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Research on growth mindset, the belief that one's cognitive abilities are malleable and can be developed through dedication and practice, has received considerable media attention and influenced educational policy and practice. However, mindset theory and measurement have also drawn criticism. In the present paper, we add a cautionary note pertaining to the conceptualization and measurement of growth mindset. Through a critical reanalysis of a large-scale representative study of adolescents from the US (N = 15,362), we show that a growth (i.e., forward-keyed) and a fixed (i.e., reverse keyed) mindset item from a widely used scale are only moderately correlated (r = −.31). Further, we demonstrate that the two items are very differently related with a range of educationally relevant criteria such as learning engagement and self-efficacy, and sociodemographic characteristics such as sex. This leads us to conclude that the growth and fixed mindset items are not mutually interchangeable (apart from keying) indicators of a unidimensional construct that has fixed and growth mindset at its opposing poles. Which items researchers choose to measure mindset (fixed, growth, or a blend thereof) may therefore have a significant impact on the findings they obtain. Our insights highlight the need for greater attention to the conceptual foundations and measurement of mindset in future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of studies have examined the relationships between response styles and the Hofstede and GLOBE cultural indices; however, studies involving adolescent samples or examining the effects of national wealth on observed relationships are scarce. This study addresses these gaps by applying simple and partial correlation analysis to the data of 15-year-olds in 33 PISA 2006 countries. The study found that the relationships between response styles and cultural indices in the two frameworks are similar to those in past studies of adult populations. After accounting for GDP per capita, the majority of relationships remained unchanged. However, others, such as Hofstede's power distance and acquiescence and dis-acquiescence, lost significance, and Hofstede's masculinity and extreme response styles only gained significance when GDP per capita was held constant. The findings highlight the influence of cultural values on students' questionnaire-response behaviours, which should be recognised in comparative studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Acquiescent response style (ARS), the tendency for survey respondents to agree with survey items, is of particular concern for increasing measurement error in surveys with populations who are more likely to acquiesce, such as Latino respondents in the U.S. In order to develop methods for reducing ARS, this study addressed two questions: (1) Does administering a questionnaire using conversational interviewing (CI) yield less ARS than standardized interviewing (SI)? (2) Do bipolar disagree/agree (DA) response scales lead to higher ARS than unipolar response scales that do not assess agreement (non-AG)? A total of 891 Latino telephone survey respondents were screened for ARS and randomly assigned to four experimental groups determined by crossing interviewing technique (CI or SI) and response format (non-AG or DA): (1) SI/non-AG (n = 301); (2) SI/DA (n = 295); (3) CI/non-AG (n = 149); and (4) CI/DA (n = 146). CI yielded lower ARS than SI (p < 0.001), but there was no difference in ARS between DA and non-AG response scales. A subset of coded interview recordings indicated that the CI interviewers reduced ARS by clarifying questions even in the absence of evidence of respondent confusion and helping with response mapping. These results suggest that difficulty answering questions associated with cognitive decline and cultural norms may have prompted higher use of ARS, but that conversational interviewers were able to mitigate these difficulties and cultural tendencies. Findings from this study suggest that using CI to administer survey questions may decrease ARS and improve data quality among survey respondents who are more likely to engage in ARS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the psychological impact of growing up with a parent with a mental illness. A life course Model of Acquiescence is developed to show how coping strategies developed by children go on to have impact into adulthood. Undertaking biographical narrative interviews with 20 adults who had grown up with a parent with a mental illness produced accounts from childhood to the current day. Thematic narrative analysis was used to gain insight into how the participants made sense of their parent's mental illness and their own role within it. Participants recalled experiences and family circumstances that were traumatic, unsafe and overwhelming. They dealt with these by attributing adversities to the mental illness and focusing solely on the vulnerabilities of their parents, thus adopting a caring role and ignoring their own needs. Most presented themselves as resilient, adaptable and resourceful, in employment and with intact relationships. However, despite this apparent success, all expressed a profound sense of lost opportunity and low self-esteem. In the Model of Acquiescence, we illustrate how and why children adapt to challenging and complex family experiences and explain how the personal and interpersonal process of parentification develops. An individual positions themselves as insignificant, powerless and silenced, only able to affect change or maintain relationships by anticipating, identifying and meeting other people's needs. This model underlines the need to support such children's psychological wellbeing using a whole family approach to understand the impact of parental mental illness and centre the child's needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rubrics are popular tools to assess students' social-emotional skills. However, little research has been devoted to investigating whether rubrics' performance level descriptions validly represent the intended skills. In this study, we addressed the validity of Self-management rubrics by examining the presence of construct-irrelevant variance in their scores. To this end, we decomposed rubrics into single items, and those indicating low versus high levels of a construct were used to compute an acquiescence index to control for response sets. The sample consisted of 947 middle-school students (54% female; Mage = 13.8; SD =.89). This innovative methodological approach allowed us to correct rubrics' scores for acquiescence and demonstrate its biasing effects on rubrics' structural psychometric properties. After correction, reliabilities were preserved, and the underlying factor structure was more unidimensional. The opportunities and implications of the use of decomposed rubrics for the process of rubric development are broadly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Internacional de Sociología is the property of Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examines a three-level interdependent hierarchical supply chain and explores the antecedents and consequences of a manufacturer's acquiescence to a buyer's request to source a component from a designated component supplier. This research collected survey data from 212 Chinese mining companies and analyzed the data using structural equation models. First, a manufacturer's acquiescence is negatively associated with its industrial knowledge and technological capability as perceived by the buyer, but positively correlated with the relational ties between the buyer and the designated component supplier. Second, the detailing efforts strengthen the impact of perceived industrial knowledge but weaken that of relational ties on acquiescence. Third, the manufacturer's acquiescence ensures the buyer's power maintenance and procurement outcome certainty, and improves the manufacturer's customer loyalty and control of sourcing information. The research highlights the significance of understanding acquiescence within an interdependent supply chain network and indicates that acquiescence will not necessarily lead to the acquiescing firm's dependence disadvantage. The research suggests that firms can use acquiescence to preserve interdependent supply chain relationships. When deciding whether to acquiesce or not, firms should consider not only the market perceptions of their resources and capabilities but also the supply chain networks. Detailing can be an effective method to reduce the pressure for acquiescence. In the context of a manufacturer's sourcing decisions, the research provides fresh insights into acquiescence in a three-level hierarchical supply chain relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In general States have not responded when faced with violations of international law committed by United Nations (UN) peacekeepers. This article aims to explore if such inaction, or silence, by States can be construed as legally significant. Relying upon the concept of acquiescence within international law, this article analyses if this specific situation can be seen as States implicitly agreeing to the UN not being bound to provide means of redress. This article argues that it would be difficult to consider the practice of States to amount to acquiescence. In international legal terms, it cannot be established that this inaction satisfies all the conditions for acquiescence for either interpretation purposes or consent. Likewise, the host State might also not always be the relevant actor when considering redress. These arguments ultimately make it challenging to consider the current non-responsiveness of States to signify a form of acquiescence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Elizabeth Laird’s novel, Kiss the Dust (1991) traces the fate of a Kurdish family living at Sulamanyia district in Iraq, and is narrated through the perspective of its young protagonist, Tara. Family members have been exposed to continuous raids of aggression by the Iraqi forces that deemed them as persona non grata. Thus, they were fated to a compulsory exile in Iran, and later in London. In their attempts to survive, family members like Rostom, kak Soran and Ashti, practised violent tactics against their oppressors, but later they realized that violence led only to hatred and bloodshed. Accordingly, they opted for nonviolent resistance in terms of immigration and acquiescence. Away from home, as asylum seekers in London, they decided a new turn of resistance based on publicizing their issue to the whole world. Moreover, they believed that wherever they were, it is Kurdistan, a home that is within themselves, even behind borders. In this sense, the current study employs Martin Luther King’s three forms of resistance: violence, acquiescence, and nonviolence, as the theoretical framework. The novel abounds in a variety of resistance tactics, but propagates the efficacy of nonviolence. تتبع اليزابيث ليرد فى روايتها "لثم التراب" (1991) مصير أسرة كردية تعيش فى حي السلمانية في بغداد وتسردها من خلال وجهة نظر البطلة الصغيرة تارا. يتعرض أفراد السرة لأشكال مستمرة من العنف على أيدى القوات العراقية التي تنظر إليهم بوصفهم أشخاصا غير مرغوب فيهم. لذلك وجدوا أنفسهم مجبرين على المنفى الإجباري فى إيران تارة ثم فى لندن تارة أخرى. وفى محاولاتهم المستميتة للحياة فإن شخوصا مثل رستم العم وكاك سوران الب وأشتى افبن يمارسون المقاومة العنيفة ضد القهر، لكنهم فيما بعد يدركون أن العنف لم يولد إلا مزيدا من الكراهية وسفك الدماء مما جعلهم يلجأون إلى نوعا آخر من المقاومة يتسم بعدم العنف في صورة الهجرة أو الخنوع. وفي منفاهم الأوربى في لندن يجاهدون من أجل توصيل رسالتهم العادلة للعالم أجمع مؤمنين بأن كردستان توجد أينما تواجدوا لأنها تكمن بداخلهم حتى عبر الحدود. والدراسة تستخدم أفكار مارتن لوثر كنج في هذا الشأن كإطار نظري، كما تؤكد ليرد على أن المقاومة السلمية أكثر فاعلية من المقاومة العنيفة.

This article explores the (in)activity of many States in contributing to the interpretative clarification of ‘how’ jus contra bellum applies in cyberspace, its negative repercussions for the work of the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on Advancing responsible State behaviour in cyberspace in the context of international security (UN GGE) and the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group on Developments in the Field of ICTs in the Context of International Security (UN OEWG), and the way forward. In its main part, the article analyses the (legal) consequences of interpretative silence and challenges its (presumably) underlying rationale – that is, a strategy of legal ambiguity based on the traditional ‘freedom of State’ paradigm. This article argues that it is only by actively contributing to the clarification of the law that States ensure their voice is heard and avoid the risk that their silence is interpreted as acquiescence. Moreover, contrary to what the freedom of State paradigm implies, the subjective interpretation of the parties is not the only ‘game in town’. If no interpretative agreement of States crystallises, the interpretation of jus contra bellum is determined by objective factors. The article concludes by arguing that from a rule of law perspective, States should be encouraged to express their views on ‘how’ jus contra bellum applies in cyberspace to ensure the efficiency and transparency of these rules, which constitute part of the backbone of a peaceful co-existence and cooperation between states.

By drawing on service encounter data in Japanese, this paper analyzes a previously undocumented request action initiated by a service provider to a client as a necessary step to provide the service. The service provider and their client, both exercising respective deontic rights, collaboratively construct a request turn in particular ways. In this case, due to the Japanese SOV word order, the service provider takes advantage of segmenting their request turn to allow the recipient clients to begin compliance, who thereby acquiesce to the service provider's deontic authority at the earliest point. By bringing the request turn to completion after the client's compliance while reflexively showing their deontic and beneficiary stances in the turn final component, the service provider displays commitment to balancing out their relative deontic status to the client. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper conceptualizes acquiescence as a strategy bureaucrats adopt to deal with contestation between themselves and political leaders. The literature on bureaucratic politics argues that policy outcomes result from a game of bargaining between bureaucrats and political leaders. These actors employ diverse strategies like bargaining for more authority, exploiting loopholes, challenging the political class, and, at other times, using the threat of resignation to implement their preferred priorities. However, we advance the above argument by introducing another strategy that bureaucrats use, acquiescence. We analyze African Union (AU) bureaucratic politics through speeches, press releases, and secondary materials. The paper argues that rather than opting for standard bureaucratic strategies, AU bureaucrats acquiesce because the institutional structure, material resources, and the AU solidarity norm make it difficult for them to do otherwise. Acquiescence is the reluctant acceptance of decisions in bureaucratic politics in the form of silence or an absence of protest. We show examples of AU institutional reform and the Burundi crisis debates, where acquiescence can explain decision-making outcomes in the organization. We conclude that acquiescence is a relevant conceptual tool in explaining the outcomes of bureaucratic politics in the AU and can be generalized to investigate institutional politics in other international organizations within and outside of the continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers: Revista de Sociologia is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Over the course of the past 75 years, the International Court of Justice (icj) has adjudicated a total of 17 territorial disputes, building a considerable body of case law along the way. While the Court has shed light on many legal issues concerning territorial sovereignty over the years, it has never clarified its approach to territorial disputes. Bridging the gap between a 2004 analysis by Brian Sumner, who identified a threetiered hierarchical decision rule, and modern territorial doctrine, this study aims to provide an updated attempt at systematization of the Court's approach in its case law concerning territorial disputes. Refining Sumner's hierarchical decision rule, the findings - while overall congruent with the basic hierarchy identified in his work - suggest that the Court's approach revolves around a hierarchy of three tiers of territorial titles (understood broadly as sources of the right to territory), namely, legal instruments, State succession and intangibility of boundaries, and independent effectivités. Equity infra legem is used as a last resort tool for interpretation of these titles, where they themselves yield no clear result. Another source of the right to territory, unilateral conduct constituting acquiescence and/or estoppel, is relied on outside of this hierarchy, often to support a decision based on another title. A review of the entirety of the Court's case law reveals a relatively consistent yet multi-layered approach to territorial disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquiescence as the tendency to systematically agree with items without regard for the content is usually measured by manifest approach based on a deviation from the mean of the response scale and by latent approach using confirmatory factor analysis. The goal of this study was to investigate whether acquiescence as measured by both approaches is stable over time. The study explored the relationship of acquiescence with variables usually considered as validating criteria for acquiescence. The research was done with a sample of 443 participants using the BFI-2 as a tool to identify acquiescence. Data was collected twice with an interval of almost two years. The results showed that both approaches showed relative stability over time, with correlation coefficients from .35 to .48 for the manifest and from .42 to .69 for the latent approach. The time stability of acquiescence suggests that acquiescence is more a participant-related than a situation-related construct. However, our results did not support the assumption of the relationship between acquiescence and education, and age which are sometimes recommended as validity criteria for acquiescence. For future research, our recommendations are using CFA for identifying acquiescence and sums of agreements from another time point as validity criterion whenever possible.

The anti-vaccination movement, vaccine hesitancy, and wavering vaccination confidence have increasingly become matters of public interest, in parallel with an increasing normalization of representations of vaccination as risky. In this study, we used data on vaccination beliefs and behaviors from two Eurobarometer surveys to classify attitudes towards vaccination and to discuss comparability, acquiescence, and other measurement issues. Through cluster analysis, we found that individuals in the European Union (EU27) can be classified into five opinion types, differentiating the poles ("vaccine-trusting" and "vaccine-distrusting") from the "hesitant & free choice" cluster and from two relatively uncommitted clusters, the "agreeable" (or acquiescent) and the "fence-sitters." Opinion configurations on vaccination were linked to the broader social structures of age, gender, and educational attainment, to experiences of adult vaccination, and trust in different information sources. We found that trust, distrust, and confusion about vaccination have permeated all social strata in EU countries. The pandemic years have amplified uncertainty concerning vaccine safety and its effectiveness. We also noticed a decrease of trust in the voices of mainstream medical experts during the pandemic period, from about 92 % in 2019 to 73 % in 2021, and a significant increase in people who declared that they "don't know" whom to trust about vaccine information, ranging from 1 % to about 13 %. Measurements of vaccination confidence in Europe should control for acquiescence, through positively and negatively formulated items, and ensure comparability in time. We strongly recommend the inclusion of a battery of critical items in all future European Commission-funded surveys on vaccination to allow the monitoring of European public confidence in vaccination and in the relevant information sources, including trust in pharmaceutical companies; this will provide an avenue for re-establishing a broader confidence among citizens, health authorities, and specialists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acquiescence is the consistent tendency toward a shift of responses in the direction of agreement rather than disagreement regardless of the content, and it is usually measured by manifest approach based on a deviation from the median of the response scale and by latent approach using confirmatory factor analysis. Our goal was to investigate whether acquiescence, as measured by both approaches, was stable over time. We explored the relationship of acquiescence with variables that are usually considered to be validating criteria for acquiescence. The research was conducted on a general sample of 443 Slovak adult participants, while using the BFI-2 as the tool to identify acquiescence. Data were collected twice with an interval of almost two years. The results showed that both approaches showed relative stability over time, with correlation coefficients r = .50 for the manifest and r = .55 for the latent approach. The time stability of acquiescence suggests that acquiescence is more of a participant-related than a situation-related construct. Both approaches positively correlated with counts of agreements used as validating variables. For future research, we recommend using CFA to identify acquiescence because of the low reliability of the manifest approach and counts of agreements from another time point as a validity criterion whenever possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student protests of 2015–2016 in South African higher education institutions calling for the decolonisation of higher education spaces and equal access to these spaces have necessitated and led to increased scrutiny around the lived experiences, particularly of female students in university spaces. Critical attention has been paid to how hegemonic structures of power embedded in higher education spaces continue to exclude and marginalise female students through gendered, sexualised and other forms of social identity and difference which are often taken for granted. As such, the study explores how female students at a university in Zimbabwe process, react and respond to this collective expression of male hegemony through sexist humour. The study further explores how these enactments may be constrained and therefore serve to re/produce, legitimise and instil gendered norms of violence. Findings from this study reveal how women respond to, resist and affirm their position in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is ample evidence to suggest that posing leading questions is dangerous, in that it may elicit compliant responses that are not necessarily accurate. Further, suggestive questioning is considered to possibly result in the development of false memories, implied in the suggestion. [Crombag, H. F. M., Wagenaar, W. A., & van Koppen, P. J. (1996). Crashing memories and the problem of 'source monitoring'. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 10(2), 95–104. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0720(199604)10:2<95::AID-ACP366>3.0.CO;2-#] introduced a crashing memories paradigm in which participants are asked a single leading question about a non-existent film. The present research sought to replicate the false-memory-eliciting effect of the crashing memory induction. Further, we sought to explore associations with forensically relevant personality traits, particularly acquiescence, compliance, and suggestibility. In two studies, a significant minority of participants endorsed the leading question about the non-existent film (25.7%, and 38% respectively). We found no support for an association with acquiescence or compliance, but suggestibility was associated with the development of false memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human behavior is heavily influenced by social norms. But when and how do norms persist or change? Complementing work on the role of top-down factors in the enforcement of normative behavior (e.g., sanctioning systems, organizational culture, formal leadership, corrective actions), I introduce a model of bottom-up influences on norm development. I argue that the trajectories of social norms are shaped by behavioral responses of observers to emergent norm violations. Research on such responses can be categorized in three broad clusters that have distinct implications for norm development. Oppositional responses to norm violations (punishment, confrontation, gossip, whistleblowing, derogation, social exclusion, emotional condemnation) discourage future transgressions, thereby contributing to norm maintenance. Acquiescent responses (avoidance, tolerance) leave room for future violations, thereby contributing to norm erosion. Supportive responses (emulation, endorsement) encourage future deviance and facilitate the spreading of counternormative behavior, thereby catalyzing norm change. By linking micro-level norm violations to macro-level normative systems, this approach illuminates how norms are dynamically negotiated through social interaction., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest I have nothing to declare., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Copyright of Romanian Case Law Review / Revista Română de Jurisprudenţă is the property of Universul Juridic Publishing House and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

On 12 October 2021, the International Court of Justice (ICJ or Court) issued its judgment on the merits in Maritime Delimitation in the Indian Ocean (Somalia v. Kenya). The judgment raises questions of significance in respect of two issues upon which this comment elaborates. First, the Court failed to distinguish adequately between the notions of acquiescence and tacit agreement, which were at the basis of Kenya's claim for an agreed boundary running along a parallel of latitude. Second, in drawing the boundary as requested by Somalia, the Court departed from its usual approach concerning the adjustment of the provisional equidistance line established in the first stage of its three-stage delimitation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of an interviewer (face-to-face or via telephone) is hypothesized to motivate respondents to generate an accurate answer and reduce task difficulty, but also to reduce the privacy of the reporting situation. To study this, we used respondents from an existing face-to-face probability sample of the general population who were randomly assigned to face-to-face, telephone and web modes of data collection. The prevalence of indicators of satisficing (e.g., non-differentiation, acquiescence, middle category choices and primacy and recency effects) and socially desirable responding were studied across modes. Results show differences between interviewer modes and web in levels of satisficing (non-differentiation, acquiescence and middle category choices) and in socially desirable responding. There were also unexpected findings of (1) different ways of satisficing by mode and (2) of a telephone mode primacy/positivity effects.

Background: Acquiescent response style (ARS) refers to survey respondents' tendency to choose response categories agreeing to questions regardless of their content and is hypothesized as a stable respondent trait. While what underlies acquiescence is debatable, the effect of ARS on measurement is clear: bias through artificially increased agreement ratings. With certain population subgroups (e.g., racial/ethnic minorities in the U.S.) are associated with systemically higher ARS, it causes concerns for research involving those groups. For this reason, it may be necessary to classify respondents as acquiescers or a nonacquiescers, which allows independent analysis or accounting for this stylistic artifact. However, this classification is challenging, because ARS is latent, observed only as a by-product of collected data.Objectives: To propose a screener that identifies respondents as acquiescers.Methods: With survey data collected for ARS research, various ARS classification methods were compared for validity as well as implementation practicality.Results: The majority of respondents was classified consistently into acquiescers or nonacquiescers under various classification methods.Conclusions: We propose a method based on illogical responses given to two balanced, theoretically distant multi-item measurement scales as a screener. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internal structure of ability emotional intelligence (EI) tests at item level has been hardly studied, and if studied often the predicted structure did not show. In the present study, an a priori model for responses to EI ability items using Likert response scales with a Situational Judgement Test (SJT) format is investigated with confirmatory factor analysis. The model consists of (1) a target EI ability factor, (2) an acquiescence factor, which is a method factor induced by the Likert response scales, and (3) design-based error covariances, which are induced by the SJT format. It is investigated whether this a priori model can account for the observed associations between the raw item responses of the Components of Emotion Understanding Test-24 (CEUT-24). The CEUT-24 is a new test developed to assess emotion understanding, a key aspect of the EI ability construct, based on the componential emotion framework. The sample consisted of 1184 participants (15–22 years old) from four European countries (United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, and Spain) speaking four different languages (English, Dutch, German and Spanish). Findings showed that the a priori model fitted the data well in all four languages. Furthermore, measurement invariance testing gave evidence for a well-fitting configural, metric, and partial scalar invariance model. The conclusion is that within a regular CFA framework using raw observed items responses, method factors (acquiescence response style and scenario induced variance) can be disentangled from the targeted EI ability factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internal structure of ability emotional intelligence (EI) tests at item level has been hardly studied, and if studied often the predicted structure did not show. In the present study, an a priori model for responses to EI ability items using Likert response scales with a Situational Judgement Test (SJT) format is investigated with confirmatory factor analysis. The model consists of (1) a target EI ability factor, (2) an acquiescence factor, which is a method factor induced by the Likert response scales, and (3) design-based error covariances, which are induced by the SJT format. It is investigated whether this a priori model can account for the observed associations between the raw item responses of the Components of Emotion Understanding Test-24 (CEUT-24). The CEUT-24 is a new test developed to assess emotion understanding, a key aspect of the EI ability construct, based on the componential emotion framework. The sample consisted of 1184 participants (15–22 years old) from four European countries (United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, and Spain) speaking four different languages (English, Dutch, German and Spanish). Findings showed that the a priori model fitted the data well in all four languages. Furthermore, measurement invariance testing gave evidence for a well-fitting configural, metric, and partial scalar invariance model. The conclusion is that within a regular CFA framework using raw observed items responses, method factors (acquiescence response style and scenario induced variance) can be disentangled from the targeted EI ability factor.

Although adverse effects of suggestive interviewing on children's accuracy are well documented, it remains unclear as to whether these effects vary depending on the valence of and the actor implicated in suggestions. In this study, 124 3-8-year-olds participated in a classroom activity and were later questioned about positive and negative false details. The interviewer provided positive reinforcement when children acquiesced to suggestions and negative feedback when they did not. Following reinforcement or feedback, young children were comparably suggestible for positive and negative details. With age, resistance to suggestions about negative details emerged first, followed by resistance to suggestions about positive details. Across age, more negative feedback was required to induce acquiescence to negative than positive false details. Finally, children were less willing to acquiesce when they (versus the confederate) were implicated. Findings highlight the interactive effects of valence and children's age on their eyewitness performance in suggestive contexts.

The item wording (or keying) effect consists of logically inconsistent answers to positively and negatively worded items that tap into similar (but polarly opposite) content. Previous research has shown that this effect can be successfully modeled through the random intercept item factor analysis (RIIFA) model, as evidenced by the improvements in the model fit in comparison to models that only contain substantive factors. However, little is known regarding the capability of this model in recovering the uncontaminated person scores. To address this issue, the study analyzes the performance of the RIIFA approach across three types of wording effects proposed in the literature: carelessness, item verification difficulty, and acquiescence. In the context of unidimensional substantive models, four independent variables were manipulated, using Monte Carlo methods: type of wording effect, amount of wording effect, sample size, and test length. The results corroborated previous findings by showing that the RIIFA models were consistently able to account for the variance in the data, attaining an excellent fit regardless of the amount of bias. Conversely, the models without the RIIFA factor produced increasingly a poorer fit with greater amounts of wording effects. Surprisingly, however, the RIIFA models were not able to better estimate the uncontaminated person scores for any type of wording effect in comparison to the substantive unidimensional models. The simulation results were then corroborated with an empirical dataset, examining the relationship between learning strategies and personality with grade point average in undergraduate studies. The apparently paradoxical findings regarding the model fit and the recovery of the person scores are explained, considering the properties of the factor models examined.

The item wording (or keying) effect consists of logically inconsistent answers to positively and negatively worded items that tap into similar (but polarly opposite) content. Previous research has shown that this effect can be successfully modeled through the random intercept item factor analysis (RIIFA) model, as evidenced by the improvements in the model fit in comparison to models that only contain substantive factors. However, little is known regarding the capability of this model in recovering the uncontaminated person scores. To address this issue, the study analyzes the performance of the RIIFA approach across three types of wording effects proposed in the literature: carelessness, item verification difficulty, and acquiescence. In the context of unidimensional substantive models, four independent variables were manipulated, using Monte Carlo methods: type of wording effect, amount of wording effect, sample size, and test length. The results corroborated previous findings by showing that the RIIFA models were consistently able to account for the variance in the data, attaining an excellent fit regardless of the amount of bias. Conversely, the models without the RIIFA factor produced increasingly a poorer fit with greater amounts of wording effects. Surprisingly, however, the RIIFA models were not able to better estimate the uncontaminated person scores for any type of wording effect in comparison to the substantive unidimensional models. The simulation results were then corroborated with an empirical dataset, examining the relationship between learning strategies and personality with grade point average in undergraduate studies. The apparently paradoxical findings regarding the model fit and the recovery of the person scores are explained, considering the properties of the factor models examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of response bias in psychological tests have been investigated for years, the two most common being social desirability (SD) and acquiescence (AC). However, the traditional methods for controlling or eliminating the impact of those biases in participants' scores have several limitations. Some factor analysis-based methods can overcome some of these limitations, such as the procedure proposed by Ferrando, Lorenzo-Seva, and Chico (2009). Nevertheless, this method involves programming skills that are not common among applied researchers or clinicians. Consequently, we have developed a stand-alone, user-friendly application that provides an easy way of using the aforementioned method to perform a factor analysis which controls for the effect of AC and SD. The program has been developed in the MATLAB environment and its distribution is entirely free.

INTRODUCTION. For 74 years, Russia and Japan have both claimed legal title over the four Southern Kuril Islands, paralysed by their controversy from making a post-WWII peace treaty and realising the full potential of their bilateral relations. This entire time, the islands have been governed in all aspects of their legal, political, and economic life, by the Russian side. This entire time, Japan has made diplomatic protests contesting the legality of Russian jurisdiction. With no international authority to determine which of the countries prevails, one wonders if the effective Russian control has not or should not have, by now, overcome Japanese protests – almost the only tool international law provides for states to prevent another’s title.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The international legal principles and doctrines at play are the overarching notions of effectiveness and stability, governing the resolution of any territorial disputes, the related doctrines of prescription and acquiescence, and the maxim ex injuria jus non oritur that aims to preclude territorial change if it originates in illegality – these are studied on the basis of contemporary works on the international law of territory and the general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, description, and deduction.RESEARCH RESULTS. Effectiveness and stability lie at the heart of territorial change. Their derivative doctrines of prescription and acquiescence serve as tools for legitimizing title of dubious origins through long, peaceful and effective possession of territory absent protests from the former sovereign (and subject to the self-determination of the territory’s inhabitants), and, possibly, with the help of recognition by third states. Whether the opposing notion of ex injuria jus non oritur is an international legal principle remains debatable. The international law, however, in the politically sensitive matters of territory is too meek to provide a definite answer to when these concepts clash within the reality such as that of the Southern Kuril dispute.DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. In weighing the Russian effective control over the islands against Japan’s demands that the territories be returned to Japan, the key question is: does effective possession override protests, given the duration and quality of such effectiveness and such protests? It is argued here that such an answer would benefit the aim of stability sought by the international law and that in the situation at hand it should be a carefully qualified, but emphatic yes.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of socially desirable responding in an item-pair measure of acquiescence from the Big Five Inventory. If both items in an item-pair have desirable content, the likelihood of agreeing with both items is increased, and consequently, the type of responding that would be taken to indicate acquiescence. In Study I, item content desirability was evaluated for each of the 32 items belonging to the item-pairs in two samples of 214 and 68 university students. The item-pair desirability was then correlated with the percentage of respondents who agreed with both items in a separate sample of 895 students. Results showed a substantial correlation between item-pairs' desirability and the percentage of estimated acquiescence, indicating an inflation of acquiescence when item-pairs have desirable content. The finding was further supported by Study II, in which acquiescence and item difficulty, assessed with cognitive interviews, were unrelated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the within-domain structure of the five domains of personality measured by the Big Five Inventory-2 with data collected from an adolescent sample (N = 838). Three possible factor models were tested: a single factor, correlated facets, and a single factor with correlated residuals. We examined each model controlling for acquiescence, a response bias in which respondents tend to agree/disagree regardless of item content, using two approaches: acquiescence factor and within-person centering of item-level responses. Across each domain, results indicated both the correlated facets and correlated residuals models demonstrated acceptable fit. Accounting for acquiescent responding was generally associated with improved model fit. However, consistent with past struggles in measuring open-mindedness in adolescents, the correlated residuals model with acquiescence as a factor for open-mindedness failed to converge. Regularized structural equation modeling was conducted on this model for open-mindedness and suggested certain residual covariances that contributed to estimation difficulties should be constrained to zero. Advantages of models are discussed with implications for studying the Big Five personality domains in adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Response biases are issues in inventories in positive organizational psychology. The study aims to control the response bias in the assessment of meaning of work through two methods: reversed key items and forcedchoice format. The sample consisted of 351 professionals; women constituted 60.0 % of the sample. The participants answered two versions of the instrument for meaning of work: Likert-type items and forced-choice. For both versions, the unifactorial model was the most appropriate for the data available. The results indicate that the random intercepts model fit the Likert data (CFI = .92), as well as the forced-choice model (CFI = .97). Besides, the latent dimension of the forced-choice version did not correlate with acquiescence index (r < .08; p > .05), and approximately 20 % of the variance of the items might be due to the method (Likert or forced-choice). The present study illustrates the importance of response bias control in self-report instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Callous-unemotional traits are considered to be precursors of psychopathy, and are related to behaviors such as aggression, delinquency, antisocial behavior, and bullying in adolescents. For this reason, it is important to study these traits in childhood and adolescence with appropriate and reliable instruments. The aim of the current study is to develop a Mexican adaptation of the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits and Antisocial Behavior (INCA) because few questionnaires in Spanish assess these traits, and even fewer have been validated for the Mexican population. The INCA questionnaire, developed in Spain, assesses the same three factors as the ICU questionnaire (unemotional, callousness, and uncaring), and it includes an additional factor of antisocial behavior with items on challenging authority and breaking social rules. It controls two response biases: social desirability and acquiescence. We administered the Mexican adaptation, named INCA-M, to 699 adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years old. Factor analysis yielded three dimensions, because most of the items referring to uncaring and antisocial behavior loaded on a common factor, which can be explained by cultural differences. We decided to remove these items of antisocial behavior so as to maintain the same three factors assessed by the ICU questionnaire. The results suggest that the INCA-M has good psychometric properties, with high factor simplicity and good reliability. Moreover, we found the expected correlations with impulsivity and the Big Five subscales, and also with the equivalent subscales assessed by the ICU questionnaire.

Resolving boundan· dispiltes usually results in neighbors becoining antagonistic and oftentimes engaging in a costly venture. Land has always been associated with the identity of the owners, and any infringement on the phvsical property results as an infringement on the person. In general, the parties involved lose sight of cost and focus on the location of the boundary. This article compares clifil·ring theories to resolve boundary disputes and when appropriate advance the Doctrine of Consentable Line, as opposed to adverse possession, to acquire title to land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the acquiescent response style (ARS) among respondents in the Czech Republic. To analyse ARS, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed and the response style (RS) was modelled as a latent variable. The RS factor in the CFA model must be validated by its relationship to education and age, i.e. proxies of cognitive ability. The two studies presented in this article use large amount of data as all available balanced batteries of items were analysed. In Study 1, the RS factor showed no correlation with age/education in most of the models. Study 2 employed additional measures of cognitive ability and education and confirmed the overall absence of the relationship. Author concludes that the modelled RS factor then cannot be considered the ARS and deduces that the most likely explanation of the identified systematic error variance is the respondents' carelessness manifested by automatically choosing the extreme agreement, or choosing the first presented answer as a result of memory effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

background The objective of this paper is to examine the structure of social desirability. This variable is important in self-report questionnaires. Theoretical analyses indicate the existence of at least two dimensions of this construct, but there is no unambiguous empirical evidence for such a structure of social desirability. The present research aimed to determine the factor structure of the social desirability construct and the number of its dimensions. participants and procedure The inductive research strategy was applied and a new pool of questionnaire items was generated. This approach allows for detachment from the existing social desirability assessment instruments. This study focuses on the concepts of social desirability that examinees have, rather than on the content of existing items measuring social desirability. The verification of the social desirability structure was performed in three stages. At each stage, the number of items was gradually reduced. The successive phases of the study involved three different samples, respectively, consisting of 657, 415, and 1,709 examinees. results Initially, at the first stage of the study, two dimensions were detected, but in the two subsequent stages, the second dimension represented acquiescence. The procedure of partialling the mean out of the correlation matrix was applied to eliminate acquiescence. This dimension is related, as expected, to agreeableness and conscientiousness. It also appeared that the social desirability structure can be confounded by acquiescence in longer questionnaires. conclusions It is concluded that every item reflects both social desirability and acquiescence, albeit to different extents. A onedimensional construct of social desirability was finally obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]