Competency assessment models.

This article describes characteristics of alternative assessment models deployed in the measurement of professional competencies across the professional life span based on the work of the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Assessment of Competence in Professional Psychology. Assessments of knowledge, decision making, performance and personal attributes, as well as integrated practice-based skills and tasks are described and compared on the basis of their validity, feasibility and practicality, fidelity, and relevance at difference stages of professional development. It is acknowledged that no single assessment can evaluate all competencies and that assessments can be combined in complementary ways. Assessments deployed in the nursing, dental, and medical professions are reviewed and contrasted with current practices in psychology. At the licensure level, differences in the assessments deployed among the 4 healthcare professions are described, and their candidate fees and number of candidates assessed annually are documented. Ideas for developing new assessments in psychology are discussed on the basis of the needs and financial resources available to psychology and the experiences of other healthcare professions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal information processing and pitch discrimination as predictors of general intelligence.

In the present study, the relationship between performance on temporal and pitch discrimination and psychometric intelligence was investigated in a sample of 164 participants by means of an experimental dissociation paradigm. Performance on both temporal and pitch discrimination was substantially related to psychometric intelligence (r = .43 and r =.39). Regression analysis and structural equation modeling suggested that both psychophysical domains can be considered as valid predictors of psychometric intelligence. Both predictor variables contributed substantial portions of both shared and unique variance to the prediction of individual differences in psychometric intelligence. Thus, the present study yielded further evidence for a functional relationship between psychometric intelligence and temporal as well as pitch discrimination acuity. Eventually, findings are consistent with the notion that temporal discrimination - in addition to general aspects of sensory discrimination shared with pitch discrimination - reflects specific intelligence-related aspects of neural information processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The over-claiming technique: Measuring self-enhancement independent of ability.

Over-claiming is a concrete operalization of self-enhancement based on respondents' ratings of their knowledge of various persons, events, products, and so on. Because 20% of the items are nonexistent, responses can be analyzed with signal detection formulas to index both response bias (over-claiming) and accuracy (knowledge). Study 1 demonstrated convergence of over-claiming with alternative measures of self-enhancement but independence from cognitive ability. In Studies 2-3, the validity of the over-claiming index held even when respondents were (a) warned about the foils or (b) asked to fake good. Study 3 also showed the utility of the over-claiming index for diagnosing faking. In Study 4, the over-claiming technique was applied to the debate over the adaptive value of positive illusions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributional style and depressive symptoms among children.

The reformulation of helplessness theory proposes that an insidious attributional style accompanies and predisposes depressive symptoms. The present study investigated predictions of the reformulation among 96 8–13 yr olds who completed the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) and Children's Depression Inventory twice, 6 mo apart. 83 of their parents completed the adult ASQ and the Beck Depression Inventory at their children's 2nd testing. Children who attributed bad events to internal, stable, and global causes were more likely to report depressive symptoms than were children who attributed these events to external, unstable, and specific causes. This depressive attributional style predicted depressive symptoms 6 mo later, suggesting that it may be a risk factor for depression. Children's attributional style for bad events and their depressive symptoms converged with those of their mothers but not their fathers. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex of authority role models and achievement by men and women: Leadership performance and recognition.

Investigated whether performance, for both sexes, is conditioned by expectations for them, with expectations being at least partly defined by same-sex role models. 276 undergraduates were exposed to all-male, all-female, or mixed-authority role models and then participated in a 4-person mixed-sex discussion. Vicarious cultural experience of authority models was represented by videotaped reenactments of TV commercials. Ss viewed either 4 traditional commercials showing a man as authority and woman as subordinate, or 4 reversed-role versions in which the male and female actors switched roles in the same scenarios. Personally observed authority models were represented by the experimenter, who supervised the discussion. Sex of authority in the commercials and sex of experimenter were crossed in a factorial design. In the all-male authority condition, men and women performed equally (as measured by talking time and number of substantive content suggestions), but recognized only the men as leaders in postdiscussion evaluation questionnaires. In the all-female authority condition, men and women also performed equally, and, in addition, they also received equal leadership recognition. In the 2 mixed-authority conditions, men objectively outperformed women. The data show that recognition is not a direct function of performance for either sex but is influenced by the evaluators' expectations, which are partly defined by sex of authority role models in the social environment. (103 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Culturally competent interventions for abused and suicidal African American women.

This article focuses on interventions with low-income, African American women who are survivors of domestic abuse and who have made one or more suicide attempts. The authors review the literature on domestic abuse and suicidal behavior in African American women, and discuss the association between abuse and suicide in this population. Next, they propose an integrated theoretical model for understanding suicidal behavior as one possible coping response to the stress of a domestic abuse situation. The model utilizes concepts from the literature on stress and coping as well as stages of change. A culturally sensitive group treatment intervention that is based on the theoretical model is presented. The intervention focuses on ensuring women's safety, increasing coping skills and resource mobilization, and promoting supportive relationships in a manner that is consistent with each woman's sociocultural context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

PY181 Pigment Microspheres of Nanoplates Synthesized via Polymer‐Induced Liquid Precursors

Organic pigments are important crystalline substances, and their properties and applications rely on size and shape control. Pigment Yellow 181 (PY181) is an industrial azo pigment that is light and weatherfast and suitable for high temperature processing. One disadvantage is its needle‐like shape in the default β‐phase, which makes the pigment difficult to process in industry, e.g., in polymer melts, where a spherical structure would be ideal. Here, we show for the first time, that polymer‐induced liquid precursor structures can be formed even in association to a chemical reaction. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that biomineralization principles can be exploited for the generation of advanced functional materials, such as pigments with novel complex morphology and different properties. Stable PY181 microspheres of nanoplates in the β‐phase were obtained in mixed solvents of water and isopropanol by direct azo coupling under the directing influence of a designed copolymer additive aminobenzoylaminobenzamide‐acetoacetyl‐poly(ethylene imine)‐block‐poly(ethylene glycol) (ABABA‐acetoacetyl‐PEI‐b‐PEG).     

时尚的哲学

在设计零售卖场的时候,如何将外面的人吸引进来并不是一个首要的关注点,然而．在最新完工的Zadig＆Voltaire品牌巴黎专卖店项目中这几乎成为了一个必要条件。坐落于赛纳河左岸的这家专卖店．实际上是一排带有窗户的房间,俯瞰着美得令人瞠目结舌的圣席毕斯教堂．     

Anthropogenic impacts in North Poland over the last 1300 years — A record of Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni and S in an ombrotrophic peat bog

Lead pollution history over Northern Poland was reconstructed for the last ca. 1300 years using the elemental and Pb isotope geochemistry of a dated Polish peat bog. The data show that Polish Pb-Zn ores and coal were the main sources of Pb, other heavy metals and S over Northern Poland up until the industrial revolution. After review of the potential mobility of each element, most of the historical interpretation was based on Pb and Pb isotopes, the other chemical elements (Zn, Cu, Ni, S) being considered secondary indicators of pollution. During the last century, leaded gasoline also contributed to anthropogenic Pb pollution over Poland. Coal and Pb-Zn ores, however, remained important sources of pollution in Eastern European countries during the last 50 years, as demonstrated by a high ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁷Pb ratio (1.153) relative to that of Western Europe (ca. 1.10). The Pb data for the last century were also in good agreement with modelled Pb inventories over Poland and the Baltic region.