How individualism and collectivism relate to team performance, team cohesion, and collective efficacy in a multilevel analysis : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

Individual-level individualism (IND) and collectivism (COL), team performance, and team cohesion were investigated as predictors of collective efficacy using Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM). Participants were 153 elite netball players comprising 16 teams competing at either of two national tournaments. The netball players completed a questionnaire the day before their tournament consisting of Carron, Widmeyer, and Brawley’s (1985) Group Environment Questionnaire measuring four types of team cohesion (‘individual attractions to the group-social’, ‘individual attractions to the group-task’, ‘group integration-social’, and ‘group integration-task’), Triandis and Gelfand’s (1998) IND-COL scale (measuring horizontal individualism, horizontal collectivism, vertical individualism, and vertical collectivism), and a collective efficacy measure designed for netball players by Wilkinson, Fletcher, and Sachsenweger (2011). Team performance was measured as the percentage of games won by each team at their tournament. The four types of IND-COL were analysed as individual-level predictors, and performance and team cohesion were included as team-level predictors, of collective efficacy. HLM was used to analyse main effects of individual-level and team-level predictors, and any cross level interactions simultaneously. As overall team cohesion and team performance increased, collective efficacy increased, consistent with previous research. However, when the four types of cohesion were specified as team-level predictors, only the ‘individual attractions to the group-task’ (ATGT) type of cohesion significantly predicted collective efficacy, and performance no longer remained a significant predictor of collective efficacy. Furthermore, at high levels of ATGT, players higher on vertical collectivism tended to have greater collective efficacy. Whereas at low levels of ATGT, players higher on vertical collectivism tended to have lower collective efficacy. This type of interaction had not been explored in research previously, and was a new finding. Therefore, the study highlighted the value in research on how individual-level IND and COL relate to team cohesion and collective efficacy, and offered the first insight into their relationship in a team context

The integration of education and training in further education and training : towards a pedagogy of mode-switching

The integration of different types and areas of knowledge and skills is being explored for the first time in the official discourse on educational reconstruction in South Africa. The reasons for this are bound up with the country's general global conditions of capital accumulation and its political and social history. The conceptually and practically integrated curricula envisaged pose some challenges that will have to be addressed. On the one hand, the culture of democracy presently being introduced in the educational arena leads to notions of learner autonomy, self-realisation, recognition of diversity, and socio-economic redress and equity. On the other hand, the present conditions of capital accumulation accentuate the market discourse of efficiency, competitiveness and tangible outcomes

Stories in Stone

If it is true, as Hawthorne tells us, that “A grave, wherever found, preaches a short and pithy sermon,” then perhaps a gravestone teaches history. That it records facts of history we know, but in the growth of towns and cities, as skyscrapers and subdivisions supplant old homes and scattered farms, some records of facts are being lost. With the thought of preserving family history the attempt was made in the summer of 1940 to compile the records on early gravemarkers in Duval County. An unexpected bonus was the information gained of Duval County families and how they had helped to make Florida history

Availability of Social Support, Coping Strategies, Student Stressors and Wellness Among Older Women Studying Online During the Pandemic

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to explore the association between older women’s subjective perceptions of available social support, their coping strategies, self-reported wellness, and stressors experienced as online students studying during the pandemic. Method: A convenience sample of 115 older adult women learners (Mean age = 40.88, SD = 11.27) studying online in March 2021 in one of the world’s largest providers of higher-education distance-learning courses was gathered using a survey methodology. Results: Using structural equation modelling, we showed that perceptions of social support were associated with a higher use of positive coping and a lower use of negative coping strategies, ultimately improving markers of wellness and reducing student stressors. Conclusions: The results indicate that those who perceived that social support from significant others would be available upon request utilised more adaptive coping strategies to deal with study-related adversities during the COVID pandemic. Implications: The study highlighted the importance of embracing older students’ own capacity to cope with adversity and emphasizing that one-to-one support can be available if needed

The frontal bone as a proxy for sex estimation in humans: a geometric morphometric analysis

Physical anthropologists have a toolkit for determining sex from skeletal remains composed of visual and metric techniques concerning the pelvis and the skull. However, complete elements are not always available and results can be indeterminate. The present study combines visual assessment of the skull with statistical methods of shape analysis, geometric morphometrics, to reach a better understanding of how cranial variation of the frontal bone is influenced by sex. The three-dimensional coordinates of frontal bone curvatures of 204 skulls from the Terry Collection were collected using a Microscribe digitizer. These data were used to assess the ability of this technique to estimate sex. Results of a Procrustes distance analysis of variance (ANOVA) suggest that variation in frontal bone curvature is explained best by sex compared to variables of ancestry and visual score. A discriminant function analysis (DFA) cross-validation test of sex classification showed the DFA correctly assigns frontal bones as female with 88.3% accuracy and males with 70.4% accuracy. These results suggest that this technique may be useful in future sex estimation software

Land Grant Application- Chadbourn, Silas (Gorham)

Land grant application submitted to the Maine Land Office on behalf of Silas Chadbourn for service in the Revolutionary War, by their widow Lucy Edwards.https://digitalmaine.com/revolutionary_war_me_land_office/1167/thumbnail.jp

Design of Economic Evaluations of Mindfulness-Based Interventions:Ten Methodological Questions of Which to Be Mindful

Mindfulness Based Interventions (MBIs) are being increasingly applied in a variety of settings. A growing body of evidence to support the effectiveness of these interventions exists and there are a few published cost-effectiveness studies. With limited resources available within public sectors (healthcare, social care and education) it is necessary to build in concurrent economic evaluations alongside trials in order to inform service commissioning and policy. If future research studies are well designed they have strong potential to investigate the economic impact of MBIs. The particular challenge to the health economist is how best to capture the ways that MBIs help people adjust to or build resilience to difficult life circumstances; and to disseminate effectively to enable policy makers to judge the value of the contribution that MBI's can make within the context of the limited resourcing of public services. In anticipation of more research worldwide evaluating MBIs in various settings this article suggests ten health economics methodological design questions that researchers may want to consider prior to conducting MBI research. These questions draw on both published standards of good methodological practice in economic evaluation of medical interventions, and on the authors' knowledge and experience of mindfulness-based practice. We argue that it is helpful to view MBIs as both complex interventions and as public health prevention initiatives. Our suggestions for well-designed economic evaluations of MBIs in health and other settings

Brief communication: Changes to cow behaviour when transitioning from twice a day to a 3-in-2 milking schedule

The objective of this study was to assess changes to cow behaviour when decreasing milking frequency from twice a day (TAD) to three milkings in two days (3-in-2). CowManager SensOor™ ear tags were attached to cows (n=29) for 15 days before, and 30 days after, transitioning to 3-in-2. To investigate general trends, paired t-tests were used to compare means between activity types (time spent active, highly active, not active, eating or ruminating) and milking frequency. After transitioning to 3-in-2 milking, the total time active was greater (+32.3 mins/cow/day; SEM 6.46), whilst the time spent eating (-16.2 mins/cow/day; SEM 7.57) and ruminating (-12.7 mins/cow/day; SEM 3.59) decreased. These differences were inconsistent between daylight and dark hours. These results indicate that the extra time spent in the paddock by the cows due to a 3-in-2 milking schedule was spent active, potentially due to social interaction and feed-searching behaviours, with a decrease in rumination and eating behaviours