Validation of the Job Crafting Scale in Latin American Workers

In this study, the psychometric properties of the Spanish version (Bakker et al., 2018) of the Job Crafting scale of Tims et al. (2012), was analyzed in a Latin American population. We applied the scale to a sample of 903 employees (42.6% women & 57.4% men) from Colombia and Ecuador. Reliability and validity were examined. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed an adequate fit both in Colombia (CFI = .916, TLI = .900, IFI = .917, RMSEA = .060) and in Ecuador (CFI = .918, TLI = .903, IFI = .919, RMSEA = .064), in the four-factor structure of the original scale. Evidence of validation, related to criterion for psychological well-being for the dimensions of increasing structural resources and increasing challenging demands, was found. The Spanish version of the scale demonstrates its usefulness for research in the Latin American context. En este estudio, se analizaron las propiedades psicométricas de la versión en español (Bakker et al., 2018) de la escala Job Crafting de Tims et al. (2012) en población latinoamericana. Aplicamos la escala a una muestra de 903 empleados (42.6% mujeres y 57.4% hombres) de Colombia y Ecuador. Se examinaron la fiabilidad y la validez. Los resultados del análisis factorial confirmatorio mostraron un ajuste adecuado tanto en Colombia (CFI = .916, TLI = .900, IFI = .917, RMSEA = .060) como en Ecuador (CFI = .918, TLI = .903, IFI = .919, RMSEA = .064), en la estructura de cuatro factores de la escala original. Se encontró evidencia de validación, relacionada con el criterio de bienestar psicológico, para las dimensiones de recursos estructurales crecientes y demandas desafiantes crecientes. La versión en español de la escala demuestra su utilidad para la investigación en el contexto latinoamericano.

VR Realism Scale—Revalidation of contemporary VR headsets on a Polish sample

This paper presents validation of the VR Simulation Realism Scale on a Polish sample. The scale enables a self-report measurement of perceived realism of a virtual environment in four main aspects of such realism–scene realism, audience behavior realism, audience appearance realism and sound realism. However, since the development of the original scale, the VR technology significantly changed. We aimed to respond to that change and revalidate the original measure in the contemporary setting. For the purpose of scale validation, data was gathered from six studies with 720 participants in total. Five experiments and one online survey were conducted to examine psychometric properties of the scale in accordance with the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Evidence based on internal structure, relations to other variables and test content was obtained. The factorial structure of the original scale was tested and confirmed. The connections between realism and immersion, presence, aesthetics were verified. A suppressed relationship between realism and positive affect was discovered. Moreover, it was confirmed that scale result is dependent on the quality of VR graphics. Results of the analyses provide the evidence that the VR Simulation Realism Scale is a well-established tool that might be used both in science and in VR development. However, further research needs to be done to increase external validity and predictive power of the scale.

Dimensionality and homogeneity of the Colombian version of the Cocaine Craving Questionnaire (CCQ-N-10)

Background and aimIt is essential to have a validated instrument to measure craving for cocaine use. However, in Colombia, there is no instrument to screen cocaine craving. The study aimed to determine the homogeneity and dimensionality of the CCQ-N-10 in patients with cocaine use disorder in Colombia.Materials and methodsAn adaptation and subsequent analysis of the psychometric properties of the CCQ-N-10 scale was carried out with 102 hospitalized or outpatient adults diagnosed with substance use disorders in addiction units in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Internal consistency and construct validity were estimated by confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis with scales with similar objectives.ResultsAn omega coefficient of 0.93 was obtained, and adjustment indicators of the confirmatory model were acceptable (RMSEA of 0.08, CFI and TLI of 0.99) when two of the original scale items were removed from the original scale analysis.ConclusionsThis study shows that the craving scale reduced to eight items can be helpful to assess the construct in the Colombian population; However, the small sample size makes it challenging to carry out other analyzes to corroborate its psychometric properties.

Psychometric Features of the Turkish Version of the Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System-Short Form for Patients with Cancer

Background and PurposeThe Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System-Short Form (CARES-SF) is one of the first self-report measurement tools that addresses problems and rehabilitation needs of patients with cancer. This study aimed to examine the validity and reliability of the CARES-SF for Turkish-speaking patients with cancer.MethodsThe Turkish version of the CARES-SF was administered to 300 patients with colorectal, lung, or breast cancer.ResultsWhile the first six factors of the Turkish CARES-SF covered the same spectrum as the original scale’s subscales, the present study suggests dividing the original psychosocial factors into two subscales: psychological and social (relatives and friends).ConclusionsThis preliminary inquiry on the Turkish CARES-SF confirmed the validity and reliability of the original scale except for the shifting of a few items between subsections.

Adaptation and validation into Spanish of the Workplace Dignity Scale

Introduction and objective: Workers contend with many threats while performing their daily routine that could undermine their dignity, such as denigrating comments from supervisors or co-workers. Denying workers’ dignity constitutes a direct threat towards their well-being. The aim of this paper is to adapt and validate the Spanish version of the Workplace Dignity Scale (WDS). Method: An instrumental design was executed in order to adapt the scale to Spanish with a Mexican population (N = 588). Following back-translation, three studies were conducted in which confirmatory factor analysis, correlations, regressions, and invariance analysis were applied. Results: The results showed that the Spanish adaptation conforms to the six-factor structure of the original scale and that organisational dehumanisation and workers’ self-objectification predicted dignity at work; with workers’ self-objectification being the variable that most strongly predicted workers’ dignity. Finally, we also evaluated measurement invariance comparing our data with the results of the original scale. In general, results indicated that even when the Spanish version of the WDS presented an adequate factor structure, its measurement presented different factor loadings and slopes compared with the measurement of the original scale. Conclusions: In general, we have an instrument adapted to the Mexican context that allows us to evaluate workers’ sense of dignity in the workplace.

A Study of Multi-Scale Relationship Between Investor Sentiment and Stock Index Fluctuation Based on the Analysis of BEMD Spillover Index

According to behavioral finance theory, investor sentiment generally exists in investors’ trading activities and influences financial market. In order to investigate the interaction between investor sentiment and stock market as well as financial industry, this study decomposed investor sentiment, stock price index and SWS index of financial industry into IMF components at different scales by using BEMD algorithm. Moreover, the fluctuation characteristics of time series at different time scales were extracted, and the IMF components were reconstructed into short-term high-frequency components, medium-term important event low-frequency components and long-term trend components. The short-term interaction between investor sentiment and Shanghai Composite Index, Shenzhen Component Index and financial industries represented by SWS index was investigated based on the spillover index. The time difference correlation coefficient was employed to determine the medium-term and long-term correlation among variables. Results demonstrate that investor sentiment has a strong correlation with Shanghai Composite Index, Shenzhen Component Index and different financial industries represented by SWS index at the original scale, and the change of investor sentiment is mainly influenced by external market information. The interaction between most markets at the short-term scale is weaker than that at the original scale. Investor sentiment is more significantly correlated with SWS Bond, SWS Diversified Finance and Shanghai Composite Index at the long-term scale than that at the medium-term scale.

Pooling and Comparing Noise Annoyance Scores and “High Annoyance” (HA) Responses on the 5-Point and 11-Point Scales: Principles and Practical Advice

The use of different noise annoyance scales across studies and socio-acoustic surveys, in particular the popular 5-point verbal and 11-point numerical scales, has made the evaluation, comparison, and pooling of noise annoyance responses among studies a taxing issue. This is particularly the case when “high annoyance” (HA) responses need to be compared and when the original studies used different scales; thus, there are different so-called cutoff points that define the part of the scale that indicates the HA status. This paper provides practical guidance on pooling and comparing the respective annoyance data in both the linear and logistic regression context in a statistically adequate manner. It caters to researchers who want to carry out pooled analyses on annoyance data that have been collected on different scales or need to compare exposure–HA relationships between the 5-point and 11-point scales. The necessary simulation of a cutoff point non-native to an original scale can be achieved with a random assignment approach, which is exemplified in the paper using original response data from a range of recent noise annoyance surveys. A code example in the R language is provided for easy implementation of the pertinent procedures with one’s own survey data. Lastly, the not insignificant limitations of combining and/or comparing responses from different noise annoyance scales are discussed.

An empirical assessment of influenza intensity thresholds obtained from the moving epidemic and WHO methods

The moving epidemic method (MEM) and the WHO method are widely used to determine intensity levels for seasonal influenza. The two approaches are conceptually similar, but differ in two aspects. Firstly, the MEM involves a log transformation of incidence data, while the WHO method operates on the original scale. Secondly, the MEM uses more than one observation from each past season to compute intensity thresholds, fixing the total number to include. The WHO method uses only the highest value from each season. To assess the impact of these choices on thresholds we perform simulation studies which are based on re-sampling of ILI data from France, Spain, Switzerland and the US. When no transformation is applied, a rather large proportion of season peaks are classified as high or very high intensity. This can be mitigated by a logarithmic transformation. When fixing the total number of included past observations, thresholds increase the more seasons are available. When only few are available, there is a high chance of classifying new season peaks as high or very high intensity. We therefore suggest using one observation per season and a log transformation, i.e. a hybrid of the default settings of the MEM and WHO methods.

A Validation Study of the Work Need Satisfaction Scale for Korean Working Adults

This study aimed to verify the reliability and validity of the Korean version of the Work Need Satisfaction Scale for working adults, based on the psychology of working theory. A total of 589 working adults in Korea responded to the online survey. Of these respondents, 339 were used for exploratory factor analysis and 250 for confirmatory factor analysis. In Stage 1, we translated all items into Korean, back-translated them into English, and then verified the accuracy of the translation. Exploratory factor analysis revealed the 5-factor structure of the Korean version of the Work Need Satisfaction Scale reflecting those of the original scale (survival needs, social contribution needs, autonomy, relatedness, and competence). The scale showed good internal consistency. In Stage 2, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, and the results indicated that there were no significant differences between a correlational model, a higher-order model, and a higher-order self-determination needs model. Thus, we offered a higher-order self-determination needs model, which had better model fit and was consistent with the original scale and the psychology of working theoretical framework. In addition, convergent and discriminant validity were supported by correlation estimates of the Korean version of the Work Need Satisfaction Scale, and the concurrent validity showed that the Korean version of the Work Need Satisfaction Scale had a significant proportion of explained variance for outcomes. The findings support the conclusion that this study established strong internal consistency and validity for the Korean version of the Work Need Satisfaction Scale. Thus, the scale is unique and meaningful for measuring need satisfaction in work settings in Korea.

Scaling of Droplet Breakup in High-Pressure Homogenizer Orifices. Part II: Visualization of the Turbulent Droplet Breakup

Emulsion formation is of great interest in the chemical and food industry and droplet breakup is the key process. Droplet breakup in a quiet or laminar flow is well understood, however, actual industrial processes are always in the turbulent flow regime, leading to more complex droplet breakup phenomena. Since high resolution optical measurements on microscopic scales are extremely difficult to perform, many aspects of the turbulent droplet breakup are physically unclear. To overcome this problem, scaled experimental setups (with scaling factors of 5 and 50) are used in conjunction with an original scale setup for reference. In addition to the geometric scaling, other non-dimensional numbers such as the Reynolds number, the viscosity ratio and the density ratio were kept constant. The scaling allows observation of the phenomena on macroscopic scales, whereby the objective is to show that the scaling approach makes it possible to directly transfer the findings from the macro- to the micro-/original scale. In this paper, which follows Part I where the flow fields were compared and found to be similar, it is shown by breakup visualizations that the turbulent droplet breakup process is similar on all scales. This makes it possible to transfer the results of detailed parameter variations investigated on the macro scale to the micro scale. The evaluation and analysis of the results imply that the droplet breakup is triggered and strongly influenced by the intensity and scales of the turbulent flow motion.