Selecting items for interest inventory keys.

Several methods of scoring an interest inventory so as to maximize the separation of workers in an occupation from workers in general were applied to samples of electricians (compared with civilian workers) and aviation machinists' mates (compared with Navy men-in-general.) Criteria of a good key were (a) its ability to separate groups (per cent overlap), and (b) its test-retest reliability. It was found that (1) using unit item weights an optimum number of items can be found for scoring, (2) units weights with an optimum number of items yielded more discriminating keys than Strong scoring weights, (3) selecting items by a method designed to increase item heterogeneity, the validity of the key is increased but test-retest reliability is somewhat decreased. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Validity studies of the Strong vocational interest inventories.

The concurrent validity of the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) and the predictive validity of the SVIB were studied in an 18-yr follow-up of a university counseling center group of male college graduates. Results were compared with a previous 12-yr follow-up of the same Ss using C. McArthur's method (1954). The SCII had concurrent validity greater than the SVIB (T399) even after correction was made for a higher percentage of high standard scores on occupational scales. Predictive validity for 18 yrs was not quite as good as for 12 yrs. Although group data were similar for the predictive validity studies, classifications of individuals between studies varied substantially. A 6-yr predictive validity study for the SVIB (T399) had validity comparable to predictive studies using an earlier edition of the SVIB. Job satisfaction and satisfaction with type of work were statistically different, but resulted in no practical difference when used as a correlate with standard occupational scale score. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Profiling the differences in students' knowledge, interest, and strategic processing.

The purpose for this research was threefold: to determine whether distinct and informative student profiles would emerge from knowledge, interest, and strategy measures specific to educational psychology; to compare these profiles with prior studies; and to explore changes in student profiles across an academic semester. As a result of cluster-analytic procedures, 3 distinct groups of participants emerged at pretest, and 4 emerged at posttest. One of the profiles that remained fairly consistent from pretest to posttest was the Learning-Oriented cluster. Students fitting this profile began the semester with the highest means in interest and strategic processing and with a moderate level of domain knowledge. By the end of the semester, this cluster obtained the highest means also on the domain knowledge test. Yet, the largest cluster at posttest seemed unable or unwilling to learn from demanding exposition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-report knowledge: At the crossroads of ability, interest, and personality.

The authors describe an approach to adult intellect on the basis of content, unlike the traditional approach, which is mostly based on process. Thirty-two academic knowledge scales were rated by 202 college students, who also completed ability, vocational interest, and personality scales. Analyses of knowledge clusters and individual scales were used to evaluate commonality across ability constructs (verbal and spatial ability), vocational interests (realistic, investigative, and artistic), and personality (typical intellectual engagement and openness). The results support knowledge differentiation across fluid and crystallized abilities, show a pattern of positive correlations of arts and humanities knowledge with typical intellectual engagement and openness, and show correlations between math and physical sciences knowledge and realistic and investigative interests. Implications for the study of adult intelligence are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning styles as predictors of self-efficacy and interest in research: Implications for graduate research training.

The literature on research training in professional psychology has yet to address the role of student learning styles on training outcomes. A mail survey of graduate students (N = 132) in professional areas of psychology from 11 universities assessed four dimensions of learning styles, research interest, and research self-efficacy. Students with more active (vs. reflective) and more intuitive (vs. sensing) learning styles reported greater research self-efficacy, and students with more intuitive (vs. sensing) and more verbal (vs. visual) learning styles reported greater research interest. The authors discuss implications for improving graduate research training by encouraging student self-assessment and by providing instruction using balanced pedagogies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Program evaluation in the public interest: a new research methodology

For every social welfare or social control service program there are several parties, each with different interests: patients, clients, staff, management, and sponsors. Evaluation of such a program in the public interest must take the interests of these parties into account. To do so requires an untraditional methodology, that of a second-person, or communal, science, which is not above the conflict of parties and their interests in specifying the variables, staffing the research, balancing considerations of intrusion against those of bias, considering the action implications of the data, sequentially staging the research, or even publishing findings. This all makes evaluation in the public interest a highly political process often unlikely to be logically decisive about intervariable relationships, to yield generalizable results, or even to be completed.     

Inference-based retrospective revaluation in human causal judgments requires knowledge of within-compound relationships.

In an allergist causal-judgment task, food compounds were followed by an allergic reaction (e.g., AB+), and then 1 cue (A) was revalued. Experiment 1, in which participants who were instructed that whatever was true about one element of a causal compound was also true of the other, showed a reverse of the standard retrospective revaluation effect. That is, ratings of B were higher when A was causal (A+) than when A was safe (A-). This effect was taken to reflect inferential reasoning, not an associative mechanism. In Experiment 2, within-compound associations were found to be necessary to produce this inference-based revaluation. Therefore, evidence that within-compound associations are necessary for retrospective revaluation is consistent with the inferential account of causal judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations of ability and interest to currency of professional knowledge among engineers.

Measured ability and interests of 110 engineers at the beginning of their careers in the mid 1950s. Currency of professional knowledge was measured by technical articles and patent disclosures produced during 3 stages of the Ss' 14 yr. of work experience and by recent technical competence. Results indicate that initial ability was the stronger and more consistent predictor of professional currency during the career. Interest played a more limited, independent role but appeared important in reinforcing ability for the attainment of currency via the most difficult, professional activities later in Ss' careers. (19 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confidence intervals for the receiver operating characteristic area in studies with small samples

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The authors performed this study to address two practical questions. First, how large does the sample size need to be for confidence intervals (CIs) based on the usual asymptotic methods to be appropriate? Second, when the sample size is smaller than this threshold, what alternative method of CI construction should be used? MATERIALS AND METHODS: The authors performed a Monte Carlo simulation study where 95% CIs were constructed for the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) area and for the difference between two ROC areas for rating and continuous test results--for ROC areas of moderate and high accuracy--by using both parametric and nonparametric estimation methods. Alternative methods evaluated included several bootstrap CIs and CIs with the Student t distribution. RESULTS: For the difference between two ROC areas, CIs based on the asymptotic theory provided adequate coverage even when the sample size was very small (20 patients). In contrast, for a single ROC area, the asymptotic methods do not provide adequate CI coverage for small samples; for ROC areas of high accuracy, the sample size must be large (more than 200 patients) for the asymptotic methods to be applicable. The recommended alternative (bootstrap percentile, bootstrap t, or bootstrap bias-corrected accelerated method) depends on the estimation approach, format of the test results, and ROC area. CONCLUSION: Currently, there is not a single best alternative for constructing CIs for a single ROC area for small samples.     

Confusion and interest: The role of knowledge emotions in aesthetic experience.

What makes something confusing? Confusion is a common response to challenging, abstract, and complex works, but it has received little attention in psychology. On the basis of appraisal theories of emotion, I suggest that confusion and interest have different positions in a 2-dimensional appraisal space: Interesting things stem from appraisals of high novelty and high comprehensibility, and confusing things stem from appraisals of high novelty and low comprehensibility. Two studies—a multilevel correlational study and an experiment that manipulated comprehensibility—found support for this appraisal model. Confusion and interest are thus close relatives in the family of knowledge emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A model agreement for genetic research in socially identifiable populations

Genetic research increasingly focuses on population-specific human genetic diversity. However, the naming of a human population in public databases and scientific publications entails collective risks for its members. Those collective risks can be evaluated and protections can be put in place by the establishment of a dialogue with the subject population, before a research study is initiated. Here we describe an agreement to undertake genetic research with a Native American tribe. We identified the culturally appropriate public and private social units within which community members are accustomed to make decisions about health. We then engaged those units in a process of communal discourse. In their discourses about our proposed study, community members expressed most concern about culturally specific implications. We also found that, in this population, private social units were more influential in communal decision making than were public authorities. An agreement was reached that defined the scope of research, provided options for naming the population in publications (including anonymity), and addressed the distribution of royalties from intellectual property, the future use of archival samples, and specific cultural concerns. We found that informed consent by individuals could not fully address these collective issues. This approach may serve as a general model for the undertaking of population-specific genetic studies.     

Impact of the research training environment and counseling psychology students' Holland personality type on interest in research.

We surveyed 358 counseling psychology students in 10 APA-accredited programs with regard to change in research interest and (a) research training environment, (b) J. L. Holland (1978) personality type, and (c) environment-personality interactions. Investigative and Investigative-Artistic students had the highest interest in research. Enterprising interests were related to lower levels of research interest and delay in completing training. Programs identified in a previous study as having the greatest positive impact on research interest were found in the current study to also select students with more Investigative interests. Environment, person (Holland type), and some person–environment interactions were all predictive of increased research interest, but person variables were the strongest predictors. The most impactful specific environment factors may depend on the Holland personality type of the student. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Child development research and the Third World: A future of mutual interest?

Reviews the types of child development research that have been pursued in the Third World and relates such research to programming initiatives undertaken in the Third World by international agencies and national governments. Some research areas of current interest include fertility and infant mortality, nutrition and health, and schooling and literacy. It is suggested that although significant research has been undertaken, Euro-American paradigmatic limitations have prevented policymakers from applying the knowledge gained to child development programs in the Third World. It is concluded that greater attention needs to be paid to the lack of coordination between policy needs and academic research interests, that American training programs in child development need to consider global applications as a relevant area of study for graduate students, and that the paradigms and scope of traditional cross-cultural research need to be enlarged. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counseling psychology students' interest in research: Examining the contribution of achievement goals.

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive utility of achievement goal theory relative to the outcome of interest in research. The sample consisted of 114 doctoral students in counseling psychology. Results indicated that achievement goals accounted for 24% of the variance in interest in research over and above demographic and social-cognitive/contextual variables. Mastery approach and performance avoidance goals were shown to be significant positive and negative predictors of interest in research, respectively. In addition, age, year in program, and research outcome expectations were found to be significantly associated with interest in research. Implications for research training are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gifted and talented children: State of knowledge and directions for research.

Examines multiple conceptualizations of giftedness and influences on its expression within a sociocultural context. Two approaches to educating the gifted are described: an enrichment and an acceleration model. It is noted that evaluation of these approaches and information on how best to nurture talent remains insufficient to inform policymakers. Similarly, knowledge about the developmental course of giftedness and how such behavior is nurtured and sustained remains sparse and should be a high-priority research area. A research agenda is outlined that focuses both on understanding intellectual, social, and personality processes in the gifted over the life span and on evaluating and developing appropriate educational programs. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)