, provided a flexible context for experiment, which was accessible to a broad section of eighteenth-century society.