Quantitative Psychology Commons^™

An Analytical Study About The Dialectical Use Of Statistical Significance In Psychological And Educational Research, عايش صباح Dr

International Journal for Research in Education

The statistical significance has been adopted more than 300 years ago, It has served an important purpose in promoting research in social sciences, however, there has been much controversy over the misuse and interpretation of the statistical significance test.Compelling criticisms of statistical significance testing can be found in virtually all areas of the social and life sciences, economics, sociology, education and psychology. Because it is the overwhelmingly dominant statistical method in these sciences, criticisms need to be taken seriously.

Yet, after half a century of cogent arguments against statistical significance and calls to adopt alternative practices some disciplines, such as …

Taking Multiple Regression Analysis To Task: A Review Of Mindware: Tools For Smart Thinking, By Richard Nisbett (2015), Jason Makansi

Numeracy

Richard Nisbett. 2015. Mindware: Tools for Smart Thinking.(New York, NY: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux). 336 pp. ISBN: 9780374536244

Nisbett, a psychologist, may not achieve his stated goal of teaching readers to “effortlessly” extend their common sense when it comes to quantitative analysis applied to everyday issues, but his critique of multiple regression analysis (MRA) in the middle chapters of Mindware is worth attention from, and contemplation by, the QL/QR and Numeracy community. While in at least one other source, Nisbett’s critique has been called a “crusade” against MRA, what he really advocates is that it not be used as …

Measuring Gambling: Prevalence Of At Risk And Problematic Gambling In Chile 2015-2018., Juan Oyanedel Dr, Mariela Huenchumilla Ms, Andrés Rubio Mr

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

This study reports the prevalence of problematic gambling in Santiago de Chile for the period 2015-2018. Two household-based surveys were implemented in the metropolitan area of Santiago de Chile in 2015 and 2018 in order to assess changes on the prevalence, characteristics and severity of gambling (n=1030 each; SE=2,2% for a CI=95%). Severity of gambling was measured using the NODS scale.

Results show that during the analysed period the percentage of at-risk players has increased, passing from 14,3% to 16,1%, among them, we identified a decrease in the prevalence of pathological gamblers, passing from 2,4% to 1,4%. We also identify …

Gambling-Related Harm And The Prevention Paradox, Matthew Browne

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract (163 words)

The prevention paradox (PP) describes a situation in which a greater number of adverse events arise from lower-risk population categories, because they are more prevalent than higher-risk groups. There has been limited and conflicting evidence as to whether the PP applies to gambling-related harm.

We assessed the prevalence of 72 harmful consequences from gambling across four risk problem gambling risk categories. Respondents who had gambled on non-lottery forms in the past 6 months completed an online survey (N = 1,524, 49.4% male). The data were weighted to the known prevalence of these risk categories.

The prevalence of …

Moral Foundations Of U.S. Political News Sources, William Edward Padfield

MSU Graduate Theses

The media ecosystem has grown, and political opinions have diverged such that there are competing conceptions of objective truth. Commentators often point to political biases in news coverage as a catalyst for this political divide. The Moral Foundations Dictionary (MFD) facilitates identification of ideological leanings in text through frequency of the occurrence of certain words. Through web scraping, the researcher extracted articles from popular news sources’ websites, calculated MFD word frequencies, and identified words’ respective valences. This process attempts to uncover news outlets’ positive or negative endorsements of certain moral dimensions concomitant with a particular ideology. In Experiment 1, the …

A Dimensional Risk Approach To Assessing Early Adversity In A National Sample, Sharon Wolf, Noelle Suntheimer

GSE Faculty Research

We examine how incidence and accumulation of two domains of risk factors—deprivation and threat of harm—predict early childhood development, testing a framework put forth by McLaughlin and Sheridan (2016). Using the ECLSK: 11 (N = 18,200, M = 5.6 years; 48.7% female), a nationally representative sample of kindergarteners, we consider behavioral and cognitive indicators that represent different learning processes. We find partial support for the hypothesis that deprivation (but not threat) risks predict higher-order learning outcomes, with both incidence and accumulation of risk negatively predicting reading scores but mixed associations for executive function outcomes. We find support that incidence …

Are All Cognitive Items Equally Prone To Position Effects? Exploring The Relationships Among Item Features And Position Effects, Thai Quang Ong

Dissertations, 2014-2019

One type of context effect is a position effect, which implies parameters of an item are influenced by the position of the item on the test. Researchers often discuss two types of position effects: negative position effects and positive position effects (e.g., Albano, 2013; Debeer & Janssen, 2013). Items exhibiting negative position effects become harder when placed later on the test, whereas items exhibiting positive position effects become easier when placed later on the test. Researchers have primarily examined the underlying causes of position effects through an item or person perspective (e.g., Bulut, 2015; Kingston & Dorans, 1984; Qian, 2014). …

Test Emotions, Value, And Self-Efficacy: A Longitudinal Model Predicting Examinee Effort And Performance On A Low-Stakes Test, Paulius Satkus

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The validity of scores from low-stakes tests may be compromised by examinee motivation. Expectancy-Value theory (EV) has been used to frame the antecedents of examinee motivation in low-stakes testing contexts. According to EV theory, the perceived value of the test and the expectancy to succeed on the test directly affect examinee effort, which then affects test performance. Cross-sectional research studies in low-stakes testing contexts offer some support of EV theory. Control-Value theory (CV) serves as another theory to understand motivation toward a task. CV theory encompasses the constructs of expectancy and value from EV theory, but incorporates test emotions as …

Supervisor-Subordinate Conflict Negotiation: Examining The Core Concerns In Light Of Communication Accommodation And Gender Roles, Piyawan Charoensap-Kelly

Dissertations

This quasi-experimental study examined a supervisor-subordinate negotiation of an emotion-laden conflict from the lens of the core concerns framework, communication accommodation theory, and gender roles research. Results empirically support CCF that, by accommodating or attending to the employees’ core concerns, managers can stimulate employees’ positive emotion and integrative intention. However, under- and overaccommodating the core concerns can lead to distributive intention. Additionally, the employees’ perception of manager goodwill can strengthen or attenuate the positive effect of core concerns accommodativeness on outcome variables especially for male managers. Thus, moderate accommodation is recommended for male managers. For female managers, the results show …

The Effects Of Sex Role Stereotype Endorsement And Work-Family Conflict On Emerging Adult Aspirations, Andrea Fink-Armold

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Workplace and household inequality remain prevalent in the United States and sex role (e.g. breadwinner and caregiver) stereotypes affect the roles that individuals seek out. This research used a mixed-methods approach to investigate the effects of sex role stereotypes and expected work-family conflict on the work and family aspirations of emerging adults. A racially diverse sample wrote freely about their future selves for ten minutes then completed measures to evaluate their sex-role stereotype endorsement, expected work-family conflict, and personal preferences for career and family roles. Results indicate that endorsement of stereotypes predicts increased expectations of work-family conflict, for both men …

Selection Or Socialization? A Propensity Score Matched Study Of Personality And Life Events, Emorie Beck

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Across the lifespan, personality changes in normative ways, but the source of such change remains ambiguous. Life events may be one impetus of such change, but strong selection effects into such events makes it unclear whether such change is driven by already existing differences (selection) between people or socialization following life events. In a preregistered study, we test socialization and selection effects of the Big 5 and life events using a large (N = 19,627) representative sample of Germans and 12 life events (e.g. marriage, retirement) from the GSOEP. Using propensity score matching and Bayesian multilevel growth curve models, we …

An Investigation Into The Structure Of Self-Control, Parker A. Dreves

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Self-control has been measured using a variety of methods including self-report measures, cognitive inhibition tasks, delay discounting and delay of gratification tasks, and persistence and willpower tasks. Although these are all theoretically linked to processes involved in self-control, recent evidence has shown that these diverse measurement techniques relate only minimally to one another. Assuming that self-control is a reflective construct, this would indicate that many of these tasks are poor indicators of self-control. The present research challenges the common assumption that self-control is a reflective construct and instead proposes that self-control is a formative construct. Conceptualizing self-control as a formative …

Effects Of Talker Variability On Categorization Of Spectrally Degraded Vowels., Emily A. Dickey

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

When a person listens to a context sentence with prominent higher frequencies, the subsequent vowel sound is more likely to be perceived as being of a lower frequency and vice versa. This is a spectral contrast effect (SCE). Recent work has shown that talker variability diminishes these SCEs. They were found to be smaller when 200 sentences were spoken by a different talker each time compared to one talker (Assgari & Stilp, 2015). Cochlear Implant (CI) users’ speech categorization is also influenced by SCEs but are known to struggle with talker discrimination. Here, I tested whether talker variability affected SCEs …

Mathematics Attitudes And Mathematics Performance: Novel Approaches Towards Noncognitive Educational Measurement, Applications To Large-Scale Assessment Data, And Examinations Of Multigroup Invariance, Kalina Gjicali

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Academic performance is predicted by a multitude of demographic, contextual, cognitive, and noncognitive constructs. The noncognitive factors of achievement in mathematics that have previously been explored in depth are study skills, collaborative problem-solving, confidence, self-efficacy, and personality traits (Kyllonen, 2012). Limited applied research has explored the predictive value of noncognitive factors such as attitudes and beliefs in mathematics achievement – even though attitudes towards mathematics are a promising avenue for understanding the variability in mathematics achievement. The current research uses the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to explain high school students’ performance in mathematics in a series of three studies. …

The Effects Of Relationships On Ans Function And Wellness, Olivia M. Maples

EURēCA: Exhibition of Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement

The quality of relationships and social networks plays a vital role on well-being (Feeney & Collins, 2015). Social support is linked to positive biological profiles in that social support protects against the negative effects of changes in cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, and immune function. Furthermore, when exploring Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) function, higher heart rate variability has been shown to reflect a psychophysiological state compatible with social interaction (Quintana, Guastella, Outhred, Hickie, & Kemp, 2012). Social support has been shown to buffer against the negative effects of life stressors (Cohen & Wills, 1985), and ultimately, mortality (Holt-Lunstad, Smith, & Layton, 2010). In …

Considerations In S-Χ2: Rest Score Or Summed Score, Priors, And Violations Of Normality, Christine E. Demars, Derek Sauder

Department of Graduate Psychology - Faculty Scholarship

The S-χ2 item fit index is one of the few item fit indices that appears to maintain accurate Type I error rates. This study explored grouping examinees by the rest score or summed score, prior distributions for the item parameters, and the shape of the ability distribution. Type I error was slightly closer to the nominal level for the total-score S-χ2 for the longest tests, but power was higher for the rest-score S-χ2 in every condition where power was < 1. Prior distributions reduced the proportion of estimates with extreme standard errors but slightly inflated the Type I error rates in some conditions. When the ability distribution was not normally distributed, integrating over an empirically-estimated distribution yielded Type I error rates closer to the nominal value than integrating over a normal distribution.

Restructured Frame-Of-Reference Training Improves Rating Accuracy, Ming-Hong Tsai, Serena Wee, Brandon Koh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The use of heuristic judgments is prevalent in organizations and negatively impacts accurate employee assessments. To minimize the negative impact of heuristic judgments (i.e., anchoring and adjustment), we aim to improve rating accuracy by restructuring frame‐of‐reference (FOR) training. We conducted five studies (N = 1,143) using different samples (three including participants with hiring experience), training environments (onsite and online), and rating contexts (evaluations of sales representatives, teachers, contract negotiation specialists, and retail store managers). Across the five studies, the average improvement in rating accuracy was at least twice as large for restructured FOR (vs. control) training as it was for …

A New Paradigm Of Discrimination And Measures Of Latino Linked Fate, Michael Herndon

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Linked fate has long been used as a measure of group consciousness and is an important component of group political behavior. Though applying linked fate to Latinos can be complicated because of a widely diverse set of nationalities and historical contexts, Latinos have shown signs of group cohesion under certain circumstances. Despite this, there is still a sizable gap exploring the theory of linked fate as it pertains to Latinos. Furthermore, there is a near-absence of literature that critically dissects the roles of different kinds of discrimination as they pertain to perceptions of linked fate amongst Latinos. There are distinct …

Contextually Modulated Avoidance Behavior In Rats Post-Pavlovian Extinction, Lauren Branigan

Theses and Dissertations

The following study sought to examine the psychological substrates of renewal (e.g.., context dependent extinction processes) for conditioned avoidance behaviors in rats. Using signaled active avoidance conditioning, rats acquired two-way shuttle responding, to two different auditory stimuli. These behaviors were then extinguished through exposure to the auditory stimuli where shuttling behavior was now without consequence. Subjects were then tested for renewal of avoidance in three distinct renewal sequences (e.g., ABA vs ABB, AAB vs AAA, and ABC vs ABB) in three separate groups of rats. It was found that subjects showed more responding to a stimulus presented outside of its …

The Effects Of Oral Contraceptives On Mood And Affect: A Meta-Analysis, Erica M. Motter

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Combined oral contraceptive (COC) pills are widely used by women of reproductive age, but there is still little conclusive evidence that exists about the mood-related side effects associated with their use. This meta-analysis examined the relationship between oral contraceptive use and mood effects such as depression and anxiety to determine what role, if any, that COCs may have in the worsening or improvement of women’s mood when taking them. Effect sizes compared the differences in women’s mood scores before taking COCs and after one or more cycles of use. Seventeen studies made up of 25 individual samples contributed 71 effect …