Development and Validation of the Ethnic Moral Disengagement Scale

Research has underlined that moral disengagement processes, by which people switch off their moral values and act aggressively without experiencing guilt, are highly connected with contextual factors. However, research on situational variations in moral disengagement is limited, especially considering the associations with characteristics such as the ethnic origin of potential victims. The general aim of the present study was to develop a brief, specific measure of ethnic moral disengagement able to catch individual justification used in the case of ethnic bullying and cyberbullying, and test its validity and reliability. An eight items scale was developed and administered in study 1, in a sample of 961students attending several Italian high schools (53.5% female; Mage 15 years). Considering the results of the CFA, we modified one of the items and the scale was administered again, in a second sample of 1,229 students (49.9% female; Mage 15.62 years) in study 2. A one-factor model of ethnic moral disengagement fit the data well and internal consistency showed to be good. As an additional step, we found that the model was invariant across Italian adolescents and youths with a different ethnic or culture of origin (having at least one parent born abroad) strengthened our confidence regarding the factorial integrity of the scale. Last, the scale showed to be positively associated with ethnic bullying and cyberbullying. Generally, findings suggested that the Ethnic Moral Disengagement scale can be a useful tool for those interested in measuring moral disengagement and evaluating how it impacts bullying and cyberbullying of minority groups.

On Domain-Specific Conceptualization and Measurement of Grit in L2 Learning

As a personality trait, second language (L2) grit—a combination of perseverance and passion for L2 learning—has recently been proposed as a meaningful predictor of learners’ motivational behavior and L2 achievement. The results of a growing body of empirical studies carried out in various L2 contexts have substantiated the power of L2 grit in predicting L2 success. In this paper, we contend that grit and its potential effects on L2 outcomes should be conceptualized and measured in a domain-specific fashion. We argue that a domain-specific measure of grit enhances its predictive and construct validity and better captures its differential effects in various domains and across languages. We then briefly review the findings of existing grit research in L2 contexts with respect to their domain-general versus domain-specific conceptualization of grit. Finally, we conclude the paper by discussing several issues raised against domain-general grit and discuss their potential relevance to domain-specific grit research in the context of L2 learning.

The PUMS Database: A Corpus of Previously-Used Musical Stimuli in 306 Studies of Music and Emotion

A corpus of Previously-Used Musical Stimuli (PUMS) is presented. The PUMS database is an online, publicly-available database where researchers can find a list of 22,417 musical stimuli that have been previously used in the literature on how music can convey or evoke emotions in listeners. A total of 306 studies on music and emotion are included in the database. Each musical stimulus used in these studies was coded according to various criteria: its designated emotion and how it was operationalized, its length, whether it is an excerpt from a longer work, and its style or genre. In the PUMS corpus, there is also information regarding the familiarity of the original participants with each musical sample, as well as information regarding whether each passage was used in a study about perceived or induced emotion. The name of the passage, composer, track number, and specific measure numbers or track location were noted when they were identified in the original paper. The database offers insight into how music has been used in psychological studies over a period of 90 years and provides a resource for scholars wishing to use music in future behavioral or psychophysical research. The PUMS database can be accessed online at https://osf.io/p4ta9.

Measurement properties of the PBC-40 and PBC-27: a Dutch validation study

ObjectivePatients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) have an impaired health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Practice guidelines recommend evaluating the HRQoL in all patients with PBC. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of our Dutch translation of the PBC-40, a PBC-specific measure of the HRQoL.DesignThe PBC-40 was translated into Dutch following standardised forward–backward procedures. Participants received the Dutch PBC-40 and the RAND-36 (a validated Dutch version of the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey) through postal mail. The PBC-27 is an abridged version of the PBC-40. Internal consistency between the items within the PBC-40/PBC-27 domains was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha. In addition, score distributions were analysed on floor and ceiling effects. Construct validity was assessed by hypotheses testing using Pearson’s correlation between the PBC-40/PBC-27 domains and RAND-36 scales.Results177 patients with PBC were included. The mean age was 61.1 (SD 9.9) years and the majority of patients was female (n=164, 92.7%). From the 7080 PBC-40 items, 61 items (0.9%) were missing and 342 items (4.8%) were answered with the ‘does not apply’ option. Each PBC-40 domain had a Cronbach’s α of >0.70, with the highest in the domain fatigue (0.95). For the PBC-27, the lowest Cronbach’s α was 0.69. Floor effects were present in three domains (cognition 19.3%, itch 27.0% and social 25.0% (only for PBC-27)). No ceiling effects were observed. All domains were significantly correlated with the corresponding RAND-36 scale(s) (p<0.001 for all). The strongest correlation was between the PBC-40 domain fatigue and the RAND-36 vitality scale (r=−0.834).ConclusionOur findings demonstrate the reliability and validity of the Dutch PBC-40 and PBC-27 for the assessment of the HRQoL in patients with PBC. This PBC-specific measure can be used in Dutch-speaking patients with PBC for both research and clinical purposes.

Problematyka imperium Państwowej Inspekcji Pracy na przykładzie wystąpienia inspektora pracy

The labour inspector’s statement constitutes a non-statutory form of enforcing labour rights. In this context, we can see a variety of problems related both to the impact of the legal measure itself, appealing against it, as well as to the role it plays in ensuring compliance with employment rights. The jurisprudence and literature to date indicates explicitly that the employer’s failure to comply with the content of the labour inspector’s speech does not give rise to any negative legal consequences. Nevertheless, employers who do not agree with the solutions recommended by the authority through the labour inspector’s speech perceive this specific measure as a special type of decision. The decision itself, in turn, seems to be a natural manifestation of the state, the authority indicating to the subject of law the individual directions of its behaviour. However, this is, in fact, a different act. The article doubts the implementation of the model of labour supervision and control assumed by the legislator in the light of the measure outlined in the labour inspector’s speech. As a result, allowing this measure to be left to the inspector’s discretionary use may lead to the reinforcement of the feeling of a lack of efficiency on the part of the state bodies in the field of protection of workers’ rights, especially that the cases of its use are an open catalogue, which includes issues such as working time or the employment of young people. In order to better understand these trends, two examples are discussed where the National Labour Inspectorate had an impact on situations of a gross violation of labour law standards. A de lege ferenda direction has also been indicated, which means the creation of the institution of “re-inspection” of the employer. The existence of a non-authoritative “recommendation”, which is a statement by the labour inspector, is in fact a manifestation of the implementation of Article 17, paragraph 2 of the ILO Convention No. 81, which would not be incompatible with the consequence in the form of addressing a statement.

Attention shifts to more complex locations with experience

Our environments are saturated with learnable information. What determines which of this information gets prioritized for limited attentional resources? While previous studies suggest that learners prefer medium complexity information, here we argue that what counts as medium should change as someone learns an input's structure. Specifically, we examined the hypothesis that attention is directed towards more complicated structures as learners gain more experience with the environment. Participants watched four simultaneous streams of information which varied in complexity. Reaction times to intermittent search trials (Ex. 1, N=75) and eye-tracking (Ex. 2, N=45) indexed where participants attended over the experiment. Using a subject- and trial-specific measure of complexity, we demonstrated that participants attended to increasingly complex streams over time. Individual differences in structure learning also modulated attention allocation, with better learners attending to complex structures from earlier in learning, suggesting the ability to prioritize different information over time gates structure learning success.

Expert-Based Maps as a Regional Planning Tool Supporting Nature Conservation and Production-Integrated Compensation—A German Case Study on Biodiversity Offsets

Many countries worldwide have developed guidelines for offsetting impacts on nature and landscape. Suitable locations are the prerequisite for the implementation of these measures, and this might lead to conflicts with agriculture. In addition, comprehensive planning is often lacking and potential added values for nature conservation are not exploited. Concepts such as the so-called production-integrated compensation (PIC) have been introduced to give farmers the opportunity to actively participate in the offsetting process and improve cooperation. However, up to now, PIC has only rarely been put into practice. Against this backdrop, we have developed a regional planning tool for the implementation of PIC in practice. Based on geodata such as soil data, agricultural structure, or natural conditions at the field and landscape level, the general suitability, and specific measure-based recommendations for each plot can be verified with the help of a decision support system. These factors are assessed from both a nature and an agricultural perspective. The goal here is to highlight synergy effects and increase the likelihood of the proposed measures being implemented. Our tool facilitates the integrated planning of biodiversity offsets at regional level. In this way, it can promote the bundling and networking of measures. However, on-site analyses should be undertaken to complement the implementation of measures.

On the Measure-Theoretic Premises of Bayes Factor and Full Bayesian Significance Tests: a Critical Reevaluation

The Full Bayesian Significance Test (FBST) and the Bayesian evidence value recently have received increasing attention across a variety of sciences including psychology. Ly and Wagenmakers (2021) have provided a critical evaluation of the method and concluded that it suffers from four problems which are mostly attributed to the asymptotic relationship of the Bayesian evidence value to the frequentist p-value. While Ly and Wagenmakers (2021) tackle an important question about the best way of statistical hypothesis testing in the cognitive sciences, it is shown in this paper that their arguments are based on a specific measure-theoretic premise. The identified problems hold only under a specific class of prior distributions which are required only when adopting a Bayes factor test. However, the FBST explicitly avoids this premise, which resolves the problems in practical data analysis. In summary, the analysis leads to the more important question whether precise point null hypotheses are realistic for scientific research, and a shift towards the Hodges-Lehmann paradigm may be an appealing solution when there is doubt on the appropriateness of a precise hypothesis.

A Comparative Study of Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate using Saline Diluted and Undiluted EDTA with TSC

Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is the rate at which RBC sediment in a period of 1 hr. It is a common Haematology test that is a non-specific measure of inflammation and it became a common screening test worldwide for acute phase proteins and chronic diseases. The International Council for Standardization in Haematology (ICSH) recommended the Westergren method as the method of choice for ESR determination. TSC is almost exclusively used as the diluent of choice for setting up ESR, but some contemporary laboratories have resolved to use Normal saline (NS) as the diluent of choice while other set ESR using EDTA anticoagulated Blood (BLD) without any diluent. The objective of this study is to assess the comparison between saline diluted and undiluted EDTA with TSC as an anticoagulant in ESR detection and to find out any gender wise variations by using these anticoagulants. A total of 50 students were participated in this study. From each of the participants 5 ml of BLD was collected and it is then divided into 3 parts. 1.6 ml BLD to 0.4ml 3.8% TSC tube, 1.6 ml EDTA blood to 0.4 ml NS tube. 3rd tube with 2 ml EDTA BLD and set for ESR and obtained result within 1 hour. The Result is the mean +SD value of ESR were 19.48+5.7 mm/hr. in undiluted EDTA, 15.22+4.6 mm/hr. in saline diluted EDTA & 15.36+4.5 mm/hr. in TSC. The mean difference of ESR value between saline diluted EDTA with TSC BLD was 0 and it with undiluted EDTA was 4 mm /hr. The study indicates that there was a significant difference between ESR value with undiluted EDTA and TSC while diluted EDTA and TSC were there is no significant difference. The mean +SD of ESR value using undiluted, diluted EDTA and TSC in males were 16.20+3.3, 11.05+2.8, 11.29+2.6 and while it for females were 21.69+5.2, 17.36+3.8, 17.45+3.8 respectively. In conclusion, TSC is the best diluent to be used in contemporary lab to set ESR as compared to EDTA BLD. But we can use saline diluted EDTA as an alternative to citrate diluted BLD to set ESR and it also showed there is a gender wise variation in ESR using these anticoagulants.

Development of a Scale to Measure Intrapersonal Psychological Empowerment to Participate in Local Tourism Development: Applying the Sociopolitical Control Scale Construct to Tourism (SPCS-T)

Future tourism development must be guided by thoughtful and effective policies that represent the interests of a majority of community members to maximize the positive and minimize the negative impact on communities. Effective policies rely on the support of an engaged citizenry made up of residents who feel psychologically empowered. The primary purpose of this study was to develop a topic-specific measure of sociopolitical control in order to provide a reliable quantitative tool to evaluate tourism development in host communities. Confirmatory factor analysis yielded indices of an acceptable model fit that support the construct validity of a revised Sociopolitical Control Scale for Tourism (SPCS-T). The present study provides empirical evidence that policymakers and researchers interested in gauging support for future tourism policies can successfully apply the SPCS-T in the tourism context.