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The Science of Lay Theories: How Beliefs Shape Our Cognition, Behavior, and Health
by Claire M. Zedelius Barbara C. Müller Jonathan W. SchoolerThis timely and important collection broadens our understanding of the ways in which lay theories (also known as folk psychologies, implicit theories, naïve theories, or mindsets) impact our lives and social relations. Moving well beyond lay theories as applied to intelligence and achievement, this volume considers lay theories in an admirably wide context, including perspectives on prejudice, creativity, self-regulation, health, free will, justice, magic, religion and more. Eminent and emerging scholars alike provide a comprehensive overview that presents and synthesizes cutting edge contemporary research on lay theories, spanning social, cognitive, developmental, cultural, and clinical psychology. Structurally, this volume is organized in three parts. Beginning with a preface by renowned scholar Carol Dweck, the first part looks at the origins and nature of lay theories, and how malleable they are. The second part explores lay theories about common psychological phenomena. The third section discusses lay theories about the metaphysical or supernatural. Finally, the last section explores the important question of how lay theories impact health and health behavior. Taken together, the chapters provide an integrative survey of the science of lay theories, bringing together many perspectives that previously have been studied largely in isolation. This volume is more than the sum of its parts—perspectives from different strands of research provide insights that cut across research disciplines, making novel connections and prompting new directions for this field of study. Shedding light on how our beliefs shape all facets of our lives, The Science of Lay Theories: How Beliefs Shape Our Cognition, Behavior, and Health will appeal to researchers and practitioners in psychology, as well as philosophers, cognitive and developmental neuroscientists, religious scholars, sociologists, and anthropologists.It is very rare to say of an edited volume of scholarly chapters “I couldn’t put it down!” Yet that was the case with this book. It’s not just that I have worked in this field for many years, but rather, with every chapter I felt I was gaining new insights into what, deep down, people really believe and how these beliefs influence their lives—Carol Dweck, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA
Endocannabinoids and Lipid Mediators in Brain Functions
by Miriam MelisThe science of cannabinoids is 50 years old. These past years provided a remarkable and constant number of breakthroughs, showing that the signaling mediated by endocannabinoids and lipid mediators impacts almost every function of the body. Indeed, this represents a special field of research, which allows tackling the complexity of biological functions, and provides potential therapeutic frameworks for a plethora of diseases. The number of exciting discoveries brought up to the scientific community almost on a daily basis highlights the importance of an updated volume on this topic. Particularly, given that potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis and cannabinoids are currently under heavy analysis in many Countries worldwide. Hence, the main objective of this book is to explore not only some of the many functions of endocannabinoids (and lipid mediators) in physiological control of networks at a cellular and molecular level, but also to extend this knowledge for potential use of cannabinoids and/or drugs regulating endocannabinoid levels in vivo as therapeutic target(s) in neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. In this book new findings and ideas about the endocannabinoid system and its roles as neuronal circuit modulator related to human brain pathologies characterized by alterations in neuroplasticity will be highlighted. Endocannabinoid roles in key systems controlling appetite, pain, learning and memory, as well as sleep and stress responses will be presented. In addition, pathological processes associated with changes in endocannabinoid signaling will be discussed in the context of anxiety, autism, depression and addiction. This book will provide an excellent background to researchers looking for extending their areas of interest, and to newcomers in the field.
Well-being, Poverty and Justice from a Child’s Perspective: 3rd World Vision Children Study (Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research #17)
by Sabine Andresen Susann Fegter Klaus Hurrelmann Ulrich SchneeklothThis book presents evidence that children are the real experts of their lives. 2600 boys and girls in Germany between the ages of 6 of 11 years, with and without a migration background, were interviewed. Next to established topics of family, friends, leisure time and school, the focus of this study was on the topic of justice. Children were asked what justice in their opinion was and whether they felt treated justly or not. The 3rd World Vision Study puts the subjective well-being of children into the focus and shows that children are able to report competently and authentically about their lives. This volume is of great important to researchers, policy makers and professionals interested in children’s well-being from children’s own perspectives.
Aging in a Second Language: A Case Study of Aging, Immigration, and an English Learner Speech Community (International Perspectives on Aging #17)
by Steven L. Arxer Maria Del Ciriza Marco ShappeckThis unique account of English language acquisition by Latino elders shines intimate light on the increasingly complex concerns of aging immigrant minority populations. Rich qualitative findings detail sociocultural barriers to and social and emotive factors that promote second language acquisition in older age. The book’s case study highlights diverse cognitive and social processes as elders establish a sense of self as learners and as part of a learning community, and a sense of place as newcomers navigating a challenging environment. And first-person comments from the group members deftly illustrate the intricacies of being an immigrant in a rapidly changing America as well as the myriad intersections of race/ethnicity, gender, culture, and country that shape immigrant life. Included in the coverage: Minority aging in an immigrant context. Late-life second language acquisition: cognitive and psycholinguistic changes, challenges, and opportunities. Building emotions for self-identity and learning. Practicing safe language socialization in private and public spaces. Language resocialization and gender allies. Aging, second language acquisition, and health.Aging in a Second Language gives clinical social workers, gerontologists, health and cross-cultural psychologists, sociologists, educators and other professionals deep insights into the lives of an emerging active elder population. It also pinpoints challenges and opportunities in research, literacy program design, pedagogy, clinical outreach, education policy, and service delivery to immigrant elders.
Personal Flourishing in Organizations
by Juan A. MercadoThis book examines the important insights that psychology and philosophy can offer into the promotion of personal flourishing within organizations and the potential benefits that can accrue in terms of personal development, performance, goal achievement, and teamwork. The first part of the book develops a classical framework on happiness and the meaning of life, setting the stage on which significant aspects of institutional organization and its harmonization with ethics are addressed. The value of institutional ethics, flow, and mindfulness in creating a collaborative working environment that promotes self-fulfilment and enhances performance is then explored in depth, drawing on insights from contemporary psychology. Finally, concrete means of fostering personal flourishing within organizations are discussed. Here, the reader will find an evaluation of the effectiveness of coaching in promoting personal development and goal achievement as well as stimulating discussion of the interrelationship between team building, virtue, and personal flourishing. This book will be of interest to a wide range of professionals and academics within the fields of psychology and business.
Landslide Dynamics: Volume 1: Fundamentals, Mapping and Monitoring
by Kyoji Sassa Fausto Guzzetti Hiromitsu Yamagishi Željko Arbanas Nicola Casagli Mauri McSaveney Khang DangThis interactive book presents comprehensive information on the fundamentals of landslide types and dynamics, while also providing a set of PPT, PDF, and text tools for education and capacity development. As the core activity of the Sendai Partnerships, the International Consortium of Landslides has created this two-volume work, which will be regularly updated and improved over the coming years, based on responses from users and lessons learned during its application.
Bernard Mandeville: A Treatise Of The Hypochondriack And Hysterick Diseases (1730) (International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées #223)
by Sylvie Kleiman-LafonThis work reflects on hypochondria as well as on the global functioning of the human mind and on the place of the patient/physician relationship in the wider organisation of society. First published in 1711, revised and enlarged in 1730, and now edited and published with a critical apparatus for the first time, this is a major work in the history of medical literature as well as a complex literary creation. Composed of three dialogues between a physician and two of his patients, Mandeville’s Treatise mirrors the digressive structure of a talking cure. Thanks to the soothing and enlightening effects of this casual conversation, the physician Mandeville demonstrates the healing power of words for a class of patients that he presents as men of learning who need above all to be addressed in their own language. Mandeville’s aim was to delineate his own cure for hypochondria and hysteria, which consisted of a talking cure followed by diet and exercise, but also to discuss the practice of medicine in England and continental Europe at a time when physicians were beginning to lose ground to apothecaries. Opposing a purely theoretical approach to medicine, Mandeville takes up the principles presented by Francis Bacon, Thomas Sydenham, and Giorgio Baglivi, and advocates a medical practice based on experience and backed up by time-tested theories.
Robotics in STEM Education: Redesigning the Learning Experience
by Myint Swe KhineThis book describes recent approaches in advancing STEM education with the use of robotics, innovative methods in integrating robotics in school subjects, engaging and stimulating students with robotics in classroom-based and out-of-school activities, and new ways of using robotics as an educational tool to provide diverse learning experiences. It addresses issues and challenges in generating enthusiasm among students and revamping curricula to provide application focused and hands-on approaches in learning . The book also provides effective strategies and emerging trends in using robotics, designing learning activities and how robotics impacts the students’ interests and achievements in STEM related subjects.The frontiers of education are progressing very rapidly. This volume brought together a collection of projects and ideas which help us keep track of where the frontiers are moving. This book ticks lots of contemporary boxes: STEM, robotics, coding, and computational thinking among them. Most educators interested in the STEM phenomena will find many ideas in this book which challenge, provide evidence and suggest solutions related to both pedagogy and content. Regular reference to 21st Century skills, achieved through active collaborative learning in authentic contexts, ensures the enduring usefulness of this volume.John WilliamsProfessor of Education and Director of the STEM Education Research GroupCurtin University, Perth, Australia
Intervening After Violence: Therapy for Couples and Families (Focused Issues in Family Therapy)
by Clarissa Sammut Scerri Arlene Vetere Angela Abela Jan CooperThis practical text offers professional guidance on stopping domestic violence in couples and families and promoting healing and safety in its aftermath. Rich in theoretical diversity (attachment, trauma, feminist, narrative) and inclusive of family structures and forms of violence, the coverage takes an approach to understanding both complex circumstances and intervening with families. The tasks of healing, from reestablishing trust to fostering positive coping, are clearly linked to effects of abuse such as unresolved loss, blunted trauma responses, poor emotion regulation, and damaged relational esteem. And because sustained safety is crucial to well-being, the authors extend their concepts of safety to include professionals’ own experience, security, and self-care.Among the topics covered:· Living with violence in the family: retrospective recall of women’s childhood experiences.· How to help stop the violence: using a safety methodology across the life span.· Helping couples separate safely: working towards safe separations.· Healing and repair in relationships: working therapeutically with couples.· Working systemically with parents, children, and adult survivors when the abuse stops.· Supervision and consultation with practitioners who intervene with families and trauma.Intervening After Violence: Therapy for Couples and Families is an essential resource for social workers and mental health professionals engaged in clinical practice seeking strategies for working therapeutically and systematically with couples and families coping with physical and emotional violence.
Problem Behavior Theory and the Social Context: The Collected Works of Richard Jessor, Volume 3 (Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development)
by Richard JessorThis third and final volume of Richard Jessor’s collected works explores the central role of the social context in the formulation and application of Problem Behavior Theory. It discusses the effect of the social environment, especially the social context of disadvantage and limited opportunity, on adolescent behavior, health, and development. The book examines the application of the theory in social contexts as diverse as the inner cities of the United States; the slums of Nairobi, Kenya; and the urban settings of Beijing, China. It also provides insight into how adolescents and young adults manage to “succeed”, despite disadvantage, limited opportunity, and even dangers in their everyday life settings. It illuminates how these youth manage to stay on track in school, avoid unintended pregnancy and dropout, keep clear of the criminal justice system, and remain uninvolved in heavy drug use. In addition, the book discusses the conceptual and methodological issues entailed in engaging the social context, including the role of subjectivity and meaning in an objective behavioral science; the contribution of the perceived environment in determining behavior; the continuity that characterizes adolescent growth and development; the necessity for a social-psychological level of analysis that avoids reductionism; the importance of a framework that engages the larger social environment; and the advantage of adhering to systematic theory for the explanatory generality it yields. Topics featured in this volume include: Home-leaving and its occurrence among youth in impoverished circumstances.The continuity of adolescent developmental change.The impact of neighborhood disadvantage on successful adolescent development.Successful adolescence in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya.Explaining both behavior and development in the language of social psychology. Problem Behavior Theory and the Social Context is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, clinicians, and related professionals as well as graduate students in sociology, social and developmental psychology, criminology/criminal justice, public health, and allied disciplines.
Implications of Open Access Repositories Quality Criteria and Features for Teachers’ TPACK Development (SpringerBriefs in Education)
by Rita Tavares António MoreiraThis brief will explore how open access repositories are being developed and maintained, in order to provide, disseminate and promote the development of digital educational resources. The main objective is to analyse open access repositories quality criteria and features, and how these can improve teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) development. It is organized in six major sections. Section one addresses an historical overview of open access repositories. In section two the authors present the objectives and the methodology used in the present study. Sections three, four and five analyse namely (i) the prevalence of European Science Education open access repositories and teachers’ perceptions of those same repositories, (ii) the most common European Science Education open access repositories features and their implications, and (iii) the impact of open access repositories usage on teachers’ TPACK development. The last section focuses on the analyses of a selected open access repository [House of Sciences (originally Casa Das Ciências)], addressing its characteristics and features, the impact of social media features in digital educational resources (re)use, and the relationship between repository quality criteria and teachers’ TPACK development.
Child Maltreatment in Residential Care: History, Research, and Current Practice
by Adrian V. Rus Sheri R. Parris Ecaterina StativaThis data-rich volume reviews short- and long-term consequences of residential or institutional care for children across the globe as well as approaches to reducing maltreatment. Up-to-date findings from a wide range of developing and developed countries identify forms of abuse and neglect associated with institutionalization and their effects on development and pathology in younger children, adolescents, and alumni. The sections on intervention strategies highlight the often-conflicting objectives facing professionals and policymakers balancing the interests of children, families, and facilities. But despite many national and regional variations, two themes stand out: the universal right of children to live in safety, and the ongoing need for professionals and community to ensure this safety.Included among the topics:Maltreatment and living conditions in long-term residential institutions for childrenOutcomes from institutional rearingRecommendations to improve institutional livingHistorical, political, socio-economic, and cultural influences on Child Welfare SystemsLatin American and the Caribbean, African, Asian, Middle-Eastern, Western and Eastern European countries and the United States of America are presented.Child Maltreatment in Residential Care will inform psychology professionals interested in the role of residential care in the lives of children, and possibilities for improved outcomes. It will also interest social workers and mental health practitioners and researchers seeking evidence-based interventions for families adopting children from residential care.
Karl Bühlers Krise der Psychologie: Positionen, Bezüge und Kontroversen im Wien der 1920er/30er Jahre (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts Wiener Kreis #26)
by Janette FriedrichIm Mittelpunkt des Bandes steht Karl Bühlers 1927 veröffentlichte Schrift zur „Krise der Psychologie“. Bühler setzt sich darin mit den verschiedenen Ansätzen zur Erforschung psychologischer Phänomene auseinander. Seine Analyse der sich seit Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts als eigenständige Disziplin konstituierenden Psychologie nehmen die Autoren zum Ausgangspunkt, um die „Positionen, Bezüge und Kontroversen im Wien der 1920er/30er Jahre“ zu beleuchten. Dabei stellen sie bisher wenig beachtete theoretische Positionen Karl Bühlers vor und präsentieren neue historische Fakten zu seiner Schaffenszeit an der Wiener Universität.Die Themen der Beiträge reichen vom Neubeginn der Wiener Philosophie mit der Besetzung der drei Lehrstühle im Jahre 1922 über die Forschungen zum Film unter Leitung von Karl Bühler in den 1930er Jahren bis hin zu neuen Erkenntnissen der NS-Provenienzforschung zur Bibliothek von Karl und Charlotte Bühler. Die Verbindungen zwischen Bühlers Krisenanalyse und dem Forschungsprogramm der Brentanoschule werden aufgezeigt, sein Interesse am Medienbegriff des Psychologen Fritz Heider ebenso detailreich diskutiert wie Bühlers in den 1930er Jahren begonnenes Projekt einer Lebenspsychologie und einer Sematologie als allgemeine Zeichentheorie. Dabei beantworten die Autoren die Frage nach der Aktualität seines Denkens ganz unterschiedlich.Mit der Erschließung neuer Quellen und der Rekonstruktion historischer Kontexte sowie durch komparative Textstudien leisten die Autoren einen originellen Beitrag zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, insbesondere zur Geschichte der Psychologie und der Philosophie wie auch zur Institutionsgeschichte der Wiener Universität am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts. Der Band richtet sich an Spezialisten auf diesen Gebieten, aber auch an Psychologen, Sprachwissenschaftler, Erziehungswissenschaftler und Philosophen.
International Handbook for Policy Research on School-Based Counseling
by John C. Carey Belinda Harris Sang Min Lee Oyaziwo AluedeThis handbook examines policy research on school counseling across a wide range of countries and offers guidelines for developing counseling research and practice standards worldwide. It identifies the vital role of counseling in enhancing students’ educational performance and general wellbeing, and explores effective methods for conducting policy research, with practical examples. Chapters present the current state of school-based counseling and policy from various countries, focusing on national and regional needs, as well as opportunities for collaboration between advocates and policymakers. By addressing gaps in policy knowledge and counselor training, the Handbook discusses both the diversity of prominent issues and the universality of its major objectives. Topics featured in this handbook include: The use of scoping reviews to document and synthesize current practices in school-based counseling. Contemporary public policy on school-based counseling in Latin America.Policy, capacity building, and school-based counseling in Eastern/Southern Africa.Public policy, policy research, and school counseling in Middle Eastern countries. Policy and policy research on school-based counseling in the United Kingdom.Policy research on school-based counseling in the United States. The International Handbook for Policy Research in School-Based Counseling is a must-have resource for researchers, graduate students, clinicians, and related professionals and practitioners in child and school psychology, educational policy and politics, social work, psychotherapy, and counseling as well as related disciplines.
Quick Guide to Psychiatric Emergencies: Tools for Behavioral and Toxicological Situations
by Kimberly D. Nordstrom Michael P. WilsonThis volume provides an “on-the-go” guide to the most common behavioral emergencies a physician may encounter. Each chapter represents a disease state or symptom cluster and concisely summarizes the disease state, provides background, symptoms and signs, differential diagnoses, and immediate and long-term treatment options. All chapters conclude with a diagnosis or treatment algorithm or another easy-to-use visual tool. Chapters named after a specific disease state or symptom cluster, arranged alphabetically for use in the field. The text begins with chapters covering patient evaluation: getting a good history, suicide risk assessment, physical exam, and when and how to use studies. Written by experts in psychiatry and emergency medicine, this text is the first to consider both medical perspectives in a concise guide.Quick Guide to Psychiatric Emergencies is an excellent resource for psychiatrists, emergency medicine physicians, residents, nurses, and other medical professionals that handle behavioral emergencies on a regular basis.
Quantum Theory and Free Will: How Mental Intentions Translate into Bodily Actions
by Henry P. StappThis book explains, in simple but accurate terms, how orthodox quantum mechanics works. The author, a distinguished theoretical physicist, shows how this theory, realistically interpreted, assigns an important role to our conscious free choices. Stapp claims that mainstream biology and neuroscience, despite nearly a century of quantum physics, still stick essentially to failed classical precepts in which mental intentions have no effect upon our bodily actions. He shows how quantum mechanics provides a rational basis for a better understanding of this connection, even allowing an explanation of certain phenomena currently held to be “paranormal”. These ideas have major implications for our understanding of ourselves and our mental processes, and thus also for the meaningfulness of our lives.
Musical Haptics (Springer Series on Touch and Haptic Systems)
by Stefano Papetti Charalampos SaitisThis open access book offers an original interdisciplinary overview of the role of haptic feedback in musical interaction. Divided into two parts, part I examines the tactile aspects of music performance and perception, discussing how they affect user experience and performance in terms of usability, functionality and perceived quality of musical instruments. Part II presents engineering, computational, and design approaches and guidelines that have been applied to render and exploit haptic feedback in digital musical interfaces. Musical Haptics introduces an emerging field that brings together engineering, human-computer interaction, applied psychology, musical aesthetics, and music performance. The latter, defined as the complex system of sensory-motor interactions between musicians and their instruments, presents a well-defined framework in which to study basic psychophysical, perceptual, and biomechanical aspects of touch, all of which will inform the design of haptic musical interfaces. Tactile and proprioceptive cues enable embodied interaction and inform sophisticated control strategies that allow skilled musicians to achieve high performance and expressivity. The use of haptic feedback in digital musical interfaces is expected to enhance user experience and performance, improve accessibility for disabled persons, and provide an effective means for musical tuition and guidance.
Tinnitus and Stress: An Interdisciplinary Companion for Healthcare Professionals
by Agnieszka Szczepek Birgit MazurekThis book provides up-to-date scientific information on the pathways by which psychosocial stress can affect the auditory system and describes current approaches to the management of patients with stress-related tinnitus. The latest evidence is presented on aspects such as the role of stress hormones in auditory function, the effects of allostatic load, circadian sensitivity to auditory trauma, and the association between stress-related biomarkers and tinnitus. The clinically oriented chapters discuss psychometric instruments of value in the tinnitus clinic and present stress-related tinnitus treatment protocols and outcome measures. It is widely acknowledged that the tinnitus percept acts as a stressor. However, it is also now evident that psychosocial stress can play a causative role in tinnitus and that the impact varies according to the level, duration, and quality of the stress. Assessment of the types and levels of stress in tinnitus patients before, during, and after treatment is therefore very important. Healthcare professionals attending tinnitus patients will benefit from the information that this book provides on the relationship between tinnitus and stress and from the practical guidance that it offers.
Values Cockpits: Measuring and Steering Corporate Cultures (CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance)
by Friedrich GlaunerThis book answers the question of how soft factors such as corporate cultures and individual and corporate values can be transparently steered. With its C4 management tool and reflecting the seven driving forces of corporate culture, the Values Cockpit is a powerful solution designed to steer all dimensions and processes of a company, pursuing a lean approach. The book links strategic approaches on how to steer a company towards excellence with insights into the driving forces of human thoughts and actions. It subsequently introduces the Values Cockpit, which allows individual corporate cultures to be developed and controlled on the basis of a rational approach. It has since become commonplace that, for the best companies in the world, it is their great corporate culture that sustains their excellence and economic success. In order to establish such a corporate culture, all corporate values must be thoroughly controlled, steered and measured. This book serves as an essential guide, helping companies to reach these goals and ensure their sustainable economic success.
Industrial Neuroscience in Aviation: Evaluation of Mental States in Aviation Personnel (Biosystems & Biorobotics #18)
by Gianluca Borghini Pietro Aricò Gianluca Di Flumeri Fabio BabiloniThis book discusses the emerging field of industrial neuroscience, and reports on the authors’ cutting-edge findings in the evaluation of mental states, including mental workload, cognitive control and training of personnel involved either in the piloting of aircraft and helicopters, or in managing air traffic. It encompasses neuroimaging and cognitive psychology techniques and shows how they have been successfully applied in the evaluation of human performance and human-machine interactions, and to guarantee a proper level of safety in such operational contexts. With an introduction to the most relevant concepts of neuroscience, neurophysiological techniques, simulators and case studies in aviation environments, it is a must-have for both students and scientists in the field of aeronautic and biomedical engineering, as well as for various professionals in the aviation world. This is the first book to intensively apply neurosciences to the evaluation of human factors and mental states in aviation.
Cognitive and Affective Aspects in Science Education Research: Selected Papers from the ESERA 2015 Conference (Contributions from Science Education Research #3)
by Kaisa Hahl Kalle Juuti Jarkko Lampiselkä Anna Uitto Jari LavonenThis edited volume brings forth intriguing, novel and innovative research in the field of science education. The chapters in the book deal with a wide variety of topics and research approaches, conducted in various contexts and settings, all adding a strong contribution to knowledge on science teaching and learning. The book is comprised of selected high-quality studies that were presented at the 11th European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) Conference, held in Helsinki, Finland from 31 August to 4 September, 2015. The ESERA science education research community consists of professionals with diverse disciplinary backgrounds from natural sciences to social sciences. This diversity provides a rich understanding of cognitive and affective aspects of science teaching and learning in this volume. The studies in this book will invoke discussion and ignite further interest in finding new ways of doing and researching science education for the future and looking for international partners for both science education and science education research. The twenty-five chapters showcase current orientations of research in science education and are of interest to science teachers, teacher educators and science education researchers around the world with a commitment to evidence-based and forward-looking science teaching and learning.
Advancing Human Assessment: The Methodological, Psychological and Policy Contributions of ETS (Methodology of Educational Measurement and Assessment)
by Randy E. Bennett Matthias Von DavierThis book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license.This book describes the extensive contributions made toward the advancement of human assessment by scientists from one of the world’s leading research institutions, Educational Testing Service. The book’s four major sections detail research and development in measurement and statistics, education policy analysis and evaluation, scientific psychology, and validity. Many of the developments presented have become de-facto standards in educational and psychological measurement, including in item response theory (IRT), linking and equating, differential item functioning (DIF), and educational surveys like the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Programme of international Student Assessment (PISA), the Progress of International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) and the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In addition to its comprehensive coverage of contributions to the theory and methodology of educational and psychological measurement and statistics, the book gives significant attention to ETS work in cognitive, personality, developmental, and social psychology, and to education policy analysis and program evaluation. The chapter authors are long-standing experts who provide broad coverage and thoughtful insights that build upon decades of experience in research and best practices for measurement, evaluation, scientific psychology, and education policy analysis. Opening with a chapter on the genesis of ETS and closing with a synthesis of the enormously diverse set of contributions made over its 70-year history, the book is a useful resource for all interested in the improvement of human assessment.
Psychological Testing: Theory and Practice
by Colin CooperPsychological tests are everywhere. They are widely used by practitioners, researchers, clinicians, and educators -anyone, in fact, who needs to measure various aspects of personality, cognitive abilities, mood and suchlike. Psychometrics is the science of psychological assessment. It covers the construction, use and interpretation of psychological tests of all kinds – from simple questionnaires measuring personality, moods and attitudes, through to specialised tests measuring IQ and other mental abilities. Psychological Testing: Theory and Practice provides test users, test developers, practitioners and researchers in the social sciences, education and health with an evaluative guide to choosing, using, interpreting and developing tests. Its aim is to give readers a thorough grasp of the principles (and limitations) of testing, together with the necessary methodological detail. Unusually for an introductory text, it includes coverage of several cutting-edge techniques. If you find mathematics frightening and statistics dull, this engaging text will help you to understand the fundamental principles of psychometrics, that underpin the measurement of any human characteristic using any psychological test. The book is accompanied by additional resources, including a set of spreadsheets which use simulated data and other techniques to illustrate important issues, and allow users to understand various statistical procedures work, without getting bogged down in mathematical detail. These are fully integrated into the text. This is an essential introduction for all students of psychology and related disiplines, as well as a useful resource for practitioners and those seeking accreditation in psychological testing.
The Happy Mind: Cognitive Contributions to Well-Being
by Michael D. Robinson Michael EidThis edited volume focuses on different views of happiness and well-being, considering constructs like meaning and spirituality in addition to the more standard constructs of positive emotion and life satisfaction. A premise of the volume is that being happy consists of more than having the right things happen to us; it also depends on how we interpret those events as well as what we are trying to achieve. Such considerations suggest that cognitive-emotional factors should play a fairly pronounced role in how happy we are. The present volume pursues these themes in the context of 25 chapters organized into 5 sections. The first section centers on cognitive variables such as attention and executive function, in addition to mindfulness. The second section considers important sources of positive cognition such as savoring and optimism and the third section focuses on self-regulatory contributions to well-being. Finally, social processes are covered in a fourth section and meaning-related processes are covered in the fifth. What results is a rich and diverse volume centering on the ways in which our minds can help or hinder our aspirations for happiness.
The Data Team™ Procedure: A Systematic Approach to School Improvement (Springer Texts in Education)
by Kim Schildkamp Adam Handelzalts Cindy L. Poortman Hanadie Leusink Marije Meerdink Maaike Smit Johanna Ebbeler Mireille D. HubersThis book describes the Data Team Procedure: a method for data-based decision making that can help schools to improve their quality. It involves the use of teams consisting of 4-6 teachers, 1-2 school leaders and a data expert. The members of the team collaboratively learn how to use data to solve an educational problem within the school, adopting a systematic approach. The data team procedure is an iterative and cyclic procedure consisting of eight steps. The data team members are trained in the data team procedure by a coach. The coach visits the data team’s school regularly for a meeting and facilitates working according to the systematic procedure. Teams participate in data analysis workshops for more specific support. Divided into three parts, the book first describes the importance of data use and the data team procedure. Next, it describes two cases. The first case concerns a data team working on a school level problem: Reducing grade repetition. The second case concerns a data team working on a classroom level problem: low student achievement in English language. The last part of the book explains what it means to implement the data team procedure in the school, the conditions needed for implementing the data team procedure, and the factors that may hinder or support the use of data in data teams.