Psychometric Evidence of the Short Almost Perfect Scale (SAPS) in Brazil

Perfectionism can be understood as a personality trait that establishes excessively high standards for the performance of individuals and ostensibly critical self-evaluations. It is associated with a range of variables, such as anxiety, suicidal tendencies, depression, and low satisfaction with life. The Short Almost Perfect Scale (SAPS) overcame some limitations of previous measures (e.g., ambiguity, nonnecessary factors). In the present research, we provide psychometric evidence of the adequacy of the SAPS in Brazil. The original two-factor structure was replicated. The items showed good discrimination, level of difficulty, and informativeness for the overall measure. The SAPS also presented acceptable reliability levels, full measurement invariance across participants’ gender, and partial invariance across countries (Brazil and the United States). Finally, perfectionism was meaningfully associated with personality traits and human values. In sum, our findings suggest that the SAPS is psychometrically adequate for further use in Brazil.

Factors Associated With Effective Implementation of Psychological Health Interventions in the Construction Industry

The staggering social and economic costs associated with psychological ill-being conditions among workers require efforts to mitigate its causes and effects through evidence-based psychological health interventions. However, such interventions in the workplace are not without challenges and obstacles. The purpose of the study is to identify influential factors associated with effective implementation of psychological health interventions in the construction industry. This study adopted the mixed-methods approach employing in sequence the methods of qualitative and quantitative research to achieve the aim of the study. A total of 53 interviews and 264 questionnaire surveys were conducted in Ghana with construction professionals, construction trade workers, regulatory personnel, and occupational health psychologist. The qualitative study revealed 18 influential factors associated with the implementation of psychological health interventions. These findings were confirmed by the quantitative survey to be statistically significant. A comparative analysis of the responses from the three groups of respondents showed some statistically significant differences in the ratings of the influential factors, which may be due to the group’s interest and diversity. The highly influential factors revealed in the quantitative study included willingness of employees to cooperate with the intervention procedures, perceptions on the benefits of the psychological health interventions, impact of stigmatization and discrimination, level of awareness on indicators of psychological health conditions, cost of implementing the intervention and extent of management commitment and support. This study offers valuable information for construction stakeholders and policymakers on factors to consider for successful psychological health management and interventions in the construction industry

Analysis of the Generation of Vibration Signals under Uniaxial Loading of Materials Using the Coherent Properties of Laser Radiation

The present article describes the results of theoretical and experimental investigations of the force response of materials to external tensile stresses. The method used is based on remote precision measurements of the amplitudes of the harmonics of vibration signals and synchronous fixation of deformations under load. It was determined that the shape of the propagating acoustic signal depends not only on the bias time, but also on the frequency. In addition, fixation of the moments of occurrence of the vibrational signals and determination of the number of excesses in the amplitudes of harmonics over the discrimination level allows structural models to be studied in order to diagnose the strength properties of materials under dynamic loading of solids. The experimental setup consisted of a P100 Labtest-2 tearing machine providing a loading speed of 6.22 mm/min, a Polytech PSV–400 vibrometer including lasers, and a computer. Measurements were made at frequencies of 0.4, 1.6, and 40 kHz. An analysis of the mathematical models of the occurrence and propagation of acoustic signals in a material under load is presented, and the features of their application are reported. Transferring the moments of occurrence of vibrational signals to a strain diagram from the applied load allows the development of physical processes of hardening and destruction of materials to be traced. The occurrence of vibrational signals under load can be used as an information parameter for the diagnosis of developing defects in the structure of materials under load.

Time-Frequency Analysis of Barkhausen Noise for the Needs of Anisotropy Evaluation of Grain-Oriented Steels

The paper presents a new approach to obtain information on magnetic anisotropy in Si–Fe grain oriented ferromagnetic steel based on the observation of the magnetic Barkhausen noise (MBN). Until now, in the literature one can only notice the MBN study of magnetic anisotropy in steels carried out in a single time or frequency domain. However, due to the observed high variability of the dynamics of the MBN phenomenon over its occurrence period, depending on the steel properties, the idea of utilization of combined time and frequency representations to obtain new or supplementary information arises. For this purpose, the MBN phenomenon was observed in various directions for steels with oriented magnetic properties. Then, using the short-time Fourier transform, time-frequency (TF) distributions were determined and features vectors enabling the quantification of crucial information were determined. Before performing the final experiments, a series of tests were carried out for different measuring conditions. As a result, it was possible to adjust the conditions enabling us to obtain the highest possible sensitivity for MBN and discrimination level between directional properties in the material. Then, an algorithm of detailed analysis and division of the TF representation into subranges was proposed, enabling the extraction of more detailed information about the phenomena occurring during the magnetization process. This allowed us to clearly indicate and then separate three areas of MBN main activity. Finally, the obtained angular distributions of selected features were presented and discussed, and further conclusions were given.

Age Discrimination in Hiring: An Experimental Study

This article presents the findings of the first field experiment — a resume correspondence study — on age discrimination in the Russian labor market. Correspondence studies are nowadays viewed as the most objective way to test for hiring discrimination. This method consists of sending pairs of CVs for job offers, very similar in everything except the trait to be analyzed (age in our case). Data collection for the presented study was conducted in February—March 2018. Pairs of matched applications, one from a fictitious 29-year-old female applicant and one from afictitious 48-year-old female applicant, were sent to 341 employers with job openings for accountants in Moscow, posted on one of the most popular job search websites. It turned out that the probability of receiving an invitation for an interview for an older candidate is 24–32%, whereas for a younger candidate it is 45–52%. Thus, the positive callback ratio is 1.8–2.5. The indicator of “net discrimination”, calculated as the difference in the shares of positive callbacks in the number of vacancies for which at least one response has been received, is 37–49% for the younger and older candidates. Compared with the results of the existing studies, it turns out that the obtained discrimination level is quite high. Taking into account the population aging, a reduction in the workforce and an increase in the official retirement age, measures must be taken to combat age discrimination and allow older people to work on an equal basis with young people.

Preservice Science Teachers' Discrimination Level of Science and Pseudoscience

This quantitative study aimed to examine Turkish pre-service science teachers’ beliefs regarding the demarcating between science and pseudoscience. Participants completed the Science and Pseudoscience Distinction Scale. Data collected from the 123 pre-service science teachers were examined based on the dimensions of the instrument, namely science as a process of inquiry (SCI), demarcating between science and pseudoscience, and pseudoscientific beliefs (PS). This study found that these pre-service science teachers generally did not hold strong beliefs on distinguishing science and pseudoscience. Their beliefs regarding SCI were not highly favorable. Moreover, this study revealed that they had some PS. Considering the role of gender and year in the program, the results of two-way MANOVA indicated that there was no statistically significant difference on the related belief constructs for these pre-service science teachers. Thus, the present study intended to shed light on pre-service science teachers’ mindsets about identifying accurate scientific information rather than pseudoscientific confusions that could aid preparing scientifically literate students. It was shown that their teacher education program did not facilitate favorable beliefs. This study highlights some potential areas for further exploration of addressing pre-service science teachers’ discrimination skills of science and pseudoscience.