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Metaheuristics are optimization algorithms that efficiently solve a variety of complex combinatorial problems. In psychological research, metaheuristics have been applied in short-scale construction and model specification search. In the present study, we propose a bee swarm optimization (BSO) algorithm to explore the structure underlying a psychological measurement instrument. The algorithm assigns items to an unknown number of nested factors in a confirmatory bifactor model, while simultaneously selecting items for the final scale. To achieve this, the algorithm follows the biological template of bees' foraging behavior: Scout bees explore new food sources, whereas onlooker bees search in the vicinity of previously explored, promising food sources. Analogously, scout bees in BSO introduce major changes to a model specification (e.g., adding or removing a specific factor), whereas onlooker bees only make minor changes (e.g., adding an item to a factor or swapping items between specific factors). Through this division of labor in an artificial bee colony, the algorithm aims to strike a balance between two opposing strategies diversification (or exploration) versus intensification (or exploitation). We demonstrate the usefulness of the algorithm to find the underlying structure in two empirical data sets (Holzinger–Swineford and short dark triad questionnaire, SDQ3). Furthermore, we illustrate the influence of relevant hyperparameters such as the number of bees in the hive, the percentage of scouts to onlookers, and the number of top solutions to be followed. Finally, useful applications of the new algorithm are discussed, as well as limitations and possible future research opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A family's experience of mental illness can change the family's functioning. In clinical contexts, valid and reliable instruments that assess family functioning, therapeutic changes, and the effects of family nursing interventions are needed. This study focuses on the linguistic and cultural adaptation of the Iceland-Expressive Family Functioning Questionnaire (ICE-EFFQ) to European Portuguese and examines the psychometric properties of this instrument. A non-random sample of 121 Portuguese depressed patients and their relatives completed the questionnaire. Principal components analysis extracted 4 factors, explaining 55.58% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed acceptable adjustment quality indices. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was adequate for the global scale α =.86 and for the 4 subscales: communication α =.79, expression of emotions α =.68, problem-solving α =.71, and cooperation α =.61. The Portuguese version of ICE-EFFQ is a sensitive, valid, and reliable instrument for use with Portuguese families with adult members with depression and can be valuable in assessing these families' expressive functioning, before and after intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of 'human security' holds promise of capturing the strong connections between economic development and personal security that has ushered in the debate about the 'security−development nexus' in policy circles. Human security is understood as the ability of states to protect the security of their citizens and to cater to their basic socioeconomic needs. However, the literature on human security is fragmented, leaving applied researchers without a workable definition and a convincing measurement strategy. Part of this problem is due to the fuzziness of the concept and the ambition to associate an ever-increasing set of dimensions with the concept, which renders empirical analysis moot. Following a review of the related literature, we collect measures aligning with 'freedom from fear' and 'freedom from want', representing the varied discourse on the human security concept. Employing confirmatory factor analysis on 11 indicators, we demonstrate the existence of a single latent factor and extract their common variation to generate a new Human Security Index. We validate the index by comparison against known proxies and related measures. We then present a first empirical application examining the human security implications of IMF programmes, finding that IMF programmes undermine human security, accounting for non-random selection into IMF programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current study, common and unique genetic and environmental influences on personality and a broad range of well-being measures were investigated. Data on the Big Five, life satisfaction, quality of life, self-rated health, loneliness, and depression from 14,253 twins and their siblings (age M: 31.82, SD: 14.41, range 16–97) from the Netherlands Twin Register were used in multivariate extended twin models. The best-fitting theoretical model indicated that genetic variance in personality and well-being traits can be decomposed into effects due to one general, common factor (Mdn: 60%, range 15%–89%), due to personality-specific (Mdn: 2%, range 0%–78%) and well-being-specific (Mdn: 12%, range 4%–35%) factors, and trait-specific effects (Mdn: 18%, range 0%–65%). Significant amounts of non-additive genetic influences on the traits' (co)variances were found, while no evidence was found for quantitative or qualitative sex differences. Taken together, our study paints a fine-grained, complex picture of common and unique genetic and environmental effects on personality and well-being. Implications for the interpretation of shared variance, inflated phenotypic correlations between traits and future gene finding studies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dark rides are archetypal theme park attractions that provide compelling experiences through carefully structured experience designs. In a literature review, we follow and slightly modify Langhof and Güldenberg's conceptualization of the dark ride experience (DRE) and suggest that the DRE mostly consists of narrative transportation, presence, flow, and emotions. However, to what extent these conceptualizations match actual dark ride supply remains unexamined. Therefore, we evaluate 238 dark rides in the EMEA region on product determinants of the DRE and compare literature-based conceptualizations of the DRE against actual dark ride supply. Findings indicate that dark rides highly vary in terms of storytelling, theming, and pervasive interactivity, thus questioning whether all components of the DRE always apply to the full dark ride spectrum. Proposing the Dark Ride Cube as a dark ride typology, Langhof and Güldenberg's conceptualization of the DRE is largely confirmed, as well as the currently suggested modifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With empirical insights gained across a series of studies, the current research examines the technology-facilitated preservice tipping encounter. Drawing on the tip-enhancing literature and the spatial crowding theory, this research reveals the divergent impacts of tip suggestion on consumers' tipping behaviors and their satisfaction with the digital payment experience. Our findings show that, while effective in elevating tipping amount, the presence of tip suggestion can frustrate consumers and impose a detrimental impact on their satisfaction with the online payment experience. Particularly, this effect is contingent on the design of the digital payment page: The negative effect of tip suggestion on satisfaction with the payment experience is more profound when the digital payment page follows a crowded layout but mitigated when the layout is spacious. Findings from the current research offer timely contributions to theory and practice with an evolving perspective on the technology-facilitated preservice tipping encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research evidence and theoretical accounts of honor point to differing definitions of the construct in differing cultural contexts. The current studies address the question “What is honor?” using a prototype approach in Turkey and the Northern United States. Studies 1a/1b revealed substantial differences in the specific features generated by members of the two groups, but Studies 2 and 3 revealed cultural similarities in the underlying dimensions of self-respect, moral behavior, and social status/respect. Ratings of the centrality and personal importance of these factors were similar across the two groups, but their association with other relevant constructs differed. The tripartite nature of honor uncovered in these studies helps observers and researchers alike understand how diverse responses to situations can be attributed to honor. Inclusion of a prototype analysis into the literature on honor cultures can provide enhanced coverage of the concept that may lead to testable hypotheses and new theoretical developments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, we investigate the use of a multivariate exploratory data analysis technique, nonlinear principle components analysis (NPCA). The technique is presented as a means for thorough descriptive analysis in a multivariate setting and with data of varying levels of measurement. The technique includes a strong visualization component of the kind previously only available for only one- and two-variable situations. This multivariate technique makes possible more thorough pre-analysis examination of data, a step frequently overlooked in most quantitative research. The data examined are self-reported prevalence measures for property crime from the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2). Our examination suggested that: (a) the property variable seems to group around two underlying dimensions (“Simple Object Dimension” and the “Complex Object Dimension”); (b) hacking proved to be a potentially very interesting but yet problematic variable due to interpretation of the item by the youthful respondents; and (c) the groupings and subgroupings of variables do show distinct nonrandom relationships among the 30 country property crime profiles in the analysis as well as the Esping-Andersen/ISRD-2 clustering system widely used in ISRD-2 research efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On a wide range of measures and across cultures and societies, women tend to be more religious than men. Religious beliefs are associated with evolved social-cognitive mechanisms such as agency detection and theory-of-mind. Women perform better on most of these components of social cognition, suggesting an underlying psychological explanation for these sex differences. The Existential Orientation Scale was developed to extend the measurement of religion to include non-religious beliefs (Study 1). Factor analysis extracted two dimensions: religious orientation and science acceptance. This new scale was used to investigate the hypothesis that the dimensions of empathizing, a measure of social cognition, and systemizing can explain the sex differences in religious orientation (Study 2). The sex differences in both religious orientation and science acceptance disappeared when empathizing and systemizing were entered. This indicates that underlying dimensions of individual differences can explain existential orientation better than being male or female. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism shopping has been acknowledged as a primary travel motive. Yet research on the underlying dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of tourist shopping satisfaction has not received adequate attention. The objective of this article is to explore tourist shopping satisfaction and examine its dimensionality. The authors systematically develop a scale that conceptualizes tourists’ shopping satisfaction as a four-dimensional construct that reflects tourists’ satisfaction of service product and environment, merchandise value, staff service quality, and service differentiation during their shopping excursion. Using this scale, the authors examine a structural model linking tourist facilities, as major destination attributes, to shopping satisfaction and shopping experience. This article ends with a discussion of the implications and future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The rapidly changing business environment is a forcing destinations to innovate in order to remain competitive. Innovation is increasingly recognized as being important for destination development. In times of economic uncertainty, a comprehensive overview of the factors of mountain destination innovativeness can contribute to the better development of mountain destinations. Research has identified important elements of innovativeness that contribute to mountain destination development and has determined the factors that comprise these elements. The elements of mountain destination innovativeness are tested for their importance in the first part of the analysis. An exploratory factor analysis is then conducted using only the more important elements to form three factors that represent the underlying dimensions of mountain destination innovativeness. The results show that mountain destination innovativeness incorporates the factors of sociocultural sustainability and stakeholder participation, environmental sustainability (natural environment) and proactiveness. Research provides knowledge for researchers as well as for stakeholders in mountain destinations, especially mountain destination managers, who will be able to identify the important factors of mountain destination innovativeness to focus on in order to increase destination development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the Asian Coalition for Community Action (ACCA) programme that was initiated by the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR) in 2009. ACCA seeks to catalyze and support community initiatives, citywide upgrading and partnerships between community organizations and local governments. By January 2012, it had helped fund initiatives in 708 settlements in 153 cities in 19 different Asian nations. In each city, small grants support community-led initiatives that encourage citywide networks to form, where members share skills with each other and learn to negotiate with their local governments. Further support was available as local governments engaged and then came to support this process, including the formation of jointly managed community development funds. The paper also describes how the design of ACCA drew on earlier work, and ends with a reflection on what has been learnt with regard to more effective ways of reducing urban poverty. This explores the two underlying dimensions: first, the creation of institutions based on relations of reciprocity; and second, the strengthening of relations between low-income community organizations such that they can create a synergy with the state. One key lesson is the need for financial systems that allow the urban poor to be the key agents in addressing their problems and in bringing in city governments to work with them. This collaboration can lead to the urban poor being recognized as legitimate and highly productive residents and citizens of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Prosocial involvement is conceptualized as support for or engaging in behaviors that contribute to or benefit African American communities. The current study examines the relationship between prosocial involvement and race-related factors among 303 African American college students. Using two underlying dimensions of prosocial involvement, prosocial attitudes and prosocial behaviors, models were tested to examine racial discrimination and racial identity as predictors of prosocial involvement. Overall, participants showed strong support for prosocial involvement. Racial discrimination, racial centrality, and private regard were positively related to both dimensions of prosocial involvement. There was also a positive association between nationalist and assimilation ideology with prosocial attitudes. Findings from this study highlight the complexity of prosocial involvement and the relevance of race-related factors among African American college students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although keystroke logging promises to provide a valuable tool for writing research, it can often be difficult to relate logs to underlying processes. This article describes the procedures and measures that the authors developed to analyze a sample of 80 keystroke logs, with a view to achieving a better alignment between keystroke-logging measures and underlying cognitive processes. They used these measures to analyze pauses, bursts, and revisions and found that (a) burst lengths vary depending on their initiation type as well as their termination type, suggesting that the classification system used in previous research should be elaborated; (b) mixture models fit pause duration data better than unimodal central tendency statistics; and (c) individuals who pause for longer at sentence boundaries produce shorter but more well-formed bursts. A principal components analysis identified three underlying dimensions in these data: planned text production, within-sentence revision, and revision of global text structure. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined elementary school students’ perceived support for recreational reading from their mothers, fathers, and friends. Participants, including 130 fourth graders and 172 fifth graders, completed the researcher-developed Reading Support Survey, which assesses how often children experience and how greatly they enjoy multiple types of reading-supportive behaviors. The survey was based on a synthesis of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research on older children’s experiences of support for recreational reading. Theories emphasizing the importance of social factors in the development of reading motivation and attitudes and domain-general theories of motivation and social support also influenced the survey design and study hypotheses. Perceived reading support showed four underlying dimensions, two reflecting source of support and two reflecting type of support as the organizing element. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that perceived parent and friend support each contributed uniquely to the prediction of multiple dimensions of self-reported reading motivation and frequency, controlling for reading achievement, gender, and grade level. Children perceived greater reading support from their mothers than from their fathers or friends. There were few differences in perceived reading support, reading motivation, or habits by gender or grade level. The findings of this study expand the research base on the relations of children’s experiences of parental support for reading with reading motivation and activity, which has largely focused on preschool and primary-grade children, to older children. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Dharmveer Bharati's1 'Gulki Banno'2 portrays the life of Gulki, a young woman who is a humpback. Set in Allahabad of the 1970s, it describes Gulki's struggle for survival and lays bare the manner in which deformity or disability is seen in our society. This article shows the varied ways by which her impaired body is associated with evil and deviance and is the object of children's pranks and adult's derision. It engages the reader with the issues of spousal abuse, juvenile delinquency, a disabled's search for space and, most perceptibly, the selfish motives behind the display of philanthropy. The analysis probes the underlying dimensions of moral and physical disability, underlining how multiple shades of the comic weave through the story to impending tragedy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service quality has been a matter of concern for public and private healthcare institutions across the world. Increased focus on patient-centered care led to several researches in exploring what determines service quality and how can it be measured. The objective of this paper is to explore and summarize the available pool of published knowledge as to understand what comprises healthcare service quality, the underlying dimensions of healthcare service quality, and how it is measured. Literature review, covering significant researches in the field of healthcare service quality, service quality dimensions and its measurement was conducted on EBSCO and Google Scholar databases. Findings were presented in the form of medical and non-medical aspects of healthcare service quality. It can be concluded dimensionality in the healthcare service quality is context specific and patients weigh them differently. Perceptions only measures dominate healthcare quality evaluation over gap score based models. Further, healthcare service quality construct and its measurement has been primarily done from the patient's perspective, however, the provider's perspective of the healthcare service quality has not been taken into consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies related to student selection of a sales career indicate that their perception of sales as a career is generally negative. Numerous reasons have been offered for this negative view, including negative perceptions of attributes associated with sales jobs and salespeople. This study examines the perceptions of negative and positive attributes of sales jobs and salespeople held by students in three nations and the impact these perceptions have on their feelings about selling. The impact that their feelings have on their intentions to pursue a career in sales is also investigated. The examination of students’ intention to select sales as a career in the United States, Switzerland, and Turkey identified several underlying dimensions of sales jobs, salespeople, and their feelings about selling. Study findings indicate that perceptions of a sales job and of salespeople influence their feelings toward selling. As expected, students’ feelings toward selling are positively related to their intention to pursue a sales career. However, their career intentions are significantly affected by their enrollment in a sales course, nationality, gender, and academic major. Several explanations are offered for these differences, and educational and training implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work on facial expressions of emotions (Calder, Burton, Miller, Young, & Akamatsu, [2001]) and emotionally inflected speech (Banse & Scherer, [1996]) has successfully delineated some of the physical properties that underlie emotion recognition. To identify the acoustic cues used in the perception of nonverbal emotional expressions like laugher and screams, an investigation was conducted into vocal expressions of emotion, using nonverbal vocal analogues of the 'basic' emotions (anger, fear, disgust, sadness, and surprise; Ekman & Friesen, [1971]; Scott et al., [1997]), and of positive affective states (Ekman, [1992], [2003]; Sauter & Scott, [2007]). First, the emotional stimuli were categorized and rated to establish that listeners could identify and rate the sounds reliably and to provide confusion matrices. A principal components analysis of the rating data yielded two underlying dimensions, correlating with the perceived valence and arousal of the sounds. Second, acoustic properties of the amplitude, pitch, and spectral profile of the stimuli were measured. A discriminant analysis procedure established that these acoustic measures provided sufficient discrimination between expressions of emotional categories to permit accurate statistical classification. Multiple linear regressions with participants' subjective ratings of the acoustic stimuli showed that all classes of emotional ratings could be predicted by some combination of acoustic measures and that most emotion ratings were predicted by different constellations of acoustic features. The results demonstrate that, similarly to affective signals in facial expressions and emotionally inflected speech, the perceived emotional character of affective vocalizations can be predicted on the basis of their physical features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, Pine and Gilmore set out the vision for a new economic era, the experience economy, in which consumers are in search for extraordinary and memorable experiences. Since then, a rich body of research on applications of the experience economy concepts have appeared in the marketing literature. However, academic investigations on the measurement of tourism experiences are very recent. The purpose of this article is twofold: to identify the underlying dimensions of cruisers' experiences and to investigate the relationships among cruisers' experiences, satisfaction, and intention to recommend. Overall, findings of this study enhance the theoretical progress on the experiential concept in tourism and offer important implications for cruise marketers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental controversies are often framed as conflicts between environmentalist and antienviron-mentalist positions. The underlying dimensions of ethics and justice tend to be overlooked. This article seeks to integrate insights from environmental ethics and sociological observations through a case study of a watershed conflict. A controversy emerged in the 1990s when residents of the New York City (NYC) watershed filed a lawsuit to block NYC's proposed regulations for the land surrounding the streams and reservoirs that supply NYC's drinking water. The conflict was resolved after NYC agreed to provide economic development funds to the watershed towns in exchange for accepting the regulations. An analysis of interviews with NYC watershed town supervisors reveals that the conflict was resolved because underlying competing theories of justice were addressed. This contradicts the popular narrative that an environmental conflict can be resolved when competing parties come to the realization that natural ecosystems provide valuable water-purification services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Work relationships have come to form the very foundation of organizations and the contemporary embodiment of how most work gets accomplished, and there has been increased scholarly interest in this area. Although research has investigated the nature of high-quality and low-quality work relationships, few attempts have taken that next important step in more precisely articulating the actual dimensions that underlie work relationships, how they relate to one another, and how, as contextual background, they frame and influence organizational phenomena. In an effort to help address this gap in our understanding of relationships at work, this study briefly reviews the relevant literature on work relationships, extracting what is currently known about the specific aspects or underlying dimensions of such relationships. Then, the authors introduce an integrative multidimensional conceptualization of dyadic work relationships, which specifies the critical foundational dimensions and processes, and discusses the implications for future theory and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study developed and tested a structural model in examining the effects of mainland Chinese visitors' travel motivation, past experience, perceived constraint, and attitude on their intention of revisiting Hong Kong. Data were collected through telephone interviews (n = 501) in Beijing and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings indicate that one of travel motivation's underlying dimensions, shopping, positively affected Beijing tourists' revisit intention to Hong Kong; past experience, as measured by the number of prior visits and satisfaction, also positively influenced revisit intention. Disinterest was the only constraint factor significantly negating revisit intention. In addition, attitude was found to play a significant mediating role in the total effect of satisfaction on revisit intention. Results suggest that in addition to further strengthening Hong Kong's "shopping paradise" image, destination marketers and managers should promote more novel features of local attractions and appeal to the relaxation need of repeat visitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important to understand the content dimensions that influence the quality of intergroup interactions. The present research organized potential conversation content according to theoretically relevant underlying dimensions and investigated Whites' willingness to discuss topics of varying content with a Black partner. Specifically, it investigated Whites' willingness to engage in intimate self-disclosure and their willingness to discuss controversial and race-related topics with White versus Black interaction partners. Results across two experiments indicated an unwillingness among Whites to discuss both intimate and race-related topics with a Black partner. In addition, this research examined the role played by participants in the interaction (i.e., asking vs. answering) and found that although Whites were unwilling to ask Black relative to White partners about race-related topics, they were more willing to answer Black relative to White partners about such topics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at analyzing the content and structure of managers' conceptions of negative leadership. Using semi-structured interviews, 42 managers were asked about their conceptions of negative leadership, its antecedents and consequences. Results show that the concept of negative leadership is associated with eight behavioural categories: insincere, despotic, exploitative, restrictive, failed, laissez-faire, and active- and passive-avoiding leadership. Negative leadership was causally attributed to the environment of the leader, especially the followers, the immediate working field, as well as organizational processes, structures, and resources were seen as potential sources for negative leadership. The main factors regarded as its consequences included negative follower feelings and attitudes, destructive follower behaviour, and devastating organizational results. An analysis of the relationship between the leadership categories revealed two underlying dimensions of human- versus task-orientation and passive versus active behaviour. Limitations of the present approach, implications for future research and organizational practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article identifies the underlying dimensions of a guest's hotel experience, using data from a web-based survey of guests at a midwestern hotel and conference center. This study finds that the dimensions obtained in exploratory factor analysis can be replicated by confirmatory factor analysis with the same data set. These scale-development procedures result in an eighteen item index consisting of four factors: environment, accessibility, driving benefit, and incentive. This fourfactor structure of Hotel Experience Index also shows evidence of both convergent and discriminant validity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study developed a measurement scale to examine factors affecting convention participation decision-making. The scale development process started with a review of extant literature and personal interviews, followed by data collection through a Web survey of selected association members. Data were subjected to exploratory factor analysis and unidimensionality tests via subsequent confirmatory factor analysis. These procedures yielded a five-factor measurement scale with acceptable levels of reliability and validity. Five underlying dimensions of convention participation decision-making were labeled: (a) destination stimuli, (b) professional and social networking opportunities, (c) educational opportunities, (d) safety and health situation, and (e) travelability. The implications of the scale are discussed for future research as well as convention marketing strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourist satisfaction has been considered as a tool for increasing destination competitiveness. In an attempt to gain a better understanding of tourists' satisfaction in an island mass destination this study has taken Crete as a case with the aim to identify the underlying dimensions of tourists' satisfaction, to investigate whether tourists could be grouped into distinct segments and to examine the differences between the segments and their sociodemographic and travel arrangement characteristics. A segmentation procedure based on destination dimensions produced three clusters: the 'Higher-Satisfied'; the 'In-Betweeners'; and the 'Lower-Satisfied'. The implications and the conclusions of the study are provided in relation to the marketing of the island of Crete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The SF-36® Health Survey (Version 2; SF-36) was evaluated among older Vietnamese Americans to determine whether underlying dimensions of physical and mental health were similar to those of other groups in the United States. Method: Field testing of participants from senior centers. Results: The study provided support for the reliability and validity of the SF-36. Structural equation modeling provided confirmation of physical and mental health factors. However, the factor loadings for the SF-36 scales were more consistent with previous results from Asian countries than the typical pattern observed in the United States. Discussion: As the older populations in the United States become more diverse, it is important to have standardized health-related quality of life measures. However, the conceptualization of physical and mental health and associations among different scales may be different for Asian immigrants than for other groups. Thus, the interpretation of the SF-36 scores needs to account for cultural differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-stakes testing may potentially influence young children's attitudes toward school and learning. This study describes the development and evaluation of child and teacher versions of a measure called Children's Attitudes Toward School (CATS). Exploratory factor analyses of responses by 335 first graders and 130 first-grade teachers each identified the same underlying dimensions of attitudes related to three types of school activities—Academic, Early Literacy, and Child-Initiated. Confirmatory factor analyses of the three-factor model among a second split-half sample of 307 children and 129 teachers achieved acceptable fit. In general, children's self-reported attitudes were not associated with their achievement; teachers' judgments of children's attitudes had weak to moderate correlations with children's directly assessed skills and weak to moderately strong correlations with teachers' ratings of children's skills; children's self-reported attitudes and teachers' judgments of children's attitudes were not significantly correlated. Implications of these findings for assessing young children's attitudes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Bulgarian society after 1989 has been characterized as a typical risk society, both causing and caused by anomie. The present article tested the standardized anomie scale for underlying dimensions, measured the level of anomie among 560 Bulgarian university students, and explored factors associated with feelings of anomie. A factor analysis revealed three dimensions of anomie: one reflecting individual psychological reactions, indicating personal helplessness towards the post-communist transition, and two reflecting feelings of nostalgia and normlessness in the face of that transition. The level of anomie was considerably higher in Bulgarian students than Swedish students, and lower in Albanian students, suggesting that social circumstances make a difference to the level. Separate regression analysis revealed that psychological anomie reflects a situation of strain, explained by poor income, socio-economic loss, disappointment with reform, and strong feelings of hopelessness for the future. Nevertheless, this dimension of anomie reflected support for the democratic intentions of reform, and a certain political engagement. Psychological anomie and feelings of normlessness were more frequently reported by female students. Unlike psychological anomie, anomic attitudes of nostalgia and normlessness did not reflect a situation of socio-economic loss or strain. Whereas nostalgia mainly reflected disapproval of, and resistance to, reform, the association between normlessness and aspirations for a future career reflected a positive and progressive mentality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The validity of Holland’s theory in the Croatian sample has been tested. The Croatian version of Holland’s Self-Directed Search was applied on 1,866 Croatian adolescents from different age samples. The instrument has shown a good reliability of all RIASEC scales in all subsamples. Construct validity was also verified: The presence of circular structure of RIASEC types and two underlying dimensions was mostly confirmed, and hypothesized relations between RIASEC types and value orientations were found. Concurrent validity shows that on the basis of Holland’s RIASEC scores one can predict the educational program in which the student is enrolled. The results support the validity of Holland’s theory in the Croatian sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study empirically examines the structure of police interview competencies in self-reports of 230 police investigators suggesting five major underlying dimensions, that is, ‘Careful-tenacious’, ‘Controlled-non-reactive’, ‘Dominant-insisting’, ‘Communicative’ and ‘Benevolent’. These dimensions discriminate performance in a series of interview vignettes, grouped in terms of type of case (interviewing a suspect, a witness or a victim) and type of suspect. In addition self-ratings on these dimensions are related to self-estimated interview effectiveness in the same vignettes. Participants are further administered the NEO PI-R (Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Professional manual: Revised NEO personality inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO five-factor-inventory (NEO-FFI). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources), enabling an examination of the relationship between the competence dimensions and their personality trait building blocks. The implications of this study for the development and coaching of police interview competencies are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was designed to determine a word problem difficulty classification in children with arithmetic learning disabilities (ALD; n = 104) in comparison with typically achieving students (n = 44). We tested variables such as (a) semantic structure (Change, Combine, Compare, and Equalize), (b) operation (subtraction and addition), and (c) position of the unknown quantity in the problem. Facet theory with multidimensional scaling techniques (MINISSA) was used to analyze the underlying dimensions in the responses of each group of participants. Our results indicate that although the word problem difficulty classifications for the 2 groups of children were different, the position of the unknown quantity had a greater influence on the level of difficulty of story problems than other variables. The noncanonical problems—specifically, those with the unknown term in the first place—although difficult for both groups of children, were the most difficult problems for children with ALD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study's purpose was to determine if efficient measures could be created to assess multiple problematic behaviors identified in youth who were sexually abused and in treatment. Because of the lack of easily administered brief instruments that assess multiple domains of interest in this population, complementary parent and child assessment measures were developed. The Weekly Problems Scale-Child Version (WPS-C) and the Weekly Problems Scale-Parent Version (WPS-P) were created to monitor the weekly progress of the child and family in treatment and focus specifically on common areas of difficulties in this population. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to assist in identifying the number of underlying dimensions in the scales. Results indicate that the WPS-C and WPS-P demonstrate adequate internal consistency, temporal stability, and construct validity. The WPS-C and WPS-P display significant promise as research and clinical assessment tools for use with youth who are sexually abused and their nonoffending parents in treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-Adolescent (SASSI-A) is used in evaluation and treatment planning for incarcerated juveniles. Validity of the SASSI-A in a juvenile correctional facility was examined using archival data. Findings generally support the validity of SASSI-A substance use scales. However, there is concern regarding the potential for ethnic bias in this setting. Cut-scores suggest that the SASSI-A may best be used for detecting problematic alcohol consumption using the Face Valid Alcohol Scale 3. Future studies should more closely investigate whether the three underlying dimensions of the SASSI-A are useful in treatment planning. Results are presented in light of the relatively new SASSI-A2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourist hotel resorts have been considered as indispensable elements in the major tourism industry component of accommodation for several decades. Tourist hotel resorts are sought after by various segments of domestic and overseas tourists all over the world for various holiday purposes. There have been several focused tourism research contributions over the last two decades about their location, life-cycle stages. service quality and management. Few researchers, however, have focused their research on the resort hotel guests' resort selection preferences, satisfaction by resort service, opinion on resort holiday and preference for quality of resort guest activities. This paper tries to fill this vacuum in the resort tourism literature by exploring the visitors' views on resort selection, satisfaction, opinion and preferences. The research attempted to profile 776 visitors holidaying in resorts in selected resorts of Australia through a well-structured, four-page questionnaire divided into five parts containing 18 questions focusing on their reasons for resort selection, resort satisfaction, resort opinion and resort preferences under subtitles. The research also focused on their gender, age, level of education, occupation, life-cycle category, residency, nationality, post-code, years of patronisation, intimate selection choices and willingness to recommend their experiences. An attempt was made to profile the resort visitors through a cluster analysis in order to understand the underlying dimensions on the basis of the above-mentioned factors, segmenting them into identifiable groups. Four discernable clusters of resort visitors and their distinguishing characteristics were identified on the basis of their demographics. Further, through a one-way ANOVA analysis the clusters are compared with each other for further understanding and clarity. The results shows that the gender factor does not have much influence whereas life-cycle, education and age have considerable influence in segmenting the resort clientele. The four clusters were correlated with the selection, satisfaction, opinions and preferences. The results will be discussed in terms of future resort developments, themes, generating resort activities focusing on young families and service quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes data derived from conversations with varying groups of residents and visitors in New Zealand with reference to Auckland as a visitor destination. What emerges is a complex, hierarchical pattern of imagery of place, and it is suggested that underlying dimensions are two continua, friendly versus tense/frustrating/threatening and exciting versus relaxing. It is suggested that cognition is a factor influencing image complexity and affective response; hence, images may be both specific to place and characteristics of respondents. This article discusses a number of issues, including the role of visitor familiarity with a site, the modes of analysis used in such studies as these, and the nature of the image construct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the use of the Internet by a range of political actors in the 2004 European Parliament election in Britain—candidates, citizens, parties, government, pressure groups, and the media. Specifically, it surveys the structure of online political communications and the amount and nature of electoral information and engagement opportunities available to citizens in the framework of recent theories of “third age of political communications.” Methodologically, the article builds on the identification (n= 571), sampling (n= 100), qualitative annotation, and quantitative content analysis of U.K.campaignWeb sites between mid-April and Election Day,June 10,2004. Evidence provides qualified support for previous findings that the online campaign, or the lack thereof,largely reflects the apathy and disillusionment of the press,national politicians, and the media with a distinctly second-order election.However,there are two important qualifications to this “politics as usual” scenario.First,political parties,candidates, and government agencies provided a considerably wider variety of political information and engagement opportunities than in the past. As only 7 percent of British adults used the Internet for electoral information, one might wonder why online contents were provided at all.Second,online information and engagement opportunities were structured on two underlying dimensions, of which one is overtly political—a public communication versus political communication cleavage—while the other—replication versus innovation of techno-political practice—touches upon the political economy of Web production in the “third media age.” [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research suggests that people's explanations for their hurt feelings can influence how they feel and how they respond to others. Although the events and behaviors that elicit hurt have been examined, individuals' beliefs about what made them feel hurt have not been explored. The current study extends existing research by investigating the causes that people associate with their hurt feelings. First, participants' explanations for why a specific interaction hurt their feelings were examined; then, underlying dimensions characterizing people's explanations for hurt were identified and associations with theoretically relevant outcomes were assessed. Results yielded eight factors characterizing the perceived causes of hurt feelings. Relational satisfaction and self-esteem were linked to the reasons people felt hurt. Individuals' perceptions about the causes of their hurt feelings also were associated with the intensity of their feelings, their responses to being hurt, and their tendency to distance themselves from the person who hurt them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has tried to uncover the political space in which the Council of Ministers of the European Union decides. Rather than the left-right conflict or a cleavage between governments with national and supranational attitudes, this article shows that a redistributive dimension, decisively shapes the interactions in this most important legislative body of the European Union. In contrast to extant studies, we employ ex ante rather than ex post preference data and rely on correspondence analysis as a means to identify the underlying dimensions of contestation. The article concludes with an empirical investigation of how enlargement will affect the emerging political space within the European Union. Our quantitative analysis suggests that the gulf between net-contributors and net-receivers will further deepen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a number of years, the dominant approach to measuring individual differences in how people respond to interpersonal conflict has been the dual-concerns model, which assesses five broad conflict styles said to result from one's standing on two underlying dimensions: concern for self and concern for other. This article describes the development of a new instrument, the Conflict Dynamics Profile, that takes a different, explicitly behavioral approach to measuring responses to conflict. The Conflict Dynamics Profile assesses 15 specific behavioral responses to provocation in one's life. Some of these responses are constructive, and some are destructive; some are active, and some are relatively passive. Four studies are reported that establish the psychometric adequacy of the instrument, including evidence for internal reliability, test-retest reliability, freedom from social desirability contamination, correlation with related constructs, and agreement between self-ratings and ratings by observers. Implications of these findings and the potential usefulness of the new instrument are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I test spatial models of European Union (EU) legislative decision-making regarding the dimensionality of the policy space. After clarifying the concept of dimensionality, I review the existing literature. I then map out possible ways to test these models based on different dimensionality assumptions. Using quantitative data on actor positions for EU legislative politics, I first employ dimension-reducing techniques. The results show that this technique is not appropriate for generating a decreased number of underlying dimensions for the data at hand and that a one- or two-dimensional European policy space cannot be detected. Shifting to more theory-based analysis, I calculate the predicted outcomes for voting models of the EU under different spatial configurations. The findings show that the formal models' predictive power increases with the use of multi-dimensional policy spaces. I conclude by interpreting these findings in the light of a more general debate on evaluating the decision space assumed by models of group decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of corporate social orientation on organizational attractiveness as it relates to information about an organization's handling of diversity issues. Using Aupperle's notion of corporate social orientation (CSO), we examined how CSO affects perceived attractiveness of organizations' emphasizing affirmative action versus diversity management policies in their recruitment literature. Respondents to a survey of 343 college students reported a more favorable assessment of affirmative action programs than diversity management programs. In addition, the legal dimension of CSO was positively related to affirmative action programs. Also investigated were the underlying dimensions of organizational attractiveness-intentions and beliefs-these were more positive for affirmative action programs than for diversity management. A discussion of practical implications for organizations seeking to recruit from a diverse applicant pool and suggestions for future research is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measures of research self-efficacy have the potential to facilitate graduate training and mentoring, but the hypothesized factor structures of these measures have not been confirmed empirically. Moreover, the underlying dimensions of research self-efficacy across multiple measures are unknown. Graduate students in psychology programs (N = 1,004) completed three research self-efficacy instruments via a Web-based survey. Confirmatory factor analyses did not support the hypothesized factor structures. An exploratory factor analysis suggested that four dimensions of research self-efficacy (data analysis, research integration, data collection, and technical writing) underlie responses to items from the three instruments. The authors present possible reasons for the differences in factor structures across instruments and suggest how the assessment of research self-efficacy may facilitate the training and career mentoring of graduate students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the factor structure and underlying dimensions of Holland's occupational themes with inner-city, at-risk middle school adolescents and middle-class, suburban middle school adolescents. Both groups constructed the occupational world across the Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, and Social Holland themes similarly. However, there were differences in their construals of the relationships between occupations in the Enterprising and Social Themes. Subsequent means analyses indicated significant ethnic differences in medical science careers and within-group ethnic differences in working with hands, working outdoors, professional and fashion arts, social service, and medical service careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to identify a variety of employment relationships based upon an economy-wide, representative sample. We turn to psychological contract studies examining different types of psychological contracts. We expand two existing typologies by incorporating multiple features or underlying dimensions of psychological contracts. Such a feature-oriented approach allows us to construct a meaningful conceptualization of employer and employee obligations across different settings and to identify multiple types of psychological contracts in which combinations of different dimensions are prevalent Cluster analysis indicates the existence of six types of psychological contracts, all having different patterns of mutual expectations: instrumental, weak, loyal, unattached, investing and strong psychological contract. To validate the six-cluster solution, we develop cluster profiles based upon individual, job, formal contract and organizational characteristics and further differentiate between the clusters by examining their outcomes in terms of affective commitment and employability [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Themes of Division 17 presidential addresses from 1984to 2002, published in The Counseling Psychologist, were examined using a grounded theory approach. Sorting and coding of the data yielded six major categories: distinctiveness of counseling psychology, disappointments/missed opportunities, successes, foundations of counseling psychology, outside influences, and future recommendations. Review of the coding provided identification of underlying dimensions. Specifically, the connections that emerged from the qualitative analysis are explained using a grid with “identity” on a temporal x-axis (from who we are to who we want to be) and “actions” on a functional y-axis (from internal to the division to externally focused). The combined messages or stories of the Division 17 presidents may provide insight into the forces that have influenced counseling psychology over the last 2 decades. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study was conducted to examine the utility of the Activity Card Sort (ACS) as a unique assessment tool for measuring adult human occupation and level of activity. Factor analysis was used to determine whether the picture items of the ACS empirically cluster into four categories of human occupations (instrumental activities, low-demand leisure activities, high-demand leisure activities, and social activities), as well as to compare young and elderly people's classifications of activities on the ACS instrument. The study sample consisted of 184 participants who were divided into two groups (53 students and 131 elderly people). Factor analysis revealed five factors for student activities and four factors for elderly people's activities. The analysis of variance revealed that students were involved primarily in leisure activities and secondarily in independent activities of daily living (IADL), whereas elderly people were mostly involved in IADL. Pearson correlations showed the five student categories to be distinctive, whereas substantial overlapping among categories was obtained for elderly people. The use of the ACS as an important research instrument may serve to advance our understanding of the categorization of human occupations among different age groups by identifying underlying dimensions of occupational performance and assessing intensity of involvement in different occupational categories. In addition, this instrument highlights the interaction between occupational performance, person factors (various age and gender groups), and environment factors (e.g., culture). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]