An Instrument to Assess Self-Statements During Public Speaking: Scale Development and Preliminary Psychometric Properties

Public speaking is the most commonly reported fearful social situation. Although a number of contemporary theories emphasize the importance of cognitive processes in social anxiety, there is no instrument available to assess fearful thoughts experienced during public speaking. The Self-Statements During Public Speaking (SSPS) scale is a 10-item questionnaire consisting of two 5-item subscales, the Positive Self-Statements (SSPS-P) and the Negative Self-Statements subscale (SSPS-N). Four studies report on the development and the preliminary psychometric properties of this instrument

Development and Validation of the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale–Brief

Twenty-five years ago, one of the first empirically validated measures of perfectionism, the Frost et al. Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (F-MPS) was published. Since that time, psychometric studies of the original F-MPS have provided a plethora of evidence to support the potential development of a shorter yet still psychometrically robust version of the measure. Using confirmatory factor analyses across community and clinical samples, the current study identifies an eight-item F-MPS-Brief with two dimensions (i.e., striving and evaluative concerns) that evidences good internal consistency, measurement equivalence across ethnicities, and concurrent and convergent validity. This new, short version of the F-MPS captures well the bidimensional model of perfectionism that has emerged across studies over the past two decades and is suggested for use when a short yet high-performing assessment tool for this model is desired

Effects of Anxiety on Attentional Allocation and Task Performance: An Information Processing Analysis

An information processing signal detection methodology was employed to examine attentional allocation and its correlates in both normal comparison (NC) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) participants. In particular, the impact of neutral distractor and negative feedback cues on performance of an attention vigilance task was investigated. Individuals with GAD (N = 15) evidenced impaired performance on an attention vigilance task relative to NC participants (N = 15) when neutral distractor cues were presented. Contrary to prediction, no group differences in performance were detected under conditions in which participants were presented negative feedback cues they were told were relevant to their performance. Instead, GAD participants exhibited improvement during the experimental task such that their performance was equivalent to NC participants. Across trials, the clinically anxious group endorsed significantly higher levels of worry and negative affectivity; however, they failed to respond with concomitant physical arousal (e.g. increased muscle tension). These data are discussed within the context of Eysenck and Calvo\u27s processing efficiency theory. Additionally, the results of this investigation provide support for Barlow\u27s conceptualization of anxiety as requiring the interaction of cognitive schema and physiological arousal

Developing a faculty learning community grounded in the science of how people learn: A Year-Long, Faculty-Led Teaching and Learning Seminar.

This chapter describes a multiyear professional development effort undertaken by a learning and teaching center at a liberal arts college. As part of its founding mandate, the center helps faculty improve teaching by paying attention to the current literature about how people learn. This core commitment of our center is pursued through support of a year‐long faculty seminar. Now in its fourth year, the seminar has had a significant impact on its faculty participants and their thinking about teaching and learning. Moreover, the seminar has seeded a number of teaching and assessment initiatives at the college

Pivoting Toward the Future: Fifty Years of Summer Research Fellowship Success Catalyzes Institutional Change

For 50 years, Smith College’s Summer Research Fellowship (SURF) has provided undergraduate women scientists the opportunity for an immersive experience to conduct independent research under the mentorship of science faculty and staff. This article highlights summative assessment data on SURF program outcomes as well as the institutional planning and responses that followed from careful consideration of SURF’s success and challenges. SURF participation was associated with a full range of student benefits, including a higher overall college gradepoint average, greater advanced research participation, and increased likelihood of completing an advanced degree. Evidence of these powerful and lasting student impacts associated with the SURF program was integral to divisional strategic planning within the sciences and helped propel curricular innovation broadly, creating faculty and institutional investments in a broad range of cuttingedge pedagogical approaches that are student-centered and inquiry-driven

Improving outcomes for underrepresented women in science: The Achieving Excellence in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science (AEMES) programs at Smith College

Created to support diverse students interested in the sciences, Smith College’s Achieving Excellence in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science (AEMES) programs have improved life science academic outcomes for women of color. Elements of Smith’s AEMES programs include leadership development, peer mentoring, and faculty-mentored research opportunities, all sharing the goals of building community, increasing academic engagement, and encouraging persistence for underrepresented students. Since launching AEMES, our students of color in the life sciences have shown significant gains in positive outcomes (introductory biology and chemistry course GPA; retention in life sciences majors), dissolving a previously observed gap in gateway course performance relative to majority students. We discuss potential explanations for these outcomes as well as our ongoing work to evaluate and foster programming efforts aimed at achieving further inclusive excellence in the sciences, especially given the lack of change in advanced life sciences research participation for students of color over time. With greater investments in programs that encourage access in undergraduate programs across the United States, such as Smith’s AEMES program, the next generation of scientists will become increasingly diverse, broadening the approaches and perspectives of our STEM talent and workforce

Principles and Practices Fostering Inclusive Excellence: Lessons from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Capstone Institutions

Best-practices pedagogy in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) aims for inclusive excellence that fosters student persistence. This paper describes principles of inclusivity across 11 primarily undergraduate institutions designated as Capstone Awardees in Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) 2012 competition. The Capstones represent a range of institutional missions, student profiles, and geographical locations. Each successfully directed activities toward persistence of STEM students, especially those from traditionally underrepresented groups, through a set of common elements: mentoring programs to build community; research experiences to strengthen scientific skill/ identity; attention to quantitative skills; and outreach/bridge programs to broaden the student pool. This paper grounds these program elements in learning theory, emphasizing their essential principles with examples of how they were implemented within institutional contexts. We also describe common assessment approaches that in many cases informed programming and created traction for stakeholder buy-in. The lessons learned from our shared experiences in pursuit of inclusive excellence, including the resources housed on our companion website, can inform others’ efforts to increase access to and persistence in STEM in higher education

When Brilliance Backfires: Perfectionism’s Cutting Edge

Department Chair of Psychology at Smith College, Patricia DiBartolo, spoke about the crippling side effects of perfectionism as a part of Smith’s Chaired Professor Lecture series

Shedding Light On The Relationship Between Personal Standards And Psychopathology: The Case For Contingent Self-Worth

Previous research has revealed some puzzling inconsistencies in the relationship of Personal Standards (PS) to measures of psychopathology. This study was designed to explore the hypothesis that setting high Personal Standards will relate to psychopathology only when meeting these standards is a necessary condition for a sense of self-worth. We generated items that reflected a sense of conditional self-worth based on the meeting of Personal Standards and named this measure the Contingent Self-Worth Scale (CSWS). Factor analysis of the CSWS and the PS subscale of the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale yielded three types of Personal Standards: Pure Personal Standards, Success-Based Self-Worth, and Activity-Based Self-Worth. Two of the original PS items did not load on the Pure Personal Standards scale. Correlational analyses revealed that Pure Personal Standards was related to measures of adaptive outcome whereas both measures of Contingent Self-Worth were related to more maladaptive functioning, although with some small differences. We call for further research to explore the relationship of PS to the construct of perfectionism. © 2004 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc