Designing, Testing, and Interpreting Interactions and Moderator Effects in Family Research.

This article is a primer on issues in designing, testing, and interpreting interaction or moderator effects in research on family psychology. The first section focuses on procedures for testing and interpreting simple effects and interactions, as well as common errors in testing moderators (e.g., testing differences among subgroup correlations, omitting components of products, and using median splits). The second section, devoted to difficulties in detecting interactions, covers such topics as statistical power, measurement error, distribution of variables, and mathematical constraints of ordinal interactions. The third section, devoted to design issues, focuses on recommendations such as including reliable measures, enhancing statistical power, and oversampling extreme scores. The topics covered should aid understanding of existing moderator research as well as improve future research on interaction effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prognostic patterns in self-report, relative report, and professional evaluation measures for hospitalized and day-care patients.

Investigated differences between patients who relapse and those who do not in both hospital and day-care settings. Ss were 142 adult psychiatric patients. Hospital and day-care groups were matched on a variety of demographic, social, and clinical variables. Three groups of measures were used: one based on professional evaluation (e.g., Inpatient Multidimensional Psychiatric Scale), one based on self-report (e.g., Katz Adjustment Scales), and one based on relative report (e.g., MMPI). No differences were found between hospital and day-care centers in proportion of patients relapsed. Of the 3 groups of measures, those based on professional evaluation were least able to distinguish relapsed from nonrelapsed patients. On self-report and relative report measures, the scores of patients who relapsed following day-care treatment resembled those of patients who succeeded following hospital treatment and vice-versa. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of self-efficacy-enhancing interventions on the math/science self-efficacy and career interests, goals, and actions of career undecided college students.

This investigation evaluated the effects of both performance accomplishment and vicarious learning experiences on the math/science self-efficacy and career interests, goals (i.e., aspirations), and actions (i.e., choice of major and enrollment in courses) of career undecided college students. Undergraduates who possessed at least a moderate level of math ability and who self-reported at least a moderate level of career undecidedness were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatment conditions: performance accomplishment only, vicarious learning only, combined treatment (performance accomplishment and vicarious learning), or the control group. Pre- and posttreatment assessments of participants' math/science self-efficacy, vocational interests, career aspirations, and career choice actions (i.e., choice of major and courses) revealed significant effects of the performance accomplishment and combined treatments on several of the dependent variables. Theoretical and counseling implications of the results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adaptation fran?aise de "l'Inventaire de risque et d'activation" (IRA).

The aim of this article is to validate in French Taylor and Hamilton's questionnaire "Risk and Excitement Inventory" (REI) which measures "escape" and "compensation." "Escapists" would take risks (e.g., drug use) to escape their self-awareness, whereas "compensatory types" would seek sensations in other risky activities (e.g., high risk sports) to enhance and build up their personality. Analyses show that the French validation has good construct validity: the factorial structure and internal consistency are good. Temporal stability and correlational analyses with other measures confirm the validity of the French questionnaire. Correlations were found between the escape scale and emotional problems (anxiety, neuroticism and impulsivity). These correlations will be discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evoked cortical potentials and measurement of human abilities.

Studied visual averaged evoked potentials (AEPs) recorded from the frontoparietal scalp of 108 16-68 yr. old Ss. Ss also completed a battery of 16 ability measures. A consistent pattern of reliable correlations of the order of from -.15 to -.32 was found between intelligence and AEPs. Measures of fluid and crystallized intelligence correlated to about the same magnitude with AEPs. There were significant correlations between measures representing simple cognitive processes (e.g., motor-perceptual speed) and evoked potential latency. The average size of ability-latency correlations as well as the number of significant correlations increased as conditions of evoked potential testing which tend to impose alertness on Ss were relaxed. (34 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contextual supports and barriers to career choice: A social cognitive analysis.

Social cognitive career theory (SCCT; R. W. Lent, S. D. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1994) emphasizes cognitive-person variables that enable people to influence their own career development, as well as extra-person (e.g., contextual) variables that enhance or constrain personal agency. Although the theory has yielded a steady stream of inquiry and practical applications, relatively little of this work has examined SCCT's contextual variables or hypotheses. In this article, several avenues for stimulating study of the contextual aspects of career behavior are considered. In particular, the authors (a) examine "career barriers," a conceptually relevant construct, from the perspective of SCCT; (b) advocate study of contextual supports as well as barriers; and (c) propose additional context-focused research and practice directions derived from SCCT. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Heuristics and biases in the "eyeballing" of data: the effects of context on intuitive correlation assessment

For a wide variety of real-world decisions, people must examine numerical tables and intuitively assess the correlations that exist among meaningful variables. The normative properties of correlation coefficients suggest that such decisions should be unaffected by perceptual factors (e.g., changes in row and column locations), semantic factors (e.g., the referents of the numbers), or certain transformations of the variables (e.g., adding a constant or multiplying by a constant). Four experiments demonstrated that judgments based on perceived correlations violate these normative properties. A general model of intuitive covariation assessment was proposed to explain the observed biases. Estimation of this model at the aggregate and individual levels suggested that no single heuristic is consistent with all of the results. Instead, the existence of several qualitatively different types of heuristics was supported. The distribution of individual-level decision rules across types of heuristics was systematically related to contextual factors.     

Relationships of age and seniority with career variables of engineers and scientists.

Studied changing career experiences of professional engineers and scientists in 1967 (n = 290) and 1969 (n = 90). Both age and seniority were related to (a) amount of various needs, (b) aspirations for needs, (c) importance of needs, (d) satisfaction with needs, (e) self-image, (f) organizational climate, (g) job challenge, (h) job involvement, (i) intrinsic motivation, (j) perceived performance, and (k) perceived effort. Ss completed objective measures of these variables, including the Porter Need Satisfaction Questionnaire. On the basis of these correlations, 1-way analyses of variance between each variable and the different age groups, and rank orders for different age groups, it is concluded that career stages (early, middle, and late) did exist with different variables characterizing different stages. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship of trainee self-efficacy to the process and outcome of career counseling.

This investigation examined the role of counselor trainees' self-efficacy on measures of career counseling process, "small o" outcome, and outcome with actual clients. Twenty-four counselor trainees saw 55 clients in 3 to 12 individual sessions. Results indicated that (a) career counseling self-efficacy increased by a standard deviation from prepracticum to postpracticum; (b) client scores significantly improved from pretest to posttest across multiple career outcome measures; (c) clients' working alliance, goal attainment, and decidedness indicated significant growth; (d) the significant growth on the process variable and small o outcome variables did not appear to be related to career counseling self-efficacy; and (e) career counseling self-efficacy apparently related to certain career counseling outcome measures in a manner suggesting much greater complexity than the "more self-efficacy is better" philosophy would imply. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cornucopia of correlations.

A table provides a compilation of miscellaneous correlations representing relationships in the real world. Included are correlations between IQ and school achievement, school achievement and other variables (e.g., motivation, self-concept, memory), and maternal and child behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Posttraumatic stress disorder in a national sample of female and male Vietnam veterans: Risk factors, war-zone stressors, and resilience-recovery variables.

Relationships among pretrauma risk factors (e.g., family instability, childhood antisocial behavior), war-zone stressors (e.g., combat, perceived threat), posttrauma resilience-recovery variables (e.g., hardiness, social support), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity were examined. Data from a national sample of 432 female and 1,200 male veterans were analyzed using structural equation modeling. For both genders, direct links to PTSD from pretrauma, war-zone, and posttrauma variable categories were found; several direct associations between pretrauma and posttrauma variables were documented. Although war-zone stressors appeared preeminent for PTSD in men, posttrauma resilience-recovery variables were more salient for women. Researchers, policymakers, and clinicians are urged to take a broad view on trauma and its sequelae, especially regarding possible multiple exposures over time and the depletion and availability of important resources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Authoritarianism, alienation, and related variables: A correlational and factor-analytic study.

Used correlational and factor analysis to investigate the interrelationships among 14 measures of alienation (e.g., Dean's powerlessness, normlessness, and social isolation scales), anomia, (e.g., Sroles's anomia scale), authoritarianism (e.g., the Fascism Scale), status concern (e.g., a 10-item scale developed by W. C. Kaufman, 1975), and the tendency to discriminate (e.g., an 11-item scale developed by the current author, 1971). Data were obtained from 436 university students. Results of the correlational analysis offer general support for the hypotheses that the alienation measures would be moderately interrelated, that authoritarianism would be weakly related to alienation but strongly related to tendency to discriminate, and that status concern would be related to both authoritarianism and the tendency to discriminate but insignificantly related to the alienation scales. Factor analysis revealed 10 dimensions underlying the 14 scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measures of psychological masculinity and femininity: A comment on Gaddy, Glass, and Arnkoff.

C. D. Gaddy et al (see record 1983-30152-001) studied the relationship between women's sex-role identity and career decisions. The ANDRO scales of the Personality Research Form were used to assess sex-role identity. This use of measures of psychological masculinity and femininity, which is not uncommon, is questioned by the present author in view of recent advances in the field. Basically, the assumption that scales labeled "masculine" and "feminine" are reliable and valid measures of sex roles, sex-role identity, sex-role orientation, or sex-role beliefs and behavior is viewed as untenable. Researchers are urged to consider extant measures of masculinity and femininity as assessing the socially desirable personality traits of instrumentality (self-assertion) and expressiveness (nurturance/interpersonal concern), respectively. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Naturalistic social cognition: Methodology, assessment, and validation.

Developed the expanded dyadic interaction paradigm, a research paradigm for the study of naturalistic social cognition, and examined whether the paradigm can be used to obtain reliable and valid measures of the actual thoughts and feelings that individuals experience in unstructured dyadic interactions. The paradigm's utility in empirically revealing the ways in which social behavior and social cognition are related in unstructured, dyadic interactions was also assessed. Data from 31 female and 29 male undergraduates provide evidence for the interrater reliability and the construct validity (i.e., face and content validity, concurrent validity, divergent and convergent validity) of the thought and feeling measures obtained by this procedure. The degree of Ss' behavioral involvement in their interactions was related to a number of thought–feeling indices (e.g., total number of entries, percentage of positive partner entries), and its relations with the percentages of positive, neutral, and negative entries were further moderated by internal correspondence and private self-consciousness. Some parallels in the behavioral and thought–feeling correlates of gender were noted (e.g., females' affective tone of their thoughts and feelings was more positive and less negative than that of males). (72 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attrition behavior before career development workshops.

Examined differences between 130 persons (mean age 31.6 yrs) who attended career workshops and 56 persons (mean age 27.0 yrs) who registered but did not attend. Nonattenders were interviewed after workshops, and reasons expressed for nonattendance were clustered into 3 categories: 45% had forgotten or felt discouraged; 38% gave environmental reasons (e.g., scheduling and transportation problems); and 17% indicated that they had already met their goals. These 3 attrition groups were each compared with the group who attended workshops on a series of variables obtained at the time of registration, which included the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory and checklists on values and abilities. The forgot/discouraged group had lower self-esteem and participated in fewer information-seeking activities. Ss in the environmental-barriers group were similar to Ss who attended on all measures except career decidedness; the environmental-barriers group was more decided. Nonattenders who indicated they had met their goals had higher ratings of career decidedness, more information-seeking behaviors, greater self-esteem, and higher academic orientation. Results support the notion that reasons for nonattendance at career workshops vary, requiring different interventions to increase attendance. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

If you feel bad, it's unfair: A quantitative synthesis of affect and organizational justice perceptions.

Whereas research interest in both individual affect/temperament and organizational justice has grown substantially in recent years, affect's role in the perception of organizational justice has received scant attention. Here, the authors integrate these literatures and test bivariate relationships between state affect (e.g., moods), trait affect (e.g., affectivity), and organizational justice variables using meta-analytically aggregated effect sizes. Results indicated that state and trait positive and negative affect exhibit statistically significant relationships with perceptions of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice in the predicted directions, with mean population-level correlations ranging in absolute magnitude from Mρ? = .09 to Mρ? = .43. Correlations involving state affect generally were larger but not significantly different from those involving trait affect. Finally, the authors propose ideas for investigations at the primary-study level. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Biases of Success Rate Differences Shown in Binomial Effect Size Displays.

The intent of a binomial effect size display (BESD) is to show "the [real-world] importance of [an] effect indexed by a correlation [r]" (R. Rosenthal, 1994, p. 242) by reexpressing this correlation as a success rate difference (SRD) (e.g., treatment group success rate - control group success rate). However, SRDs displayed in BESDs generally overestimate real-world SRDs implied by correlations of (a) dichotomous X and Y variables (φ coefficients), (b) dichotomous X and continuous Y variables (point-biserial coefficients [rphs]). and (c) continuous X and Y variables (rxys). Furthermore, overestimation biases are larger for rxys than for rphs. Differences in the sizes of biases linked to different correlations suggest that BESD SRDs reported for different correlations are not comparable. The stochastic difference index (N. Cliff, 1993: A. Vargha & H. D. Delaney, 2000) is recommended as an alternative to the BESD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Career Benefits Associated With Mentoring for Proteges: A Meta-Analysis.

Meta-analysis was used to review and synthesize existing empirical research concerning the career benefits associated with mentoring for the protege. Both objective (e.g., compensation) and subjective (e.g., career satisfaction) career outcomes were examined. Comparisons of mentored versus nonmemored groups were included, along with relationships between mentoring provided and outcomes. The findings were generally supportive of the benefits associated with mentoring, but effect sizes associated with objective outcomes were small. There was also some indication that the outcomes studied differed in the magnitude of their relationship with the type of mentoring provided (i.e.. career or psychosocial). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial identity, racial attitudes, and race socialization among Black Canadian parents.

The primary aim of this study was to examine the influence of racial identity on the socialization strategies used by Black parents to deal with issues of racism and discrimination. The Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity (MMRI) was used to capture the complexity of Black identity and to provide a framework for the study of the socialization process. Ninety-one Black Canadian parents responded to measures of racial identity (e.g., identity centrality, racial ideologies), racial appraisals (e.g., concern for stereotyping), and socialization practices (e.g., preparation for bias). Racial identity measures were hypothesised to predict racial appraisals and socialization behaviours, while racial appraisals were expected to predict socialization behaviours. Furthermore, racial salience was expected to moderate the relationship between racial ideologies (e.g., nationalist ideology) and socialization behaviours. Although this latter hypothesis was not supported, the Sellers model did provide a useful theoretical framework for understanding the socialization practices of Black Canadian parents. Parents were more likely to socialize their children when they endorsed a humanist ideology and when they perceived their children as being likely targets of stereotyping and discrimination. These findings underscore the need for multidimensional measures of identity to obtain a more complete picture of the socialization process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)