89 research outputs found
How to use mixed-methods and triangulation designs: An introduction to history education research
As in many other social science disciplines, mixed methods and triangulation are gaining importance in history education research. Nevertheless, in this discipline there is also a prevailing lack of theoretical and methodological reflection about method integration. With this article, we wish to stimulate the methodological debate regarding this issue within the community of history education researchers and to strengthen the research profile of the discipline. We start by presenting lines of discussion regarding adequate research methods for the investigation of different types of social phenomena. Thereafter, we show how the ‘paradigm wars‘ in social research were mitigated by the development of integrative concepts such as triangulation and mixed methods. Then we focus on current
developments in history education research in German-speaking countries.Finally, we give a brief overview on international research into history teachers’
beliefs, thereby addressing specific challenges for the application of triangulation or mixed methods in our discipline
Mixed methods and triangulation in history education research: Introduction
This special edition of HERJ (number 16.1) sprang from an international symposium in Salzburg, Austria on 11 and 12 May 2017, called Triangulation in History Education Research (H-Soz-Kult, 2019). It includes 12 articles on mixed-methods research and triangulation in history education research from seven different countries: Australia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and the United Kingdom
Marketing, the past and corporate heritage
Argues for a more expansive conceptualisation of the past’s relevance in, and for, marketing. Such a differentiated approach to the past is pregnant with possibilities in terms of advancing scholarship apropos temporal agency in marketing along with consumption practices. Symptomatic of this perspective is the increased mindfulness of the rich palate of past-related concepts. Significantly, the corporate heritage notion - because of its omni-temporal nature - represents a distinct and meaningful vector on the past by coalescing the past, present and future into a new type of temporality. As such, the authors reason this expansive conceptualisation of ‘the past-in-marketing’ is both timely and efficacious. Whilst sensitive of the importance of the historical method in marketing and the history of marketing scholarship and practice per se. This broader marketing approach to and of the past highlights the ideational and material manifestations of the past-in-the-present and an envisaged past-in-the future
How robust are value judgements of health inequality aversion? Testing for framing and cognitive effects
Background: Empirical studies have found that members of the public are inequality averse and value health gains for disadvantaged groups with poor health many times more highly than gains for better off groups. However, these studies typically use abstract scenarios that involve unrealistically large reductions in health inequality, and face-to-face survey administration. It is not known how robust these findings are to more realistic scenarios or anonymous online survey administration.
Methods: This study aimed to test the robustness of questionnaire estimates of inequality aversion by comparing the following: (1) small versus unrealistically large health inequality reductions; (2) population-level versus individual-level descriptions of health inequality reductions; (3) concrete versus abstract intervention scenarios; and (4) online versus face to face mode of administration. Fifty-two members of the public participated in face-to-face discussion groups, while 83 members of the public completed an online survey. Participants were given a questionnaire instrument with different scenario descriptions for eliciting aversion to social inequality in health.
Results: The median respondent was inequality averse under all scenarios. Scenarios involving small rather than unrealistically large health gains made little difference in terms of inequality aversion, as did population-level rather than individual-level scenarios. However, the proportion expressing extreme inequality aversion fell 19 percentage points when considering a specific health intervention scenario rather than an abstract scenario, and was 11-21 percentage points lower among online public respondents compared to the discussion group.
Conclusions: Our study suggests that both concrete scenarios and online administration reduce the proportion expressing extreme inequality aversion but still yield median responses implying substantial health inequality aversion
Psychological determinants of whole-body endurance performance
Background: No literature reviews have systematically identified and evaluated research on the psychological determinants of endurance performance, and sport psychology performance-enhancement guidelines for endurance sports are not founded on a systematic appraisal of endurance-specific research.
Objective: A systematic literature review was conducted to identify practical psychological interventions that improve endurance performance and to identify additional psychological factors that affect endurance performance. Additional objectives were to evaluate the research practices of included studies, to suggest theoretical and applied implications, and to guide future research.
Methods: Electronic databases, forward-citation searches, and manual searches of reference lists were used to locate relevant studies. Peer-reviewed studies were included when they chose an experimental or quasi-experimental research design, a psychological manipulation, endurance performance as the dependent variable, and athletes or physically-active, healthy adults as participants.
Results: Consistent support was found for using imagery, self-talk, and goal setting to improve endurance performance, but it is unclear whether learning multiple psychological skills is more beneficial than learning one psychological skill. The results also demonstrated that mental fatigue undermines endurance performance, and verbal encouragement and head-to-head competition can have a beneficial effect. Interventions that influenced perception of effort consistently affected endurance performance.
Conclusions: Psychological skills training could benefit an endurance athlete. Researchers are encouraged to compare different practical psychological interventions, to examine the effects of these interventions for athletes in competition, and to include a placebo control condition or an alternative control treatment. Researchers are also encouraged to explore additional psychological factors that could have a negative effect on endurance performance. Future research should include psychological mediating variables and moderating variables. Implications for theoretical explanations of endurance performance and evidence-based practice are described
Of Black Swans and Tossed Coins: Is the Description-Experience Gap in Risky Choice Limited to Rare Events?
When faced with risky decisions, people tend to be risk averse for gains and risk
seeking for losses (the reflection effect). Studies examining
this risk-sensitive decision making, however, typically ask people directly what
they would do in hypothetical choice scenarios. A recent flurry of studies has
shown that when these risky decisions include rare outcomes, people make
different choices for explicitly described probabilities than for experienced
probabilistic outcomes. Specifically, rare outcomes are overweighted when
described and underweighted when experienced. In two experiments, we examined
risk-sensitive decision making when the risky option had two equally probable
(50%) outcomes. For experience-based decisions, there was a reversal of
the reflection effect with greater risk seeking for gains than for losses, as
compared to description-based decisions. This fundamental difference in
experienced and described choices cannot be explained by the weighting of rare
events and suggests a separate subjective utility curve for experience
Four reasons to prefer Bayesian analyses over significance testing
Inference using significance testing and Bayes factors is compared and contrasted in five case studies based on real research. The first study illustrates that the methods will often agree, both in motivating researchers to conclude that H1 is supported better than H0, and the other way round, that H0 is better supported than H1. The next four, however, show that the methods will also often disagree. In these cases, the aim of the paper will be to motivate the sensible evidential conclusion, and then see which approach matches those intuitions. Specifically, it is shown that a high-powered non-significant result is consistent with no evidence for H0 over H1 worth mentioning, which a Bayes factor can show, and, conversely, that a low-powered non-significant result is consistent with substantial evidence for H0 over H1, again indicated by Bayesian analyses. The fourth study illustrates that a high-powered significant result may not amount to any evidence for H1 over H0, matching the Bayesian conclusion. Finally, the fifth study illustrates that different theories can be evidentially supported to different degrees by the same data; a fact that P-values cannot reflect but Bayes factors can. It is argued that appropriate conclusions match the Bayesian inferences, but not those based on significance testing, where they disagree
Mechanisms of Endothelial Dysfunction in Resistance Arteries from Patients with End-Stage Renal Disease
The study focuses on the mechanisms of endothelial dysfunction in the uremic milieu. Subcutaneous resistance arteries from 35 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and 28 matched controls were studied ex-vivo. Basal and receptor-dependent effects of endothelium-derived factors, expression of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS), prerequisites for myoendothelial gap junctions (MEGJ), and associations between endothelium-dependent responses and plasma levels of endothelial dysfunction markers were assessed. The contribution of endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF) to endothelium-dependent relaxation was impaired in uremic arteries after stimulation with bradykinin, but not acetylcholine, reflecting the agonist-specific differences. Diminished vasodilator influences of the endothelium on basal tone and enhanced plasma levels of asymmetrical dimethyl L-arginine (ADMA) suggest impairment in NO-mediated regulation of uremic arteries. eNOS expression and contribution of MEGJs to EDHF type responses were unaltered. Plasma levels of ADMA were negatively associated with endothelium-dependent responses in uremic arteries. Preserved responses of smooth muscle to pinacidil and NO-donor indicate alterations within the endothelium and tolerance of vasodilator mechanisms to the uremic retention products at the level of smooth muscle. We conclude that both EDHF and NO pathways that control resistance artery tone are impaired in the uremic milieu. For the first time, we validate the alterations in EDHF type responses linked to kinin receptors in ESRD patients. The association between plasma ADMA concentrations and endothelial function in uremic resistance vasculature may have diagnostic and future therapeutic implications
Expert Financial Advice Neurobiologically “Offloads” Financial Decision-Making under Risk
BACKGROUND: Financial advice from experts is commonly sought during times of uncertainty. While the field of neuroeconomics has made considerable progress in understanding the neurobiological basis of risky decision-making, the neural mechanisms through which external information, such as advice, is integrated during decision-making are poorly understood. In the current experiment, we investigated the neurobiological basis of the influence of expert advice on financial decisions under risk. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: While undergoing fMRI scanning, participants made a series of financial choices between a certain payment and a lottery. Choices were made in two conditions: 1) advice from a financial expert about which choice to make was displayed (MES condition); and 2) no advice was displayed (NOM condition). Behavioral results showed a significant effect of expert advice. Specifically, probability weighting functions changed in the direction of the expert's advice. This was paralleled by neural activation patterns. Brain activations showing significant correlations with valuation (parametric modulation by value of lottery/sure win) were obtained in the absence of the expert's advice (NOM) in intraparietal sulcus, posterior cingulate cortex, cuneus, precuneus, inferior frontal gyrus and middle temporal gyrus. Notably, no significant correlations with value were obtained in the presence of advice (MES). These findings were corroborated by region of interest analyses. Neural equivalents of probability weighting functions showed significant flattening in the MES compared to the NOM condition in regions associated with probability weighting, including anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral PFC, thalamus, medial occipital gyrus and anterior insula. Finally, during the MES condition, significant activations in temporoparietal junction and medial PFC were obtained. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results support the hypothesis that one effect of expert advice is to "offload" the calculation of value of decision options from the individual's brain
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