Engaged Mathematics Learning as/for a Transformative Praxis

Engaged learning in mathematics is essential to students' success and has a significant role in creating a transformative path in mathematics education. Considering this, this editorial attempts to highlight the role of behavioural, cognitive, affective and agentic aspects of engaged learning. It is impossible to bring all aspects of this complex and multidimensional construct in this short editorial; however, we try to open a new avenue by bringing the issue of engaged learning into pedagogical practices of mathematics in the context of Nepal. The discourse opens up how disengaged learning creates a mathematical Othering and its detrimental effects on mathematics education. Moreover, this discourse binds with the major features of classroom engagement, conceptualize and the impact of engaged learning on students' success. The editorial ends with a brief overview of the issue.

Value generation from open government data in the public sector: Development and validation of a multidimensional scale

The use of open government data by governments can create opportunities and drive the digital transformation of the public sector. However, there is no integrative measure that assesses the factors that enable public organizations to effectively utilize open government data. The objective of this research was to develop and validate an instrument to assess the factors related to value generation from the use of open government data in the public sector. The construction of the scale was a three-step process. First, the items were structured. Next, a pilot study was performed. Lastly, the instrument was validated. The results indicate that the measure of value generation from the use of open government data is a multidimensional construct, which presents promising implications for future research. This study contributes by developing an instrument that can serve as an analysis tool that will aid public managers who are interested in utilizing open government data.

Dark Triad, Counterproductive Work Behaviour and Job Performance

Dark personality traits are also known as the dark triad which is a multidimensional construct, made up of Machiavellianism, narcissism and psychopathy. They have recently become a major topic of interest in organizational psychology. The present research aims to demonstrate that the dark triad of personality is a significant negative predictor of job performance and studies the relationship between the dark triad and job performance, having as a mediator counterproductive work behavior. The sample of this study is represented by 137 participants from different organizations with different ages and different work experience ranging from one to 40 years, of which 34 men (24.82%) and 103 women (75.18%). The design adopted is cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational, nonexperimental. In this paper each construct of the triad was taken separately and measured in relation to the other two variables mentioned above, and the results varied depending on this aspect. Thus, only one of the two major hypotheses was supported.

Analysis of the Emails From the Dutch Web-Based Intervention “Alcohol de Baas”: Assessment of Early Indications of Drop-Out in an Online Alcohol Abuse Intervention

Nowadays, traditional forms of psychotherapy are increasingly complemented by online interactions between client and counselor. In (some) web-based psychotherapeutic interventions, meetings are exclusively online through asynchronous messages. As the active ingredients of therapy are included in the exchange of several emails, this verbal exchange contains a wealth of information about the psychotherapeutic change process. Unfortunately, drop-out-related issues are exacerbated online. We employed several machine learning models to find (early) signs of drop-out in the email data from the “Alcohol de Baas” intervention by Tactus. Our analyses indicate that the email texts contain information about drop-out, but as drop-out is a multidimensional construct, it remains a complex task to accurately predict who will drop out. Nevertheless, by taking this approach, we present insight into the possibilities of working with email data and present some preliminary findings (which stress the importance of a good working alliance between client and counselor, distinguish between formal and informal language, and highlight the importance of Tactus' internet forum).

Mental toughness as predictor of state anxiety of Serbian athletes

The goal of this research was to test whether and to what extent mental toughness contribute to the explanation of state anxiety in athletes. This study relied on a multidimensional construct of anxiety which includes somatic and cognitive anxiety. Dimensions of anxiety were measured with “Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2” (cognitive and somatic anxiety), and mental toughness was measured with “Sports Mental Toughness Questionnaire”. The research sample consisted of 117 athletes, 67 men and 50 women, who have been actively engaged in various competitive sports. The structure of the sample by age was: 64 athletes are from 20 to 25 years old; 19 respondents aged 25 to 30; 31 athletes aged 30 to 35; and 4 respondents are over 35 years old. The results showed statistically significant correlations between dimensions and overall mental toughness on the one hand and cognitive anxiety and somatic anxiety on the other. Multiple regression analysis was conducted with the aim of predicting the dimensions of anxiety based on mental toughness. Based on the dimensions of mental toughness, 25% of the variability of cognitive anxiety and 22% of somatic anxiety were explained. Self-confidence as a dimension of mental strength is a predictor of all dimensions of the state of anxiety. This study has indicated a great significance of developing athletes’ mental toughness with the goal of reducing anxiety and achieving better performance in competitions.

A Multidimensional Construct of Religiosity Among Baby Boomers and Trajectories of Social Attitudes

Although a number of studies have examined relationships between religiosity and social attitudes, less is known about how these relationships change over the life course using a multidimensional construct of religiosity among Baby Boomers. A multidimensional construct of religion allowed us to take a more person-centered approach to religiosity, whereby we examine the association between Baby Boomers with different types of religiosity and the trajectories of their political and gender role attitudes over a period of transition from early to later adulthood. We selected 798 young-adult Baby Boomers from the 1971 wave (mean age: 19 years) of the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LOSG) and tracked their political and gender role attitudes through until the 2016 wave (mean age: 64 years). Using latent class analysis, we identified four latent religious typologies: strongly religious, weakly religious, liberally religious, and privately religious. We found that Baby Boomers in the strongly religious class reported the most conservative political and gender role attitudes among the four classes over this period of transition. Baby Boomers in the privately religious class were conservative in their political and gender role attitudes than those in the weakly religious class. The liberally religious group generally reported the second most conservative political attitudes among the four identified groups, but reported the least conservative gender role attitudes of the four groups. Findings suggest that early religiosity may serve as a significant predictor affecting political and gender role attitudes throughout the adult life course.

Does gamified interaction build a strong consumer-brand connection? A study of mobile applications

In recent times gamification has increasingly been used by brands through smartphones to interact effectively with their consumers. The core assumption for creating gamified environment is that it will develop engagement with the consumer and motivate them to use their product or services. However, beyond this assumption, there is dearth empirical evidence regarding how much effective these gamified features are in engaging consumers. Therefore, this research analyses the relationship between flow, brand engagement, self-brand connection and brand usage intent among consumers (N = 360)of two gamified mobile applications. The findings show that the multidimensional construct flow formed by five dimensions i.e. challenge, feedback, autonomy, immersion, and interaction positively associates with cognitive brand engagement and emotional brand engagement. Additionally, both these forms of brand engagement further strengthen consumers’ brand connection and motivate them for further use. These results imply that gamified environment can augment consumer engagement with brand and further increase usage intention. Therefore, gamification can be an effective technique in brand management and brand managers can use it to strengthen relationship with consumers and increasing possibility of using their brands.

The Quest for Signals in Noise: Leveraging Experiential Variation to Identify Bilingual Phenotypes

Increasing evidence suggests that bilingualism does not, in itself, result in a particular pattern of response, revealing instead a complex and multidimensional construct that is shaped by evolutionary and ecological sources of variability. Despite growing recognition of the need for a richer characterization of bilingual speakers and of the different contexts of language use, we understand relatively little about the boundary conditions of putative “bilingualism” effects. Here, we review recent findings that demonstrate how variability in the language experiences of bilingual speakers, and also in the ability of bilingual speakers to adapt to the distinct demands of different interactional contexts, impact interactions between language use, language processing, and cognitive control processes generally. Given these findings, our position is that systematic variation in bilingual language experience gives rise to a variety of phenotypes that have different patterns of associations across language processing and cognitive outcomes. The goal of this paper is thus to illustrate how focusing on systematic variation through the identification of bilingual phenotypes can provide crucial insights into a variety of performance patterns, in a manner that has implications for previous and future research.

Virtuous Organizational Practices: A New Construct and a New Inventory

Research on the identification of organizational practices that promote individual and organizational performance is now very extensive. However, several studies have revealed the dark side of these practices on employees’ psychological health. Consequently, researchers have called on the scientific community to focus on the well-being of workers and to identify the organizational practices that promote it. Thus, the aim of the present research was to fill this gap by introducing a new conceptualization of organizational practices supporting the psychological health of employees and proposing a new improved measure to assess them. Drawing on the American Psychological Association’s model of Psychologically healthy workplace, we first conceptualized the innovative multidimensional construct of virtuous organizational practices. We then conducted four studies (N = 1,407) to develop and validate the Virtuous Organizational Practices inventory. Results of exploratory statistical analyses provide strong evidence of the second-order factor structure of the inventory in different French samples and of the convergent, predictive and incremental validity of this tool. Implications for researchers, organizations and practitioners and avenues for future research are discussed.