bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Individual differences in musical training and executive functions: A latent variable approach
Authors: Okada Brooke , Slevc L. Robert
Published: July 2018

Learning and performing music draw on a host of cognitive abilities, and previous research postulates that musicians might have advantages in related cognitive processes. One such aspect of cognition that may be related to musical training is executive functions (EFs), a set of top-down processes that regulate behavior and cognition according to task demands. Previous studies investigating the link between musical training and EFs have yielded mixed results and are difficult to compare. In part, this is because most studies look at only one specific cognitive process, and even studies looking at the same process use different experimental tasks. Furthermore, most correlational studies use different categorizations of “musician” and “non-musician” for comparisons, so generalizing findings is difficult. The current study provides a more comprehensive assessment of how individual differences in musical training relate to latent measures of three separable aspects of EFs. We administered a well-validated EF battery containing multiple tasks tapping EF components of inhibition, shifting, and working memory updating (Friedman et al., 2008) and a comprehensive, continuous measure of musical training and sophistication (Müllensiefen et al., 2014). Musical training correlated with some individual EF tasks involving inhibition and working memory updating, but not individual tasks involving shifting. However, musical training only predicted the latent variable of working memory updating, but not latent variables of inhibition or shifting after controlling for IQ, socioeconomic status, and handedness. Although these data are correlational, they nonetheless suggest that musical experience places particularly strong demands specifically on working memory updating processes.
Examining the Alternative Model of Personality Disorder in Daily Life: Evidence for Incremental Validity
Authors: ROCHE MICHAEL J
Published: July 2018

The Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) includes a single dimension of personality dysfunction severity (Criterion A), and five dimensions of personality dysfunction styles (Criterion B). Some consider Criterion A and B distinctions redundant, and this appears mostly true in cross-sectional designs. The present research demonstrated that incremental validity can be found when examining personality dysfunction longitudinally. Participants (n=175) completed a 14-day electronic diary, capturing daily levels of Criterion A and B, along with daily outcomes of personality dysfunction across several domains. Criterion A and B incremented each other across these domains. Moreover, Criterion B trait scores were associated with expected domains of functioning, evidencing convergent and discriminant validity. We discuss the implications for the AMPD model, and the usefulness of longitudinal methods to uncover temporal-dynamics in personality dysfunction.
From words-as-mappings to words-as-cues: The role of language in semantic knowledge
Authors: Lupyan Gary , Lewis Molly
Published: July 2018

Semantic knowledge (or semantic memory) refers to knowledge we have about the world. For example, we know that knives are typically sharp, made of metal, and that they are tools used for cutting. To what kinds of experiences do we owe such knowledge? Most work has stressed the role of direct experiences involving perceiving and acting on the world. Another kind, considerably less well understood, is language. We review two ways of thinking about the relationship between language and semantic knowledge: (i) language as mapping onto independently-acquired concepts, and (ii) language as cues to meaning, constructing semantic knowledge from both perception/action. We highlight some problems with the words-as- mappings view, and argue in favor of the words-as-cues alternative. We then review evidence for the role of language on the activation of semantic knowledge, emphasizing the potential of distributional semantics models to help us understand this relationship. We conclude by describing several promising directions for future research.
An Intimate Insight on Psychopathy and a Novel Hermeneutic Psychological Science
Authors: Taku Emmanuel
Published: July 2018

This paper is rather a profound hermeneutic enunciation putting into question our present understanding of psychopathy. It further articulates, in complement, a novel theoretical and methodological conceptualisation for a hermeneutic psychological science. Methodology-wise, it puts into question a traditional more or less categorical and mechanical approach to the social and behavioural sciences as it strives to introduce a creative and insightful approach for the articulation of ideas. It rather seeks to construe the scientific method as being more about falsifiability and validation but driven by a sense of creative understanding and insight of notions laid out as open-ended conceptualisations. Theory-wise, it sees continuity between anthropology and psychology as anthropopsychology behind an entropic construct of human psychology based on a recurrent re-institutionalisation mechanism for intemporal-preservation-entropy-or-contiguity–or–ontological-preservation.
Quantifying idiosyncratic and shared contributions to stimulus evaluations
Authors: Martinez Joel Eduardo , Funk Friederike , Todorov Alexander
Published: July 2018

A fundamental psychological problem is identifying the idiosyncratic and shared contributions to stimulus evaluation. However, there is no established method for estimating these contributions and the existing methods have led to divergent estimates. Moreover, in many studies participants rate the stimuli only once, although at least two measurements are required to estimate idiosyncratic contributions. Here, participants rated faces or novel objects on four dimensions (beautiful, approachable, likeable, dangerous) for a total of ten blocks to better estimate the preferences of individual raters. First, we show that both intra-rater and inter-rater agreement – measures related to idiosyncratic and shared contributions, respectively – increase with repeated measures. Second, to find best practices, we compared estimates from correlation indices and variance component approaches on stimulus-generality, evaluation-generality, data preprocessing steps, and sensitivity to measurement error (a largely ignored issue). The correlation indices changed monotonically and nonlinearly with more repeated measures. Variance component analyses showed large variability in estimates from only two repeated measures, but stabilized with more measures. While there was general agreement among approaches, the correlation approach was problematic for certain stimulus types and evaluation dimensions. Our results suggest that variance component estimates are more reliable as long as one collects more than two repeated measures, which is not the current norm in psychological research, and can be implemented using mixed models with crossed random effects. Recommendations for analysis and interpretations are provided.
Planfulness: A Process-Focused Construct of Individual Differences in Goal Achievement.
Authors: Ludwig Rita M. , Srivastava Sanjay , Berkman Elliot
Published: July 2018

Goal pursuit outcomes are partly caused by the way people think about goals. However, it is unknown whether there are stable individual differences in the tendency to deploy particular meta-cognitions during goal pursuit, and whether such patterns of thought predict eventual achievement. A tool to assess such differences would help to identify and intervene on barriers to goal progress. Here, we define a new construct within the conscientiousness domain—planfulness—that captures a person’s proclivity to adopt efficient goal-related cognition in pursuit of their goals. We hypothesize that planfulness consists of three facets representing distinct mental processes (temporal orientation, cognitive strategies, and mental flexibility), and that planfulness predicts goal achievement on an individual basis. We developed a 30-item Planfulness Scale with three subscales tested and refined across 5 studies and 10 samples (total unique N = 4,318) on data collected from both student and on-line samples. The Planfulness Scale demonstrated both convergent and discriminant validity when compared to other measurements, and scale scores predicted goal progress in a longitudinal study. We conclude that the Planfulness Scale is a valid and reliable measurement of real-world goal achievement, and we describe the utility of the planfulness construct for self-regulation research and applied settings.
Out-group flies in the in-group’s ointment: Evidence of the motivational underpinnings of the in-group overexclusion effect.
Authors: Rubin Mark
Published: July 2018

People tend to misclassify ambiguous individuals as members of the out-group rather than the in-group. This in-group overexclusion effect (IO effect) is thought to occur because people are motivated to maintain their in-group’s positivity by protecting it from potential out-group intrusions. The present research tested this explanation by asking university students (N = 122) to complete a self-esteem scale and then recall the group memberships of individuals who belonged to minimal groups. Consistent with predictions, participants misassigned significantly fewer individuals to the in-group than to the out-group when the in-group was positive and the out-group was negative but not when these valences were reversed. In addition, self-esteem negatively predicted the IO effect. Alternative explanations of the IO effect are discussed.
The processing of extraposed structures in English
Authors: Levy Roger Philip , Fedorenko Evelina , Gibson Edward , Breen Mara
Published: July 2018

In most languages, most of the syntactic dependency relations found in any given sentenceare PROJECTIVE: the word–word dependencies in the sentence do not cross each other. Somesyntactic dependency relations, however, are NON-PROJECTIVE: some of their word–worddependencies cross each other. Non-projective dependencies are both rarer and more computationallycomplex than projective dependencies; hence, it is of natural interest to investigatewhether there are any processing costs specific to non-projective dependencies, andwhether factors known to influence processing of projective dependencies also affect nonprojectivedependency processing. We report three self-paced reading studies, togetherwith corpus and sentence completion studies, investigating the comprehension difficultyassociated with the non-projective dependencies created by the extraposition of relativeclauses in English. We find that extraposition over either verbs or prepositional phrasescreates comprehension difficulty, and that this difficulty is consistent with probabilisticsyntactic expectations estimated from corpora. Furthermore, we find that manipulatingthe expectation that a given noun will have a postmodifying relative clause can modulateand even neutralize the difficulty associated with extraposition. Our experiments rule outaccounts based purely on derivational complexity and/or dependency locality in terms oflinear positioning. Our results demonstrate that comprehenders maintain probabilisticsyntactic expectations that persist beyond projective-dependency structures, and suggestthat it may be possible to explain observed patterns of comprehension difficulty associatedwith extraposition entirely through probabilistic expectations.
Faulty assumptions: A comment on Blanton, Jaccard, Gonzales, and Christie (2006)
Authors: Nosek Brian A. , Sriram Natarajan
Published: July 2018

Blanton, Jaccard, Gonzales, and Christie (BJGC, 2006) assert that the Implicit Association Test (IAT) imposes a model that portrays relative preferences as the additive difference between single attitudes. This assertion is misplaced because relative preferences do not necessarily reduce to component attitudes. BJGC also assume that the IAT conditions represent two indicators of the same construct. This assumption is incorrect, and is the cause of their poor-fitting models. The IAT, like other experimental paradigms, contrasts performance between interdependent conditions, and cannot be reduced to component parts. This is true whether calculating a simple difference between conditions, or using the IAT D score. D – an individual effect size that is monotonically related to Cohen's d – codifies the interdependency between IAT conditions. When their unjustified psychometric assumptions are replaced with plausible assumptions, the models fit their data very well, and basis for their poor-fitting models becomes clear.
On the Genesis of Spatial-Numerical Associations: Evolutionary and Cultural Factors Co- Construct the Mental Number Line
Authors: Toomarian Elizabeth Y , Hubbard Edward M.
Published: July 2018

Mapping numbers onto space is a common cognitive representation that has been explored in both behavioral and neuroimaging contexts. Empirical work probing the diverse nature of these spatial-numerical associations (SNAs) has led researchers to question 1) how the human brain links numbers with space, and 2) whether this link is biologically vs. culturally determined. We review the existing literature on the development of SNAs and situate that empirical work within cognitive and neuroscientific theoretical frameworks. We propose that an evolutionarily-ancient frontal-parietal circuit broadly tuned to multiple magnitude dimensions provides the phylogenetic substrate for SNAs, while enculturation and sensorimotor experience shape their specific profiles. We then use this perspective to discuss educational implications and highlight promising avenues for future research.
Prevention focus relates to performance on a loss-framed inhibitory control task
Authors: Files Benjamin T. , Pollard Kimberly A. , Oiknine Ashley , Passaro Antony D. , Khooshabeh Peter
Published: July 2018

Information framing can be critical to the impact of information and can affect individuals differently. One contributing factor is a person's regulatory focus, which describes their focus on achieving gains or avoiding losses. We hypothesized that alignment between individual regulatory focus and the framing of performance feedback as either gain or loss would enhance performance gains from training. We measured participants’ (N=93) trait-level regulatory focus; they then trained in a go/no-go inhibitory control task with feedback framed as gains, losses, or control feedback conditions. Some changes in performance with training (correct rejection rate and response time) were consistent with regulatory fit, but only in the loss-framed condition. This suggests that regulatory fit is more complex than cursory categorization of trait regulatory focus and feedback framing might indicate. Regulatory fit, feedback framing, and task affordances should be considered when designing feedback or including game-like feedback elements to aid training.
People as Penguins: Thermoregulation as Part of the Human Essence
Authors: IJzerman Hans , Hogerzeil Lotte Julie
Published: July 2018

In this chapter we provide an overview of the domain of social thermoregulation. Our overview suggests that humans have always relied on, and still rely on, thermoregulation to navigate their social environment. In outlining social thermoregulation as a crucial feature of the human essence, we focus on the continuity of thermoregulatory mechanisms from other animals to humans. We then provide a number of different effects from the social psychological literature that helps us understand how thermoregulation is implicated in social behavior. From there on, we seek to understand our brain as a “hierarchically organized prediction machine” that helps us keep temperature at optimal levels. By then, it should be clear how thermoregulation is part of our human essence, how it changes our thoughts about others, and alters our motivations to be with others. We end by pointing to the implications of understanding thermoregulation as human essence.
Self-Concept Predicts Academic Achievement across Levels of the Achievement Distribution: Domain-Specificity for Math and Reading
Authors: Susperreguy María Inés , Davis-Kean Pamela , Duckworth Kathryn , Chen Meichu
Published: July 2018

This study examines whether self-concept of ability in math and reading predicts later math and reading attainment across different levels of achievement. Data from three large-scale longitudinal data sets, the ALSPAC, NICHD-SECCYD, and PSID-CDS, were used to answer this question by employing quantile regression analyses. After controlling for demographic variables, child characteristics, and early ability, the findings indicate that self-concept of ability in math and reading predicts later achievement in each respective domain across all quantile levels of achievement. These results were replicated across the three data sets representing different populations and provide robust evidence for the role of self-concept of ability in understanding achievement from early childhood to adolescence across the spectrum of performance (low to high).
When God is your only friend: Religious beliefs compensate for purpose in life in the socially disconnected
Authors: Chan Todd , Michalak Nicholas Michael , Ybarra Oscar
Published: July 2018

Social relationships supply purpose to life. How can socially disconnected people, who show lower levels of purpose, compensate for purpose in life? We propose that religious beliefs can compensate for the purpose in life that social relationships would otherwise provide, through (a) providing greater purpose to turn to, and (b) providing divine figures that can substitute for social relationships. Method: In three studies, we analyze three nationally representative and longitudinal datasets (N = 19775) using moderated regression and cross-lagged panel analyses. Results: Consistent with our hypotheses, religious beliefs were of minimal influence on purpose in life for socially connected individuals, who already held higher levels of purpose than socially disconnected individuals. However, for socially disconnected individuals, being highly religious predicted higher levels of purpose in life. Conclusions: Results suggest that although people primarily derive purpose from social relationships, socially disconnected individuals may leverage their religious beliefs for purpose and social comfort until they can reconnect.
Infants' Sensitivity to Vowel Harmony and its Role in Segmenting Speech
Authors: Mintz Toben Herbert , Walker Rachel L. , Kidd Celeste , Welday Ashlee
Published: July 2018

A critical part of infants’ ability to acquire any language involves segmenting continuous speech input into discrete word-forms. Certain properties of words could provide infants with reliable cues to word boundaries. Here we investigate the potential utility of vowel harmony (VH), a phonological property whereby vowels within a word systematically exhibit similarity (“harmony”) for some aspect of the way they are pronounced. We present evidence that infants with no experience of VH in their native language nevertheless actively use these patterns to generate hypotheses about where words begin and end in the speech stream. In two experiments, we exposed infants learning English, a language without VH, to a continuous speech stream in which the only systematic patterns available to be used as cues to word boundaries came from syllable sequences that showed VH or those that showed vowel disharmony (dissimilarity). After hearing less than one minute of the streams, infants showed evidence of sensitivity to VH cues. These results suggest that infants have an experience-independent sensitivity to VH, and are predisposed to segment speech according to harmony patterns. We also found that when the VH patterns were more subtle (Experiment 2), infants required more exposure to the speech stream before they segmented based on VH, consistent with previous work on infants’ preferences relating to processing load. Our findings evidence a previously unknown mechanism by which infants could discover the words of their language, and they shed light on the perceptual mechanisms that might be responsible for the emergence of vowel harmony as an organizing principle for the sound structure of words in many languages.
A Scalable and Sustainable Approach to Open Access Publishing and Archiving for Humanities and Social Sciences: A White Paper
Authors: Kennison Rebecca , Norberg Lisa
Published: July 2018

White paper describing proposal for collective institutional funding of open access content in humanities and social sciences
Can cultural consumption increase future earnings? Exploring the economic returns to cultural capital
Authors: Reeves Aaron , de Vries Robert
Published: July 2018

Cultural consumption is often viewed as a form of embodied cultural capital which can be converted into economic rewards because such practices increase the likelihood of moving into more advantaged social positions. However, quantitative evidence supporting this proposition remains uncertain because it is often unable to rule out alternative explanations. Cultural consumption appears to influence hiring decisions in some elite firms, in both the U.S. and the U.K., but it is unclear whether these processes are applicable to other professional occupations and other labour market processes such as promotions. We examine these processes using data from Understanding Society, an individual-level panel survey conducted in the UK, allowing us to explore whether cultural consumption predicts future earnings, upward social mobility, and promotions. People who consume a larger number of cultural activities are more likely to earn higher wages in the future, to be upwardly socially mobile, and to be promoted. Cultural consumption, then, can function as cultural capital in some labour market settings, potentially contributing to the reproduction of income inequality between generations.
Pragmatic Aspect of Translation: The Interpretation-Based Inference and Its Implications for Translation
Authors: Studies AWEJ-tls for Translation & Literary , Alwazna Rafat Y.
Published: July 2018

The elements of encoding, transferring and decoding are crucial in all processes of communication, however, drawing the appropriate inference from the current context is equally important in communication according to relevance theory (Gutt, 1998, p. 41). Semantic content is not always sufficient to fully comprehend the exact meaning of a particular utterance as the meaning of that utterance may hinge upon the contextual detail with which it is inferentially associated. The success of the process of communication relies on whether or not the recipient makes use of the context intended by the speaker. Failure to do so would give rise to miscommunication (Gutt, 1998, p. 42). Translation, as a communicative act, involves interpretation made by the translator, which takes the context of the target text (TT) reader and his/her knowledge into consideration. The present paper argues that even though the translator, according to relevance theory, is required to reproduce a TT that can stand as a faithful rendering of the source text (ST), the translator, however, needs to make his/her translated text relevant to the target reader. This, in many instances, may demand following certain procedures of explications in the TT to equip the target reader with the relevant contextual information needed to draw the appropriate inferences from the utterance concerned, and therefore make the right interpretation. Such exegesis needs to be added to the target text as what is inferable for the ST user may not be inferable for the TT receiver owing to cognitive and cultural differences.
Literature is the Best Tool of Awaking Moral Understanding and Evaluation: Wendell Berry's The Long-Legged House
Authors: Studies AWEJ-tls for Translation & Literary , Almwajeh Motasim Oglah , Rababah Luqman
Published: July 2018

The researcher examines Wendell Berry’s The Long-Legged House (1969) and addresses his engagement with the interlocking bonds between ecological degradation and socioeconomic, psychological, and spiritual disorientations through literature; the researcher also explores Berry's critiques of the dynamics and implications of environmental racism along with his depiction of his locale, concepts of home and community, history, mythology, tradition, , and the vivisectional imperatives of capitalism and imperialism that have wreaked havoc upon his home place. These contested terrains have suffered the ramifications of environmental discrimination, which targets them for toxic strip-mining projects. Throughout this paper, the researcher essentially applies environmental-justice approaches, but also refers to theories of global capitalism, and deep ecology, as they are all intertwined through their search for alternative forms of eco-resistance. Hence, I build on critiques by such scholars as Murphy, Buell, Cornell, and Roach, among others, to provide the ideological, hermeneutical, socio-political, and aesthetic filters through which the nonfiction essay can be given fresh and original examinations. This theoretical synthesis cements my corroboration that global capitalism and maldevelopment go hand in hand with imperialism and androcentrism, constituting an intricate nexus of hegemonies.
Population pyramids yield accurate estimates of total fertility rates
Authors: Hauer Mathew , Schmertmann Carl
Published: July 2018

The primary fertility index for a population, the total fertility rate (TFR), cannot be calculated for many areas and time periods because it requires disaggregation of births by mother’s age. Here we discuss a flexible framework for estimating TFR using inputs as minimal as a population pyramid. We develop five variants, each with increasing complexity and data requirements. To evaluate accuracy we test using more than 2,400 fertility schedules with known TFR values, across a diverse set of data sources -- including the Human Fertility Database, Demographic and Health Surveys, U.S. counties, and nonhuman species. We show that even the simplest and least accurate variant has a median error of only 0.09 births/woman over 2,400 fertility schedules, suggesting accurate TFR estimation over a wide range of demographic conditions. We anticipate that this framework will extend fertility analysis to new subpopulations, time periods, geographies, and even species. To demonstrate the framework's utility in new applications, we produce subnational estimates of African fertility levels, reconstruct historical European TFRs for periods up to 150 years before the collection of detailed birth records, and estimate TFR for the U.S. conditional on race and household income.
Shai Dromi, Penny for your Thoughts: Beggars and the Exercise of Morality in Daily Life
Authors: Dromi Shai M.
Published: July 2018

Urban sociology has tended to study interactions between passersby and “street persons” with an emphasis on the ways street persons become bothersome, harassing, or dangerous. This article moves away from the focus on the ways interactions in public go awry and focuses on how individuals account for the mundane, everyday exchanges they have with strangers who seek their help. Based on interview data (N = 31) and qualitative analysis of data from an Internet survey (N = 110), this article suggests that the presence of beggars does not inherently symbolize urban decay to passersby and does not necessarily elicit anxiety, but instead provides a valuable texture of urban life. Further, the article argues that individuals, when justifying their responses to requests for help from needy persons (beggars) in urban spaces, use a variety of cultural strategies to maintain their perception of themselves as moral persons, both when they choose to help and when they refuse. Drawing from these findings, the article suggests that urban sociology and the sociology of risk would benefit from sensitizing their studies of public interactions to the diverse meanings individuals assign to them, rather than presupposing annoyance, anxiety, or fear as their predominant characteristic.
2006 | «emancipación frustrada. sobre el concepto de historia en marx» de c. mesa (buchbesprechung, in: 'das argument. zeitschrift für philosophie und sozialwissenschaften' 267/2006)
Authors: garcía gómez del valle josé m.
Published: July 2018

josé m. garcía gómez del valle: «emancipación frustrada. sobre el concepto de historia en marx» de ciro mesa (buchbesprechung/ book review, in: 'das argument. zeitschrift für philosophie und sozialwissenschaften' 267/2006)
Do Multiple Intelligences Improve EFL Students’ Critical Reading Skills?
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Alqatanani Alaeddin Khaled
Published: July 2018

This study examines the potential effect of a program based on multiple intelligences on improving the Jordanian tenth grade English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ critical reading skills in English. The researcher claims that multiple intelligences strategies have the potential to provide a suitable resource to empower the quality of TEFL in Jordan. The study follows a quasi- experimental design in which an experimental group and a control group were purposefully chosen from AzZarqa First Directorate of Education (Jordan). In the experimental group, 30 students were taught by multiple intelligences strategies and 29 students of control group were taught by the conventional teaching method as outlined in the teacher’s book. A pre-post achievement test was utilized. The findings reveal statistically significant differences at (α ≤ 0.05) between the two mean scores of experimental and control groups in the post- test in favor of experimental group. The study recommends to examine the effect of using multiple intelligences on EFL students’ achievement in other language skills and sub skills. A number of implications are put forth to enhance the students’ critical reading ability.
Introduction to Informal Logical Fallacies from Islamic Perspective
Authors: Malik Mohammad Manzoor
Published: July 2018

This work is aimed at providing an Islamic perspective on few selected informal logical fallacies. It serves an introduction to the theme and opens ways of reflecting on it, which is the main portion of critical thinking as a subject. Informal logical fallacies are numerous innumber and for the sake of convenience they are very often categorized under three classifications: relevance, presumption, and ambiguity. This work follows the same categories and discusses few, selected informal fallacies under each category.
The Effects of Motivation and Other Factors on Second Language Acquisition: A Case Study on Achieving Advanced Oral Proficiency in English
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Al-Hawamdeh Rose Fowler , Al-Khanji Rajai
Published: July 2018

This paper is based on a case study of Raya, a Palestinian Arab undergraduate student, at the University of Jordan, who has achieved level B1 according to The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in listening and reading comprehension (‘accomplished’) and CEFR level B2 (‘superior’) in language form and meaning in English according to the TOEFL Junior Exam. Based on multiple data sources (i.e. interviews, observation, questionnaires and document analysis), the study aims to highlight how Raya's multiple identities as a language learner, avid film watcher, YouTube user and online gamer, and a (non) member of a target language community have contributed to her oral proficiency in English. The study also aims to emphasize some personal attributes that Raya has as a language learner in order to uncover the factors which have assisted or hampered her acquisition of English. The main finding of the case study is that Raya's English language proficiency has been enriched because of two overriding factors: firstly, integrative motivation (i.e. her love of English) highlighted through her immersion in the target language by her online identity, films and social interaction; and, secondly, instrumental motivation (i.e. using the language as a means to academic and professional advancement) in the sense she realized English was a way of helping her to achieve her goal of leaving her hometown and studying abroad. It is hoped that this study will inspire and inform both language learners and educators alike, as to some of the steps to success in acquiring proficiency in English or any other language.
Antisocial and Human Capital Pathways to Socioeconomic Exclusion: A 42-Year Prospective Study
Authors: Savolainen Jukka
Published: July 2018

Nordic welfare states have been very successful at reducing poverty and inequality among their citizens. However, the presence of a strong social safety net in these countries has not solved the problem of socioeconomic exclusion, manifesting in such outcomes as chronic unemployment and welfare dependency. In an effort to understand this phenomenon, the current study builds on the assumption that psychological risk factors emerge as important determinants of socioeconomic disadvantage in an environment where ascribed characteristics have less impact on educational and occupational attainment. Using data from Finland, this research examined a life course model linking childhood differences in cognitive skills and antisocial propensity to midlife socioeconomic exclusion. The Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (n = 369) follows individuals from age 8 (b. 1959) through age 50. Evidence from a structural equation model found support for key theoretical predictions: (1) human capital and antisocial pathways contributed independently to socioeconomic exclusion; (2) the effect of childhood psychological factors on midlife socioeconomic exclusion was mediated by adolescent and adult life course outcomes; and (3) the human capital and antisocial domains intersected such that antisocial children struggled in school as adolescents, which contributed to their persistence in crime and deviance in adulthood – a behavioral pattern that directly increased the risk of socioeconomic exclusion in midlife. In short, the findings suggest that early emerging differences in cognitive ability and antisociality set in motion a process of negative life outcomes with enduring consequences for socioeconomic well-being. The results are discussed from the perspective of socio-historical context and public policy.
Os cinco macacos e o pensamento crítico
Authors: Baltar Ronaldo
Published: July 2018

De tempos em tempos, alguém faz circular a famosa estória motivacional dos cinco macacos. E sempre resulta em muitos comentários positivos. Várias postagens, em diferentes redes, lembraram a estória que estimula as pessoas a pensarem diferente do senso comum. Uma espécie de convite ao pensamento crítico. Mas, por outro lado, a simplicidade com que a estória é contada ( e repassada ) parece indicar também o contrário, mais do mesmo. Uma postura criativa e inovadora, requer de fato um pensamento crítico. E pensamento crítico significa rever conceitos pré-estabelecidos. Mas o pensamento crítico se faz a partir do acúmulo de conhecimento, não da negação da experiência adquirida como indiretamente sugere a estória dos cinco macacos. Mais importante do que isso, as instituições têm um papel fundamental na criação do ambiente inovador.
Paying for affordable housing in different market contexts
Authors: Randolph Bill , Troy Laurence , Milligan Vivienne , van den Nouwelant Ryan
Published: July 2018

This study analysed recently completed affordable housing developments across Australia to ascertain how affordable housing project costs, revenues and subsidies interact. The research reveals the diverse funding arrangements adopted by providers, which have resulted in affordable housing project outcomes being driven by funding opportunities rather than by defined housing needs, and identified six key lessons about financing affordable housing.
Inequality of Educational Opportunity in East and West Germany: Convergence or Continued Differences
Authors: Klein Markus , Barg Katherin , Kühhirt Michael
Published: July 2018

Diversity in education systems, and broader political and economic conditions, are commonly credited with international variations in inequality of educational opportunity (IEO). Comparing East and West Germany before reunification allows us to investigate whether vastly different political, economic and educational systems led to differences in IEO. Post-reunification, East Germany adopted the West's systems and experienced an economic recession. IEO had been smaller in East than in West Germany but was on an upward trajectory before reunification. After 1990, IEO in East Germany converged to the West German level as a result of decreased IEO in the West and increasing levels in the East. Post-reunification convergence suggests differences in political context and education policy are crucial for IEO.
Is Restorative Justice Conferencing Appropriate for Youth Offenders?
Authors: Suzuki Masahiro , Wood William R
Published: July 2018

While many studies on restorative justice conferencing (RJC) for youth offenders have shown favourable outcomes such as victim satisfaction and fairness, and offender accountability and perceived legitimacy, other studies have demonstrated more problematic outcomes in terms of mutual understanding, sincerity of apology and reoffending. Given the complexity of RJC as a concept and as a process, such ‘limits’ might be attributed to the capacity and characteristics of youth offenders. To date, however, there has been little examination of developmental, cognitive, or environmental impediments on the part of youth offenders in terms of achieving restorative outcomes in RJC. This paper discusses the potential impacts of limited developmental and cognitive capacities of youth offenders on the RJC process and outcomes.
Perceptions of EFL Teachers at King Abdulaziz University Regarding the Effectiveness of Cambridge University Press’s Train the Trainer Course
Authors: Journal Arab World English , Roy Catherine Karen , Rahim Sabitha , Khojah Aishah Yaqoub
Published: July 2018

This study adds to the current literature on ongoing in-house professional development for teachers by exploring how administrators, other faculty, and the English-language (EFL) teachers who participated in Cambridge University Press’s Train the Trainer course (TTT) at King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Saudi Arabia, judged the TTT’s usefulness. To determine whether to support the TTT in the future, KAU wanted to identify how well its TTT graduates could provide professional development to their colleagues. This study’s aim is to discuss how positively those who were involved in the TTT, particularly the administration, the TTT graduate trainers themselves, and the other teachers who attended the workshops presented by first-year graduates of the ELI’s TTT responded to the course. The main question it addresses is how successful the implementation of such a TTT course can be at the English language institute of a Saudi university, like at KAU, so as to determine if the TTT should continue to be offered at KAU and more generally, taking the example of the ELI at KAU, if the TTT course should also be proposed at other English language institutes in Saudi Arabia. This study employed a Likert scale survey, semi-structured interviews, and open-ended questions with TTT participants, administrators, and other faculty to assess the TTT’s initial value. The main finding of this study is that so far, the TTT course was perceived as beneficial. However, future analyses should evaluate the longer-term effects of the TTT on teaching approaches and student learning.
Vogel (2016): Führung in der deutschen Verwaltungsforschung: Ein Überblick über die Entwicklung der wissenschaftlichen Diskussion und eine Agenda für die Zukunft
Authors: Vogel Dominik
Published: July 2018

Seit einiger Zeit lässt dich beobachten, dass dem Thema Führung in Verwaltungspraxis und -forschung immer mehr Bedeutung beigemessen wird. Dies soll zum Anlass genommen werden, den aktuellen Stand der Führungsforschung im öffentlichen Sektor in Deutschland zusammenzufassen, Entwicklungen nachzuzeichnen und Forschungslücken aufzuzeigen. Insgesamt lässt sich feststellen, dass für Deutschland bisher nur sehr wenig empirische Forschung zum Führungsverhalten im öffentlichen Sektor vorliegt. Stattdessen dominierten in der Vergangenheit konzeptionelle und normative Beiträge. In den letzten Jahren ist jedoch ein zunehmendes Interesse der Forschung zu verzeichnen, was sich auch in einer zunehmenden Zahl empirischer Beiträge niederschlägt. Es bleiben allerdings noch viele Fragen unbeantwortet. Dieser Beitrag zeigt daher auf, wie diese adressiert werden können und entwirft damit eine Agenda für die weitere Führungsforschung im öffentlichen Sektor.
The Usefulness of Translation in Foreign Language Teaching: Teachers’ Attitudes and Perceptions
Authors: Studies AWEJ-tls for Translation & Literary , Djelloul Dalila Benelhadj , Neddar Bel Abbes
Published: July 2018

Translation has long been viewed as an ineffective pedagogical tool due to its unjustifiable association to old methods of teaching, particularly the Grammar-Translation Method (GTM) and its practices. The overuse and the misuse of translation in the heydays of these methods paved the way to the monolingual assumption that English should be taught without the inclusion of translation activities in the classroom. However, in the last few decades, there has been ongoing research re-evaluating the use of translation in the EFL context. Drawing upon several studies conducted in this respect, researchers discussed the main objections raised against the use of translation and set the benefits of this teaching tool in facilitating the students’ language learning process. On the basis of the findings of these studies, the present article aims at exploring teachers’ attitudes towards the use and usefulness of translation in English classes in the Algerian EFL context. Due to the huge gap between the literature on the importance of translation and its practice on the ground , this article attempts to confirm the validity of this pedagogical tool and suggest some guidelines as to how and when to integrate translation activities within the teaching of English as a foreign language. The data were collected through a questionnaire addressed to secondary school teachers working in different cities in Algeria. Though it has never been practised in a principled and purposeful way, translation, has gained a wide recognition from secondary school teachers who reported that this pedagogical tool played a considerable role in facilitating foreign language learning and improving language skills. The findings confirmed the effectiveness of translation in explaining new vocabulary, developing students’ cognitive skills and extending students’ background knowledge as well as their linguistic competence.
Social Stratification and Health. Four Essays on the Social Determinants of Health and Wellbeing
Authors: Präg Patrick
Published: July 2018

The relationship between socioeconomic status, health, and wellbeing has puzzled researchers for decades. Individuals with higher education, a better job, or higher status, live longer and healthier. The four essays in this book offer a fresh view on crucial aspects of this relationship. Drawing on data from more than fifty countries, the multidimensional nature of socioeconomic status is explored, not only covering objective indicators of socioeconomic status—education, income, occupational prestige—but also individuals' subjective perceptions of socioeconomic status and status differentials between doctors and patients. Furthermore, the essays analyze the multilevel nature of social stratification, comparing differences in the strength of the relationship between education and health across countries and regions, as well as investigating the pathways by which income inequality affects health.
Dadaism: Restrictivism as militant quietism
Authors: Button Tim
Published: July 2018

Can we quantify over everything: absolutely, positively, definitely, totally, every thing? Some authors have claimed that we must be able to do so, since the doctrine that we cannot is self-stultifying. But this treats restrictivism as a positive doctrine. Restrictivism is much better viewed as a kind of militant quietism, which I call dadaism. Dadaists advance a hostile challenge, with the aim of silencing everyone who claims to hold a positive position about ‘absolute generality’.Published in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 110.3: 387–98.
Domestic politics and the formation of international environmental agreements
Authors: Tavoni Alessandro
Published: July 2018

We investigate the effect of domestic politics on international environmental policy by incorporating into a classic stage game of coalition formation the phenomenon of lobbying by special-interest groups. In doing so, we contribute to the theory of international environmental agreements, which has overwhelmingly assumed that governments make decisions based on a single set of public-interest motivations. Our results suggest that lobbying on emissions may affect the size of the stable coalition in counterintuitive ways. In particular, a powerful business lobby may increase the government's incentives to sign an agreement, by providing it with strong bargaining power with respect to that lobby at the emission stage. This would result in lower total emissions when the number of countries involved is not too large. We also show that things change radically when lobbying bears directly on the membership decisions, suggesting that both the object and timing of lobbying matter for the way in which membership decisions, emissions and welfare are affected.
Saving Children, Controlling Families: Punishment, redistribution and child protection
Authors: Edwards Frank
Published: July 2018

This study shows that state efforts at child protection are structured by the policy regimes in which they are enmeshed. Using administrative data on child protection, criminal justice, and social welfare interventions, I show that children are separated from their families and placed into foster care far more frequently in states with extensive and punitive criminal justice systems than in states with broad and generous welfare programs. However, large welfare bureaucracies interact with welfare program enrollment to create opportunities for the surveillance of families, suggesting that extensive and administratively complex welfare states engage in “soft” social control through the surveillance and regulation of family behavior. The article further shows that institutionalization, a particularly restrictive form of foster care placement, is least common in states with broad and generous welfare regimes and generally more common under punitive regimes. Taken together, these findings show that policy regimes influence the interaction between families and the state through their proximate effects on family structure and well-being and through institutional effects that delimit the routines and scripts through which policymakers and street-level bureaucrats intervene to protect children.