Teacher personality and teacher effectiveness in secondary school: Personality predicts teacher support and student self-efficacy but not academic achievement

Students' educational outcomes are predicted by their noncognitive characteristics, including Big Five personality domains. Although theories of teaching and learning suggest that teacher noncognitive characteristics also impact student outcomes, such characteristics are rarely studied systematically. We propose that the Big Five personality domains of teachers are associated with teacher effectiveness. Furthermore, we test two potential moderators of these relationships: (1) source of teacher personality report (student reports may show stronger effects than teacher self-reports) and (2) frame of reference (contextualized "at school" personality items for teacher self-reports may show stronger effects than noncontextualized standard personality items). Multilevel regressions were conducted on the data collected from secondary school students (N = 2,082) and their mathematics and English teachers (N = 75). We statistically controlled for student and teacher gender, student previous academic achievement, and student personality. Teacher personality predicted the subjective measures of teacher effectiveness- the strongest predictors were conscientiousness for teacher academic support, agreeableness for teacher personal support, and neuroticism for student performance self-efficacy. Teacher personality did not predict the objective measure (student academic achievement). These effects were moderated by source of personality report but not by frame of reference. The possibility of including personality as part of the initial teacher trainee selection procedure in the future is briefly discussed

Aversion vs. Abstinence: Conceptual Distinctions for the Receptivity Toward Algorithmic Decision-Making Systems Within Value-laden Contexts

Whilst algorithmic decision-making systems (ADMS) become increasingly pertinent across several contexts, many remain reluctant to adopt such systems, preferring human alternatives – often explored as “Algorithm Aversion”. However, the associated literature primarily frames this tendency in a utility-focused fashion, based on users’ perceptions of efficacy or accuracy. This framing offers a narrow scope of “aversion” that neglects emotional and experiential elements that may be at play, as well as especially prominent in “value-laden contexts” (e.g., medicine). This study uses an inductive approach to identifying various concepts and themes emerging from open-ended responses to the potential use of a future ADMS in such a context. Different reactions (both reluctant and receptive) of ADMS are then discussed and offered conceptual distinctions that may inform future examinations of the resulting biases. In doing so, we start to respond to the call for qualitative research examining the underlying motives related to Algorithm Aversion

Balancing the bio in a biopsychosocial model of hazardous drinking and alcohol use disorders

How alcohol problems are represented, including as ‘Alcohol Use Disorder’ (AUD), has a broad set of implications for research, policy and practice. A biopsychosocial approach is commonly offered as a means of taking into account the various environmental and individual level factors that may contribute to so called mental and behavioural disorders including AUD. In this reply we argue that the reference article presents a heavy focus on ‘bio’ factors without sufficiently acknowledging the potential costs of doing so, particularly that a focus on individual level ‘bio’ factors may undermine the utilization of effective environmental policy levers whilst potentially harming AUD recovery processes. Thus, we call for a more balanced focus on the ‘psychosocial’ factors related to AUD

Implicit Essentialism: Genetic Concepts Are Implicitly Associated with Fate Concepts

Genetic essentialism is the tendency for people to think in more essentialist ways upon encountering genetic concepts. The current studies assessed whether genetic essentialist biases would also be evident at the automatic level. In two studies, using different versions of the Implicit Association Test [1], we found that participants were faster to categorize when genes and fate were linked, compared to when these two concepts were kept separate and opposing. In addition to the wealth of past findings of genetic essentialism with explicit and deliberative measures, these biases appear to be also evident with implicit measure

Analytic atheism : A cross-culturally weak and fickle phenomenon?

Religious belief is a topic of longstanding interest to psychological science, but the psychology of religious disbelief is a relative newcomer. One prominently discussed model is analytic atheism, wherein cognitive reflection, as measured with the Cognitive Reflection Test, overrides religious intuitions and instruction. Consistent with this model, performance-based measures of cognitive reflection predict religious disbelief in WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, & Democratic) samples. However, the generality of analytic atheism remains unknown. Drawing on a large global sample (N = 3461) from 13 religiously, demographically, and culturally diverse societies, we find that analytic atheism as usually assessed is in fact quite fickle cross-culturally, appearing robustly only in aggregate analyses and in three individual countries. The results provide additional evidence for culture's effects on core beliefs.Peer reviewe

Essentially biased: why people are fatalistic about genes

We propose that people are genetic essentialists—that is, they tend to think of genetic attributions as being immutable, of a specific etiology, natural, and dividing people into homogenous and discrete groups. Although there are rare conditions where genes operate in these kinds of deterministic ways, people overgeneralize from these to the far more common conditions where genes are not at all deterministic. These essentialist biases are associated with some harmful outcomes such as racism, sexism, pessimism in the face of illnesses, political polarization, and support for eugenics, while at the same time they are linked with increased tolerance and sympathy for gay rights, mental illness, and less severe judgments of responsibility for crime. We will also discuss how these essentialist biases connect with the burgeoning direct-to-consumer genomics industry and various kinds of genetic engineering. Overall, these biases appear rather resistant to efforts to reduce them, although genetics literacy predicts weaker essentialist tendencies

A qualitative study of independent fast food vendors near secondary schools in disadvantaged Scottish neighbourhoods

Background: Preventing and reducing childhood and adolescent obesity is a growing priority in many countries. Recent UK data suggest that children in more deprived areas have higher rates of obesity and poorer diet quality than those in less deprived areas. As adolescents spend a large proportion of time in school, interventions to improve the food environment in and around schools are being considered. Nutrient standards for school meals are mandatory in the UK, but many secondary pupils purchase foods outside schools at break or lunchtime that may not meet these standards. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with fast food shop managers to explore barriers to offering healthier menu options. Recruitment targeted independently-owned shops near secondary schools (pupils aged c.12-17) in low-income areas of three Scottish cities. Ten interviews were completed, recorded, and transcribed for analysis. An inductive qualitative approach was used to analyse the data in NVivo 10. Results: Five themes emerged from the data: pride in what is sold; individual autonomy and responsibility; customer demand; profit margin; and neighbourhood context. Interviewees consistently expressed pride in the foods they sold, most of which were homemade. They felt that healthy eating and general wellbeing are the responsibility of the individual and that offering what customers want to eat, not necessarily what they should eat, was the only way to stay in business. Most vendors felt they were struggling to maintain a profit, and that many aspects of the low-income neighbourhood context would make change difficult or impossible. Conclusions: Independent food shops in low-income areas face barriers to offering healthy food choices, and interventions and policies that target the food environment around schools should take the neighbourhood context into consideration

Social Dominance Orientation Moderates the Effectiveness of Mindset Messages

In this work, we examine if difference in social dominance orientation (SDO) moderate the effectiveness of mindsets of intelligence messages. We suggest that SDO is a foundational ideological belief system, on which individuals vary, that maintains the desire to endorse fixed beliefs about the nature of human intelligence. Thus, attempts to change individuals\u27 mindsets should be met with resistance from those who strongly endorse the social dominance ideology-individuals high on SDO. In contrast, individuals low on SDO are less likely to use mindsets of intelligence to justify an ideological belief system, and thus mindset manipulations should be effective for them. We test these predictions across three experimental studies (NStudy1= 271, NStudy2= 207, NStudy3= 313). Across the studies, we find that individuals who are high, relative to low, on SDO have more fixed beliefs about the nature of intelligence and show smaller effects of manipulations of mindsets. However, when comparing to a control condition, there was no evidence that high SDO participants resisted the growth message that contradicts their ideology more than the fixed one that supports it; additionally, low SDO participants showed heightened responsiveness to a fixed message. We discuss implications for theoretical advances in our understanding of mindsets