The Background, Psychometric Qualities and Clinical Application of the Visual Analog Mood Scales: A Review and Evaluation

The purpose of this report is to evaluate the published version of the Visual Analog Mood Scales. These scales were published in 1997 and assess eight clinically relevant unipolar dimensions: afraid, confused, sad, angry, energetic, tired, happy, tense. From a search of the literature in PsycINFO, 24 empirical studies (including reliability and validity) were located on the application of the scales. The use of the scales for diagnosis, treatment and experimentation is described and published data on the test-retest reliability and validity of the scales is summarized. The reported test-retest correlations ranged from .43 to .87 and were considered too low for high stakes decisions. From nine studies, the concurrent validity coefficients across the eight scales ranged from a low of .12 to as high as .82. It is concluded that the scales have clinical utility for a quasi-non-verbal or pictorial assessment of mood states but there are limitations in the interpretation of the results. This is due to the shortcomings in the standardization samples as well as concerns for the psychometric quality in terms of validity and reliability

JOB STRESSORS AND SLOW MEDICINE IN HEALTH CARE: A SCOPING REVIEW

This paper provides a framework for addressing the stressors in modern medical health care, especially those that relate to psychology and psychiatry. Despite its advances, organized medicine is beset with inefficiencies and imperfections. The extent of burnout and stress for health professionals is documented in this scoping review. The impact on mental health is described and an approach based on a slower medicine is advocated

Analysing the Expert Judgment of a Rehabilitation Counsellor: A Case Study

This case study analysed the expert judgments of a rehabilitation counsellor. The counsellor was given 37 accident victims' self-ratings of health, energy, daily activities, self-esteem, personal relations, financial resources and living conditions. The accident victims also rated their own overall quality of life as poor or good. The expert was required to make judgments about whether the quality of life was poor or good in each case and matched the ratings of the accident victims in 64.8% of cases. The results suggest that under conditions of uncertainty and complexity an expert may be more accurate than chance but still fail to use the properties of information to their maximum advantag

Probability of Responding: A Return to the Original Brunswik

This paper traces the conceptual foundations of the Brunswik based Social Judgment Theory. The historical transition from measurement through probability of responding (i.e., a constancy ratio) to measurement via correlations is documented. It is shown that there are substantive limitations with the correlation approach for the idiographic analysis of human perception or decision-making. Instead, the constancy ratio developed originally by Brunswik as well as the measurement of the probability of accuracy in responding are better suited to the analysis of human responding under conditions of uncertainty and complexity. These measures are relevant for the development of psychological laws of individual responding. It was concluded that focusing on the probability of individual responses to situations through analysing the pattern of responding intensively is more consistent with the original approach of Brunswik

Male and female differences in self-report cheating

Cheating is an important area for educational research, not only because it reduces the consequential validity of assessment results, but also because it is anathema to widely held public principles of equity and truthfulness (see Cizek, 1999 for a comprehensive review of the topic). Moreover, modern education is centered on numerous situations that really depend upon a student’s honesty. The purpose of this paper is to review the extent of academic cheating and to describe any gender differences in self-reports. Accessed 66,268 times on https://pareonline.net from May 18, 2002 to December 31, 2019. For downloads from January 1, 2020 forward, please click on the PlumX Metrics link to the right

Which components of instruction influence student interest?

This study investigated how subject interest is related to components of instruction, the nature of the subject and/or student factors. Students (N=524) from over 30 technical and further education colleges completed a survey on aspects of teaching and their interest in a subject. Student ratings of the 12 components of instruction and subject interest were uniformly positive. The overall average of the 12 questions on different aspects of teaching was 3.3 (ratings ranged from I to 4). This correlated 0.46 with the rating of subject interest. There was no significant effect of age, gender, being in the first or later years of a course or whether attending full time or part time on the level of interest in the subject. A significantly high and positive correlation with the level of subject interest was observed for those subjects which were rated highly in terms of preparing people for a career (r= 0.55; p \u3c.0.01). The most important instructional factors were: the ability to explain concepts clearly, helping students to understand and demonstrating the relevance of the subject

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Efficacy for Reducing Recidivism Rates of Moderate- and High-Risk Sexual Offenders: A Scoping Systematic Literature Review

Published ArticleThis literature scoping review compared recidivism rates of moderate- and highrisk sexual offenders who received cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) oriented treatments. Ten empirical studies from 2001 to 2014 were selected for review that met the following criteria: (a) Treatment program included a CBT-based intervention with a comparative intervention; (b) participants included adult, male, moderate- and high-risk sexual offenders only; and (c) follow-up data for up to 12 months. Data were analyzed using a summative metric for recidivism rate comparisons (N = 3,073 for CBT and N = 3,588, for comparison approaches). Sexual offense recidivism rates varied from 0.6% to 21.8% (with CBT) and from 4.5% to 32.3% (with comparison intervention). The within-sample median rate of violent recidivism with a history of sexual offense was 21.1% (with CBT) versus 32.6% (comparison). Sexual offenders had a general felonies (within-sample) median recidivism rate of 27.05% (with CBT) versus 51.05% (comparison). The evidence supports the conclusion that CBT in its various forms is an efficacious treatment modality to prevent offense recidivism by sexual offenders. Suggestions for future research are considered

A Chemical Probe for Tudor Domain Protein Spindlin1 to Investigate Chromatin Function.

Modifications of histone tails, including lysine/arginine methylation, provide the basis of a 'chromatin or histone code'. Proteins that con-tain 'reader' domains can bind to these modifications and form specific effector complexes, which ultimately mediate chromatin function. The spindlin1 (SPIN1) protein contains three Tudor methyl-lysine/arginine reader domains and was identified as a putative onco-gene and transcriptional co-activator. Here we report a SPIN1 chemi-cal probe inhibitor with low nanomolar in vitro activity, exquisite selectivity on a panel of methyl reader and writer proteins, and with submicromolar cellular activity. X-ray crystallography showed that this Tudor domain chemical probe simultaneously engages Tudor domains 1 and 2 via a bidentate binding mode. Small molecule inhibition and siRNA knockdown of SPIN1, as well as chemoproteomic studies, iden-tified genes which are transcriptionally regulated by SPIN1 in squa-mous cell carcinoma and suggest that SPIN1 may have a roll in cancer related inflammation and/or cancer metastasis

The relationship of trait EI with academic performance: a meta-analytic review

Purpose. In the past decade, there has been considerable debate among scholars over whether trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) predicts academic performance (AP). Theoretically, trait EI may directly and indirectly, albeit modestly, influence AP; however, relations of trait EI with AP have been inconsistent across studies, raising the possibility that the observed relation may be moderated by methodological and theoretical factors. This meta-analysis aimed to assess the validity of trait EI for predicting AP and test moderators of the relation between the construct

Investigating the psychosocial mechanisms underlying the influence of trait emotional intelligence on university adjustment: the mediating roles of coping and social support

Heretofore, no studies have investigated the psychosocial mechanisms underlying the effects of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) on recent school leavers' adjustment to university. This is surprising since trait EI is, theoretically, expected to exert its most beneficial effects on academic and socio-emotional functioning under conditions of potentially high affective arousal, such as adjusting to novel educational environments. The present study specified and tested a short-term longitudinal mediation model in which perceived social support and coping were hypothesised to mediate the relation between trait EI and university adjustment (N = 250). These postulated mediating processes extend the extant literature by elucidating the psychosocial pathways through which distal affective traits may influence university adjustment. Structural equation modeling, with robust maximum likelihood estimation, revealed that trait EI exerted indirect effects on university adjustment via both social support and coping, controlling for the concomitant effects of neuroticism, extraversion and conscientiousness. Students high on trait EI were more likely to perceive greater social support, and more likely to use engagement coping in response to exposure to academic and socio-emotional stressors, which, in turn, positively influenced midterm adjustment. Limitations of this study, future directions and implications for university counselling and student services operations are discussed