Funciones de R para cuantificar la interdependencia en diseños dídicos estándar y SRM

Interdependence is the main feature of dyadic relationships and, in recent years, various statistical procedures have been proposed for quantifying and testing this social attribute in different dyadic designs. The purpose of this paper is to develop several functions for this kind of statistical tests in an R package, known as nonindependence, for use by applied social researchers. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is also developed to facilitate the use of the functions included in this package. Examples drawn from psychological research and simulated data are used to illustrate how the software works.La interdependencia es la principal característica de las relaciones diádicas y, recientemente, se han desarrollado varios procedimientos estadísticos para cuantificar y tomar decisiones estadísticas respecto a esta característica social en diversos diseños diádicos. El objetivo de este artículo es presentar un conjunto de funciones para estos procedimientos agrupadas en un paquete en R, llamado nonindependence, para que pueda ser usado por los investigadores sociales. Para facilitar su uso, se ha desarrollado una Interfaz Gráfica de Usuario (GUI) para este paquete de R. Se ilustra además su funcionamiento mediante datos obtenidos en investigación psicológica y simulados

Bias and standard error for social reciprocity measurements

The directional consistency and skew-symmetry statistics have been proposed as global measurements of social reciprocity. Although both measures can be useful for quantifying social reciprocity, researchers need to know whether these estimators are biased in order to assess descriptive results properly. That is, if estimators are biased, researchers should compare actual values with expected values under the specified null hypothesis. Furthermore, standard errors are needed to enable suitable assessment of discrepancies between actual and expected values. This paper aims to derive some exact and approximate expressions in order to obtain bias and standard error values for both estimators for round-robin designs, although the results can also be extended to other reciprocal designs

Non-intrusive maternal style as a mediator between playfulness and children's development in low-income Chilean adolescent mothers

The aim of this study was to describe the relationship between low-income Chilean adolescent maternal playfulness and mothers' non-intrusiveness in their children's development and to analyze whether a mother's non-intrusiveness mediates the relationship between maternal playfulness and children's development. The Parental Playfulness Scale and the Subscale of Intrusiveness from the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project were used to assess maternal playfulness and mothers' non-intrusiveness respectively. Ages and Stages Questionnaire 3rd Edition (ASQ-3) was applied to measure the children's communication, gross and fine motor skills, problem- solving and personal-social development. The sample consisted of 79 mother-child dyads with children aged 10-24 months (M = 15.5, SD = 4.2) and their mothers aged 15-21 years old (M = 19.1, SD = 1.7). A bivariate analysis showed that maternal playfulness was significantly associated with communication, fine motor, problem-solving and personal-social development. Moreover, higher levels of communication, fine motor skills and problem-solving development were observed in the children of less intrusive mothers. Maternal playfulness had a significant effect on children's development of language, problem-solving and personal-social skills when their mothers showed less intrusiveness during interaction. These findings contribute to the understanding of the interaction between adolescent mothers and their children. Active play and less intrusiveness can enhance child development

Maternal self-efficacy and emotional well-being in Chilean adolescent mothers: the relationship with their children's social-emotional development

Background: Low maternal self-efficacy and high levels of anxiety, depression, and stress can be triggered in adolescent mothers because they have not completed their development process, thus they would not be physically or psychologically prepared to take on maternity responsibilities. Those factors can be related to children's socioemotional development problems. The present study aims to: a) analyze the relationship between maternal self-efficacy and the levels of stress and depressive and anxious symptoms, in adolescent mothers; b) examine the relationship between maternal self-efficacy and well-being and children's socioemotional development; and c) describe the effects of maternal self-efficacy mediated of maternal well-being on children's socioemotional development. Methods: A sample of 79 dyads of Chilean adolescent mothers and their children aged 10 to 24 months participated in this research. A set of psychometric scales were used to measure maternal self-efficacy (EEP), mother's anxiety and depression (HADS), maternal stress (PSS), and children's socioemotional development (ASQ-SE). Bivariate analyses as well as mediation models were employed to estimate and test the relevant relationships. Results: A bivariate analysis showed that maternal self-efficacy was negatively related to mother's anxiety, depression, and stress. Moreover, there is a significant relationship between maternal self-efficacy and maternal stress, and children's self-regulation and socioemotional development. The effect of maternal self-efficacy on children's self-regulation development mediated of mother's anxiety, mother's depression and maternal stress scores was significant. Conclusions: Those results confirm the importance of the adolescent mothers' emotional well-being regarding their relationship on the socioemotional development of their children. The preceding is necessary to have detailed information about how emotional and self-perception status influences mother's role in the development of her children

Self-learning and classroom activities

This document consists of a set of practical activities proposed for the “Research techniques” and “Statistics” course of the Degree in Psychology, covering topics such as the scientific method and descriptive and inferential statistics applied to this disciplines. These activities are the product of two main aims: 1) illustrate explicitly the relationship between the methodological content and real life and/or real psychological practice, in order to motivate students to work with and fully understand the usefulness of this type of content; and 2) offer teachers several alternatives for classroom and self-learning activities for constructing knowledge related to methodological content. The document includes mainly practical activities presented in a fully detailed psychological context whose bases are to be found in scientific research, apart from offering some theoretical explanations where needed.The document was created during the teaching innovation project “Actividades de aprendizaje autónomo y presencial en Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento” (2014PID_UB/003). This text was revised by Joe Graham working at Serveis Lingüístics at the University of Barcelona. The revision was made with the support of the Serveis Lingüístics, thanks to a grant “Interlingua” by the Generalitat de Catalunya

How and When Do Leaders Influence Employees' Well-Being? Moderated Mediation Models for Job Demands and Resources

Following the call of recent reviews on leadership and well-being, the purpose of this study is to examine how and when two contrasting leadership styles, transformational leadership (TFL) and passive-avoidant leadership (PAL), are related to employees' anxiety and thereby either promote or inhibit employees' well-being. Using the prominent job demands-resources (JD-R) model as a theoretical framework, we propose that the relationship between leadership behavior and anxiety is mediated by organizational job demands, namely, role ambiguity (RA), and job resources, namely, team climate for learning (TCL), as well as moderated by autonomy as important job characteristic. A sample of 501 knowledge workers, working in teams in a German research and development (R&D) organization, answered an online survey. We tested moderated multiple mediation models using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results demonstrated that the relationships between TFL as well as PAL on the one hand and anxiety on the other hand were fully mediated by RA and TCL. Job autonomy moderated the quality of the leadership-job demand relationship for TFL and PAL. This paper contributes to understanding the complex relationship between leadership and followers' well-being taking into account a combination of mediating and moderating job demands and resources. This is the first study that examines the effects of TFL and PAL on well-being taking into account the job demand RA and team processes and autonomy as resources

Some common indexes of group diversity: upper boundaries

Workgroup diversity can be conceptualized as variety, separation, or disparity. Thus, the proper operationalization of diversity depends on how a diversity dimension has been defined. Analytically, the minimal diversity must be obtained when there are no differences on an attribute among the members of a group, however maximal diversity has a different shape for each conceptualization of diversity. Previous work on diversity indexes indicated maximum values for variety (e.g., Blau"s index and Teachman"s index), separation (e.g., standard deviation and mean Euclidean distance), and disparity (e.g., coefficient of variation and the Gini coefficient of concentration), although these maximum values are not valid for all group characteristics (i.e., group size and group size parity) and attribute scales (i.e., number of categories). We demonstrate analytically appropriate upper boundaries for conditional diversity determined by some specific group characteristics, avoiding the bias related to absolute diversity. This will allow applied researchers to make better interpretations regarding the relationship between group diversity and group outcomes

Actividades de autoaprendizaje autónomo y presencial en Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento

El presente documento es un recurso destinado a acompañar las clases y el aprendizaje autónomo de temas relacionados con la aplicación de m etodos de investigación y estadística en ciencias del comportamiento. La principal idea subyacente a su creación fue relacionar estos temas, habitualmente poco atractivos, a un contenido sustantivo psicológico. Establecer las relaciones entre el conocimiento psicológico y la manera en la cual este se construye y evalua pretende ilustrar la utilidad de la metodología y la estadística y, esperemos, incrementar la motivación de los estudiantes a dedicar tiempo y atención a estos temas. Consideramos que conocer como los datos se recogen y analizan según el método científico es necesario para todos los profesionales puesto que se espera que sean tanto consumidores de informes de investigación como investigadores hábiles. La comprensión completa de las implicaciones reales (y no exageradas) y el signi cado de los resultados de un estudio requiere una base de conocimientos que se ha de construir consultando el material teórico y practicando; este ultimo aspecto es el que nos proponemos promover con el presente documento. «Aprender haciendo» es también útil para obtener experiencia de primera mano sobre la manera de llevar a cabo investigaciones. Esta es la razón por la cual gran parte de los ejercicios prácticos incluyen recogida de datos, aparte de su análisis, puesto que ambas partes del proceso de investigación están estrechamente relacionadas. Nuestra intención también fue que los estudiantes estuvieran familiarizados con los datos, en lugar de trabajar siempre con estudios críticios y numeros a los que difícilmente se les puede asignar un significado psicológico. No obstante, realizar cálculos sobre datos ya disponibles y facilitados en el material de prácticas también es útil para lograr una comprensión más profunda del signi cado de la información que cada índice o prueba estadística proporciona.El material se elaboró dentro del marco del proyecto de innovación docente «Actividades de aprendizaje autónomo y presencial en Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento» reconocido por la Universidad de Barcelona (2014PID UB/003)

The MABIC project: An effectiveness trial for reducing risk factors for eating disorders

Challenges in the prevention of disordered eating field include moving from efficacy to effectiveness and developing an integrated approach to the prevention of eating and weight-related problems. A previous efficacy trial indicated that a universal disordered eating prevention program, based on the social cognitive model, media literacy educational approach and cognitive dissonance theory, reduced risk factors for disordered eating, but it is unclear whether this program has effects under more real-world conditions. This effectiveness trial tested whether this program has effects when previously trained community providers in an integrated approach to prevention implement the intervention. The research design involved a multi-center non-randomized controlled trial with baseline, post-test and 1-year follow-up measures. The sample included girls in the 8th grade from six schools (n = 152 girls) in a city near Barcelona (intervention group), and from eleven schools (n = 413 girls) in four neighboring towns (control group). The MABIC risk factors of disordered eating were assessed as main outcomes. Girls in the intervention group showed significantly greater reductions in beauty ideal internalization, disordered eating attitudes and weight-related teasing from pretest to 1-year follow-up compared to girls in the control group, suggesting that this program is effective under real-world conditions

Longitudinal patterns of the Tip-Of-the-Tongue phenomenon in people with subjective cognitive complaints and mild cognitive impairment

Background: The Tip-of-the-Tongue (ToTs) state is considered a universal phenomenon and is a frequent cognitive complaint in old age. Previous cross-sectional studies have found that ToT measures successfully discriminate between cognitively unimpaired adults and adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). The aim of this study was to identify longitudinal patterns of ToTs in individuals with subjective complaints and with MCI regarding progress of their cognitive status. Method: The study included 193 participants with subjective cognitive complaints (SCC) and 56 participants with MCI who completed a baseline and two follow-up assessments, with an interval of about 18 months between each assessment. Participants were classified into three groups by considering cognitive stability or deterioration from the baseline diagnosis: SCC-stable, MCI-stable and MCI-worsened. Participants performed a ToT task involving recognition and naming of famous people depicted in 50 photographs. Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) were used to model longitudinal changes in familiarity, feeling of knowing, semantic access, phonological access and verbal fluency. Results: Phonological access differentiated MCI patients, stable and worsened, from adults with SCCs at all evaluation times. Phonological access declined over time in the three groups, without significant interactions between groups and time. Discussion: This study provides the first longitudinal evidence of differences in ToT measures for adults with MCI. The findings indicate that phonological access measures successfully differentiated between the diagnostic groups. However, slopes remain irrespective of the diagnostic group and progression toward more advance stages of cognitive impairment