tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12987692552797340972024-02-19T04:59:03.493-08:00Adventures In Culture, Mind & SpaceRonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-80686147754349462852017-05-01T22:19:00.000-07:002017-05-01T22:22:27.496-07:00Cross-cultural structural invariance testing: How to run the procrustean factor rotation magic in R<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It has been a while since I last posted some stats related material. Today I am getting back to this amazing topic and focus on how we can compare factor structures across cultural samples. I have done this <a href="http://culturemindspace.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/how-to-do-procrustean-factor-rotation.html" target="_blank">previously</a> with SPSS. Today I am focusing on R, which is way cooler.<br />
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In cross-cultural psychology, we often use factor analysis (or principal component analysis) to examine the factor structure of an instrument. But how can we tell whether the factors that we find are comparable? And how similar are they to each other? In order to do this, we need to make the factor structures maximally comparable with each other and then get an overall estimate of factor similarity. This is what Procrustean Rotation and indices such as Tucker's Phi are all about.<br />
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You may ask: Why do we need rotations which such weird Greek mythological names (if you wonder about the history of the name, look up the mighty evil rogue Procrustes on google)? The problem is that simply speaking any factor rotation is arbitrary and there are infinite possible solutions that can be mathematically fitted to any factor structure. Which means that there is a good chance that sample specific fluctuations will make factors look quite different. Apparently dissimilar factor structures might be more similar than we think; procrustean rotation is necessary to judge how similar they are.<br />
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Hence, I will cover the magic of how to do this in R, a free and awesome statistics program. Assuming that you are new to R, I will cover the basics of how to set your path and get your data in. If you know what you are doing, you can skip forward to the latter section.<br />
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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Step 1. Set your working directory</h2>
You need to set a working directory. This step is important because it will allow you to call your data file later on repeatedly without listing the whole path of where it is saved. For example, I saved the file that I am working with on my USB drive. <br />
I need to type this command:<br />
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setwd("F:\\")<br />
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If I had saved all the data on my dropbox folder in a folder called 'Stats' that is in my 'PDF' folder, then I would need to type this command:<br />
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setwd("C:\\Users\\Ron\\Dropbox\\PDF\\Stats")<br />
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Two important points:<br />
a) for some strange reason you need double \\ to set your directory paths with windows. You could also use / instead of \\ (e.g., setwd("C:/Users/Ron/Dropbox/PDF/Stats")). This is just to confuse you... But R is still awesome.<br />
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b) make sure that there are no spaces in any of your file or directory paths. R does not like it and will throw a tantrum if you have a space somewhere.<br />
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Step 2. Read your data into R</h2>
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The most convenient way to read data into R is using .csv files. Any programme like SPSS or Excel will allow you to save your data as a .csv file. <br />
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You need to type:<br />
ocb=read.csv("ocb_efa.csv", header=TRUE)<br />
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R is an object oriented language, which means we will constantly create objects by calling on functions: object <- function. This may seem weird at first, but will allow you to do lots of cool stuff in a very efficient way.<br />
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I am using a data that tested an organizational citizenship behavior scale, so I am calling my object that contains the data 'ocb'. Just as a bit of background, I am using data from Fischer and Smith (2006). They measured self-reported work behaviour in British and East German samples, which they called extra-role behaviour. Extra-role behavior is pretty much the same as citizenship behaviour, voluntary and discretationary behaviour that goes beyond what is expected of employees, but helps the larger organization to survive and prosper. These items were supposed to measure a more passive component (factor 1) and a more proactive component (factor 2). We will need this info on the expected factors below...<br />
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The command header=TRUE (or you could make it sure and just type T) tells R that the variable names are included.<br />
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Step 3. Preparing your data (dealing with missing data, checking your data, etc.)</h2>
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R does not like missing data. We will need to define which values are missing. I previously coded all missing data as -999 in SPSS or EXCEl. Now I have to declare that these annoying -999s should be treated as missing values.<br />
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If you type:<br />
summary(ocb)<br />
You will see that the minimum value is -999. The simplest and straightforward option is to define the missing values is to write this short command that converts all these offending values into NA - the R form of missing data.<br />
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ocb[ocb==-999]<-NA<br />
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Note the square brackets and double ==. If you want to treat only a selected variable, you could write:<br />
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ocb$ocb1[ocb$ocb1==-999] <- NA<br />
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This tells R that you want only the the first variable in the dataframe ocb to be treated in this way.<br />
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To check that all worked well, type:<br />
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summary(ocb)<br />
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You should see something like this:<br />
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If all went well, now your minimum and maximum values are within the bounds of your original data and you have a row of NA's a the bottom of each variable column.<br />
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As you can see, we have a variable called country with 1's and 2's. This is not that useful, because last time I checked, these are not good names for countries and might be a bit confusing.<br />
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The best option is to convert this variable in what is called a factor in R (don't confuse it with factor analysis). Basically, it becomes a dummy variable and we can give it labels. In my case, I have data from British and German employees, so I am using UK and German as labels.<br />
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You can type:<br />
ocb$country<-factor(ocb$country, #specifies the variable to be recoded<br />
levels = c(1,2), #specifies the numeric values<br />
labels = c("UK", "German")) #specifies the labels assigned to each numeric value<br />
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If you wonder, the # allows me to add annotations to each command line, that tell me (and you) what is going on, but R is ignoring these sections. </div>
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If you type, summary(ocb) again, you should now see that there 130 responses from the UK and 184 from Germany. </div>
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There is one more thing we need to do. In our analyses, we want to compare the factor analysis results of the two samples. Therefore, we need to create two data sets for each sample that include only the variables that we need for our factor analysis. This can be achieved with the subset command, which creates a new object with only the data that we need for each analysis. At the same time, we can also use this command to select only the relevant variables for our factor analysis. </div>
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To create the UK data set, you can type: </div>
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ocb.UK<-subset(ocb, #creates a new data frame using the original ocb data frame</div>
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country=="UK", #this is the variable that is used for subsetting, note the double ==</div>
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select=c(2:10)) #we only need the continuous variables which were in column 2 to 10</div>
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To see whether it worked, type: </div>
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summary(ocb.UK) #check that it worked</div>
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nrow(ocb.UK) #check that it worked, this command will give you the number of rows</div>
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Then repeat the procedure to create the German data set:</div>
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ocb.German<-subset(ocb,</div>
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country=="German",</div>
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select=c(-1)) #if you wonder, this is an alternative way of selecting the variables, by dropping the first column which had the country dummy factor</div>
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To check, you know the drill (summary or nrow). </div>
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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Step 4. Installing and loading the analysis packages for your analysis</h2>
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R is a very powerful tool because it is constantly expanding. Researchers from around the world are uploading tools and packages that allow you to run fancy new stats all the time. However, the base installation of R does not include them. So we need to tell R which packages we want to use.</div>
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For the type of measurement invariance tests that I am talking about today, we will need these two: psych (written by William Revelle, an amazing package, check out some of the awesome stuff can do with this package <a href="http://personality-project.org/r/overview.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>) and GPArotation.</div>
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Write this code to download and install the packages on your machine:</div>
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install.packages(c("psych", "GPArotation"))</div>
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Make sure you have good internet connectivity and you are not blocked by an institutional firewall. I had some problems recently trying to download R packages when accessing it from a university campus with a strong firewall. </div>
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Once all packages are downloaded, you need to call them before you can run any analyses:</div>
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library("psych")</div>
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library("GPArotation")</div>
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Important: You need to call these packages each time that you want to run some analyses, if you have restarted R or RStudio. Now we should be ready to start our analyses. </div>
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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Step 5. Run the analysis in each sample</h2>
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I have used the name factor analysis so far. Technically, I am going to use principal component analysis (PCA). There is a lot of debate whether factor analysis or principal component analysis are better... I touched upon this in class, but will not repeat it here. Let's just stick with PCA for the time being and be happy. I will also continue to use the term 'factors', even though this is factually incorrect (they are principal components) and I am likely to burn in statistical hell. I am happy to brave this risk... </div>
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To run the PCA, we need to type a short command line. Let's break it down. pca_2f.uk is the name that I gave the new object that R will create. The name is pretty much up to you, I called it pca (because I am running a PCA) with 2 factors (hence 2f) based on the British data (voila, this is what uk stands for). The command 'principal' tells R what to do: run a principal component analysis. After the open brackets, I first specify the data object (ocb.UK), then how many factors I want to extract (nfactors=2), followed by the type of rotation (I decided to go with varimax rotation, which is a form of orthogonal rotation that assumes independence of factors). So this is what I write:</div>
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pca_2f.uk<-principal(ocb.UK, </div>
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nfactors=2,</div>
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rotate="varimax")<br />
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If you run it, nothing will happen. We just created an object that contains the PCA results. To actually see it, we can either call all the output by typing:<br />
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pca_2f.uk<br />
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Or we could sort the factor loadings by size and suppress small factor loadings (for example, factor loadings smaller than .3). To get this, write:<br />
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print.psych(pca_2f.uk, cut=0.3, sort = T)</div>
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Now you should see some output like this:<br />
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As you can see, the first item loaded on both factors. However, overall there seems to be a pretty neat two-factor structure.<br />
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Now you need to do the same thing for the German data set. This is not rocket science and I hope you would have come up with the same code like this: <br />
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pca_2f.german<-principal(ocb.German,</div>
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nfactors=2,</div>
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rotate="varimax")</div>
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print.psych(pca_2f.german, cut=0.3, sort = T)</div>
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The output looks like this:<br />
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The first item loads much more clearly on factor 2 in this German data set compared to the British data set. But what can say about this difference? We can't really compare to the two factor results, because there might be arbitrary changes due to sample fluctuations or other funny jazz (this is a highly technical term). Now we get to the crux of this whole issue, because we need to do Procrustean rotation. Procrustean rotation (have you looked up Procrustes yet?) does what the name says, it rotates and fits one solution to the other, making them directly comparable.<br />
Before we get there, take a deep breath and have a look at this picture...<br />
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Feeling more relaxed and calmer now? Let's move on to the real stuff!<br />
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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Step 5. Run the Procrustean rotation </h2>
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For those of you who have done the procrustean rotation stuff in SPSS (for a reminder, have a look <a href="http://culturemindspace.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/how-to-do-procrustean-factor-rotation.html" target="_blank">here</a>), you might have braced yourself for a massive typing exercise with lots of random error messages and annoying missing commas, semi-colons and winged brackets. Fear not - R is making it much easier.</div>
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To run the actual procrustean rotation, we need to type one little command line. To break it down again, we create a new object that contains our rotated factor loadings. I called it 'pca2.uk.rotated'. We tell R what to do (run a Target Rotation... hence, called 'TargetQ'), specify what factor loadings we want to rotate and what we want it to rotate it to - our target. I used the German sample as the target. This is a pretty arbitrary choice, but I decided to use it because a) the German sample is larger and b) the German sample had a slightly cleaner initial structure. </div>
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Here is the command:</div>
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pca2.uk.rotated<-TargetQ(pca_2f.uk$loadings, Target=list(pca_2f.german$loadings))</div>
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If we now call the object (just type the name of the object), we should see something like this:</div>
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The first first item still does show up as loading on both factors, but the loading on the first factor is somewhat reduced. We could now start a bit of a tea leaf reading exercise and look at all the little changes that have happened after rotation. This can be informative and if you have your own data sets, this is probably a good thing to do. Yet, these impressions do not allow us to get a sense of how statistically similar the two factor solutions are. Do these differences matter? </div>
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Hence, the final step for today... We need to calculate the overall similarity.</div>
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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
Step 6. Compute Factor Congruence Coefficients</h2>
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There are a number of different ways to calculate factor congruence or factor similarity. The most common one is Tucker's Phi. You can read up more about it in a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284674661_Methods_for_investigating_structural_equivalence" target="_blank">chapter </a>that I have written together with Johnny Fontaine. Send me a message if you want a copy. </div>
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To get Tucker's Phi, we again have to write a single command line. The command is simple: 'factor.congruence' and all we need to specify is which loadings from what analyses we want to analyze. In our case, we want to compare the original German factor loadings with the procrustean rotated British loadings. Hence, we write:</div>
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factor.congruence(pca2.uk.rotated$loadings,pca_2f.german$loadings)</div>
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We will see a 2 x 2 matrix, which has Tucker's Phi on the diagonal. As you should see, the similarity for factor 1 is .94 and for factor 2 is .97. If you compare it with the standards that we discuss in the book chapter, this is pretty good similarity. The small changes that we see across the two samples do not matter that much. </div>
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If you want another indicator, we could compute the correlation between the two factor structures. This again is relatively straightforward. Without creating a new object, we could just type (note that we use the same structure as for the factor.congruence statement):</div>
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cor(pca2.uk.rotated$loadings,pca_2f.german$loadings)</div>
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The correlation matrix shows us on the diagonal that the correlation for factor 1 is .87 and for factor 2 is .93. Therefore, the correlation coefficient suggests that factor 2 is pretty similar. However, factor 1 is not doing that great. Maybe item 1 is a big dodgy after all. </div>
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As we discuss in the chapter, it can be useful to compare the different indices. If they agree - you are sweat and you can happily go your way comparing the factor structures. If they diverge (as they do a wee bit in this case), you may want to explore further. In our case, it might make sense to remove the first item and redo the analyses. If we do this and re-run all the steps after excluding ocb1 (see the subsetting command at step 3), we will find the two structures are now beautifully similar. Nearly like identical twins... Who would have thought that of ze Germans and ze Brits...</div>
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I hope you have enjoyed this little excursion into R and procrustean rotation. I am a big fan of the capabilities of R and what you can do with it for cross-cultural analyses. I hope I got you inspired too.</div>
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Any questions or comments, please get in touch and comment :)</div>
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Now... rotate and relax :) </div>
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Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-60848210804674343642016-02-11T13:23:00.002-08:002016-07-11T05:30:09.985-07:00Culture & Psychology Summer School in Nagoya, Japan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We are super-excited to announce all the details for the next IACCP Culture & Psychology Summer School. The Culture & Psychology School is open to students at PhD and MSc level and is sponsored by the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP). The goal is to provide specialized training by experts in topics of importance and relevance for studying psychology and culture in context. In addition to its educational benefits, the programme is designed to facilitate cross-cultural contact and understanding among future academic leaders and to broaden their academic vision. We really look forward in bringing bright minds from all corners of the world together and help them develop new research ideas and collaborations. The Culture & Psychology School is run in association with the <a href="http://www.iaccp2016.com/" target="_blank">23rd IACCP conference</a> to take place in Nagoya, Japan. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A project presentation during the 2012 Stellenbosch Culture & Psychology School</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">There have been numerous changes based on the feedback and suggestions that we received after the last one in Reims, France. We are super-excited about the line-up and new programme. Here is an overview of the new programme, the stream leaders and content.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The new programme</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We have received a lot of feedback and we have remodeled how we plan to run it. The major difference this year is that we have more methods. You will be able to choose both a content stream and a method stream. On the first day after some introduction and overview, you will be working with people in your content stream. On the second day, you can then choose one of three method streams and work hands-on under the guidance of experts. On the third day, you rejoin your content stream and you will integrate your new methods learned to your content area of study.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To make this work, we will expect that you do some prep work before coming to Nagoya. The stream leaders will provide some reading lists and tasks for you to complete before you arrive in Nagoya to get everyone up to speed with basics. Think of it as a mini-online course to help you get familiar with some of the material to make the most of your learning experience. We will facilitate this as best as possible and we are confident that you will enjoy this opportunity to interact online with your stream colleagues. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here are the stream leaders and their content and methods sections:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cristine Legare</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cristine is a cognitive scientist who studies the ontogeny of cultural learning. She examines the interplay of the universal human mind and the variations of human culture to address questions about cognitive and cultural evolution. Her research and training reflect <a href="http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/rising-stars-2013/cristine-legare.html" target="_blank">her commitment to an interdisciplinary approach</a> to the study of cognitive development. Cristine draws on insights from cognitive, cultural, developmental, educational, and evolutionary psychology as well as cognitive and evolutionary anthropology and philosophy, with the aim of facilitating cross-fertilization within and across these disciplines. Her website can be found <a href="http://www.cristinelegare.com/" target="_blank">here</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Content Stream: Cognition in Cultural Context</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Human cross-cultural variation is unique among all animals in both its extent and structural complexity. Cultural variability is one of our species’ most distinctive features, yet the vast majority of psychological research continues to examine a population that is unrepresentative of human culture globally and historically—those from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) backgrounds. Cristine proposes that cultural diversity is inextricably tied to childhood. The human capacity for cultural variability within and between groups must be ontologically prepared by a set of characteristics that enable, structure, and stabilize group-specific cultural information much beyond anything that has been observed in other primates. She will discuss how the capacity to learn, create, and transmit culture increases our understanding of the cognitive and cultural evolution of our species. Cristine will describe how my experimental and ethnographic research integrates theory and methodology from cognitive and evolutionary anthropology, psychology, and philosophy to examine the co-construction of cognition and culture. She will also provide an overview of research conducted at field sites in southern Africa, the U.S., Brazil, and Vanuatu (a Melanesian archipelago).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Methods Stream: From Ethnography to Experiments and Back Again</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cristine conducts mixed-methodological, cross-cultural research to examine cognition in context. She will discuss how she “mines ethnography” to inform her experimental research and the ways in which experimental research can be used to test hypotheses about the cognitive psychological underpinnings of cultural beliefs and practices. Cristine will also discuss best practice for elevating the state-of-the-science in cross-cultural research as well as strategies for publishing interdisciplinary research.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Matt Easterbrook</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Matt is part of the Social and Applied Psychology Research Group at the University of Sussex, UK, where he researches and lectures on the psychology of inequality. His research investigates how selves and identities are influenced by different social structures, cultural orientations, and group memberships, and the consequences of these things for personal well-being, trust, motivation, and socio-political outcomes. His research often uses multilevel and longitudinal study designs and advanced statistical analyses to investigate these issues. His website is <a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/173988" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Content stream: The self and social inequality </span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Against a backdrop of unprecedented and rising levels of inequality across the world, this stream will cover contemporary social psychological theories of inequality and social class. We will begin by reviewing the broad consequences of inequality for nations and individuals, before discussing the pivotal role of the self as the explanatory nexus between structural inequality and individual characteristics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Method stream: Multilevel modelling</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This stream will begin with a discussion of the research designs that give rise to multilevel data, and why multilevel modelling of nested data is important and useful. We will then cover how to manage and set up multilevel data in SPSS, and how to import, run and understand different multilevel models using HLM. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nicolas Geeraert</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nicolas is a senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Essex (UK). He trained as a social psychologist (PhD, 2004, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) looking at stereotypes and attribution theory. His current research interests are in cross-cultural psychology and acculturation. He has extensive experience in conducting longitudinal projects which he has used in a number of acculturation projects. His website is <a href="https://www.essex.ac.uk/psychology/staff/profile.aspx?ID=2422" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">This is Nicolas one or two weeks ago ;)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Content stream: Acculturation & intercultural contact</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Intercultural contact leads to challenges and changes. This stream will explore how acculturation unfolds as a process requiring the acculturating individual to copes with cultural stressors and cognitively organize their heritage and settlement cultures. We will discuss how acculturation takes place within the ecological context of families, institutions, and society.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Methods stream: Longitudinal methods</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Longitudinal research is an increasingly popular tool for cross-cultural researchers. This workshop will explore the strengths and advantages of longitudinal research and how to practical set-up a longitudinal study in terms of design, participant management, data preparation, etc. Different methods to analyse longitudinal data will also be discussed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Endorsement by Previous Participants</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ceren Gunsoy</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I attended the IACCP summer school in Reims, France, as a third year PhD student at Iowa State University. It was a great experience! Not only the topic stream that I was part of but also the talks, discussions, and social activities were very informative, thought-provoking, and fun. On top of that I met great people and am still in touch with them. I strongly recommend this program!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Colin Scott</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The 2014 Summer School in Reims, France, was a fantastic opportunity to connect with researchers interested in a range of topics in cross-cultural psychology. Seminars with leaders in the field offered a hands-on opportunity to build new collaborations while getting critical and constructive feedback from faculty and students on our own work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Costs</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The cost for the summer school will be 200 Euro for participants from high-income countries (as per IACCP fee structure) and 150 Euro for participants from low income countries. The fee includes accommodation, welcome dinner, lunches and coffee breaks. This is pretty damn good value for a three full day workshop with world leaders in the field of psychology and culture, providing you with cutting edge skills and material. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Schedule</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>March 20: Deadline for applications</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">April 3: Decisions on applications</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">April 4: Work in online study groups commences</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">June 20: Submitting initial research ideas to stream leaders</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>July 26- 30: Culture & Psychology School in Nagoya Hill</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">July 26 evening – arrival at Nagoya hill station, general welcome and get to know each other</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">July 27– Introduction & work in content streams</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">July 28– work in methods streams</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">July 29 morning – we bring content and methods back together, discussion of research ideas and plans</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">July 29 afternoon – sharing experiences by stream leaders on how to publish cultural research</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">July 30 – transfer to Nagoya.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>July 30 – Aug 3: IACCP conference in Nagoya</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Accommodation & Logistics</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The school will take place in a mountain retreat two hours away from Nagoya. It will be a fascinating cultural experience since we are going to be in a small community off the beaten track in a more traditional Japanese environment. All sleeping places are shared and we will sleep on futons. Please bring your own toiletries and towels be prepared to share a communal space. There will be NO towels available and only shared shower facilities. It is a traditional setting and we only have one hour per day in the evening when you can take a shower. I realize that this may be unusual or inconvenient, but I really hope you will be able to use this as a cultural learning experience and enjoy this cultural challenge. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We have your dietary requirements and will try our best to accommodate them. The food will be in traditional Bento style. Feel free to buy additional food of your preference on the way, there is some (limited) refrigerator space where it can be stored. Here is the <a href="http://www2.jimu.nagoya-u.ac.jp/nakatsugawa/access.html" target="_blank">link</a> to the place (use google translate to get it in English).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Application and Further Info</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://iaccp.org/node/518" target="_blank">The application form is now available.</a> Check <a href="http://iaccp.org/" target="_blank">here</a> for any updates. A poster to share with colleagues and friends is <a href="http://www.iaccp.org/sites/default/files/nagoya_school_poster_v3.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Print it and spread the word! </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If you have any questions about the programme, the stream leaders or the general procedure, please do not hesitate to contact </span><a href="http://www.victoria.ac.nz/psyc/about/staff/ronald-fischer" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif;" target="_blank">me</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> or </span><a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/326109" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif;" target="_blank">Yasin</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Happy to answer your questions and look forward to seeing you all in Nagoya in a few months!</span></div>
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Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com2Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan35.1814464 136.9063979999999734.9737089 136.58367449999997 35.3891839 137.22912149999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-70602319733820525142015-03-02T01:02:00.000-08:002015-03-02T01:02:07.018-08:00A gentle intro to cross-cultural equivalence - or how can we measure across cultures?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Psychology is the study of human behaviour and mental
processes through scientific methods. The claim of psychology is often to be
universal, that is applicable to all of humanity. Using scientific methods, we
psychologists rely on a systematic and objective process of proposing and
testing hypotheses and making predictions about the state of human nature. Ever since the beginning of psychology as an
academic discipline, the scientific quest to quantify natural occurrences to
better understand and predict them in the future became one of the ultimate
goals. Of course, this requires often extensive qualitative research, but
ultimately the hope was and is that we can understand a behaviour or mental
process so precisely that we can quantitatively measure it and also change it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The application of such quantitative methods are now often
taken for granted, even though the levels of quantification may vary. For example,
we may want to select the most able person for a particular job, refer a child
with learning problems to a specialist or we may wish to help a person with
mental health problems to fully function in society again. Even though all
these problems can be phrased in qualitative terms (a good person for the job,
a child that has problems learning, a person who is not well), these are
essentially quantitative problems because they always have some reference to
implicit or explicit standards. A person might be BETTER qualified than another
to take up a job or a person may have GREATER problems understanding concepts
or material than 75% of the children of her age. Therefore, in many day-to-day
situations we make implicit and intuitive quantitative statements.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If we want to make quantitative statements about a
scientific concept, we run into one of the central problems in psychology. This
is namely WHAT do we want to make a comparison about? Or in other words, how do
we define a psychological construct so that we can measure it? A geographer,
chemist or physicist is unlikely to phase the problems that psychologists have…
after all, we can easily measure distances (e.g., how far is Auckland from
Wellington), we have ways of dating the age of a piece of rock or we can
measure the energy of particles when we collide them at the near speed of
light. Psychologists on the other hand are dealing with intangible concepts
that are difficult to specify. Most of you are familiar with concepts such as
intelligence, attitudes, personality traits, depression or identity. However,
if we were to ask you to pinpoint any of these concepts in the real world, we
would be unable to do so. Our psychological terminology refer to unobserved
mental constructs that we create in our community of fellow psychologists to
indicate a particular set of problems, describe a particular set of behaviours
or mental representations. I would argue that underlying many of these
psychological terms are assumptions about relative coherence, stability,
generalizability and potentially even some general biological foundations that
lead to the emergence of such a syndrome. Therefore, we don’t just invent these
terms on a whim, but we think that there is something meaningful to them that
we think is important enough to look into and tell other people about. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Therefore, the first issue in any psychological study, even
though it may not seem obvious anymore, is to clearly and unambiguously define
and specify what we want to study. <b>What is our construct or process of
interest?</b> It is at this point, that culture will throw the first curve ball at
any psychologist attempting to address this question. How can we make sure that
our definition or mental construct of our psychological term or process is actually
valid or does have some meaning in another cultural context? <b>How does our
upbringing in a highly developed Western society influence how we think about
psychological constructs?</b> Can we assume that identity is a concept that is meaningful
in a village in the lowland Amazon basin? Is our definition of depression
applicable to refugees coming from Syria or Iraq? Is conscientiousness a useful
term to screen out applicants for jobs in an international organization? Therefore,
the first problem in any psychological study is to unambiguously define and
describe the psychological process for all the populations that we are interested
in. We could think of this as a mental bubble that we draw around some problem
or process. Does this bubble ‘exist’ in all the different cultures that we want
to include in our study? How can we find out whether this bubble is meaningful
and has some value or relevance for all the local populations? We will discuss this
as the question of <b>functional equivalence</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If we are confident that there is some value to this mental
bubble of ours (let’s say, depression, personality or identity) and that the terms
are meaningful in two or more cultures, then we need to find good indicators
for it. In psychological terms, this is called <b>operationalization</b>. How can we
empirically say that one person has more of this latent category quality that
we just created with our mental bubble compared to another person? What would
be a good indicator to tell us that one person is better for a job compared to
another person or that one person is a better learner than another, who in turn
may need some help? Here again, culture will throw lots of beautiful little
challenges at us. We need to find indicators that are meaningful and relevant
in each cultural context, but obviously we would still need to be able to
compare the results across contexts. Therefore, we can’t have indicators that
are relevant and meaningful in each context, but cannot be compared across
cultures. We want to aim for some level of comparability. For example, is
staying late at your desk a good indicator of being conscientious? Or could it
be seen as being disorganized and incompetent? What if people are unfamiliar
with office jobs? Is the number of items that you circled the temple this
morning before going to work a better indicator of your conscientiousness? Is the
ability to track animals over long distances and varied terrain a good
indicator of concentration? Or should we
give people lots of d’s and b’s and p’s and q’s and then ask them to count how
many p and q’s were together in each line? Should we measure intelligence by
asking people to name as many types of medicinal plans for diarrhoea? Or give
them complex questions about history and philosophy? This problem of
identifying good measurement indicators will be called <b>structural equivalence</b>. Obviously,
how we define and how we operationalize a construct is very much dependent on
each other. For this reason, some researchers lump the two terms together as
construct equivalence. For reasons that we will discuss later, I prefer to keep
them separate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, we now have a mental bubble and we have a number of indicators
that give us some clue about the latent bubble. However, we don’t actually know
how good each of these indicators is in representing that latent bubble. We need
to find a way to show us how well each indicator works in each of our cultures.
In other words, is the same indicator better in capturing a key aspect of our
construct in one culture compared to another? For example, is going to parties
and having lots of friends a good indicator of extraversion? Is having many
wives a good indicator of social status in all cultures? Is staying late at
work to finish a good indicator in all cultures for high conscientiousness? This
problems is called <b>metric equivalence</b>. It is the question about the relative
strength of the indicator-latent variable relationship. In technical terms, we
are concerned with the equivalence of factor loadings or item slopes in classic
test theory or the item discriminability in item response theory.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Finally, we may be convinced that our indicators work
equally well in all contexts. Each questionnaire or test items is really giving
us a good and reliable insight into the construct. But there may be still
problems. Some items, even though they have the same relationship with the
latent construct in all cultures, may still be a bit more difficult or easier
in one context compared to another. If I
would ask you to name the capital of Benin, most of you would probably struggle
finding the correct answer. Benin is a country that is quite far from our
thoughts and most of us will never set foot in this place or may not have heard
about it in the media. However, if I would ask you about the capital city of one
of your neighbouring countries, you would probably quite easily be able to name
it. Therefore, asking about the capital of Benin would be easier for somebody
living in Togo or Nigeria compared to somebody living in NZ or Denmark. This is
the issue of <b>full score or scalar equivalence</b>. Technically, we would look at
the invariance of item intercepts (in a multi-group CFA) or the differential
item difficulty (in IRT).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In summary, measuring psychological attributes or processes
across cultural contexts is quite difficult. I gave some relatively superficial
and easy examples to make this a relatively non-technical and easy intro to the
problem. We need to define our construct – draw our mental bubble around what
we want to study. The first step in any cultural study then is to make sure
that this construct or mental bubble is meaningful and functional in all
cultures that we want to study. Once we think this is the case, we need to find
good indicators that are observable and give us some insight into the position
or state of an individual in relation to our mental bubble. We then need to
discuss whether the indicators are equally good in all contexts or whether some
are better in telling us something about a person or process in one cultural context
compared to another. Finally, we need to find out whether all indicators are
equally easy or difficult. Only once we have fulfilled this last criterion can
we actually make any comparisons between individuals or groups across cultures.
This is a tough task and unfortunately, most studies that you will see in the literature
do fall well short of it. But this is the challenge that we really need to meet
in order to develop a meaningful and universal psychological science. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-38135094323775521992014-12-21T08:47:00.000-08:002015-01-02T09:38:10.654-08:00Cross-cultural measurement invariance testing in R in 5 simple steps<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here I am presenting a quick crash course to run invariance tests for cross-cultural research in R. <a href="http://www.r-project.org/" target="_blank">R</a> is a free programme and has an expanding list of awesome features that should be of interest to people doing cross-cultural work. </span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am working with <a href="http://www.rstudio.com/" target="_blank">RStudio</a>, but there are other options for running R. Here are the basic steps to get you started and run a cross-cultural equivalence test. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">1. Set your working directory</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This step is important because it will allow you to call your data file later on repeatedly without listing the whole path of where it is saved. For example, I saved the file that I am working with on my dropbox folder in a folder called 'Stats' that is in my 'PDF' folder. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I need to type this command:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">setwd("C:\\Users\\Ron\\Dropbox\\PDF\\Stats")</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Two important points: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a) for some strange reason you need double \\ to set your directory paths with windows.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">b) make sure that there are no spaces in any of your file or directory paths. R does not like it and will throw a tantrum if you have a space somewhere. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">2. Read your data into R</span></h3>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The most convenient way to read data into R is using .csv files. Any programme like SPSS or Excel will allow you to save your data as a .csv file. There are a few more things that we need to discuss about saving your data, but I will discuss this below. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Type:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">justice <- read.csv("justice.csv", header = TRUE)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">R is an object oriented language, which means we will constantly create objects by calling on functions: object <- function. This may seem weird at first, but will allow you to do lots of cool stuff in a very efficient way.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am using a data that tested a justice scale, so I am calling my object 'justice'. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">3. Deal with missing data</span></h3>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">If you have absolutely no missing data in your data file, skip this step. However most mortal researcher souls will have some missing data in their spreadsheet. R is very temperamental with missing data and we need to tell it what missing data is and how to deal with it. Some people (including myself) who are used to SPSS typically leave missing data as a blank cell in the spreadsheet. This will create problems. The best option is to write a little syntax command in spss to recode all blank cells to a constant number. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For example, I could write something like this in SPSS:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">recode variable1 to variable12</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(sysmis=9999) (else=copy) into</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">pj1 pj2 pj3 pj4 ij1 ij2 ij3 ij4 dj1 dj2 dj3 dj4. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Execute. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Now I can save those new variables as a .csv file and read into R using the step above.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Once you have executed step 2, you need to define these annoying 9999s as missing values.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The simplest and straightforward option is to write this short command that converts all these offending values into NA - the R form of missing data.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">justice[justice==9999] <- NA</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Note the square brackets and double ==. If you want to treat only a selected variable, you could write:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">justice$pj1[justice$pj1==9999] <- NA</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This tells R that you want only the pj1 variable in the dataframe justice to be treated in this way. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To check that all worked well, type:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">summary(justice)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">You should see something like this:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnrbiNQ6jq7049fX493L1FGN44w3BqB8s_MvmM_N8_y9y-klOT7dtrhkVtKjcPDxpi-e5Ewcgrvz1sqJ8sErJPpHNTy-As4I_BT7Q-N6IqqXgzS00Y5x9A9DgqutWwvtGw5ppQ2gQGx4BF/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-19+15.18.59.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnrbiNQ6jq7049fX493L1FGN44w3BqB8s_MvmM_N8_y9y-klOT7dtrhkVtKjcPDxpi-e5Ewcgrvz1sqJ8sErJPpHNTy-As4I_BT7Q-N6IqqXgzS00Y5x9A9DgqutWwvtGw5ppQ2gQGx4BF/s1600/Screenshot+2014-12-19+15.18.59.png" height="138" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">If all went well, now your minimum and maximum values are within the bounds of your original data and you have a row of NA's a the bottom of each variable column.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">4. Loading the analysis packages</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">R is a very powerful tool because it is constantly expanding. Researchers from around the world are uploading tools and packages that allow you to run fancy new stats all the time. However, the base installation of R does not include them. So we need to tell R which packages we want to use.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For measurement invariance tests, these three are particularly useful: lavaan (the key one) and semTools (important for the invariance tests).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Write this code to download and install the packages on your machine:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">install.packages(c("semTools", "lavaan"))</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Make sure you have good internet connectivity and you are not blocked by an institutional firewall. I had some problems recently trying to download R packages when accessing it from a university campus with a strong firewall. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Once all packages are downloaded, you need to call them before you can run any analyses:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">library("lavaan")</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">library("semTools")</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Important: You need to call these packages each time that you want to run some analyses, if you have restarted R or RStudio.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">5. Running the analyses</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">R is an object oriented language, as I mentioned before. The analysis can be executed in a couple of steps. First we need to specify the model that we run by creating a new object that contains all the information. Then we tell R what to do with that model. Finally, we have various options for obtaining the results, that is the fit indices and parameter estimates as well as other diagnostic information. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Let's create the model first:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cfa.justice<-'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">pj=~pj1+pj2+pj3+pj4</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ij=~ij1+ij2+ij3+ij4</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">dj=~dj1+dj2+dj3+dj4'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This creates the model that we can then work with. The '=~' denotes that the items are loading on the latent factor. This is what it looks like:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX8pSzRjONSmE75fd-54s85gdOuPm80sKXHTyE4t4SCfPxxP41zaDBZ1vXZSDhTnQT7_-tLLzoV75c0Fvbj2Eq95kiZDLWsQybe0i8UlkvgxF-G6Hb8eCkVmNikd5jyrtUp-c8y_fpx7uF/s1600/justice-test.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX8pSzRjONSmE75fd-54s85gdOuPm80sKXHTyE4t4SCfPxxP41zaDBZ1vXZSDhTnQT7_-tLLzoV75c0Fvbj2Eq95kiZDLWsQybe0i8UlkvgxF-G6Hb8eCkVmNikd5jyrtUp-c8y_fpx7uF/s1600/justice-test.jpeg" height="400" width="340" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The next set of commands sets specifies what should be done with the model. In the case of a simple CFA, we can call this function:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fit.cfa <-cfa(cfa.justice, data=justice)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To identify the model, lavaan sets the loading of the first item on each latent variable to 1. This is convenient, but may be problematic if the item is not a good indicator. An alternative strategy is to set the variance of the latent variable to 1. This can be done by adding std.lv=TRUE to the fit statement. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fit.cfa <-cfa(cfa.justice, data=justice, std.lv=TRUE)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This statement runs the analysis, but we still need to request the output.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The simplest way is to use summary again. Here is an option that prints both the fit indices and the standardized parameters.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">summary(fit.cfa, fit.measures= TRUE, standardized=TRUE)</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here is a truncated and annotated version of the output:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">lavaan (0.5-17) converged normally after 39 iterations</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Used Total</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Number of observations 2518 2634</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
# The following shows the estimator and the Chi square stats. As can be seen, we have 51 df's, but the model does not fit that well.<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Estimator ML</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Minimum Function Test Statistic 686.657</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Degrees of freedom 51</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">P-value (Chi-square) 0.000</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Model test baseline model:</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Minimum Function Test Statistic 20601.993</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Degrees of freedom 66</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">P-value 0.000</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></blockquote>
#The incremental fit indices are in contrast quite good. The CFI and TLI should be ideally be above .95 (or at least .90). So this model does look good. <br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">User model versus baseline model:</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Comparative Fit Index (CFI) 0.969</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) 0.960</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Loglikelihood and Information Criteria:</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Loglikelihood user model (H0) -44312.277</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Loglikelihood unrestricted model (H1) -43968.949</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Number of free parameters 27</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></blockquote>
#The AIC and BIC are useful for comparing models, especially non-nested models. Not the case right now. <br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> Akaike (AIC) 88678.555</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bayesian (BIC) 88835.998</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sample-size adjusted Bayesian (BIC) 88750.212</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></blockquote>
#The RMSEA should be small. Values smaller than .08 are deemed acceptable, below .05 are good. We are doing ok-ish with this one here. <br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Root Mean Square Error of Approximation:</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> RMSEA 0.070</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">90 Percent Confidence Interval 0.066 0.075</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">P-value RMSEA <= 0.05 0.000</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></blockquote>
#Another useful lack of fit index. The SRMR should be below .05 if possible. This is looking good. <br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Standardized Root Mean Square Residual:</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> SRMR 0.037</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></blockquote>
#Now we have a print out of all the parameter estimates, including the standardized loadings, variances and covariances. Here it is important to check whether loadings are relatively even and strong, and that the variances and covariances are reasonable (e.g., we want to avoid very high correlations between latent variables). It is looking ok overall. Item ij4 may need some careful attention.<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Parameter estimates:</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Information Expected</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Standard Errors Standard</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> Estimate Std.err Z-value P(>|z|) Std.lv Std.all</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Latent variables:</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">pj =~</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> pj1 1.000 1.202 0.789</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">pj2 1.009 0.027 38.005 0.000 1.213 0.790</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">pj3 0.769 0.025 31.003 0.000 0.924 0.643</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">pj4 0.802 0.024 33.244 0.000 0.963 0.687</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ij =~</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> ij1 1.000 1.256 0.879</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ij2 1.064 0.014 75.039 0.000 1.335 0.957</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ij3 1.015 0.015 68.090 0.000 1.274 0.910</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ij4 0.808 0.022 37.412 0.000 1.014 0.644</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">dj =~</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> dj1 1.000 1.211 0.821</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">dj2 1.013 0.019 51.973 0.000 1.227 0.871</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">dj3 1.056 0.020 52.509 0.000 1.279 0.877</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">dj4 1.014 0.021 48.848 0.000 1.228 0.834</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Covariances:</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">pj ~~</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> ij 0.828 0.041 20.435 0.000 0.549 0.549</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">dj 0.817 0.040 20.187 0.000 0.562 0.562</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ij ~~</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> dj 0.711 0.037 19.005 0.000 0.467 0.467</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Variances:</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">pj1 0.874 0.036 0.874 0.377</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">pj2 0.889 0.036 0.889 0.377</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">pj3 1.213 0.039 1.213 0.587</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">pj4 1.040 0.035 1.040 0.528</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ij1 0.464 0.016 0.464 0.227</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ij2 0.164 0.011 0.164 0.084</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ij3 0.336 0.013 0.336 0.172</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ij4 1.448 0.042 1.448 0.585</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">dj1 0.709 0.025 0.709 0.326</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">dj2 0.479 0.019 0.479 0.242</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">dj3 0.489 0.020 0.489 0.230</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">dj4 0.662 0.024 0.662 0.305</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">pj 1.444 0.066 1.000 1.000</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">ij 1.576 0.057 1.000 1.000</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">dj 1.466 0.060 1.000 1.000</span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, we want to do an invariance analysis. Right now we collapsed the samples and ran an analysis across all groups. This can create problems, especially if the samples have different means (see my earlier <a href="http://culturemindspace.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/how-to-do-procrustean-factor-rotation.html" target="_blank">blogpost</a> for an explanation of this problem). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The grouping variable should be a factor, that is a string variable that has the labels. You can also use continuous variables, but then you will need to remember what each number means. In this example, I have data from three samples:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">> summary(justice$nation)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Brazil NZ Philippines </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> 794 1146 694 </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It would be informative to see whether the item loadings are similar in each group. To do this, we only need to add group="nation" to our cfa statement.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">fit.cfa.separate <-cfa(cfa.justice, data=justice, group="nation")</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We can then print the results by using the summary statement again (remember that we have to call the new object for this analysis):</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">summary(fit.cfa.separate, fit.measures= TRUE, standardized=TRUE)</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am not printing the output.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Of course, this is not giving us the info that we want, namely whether the model really fits. In addition, we could ask for equal loadings, intercepts, unique variances, etc. I can't go into details about the theory and importance of each of these parameters. I hope to find some time soon to describe this. In the meantime, have a look at this <a href="http://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/3296462.pdf" target="_blank">earlier</a> article. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In R, running these analyses is really straightforward and easy. A single command line will give us all the relevant stats. Pretty amazing!!!!!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To run a full-blown invariance analysis, all you need is to type this simple command:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">measurementInvariance(cfa.justice,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> data=justice,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> group="nation",</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> strict=TRUE)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You can write it as a single line. I just put it on separate lines to show what it actually entails. First, we call the model that we specified above, then we link it to the data that we want to analyze. After that, we specify the grouping variable (nation). The final line requests strict invariance, that is we want to get estimates for a model where loadings, intercepts and unique variances are constrained as well as a model in which we constrain the latent means to be equal. If we don't specify the last line, we will not get the constraints in unique variances. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Here is the output, but without the strict invariance lines:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote>
Measurement invariance tests:<br />
Model 1: configural invariance:<br />
chisq df pvalue cfi rmsea bic<br />
992.438 153.000 0.000 0.962 0.081 86921.364<br />
Model 2: weak invariance (equal loadings):<br />
chisq df pvalue cfi rmsea bic<br />
1094.436 171.000 0.000 0.958 0.080 86882.400<br />
[Model 1 versus model 2]<br />
delta.chisq delta.df delta.p.value delta.cfi<br />
101.998 18.000 0.000 0.004<br />
Model 3: strong invariance (equal loadings + intercepts):<br />
chisq df pvalue cfi rmsea bic<br />
1253.943 189.000 0.000 0.952 0.082 86900.945<br />
[Model 1 versus model 3]<br />
delta.chisq delta.df delta.p.value delta.cfi<br />
261.505 36.000 0.000 0.010<br />
[Model 2 versus model 3]<br />
delta.chisq delta.df delta.p.value delta.cfi<br />
159.507 18.000 0.000 0.006<br />
Model 4: equal loadings + intercepts + means:<br />
chisq df pvalue cfi rmsea bic<br />
1467.119 195.000 0.000 0.942 0.088 87067.134<br />
[Model 1 versus model 4]<br />
delta.chisq delta.df delta.p.value delta.cfi<br />
474.681 42.000 0.000 0.020<br />
[Model 3 versus model 4]<br />
delta.chisq delta.df delta.p.value delta.cfi<br />
213.176 6.000 0.000 0.009</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">How do we make sense of this?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Model 1 is the most lenient model, no constraints are imposed on the model and separate CFA's are estimated in each group. The CFI is pretty decent. The RMSEA is borderline. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Model 2 constraints the factor loadings to be equal. The CFI is still pretty decent, the RMSEA actually improves slightly. This is due to the fact that we have now more df's and RMSEA punishes models with lots of free parameters. The important info comes in the line entitled Model 1 versus model 2. Here we find the difference stats. The X2 difference test is significant and we would need to reject model 2 as significant worse. However, due to the problems with the X2 difference test, many researchers treat this index with caution and examine other fit indices. One commonly examined fit index of the difference is Delta CFI, that is the difference in CFI fit from one model to the next. It should not be larger than .01. In our case, it is borderline - the delta CFI is .01.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We can then compare the other models. The next model constraints both loadings and intercepts (strong invariance). The model fit is pretty decent, we can probably assume that both loadings and intercepts are invariant across these three groups. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In contrast, constraining the latent means shows some larger problems. The latent means are likely to be different. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">6. Further statistics </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">In this particular case, the model fits pretty well. However, often we run into problems. If there is misfit, we either trim the parameter (drop parameters or variables from the model) or we can add parameters. To see which parameters would be useful to add, we can request modification indices. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This can be done using this command:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mi <- modificationIndices(fit.cfa)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mi</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The second line (mi) will print the modification indices. It gives you the expected drop in X2 as well as what the parameter estimates would be like if they were freed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If we want to print only those modification indices above a certain threshold, let's say 10, we could add the following line:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mi<-modificationIndices(fit.cfa)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">subset (mi, mi>10)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mi</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This will give us modification indices for the overall model. If we want to see modification indices for any of the constrained models, we can request them after estimating the respective model.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For example, if we want to see the modification indices after constraining the loadings to be similar, we can run the following line:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">metric <-cfa(cfa.justice, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> data=justice,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> group="nation", </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> group.equal=c("loadings"))</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mi.metric<-modificationIndices(metric)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mi.metric</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This will now give us the modification indices for this particular model. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There are more options for running constrained models. For example, this line gives the scalar invariant model: </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">scalar <-cfa(cfa1,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> data=justice,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> group="nation", </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> group.equal=c("loadings", "intercepts"))</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As you can see, these models are replicating the models implied in the overall analysis that we got with the measurementInvariance command above. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Summary</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;">I hope I have convinced you that measurement invariance in R using lavaan and semTools is a piece of cake. It is an awesome resource, allows you to run lots of models in no time whatsoever and of course it is free!!!!! Once you get into R, you can do even more fancy stuff and run everything from simple stats to complex SEM and ML models in a single programme. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">More info on lavaan can be found <a href="http://lavaan.ugent.be/" target="_blank">here</a> (including a pdf tutorial). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am still in the process of learning how to navigate this awesome programme. If you have some suggestions for simplifying any of the steps or if you spot some mistakes or have any other suggestions... please get in touch and let me know :)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">If there are some issues that are unclear or confusing, let me know too and I will try and clarify!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Look forward to hearing from you and hope you find this useful!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-54568650852351444932014-12-17T09:19:00.000-08:002014-12-17T09:23:09.450-08:00The beauty of black and white<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Marcel Cesar, a friend of mine, nominated me for a five-day black and white challenge on FB. The task was to post one picture per day, for five days. He posted some pretty amazing ones and seeing some of those amazing pictures by him and others, I thought I would try to match their brilliance. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It had been ages since I last took BW photos. I had been trained to do all the processing in a darkroom when I was a kid, but after I switched to digital, I hardly used BW settings or converted pictures to BW afterwards. However, when experimenting in the evenings with some shots that I liked or had taken a while ago, I started to remember what had drawn me to photography as a kid. Pictures in BW have this timeless quality, simple shots are rendered art and captured history at the same time. Simple moments that would pass in a flash suddenly feel like they carry bigger significance, being transformed into instant classics. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I just wanted to give a bit of background to those five pictures that I had selected. For me good photography (and photos) tell stories. I want to capture a moment that appears significant or beautiful or both. I have memories and thoughts attached to most photos that I take and I want to share a bit of how I see the world. When I see photos taken by others, I also try to find the stories that they capture or the thoughts that the photographer may have had when taking the shot. We probably all see different stories unfold in these frozen moments, but this is the fun to decipher somebody else's mind and see the world through their eyes. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyIoPs_xGLD7MYArj0oDJJNTTqAPMQAfa12jiC-MhZFdy2iJczTY3PcjNJORn4tOkn6KHKzUKusiw4VkpLCb_n3dG_w6V9Vbh2BQvVuGahCL0XsAM8qN_CGMnAts0yVn_LC5E2L_C6805u/s1600/IMG_3272.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyIoPs_xGLD7MYArj0oDJJNTTqAPMQAfa12jiC-MhZFdy2iJczTY3PcjNJORn4tOkn6KHKzUKusiw4VkpLCb_n3dG_w6V9Vbh2BQvVuGahCL0XsAM8qN_CGMnAts0yVn_LC5E2L_C6805u/s1600/IMG_3272.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is a portrait of Gi, a great friend of mine. We always catch up with each other when I happen to pass through Brazil and we have done a few photo shots over the years. This was on a hot Saturday afternoon in Lapa, the bohemian centre of Rio de Janeiro. Lapa, even though dizzily crowded with party-goers at night and with people hurrying about their business during weekdays, is eerily empty on weekends during the heat of the midday sun. We were just crossing the sun-bleached square in front of the arcs when I snapped this picture. For me, the smile and the sun capture two of the most iconic features of Rio. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY6GosBp3A4Cwg7t3j8k3UHROlfvLRVlkJVCI6NGR8p5xz0uKEUJjvHhAbVjr2gp7KSFNt9TYmwX3r0GU9oZVSEGiLFftoJYtYubLVBpZbT9jr56cXTZLpH1cZDWEJAJN8iLeehd2OoYGK/s1600/IMG_6566.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY6GosBp3A4Cwg7t3j8k3UHROlfvLRVlkJVCI6NGR8p5xz0uKEUJjvHhAbVjr2gp7KSFNt9TYmwX3r0GU9oZVSEGiLFftoJYtYubLVBpZbT9jr56cXTZLpH1cZDWEJAJN8iLeehd2OoYGK/s1600/IMG_6566.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This was the finishing moment of one of the dance performances during the 2014 Diwali celebration in Wellington. Diwali in NZ has turned into a celebration of Indian culture, with dance and music performances by Indian school and community groups, arts and craft shops and lots of food stalls. It is secular public ritual and has quite a different vibe and atmosphere compared to Diwali in India. I like this shot because of its ephemeral grace and humbleness in the gestures of the dancers. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuwOEiEdk4hfp6yzvglrPJzg0td9ewq56PARlR29HAJZLBmtTWJeZBcwDtrGaHhwT0NmNW9jMxDxFyqG3sDli0ahvpvxMqYvye2fJA1e7l_cf7zeKPwFbKwTEbmkSz_-Zs6LIC1nKpqpyi/s1600/Ron-Fischer-037.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuwOEiEdk4hfp6yzvglrPJzg0td9ewq56PARlR29HAJZLBmtTWJeZBcwDtrGaHhwT0NmNW9jMxDxFyqG3sDli0ahvpvxMqYvye2fJA1e7l_cf7zeKPwFbKwTEbmkSz_-Zs6LIC1nKpqpyi/s1600/Ron-Fischer-037.jpg" height="412" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The sky over Kaikora was breathtaking. We were preparing for some weekend tramp in the mountains around Kaikora and walked out to this spot by the beach to enjoy the sun. Some seals were playing in the water and lots of people were out and about on this sunny autumn day. I had a Canon 10D and was playing around with different tone options at that time. Being shot in sepia, for me, this shot captures the simplicity and timeless beauty of NZ. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoBamvtx0cw0sEU1MrSZPlHlR60QfaImCCf46DAeswG5sxbH9eK2m_q4hcjeh185Z9662E3RtECql12eepJif6-jrexX36wVw0czudbchoHsiWbwtKNiJGBF4_dHMkL9lE7kTcZ-FNKog1/s1600/Ron-Fischer-8717.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoBamvtx0cw0sEU1MrSZPlHlR60QfaImCCf46DAeswG5sxbH9eK2m_q4hcjeh185Z9662E3RtECql12eepJif6-jrexX36wVw0czudbchoHsiWbwtKNiJGBF4_dHMkL9lE7kTcZ-FNKog1/s1600/Ron-Fischer-8717.jpg" height="510" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is a deeply spiritual picture. I snapped this moment at the end of the street procession during the Vegetarian Festival, a Taoist celebration in Thailand. A spirit medium (ma song) is about to awake from trance and the priest (huat kua) is performing the rites to bring the human back. The incense has a deep spiritual significance here, because the central god takes the form of incense smoke. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This photo was originally shot in BW. It is a scene from a market on the outskirts of the old city in Damascus. I was teaching in Beirut, Lebanon in 2005 and went to Damascus for a weekend. Meandering aimlessly through the maze of 5,000 year old streets, I came out to this little square where neighbors had organized a small fair with very simple carousels and stalls. These kids happily showed me the goldfish that they had just bought. Simple happiness and pleasures. It is sad to know that these peaceful places have disappeared in the bitter brutality of a civil war. </span></div>
Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-18327457123388053502014-08-27T04:37:00.001-07:002014-08-27T04:40:10.826-07:00National identity vs genetics: Are haplogroups becoming the new race?<span style="font-size: large;">I just got back from the <a href="http://www.africatoaotearoa.otago.ac.nz/" target="_blank">Africa to Aotearoa </a>Project Presentation at the Governor General Residence in Wellington. It is part of <a href="https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/" target="_blank">Genographic</a>, the National Geographic sponsored project on mapping the human ancestry. It was a fascinating evening at various different levels. For one, the lack of security going into the residence of the de-facto head of state of NZ and the legal representative of the Queen in NZ was pretty amazing. A police officer wanted to see our invitation card at the gate and then just waved us through. No security anywhere. Compare that with just a single trip to any US or UK embassy...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Governor General gave a brief speech, followed by a great overview presentation by L<a href="http://www.otago.ac.nz/genetics/staff/members/otago043463.html" target="_blank">isa Matisoo-Smith</a>, one of the NZ leaders of the project. She gave a nice and easily accessible overview of genetic diversity and the shifts that have occurred since we moved out of Africa. The glacial period and the neolithic transition (especially the invention of agriculture) were periods of major changes in our genes. As people moved around the world, further mutations occurred and it is now possible to track the genetic heritage of groups of individuals. Groups who share a common ancestor, that is they share similar mutations, are forming a so-called haplogroup. The haplogroups studied in the Genographic Project are associated with mitochondrial DNA (passed on by the mother) and the Y-chromosome (passed on by fathers). The amazing fact is that this information allows a pretty accurate placing of individuals in terms of their genetic ancestry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Straightforward genetics and highly fascinating. The current Governor General Sir Sir Jerry Mateparae, the former Governor General Sir Anand Satyanand as well as Gisborne Mayor Meng Foon all provided their DNA and a fascinating review of their genetic ancestry was displayed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">However, what turned the whole event into a slightly less positive light was the frequent mentioning of national identity. New Zealand is one of those places where national identity is highly contested and politically sensitive. Maori as the first settlers have been around for about 750 years, followed by the European colonization project that started about 200 years ago. Both the Governor General as well as various speakers after him referred to this project as helping to find or determine a national identity for NZ. Some reference was made to the ethnic mixing of people, after all, the haplogroups show how much mingling there has been between individuals and groups on the giant track out of Africa all the way to the end of the world in the Pacific. However, the labels that were applied to individuals - haplogroup R, M, U, etc. created little tribes of related individuals. Photographs were taken of the 'families'. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj02qX8tVaL7vGSrCben0rdXtMWOiBvKcXkMPLIa-XSuz0vb_1E_o52Er240P9rSMX2V_1JnAXyRlOLG4k8oto0bs0ygnf0ARIqysGgOa6oN6RbNNfbosqLbJt7xOHGLq9Av_SJlYLDMfQ_/s1600/fig_6_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj02qX8tVaL7vGSrCben0rdXtMWOiBvKcXkMPLIa-XSuz0vb_1E_o52Er240P9rSMX2V_1JnAXyRlOLG4k8oto0bs0ygnf0ARIqysGgOa6oN6RbNNfbosqLbJt7xOHGLq9Av_SJlYLDMfQ_/s1600/fig_6_5.jpg" height="256" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There has been a long and controversial tradition of linking identity to race. Social and biological scientists concerned with identity have been battling the common conception that race is a biologically meaningful concept. Good news is that old school race and genetics linkages seem to be waning. But the event tonight seemed to replace this old idea of race with the more 'scientific' and empirical evidence of haplogroups. Despite all the efforts by speakers that we are all mixed, people may start identifying and separating themselves via their ancestral haplogroups. This is the slightly worrying thought for me, namely that simplified and stereotyped haplogroups become the new race in the definition of group identities. What about genetic testing in the future to determine whether you belong to us or not? What haplogroup can be a true New Zealander? </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Why do we need to link a highly fascinating project on our genetic ancestry to national identity? I thought it was a great evening, with some worrying undertones...</span>Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-61189925500172834742014-08-24T01:05:00.000-07:002014-08-24T01:06:46.502-07:00The motivational basis of personality & why threat is important<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">How do we describe what other people are like? What are the major characteristics that we can use to describe the personality of friends and strangers? As far as we know, these questions has been discussed since the emergence of ancient civilizations in Greece, India and China. In modern psychology, starting with Gordon Allport, a more or less sharp distinction has been made between values - that is motivational goals important for people in their lifes - and personality traits - described as behavioural consistency across situations. The study of values has flourished in social psychology and the study of personality traits has been a core area of research of personality psychology, with little discussion of the overlap or convergence between the two approaches. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Diana Boer and myself were intrigued to test the similarities of these two approaches. We were inspired by newly developed <a href="http://www.yu-yang.com/papers/Read_Monroe_Brownstein_Yang_Chopra_Miller_2010_PsychReview.pdf">neural network models</a> of personality that conceptualized personality as expressions of basic motivational goal systems. If personality traits are expressions of motivational goal systems, we should see some systematic relationships with values. Furthermore, we were aware of a number of studies that have found quite variable associations between values and personality traits in the<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits"> Big Five tradition. </a> If there is some systematic association, as we presumed, why should there be such variability in empirical studies?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We set out to address these two broad sets of questions in a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jopy.12125/abstract">paper </a>that is appearing in the Journal of Personality. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We collected all the studies that have reported correlations between any set of Big Five instruments with the circular value theory described by Shalom Schwartz and conducted a meta-analysis to identify the overall patterns that might be obscured in individual studies. Let us first quickly review personality traits and values. </span><br />
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Overview of Personality & Values</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here is a summary of the Big Five traits from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits">Wikipedia</a>: </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Openness to experience: </b>(inventive/curious vs. consistent/cautious). Appreciation for art, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion">emotion</a>, adventure, unusual ideas, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity">curiosity</a>, and variety of experience. Openness reflects the degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity and a preference for novelty and variety a person has. It is also described as the extent to which a person is imaginative or independent, and depicts a personal preference for a variety of activities over a strict routine. Some disagreement remains about how to interpret the openness factor, which is sometimes called "intellect" rather than openness to experience.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Conscientiousness:</b> (efficient/organized vs. easy-going/careless). A tendency to be organized and dependable, show <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-discipline">self-discipline</a>, act <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty">dutifully</a>, aim for achievement, and prefer planned rather than spontaneous behavior.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Extraversion: </b>(outgoing/energetic vs. solitary/reserved). Energy, positive emotions, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgency">surgency</a>, assertiveness, sociability and the tendency to seek <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulation">stimulation</a> in the company of others, and talkativeness.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Agreeableness: </b>(friendly/compassionate vs. analytical/detached). A tendency to be <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compassionate">compassionate</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative">cooperative</a> rather than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia">suspicious</a> and <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/antagonism">antagonistic</a> towards others. It is also a measure of one's trusting and helpful nature, and whether a person is generally well tempered or not.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Neuroticism: </b>(sensitive/nervous vs. secure/confident). The tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anger">anger</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anxiety">anxiety</a>, depression, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulnerability">vulnerability</a>. Neuroticism also refers to the degree of emotional stability and impulse control and is sometimes referred to by its low pole, "emotional stability".</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Shalom Schwartz' <a href="http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/orpc/vol2/iss1/11/">theory of values </a>differentiates <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2012-19404-001/" target="_blank">at least 10 value types</a> that can be organized into two major higher order dimensions. These two major dimensions are openness to change (individualistic) versus conservative (collectivistic) values on one hand and self-enhancing (dominance) versus self-transcendence (altruistic) values. Individual values can now be ordered in a circular structure along the two dimensions. Moving around the circle, Power (PO) captures the goals of striving towards social status and prestige, controlling or dominating over people and resources. Achievement (AC) emphasises personal success through socially approved standards of competence. Hedonism (HE) values focus on pleasure and sensuous gratification of the sense. Stimulation (ST) captures excitement, novelty and pursuing challenging goals in one’s life. Self-direction (SD) entails valuing independent thought and action. Universalism (UN) values refer to the motivation to understand, appreciate, tolerate and protect the welfare of all people and nature. Benevolence (BE) in contrast has a more narrow focus on preserving and enhancing the welfare of people close to oneself (family and close friends). Tradition (TR) values are focused on respecting, accepting and committing to the customs and ideas of the traditional culture and religion. Conformity (CO) refers to restraining actions or impulses that may upset or harm others and violate social expectations and norms. Finally, security (SE) emphasises values around safety, harmony and stability of society, social relationships and the self.</span></div>
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Values and Personality Traits are systematically linked</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our basic argument was that values as motivational goals and personality traits as behavioural consistencies should be systematically linked. Using a new method that we developed in a previous article that allows us to track the systematic relation of personality traits to the underlying structure of values (see our previous <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/psycarticles/2013-01384-001" target="_blank">article</a>), we were able to examine the overall relationship between the two constructs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Schematically, the overall association can be described like in this figure:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Agreeableness and Self-Transcendence (positively) versus Self-Enhancement (negatively) values are strongly and consistently related. Agreeable individuals are also very benevolent and they tend to care about others, close and distant alike. Similarly, Openness personality traits were strongly associated with Openness to Change (positively) versus Conservatism (negatively) values. Open individuals also strongly value stimulation and self-direction values. The correlations for these two traits with values were substantive and not significantly different from correlations between different personality instruments measuring the same trait. Hence, for these two personality traits, the relationship with values is strong and values and personality are highly convergent. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Extraversion is somewhat more weakly related to Openness values, but also weakly to Self-Enhancement values (achievement and power values). Conscientiousness is related to Conservatism values, but also shows some correlations with Self-Enhancement values (in particular achievement values). These two personality traits correlated significantly weaker with values and there were sometimes notable secondary associations of traits with the other main axis of values. This suggests that these two traits are more complex in their basic motivational structure. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Finally, Neuroticism is a stability oriented personality trait and no surprisingly shows some weak associations with values that ensure stability (Conservatism values). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This was a really re-assuring and strong pattern overall. By using a holistic approach to values and personality across a large number of studies, we were able to show the overall systematic relationships between these two constructs. </span></div>
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Threat undermines the value-personality trait relationship</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">But moving to the second main question, how can we make sense of the variations in these correlations across different studies? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here we need to first briefly consider how values and personality traits might be causally related. First, values may provide the motivational structure for humans, that is then expressed in behaviour (personality traits). Assuming this logic, people who value conformity will follow rules and orders with great care. Values come first and actions follow. Second and alternatively, following classic self-perception theory, people might engage in behaviours in relatively consistent ways, which they then interpret in terms of overarching goals and re-interpret as their stable values. E.g., I am always conscientious and follow rules and orders in a consistent way, therefore, I am probably a person who values conformity and tradition. Here, actions come first and values are inferred from these actions in a secondary step. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We thought about what may weaken this link between values and traits. Environmental threats should play a major role in how values and personality traits are linked. In highly threatening environments, that is environments where there is poverty, lots of environmental threats such as cold winters and superhot summers, lots of diseases (you can easily get infected and die), little available food, lots of violence and no personal freedom, people are probably quite restricted in their choices and behaviours. Hence, their personal values may not be expressed in behaviours, because the environment determines their actions more than their personal orientations and motivations. Equally, since the environment strongly influences people's behaviour, individuals may not interpret their own behaviour as reflecting some underlying values because their behaviour is more strongly influenced by environmental pressures. Hence the overall link between values and personality traits should be lower, regardless of how values and personality are causally related. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We tested this hypothesis using a good number of different indicators of threat. Amazingly, threat turned out to be a strong and consistent moderator for most of the value-personality associations. Hence, our analysis of environmental threat in a broad sense can explain why there was so much variability in the literature previously. </span></div>
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Exploring Personality Systems</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It also could explain why researchers have not integrated personality research with value research in a more systematic way. Given the substantive variability, researchers might have thought that the links are too weak and too inconsistent to be worth pursuing. However, we believe we have shown that by taking a broader picture, examining the value-personality link in a more systematic way and examining the conditions in which the links are stronger or weaker, we can move both value and personality research forward. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In my view, values and personality traits are expressions of underlying motivational systems that are encoded in similar and overlapping language. It is more of an accident of history that these two systems have emerged in different research fields. I hope this study will help to bring the fields back together and allow a more sophisticated examination of how values and traits are both expression of human personality. </span></div>
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Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-65519865851438802082014-07-20T16:06:00.002-07:002014-07-25T04:36:14.908-07:00A crisis in cultural psychology? Lack of replications, bias & publication pressures<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Social psychology is facing an existential crisis. Ype Poortinga and I took the opportunity to examine how cross-cultural psychology fares in comparison. What is the background? A collective drive for presenting novel, sexy and sensational findings has propelled social psychology into a minefield of public mistrust and claims of being a pseudoscience. The list of sins in the eyes of the public are long: Central methods at the core of the discipline such as priming have been challenged, the drive to find significant differences has led to a neglect of the meaningfulness of psychological findings, publication pressures opened the doors for unscientific data massaging and most notoriously, glamorous stars of the discipline have been found to fabricate their data. There has rarely been a month since the now infamous Staples affair, when the field was not in the spotlight of public and internal scrutiny. This series of events has led to some agonizing soul-searching among psychologists. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Addressing methodological vulnerabilities in research on behavior and culture</span></h2>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><a href="http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/webwijs/show/?uid=y.h.poortinga" target="_blank">Ype Poortinga</a> and myself used the opportunity of the <a href="http://www.iaccp2014.com/" target="_blank">22nd International conference of Cross-Cultural Psychology</a> (organized by <a href="http://iaccp.org/" target="_blank">IACCP</a>) to critically examine how cross-cultural psychology as a sister discipline of social psychology is faring. We assembled an A-list of leading cross-cultural psychologists and former editors of the flagship journal for research on culture and psychology (Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology). Our instructions were simple: we requested them to critically evaluate the methods of our field and comment on ways how our field may move forward. Ype and I also provided a summary of our own concerns about the state of the field. The session was exceptionally well attended and the panel managed to create a lively debate and exchange of views with each other and the audience. This was particularly remarkable given the technical challenges, the double booking of the room and the incredible heat, lack of seats and oxygen in the late afternoon (it felt like a 2 hour sauna session). I have received quite a few requests for our slides, so I am summarizing some key points from our introductory presentation, the talks by <a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology/people/peoplelists/person/2480" target="_blank">Peter Smith</a>, <a href="https://biblio.ugent.be/person/801001646229" target="_blank">Johnny Fontaine</a> and <a href="http://www.davidmatsumoto.com/" target="_blank">David Matsumoto</a> as well as discussion that followed the presentations. I will also outline some ideas of the next steps that we are considering taking. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Poortinga and Fischer: Why questionable null-hypotheses and convergent search for evidence erode research on behavior and culture</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Null hypothesis significance testing is the modus operandi for conducting research in psychology overall. At the same time, it has come under increasing pressure and scrutiny. Some quotes from some recent papers illustrate the various problems with the state of psychology:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ioannides (2005): “[A] research finding is less likely to be true when … when effect sizes are smaller; when there is … lesser preselection of tested relationships; … greater flexibility in designs, definitions, outcomes, and analytical modes; … and when more teams are involved in a scientific field in chase of statistical significance”<br />Vul et al. (2009) report on “voodoo correlations” in fMRI: “We show how … nonindependent analysis [of voxels] inflates correlations while yielding reassuring-looking scattergrams”<br />Simmons et al. (2011) on “false-positive psychology”: “… flexibility in data collection, analysis, and reporting dramatically increases actual false-positive rates. In many cases, a researcher is more likely to falsely find evidence that an effect exists than to correctly find evidence that it does not”.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /> <br /><br />The application of the experimental research paradigm with an emphasis on null-hypothesis significance testing is particular problematic in cross-cultural psychology, because some of the basic assumptions of experimental design are violated by default:<br /><br /><b>a) There is no random assignment of respondents to conditions and <br /><br />b) The experimenter has little control over conditions and ambient events.</b><br /><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhywUN3l1dMhQ3ajgqMTL0kIHU8PzVhoxuWOiABRnXE76h5RdLevFGdt2ntaiSy93NthBFgBHjumdDZr_CnPbfAjkExqZC2rQr5sc42bvzozJXbvjAenVw3qImCnjbR7of52XaQpk6sIKLs/s1600/ReimsMethodology3b-Figure1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhywUN3l1dMhQ3ajgqMTL0kIHU8PzVhoxuWOiABRnXE76h5RdLevFGdt2ntaiSy93NthBFgBHjumdDZr_CnPbfAjkExqZC2rQr5sc42bvzozJXbvjAenVw3qImCnjbR7of52XaQpk6sIKLs/s1600/ReimsMethodology3b-Figure1.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a><br /><br />This figure shows these problems in a nice way and clearly highlights that cross-cultural studies do not even meet the conditions for good quasi-experimental designs and have significant </span><span style="font-size: large;">shortcomings. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Further challenging current experimental practices, <a href="http://people.psych.cornell.edu/~jec7/pcd%20pubs/simmonsetal11.pdf" target="_blank">Simmons, Nelson and Simonsohn (2011)</a> eloquently exposed the problems of researcher degrees of freedom and the impact of quite innocent appearing research practices on significance levels. They demonstrated how a logically impossible hypothesis (listening to songs about age will decrease the age of listeners) can be empirically supported. Applied to the topic of their investigation, they discovered the psychological equivalent of the proverbial fountain of youth by using questionable research practices. The following figure shows the outcomes of their simulation study and the impact of four researcher degrees of freedom on significance levels. We highlighted the relevance of these conditions for cross-cultural research. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">First, assuming per definition that culture is a shared meaning system, any two cultural variables will be correlated to a significant degree. The very nature of the phenomena under investigation makes finding significant differences more likely. This non-independence is well recognized and the negative impact on significance testing is well recognized in methods circles but not well-understood in general cross-cultural research circles. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Second, a researcher may add 10 more observations or cases to the study if a first examination did not reveal any significant differences. This is probably a more common practice in cultural priming studies, but may be less of an issue in comparative survey studies. <br /><br />The third questionable practice is controlling for third variables, especially if their impact is not theoretical grounded. In their case study, Simmons et al. used gender as an example, but in cross-cultural psychology it is often GDP at the country level or some demographic variables at the individual level that is entered as a covariate. This is a double-bind of cross-cultural psychology, on one hand we need to control for other variables that may explain any differences between samples, on the other hand, these simulations demonstrated that such practices have a sizable impact on significance levels. <br /><br />The last questionable practice is to drop (or not) one of the conditions. The equivalent in cross-cultural psychology is to omit samples that may not fit the expected pattern (outlier removal). Talking to other researchers, this seems a common practice.<br /><br />These individual practices individually increase the likelihood of finding significant results only in a relatively minor way, but the combination of these practices will lead to substantively inflated ratios of significance results: a significant result at the magical .05 significance level is 60% more likely if you combine all four of these questionable practices! Based on conversations with colleagues and observations of publication trends, these practices are common in cross-cultural psychology. This now means that we probably need to question a good number of empirical findings published!<br /><br />A further issue is that the null hypothesis of no difference is likely to be rejected if there is a difference on any third variable that is related to the dependent variable. In such instances, there is a high rate of Type 1 errors (false positive results). One pressing issue is method bias. In questionnaire studies, response biases such as acquiescence or yes-saying are particularly salient. <br /><br />The next figure shows the probability of finding a significant result as a function of sample size and the size of the bias. The various lines show the various levels of bias in terms of the standard deviation. If the bias effect is small (e.g., 1/16th of the standard deviation on the DV), increasing sample sizes are not increasing the probability of finding a significant effect by much. However, when bias approaches a .25 of the standard deviation, the probability of finding a significant effect in a sample of 100 participants approaches 60%. You may argue that ¼ of a standard deviation is large. However, it is not an unrealistic scenario given the prevalence and extent of response styles in questionnaire research – see for example our earlier <a href="http://iaccp.org/drupal/sites/default/files/spetses_pdf/16_Fischer.pdf" target="_blank">research </a>showing that response styles produce bigger effect sizes than 1/3 of theoretically important research studies.<br /><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Tums7yQSNwMUbYf5_ewvU9AZXJJAYYlNPEimzBvBBLEeIE7RKoAw08fvwRmEgbG1UhYAPspvTVVtWAK7OrnS54QQT-gsRiOx-0VU18thlSjsi4o8iZe2I4k1t2f0mIXKDfkSlQ5q2syF/s1600/ReimsMethodology3b-Figure3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1Tums7yQSNwMUbYf5_ewvU9AZXJJAYYlNPEimzBvBBLEeIE7RKoAw08fvwRmEgbG1UhYAPspvTVVtWAK7OrnS54QQT-gsRiOx-0VU18thlSjsi4o8iZe2I4k1t2f0mIXKDfkSlQ5q2syF/s1600/ReimsMethodology3b-Figure3.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a><br /><br />These two simulation studies suggest that cross-cultural differences might be spurious and driven by method effects. In addition, our field seems to be driven by differences and appears to pay unduly emphasis on differences, without questioning their validity. The next figure shows the emphasis on differences and the lack of studies hypothesizing and finding similarities. This graph is adapted from a review by Brouwers and others, published in JCCP in 2004. As can be seen, the majority of studies expect differences only (N=55) and only 25 studies expected differences and similarities. At the same time, 57 studies found both. Most importantly, given laws of probability, we should also have studies that expect and report only similarities. Brouwers and colleagues did not find a single study that either hypothesized or reported similarities only. Where are these studies?<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAAHHJeDwBrZmHMOFkTa5lrn06-EKi-TlA7SyL9nzOqIx95ta3luIt8e2Nbx_FdxgGiHM6RJDmwFG8ca9LqIXCmqZyYl1ialSRwDFC8H-ciJJRD68AfBChyphenhyphenMteDx3TEBvJSxWF55bGFFbs/s1600/ReimsMethodology3b-Figure4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAAHHJeDwBrZmHMOFkTa5lrn06-EKi-TlA7SyL9nzOqIx95ta3luIt8e2Nbx_FdxgGiHM6RJDmwFG8ca9LqIXCmqZyYl1ialSRwDFC8H-ciJJRD68AfBChyphenhyphenMteDx3TEBvJSxWF55bGFFbs/s1600/ReimsMethodology3b-Figure4.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a><br /><br /><br />The points raised so far should not be understood as challenging the experimental methods underlying comparative research. We would urge our colleagues to critically question some of our designs and analytic procedures. In the larger experimental literature, a number of strategies have been proposed, including:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">- stricter designs (larger n, Button et al., 2013) for more power<br />- stricter analysis (p < . 005, Johnson, 2013)<br />- prevention of experimenter bias (O. Klein et al., 2012)<br />- more transparency (e.g., pre-registration of hypotheses)<br />-replication across multiple researchers and labs (R. A. Klein et al., 2014)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">We see it as a good sign that replication studies have achieved new status. For example, <a href="http://jcc.sagepub.com/content/42/2/186.short" target="_blank">an earlier attempt</a> of our lab to replicate the culture-level value structure by Schwartz using data from the Rokeach Value Survey faced some real uphill battle in getting it published. The saving grace to get it published seemed to be the appearance of a new value type that was not evident in the earlier Schwartz circle (a replication of this new value type is still outstanding). The new emphasis on replication in my opinion is a major achievement. The first findings of this new wave of replications are coming in. For example, the following graph shows the replication success of a number of studies in the ‘<a href="https://osf.io/wx7ck/" target="_blank">many labs</a>’ replication report. Some of the older studies hold up well to scrutiny, but many of the newer findings, in particular priming studies are not replicable. <br /><br />What is also noteworthy is that in the original dissemination of these findings, the lack of cross-cultural differences in the patterns was emphasized. Some commentators were quick to jump on that and suggested that careful and experimentally strict replications will do away with cross-cultural differences. We may want to challenge such an assumptions, but these comments clearly demonstrate that we as cross-cultural and cultural psychologists need to engage with the replication debate. We cannot sit back and pretend that the replication crisis does not affect us!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Replications vary along an underlying dimension, with exact replications being at one end and conceptual replications forming the opposing end. The conventional experimental wisdom is to prioritize exact replications or to stick as closely as possible to the original designs (close replications) with large samples sizes to have high power to detect effects. Of course, we know that exact replication in a cross-cultural context is problematic due to the different cultural conditions of participants.<br /><br />However, an even more important point for us is that the presence of bias (e.g., response styles, speed-accuracy trade-offs) challenges the validity of exact or close replications. A replication of a biased study is a replication of a biased study. <br /><br />In addition, if we have two samples and we define one sample as belonging to X culture and the other sample as belonging to a Y culture (this could be anything: collectivistic vs individualistic; independent vs interdependent self-construals, honour vs dignity; holistic vs analytic thinking), then any difference on whatever variable will be statistically related to the presumed X-Y difference. Therefore, replications in cross-cultural psychology need to be positioned towards the conceptual replication end and require additional methodological safeguards.<br /><br />We suggest that cross-cultural replications need to:<br /><br /><b>-ensure validity of procedures in local context<br /><br />-empirical checks on the postulated antecedent (what theoretical process is likely to drive these expected patterns and to empirically test these theoretical processes)<br /><br />-manipulation checks (including a “no-difference” condition, on what variable or set of variables do we NOT expect a difference)<br /><br />-control on likely alternative explanations (e.g., response styles).</b><br /> <br /><br />In summary of the points so far, cross-cultural psychology suffers from many of the same shortcomings that have created the crisis in social psychology. A somewhat humorous account borrowing from Dante’s version of hell is provided by this cartoon (by the Neurosceptic, published in Perspectives in Psychological Science). Our research culture that emphasizes differences instead of similarities leads a state of limbo, overselling and post-hoc story-telling. Our narrow orientation towards ghost in the machine variables (such as collectivism, self-construals and values) lead to overselling (everything needs to be explicable by single dimensions, typically of personal relations or self-construals), post-hoc story telling and p-value fishing. From personal experience publishing cross-cultural research, nearly any difference can with a bit of theoretical creativity be related back to individualism-collectivism, self-construals or any of the other fashionable constructs these days. These biases in orientation and the researcher practices and researcher degrees of freedom then lead to p-value fishing and creative outlier utilization. Of course, the absence of no-difference studies suggest a significant file drawer problem.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm1il6tC8cvEWjLjCRkLM3aPlSHPO7OsJCehdAChIlOny5oYEVhUhC6lY1DDnwVE2Gwh-ZIjkGg1V15PHTN6QzpKrsfsRUg6B65743g_PzjpHxQroU6VeT6_1bJCk69o5c7uaj1yAXBuON/s1600/ReimsMethodology3b-Figure5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm1il6tC8cvEWjLjCRkLM3aPlSHPO7OsJCehdAChIlOny5oYEVhUhC6lY1DDnwVE2Gwh-ZIjkGg1V15PHTN6QzpKrsfsRUg6B65743g_PzjpHxQroU6VeT6_1bJCk69o5c7uaj1yAXBuON/s1600/ReimsMethodology3b-Figure5.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our suggestions are therefore:<br /><br /><b>Better designs (including efforts to reduce bias, testing of alternative theoretical processes, etc.) <br /><br />Planned replications <br /><br />Depositing hypotheses and methods in a public archive prior to data collection</b><br /><br /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology/people/peoplelists/person/2480" target="_blank">Peter Smith</a>: To understand cultural variation let’s sample cultural variations</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Peter Smith and colleagues suggested a rather straightforward approach for addressing some of the concerns. Their recommendation was to go beyond two culture comparisons and to sample cultural variation more broadly, e.g., by studying multiple Asian and non-Asian samples that are typically lumped together as collectivist, interdependent, holistic, etc. In addition, Peter and colleagues included more diverse instruments capturing conceptually similar constructs to examine variability in intended constructs across a broader range of instruments. Peter presented some preliminary data that supported the usefulness of this approach. However, he also acknowledged that the current study has some important limitations, including studying students, not having enough samples yet to properly examine effects (e.g., though multi-level modeling) and a high demand on participants (e.g., completing long sets of questionnaires).<br /><br /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://biblio.ugent.be/person/801001646229" target="_blank">Johnny Fontaine</a>: A plea for domain representation</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Johnny presented a more technical account of domain representation that examined the meaning of constructs across a larger number of languages and cultural contexts. Using examples from the emotion domain, he showed that we can avoid confusion and biases in meaning through the use of sophisticated non-metric statistical methods in combination with elaborate designs that allow separating situational and personal characteristics. His approach demands a theoretical analysis of possibly important variables that need to be incorporated into the research design. Johnny really got the methods guns blazing in his presentation and I have to admit that the heat of the room by that time had fried my brain. As a consequence, I was not able to follow all the intricate steps in the procedure and not having a seat did not allow me to take good notes (but the graphs looked very convincing). He is working on a manuscript detailing the procedures and I am certainly looking forward to reading it when it is ready. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.davidmatsumoto.com/" target="_blank">David Matsumoto</a>: Random thoughts about methodological vulnerabilities in research on behavior and culture. </span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />David broadened the symposium by focusing on the broader research climate in culture and psychology. Most people in this overheating room will have appreciated his first demand: before he started talking he requested everyone to stand up from their seats. Beyond bringing some oxygen into our brains, this also then became a beautiful point of reference for his short and sharp presentation. Here are his three main arguments (my paraphrasing):<br /><br /><b>Point 1: Study behavior<br /><br />Point 2: Respect the literature<br /><br />Point 3: The current pressures on young academics makes following recommendations 1 and 2 challenging</b><br /><br />The first point is obvious – our discipline confuses self/other/peer-reports of behavior for behavior. I do not have hard stats here, but from memory – I cannot remember a single cross-cultural social psyc study in the last year or two in JCCP that studied actual behavior. He pointed out that everyone had stood up when he asked at the beginning of his presentation – a success rate of 100%. In contrast, when asking people whether they would stand up in a seminar room when asked by the presenter (e.g., on a scale from 1-7), there would have been significant variability and the mean would definitely been lower than 100%. Drawing upon his own research on emotion display, he argued that triangulation of research method is necessary. <br /><br />The second point highlights the emphasis of getting to know more about previous research. In the current research environment, researchers need to present novel result and theory. There is no incentive for (or penalty for not) reading older research that may have been conducted 10 or 40 years ago. Journal editors are keen to get citations to recent papers to increase the journal’s Impact Factor. Yet, this leads to impoverished and non-cumulative research. <br /><br />The last point highlights the constraints that young researchers pre-tenure are facing: more publications in less time. Studies of behavior are time consuming and therefore are less appealing. Reading relevant literature in one’s field or neighboring disciplines is also detracting from writing articles and funding applications. David emphasized that IACCP has a richer intellectual tradition than many mainstream researchers who have discovered culture and now publish in high-impact journals. <br /><br /> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Some of the discussion points</span></h3>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />The discussion turned repeatedly on a number of points. I will try and summarize some of the key ones that stood out for me.<br /><br /><b>Representativeness of samples: </b>One key concern that came up repeatedly was that studying students is not appropriate for making claims about cultural processes. Students are not good representatives of the larger population. <br /><br /><b> Studying nations: </b>One early comment that drew spontaneous applause from the audience was that psychology has failed in studying culture. Instead, psychologists are studying nations. Yet, nations are highly diverse and consist potentially of many subcultures. Various other commentators picked up similar themes throughout the discussion. One issue that is related here was the relative emphasis on between-country/culture differences and the lack of attention to within-country/culture differences. Both <a href="http://geert-hofstede.com/" target="_blank">Geert Hofstede</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalom_H._Schwartz" target="_blank">Shalom Schwartz</a> were in the audience, but they remained silent – it would have been nice to hear their responses to some of these comments (and both have done some interesting work that would have been informative in this debate).<br /><br /><b>Lack of strong theory:</b> <a href="http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/Richerson/Richerson.htm" target="_blank">Peter Richerson</a> argued that psychologists lack strong theory and recommended looking to neighboring disciplines such as biology for inspiration. David Matsumoto defended psychology in his response, suggesting that psychology has some good theories. But he also added that we need truly exploratory work that can understand phenomena on their own terms. My thought on this is that we have not enough strong theory (in a philosophy of science perspective) and that exploratory research with attention to various alternative explanations may bring us closer to developments of stronger theories of culture (e.g., by including the possibilities of no differences, attention to alternative processes beyond the usual suspects in current psychological thinking on culture). <br /><br /><b>Validity of findings</b>: One point that occurred in various disguises in a number of comments was the importance of validity of findings in the local context. <a href="http://www.kemri-wellcome.org/index.php/en/profile/109" target="_blank">Amina Abubakar </a>was the first to get this point across in the debate: To what extent can cultural psychology and cross-cultural research as a method of choice yield insights into the minds and behaviours of people in a specific context? How applicable and relevant is cross-cultural research for people around the world? This is a major question and needs some serious contemplation as we face a rapidly changing world and need to collectively respond to multiple pressing challenges (e.g., increasing intergroup conflict, climate change, decreasing natural resources). </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Next steps</span></h2>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />An immediate opportunity following this debate arose the next day after the round-table discussion. Ype challenged the assembly that methods issues need more attention and in response Walt Lonner as the founding editor of JCCP suggested a methods oriented special issue for JCCP. We had a discussion during the coffee break and he invited us to write a proposal for a special issue. Any thoughts for topics and contributors for such a special issue addressing the methods challenges are much welcome (please flick me an email or respond below – I would love to hear from you). <br /><br />Looking at some other associations (APS comes to mind here), we could adopt some of their criteria for publication – there have been some interesting suggestions and changes in policies recently. Even JPSP now publishes <a href="https://twitter.com/BrianNosek/status/472393106177134592" target="_blank">replications </a>(hooray!!!!!!)!<br /><br />Overall, I think that the overall change in research climate is promising. There has never been a more positive time to discuss how we collectively do research, there is much promise of change in the air and I strongly believe that collectively we can make a positive change. Without this conviction, we would not have had the symposium and such a large crowd keen to brave tropical temperatures and horrible conditions in the late afternoon to debate a topic so passionately. I felt humbled by this enthusiasm of the audience and the positive comments that we received over the next couple of days. I look forward to continuing this debate and hearing your opinions and suggestions! </span></div>
Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com4Reims, France49.258329 4.031696000000010849.092501500000004 3.7089725000000109 49.4241565 4.3544195000000112tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-41571355677472806472014-05-14T19:14:00.001-07:002014-05-14T20:11:00.363-07:00Tips for presenting your research to applied audiencesI have been talking quite a few of you keen folks recently on issues around your analyses and how to present them to an applied/non-psych audience. Sometimes I felt like a little parrot, so here are some key themes that came up repeatedly.<br />
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Think about your theoretical or practical question</h2>
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A lot of you worry about whether an analysis is significant or not. What I would like to see is that you engage with a theoretical or practical question. Identify a problem or intriguing question that can be answered. As consultants, you address problems. State your problem or question clearly. Find relevant literature or show practical examples that speak to the issue. Then look at your data to get an answer to your question or hypothesis. Is the hypothesis supported - good. Say what it means and where to go next (implications). If the results are not significant - this can be potentially be as meaningful. Why did you not see an effect? Is it a problem of how you tested it or does it tell you something meaningful about the phenomena? </div>
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A related set of questions goes along something like this: Do we need to do a mediation or is a regression fine? Shall we do an ANOVA or a regression? Again, my answer comes back to the theoretical or practical question. Choose the test that is appropriate for answering your question with the data at hand. Both mediation and regression can be meaningful, but they will give you slightly different answers (also note that mediation is based on regression ;) Decide whether an ANOVA or regression is better suited for the variables that you are looking at.</div>
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Think about the theoretical process</h2>
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A few of you are exploring mediation and moderation processes. Fantastic! Mediation is about 'causal' processes. Think of a flow chart: variable A 'causes' variable B, which in turn then leads to changes in variable C. With this in mind, can satisfaction lead to more gender and then to more helping behaviour? Probably not in this physical universe (unless you have discovered a cunning option for turning happy people into a different gender). In cases like this, it often seems that moderation is the better option - for example, is satisfaction related to helping behaviour and does this relationship differ for males versus females? </div>
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Can satisfaction lead to more work performance which then leads to more health? Potentially, but you need to have a good rationale for it. Maybe a different ordering of your variables might make better sense in the context of your data.</div>
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How important are your results?</h2>
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A few of you are exploring effect sizes (e.g., explained variance). This is great. Now the big question is what is a good effect size? Are 3.5% explained variance good or bad? Would somebody in your non-psych audience understand what explained variance means in the first place? </div>
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Translate these figures into something that is meaningful to a non-psych audience. For example, if you make $30,000 a year - would 3.5% more money be a good incentive for you to act or not? Alternatively, if you measured a variable with relatively little consequence (e.g., the happiness with your new garden chair) and you are able to explain 50% of that variability - is this important or meaningful for a manager? So think about the size of the effect and whether it important or meaningful. Baseline: What can you say about the effect and its importance for management?</div>
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Should I use a graph?</h2>
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Yes - But! Think about what is on your graph and what a non-psych audience can take away from it. Putting a messy scatterplot with lots of dots and a funny line into your presentation may not be particularly meaningful. There are other ways of presenting correlations or regressions. Think of a flow chart or a path diagram - these can be interesting options for displaying relationships between variables. If you want to talk about the messiness of social sciences, a scatterplot can be good. But explain the key message that each graph or figure or picture is conveying. Colourful images just for the sake of it are not good communication!</div>
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Other issues? Post something on the discussion board or send me an email. If there are more common themes, I will update this post.</div>
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Overall, I love how engaged you are with your work. It is really cool and I sincerely look forward to seeing these presentations come alive :D</div>
Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-91972197963381061212014-05-09T04:16:00.000-07:002014-05-09T04:16:05.105-07:00Feeling connected to nature is linked to more innovativenessFeeling connected to nature is linked with more innovative and holistic thinking about problems. Carmen <a href="http://massey.academia.edu/CarmenLeong">Leong</a>, John McClure and myself just published a <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494414000267">study </a>in which tested this relationship in two studies with Singaporean students. <br /><br />We measured two different thinking preferences. First, the KAI (shortened from the Kirton’s Adaption-Innovation Inventory) distinguishes two kinds of thinking style. Some of us are good at working efficiently and can apply learned rules fast, without much effort. This type of thinking is called an adaption thinking style but is not very innovative. The opposing end of this thinking style, on the other hand, is innovation focused: it emphasizes thinking outside the box, doing things differently and creating new solutions to problems. The second thinking style AHT (abbreviated from Analytic-Holistic Thinking) differentiates holistic from analytic thinking styles. When people are solving a problem, holistic thinkers consider the whole problem within an overall system. They think in terms of the big picture, considering how all parts of a problem are related and how a single issue connects to all the others. In contrast, analytical thinkers break problems down into smaller components and work through them carefully. They consider the details and work on them, but pay less attention to the overall puzzle and to how the various components interrelate. Both types of thinking – analytic and holistic – can be useful: while it is sometimes better to go through problems piece by piece, at other times it seems more appropriate to consider how everything fits together and to address issues with a helicopter view. <br /><br />When we linked these two instruments to a feeling of connectedness to nature, we found that connectedness with nature is positively related to both innovative and holistic cognitive styles. Singaporean students who are more connected to nature prefer both innovative and holistic thinking. This means that the more people feel connected to nature, they are more likely to be better at coming up with novel solutions (thinking outside the box) and also consider the bigger picture when solving problems. This is a novel finding that shows how people who feel a stronger connection to nature are also more innovative and see the bigger picture.<div>
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<br /><br />The underlying mechanism that drives these correlations is not clear yet. Carmen's reason for proposing these relationships was linked to people’s inclination to develop close relationships with others as well as with the natural environment. While people in general have a strong motivation to connect with fellow human beings, some are more strongly motivated to do so than others. Those who feel strongly connected to others may broaden their own perspectives: they consider how other people think and feel and see problems from other points of view. This is a crucial element of innovative thinking styles – seeing problems from somebody else’s perspective. It may be possible that people can show this sense of connection in relation not only to other people but also to nature. Edward Wilson has written about this motivation at length in his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biophilia_hypothesis" target="_blank">Biophilia </a>hypothesis (see <a href="http://culturemindspace.blogspot.co.nz/2014/04/ed-wilsons-naturalist-great-biography.html">here </a>for a review for a review of his great autobiography, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2760412/" target="_blank">here </a>is a summary of research on biophilia). We applied the idea and hypothesized that it could also help us to understand differences in thinking styles. We also believe that the way we think with a helicopter view is very similar to the way things work in nature. Holistic thinkers, for instance, place emphasis on the interconnectedness of ideas within a system; and our understanding of nature teaches us that everything in it (life cycles, ecosystems, etc.) is interrelated. Those who feel a greater connection with nature will also think in terms of the big picture. Our study is an important first step in this direction, however, we need more systematic work that explores the underlying mechanisms directly. <br /><br />The study was based on a single time point in two separate samples, so we cannot draw any causal links from it. Yet, the pattern suggests that getting out into nature and appreciating nature's diversity and beauty may do you lots of good, not just improving your <a href="http://www.human.cornell.edu/outreach/upload/CHE_DEA_NaturalEnvironments.pdf" target="_blank">health </a>and reducing stress, but also helping you to become more innovative and a big picture thinker. <br /><br />Get off your chair and go for a walk now :D<br /><br />If you want a copy of the paper, please get in touch via email or this blog. Happy to send interested people a copy. <div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
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Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-8388205628188454902014-05-06T17:21:00.002-07:002014-05-06T18:59:57.292-07:00Political correctness gone mad: The issue of the 'racist' survey in AucklandSad to say, but political correctness has gone mad and is undermining important social research that can help us to make society better. The issue centres around a <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11249115" target="_blank">recent survey</a> sent out by Auckland City Council to members of the public in some suburbs that have high percentage of migrants.<br />
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The survey asked people to respond to various questions about how they feel about people from other ethnic and cultural groups. The issue is around the so-called feeling thermometer. It is a simple scale, typically ranging from 0 - 100, where people are asked how warm or cold they feel towards various social groups or targets. It has been a staple of social science research at least since the mid-1960s. The earlier use was in the context of forecasting election results (e.g., do people feel hotter or colder towards a party or candidate), but it worked so well that it has been used to evaluate attitudes towards all sorts of social groups in society. It is a cheap and efficient way to gauge public opinion about various social groups in a straightforward and reliable way. It is <a href="http://www.electionstudies.org/conferences/1994Candidate/1994Candidate_Jacoby.pdf" target="_blank">'bang for bucks'</a> if you want to find out about the levels of support for various social groups. </div>
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Some members of the public and the council in Auckland are offended by these questions and label them racist. Some council members even want to prohibit similar kind of research in the future (see the remarks by George Wood, the North Shore councillor). </div>
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My simple question to George Wood and other people outraged by these questions is: </div>
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<b>How are you going to plan policies and make decisions about ethnic relations, if you have no understanding of the intergroup relations in your community?</b> </div>
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Let's face it - NZ is one of the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/migration/migration-report-2013.shtml" target="_blank">most diverse country in the world</a> and has pretty positive race relations (and this is great and we should be proud of it), but at the same time the levels of discrimination against migrants has increased over the last decade. A <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953611007143" target="_blank">recent study</a> by Ricci Harris and others from Otago found that racial discrimination against Asians (as a broad summary category) has increased from 2002 to 2006. More importantly, these levels of discrimination increase mental health and physical problems. This is costs to the tax payer!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinfEK_MG9dYKZ7vEDxaNNFJT0LxO3xa_XtRYmvQPJPkS-YchackTyK_TcmQfcfq0FCl_6OkDX-SNW64_ua4i5CYWwyiQ5wvoFPABZ24cFLGjqWIgCT0pGP_w24xMLxAxVrgxqkkDEyp010/s1600/wall+map+UN+migration.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinfEK_MG9dYKZ7vEDxaNNFJT0LxO3xa_XtRYmvQPJPkS-YchackTyK_TcmQfcfq0FCl_6OkDX-SNW64_ua4i5CYWwyiQ5wvoFPABZ24cFLGjqWIgCT0pGP_w24xMLxAxVrgxqkkDEyp010/s1600/wall+map+UN+migration.png" height="257" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NZ is one of the most diverse countries in the world (UN International Migration Report, 2013)</td></tr>
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I was involved in a government contract <a href="http://www.dol.govt.nz/publications/research/attitudes-towards-immigrants-experiences-regional/report-04.asp" target="_blank">project </a>with colleagues at Victoria University of Wellington and the <a href="http://www.victoria.ac.nz/cacr" target="_blank">Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research</a> a few years ago, where we looked into the intergroup relations in New Zealand depending on the number of recent migrants in a neighbourhood. What we found was that there was a relatively complex relationship. New Zealanders view migrants relatively positively overall, but only up to a point. Once the number of migrants reached a certain threshold, the perceptions became more negative. These complex patterns can not gained in any other way, apart from asking straightforward questions in general population samples. These findings have significant policy implications: Where should you settle new migrants? What strategies can we implement to counter this deterioration of community feelings? How can we provide better support to groups affected by discrimination? </div>
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Put simply: you cannot have sound policy and useful political decision-making without understanding the issues! </h3>
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The survey questions that are creating this debate are a sensible and efficient way of gauging trends in a larger population. <b>We need MORE of this research, not less! We need more SERIOUS attention to this type of social science research by politicians and decision-makers!</b> Councillors talking to their constituencies and getting opinions from self-selected individuals does not and cannot replace sound scientific research in general population samples. The recall and the ill-focused debate that this has created is a significant step backward for New Zealand. The costs for New Zealand will be much larger than the costs of re-calling these surveys. <b>It is a sad moment because we are taking all the wrong steps that will not help us to address the real issues of racism in our society. </b><br />
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Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-66626629193634492512014-04-19T23:30:00.001-07:002014-04-19T23:32:35.967-07:00Ed Wilson's Naturalist - a great biography of a fascinating environmentalist & scientistI finished reading E.O. Wilson's biography '<a href="http://books.google.co.nz/books/about/Naturalist.html?id=TZH2nHEPSjYC&redir_esc=y" target="_blank">Naturalist</a>' yesterday. It took me a few pages to get into it, but it provided a fascinating glimpse into the life and philosophy of one of the most outstanding biologists and scientists still alive. He created some of the greatest controversies in science in modern times (the sociobiology debate), popularized the term 'evolutionary biology' and has made a huge impact on the environmental movement the world over (with helping to coin the term biodiversity and advancing the biophilia hypothesis - well, in the book he makes it clear that he did not invent the term biodiversity and initially even objected to it).<br />
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It is the self-portray of a highly introvert, but extremely ambitious individual, obsessed with understanding biological diversity (especially of ants), often plagued by insecurity and self-doubt, but also extreme boldness, political naivety and self-assurance that have landed him in a few hot spots.<br />
I really appreciated his explanations of how he got to the intellectual positions that he was arguing for, his willingness to listen and change perspective if proven wrong and his very honest style of writing. The book provides quite a few back stories about the politics and history of a particular era of modern science and interesting perspectives on a number of major scientists. I was certainly not aware of the importance that Watson and the molecular revolution had on biology and the major debates (Wilson called them the molecular wars) that it created. But looking across the buildings to my biology colleagues, it explains a few of the ongoing debates and peculiarities. <br />
I came across a reference to this autobiography in <a href="http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199586967.do" target="_blank">Sense and Nonsense</a>, Kevin Laland and Gillian Brown's great summary of evolutionary approaches to human behaviour. Ed Wilson is a central and controversial figure in this whole approach and since I am going to teach a session on evolutionary approaches to culture, I thought I might as well have a look what Wilson had to say about his own life and work. It was a rewarding read and provided many insights to an important era of biology. Nearly every second page had quotes worth noting down, a true gem with good explanations and interesting advice to young and experienced scientists. I may not always agree with him, but he certainly has achieved a lot with his style, approach and determination. Since I may use some of them for my own writing and teaching, I am going to share some of these quotes as well as some longer summaries of key ideas here.<br />
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Over to Wilson himself....<br />
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His three big truths (all page numbers refer to the 1994 Island Press edition):<br />
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First, humanity is ultimately the product of biological evolution; second, the diversity of life is the cradle and greatest natural heritage of the human species; and third, philosophy and religion make little sense without taking into account these first two conceptions (p.363)</blockquote>
On his ambitions as a young scientist and the social nature of science (p.210):<br />
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... I was still obsessed by an elemental self-image: hunter in the magical forest, searching not just for animals now but also for ideas to bring home as trophies. A naturalist, real and then more metaphorical, a civilized hunter. I was destined to be more of an opportunist than a problem solver. The boy inside me still made my career decisions: I just wanted to be the first to find something, anything, the more important the better, but something as often as possible, to own it a little while before relinquishing it to others. I confess that to the degree I was insecure, I was also ambitious. I hungered for the recognition and support that discovery in science brings. To make this admission does not embarrass me now as it would have when I was young. All the scientists I know share a desire for fair recognition of their work. Acknowledgements is their silver and gold, and why they are usually very careful to grant deserved authority priority to others while so jealously guarding their own. New knowledge is not science until it is made social. The scientific culture can be defined as new verifiable knowledge secured and distributed with fair credit meticulously given [note: I really like this phrase]. </blockquote>
On the ideal conditions for developing as a scientist - or as a political revolutionary (I love the analogy) (p. 108):<br />
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Start with a circle of ambitious students who talk and work together and conspire against their elders in order to make their way into a particular discipline. They can be as few as two or as many as five; more than five makes the unit unstable. Given them an exciting new idea tha can transform the discipline and with which they can advance their ambitions: let them believe that they own a central truth shared by a few others and therefore a piece of the future. Add a distant authority figure, in this case a scientist who has written a revolutionary test, or at least a circle of older revolutionaries who have generated the accepted canon.... Bring on a local role model, an older man or woman who promotes The Idea and embodies in his character and working habits the ideals of the youthful discipline. </blockquote>
Another quote that shows his ambition (p. 232):<br />
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By this time I had been radicalized in my views about the future of biology [here he refers to what was called the molecular wars, the discovery of the double helix by Watson - one of his colleagues and how this led to a major split in biology]. I wanted more than a sanctuary across the street, complete with green eyeshades, Cornell drawers of pinned specimens, and round-trip air tickets for field work in Panama. I wanted a revolution in the ranks of the young evolutionary biologists. I felt driven to go beyond the old guard of Modern Synthesizers and help start something new. That might be accomplished, I thought, by the best effort of men my age (men, I say, because women were still rare in the discipline) who were as capable and ambitious as the best molecular biologists. I did not know how such an enterprise might be started, but clearly the first requirement was a fresh vision from the young and ambitious. I began to pay close attention to those in other universities who seemed like-minded. </blockquote>
On different types of scientists (p.210):<br />
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Scientists, I believe, are divided into two categories: those who do science in order to be a success a life, and those who become a success in life in order to do science. It is the latter who stay active in research for a lifetime. </blockquote>
On paradigm shifts in science (p. 220):<br />
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When one culture sets out to erase another, the first thing its rulers banish is the official use of the native tongue (referring to the bad meaning that 'ecology' had taken on after the molecular revolution). </blockquote>
On the importance of enemies (p. 218):<br />
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Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. The made me suffer (after all, they were enemies), but I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled my energies and drove me in new directions. We need such people in our creative lives. As John Stuart Mill once put it, both teachers and learners fall asleep at their posts when there is no enemy in the field. </blockquote>
An observation of G. Evelyn Hutchinson, a science guru who inspired large number of young scientists and how he managed to do this (p. 237):<br />
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He did nothing, except welcome into his office every graduate student who wished to see him, praise everything they did, and with insight and marginal scholarly disgressions, find at least some merit in the most inchoate of research proposals. He soared above us sometimes, and at others he wandered alone in a distant terrain, lover of the surprising metaphor and the esoteric example. He resisted successfully the indignity of being completely understood. He encouraged his acolytes to launch their own voyages. </blockquote>
Wilson's advise for young scientists to develop their own field of research (p.123, after having discussed his failings to become a champion runner):<br />
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I have evolved a rule that has proved useful for myself and might be for others not born with championship potential: for every level of mathematical ability there exists a field of science poorly enough developed to support original theory. The advice I give to students in science is to move laterally and up and down and peer all around. If you have the will, there is a discipline in which you can succeed. Look for the ones still thinly populated, where fine differences in raw ability matter less. Be a hunter and explorer, not a problem solver. Perhaps the strategy can never work for track (running), with one distance and one clock. But it serves wonderfully well at the shifting frontiers of science. </blockquote>
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Scientific summaries and comments on sociobiology</h3>
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On genetic determinism (p.332-333):<br />
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Genetic determinism, the central objection raised against book two (the chapter on humans), is the bugbear of the social sciences. So what I said that can be indeed called genetic determinism needs saying again here. My argument ran essentially as follows. Human being inherit a propensity to acquire behavior and social structure, a propensity that is shaped by enough people to be called human nature. The defining traits include division of labor between the sexes, bonding between parents and children, heightened altruism toward closest kin, incest avoidance, other forms of ethical behavior, suspicion of strangers, tribalism, dominance orders within groups, male dominance overall, and territorial aggression over limiting resources. Although people have free will and the choice to turn in many directions, the channels of their psychological development are nevertheless - however much we might wish otherwise - cut more deeply by the genes in certain directions than in others. So while cultures vary greatly, the inevitably converge toward these traits. The Manhattanite and the New Guinea highlander have been separated by 50,000 years of history but still understand each other, for the elementary reason that their common humanity is preserved in the genes they share from their common ancestry. </blockquote>
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... the important point is that heredity interacts with environment to create a gravitational pull toward a fixed mean. It gathers people in all societies into the narrow statistical circle that we define as human nature. </blockquote>
Page 335-336:<br />
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What made Sociobiology notorious then was its hybrid nature. Had the two parts of the book been published separately, the biological core would have been well received by specialists in animal behavior and ecology, while the writings on human behavior might easily have been dismissed or ignored. Placed between the same two covers, however, the whole was greater than the sum of its part. The human chapters were rendered creditable by the massive animal documentation, while the biology gained added significance from the human implications. The conjunction created a syllogism that proved unpalatable to many: Sociobiology is part of biology, biology is reliable; therefore human sociobiology is reliable.</blockquote>
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In fact, I would love to quote large sections of chapters 16 and 17, because they contain so much rich material on the history and dynamics of the debate and how Wilson saw himself in the middle of this political mix.<br />
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Here is another important development, one that is often ignored. Having being challenged extensively for his application of sociobiology to humans, in particular the challenge of ignoring culture, he developed the concept of gene-culture-coevolution together with Charles Lumsden. Here is a longer quote with a summary of the basic premises (p.350-352). <br />
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We reasoned as follows. Everyone knows that human social behavior is transmitted by culture, but culture is a product of the brain. The brain in turn is a highly structure organ and a product of genetic evolution. It possesses a host of biases programmed through sensory reception and the propensity to learn certain things and not others. These biases guide culture to a still unknown degree. In the reverse direction, the genetic evolution of the most distinctive properties of the brain occurred in an environment dominated by culture. Changes in culture therefore must have affected those properties. So the problem can be more clearly cast in these terms: how have genetic evolution and cultural evolution interacted to created the development of the human mind? ... We were looking for the basic process that directed the evolution of the human mind. We concluded that it is a particular form of interaction of genes and culture. This "gene-culture coevolution", as we called it, is an eternal cycle of change in heredity and culture. Over the course of a lifetime, the mind of the individual person creates itself by picking among countless fragments of information, value judgement, and available courses of action within the context of a particular culture. More concretely, the individual comes to select certain marital customs, creation myths, ethical precepts, modes of analysis, and so forth, from those available. We called these competing behaviours and mental abstractions "culturgens". They are close to what our fellow reductionist Richard Dawkins conceived as "memes". ... Each time an individual modifies his memories or makes decisions, he entrains intricate sequences of physiological events that run frist from the perception of visual images, sounds, and other stimuli, then to the storage and recall of information from long-term memory, and finally to the emotional assessment of perceived objects and ideas. Not all culturgenes are treated equally; cognition has not evolved as a wholly neutral filter. The mind incorporates and uses some far more readily than others. ... All are diagnostic of the human species, all part of what must reasonably be called human nature. Such physiologically based preferences, called "epigenetic rules", channel cultural transmission in one direction instead of another. By this means they influence the outcome of cultural evolution. It is here, through the physical events of cognition, that the genes act to shape mental development and culture. The full cycle of gene-culture coevolution as we conceived it is the following. Some choices confer greater survival and reproductive rate. As a consequence, certain epigenetic rules, those that predispose the mmind toward the selection of successful culturgens, are favored during the course of genetic evolution. Over many generations, the human population as a whole has moved toward one particular "human nature" out of a vast number of natures possible. It has fashioned certain patterns of cultural diversity from an even greater number of patterns possible. </blockquote>
This book has helped me appreciate and re-evaluate his work on a different level. I hope this is reflected in my teaching ;)Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-9192709384204615582014-04-14T03:57:00.000-07:002014-04-14T04:00:37.599-07:00How to do a pancultural factor analysis - a simple option<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am going to demonstrate a simple way of doing what is often called a pan-cultural or culture-free factor analysis in the cross-cultural literature (even though I do not like those terms) in SPSS. In the methods literature, this is also sometimes called a pooled-within analysis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The basic problem is: How can you analyze the data from a large number of samples in an efficient way without giving priority to any data set? This is particularly interesting when you deal with data from lots of different cultures and you would like to find a solution that is averaged across all samples or 'culture-free' - capturing the average human being.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Such a solution could be interesting in its own right. It can also be useful as a reference structure for further Procrustean analyses (see my earlier blog post <a href="http://culturemindspace.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/how-to-do-procrustean-factor-rotation.html" target="_blank">here</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let's work with an example. I took the 1995 World Value Survey scores for Morally Debatable Behaviour (see a published analysis of the data <a href="http://scholar.google.co.nz/scholar_url?hl=en&q=http://www.researchgate.net/publication/225279896_Do_cultural_values_predict_individuals_moral_attitudes_A_cross-cultural_multilevel_approach/file/9fcfd4fe0ce37ec235.pdf&sa=X&scisig=AAGBfm0rQm6Z2KPkYwCZ2kmX8TdLO7HgdA&oi=scholarr&ei=MrZLU6X4G4TtiAfB_IDADg&ved=0CCgQgAMoADAA" target="_blank">here</a>).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You will need to create the average correlation matrix first. The simplest way in SPSS is via Discriminant Function Analysis. Go to Classify (under 'Analyze') and select 'Discriminant'. Transfer the variables that you want to analyze into the Variables box. Then transfer your cluster or independent variable (your samples from different countries or cultures) into the 'Grouping Variable' box. You need to tell SPSS what the range of your country/sample codes is. In this case, the first sample is 1 (France) and the last sample in the data base is 101 (Bosnian Serb sample).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To request the average correlation, click on statistics. There you need to click on 'Pooled-Within Correlation'. Not much else that we need right now, so click 'Continue' and 'Ok'. In the output, you will see the table with the pooled-within correlation matrix right after the lengthy group statistics.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are two options now. Either way, you need to get the correlation matrix.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One option is to open a syntax file in SPSS and to type this command and include the proper correlation matrix from your output as well as the overall N:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MATRIX DATA VARIABLES=benefits publictransport tax stolengoods bribe homosexual prostitution abortion divorce euthanasia suicide</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">/contents=corr</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">/N=84887.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BEGIN DATA.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1.000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.434<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1.000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.422<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.516<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1.000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.329<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.429<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.427<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1.000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.338<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.410<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.428<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.482<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1.000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.232<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.232<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.244<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.239<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.267<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1.000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.216<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.249<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.247<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.274<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.282<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.544<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1.000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.218<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.238<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.248<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.266<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.256<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.334<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.424<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1.000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.204<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.259<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.252<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.268<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.273<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.286<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.355<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.492<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1.000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.220<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.216<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.235<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.220<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.233<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.308<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.295<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.315<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.327<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1.000<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.180<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.210<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.213<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.239<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.231<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.275<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.323<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.315<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.314<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>.430<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>1.000</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">END DATA.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">EXECUTE. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once you have it all typed out (or copied from SPSS), highlight it all and press the Play button (or 'Ctrl' + 'R').</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A new SPSS window will open (probably best to safe this new data file with a proper name). As you can see in this picture, this looks a bit different from your average SPSS data spreadsheet.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> The first two columns are system variables (Rowtype_ and Varname_). The first line contains the sample size. If you don't want to use the syntax, this is the other option. You need to create this SPSS data file directly. </span><span style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">The first variable in the SPSS matrix file is called ROWTYPE_ (specify it as string variable) and identifies the content in each row of the file (CORR, for correlations, in this example). The second variable is called VARNAME_ (again, specify as a string variable) and contains the variable name corresponding to each row of the matrix. The FACTOR procedure also includes a row of sample size (N) values to precede the correlation matrix rows. Then type or copy the full correlation matrix.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">We are nearly ready for the analysis. Unfortunately, SPSS does not support factor analysis of matrices directly via the graphical interface. In order to run the analysis, you need to use syntax (again). </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">Type the following command into the same syntax window (it will run a standard PCA, with Varimax rotation, </span><span style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">print the scree test,</span><span style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px;"> </span><span style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">sort the factor loadings and suppress loadings smaller than .3):</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">FACTOR MATRIX=IN(COR=*)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;"> /PRINT INITIAL EXTRACTION ROTATION</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;"> /FORMAT SORT BLANK(.3)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;"> /PLOT EIGEN</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;"> /CRITERIA MINEIGEN(1) ITERATE(25)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;"> /EXTRACTION PC</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;"> /ROTATION VARIMAX</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 16.866666793823242px;"> /METHOD=CORRELATION.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">Again, highlight the whole Factor command bit and hit play (or 'ctrl' + 'R'). You should see the output of the factor analysis based on the average correlation matrix. As you can see in the output, there are two factors that correspond to the 'socio-sexual' and the 'dishonest-illegal' factors. The scree test and Bartlett's EV > 1 also both support that there are only 2 factors. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">Now you can either interpet this factor structure in your report or use as reference for further comparisons against each of the samples.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px;">Voila!</span></span><br />
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Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-45291926415583015012014-03-30T02:11:00.000-07:002014-03-30T02:11:03.190-07:00Stereotypes, policy making and the lack of value research in the PacificI have been working on some policy related research work. The first stage of the project is a literature review of available research on values in the Pacific. The review generated is supposed to inform policy making in the Pacific. It is a fascinating project and topic. Yet, I am struck by two very peculiar observations as I am trying to locate relevant material.<br />
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<h2>
Little research and lots of recommendations</h2>
The first thing that is really noteworthy is the absence of much high quality empirical work, but the abundance of policy recommendations, guidelines and advise based on a complete lack of information. For example, government departments in NZ provide information to employers about how to deal with Pacific Island staff, but I was unable to locate any first hand research that supports these recommendations. This is just the tip of the iceberg, but seems to be part of a larger picture of wild guessing, stereotyping and random observations being turned into potentially ill-informed and inappropriate guidelines, policies and interventions. This is outright problematic in my opinion.<br />
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<h2>
Old School Anthropology and lack of insider voices</h2>
The second striking fact is that there are quite a few books by American/European/Western anthropologists describing the exotic features of island life and isolated topics of interest to these foreign outsiders, but relatively few ethnographic or anthropological accounts (beyond artists responding to journalists questions) by local people. In some cases, the diverging view points by outsiders (as in the famous Mead vs Freeman exchange) are heavily debated by other anthropologists from overseas, but there is little voice in that debate that came from Samoans (as far as I can tell based on my initial search). Outsiders determine how one of the most diverse regions in the world is portrayed and described.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Island themed performance and stereotypical accounts from age-old ethnographic studies shape our vision of the Pacific</td></tr>
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Basically it seems that our understanding of issues in the Pacific are shaped by Western anthropologists doing research with more traditional communities from the 1920s-1970s mainly and there is a relatively lack of research on how modern day general populations in the Pacific feel, think and believe about all sorts of issues of societal relevance. Advise to business, clinicians, and even governmental policies are built on the absence of reliable data. <br />
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Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-77610366284469442972014-03-13T18:42:00.003-07:002014-06-14T00:41:51.137-07:00Pain increases happiness... or why watching other people suffer can be more painful than suffering yourself<br />
Why do people voluntarily engage in pain? We conducted a study a few years ago and the articles and a media release by our university are just out this. <br />
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We were interested in individuals who participate in objectively painful religious rituals. Western theories and observers would argue that people engaging in these activities risk infection, experience negative emotions and should feel less happy after the ritual, compared to others who do not engage in these behaviours. There is quite a bit of research in medical areas that talk about the negative effects of large scale religious events, especially if they involve painful activities (just think of jumping into ice cold water, walking over burning hot coals, piercing yourself with unsterilised metal rods, etc.). <br />
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We studied a festival on the small island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, just off the coast of Africa. The festival involves 10 days of fasting and prayers, and culminates in a long procession and fire-walking ritual. What was particularly interesting for us was to study the effects that active participation in the firewalk as the focal element of the ritual had on people, compared to others who participated, but did not do the firewalk or merely watched from the sidelines. <br />
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We invited fire-walkers (‘high-ordeal’ participants); people participating in the ritual without engaging in the high-intensity activities (‘low-ordeal’ participants); and spectators to be part of our study. The fire-walkers and ‘low-ordeal’ participants were members of the same families. The support from the local temple and community was actually phenomenal. We had to turn people away, because we did not have enough resources to study everyone. Here, the hard work by <a href="http://www.xygalatas.com/">Dimitris Xygalatas</a> in setting up the field site and establishing the connections with the local community really paid off!<br />
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Participants walked barefoot in the midday sun without eating or drinking while carrying pots of sacrificial offerings. The fire-walkers were pierced with needles or skewers and finished the procession by walking over knives and burning coals. <br />
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Our design was super-ambitious though. We asked individuals a few questions before the whole festival started, measuring their initial states of happiness and fatigue and we also strapped them up with mobile heart rate monitors. This allowed us to track their physiological arousal during the festival. We then asked people again after the end of the ceremony. <br />
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To examine the effects of participation, we compared the levels of happiness, fatigue and heart rate of low- and high-ordeal participants, and found that fire-walkers had experienced the highest increase in heart rate and reported greater happiness and less fatigue post-ritual.<br />
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Even more interesting was the experience of ‘low-ordeal’ participants because of their relationship to the fire-walkers. Fire-walkers experienced the emotional ‘high’ upon finishing the ritual, whereas ‘low-ordeal’ participants did not, while simultaneously worrying about the well-being of their friends and family. These people, even though they did not physically experience the pain, felt more exhausted than the fire-walkers. Sometimes, perceiving other people suffer can be more exhausting than actually experiencing the pain yourself. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Team of Investigators - after the ritual ordeal is over</td></tr>
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In the paper, we provide some speculations about potential biological mechanisms, especially opioid systems and pain-offset mechanisms to guide future research. The study of voluntary pain is highly fascinating and there is so much that we don't yet understand (see also my earlier posts about extreme rituals in this blog). <br />
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<b>For those interested, the paper can be found <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0088355">here </a>(it is open access, so no fees) and the media release is <a href="http://www.victoria.ac.nz/news/2014/witnessing-ritual-pain-exhausting-for-loved-ones">here</a>. </b>Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-56436285065910341582014-03-07T03:13:00.000-08:002014-03-07T03:13:17.886-08:00Indigenous or not indigenous.... that is the questionToday I listened to a really interesting talk by Peter Smith from Sussex Uni. He was presenting his <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09585192.2011.561232" target="_blank">work</a> on social influence, including some of the new stuff on different indigenous social influence strategies such as the Chinese guanxi, Brazilian jeitinho, Middle Eastern wasta and Russian svasy. These are all local behaviours that individuals may adopt to solve problems in their environment, typically by relying on social relationships or their power (e.g., for a great example from the <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/06/us-lebanon-iraq-plane-idUSBREA2519B20140306" target="_blank">news</a> this morning - the son of the Iraqi transportation minister forcing a plane to return to Beirut). Peter and his colleagues asked students and managers to come up with good examples of each local cultural strategy in their local culture. They then took the most representative scenarios from each culture, removed any identifying content and gave it to managers in other cultures. What they found was that the supposedly indigenous influence strategies were generally seen as typical even in other cultures. In other words, British 'pulling strings' was often as likely to be seen as applicable and typical in China and Saudi Arabia as in the original British context.<br />
This clearly challenges notions that indigenous influence strategies are unique and distinct to a specific local context. Of course, he immediately got challenged by some people in the audience defending the indigenous approach, claiming that these wimpy scenarios miss the rich context and the social relationships that go with each style.<br />
I think that there are subtle differences in how these influence strategies work and are employed (see for example our qualitative ethnographic work on Brazilian jeitinho <a href="http://journals.fcla.edu/ijp/article/view/76789/74360" target="_blank">here</a> and a set of empirical studies where we also make some theoretical claims about jeitinho vs guanxi <a href="http://psp.sagepub.com/content/38/3/331.full" target="_blank">here</a>). Yet, there are three major issues that I think the indigenous people are missing.<br />
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First, there are limited behavioural options for humans. We are live in social settings with a core family, extended family and a relatively stable set of limited contacts in an extended social network. All these networks are more or less hierarchically structured. We all need to negotiate these networks and there is only a limited set of behavioural strategies for any of us (e.g., ingratiation, calling in favors, returning favors, making compliments, breaking some rules, paying a bribe, giving some gifts... you name it). See work by D<a href="https://news.fiu.edu/2012/04/faculty-profile-david-a-ralston/38618" target="_blank">avid Ralston</a>. We can not just come up with something completely different. It is all there. We are humans. Therefore, people in most contexts will be able to recognize and distinguish particular types of behaviours. Hence, people can call a spade a spade... even if it looks a bit funny shaped.<br />
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Second, the functions of all these behaviours are to solve problems. It is the functionality of these behaviors, even if not socially approved and even considered illegal (think of corruption or nepotism), it still gets things done. This is why they are so widespread and so similar in form. We made this argument and showed some data supporting this claim <a href="http://psp.sagepub.com/content/38/3/331.full" target="_blank">here</a>. Peter Smith and his colleagues also found similar results in their cross-national study. Think behaviours - think functions. And think power corrupts... probably as universal a function of human behaviour as there can be.<br />
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Third, many of these behaviours are locally embellished, discussed, criticized, analyzed, debated. By doing this, these behavioural strategies take a life on their own in the minds of concerned members of a community. Go to Brazil and talk to them about jeitinho - you will be listening to complaints for hours - hopefully while having some good cool caipirinhas. Go to Lebanon and ask somebody about wasta - and better have a good shisha or coffee next to you, because you are not going to move for a while. These behaviours are often recognized as problematic, but they are so damn useful and this is why they continue. At the same time, discussing and gossiping about them becomes a reinforcer of the social norm and therefore serves as an identity marker. The behaviour is not just a behaviour anymore, but has taken a cultural life of its own. Therefore, it has to be unique - you can't say that another place has also something that really seems to be jeitinho... or wasta... or guanxi. It is what makes us who we are as people... So dare you say that somebody else may have come up with something similar.<br />
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So how does my claim that there are subtle differences fit in with that? I think the first and second point are the answer to that. There are a number of limited behaviours and strategies that people can use to solve problems. The nature and type of problems will differ slightly by context. Therefore, some behaviours will be more common or be expressed with greater force or variety than others. Hence, there is a matrix of behaviours which is latently present in all contexts, but then is expressed to slightly different degrees. Some patterns of the behavioural matrix may be missing or be expressed very weakly in some places. Others may take a particular form due to the different social relations- compare the loose social relations in Brazil which allows more flexibility in social norm bending with the still relatively strong family networks in China that may be less flexible. So what differentiates the various styles is how the matrix is filled with specific behaviours in a specific context. Jeitinho may be a bit more norm breaking, wasta a bit more relying on social hierarchy, guanxi a bit more social relationship harmony focused. But the matrix is there. It is recognizable. It has blends of the same ingredients. It is this matrix that makes us human and helps us to interact with anyone in the world. It is what makes us humans.<br />
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A Brazilian will recognize Chinese guanxi and know what it is all about. A Russian will painfully remember some personal experiences when hearing an example of wasta in Lebanon. We all can understand what happened in Beirut this morning - even though we may not want to do or can not do it ourselves (even though I have to admit it would be bloody awesome sometimes to force that damn train or bus to come back when I just missed it... Just saying... :).<br />
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Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-64394206400982914842014-02-18T23:34:00.001-08:002014-02-19T09:17:13.507-08:00Academia, theories and the real worldYesterday was the first day of my workshop on culture, evolution and collective rituals organized by the <a href="http://www.kurtlewininstitute.nl/" target="_blank">Kurt Lewin Institute</a>, hosted by Groningen University. I gave a talk on cultural change and how evolutionary processes can help to understand how, when and why cultures might be changing. It was more of a big picture kind of talk, with an overview of what I would consider exciting theories in the social and biological sciences about cultural dynamics. In the afternoon, me and Nina Hansen then gave the students a task: Breaking them into small groups, they had to imagine that they are asked to provide advise to UN Women about addressing gender inequality in developing countries. Their task was to use their respective theories of research to come up with interventions to tackle the task.<br />
The interventions were really fascinating, typically addressing issues of arranged marriages and/or education of women. I loved how the students focused on concrete examples and target populations and considered trade-offs between costs and benefits that keep practices that disempower women in place. This was fantastic stuff. Some of the proposed interventions were also really innovative and creative - big ups for that.<br />
It was also great to see that people were really aware of cultural sensitivity, issues of trust and ethics. They showed amazing sensitivity to potential problems.<br />
At the same time, what was really striking was the lack of psychological theory. These students are PhD students in leading Dutch universities. Their research is in social psychology, on issues around status and intergroup relations. I would have thought this makes their theories and research immediately applicable to this specific intergroup context of gender relations. Yet, beyond simple nods towards social influence and contact theories (without actually using these theories to develop or guide their intervention), there was a void of theory. Lots of common sense reasoning, but nothing that an educated individual may not come up with... I was struck by this.<br />
Are our psychological theories irrelevant to addressing pressing global issues?<br />
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What could account for this observation?<br />
One option might be that psychologists are really good in terms of addressing the problem, using a problem focused mindset. So the students turned to the problem and addressed/ identified key issues about the problem. This is great critical thinking - but then... what is the use of studying psychology if critical thinking is the key?<br />
Even when pressed by me, the students came back to classic theories of intergroup relations. Even though they work on cutting edge stuff at world leading universities, nobody really stepped up with an example of recent psychological theorizing. What is the practical relevance of these theories?<br />
Another option might be that our instructions led them astray. We asked them to address the problem. Yet again, involving Kurt Lewin's old mantra: There is nothing as practical as a good theory. Good theories should lend themselves to address problems.<br />
Another option is that the students were aware of all the pitfalls and problems and exceptions and boundary conditions of their theories and therefore were reluctant to apply it here. Great - but then, what is the relevance of the theory if it can not explain key mechanisms of human behaviour? What is the usefulness of a theory if by virtue of its boundary conditions and equivocal findings it becomes inapplicable to real world contexts?<br />
Or are psychologists just too shy or unwilling to convert their theoretical stuff into useful real-world applications? So the problem would be one of translating science and research into interventions.<br />
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I am not blaming the students, I think it reflects a deeper problem in our field. Our work is increasingly specialized and focused on minute details (which can and should be important), but miss the link to real world applicability. This is reflected in a similar way in this great opinion <a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/opinion/sunday/kristof-professors-we-need-you.html?_r=0&referrer" target="_blank">piece</a> by Nicholas Kristof.<br />
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One great quote from this opinion piece:<br />
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A basic challenge is that Ph.D. programs have fostered a culture that glorifies arcane unintelligibility while disdaining impact and audience. This culture of exclusivity is then transmitted to the next generation through the publish-or-perish tenure process. Rebels are too often crushed or driven away.</blockquote>
Side note on that blog: The one thing that I do not agree with there is that I believe we need more (but useful) quantitative thinking and research to tackle social problems. The issue for me is translating it into language that is understandable by the general public (see <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Statistics-Principled-Argument-Robert-Abelson/dp/0805805281" target="_blank">Statistics as Principled Arguments</a>).<br />
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Back to my main points: I can already hear some colleagues complaining about the importance of basic research. I love basic research. I think we need a better understanding of human behaviour and all the intricacies of it. But we are not doing physics, most of what we are studying is based on real world observations. So our insights should also provide some better understanding of how things could be changed (see also my earlier post on <a href="http://culturemindspace.blogspot.nl/2012/04/applied-cross-cultural-psychology-some.html" target="_blank">practical psychology</a>).<br />
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We had a great discussion yesterday. I think this is the starting point. We need to reflect on our practices. Maybe (and I actually believe this) our theories in psychology are relevant. But psychologists are too reluctant to take their own research serious, tweak it to make it relevant and most importantly communicate it in a useful way to help address social issues.<br />
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<br />Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com0University of Groningen, Broerstraat 5, 9712 CP Groningen53.2192634 6.562987199999952353.209755900000005 6.542817199999952 53.2287709 6.5831571999999525tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-67401958836813849252014-02-03T04:43:00.000-08:002014-02-03T04:50:18.366-08:00Philosophy of measurement, functional equivalence, DSM V... or how did I get here?Here is a very raw and unfinished "trying to wrap my head around some rather confusing issues" post. I have been thinking about levels of equivalence or invariance in cross-cultural measurement. I have been a wee bit unhappy with a couple of conceptual problems in the framework, but particularly the most general or abstract level of 'functional equivalence' has intrigued me for a while. Traditionally, it is more of a philosophical or theoretical statement of the similarity of functions of a psychological construct in different cultural groups. In other words, a particular behaviour serves the same functions in two or more cultural contexts.<br />
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I have been following some of the discussions on <a href="http://www.psychology.org.nz/IODivision" target="_blank">IOnet</a> and the posts by <a href="http://www.pbarrett.net/" target="_blank">Paul Barrett</a> as well as the more biologically oriented personality literature. Following a few of these leads, I recently started reading some more conceptual and philosophical papers on the philosophy of measurement in psychology. More specifically, I just finished reading Joel Michell's <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2044-8295.1997.tb02641.x/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false" target="_blank">Quantitative science and the definition of measurement in psychology</a> and Michael D. Maraun's <a href="http://tap.sagepub.com/content/8/4/435.abstract" target="_blank">Measurement as a Normative Practice</a>. These papers are superbly well written (as far as you can say that about these kinds of papers) and express quite a few of my growing concerns about psychological research in very clear terms. I started off wondering about functional equivalence, but got much bigger issues to chew on now.<br />
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Michell's main logical argument is as follows (from his very concise reply to a number of commentaries, p. 401):<br />
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Premise 1. All measurement is of quantitative attributes.<br />
Premise 2. Quantitative attributes are distinguished from non-quantitative attributes by the possession<br />
of additive structure.<br />
Premise 3. The issue of whether or not any attribute possesses additive structure is an empirical one.<br />
Conclusion 1. The issue of whether or not any attribute is measurable is an empirical one.<br />
Premise 4. With respect to any empirical hypothesis, the scientific task is to test it relative to the evidence.<br />
Premise 5. Quantitative psychologists have hypothesized that some psychological attributes are<br />
measurable.<br />
Final thesis. The scientific task for quantitative psychologists is to test the hypothesis that their<br />
hypothesized attributes are measurable (i.e. that they possess additive structure).<br />
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The major task for psychology is to actually prove that anything that we do has a quantitative structure. Much of his review is taking to task the legacy of Fechner and especially Stevens (for those of you who ever suffered through some advanced methods classes... these names should be painfully familiar). It was an eye opener to see the larger context and the re-interpretation of stuff that I just took for granted as a student and never really questioned later on in my professional life. Fechner's legacy leading to a so-called quantitative imperative (e.g., Spearman, Cattell, Thorndike) was challenged in the early to mid-parts of the last century (the so-called Ferguson Committee), but Stevens became the most successful defender of this empiricist tradition. He argued in a representational theory of measurement that measurement is the numerical representation of empirical relations. There is a<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
'kind of isomorphism between (1) empirical relations among objects and events and (2) the properties of...' numerical systems (Stevens, 1951, p. 1). From this starting point he developed his theory of the four possible types of measurement scales (nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio)' (Michell, page 370). This is the foundation of any scale development in psychology. In a second argument beautifully laid out by Michell, it then becomes clear that these numerical representations due to their assumed isomorphic relations then both define the relations represented and represent them. Given this operationism, 'any rule for assigning numerals to objects or events could be taken as providing a numerical representation of at least the equivalence relation operationally defined by the rule itself.' (Michell, p. 371). </blockquote>
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And this loop is where we are stuck. We take a few items or questions, administer them to a bunch of people, factor analyze them to get a simple structure and voila... we have measured depression, anxiety, dominance, identity... you name it. Or take implicit measures... you present a number of stimuli with no inherent coherent meaning and present them to individuals to measure their accuracy or reaction speed or whatever you want. Take the score and you have some measure of implicit bias, cognitive interference, etc. There is no relation between the empirical reality and the numerical representation as scores anymore. The question of whether the phenomenon of interest can be quantified has disappeared.<br />
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How does the DSM V fit in here? Well, it could be seen as just the latest installment of the same confusion. We don't know what exactly we are measuring (see for example this article on <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/health/depressions-criteria-may-be-changed-to-include-grieving.html?_r=3&ref=todayspaper&" target="_blank">grief</a> as a case in point). <br />
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The issue is that we need to test whether psychological constructs can actually be quantified. As simple or complex as that. As much as I agree, I can't stop scratching my head and wondering how the heck we are going to do that. How would you be able to examine whether any psychological construct (which is basically just an idea in our beautiful minds that we try to use and build some kind of professional convention around it) is actually quantifiable or not? The responses by a number of eminent psychometricians to this challenges suggested that nobody was able to come with an example to show that this has worked in a wider context within mainstream psychology.<br />
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Enter the second paper. Approaching the problem using Wittgenstein's philosophy of measurement as normative practice (comparing it to the logical structure of language), Maraun argues that measurement needs to be rule-based or normative. You need to start with a definition that then leads to a specific set of rules or norms of how to measure this particular phenomenon just defined. The definition and the set of rules are the most basic form of expression. There is nothing simpler or more basic than this. Once these norms are established, any other person should be able to arrive at a similar result, that even if based on a different metric should still be convertible (e.g., from meters to feet). In psychology in contrast, we have no rules. We have a test or an experiment that is being conducted and the results are examined against another set of empirical observations to claim that the results are valid. According the practice of measurement in physics, empirically based arguments are not relevant for claiming that something has been measured. Measuring a number of items that factor together and then correlating it with some other instrument similarly derived does not mean that anything meaningful has been measured. Observing some kind of empirical pattern in an experiment does not constitute measurement if it is then validated or compared to a different set of empirical observations. The issue is that the concept is not sufficiently precise defined to lead to a set of rules that govern its measurement.<br />
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There a number of other points in that paper around validity, nomological networks, covariance structure and the like. Again, I keep scratching my head. These guys got a point... but how to get out of it. Maraun is very pessimistic. He argues:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Simply put, measurement requires a formalization which does not seem well suited to what Wittgenstein calls the 'messy' grammars of psychological concepts, grammars that evolved in an organic fashion through the 'grafting of language onto natural ("animal") behaviour' (Baker & Hacker, 1982). One aspect of this mismatch arises from the flexibility in the grounds of instantiation of many psychological concepts, the property that Baker and Hacker (1982) call an open-circumstance relativity (see also Gergen, Hepburn, & Comer Fisher, 1986, for a similar point). Take, for example, the concept dominance. Given the appropriate background conditions, practically any 'raw' behaviour could instantiate the concept. Hence, Joe's standing with his back to Sue could, in certain instances, be correctly conceptualized as a dominant action. On the other hand, Bob's ordering of someone to get off the phone is not a dominant action if closer scrutiny reveals the motivation for his behaviour to be a medical emergency which necessitated an immediate call for an ambulance. The possibility for the broadening of background conditions to defeat the application of a psychological concept is known as the defeasibility of criteria (Baker & Hacker, 1982). Together, open-circumstance relativity and the defeasibility of criteria suggest that psychological concepts are simply not organized around finite sets of behaviours which jointly provide necessary and sufficient conditions for their instantiation (Baker & Hacker, 1982). Yet, this is precisely the kind of formalization required if a concept is to play a role in measurement. (p. 457-458).</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Maybe what we are studying is just the social construction of meanings of psychological concepts as expressed in the heads of individuals? Is this a feasible reconciliation? From a researcher perspective it might be a worthwhile endeavor (think of discourse analysts embracing factor analysis... the thought is actually quite amusing). However, this approach leaves our search for a) latent variables and b) measurement invariance completely meaningless.<br />
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The reading continues. Some random thoughts at 1am while I am writing these notes:<br />
a) The search for quantitative latent constructs in psychology probably should (?) or could (?) start from basic biological principles. In essence, we assume that there is something 'latent' out there if we use EFA or CFA or any of the typical covariance structure tests. If there are biological mechanisms that lead to certain psychological phenomena, we can study the biological principles and their interaction with the social environment that lead to psychological realities. Then we could get around the quantification problem. Problem... what biological principles and at what level of specificity?<br />
b) The use of covariance analyses provide simple structures of language concerning folk concepts. This may be useful and meaningful for understanding how people in a specific context interpret items or questions. It is probably more of a sociological analysis of meaning conventions than a psychological analysis. This could be useful or interesting for research purposes, but it is not quite how we commonly understand or interpret the results when we are using these kinds of techniques.<br />
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Or am I missing something? How can this measurement paradox be tackled?<br />
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<br />Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-10085882765711580122013-11-24T19:25:00.003-08:002014-02-02T12:18:27.898-08:00The next IACCP Summer School coming up<span style="font-family: inherit;">It has been a while in the making, but finally we have the first details for the next IACCP Summer School. It will be the third installation of a programme that started in a very informal way in 2009 during the Cameroon Regional IACCP conference and since then has grown and matured. The Summer School is open to students at PhD and MSc level and is sponsored
by the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP). The goal is to provide specialized training by experts in topics of importance and relevance for studying psychology and culture in context. In
addition to its educational benefits, the programme is designed to facilitate
cross-cultural contact and understanding among future academic leaders and to
broaden their academic vision. The next Summer School is conducted in association with the <a href="http://www.iaccp2014.com/" target="_blank">22</a><a href="http://www.iaccp2014.com/" target="_blank">nd </a><a href="http://www.iaccp2014.com/" target="_blank">IACCP</a> conference to take place in Reims, France. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am super-excited about the programme and the streamleaders that we have managed to get for this next version. Here is a quick overview of the three streams, the experts leading each stream and some ideas for improvements. A poster advertising the Summer School can be found <a href="http://www.iaccp.org/drupal/sites/default/files/phd_school_poster.pdf" target="_blank">here </a>(print it and pass it around your department).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Culture and Human Development: Methodological and Conceptual Perspectives</span></h2>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Developmental trajectories reflect the interaction between individual abilities on the one hand, and the ecological and socio-cultural niche in which one grows up on the other hand. Informed by bioecological models, I will provide an overview of how different ecological niches have produced varying childrearing values and strategies, which in turn have created variations in the contexts in which developmental trajectories evolve. The workshop will be in two parts. In the first part, I will dedicate a significant amount of time to discussing how cultural and contextual factors influence development. More importantly, I will discuss conceptual and methodological approaches that need to be taken into consideration in order to adequately study human development in context. I will highlight issues of measurement, sampling, and analysis which are of importance in (cross) cultural developmental psychology. Lastly, translational behavioral research is gaining more prominence in psychology. We will discuss ways in which we can design studies that inform practice and policy.</span><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">In the second part, students will be placed in small working groups based on earlier submitted work to discuss research ideas. Each working group will aim at developing a research plan with achievable milestones, for them to implement as a concrete outcome from participation in the workshop.</span></span><br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">About the Stream Leader</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Amina is associated with the Centre for Geographic Medicine Research, KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme Kenya; Department of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Tilburg University, Netherlands; Department of Child and Adolescent Studies, Utrecht University, Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, UK.</span></span><a href="http://www.iaccp.org/drupal/sites/default/files/images/amina_cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="http://www.iaccp.org/drupal/sites/default/files/images/amina_cropped.jpg" height="200" width="151" /></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Dr Amina Abubakar studied Educational psychology at Kenyatta University in Kenya, before proceeding to study Developmental Cross-Cultural Psychology at Tilburg University where obtained her PhD in 2008. She currently works at the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Wellcome Trust Research Programme, in Kenya.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Dr. Amina Abubakar is a Psychologist whose research concerns three broad areas: the sequelae of various childhood diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders, specifically Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and contextual predictors of psychological well-being across cultural context. Her main interests are in the study of developmental delays and impairments among children exposed to various health problems such as HIV, malnutrition and malaria. Her main focus in this regard is on developing culturally appropriate strategies for identifying, monitoring and rehabilitating at-risk children. In addition, she is also interested in examining the prevalence of and risk factors for neurodevelopmental disorders, specifically ASD, within the African context. Lastly, alongside collaborators from more than twenty countries, she is developing a line of research where we investigate how various contextual factors (familial, school, peer and cultural) impact on wellbeing (mental health, life satisfaction and identity formation) of adolescents across cultural contexts.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Cultural Genomics: Understanding Gene-culture Coevolution from the Molecular Evolution Perspective</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In this stream, I will introduce the basic concepts about human evolution, molecular approach to recent natural selection, data sets such as the HapMap and 1000 Genomes Projects and the Beijing Genes-Brain-Behavior Project, and ways to navigate, download, and analyze the data. Participants can select particular genes to examine their evolutionary history and current behavioral correlates.</span></span><br />
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: small;">About the stream leader</span></h2>
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<a href="http://socialecology.uci.edu/sites/socialecology.uci.edu/files/faculty_photos/cschen/photo_2_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://socialecology.uci.edu/sites/socialecology.uci.edu/files/faculty_photos/cschen/photo_2_0.jpg" height="200" width="148" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><a href="http://socialecology.uci.edu/faculty/cschen" target="_blank">Chuansheng Chen</a> is Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior and Professor of Education at the University of California, Irvine. He was trained as a developmental psychologist (Ph.D., 1992, University of Michigan) interested in cultural variations in developmental trajectories. Over the years, he has integrated multi-disciplinary methods into his work through extensive collaborations with developmental psychologists, anthropologists, molecular geneticists, and cognitive neuroscientists. His current work focuses on the intricate relations among genes, brain, and behavior through both molecular and evolutionary genetic methods and brain-imaging techniques (fMRI and ERP).</span><br />
<h2>
<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></h2>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Contextualizing Acculturation: Multi-level and Multi-group Perspectives</span></h2>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As today’s societies are becoming increasingly diverse, cross-cultural research on contact and acculturation increasingly focuses on diversity and its outcomes, which are not always positive. This workshop starts from the question to what extent and when diversity is an asset for immigrant minorities and for societies at large. We will investigate how minority and majority group members experience culture contact in organizations or societies with different diversity climates (e.g., norms, values, ideologies …). To this end, students will be encouraged to engage with multi-level (at the level of individuals, organizations and societies) and multi-group (minority and majority group perspectives) approaches, data, and methods.</span></span><br />
<br />
<h2>
About the stream leaders</h2>
<h2>
<a href="http://www.iaccp.org/drupal/sites/default/files/images/phalet_cropped.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.iaccp.org/drupal/sites/default/files/images/phalet_cropped.png" height="200" width="151" /></a><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><a href="http://ppw.kuleuven.be/home/english/research/cscp/karen-phalet" target="_blank">Karen Phalet</a> </span><span style="font-size: small;">(PhD 1993 University of Leuven) is full professor at the Centre for Social and Cultural Psychology, University of Leuven, and a senior research fellow of the European Research Center On Migration and Ethnic Relations, Utrecht University. Her cross-cultural research is broadly concerned with the psychological dimension of cultural diversity across immigrant minorities and European societies. She has published extensively on processes of cultural transmission, acculturation, self and identity, and their consequences for minority adjustment, acceptance, attainment, and political voice. Current comparative research lines investigate religion and acculturation among European Muslim minorities, as well as minority identity and acculturation in ethnically diverse schools and organizations.</span></span></h2>
<h2>
</h2>
<a href="http://www.iaccp.org/drupal/sites/default/files/images/baysu.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.iaccp.org/drupal/sites/default/files/images/baysu.png" height="200" width="170" /></a><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://khas.academia.edu/G%C3%BClseliBaysu" target="_blank">Gülseli Baysu</a> (PhD in 2011 from University of Leuven) is an assistant professor at Kadir Has University. Her main research interests concern minority perspectives on intercultural relations and minority outcomes, ranging from political mobilization to academic performance. She is well-versed in the full range of cross-cultural research data and methods, including cross-national (web)surveys, experiments, and multi-group, multi-level, and longitudinal analyses. Her main publications focus on how positive and negative experiences of culture contact affect minority acculturation and achievement across different migration contexts. In addition to continuing this line of research, another research line extends her earlier work on social identity and political mobilization to Turkey. </span> </span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div>
<h2>
Endorsement by Previous Participants</h2>
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<div class="MsoPlainText">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3n9NGiaH_2jA88mzVwXLd6zV8Ud3upYlIw5Gt-5fiGfgQQdEvHZcK3HCiPhcSlIZIaashdiP70g8Lqw40jKoMDSN2U2bD1UofXZjL60x3ENaLtBaNrv7TBbVlb_r0xfDlzF2l4zVNY_Z5/s1600/homer2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3n9NGiaH_2jA88mzVwXLd6zV8Ud3upYlIw5Gt-5fiGfgQQdEvHZcK3HCiPhcSlIZIaashdiP70g8Lqw40jKoMDSN2U2bD1UofXZjL60x3ENaLtBaNrv7TBbVlb_r0xfDlzF2l4zVNY_Z5/s1600/homer2.jpg" /></a>Hi, I am Dr Humera Iqbal and was lucky enough to be part
of the first ever summer school in Istanbul. This was a wonderful experience for
so many reasons. I met excellent young researchers with similar interests, some
of whom I have continued to collaborate with. I was taught by some of the best
minds in cross-cultural psychology and learned so much from them. The group
discussions we had allowed me to think about my own research in a novel way and
the articles we examined really helped in writing up my cross-cultural
research. I also made some amazing friends. If you are doing your PhD in
anything cross-cultural (at whatever stage), I really encourage you to apply
for Paris 2014.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8fhcyYEJ3cOyPjrdQ_n7gaFukgwztwj-VJzV4Yrq8c58Qy5RuN8v0Q2ZAIPf6_Lx8X_2ZuL9uk1BVzEaabvVPVdKcr-5EwYERX8iHhWf_e17k6LaRKpJAWjBCujXzSNs9vIpW7hkjrION/s1600/1379541_10151840220033880_1511023873_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8fhcyYEJ3cOyPjrdQ_n7gaFukgwztwj-VJzV4Yrq8c58Qy5RuN8v0Q2ZAIPf6_Lx8X_2ZuL9uk1BVzEaabvVPVdKcr-5EwYERX8iHhWf_e17k6LaRKpJAWjBCujXzSNs9vIpW7hkjrION/s1600/1379541_10151840220033880_1511023873_n.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Hi, I am </span>Saija Kuittinen. <span style="font-family: inherit;">The IACCP PhD winterschool in Stellenbosch
South-Africa (2012) was a great opportunity to meet fellow PhD students and
senior colleagues from all around the world who share the same interests in
cultural issues and psychology as I do. During the few intensive days of group
work, besides learning more about conducting cross-cultural research, I also
enjoyed the casual networking and talking about relevant issues - especially since
I am the only one doing this line of research back in my home university.</span></div>
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<h2>
<span style="font-size: large;">New Ideas for Reims 2014</span></h2>
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We have looked at the feedback and comments from previous years and are working on making it an even more enjoyable, educational and fun event. One suggestion was to provide an opportunity for members to briefly present their research work. We think this is a brilliant idea. Our current plan is to have some mix of <a href="http://www.pechakucha.org/" target="_blank">Pecha Kucha</a>, <a href="http://www.ted.com/" target="_blank">Ted-Talk </a>and <a href="http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/institute-academic-development/postgraduate/doctoral/3mt" target="_blank">Three Minute Thesis Presentation</a>. The current idea is that each member has 3 minutes and some combination of 1, 3, 6 or 9 slides (with no animations) to present his or her topic and research interests to the group on the first or second night. We are still ferociously debating whether we should include some important presentation rules like that you have to have at least one photo of you as a baby plus one picture of the place where you grew up (after all, the summer school is about connecting people and increasing your understanding of cultural diversity - and baby pictures are highly relevant to at least one stream ;) </div>
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Furthermore, people were keen to get more of an overview of what is happening in each stream and what each stream-leader is going to focus on. Hence, we have decided to add a few more lectures to provide a better overview of the various topics and streams. </div>
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We also hope that all members will form their research groups and start reading and discussing their plans well before getting to Reims. We will ask for volunteers in each stream as facilitators that can work with me and the stream-leaders to getting the discussion and learning going early next year. </div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
If you have any thoughts or comments or suggestions of how we can make the summer school better, please get in touch.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Costs</h2>
<div>
The cost for the summer school will be 200 Euro for participants from high-income countries (as per IACCP fee structure) and 150 Euro for participants from low income countries. The fee includes accommodation, welcome dinner, lunches and coffee breaks. This is pretty damn good value for a three full day workshop with world leaders in the field of psychology and culture, providing you with cutting edge skills and material. </div>
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
The Schedule</h2>
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<div align="center">
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; margin-left: -15.9pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 653px;">
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<span lang="EN-US">Human
development<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Cultural
genomics<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
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<span lang="EN-US">Contextualizing
Acculturation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">March 20<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Application
deadline<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">March 31<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Decision
on applications<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">April-01<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
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<span lang="EN-US">Beginning
of work in study groups (reading, discussing & exchanging ideas)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">May-01<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Finalizing
study groups (each group to select a contact person)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Jun-01<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Preliminary
ideas submitted to stream leaders<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Jul-11<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Arrival
in Reims (informal get-together in the evening)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US">Jul-12<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 8;">
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<span lang="EN-US">9-10am<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Introduction<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">10-11am<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Lecture
1 (SL 1)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 10;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">11.15-12.15pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Lecture
2 (SL 2)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 11;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">12.15-2pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Lunch<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 12;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">2-3pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Lecture
3 (SL 3)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 13;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">3-6pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 14;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">6-7pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Break<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 15;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">7-8pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Dinner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 16;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">8pm-10.30pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Your
research topic in 3 min (Presentation on PhD/MSc research by all
participants)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 17;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US">Jul-13<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 18;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">9-11am<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 19;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">11-12.15pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Lecture:
Cultures are different, p < .05? Thinking about research beyond
significance values<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 20;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">12.15-2pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Lunch<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 21;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">2-6pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 22;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Evening<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Free<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 23;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US">Jul-14<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 24;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">9-11am<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 25;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">11-12.15pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Lecture:
TBC<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 26;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">12.15-2pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Lunch<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 27;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">2-6pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 136.25pt;" valign="bottom" width="182"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Work
in streams<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 28;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Evening<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Presenting
your research proposals<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 29;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-US">Jul-15<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"></td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 30;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">9-11am<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Joint
workshop: Writing for publication<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 31;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">11-12pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Wrapping
up<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 32;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Noon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Lunch<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 15.0pt; mso-yfti-irow: 33; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td nowrap="" style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 81.3pt;" valign="bottom" width="108"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Afternoon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td colspan="3" nowrap="" style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; height: 15.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; width: 408.75pt;" valign="bottom" width="545"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-US">Transfer
to conference<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
</div>
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
Application and Further Info</h2>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
You will be able to apply <a href="http://www.iaccp2014.com/summer-school/5" target="_blank">here</a>, the link is now active. If you have any questions about the programme, the leaders or the general procedure, please do not hesitate to contact <a href="http://www.victoria.ac.nz/psyc/about/staff/ronald-fischer" target="_blank">me</a>. The poster with all the relevant info can be found <a href="http://www.iaccp.org/drupal/sites/default/files/phd_school_poster.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>. Print it and pass it on to your friends and colleagues!</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
Happy to answer your questions and look forward to seeing you all in Reims in a few months!</div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<b>J'espère te voir bientôt!</b></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<br /></div>
<o:p></o:p></div>
Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com1Reims, France49.258329 4.031696000000010849.092501500000004 3.7089725000000109 49.4241565 4.3544195000000112tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-56327310411978775532013-11-10T01:45:00.003-08:002013-11-10T16:06:33.642-08:00The Evolutionary Puzzle of Extreme Rituals<div class="MsoNormal">
These are my notes for the introduction of the recent <a href="http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/WhatsOn/allevents/Pages/November%27sScienceExpress.aspx" target="_blank">Science Express Event</a> on Extreme Rituals at <a href="http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/pages/default.aspx" target="_blank">Te Papa</a>, sponsored by the <a href="http://www.royalsociety.org.nz/" target="_blank">Royal Society of New Zealand</a> Wellington Branch and supported by the <a href="http://www.victoria.ac.nz/cacr" target="_blank">Centre for Applied Cross-Cultural Research, Wellington</a>. Many thanks for all those who came and engaged in a really interesting and stimulating discussion. There will be a <a href="http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/WhatsOn/Podcasts/Pages/Overview.aspx" target="_blank">podcast </a>available soon, till then here are my typed-up notes for the introductory presentation.</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQRUPnFiILL1usE-Af2MlbtCK0GAwLHUsf1jc-aVlq9iyxNrPHhq9L2GSFm18ZAb9lkUH1vfngEmNjhf06JHMOwedK6nvRCcFKWM6lPzdEOefmqs9BkMKLG_VhVnx9RZVr4qKkwkGxuKsy/s1600/1460174_10151658701621330_1572129909_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQRUPnFiILL1usE-Af2MlbtCK0GAwLHUsf1jc-aVlq9iyxNrPHhq9L2GSFm18ZAb9lkUH1vfngEmNjhf06JHMOwedK6nvRCcFKWM6lPzdEOefmqs9BkMKLG_VhVnx9RZVr4qKkwkGxuKsy/s1600/1460174_10151658701621330_1572129909_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
(Photo by <a href="http://www.victoria.ac.nz/cacr/about-us/people/staff/rochelle-stewart-allen" target="_blank">Rochelle Stewart-Allen</a>)</div>
<h2>
</h2>
<h2>
Collective Rituals</h2>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I am interested in collective rituals. Many of us here have been to support the <a href="http://www.allblacks.com/" target="_blank">All Blacks</a>, <a href="http://www.hurricanes.co.nz/" target="_blank">Hurricanes </a>or the <a href="http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/wellingtonphoenix" target="_blank">Wellington Phoenix</a> at <a href="http://westpacstadium.co.nz/" target="_blank">Westpac Stadium</a>; have been to a concert, watched a theater play or have been dancing in one of the bars. Collective rituals are common. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">Why do humans do this? There are no obvious
evolutionary functions to these gatherings. They do not help us to get food, ward off predators or to create more offspring (although there may be a bit of 'that' going on after a good night out or when the All Blacks smash the Wallabies ;) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">We could say these rituals just serve pure entertainment purposes and are a byproduct of our big social brains. Obviously it
does not hurt to sit and watch grown-up guys chase after an odd-shaped ball or sit through a 1 hour lecture at Te Papa. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">Yet, there are collective rituals in many societies and cultures that </span>are
painful, uncomfortable or may even injure or harm participants. It is difficult to
convey the suffering that some people inflict on themselves during some of these events in a talk like this. People chose to walk over glowing
hot coals of 600-700 degrees that burns paper within seconds. Others walk over burning hot asphalt for hours in the
midday sun without drinking or seeking shade while balancing a hot pot of milk
on your head; they hit their face or back with swords, chains or sharp objects till they bleed profusely. Can you imagine hobbling on knees large distance and then circle churches or temples on your knees, over a period that takes a few hours. Most of us would feel uncomfortable sitting on our knees after a few minutes. There are collective rituals where people drag heavy wooden carts hooked into their skin over a distance of
6 km, a feat that takes 5 or more hours. Would you want to pierce your tongue or face with
a number of random objects, needles, skewers, metal rods, swords, guns, tree
branches or giant beach umbrellas?<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">Why do people do these things? </span>The British anthropologist <a href="http://www.isca.ox.ac.uk/about-us/staff/academic/prof-harvey-whitehouse/" target="_blank">Harvey Whitehouse </a>has argued that these more extreme rituals are the historically more ancient types of rituals. But what is the evolutionary purpose and why have such rituals survived over the millennia till today?<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">These are difficult questions to answer. There is much
speculation and many attempts to explain such events by observers and social
scientist. But it is important to test these ideas more rigorously. I have joined forces with a dream-team of scientists to tackle these big questions in the field. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<h3>
Separating Collective from Individual Benefits</h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">These rituals may have benefits for both
individuals and communities and it is important to separate these effects. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">There have been speculations going back more than one century all the way to Darwin and Durkheim that extreme ritual may act as a social bonding devise at the community level.
Extreme rituals are thought to increase prosociality and cooperation in the community.
They signal commitment to the group: behaviour speaks louder than words.
Groups with strong rituals are more likely to survive. Colleagues and friends such as <a href="http://www.josephbulbulia.com/" target="_blank">Joseph Bulbulia</a>, <a href="http://www.williamirons.net/" target="_blank">Bill Irons</a>, <a href="http://www.anth.uconn.edu/faculty/sosis/" target="_blank">Richard Sosis</a> and <a href="http://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~henrich/" target="_blank">Joe Henrich</a> have written extensively on these theories. How can we test these
mechanisms in modern societies? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span lang="EN-NZ">Extreme Ritual: Studying Social Bonding Effects in Mauritius </span></h3>
<span lang="EN-NZ">In one study with <a href="http://www.xygalatas.com/" target="_blank">Dimitris Xygalatas</a>, Joseph Bulbulia and other colleagues, we decided to study an extreme ritual in the small island of Mauritius. Our aim was to study the social aspects of extreme ritual by studying groups of individuals that differ in their
involvement in the ritual (see this blog by <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mortal-rituals/201308/the-ritual-species" target="_blank">Matthew Rossano</a> on the larger context)</span>. We measured their behavioural responses – how much money are they
giving to the community depending on the ritual they participate in. We used a considerable sum of money to ensure that we can tap into real prosocial motivations, where helping the in-group really hurts your own pocket. We studied individuals who participated in a low ordeal
ritual, people who watched the high ordeal ritual and those individuals who engaged in what objectively appeared to be rather painful acts (such as piercing themselves with needles, skewers and rods, carrying wooden shrines on their head or pulling them through the streets by attaching hooks to their skin). Supporting the prosocial theories of extreme rituals, those in the high ordeal ritual
gave more money to their temple. More importantly, the perception of pain
helped us to explain the pattern – the more pain you perceive, the more prosocial and
charitable you become! It is the amount of perceived pain that binds the group
together!!!!!<br />
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<br />
<br />
<h3>
Extreme Ritual: What might be the motivation for the individuals? </h3>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">But what is in it for the individuals that
perform these rather extreme actions? Why should I care that my group is tighter and more
cooperative if it means that I have to hurt myself? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">Let's examine one potential mechanism: By committing acts in a ritual that is
important and central to the community, I can increase my status and prestige
in the community. It signals my commitment to the group and therefore increases
my social standing within the group. I become a fully fledged member and can benefit from the support
and help of other group members in the future.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">To test this social status mechanism I went to <a href="http://culturemindspace.blogspot.co.nz/2013/10/extreme-rituals-in-transition-some.html" target="_blank">Thailand </a>to study another extreme ritual. I again compared groups of individuals – high
ordeal devotees who pierced themselves with all sorts of things, assistants who supported the high-ordeal performers and spectators trying to get the
blessing of the high ordeal devotees. In order to measure the motivations of individuals, I measured their values (as motivational goals) in
life. High ordeal devotees were much more oriented towards getting ahead in
life – they are motivated to perform these actions to achieve some level of status and
power in the group. In short, for individuals performing these actions is one possible</span> mechanism to move up the social ladder. Often the more disadvantaged and
marginalized group members engage in the more audacious acts. Bringing it back to our society, you may just want to look
at who are the boldest and best sports players in a lot of contexts. Often it is minorities that use sports (soccer, rugby, athletics, etc.) as a mechanism to achieve status in a society that values these sports.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-NZ">Although these rituals may seem bizarre or
extreme from an outsiders perspective, they involve universal human
characteristics. It is a human universal: we want to be included in our groups. At the same time, we needed strong groups
to survive in history. Bringing these threads together, it becomes clear why extreme rituals are appealing to individuals and why these rituals have survived for so long in our history. After all, these extreme rituals are just another
expression of our shared humanity. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-NZ"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I hope I have convinced you that it is possible to scientifically study extreme rituals to address interesting questions about us humans. It is amazing to me that despite the popularity and widespread participation in quite extreme collective rituals the world over, we know very little about what is happening to individuals and communities involved in these rituals. I look forward to hearing your comments and reactions and an interesting discussion.<br />
<br />
******end of my typed out introductory notes*******<br />
<br />
Closing thoughts: Damn, it was a really interesting and fascinating discussion that we had at Te Papa. Many thanks again to everyone for asking questions and sharing their thoughts and experiences. Let's continue the discussion and even more importantly, let's do empirical work on this fascinating aspect of human experience. </div>
Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-4540772657201023782013-10-25T19:56:00.003-07:002013-10-26T01:58:44.412-07:00Extreme rituals in transition: Some reflectionsI just returned from a turbulent five days in Phuket, Thailand. Although many people associate Phuket with beach, sand and holidays, it is also one of the biggest centres for a Buddhist religious festival, which in all likelihood is one of the most extreme rituals still existing in modern societies. The rituals have a long 5,000 year history, going back to pre-Chinese rituals (see work by <a href="http://www.mysmu.edu/staff/margaretchan/" target="_blank">Margaret Chan</a>). The ceremonies arrived in Thailand with Chinese groups that worked in mines during the 19th century. I will share some brief impressions of my short visit. I could talk about what I saw for ages, so this is just a quick rambling of thoughts and observations. The purpose was to collect some data on the values and personality of participants in this fascinating ritual and to examine health and well-being effects of a ritual like this. Watch this space for the results coming soon...<br />
<h3>
</h3>
<h3>
The Processions</h3>
The festival lasts about 10 days and involves thousands of worshipers from Thailand and the region. It starts with the raising of a lantern pole which invites some Emperor Gods to descend from heaven.<br />
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<br />
In the following days, believers who act as mediums go into trance and impersonate various gods and warriors. These mediums will walk over heaps of glowing coal and climb bladed ladders (both events have specific religious significance and are performed on days before important events of the larger ritual). The most impressive show of these mediums are the processions though. Starting in the early hours of day, believers will go into trance at the temple which will sponsor and organize the procession of the day. Supporters will dress the mediums (once they are in trance) with the characteristic Chinese style garments and hand them artefacts that show their heavenly power (typically some flag with Chinese inscriptions and a whip with a snake-shaped grip).<br />
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<br />
Depending on the spirits that possess them, a good number of the believers will engage in piercings and acts of self-mortification. The piercings in some cases can be hard to stomach for outsiders. It ranged from needles and skewers to guns, beach umbrellas, metal saws, swords, tree branches, basket ball hops attached to a car tire, beads and any unimaginable object. I asked how people decide what objects to drive through their cheeks. The answer was that they dream it (the spirit telling them what to do). Apparently, the greater the pain, the more blessing for the individual and the community because this wards off evil spirits (many of the mediums are supposedly fierce warriors that battle evil).<br />
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There was blood, sometimes lots of it. Some were cutting their tongue on swords or hit their back with sharp objects. There were moments when I thought it went a bit too far (I remember one moment when I was wondering whether the weight of the object inserted into a person's cheek would rip off the skin completely from his face - well, it did not and I was glad about that. I spare you the photos...). The mediums parade through town in a procession that lasts several hours (covering up to 20 km in distance). They walk barefoot over hot asphalt in the tropical heat.<br />
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Onlookers invite them to bless them, their family and their house. In order to increase the torment, firecrackers are thrown on these mediums, with the belief that the more noise being made, the more fortune for the family. Despite all the goriness of the piercings, the throwing of the firecrackers leading to war-like scenes left probably the most impressions on me. I felt transported into a war zone between aliens from a different planet.<br />
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The smoke from the firecrackers made breathing difficult. Visibility was reduced to a few meters, only the light of the firecrackers able to break through the fog. The sound of the firecrackers echoing back and forth between the buildings in the narrow streets. Transported into an apocalyptic war zone, the best protection of my face was to hold my camera and shoot back (photos against firecrackers). It was hard to imagine how people were able to endure this for hours. Trying to shoot photos, I got a few hits from firecrackers. The physical sensation of a firecracker exploding on your back, in front of your face or your bare feet (call me well-prepared for venturing out in sandals) is not to be underestimated.<br />
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Once back at the temple, the piercings were removed by priests and other participants in the ritual and the spirits were asked to leave (ie. exorcised) in a small ceremony in front of the shrines inside the temple. Soon after the procession, there would be more rituals... a non-stop chain of religious rituals and a kaleidoscope of passion, devotion, shared food, blood and ritualistic suffering.<br />
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The other extreme: Silence</h3>
In addition to these spectacular extreme rituals, there are other ceremonies that oscillate to the other extreme of tedium and stillness. One of the rituals called Propitiation of Seven Stars involves the warrior mediums in trance guarding a platform structure where more mediums assembled. The temple community is crowded around in silent prayer. One individual beats a drum monotonously for about half an hour. There is not movement and no sound except the tiny dingdingdingding of this drum for the whole period. Unfortunately, I could not really got more information on what is happening during this ritual beyond some general vague stories. But the contrast between extremes could not have been stronger.<br />
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Transitions: Between Ancient Traditions and Modernity</h3>
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Transitions and change were notable. For one, tablets, cell phones and cameras were everywhere to document the extremities. Often it appeared that friends and family of the medium were documenting every single step of the medium, as if to document the suffering to document for posterity. What are these people doing with these documents? Many of the mediums would stop and pose for photos - what is the purpose of this exhibitionism? </div>
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There is a line of research that argues that costly rituals bring communities together and increase the status of individuals who engage in the most extreme forms (see for example work by my colleagues Joseph <a href="https://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/JSRNC/article/viewArticle/7236" target="_blank">Bulbulia </a>and <a href="http://www.academia.edu/2860538/The_evolution_of_charismatic_cultures" target="_blank">Markus </a>Frean). Are these documents used later to increase the status and prestige of the individuals who engage in these activities? Is the posing for pictures a mechanism to increase one's self-esteem? Is the greater shock value of extreme acts translated into social capital within the community?</div>
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The extreme nature of some of these piercings was striking. I had seen some postings of such piercings before on the internet, but seeing it in person is different from seeing it from the comfortable safety of your computer. There seems to have been a shift towards more extremes. <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/24/8/1602.full" target="_blank">We </a>did some work on Thaipusam last year in Mauritius (a major field site for studying rituals in the field, directed and organized by <a href="http://www.xygalatas.com/" target="_blank">Dimitris Xygalatas</a>). In conversations with Temple leaders, they commented that piercings and size of the kavadees that believers carry has increased over the years. An interview with a medium from Phuket posted on the <a href="http://www.phuket.com/magazine/vegetarian-festival-medium.htm" target="_blank">internet </a>came to similar observations. The choice of piercings is supposedly dictated by spirits during dreams.... To me it nearly seemed like a ratcheting of extreme actions (think of the 'keeping up with Joneses' effect). To what extent is the posting of extreme piercings, sensational violence, and all sorts of other evidence of self-inflicted harm on internet and global media leading to a 'spiritual arms race'? </div>
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Yet, at the same time, other changes led to changes in the rituals. Blade-walking and bladed ladder climbing used to be a significant part of the ritual. Yet, these practices in the times of HIV are dangerous and can infect a large number of participants. For this reason, a number of temples have abandoned this practice. </div>
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Some changes were also quite cute. It was fun to see how kids and youngsters went through some of the more boring parts of the ritual by secretly using their cellphones and tablets for entertainment. Some of these folks had devised ingenious techniques for entertaining themselves while pretending to be good believers. </div>
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In many ways, these simple observations of human reactions during a period that felt so extreme punctuated the humanness of it all. The pained expressions of bystanders, the open eyes in awe and disbelief of some of the suffering that was displayed, the innocent attempts to ward off both shock and boredom revealed the human aspect. It is these small observations that brought it home to me that through the extremity it actually shows the universality of what it means to be human. There will be people who go to extremes for all sorts of reasons in all cultures. There will be pain and boredom in all places. And it is the reaction to these universal elements that reveals our shared humanity. </div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;">I am glad I went. </span>Many thanks to Janpaphat Kruekaew for introducing and opening this fascinating world for me. Quite often when I was too tired to continue, she tirelessly continued asking people and getting interviews and responses from participants. It was a humbling experience working with her. I am looking forward to going back and getting a better understanding of the minds of some of these people, those who go to extremes and those who just stand by and watch the procession unfold in front of them. Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-83117505340674096342013-10-01T22:44:00.002-07:002013-10-01T22:44:42.200-07:00Sexy, hot and easy! Should we trust student evaluations of university courses and teachers?How should we rate the effectiveness of university teachers and university education in general? This is a million dollar question that is hardly ever been questioned, yet determines the course of countless lives on both sides of the divide (student and teacher). <div>
Teaching evaluations are treated with suspicion by profs and teachers, but are loved by university bureaucrats and administrators. Students may often not realize, but these evaluations, specifically the mean numbers that come out after some basic number crunching often have a huge impact on the careers and success of academics. A rather small difference between a 1.9 and 2.5 can determine whether somebody gets promoted, is hired or gets a bonus. In extreme cases, a teacher may lose a contract. So how much evidence is there that these numbers provide good evidence of teacher effectiveness? And are teachers who do get higher ratings actually those teachers that help students succeed in other courses?</div>
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A number of recent studies cast some big doubt on the usefulness of these criteria. Let's start with a fun example. </div>
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Quality of teaching or just easy and 'hot'? </h3>
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James Felton, a Professor of Finance at Central Michigan University and colleagues examined the <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2223316" target="_blank">evaluations </a>submitted to <a href="http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/" target="_blank">http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/</a>. There are a couple of different criteria that students can rate their professors on. The two core areas are 'helpfulness' (how helpful and approachable a teacher is) and 'clarity' (how organized, clear and effective is a teacher). These two are averaged to get a rating of overall teaching quality. There are two more evaluations though. The first one is 'easiness', meaning how easy or difficult the classes are and how much work is needed to get an A. The second is 'hotness', a simple rating of whether a student thinks that a teacher is hot or not. Obviously, we would want to have teachers that are effective and helpful, but these perceptions should not be driven by how easy a course is or how attractive a teacher is. When looking at the data from ratings for 6,852 profs from 369 institutions... the answer is that the hotter you are and the easier your course is, the better are your evaluations. The correlation between easiness and quality is a whopping .62, whereas hotness and quality correlate .64. </div>
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They offer this explanation: </div>
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<i>We see Quality as a function of Easiness, but it could be argued that Easiness is a function of Quality, where professors who are skilled in the classroom take difficult material and make it seem easy. We wish that were the case, but we see Quality as a function of Easiness the majority of the time for two reasons. First, </i><i>as stated previously, Ratemyprofessors.com (2004) defines Easiness as the ability to get a high </i><i>grade without having to work very hard. Second, professors with high Easiness scores usually </i><i>have student comments regarding a light work load and high grades. Similarly, we see Quality </i><i>as a function of Hotness, but it could be argued that Hotness is a function of Quality, where a </i><i>brilliant professor, regardless of physical appearance, is considered sexy by his or her students. </i><i>Again we wish that were the case, but most student comments point toward Quality as a function </i><i>of Hotness when they focus on physical characteristics of their professors that could be captured </i><i>in photographs.</i></blockquote>
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The lesson that might be learned from this correlational study is that it does not hurt to dumb down your lecture content and hit the gym (well, the latter would be good regardless). </div>
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Lecture fluency or welcome back, Dr Fox...</h3>
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Now, let's enter study number 2. Shana Carpenter and colleagues from Iowa State University in a study recently <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.3758%2Fs13423-013-0442-z" target="_blank">published </a>showed students a short video of the same teacher presenting the same material. The major difference was that in one video the prof acted in what was called a <i>fluent</i> way: upright, confident, with eye contact and speaking fluently without notes. In the other condition, the prof acted <i>disfluent</i>: slumped, looking away, speaking haltingly and relying on notes. In two experiments, students were tested on how much they actually learned and ratings of the prof were also obtained. The results very clearly showed that the fluent prof was rated much better (surprise surprise), but also that students thought that they had learned more and would remember more from the fluent prof compared to the disfluent prof. However, when later tested, there were no differences between the two groups. This means instructor fluency <i>increases perceptions of learning but not actual learning!</i> There were also some curious smaller findings. For example, for the disfluent group -when given the opportunity to read the transcript of the lecture, students who spent more time rehearsing had higher test scores. This was not the case for the fluent group. It is an ambiguous finding, but could indicate that fluent lectures may decrease the attention paid to study material when preparing for an exam. Not sure whether this is desirable.</div>
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This really sounds like the famous<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcxW6nrWwtc" target="_blank"> Dr Fox effect</a>. Talk nonsense as long as you are dynamic, engage the audience and are make jokes...</div>
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Some disturbing findings when using random assignment of students to profs</h3>
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The most concerning study though used a controlled random assignment of students to courses that overcomes a lot of the shortcomings of previous studies (including self-selection of students to courses and professors). Scott Carrell and James West <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w14081" target="_blank">studied </a>student achievement and course feedback as students moved through mandatory classes in maths, science and engineering. The unique aspect of their study is that professors rotated in sections of the course, assessment was not done by the professors themselves and students were randomly allocated to professors (but all studied the same content). A first finding that is of practical importance is that less academically qualified instructors got students more (erroneously?) interested in the topics which resulted in better immediate student performance, but then led to <i>lower</i> scores in follow-on related courses. More experienced and qualified professors in contrast had students that did not well in the introductory classes, but those students than excelled later on. Those students were able to build on what they had learned during the initial courses. </div>
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What is even more important is that professors who were rated positively by students did better in the initial courses. However, the rating of the effectiveness of the professor did not predict later performance! In fact, in a number of cases the correlation flipped - students studying with the more highly rated professors did worse in half the courses than those who studied with a prof who was not rated as highly (note: only one of these correlations was significant - the point remains the same though: ratings of teacher effectiveness does not predict long-term student achievement). As Carreel and West argue:</div>
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'Since many U.S. colleges and universities use student evaluations as a measurement of teaching quality for academic promotion and tenure decisions, this finding draws into question the value and accuracy of this practice.' </blockquote>
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Are there alternatives? Yes! </h2>
The reliance on student evaluations for courses and teachers is problematic, if these evaluations are not considered in a larger context of what is achieved in a course. In the business world, this has been long realized. Teaching is effectively training. In the organizational world, Donald Kirkpatrick developed a famous four stage model of training evaluation. The four criteria for the evaluation of the effectiveness of training are:<br />
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<li>Student reactions - this is essentially equivalent of student evaluations, assessments of students thought they had learned and how they felt about the course/the teaching</li>
<li>Learning - this is measured by the increase in knowledge or capability after the course, we could consider the test performance in a test or exam as a good measure of this (of course only if the assessment is independent of the teacher - see above the problem with the easiness of a course)</li>
<li>Behaviour change - this refers to the changes in the behaviour outside the teaching environment that are a result of the teaching, including applications of what has been learned to new situations outside the teaching/training context</li>
<li>Results - this is the effect of the teaching on the business or the larger environment that results from the performance and the behaviour changes induced by the teaching/training</li>
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The 3rd and 4th points are what universities (and society) should be concerned about. There has been a lot of questioning of the value of tertiary education recently (see for example <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21584393-barack-obama-wants-degrees-be-better-value-money-universities-challenged" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/aug/20/graduate-salaries-university-degree-value" target="_blank">here </a>and <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/nov/24/our-universities-why-are-they-failing/?pagination=false" target="_blank">here</a>). These criteria can help in re-adjusting both the focus of universities as well as criteria that are used to evaluate professors. </div>
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<b>Students and society deserve better, not just the profs ;)</b></div>
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Comments are welcome as usual :)</div>
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Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-56203505133422578352013-05-14T21:08:00.004-07:002013-05-14T21:45:25.375-07:00Unpackaging culture & cultural differences<span style="font-family: inherit;">One of the most fascinating questions arises when we observe that individuals in a different cultural system behave or act in a different way. Why do they do that? What is the explanation or reason for showing these particular behaviours or responses? For example, we may have stepped on an exotic island and observe that the inhabitants eat way more chocolate ice cream that we do. Or they may tell you that there are lots of little ghosts out there taking care of them, many more than you ever thought would be possible to inhabit a small island like this. Or they may simple say in some interviews or surveys that they do not like to work as hard as you normally would expect in adult samples. How could we explain any of these differences?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Given the perpetual problem of potential bias in comparative research, we can never really rule out that our observations were simply erroneous - we might have had the wrong instruments, there may have been language problems in interactions (remember Lost in Translation?), we may have mis-interpreted the data or it may have simply been a chance difference. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">One persuasive idea that has been around for quite a while in the social sciences is the idea of unpackaging. The terms goes back to a classic study conducted by Whiting and Whiting (1975). They orchestrated a large ethnographic study of child development among six communities: a New England Baptist community; a Philippine barrio; an Okinawan village; an Indian village in Mexico; a northern Indian caste group; and a rural tribal group in Kenya. They reported differences in a number of psychological processes, socialization and child-rearing patterns. Going beyond just noting these differences, they reasoned that there must be specific contextual variables that could explain the differences found, linking ecological constraints faced by these communities to psychological processes via adaptive socialization practices. For instance, they compared the activities of children from the same families, some of whom were living in cities and others in villages. They also compared families in which young boys helped with baby-tending with those in which girls did the helping. Therefore, these social conditions were linked to observed behavioural differences, leading to one plausible explanation of why they may have occurred in the first place. This is essentially what psychologists study as mediation: processes and variables that explain the relationship between an independent or predictor variable and the dependent or criterion variable. It is about the causal theoretical processes, the how and why of the observed effects. We often think of mediators as internalized psychological processes of external conditions that lead to other outcomes down the causal chain. In cross-cultural work, it does not necessarily always be an internal psychological variable - it could also be living conditions or social constraints and norms that can act as mediators. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Put differently, unpackaging studies are extensions of basic cross-cultural comparisons in which the active ingredient presumed to cause the observed differences in psychological processes is directly measured and explicitly tested for its role in explaining the outcome. Have a look at the graphical representation of mediation. Unpackaging culture is one term often found in the literature, others include ‘linkage studies’ (Matsumoto & Yoo, 2006), ‘mediation studies’ (Kirkman, Lowe & Gibson, 2006) or ‘covariate studies/strategies’ (Leung & van de Vijver, 2008).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"> For example, Tinsley (2001) found that differences in the conflict management strategies of German, Japanese and US managers were completely mediated by the values held by members of these cultural groups, and Felfe, Yan and Six (2008) reported that individuals’ scores on a ‘collectivism’ scale mediated differences in organizational commitment across samples of Romanian, German and Chinese employees. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In an ideal test of mediation, the researcher tests whether other relevant variables that are not related to the hypothesis also yield mediation effects. This provides greater certainty in establishing exactly what the causes the results that are obtained. For instance, Y. Chen, Brockner, and Katz (1998) showed that a measure of individual-collective primacy mediated the intergroup effects that they had predicted and found. They then tested whether six other measures derived from the concept of individualism-collectivism also mediated these effects, and found that they did not. Studies of this kind help to clarify the loose and varied ways in which the psychological aspects of individualism and collectivism have been employed by different authors. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What are some general concerns?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the above examples, the mediator and dependent or criterion variable were measured using the same or similar methods. If there is some third unmeasured variable that is related or unrelated to the independent variable, we may end up with a situation where it appears that there is mediation, whereas in reality, there is none. Having multiple mediators measured with the same method as the DV may lead to some reassurance about the findings, but ultimately, the best test would be a test using independent methods</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Experiments have been much in vogue recently to study cultural differences. One of the major concerns is whether the manipulation was effective or not. This is again the problem of potential bias in comparative studies. If we have a psychological mediator in our experiment that highlights how the manipulation is affecting the DV, then we are much safer grounds in terms of explaining the psychological processes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In summary, unpackaging has two important and inter-related features: identification of the theoretical factors or processes that may cause cultural differences in psychological outcomes of interest, and an explicit empirical test of the proposed processes leading to these outcomes. Therefore, it is as much about theory as it is about methods and stats. Having unpackaged an observed difference in behaviour, attitudes or beliefs and having ruled out alternative theoretical explanations (other potential mediators), we can also place much more confidence in our results. I leave it up to you to come up with potentially meaningful variables that we could use in those three semi-silly examples (ice cream, ghosts and motivation). Once you have some mechanism, the next phase would be to test whether the mediator(s) actually do the job. Ideally, this is one of the best ways to rule out measurement bias - explain where the difference came from and that the difference is not driven by artefacts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US">Some more technical explanations are available in <a href="http://seangallaghersite.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/What_is_Cross_Culture_Research_Fischer.2203520.pdf" target="_blank">Fischer</a> (2009); <a href="http://ccm.sagepub.com/content/8/2/145.abstract?ijkey=0f88eb640923d6ccdb1efff73ddc810aa6218f5f&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha" target="_blank">Leung </a>& Van de Vijver (2008) and <a href="http://jcc.sagepub.com/content/18/3/259.short" target="_blank">Poortinga </a>& Van de
Vijver (1987, this is an excellent discussion early discussion with some great multi-method examples). Excellent resources and tutorials for running state-of-the-art mediation analyses are available from on Kristopher <a href="http://www.quantpsy.org/medn.htm" target="_blank">Preacher's </a>and Andrew <a href="http://afhayes.com/spss-sas-and-mplus-macros-and-code.html" target="_blank">Hayes</a>' websites. Use them!!!!!</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Overall, I think this is the most exciting part of cross-cultural research - put on your detective hat and find out where any difference that you perceive in the world ultimately stems from. </span></span></div>
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<br />Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-81229088464135560482013-02-07T22:23:00.002-08:002013-02-07T22:24:37.097-08:00My 7.5 General Guidelines for Reviewing Journal ArticlesI am involved in a few editorial boards and as part of these duties, I get the occasional question about what it means to be a reviewer and what is required if doing a review. There are some great resources on the web, look for example <a href="http://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/reviewer-guidelines" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://www.ncfr.org/jmf/jmf-reviewers/reviewer-guidelines" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="http://www.plosone.org/static/reviewerGuidelines" target="_blank">here</a>. These links have some excellent suggestions for evaluating the suitability and quality of a manuscript.<br />
Hence, my goal is to just simply add a more personal view on reviewing and some guidelines.<br />
Science in its current form rests on a peer review, the scientific research process relies on improving ideas, methods, designs and theories through discussion with peers. The review process is just one aspect of this.<br />
So here are some rather random guidelines:<br />
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<b>1. Be fair </b></h2>
This may be the most important guideline. Research should be objective and dispassionate, but this is often hard to maintain. Researchers spent most of their time working on a project and become highly identified with their scientific 'babies'. It is easy to become opinionated about your and others research. The theoretical lenses through which we conduct our research will lead to biases and preferences. Do not let these professional blindspots guide your reviews. Evaluate the submitted manuscript on its merits and what you consider to be weaknesses. State your own biases or assumptions, if this helps to clarify why you argue a particular point. If you know the person (experienced researcher will easily identify the author of an article), do not be tempted to engage in personal feuds (e.g., "I will get back to you about that nasty comment you made at my last presentation in XYZ" ;). Stay professional and evaluate the manuscript on its scientific merit.<br />
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<b>2. Be supportive</b></h2>
Help authors to find the parts in their manuscript that are less clear. Researchers are passionate about their research, acknowledge the strengths of the study. It often helps to quickly summarize what you consider to be the key points. This will show that you have understood the manuscript and also may highlight some additional points that the authors may not have thought about yet.<br />
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<b>3. Be critical</b></h2>
Evaluate the whole manuscript in its style and content. What areas need improvement? Are there alternative interpretations of the data or the results? What are flaws or problems in the argument or theorizing that you can see? Where are ambiguities in style or expression? <br />
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<b>4. Offer constructive suggestions</b></h2>
Help authors to improve their work. This is the reason why we have a peer-review process! Provide references to additional literature. Suggest theories or interpretations that help to shed light on the research.<br />
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<b>5. Be open</b></h2>
Research is about charting unknown territory. There may be ideas or approaches that may appear strange or unconventional. Don't judge ideas prematurely.<br />
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<b>6. Consider the bigger picture</b></h2>
Research often tends to focus on very narrow aspects or specific questions. It can be helpful to consider the wider picture again, especially if there are implications for real world problems, people or communities. If you see some implications or applications, highlight them. I believe it is important to consider how research can contribute to society. As a reviewer, you can help authors in this respect. <br />
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<b>7. Do it!</b></h2>
One of the most frustrating experiences as an editor is finding reviewers. We often spend hours on the internet and going through papers, journals or books in order to identify some suitable reviewer. To get declined review requests can be very frustrating. Of course, there are legitimate reasons to decline a review. You may not know much about this area (so my mistake of inviting you in the first place). Don't review if you are not qualified to comment on the research. You may have personal or ethical reasons for not reviewing certain papers. This is all fine. An editor can understand this and appreciates a quick email stating these reasons. But on the other hand, there are more and more pressures from universities and institutes to publish. Reviewing is sometimes seen as a waste of time and a nuisance by some academics. I know colleagues who proudly confess that they have never reviewed a paper. I think this is unacceptable. If we all behaved like this, the process would break down.<br />
<b>Get engaged. Help with shaping research. Get inspired with new ideas</b> (after all, you are seeing research as it is unfolding in its final stages). <b>Do it! We need you! </b><br />
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<b>7.5 .... and submit your review on time</b> </h2>
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Have fun reviewing<br />
:)Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1298769255279734097.post-74667182220730694122012-10-11T21:57:00.000-07:002012-10-11T22:38:40.786-07:00How to run a Conditional ANOVA<br />
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<b>Today is a wee bit heavier on the stats side again. If you are interested in Differential Item Functioning and how to do it with an easy to use tool, this is for you...<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Aim</b>: Identify differential item functioning in numerical scores across
groups in order to decide whether the items are unbiased and can be used for
cross-cultural comparisons. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">General approach: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">Van de Vijver and Leung (1997) describe a
conditional technique which can be used if you use Likert-type scales. It uses
traditional ANOVA techniques. The independent variables are (1) the groups to
be compared and (2) score levels on the total score (across all items) as an
indicator of the true observed or ‘latent’ trait (please note that technically it
is not a latent variable). The dependent variable is the score for each
individual item. Since we are using the total score (divided into score levels)
as an IV, the analysis is called ‘conditional’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Advantages of Conditional ANOVA: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">It can be easily run in standard
programmes such as SPSS. It is simple. It highlights some key issues and
principles of differential item functioning. One particular advantage is that
working through these procedures, you can easily find out whether score
distributions are similar or different (e.g., is an item bias analysis
warranted and even possible?).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Disadvantages of Conditional ANOVA: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">There are many arbitrary choices in
splitting variables and score groups (see below) that can make big differences.
It is not very elegant. Better approaches that circumvent some of these
problems and that can be implemented in SPSS and other standard programmes
include Logistic Regression. Check out Bruno Zumbo’s <a href="http://educ.ubc.ca/faculty/zumbo/DIF" target="_blank">website </a>and manual.
I will also try and put up some notes on this soon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">What do we look for?</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> There are three effects that we
look for. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">First, a
significant main effect of score level would indicate that individuals with low
score overall also show a lower score on the respective item. This would be
expected and therefore is generally not of theoretical interest (think of it as
equivalent to a significant factor loading of the item on the ‘latent’ factor).
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Second, a
significant main effect of country or sample would indicate that scores on this
item for at least one group are significantly higher or lower, independent of
the true variable score. This indicates ‘uniform DIF’. (Note: this type of item
bias can NOT be detected in Exploratory Factor Analysis with Procrustean
Rotation). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Third, a
significant interaction between country and score level on the item mean
indicates that the item discriminates differently across groups. This indicates
‘non-uniform DIF’. The item is differently related to the true ‘latent’
variable across groups. For example, think of an item of extroversion. In one group
(let’s say New Yorkers), ‘being the centre of attention at a cocktail party’ is
a good indicator of extroversion, whereas for a group of Muslim youth from
Mogadishu in Somalia it is not a relevant item of extroversion (since they are
not allowed to drink alcohol and probably have never been at a cocktail party,
for obvious reasons). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Note: Such
biases MAY be detected through Procrustean Rotation, if examining
differentially loading items.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Important: What is our criterion for deciding
whether an item shows DIF or not?<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></b></div>
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<b>Statistical Procedure:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The procedure requires
in most cases at least four steps.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Step 1:</b> Calculate the sum score of your variable. For example, if you have an
extraversion scale with ten items measured on a scale from 1 to 5, you should create
the total sum. This can obviously vary between 10 and 50 for any individual.
Use the syntax used in class. <o:p></o:p></div>
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For example:<o:p></o:p></div>
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Compute
extroversion=sum(extraversion1, extraversion2,…,extraversion10). <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Step 2:</b> You need to create score levels. You would like to group equal numbers
of individuals into groups according to their overall extroversion score. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Van de Vijver and
Leung (1997) recommend having <b>at least
50 individuals per score group and sample</b>. For example, if you have 100
individuals in each group, you can maximally form 2 groups. If you have 5,000
individuals in each of your cultural samples, you could theoretically form up
to 100 score levels (well actually not, because you would have only 40
meaningful groups in this example since the difference between maximum and
minimum possible score is 40). Therefore, it is up to you how many score levels
you create. Having more levels will obviously allow more fine-grained analyses
(you can make finer distinctions between extroversion levels in both groups)
and probably more powerful (you are more likely to detect DIF). However,
because you have fewer people in your analysis, it might also be less stable. Hence,
there is a clear trade-off, but don’t despair. If an item is strongly biased,
it should show up in your analysis independent of you have fewer or more score
levels. If the bias is less severe, analyses might change across different
options. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One issue is that if
you have less than 50 people in each score group and cultural sample, the
results might become quite unstable and you may find interactions that are hard
to interpret. In any case, it important to consider both statistical
significance as well as effect sizes when interpreting item bias. <o:p></o:p></div>
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A simple way of
getting the desired number of equal groups is to use the rank cases option. You
find this under ‘Transform’ -> ‘Rank cases’. Transfer your sum score into
the variables box. Click on ‘Rank types’. First, unclick ‘Rank’ (it will rank
your sample, but this is something that you do not need). Second, click on
‘Ntiles’ and specify the number of groups you want to create. For example, if
you have 200 individuals, you could create 4 groups. If you have larger
samples, the discussion from above applies (you have to decide about the number
of levels, facing the before-mentioned trade-off in terms of power versus
stability). <o:p></o:p></div>
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As discussed above, it
is strongly advisable to interpret effect sizes (how big is the effect) in
addition to statistical significance levels. This is particularly important if
you have large sample sizes in which often minute differences can become
significant. SPSS gives you partial eta-squared values routinely (if you click
on ‘effect sizes’ under the ‘options’). Cohen (1988) differentiated between <span lang="EN-GB">small (0.01), medium (0.06), and large
effect size (0.14) for eta-squared. Please note that SPSS gives you partial
eta-squared values (which is the variance due to the effect, independent of the
effect of other effects), whereas eta-squared does not take the other effects
take into account. Partial eta-squared values are often larger than the
traditional eta-squared values (overestimating the effect), but at the same
time there is much to be recommended for using partial instead of traditional
eta-squared values (see Pierce, Block & Aguinis, 2004, in Educational and
Psychological Measurement). </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Step 3:</b> Run your ANOVA for each item
separately. The IV’s are country/sample and score level (the variable created
using ranking procedures). Transfer your IV’s into the ‘Fixed Factor’ boxes. As
described above, the important stuff to look out for is the significant main
effect of country/sample (indicating uniform DIF) and/or the significant
interaction between country/sample x score level (indicating non-uniform DIF).
You can use plots produced by SPSS to identify that nature and direction of the
bias (under plots, transfer your score level to the ‘horizontal axis’ and the
country/sample to ‘separate lines’, click ‘add’ and then ‘continue’). Van de
Vijver and Leung (<st1:address w:st="on"><st1:street w:st="on">box</st1:street>
4.3</st1:address>) describe a different way of plotting the results. However,
the results are the same, only different way of visualising the main effect
and/or interaction.<o:p></o:p></div>
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This little figure for example shows evidence of both uniform and nonuniform bias. The item is overall easier for the East German sample and it does not discriminate equally well across all score levels. Among higher score levels, it does not differentiate well for the UK sample. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF4Q0LvZBIVpeMB4CrGFaAjFK3XvUi82ctW5X4AGeVIVj08LYUzXfmYCiynZYQQXX3skekTYfUFM2OVBAEY3O9zOmqRa35tvTVa0XOs6j4_ejcNRRUhX4wnViAkrakIbnIVK1f-QFXeqlR/s1600/dif.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF4Q0LvZBIVpeMB4CrGFaAjFK3XvUi82ctW5X4AGeVIVj08LYUzXfmYCiynZYQQXX3skekTYfUFM2OVBAEY3O9zOmqRa35tvTVa0XOs6j4_ejcNRRUhX4wnViAkrakIbnIVK1f-QFXeqlR/s400/dif.tif" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Step 4: </b>Ideally, you would not like to have DIF. However, it is likely that you
will encounter some biased items. I would run all analyses first and identify
the most biased items. If all items are biased, you are in trouble (well,
unless you are a cultural psychologist, in which case you rejoice and party).
In this case, there is probably little you can do at this point except trying
to understand the mechanisms underlying the processes (how do people understand
these questions, what does this say about the culture of both groups, etc.). <o:p></o:p></div>
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If you have only a few
biased items, remove them (you can either remove the item with the strongest
partial eta-square or all of the DIF items in a single swoop – I would
recommend the former procedure though) and recompute the sum score (step 1). Go
through step 2 and 3 again to see whether your scale is working better now. You
may need to repeat this analysis various times, since different items may show
up as biased at each iteration of your analysis. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>Problems:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>My factor analysis showed that one factor is
not working in at least one sample</b>: In this case, there is no point in running the conditional ANOVA with
that sample included. You are interested in identifying those items that are
problematic in measuring the latent score. You therefore assume that the factor
is working in all groups included in the analysis. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>My overall latent scores do not overlap</b>: This will lead to situations where the latent
scores are so dramatically different that you can not find score levels with at
least 50 participants in each sample. In this case, your attempt to identify Differential
ITEM functioning is problematic, since something else is happening. One option
is to increase score levels (make the groups larger – obviously this involves a
loss of sensitivity and power to detect effects). Sometimes, even this might
not be possible. <o:p></o:p></div>
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At a theoretical level,
it could be that you have a situation where you have generalized uniform item
bias in at least one sample (for example because one group gives acquiescent
answers that are consistently higher or lower). It also might indicate method
bias (for example, translation problems that make all items significantly
easier in one group compared to the others) or construct bias (for example, you
might have tapped into some religious or cultural practices that are more
common in one group than in another – in this case your items might load on the
intended factor but conceptually the factor is measuring something different
across cultural groups). Of course, it can also indicate a true differences. Any
number of explanations (construct or method bias or substantive effects that
lead to different cultural scores) could be possible.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>What happens if most items are biased and only
a few unbiased items remain?</b>
In this situation you run into the paradox that you can not actually determine
whether your biased items are actually unbiased or unbiased items are biased.
This type of analysis only functions properly if you have a small number of
biased items, up to probably half the number of items in your latent variable.
Once you move beyond this, it means that there is a problem with your
construct. If you mainly find uniform bias, but no interactions, you can still
compare correlations or patterns of scores (since your instrument most likely
satisfies metric equivalence). If you have interactions, you do not satisfy
metric equivalence and you may need to investigate the structure and function
of your theoretical and/or operationalized construct (functional and structural
equivalence). <o:p></o:p></div>
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Any questions? Email me ;) </div>
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Ronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16204324324254552609noreply@blogger.com1