Ethnicity and Impressions of Personality Using the Five-Factor Model: Stereotyping or Cultural Sensitivity?

The current research investigates whether communities use ethnicity as a cue when forming personality impressions of others. Past research has shown that dress, smiling, hairstyle, and even facial symmetry of targets produce systematic differences in personality impressions across the domains of the Five Factor model of personality. We investigated whether the stated or apparent ethnicity of groups and individuals also produce stereotypic impressions of personality. This study compared impressions across members and non-members of the target groups and examined cue utility i.e. whether impressions of the groups agreed with aggregated self-impressions by group members. In all, the results clearly suggest that people utilize ethnicity as a cue when forming impressions of the personalities of groups and individuals, and although those impressions are exaggerated consistent with stereotype theory, they confer some utility in interpersonal perceptions across cultures. Stereotypes are a strategy used to interpret the complex social environment in the absence of more specific information. When that information is available, perceptions of others become more refined and accurate. Keywords: stereotyping, ethnicity, Five Factor model, Native Americans, cultural sensitivity, personalit

Revisiting Local Campaign Effects: An Experiment Involving Literature Mail Drops in the 2007 Ontario Election

An invariant feature of constituency election campaigns is the literature mail drop, usually a one-page leaflet or card left at the door profiling the candidate and appealing for electoral support. In this article, we report on a field experiment designed to assess the effects of such mail drops. The experiment was conducted during the 2007 Ontario provincial election campaign in the constituency of Cambridge and entailed distributing literature for the Green party candidate in that constituency. After randomly assigning constituency polls to treatment and control groups, and delivering the Green candidate’s partisan literature only to the selected treatment group polls, we compared the candidate’s support levels in the treated polls with those in the control group. Our research detected a modest effect associated with the literature drop. The effect was largely limited to constituency neighbourhoods fitting at least part of the Green party’s traditional demographic, that is, those with higher than average socio-economic status

A Handbook of Strategies for Making Intertextual Connections During Read-Alouds to Build Schema for Elementary School Students

A handbook has been created to give primary teachers strategies for building valuable schema and an awareness of text connections during their read-aloud time. The handbook consists of an introduction, ten read-aloud lessons which include some student responses, reviews and classroom activities for twenty read-aloud books, as well as a critique of popular web sites for quality children\u27s literature. Current literature and research regarding schema theory, intertextuality, and reading aloud were reviewed

The relationship between intensity, frequency, duration, and location of physical activity and motivation: A Self-Determination Theory perspective

INTRODUCTION: As the prevalence of physical inactivity and the health risks involved with it continues to increase, effective intervention approaches have become a necessity. According to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), adherence to physical activity could be improved by designing programs or interventions that target the more autonomous reasons for exercise. In previous research, the exercise variable is often only defined in terms of frequency, duration, and intensity, and differentiation between locations of exercise has been neglected. Environments with natural features have been shown to heighten physical and mental health benefits, which could have important implications for public and environmental health. Given the positive outcomes of green exercise, it would be advantageous to investigate whether different types of motivation exist for all outdoor and, more narrowly, nature-based physical activity compared to other types of physical activity. METHODS: Alumni of a large Midwestern University were invited to participate via email. Those who agreed to participate completed an online survey that included assessments of physical activity behavior by the 7-Day Physical Activity Recall (7-Day PAR), motivation for physical activity by the Behavioral Regulations in Exercise Questionnaire (BREQ-2), stage of change, and demographic variables such as age, sex, height, weight, place of residence, ethnic group, and level of education. RESULTS: The final sample consisted of 1,051 active adults (mean age 43.5 ± 11.1 years). No relationship was found between the percentage of physical activities that took place in nature and the BREQ-2 subscales. The percentage of physical activities that took place outdoors was negatively correlated with integrated (r = -.12, p \u3c 0.01), identified (r = -.11, p \u3c 0.01), and introjected regulation (r = -.12, p \u3c 0.01), contrary to the hypothesis. However, among a subsample of participants that were meeting the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (defined as a frequency ≥ 3x per week and intensity ≥ 600 MET-minutes; N = 849), the percentage of physical activities that took place in nature was found to be positively correlated with intrinsic motivation (r = .08, p \u3c 0.05), integrated (r = .08, p \u3c 0.05) and identified regulation (r = .07, p \u3c 0.05). The percentage of physical activities that took place outdoors was negatively correlated with integrated (r = -.11, p \u3c 0.01), identified (r = -.10, p \u3c 0.01), and introjected regulation (r = -.13, p \u3c 0.01). Consistent with previous research, there was a positive correlation between autonomous forms of motivation and exercise frequency, duration, and vigorous intensity activity. However, a negative correlation between moderate intensity activity and intrinsic motivation, integrated, identified, and introjected regulation was observed. Regression analyses revealed that introjected regulation was the strongest and only significant (yet negative) predictor of nature-based physical activity. Intrinsic motivation was a positive predictor of outdoor physical activity, while both integrated and introjected regulations were negative predictors. CONCLUSION: The relationship between motivation and nature-based and outdoor physical activity is not clear, but it does appear that those who are physically active outdoors and in nature are less likely to be introjected, defined as performing the behavior out of guilt or shame. Intrinsic and other forms of autonomous motivation were associated with engagement in three or more days per week of vigorous intensity activity. Therefore, according to SDT, individuals whose physical activities have these characteristics may be more likely to adhere to their physical activity program. However, moderate intensity was negatively associated with the autonomous forms of motivation, which could have negative implications for physical activity adherence

The Pine Effect

This dissertation includes original poems written during my time at The University of Southern Mississippi

Juntos: vivieron, trabajaron y aprendieron (together: they lived, worked and learned); the history of Latinos In Valley Junction, Iowa

Prediction of colloidal nanoparticle aggregation is an important problem which needs to be solved in an accurate and efficient manner. In ideal case model which is chosen to predict colloidal nanoparticle aggregation should accurately describe physico-chemical interactions of relatively large physical systems, and at the same time, simulate at low computational cost. In this research, two simulation approaches, molecular dynamics (MD) and Brownian dynamics (BD), are analyzed and compared with a view to accurately predicting ggregation of colloidal nanoparticles. Because the BD technique is essentially a reduction of the MD method the accuracy requirements for BD simulations have been established. A new method to match aggregation statistics obtained from MD and BD simulations is proposed. In this method the evolution of the second-order density for MD model is derived. The average relative acceleration between nanopartilce pairs is identified as an important link between MD and coarse-grain simulations such as BD

The 2007 Provincial Election and Electoral System Referendum in Ontario

Ontario’s general election in Oct. 10, 2007, was unprecedented for several reasons. The election was held on a date fixed by legislation and not one set by the premier or his caucus, something new to Ontario and relatively new to Canadian politics. Turnout declined to 53%, the lowest ever in Ontario history. The incumbent Liberals won a second consecutive majority government, something the party had not achieved since 1937. And finally, the election featured a referendum question that asked voters in Ontario to approve reforms to the electoral system, a proposal that was overwhelmingly rejected. This article explores each of the above-stated elements as they unfolded in the election

Progressive development of scientific literacy through assessment in inquiry-based biomedical science curricula

A key outcome of science education is the development of graduates' scientific literacy, defined as "an individual's scientific knowledge, and use of that knowledge to identify questions, to acquire new knowledge, to explain scientific phenomena, and to draw evidence-based conclusions..." (OECD, 2010; pg 137). These skills are reflected throughout the Science Threshold Learning Outcomes (Jones, Yates and Kelder, 2011). To progressively develop such advanced skills within a broad major like biomedical science, it is essential to guide students along critical learning pathways. We have designed a series of inquiry-based classes to scaffold the development of these skills and vertically-integrated these across the curriculum (Zimbardi, Bugarcic, Colthorpe, Good and Lluka 2013), with this design receiving national recognition as best practice (Elliott, Boin, Irving, Johnson and Galea 2010; Kirkup and Johnson 2013). To facilitate skills development within these classes, students undertake increasingly complex assessment tasks as they progress through each course, requiring them to draw on their developing content knowledge to propose and undertake experiments, and to make conclusions based on their findings and evidence from scientific literature. Longitudinal analysis of a variety of assessment tasks from students across four semesters demonstrates the developmental trajectory of these skills. Specifically, they demonstrate increases in their ability to formulate testable hypotheses with measurable outcomes, their appreciation of cutting-edge methodologies and deeper understanding of the contestable nature of increasingly complex areas of scientific knowledge. This article reports on the design and use of these assessment tasks within the series of inquiry-based curricula, and their impact on the progression of student learning