Factorial Invariance of the Indecision Scale of the Career Decision Scale: A Multigroup Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Results of a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (N= 686) indicated factorial invariance of a 3‐factor model of the Indecision scale of the Career Decision Scale (CDS; Osipow, Carney, Winer, Yanico, & Koschier, 1976 ). Differential item function was not observed when ΔCFI (comparative fit index) was used for comparison of models, thus indicating strong measurement invariance across gender. Men had significantly greater latent means for all 3 dimensions of career indecision. Given the multidimensional structure, use of the CDS may provide an initial step to help practitioners identify possible factors that are responsible for a client's career indecision. Clients may need assistance for initiating a career search, information to help them identify career possibilities for a chosen major, or detailed information concerning several possible careers that are under consideration.     

会计信息失真的现实与思考

会计信息失真,是指会计给其使用者提供虚假信息,未真实反映客观经济活动,从而给决策者制定相关决策带来不利影响的一种现象。我国会计信息失真的现象十分普遍,危害十分严重。文章阐述了企业会计信息失真的危害,分析了企业会计信息失真的原因,提出了会计信息失真的治理对策。     

A Test of the False Positive Bias Hypothesis

An evaluation of the hypothesis that adolescent gamblers are biased toward the production of false positive responses proposed by Derevensky et al. was tested. The results of secondary analysis of available data supported the hypothesis for items on the South Oaks Gambling Screen and items from the DSM-IV screening instrument. The conclusions were presented as tentative in view of the modest sizes of the observed effects. A number of limitations to the analysis are also described.     

Countertransference Bias: Self-Examination,Not Cross-Examination

ABSTRACT

In reply to T. Tippins (2007, this issue), we take issue with his claim that recognition of the biasing impact of custody evaluators' countertransference opens the door to “evidentially legitimate” fishing expeditions through evaluators' private lives on cross-examination. We clarify the distinction between self-examination for counter-transference bias as a heuristic for improving the sensitivity and objectivity of expert testimony and its use as substantive evidence. We argue that countertransference bias is a highly personal, emotionally charged kind of bias, unlike the cognitive biases more frequently discussed in the child custody literature. We conclude that recognition of the insidious emotional influences that threaten our objectivity in working with families in high conflict divorce is an important ethical responsibility.     

Perceptions of Intimate Partner Violence,Age, and Self-Enhancement Bias

Educational programs in human service professions such as social work, criminal justice, psychology, and public administration stress the importance of recognizing domestic/intimate partner violence as well as elder abuse. Students' abilities to recognize domestic violence in older couples have not been well-investigated. In this study, three vignettes were developed (Pat and Lee at age 75, Pat and Lee at age 30, Imagine yourself with Lee at age 75) in which intimate partner violence was perpetrated by the character Lee. Twenty-five items followed each vignette. When the variables of educational standing (graduate/undergraduate), ethnicity, and academic major were controlled, there were significant differences between the vignettes in 14 of 25 items (General Linear Model, F = 1.552, df = 50, p = .012). More than three out of four respondents for each vignette identified this as domestic violence and believed there was potential for serious harm. However, respondents were less likely to believe that a 75-year-old partner would know when to terminate a relationship in which there was intimate partner violence. Respondents who were asked to imagine themselves with Lee at 75 were likely to perceive Lee as more dangerous than respondents for the other vignettes. Implications are considered for educators.     

Brief Report: Thin Slices of Racial Bias

The present work examined the detection of racial bias through thin slices of nonverbal behavior. Thirty Black and 30 White American judges rated the nonverbal behavior displayed by White individuals from 20-seconds of silent videotape of an interaction with either a Black or a White confederate. Correlations between judges nonverbal ratings and targets scores on a response latency measure of racial bias (i.e., Implicit Association Test, IAT) as well as on a self-report racial bias measure (i.e., Affective Prejudice Scale) were obtained. Results revealed that relative to White judges, Black judges nonverbal behavioral ratings were better predictors of both White individuals IAT and explicit racial bias scores, but only if those targets were engaged in an interracial dyad. The results are consistent with recent research finding that subtle forms of racial bias leak through nonverbal behavior, as well as with work noting the predictive accuracy of judgments made from thin-slices of nonverbal behavior.Jennifer A. Richeson and J. Nicole Shelton. Jennifer A. Richeson, Dartmouth College; J. Nicole Shelton, Princeton University. This research was supported by a Rockefeller Center Faculty Fellowship from Dartmouth College awarded to JR, as well as a research grant from Princeton University awarded to JNS. We thank Sue Paik, Lisa Pugh, Kurt Peters, and Leigh Poretzky for help with data collection and stimulus preparation.     

Differential Status Evaluations and Racial Bias in the Chilean Segregated School System

Although there is growing interest in studying the long‐ignored relationship between stratification and race in Chile, racial bias in person perception remains unknown. We hypothesize that the segregation of the Chilean school system generated a prestige order in which pupils are differentiated by status characteristics according to the type of school they attend, and that these evaluations are based on racial traits. To test this hypothesis, we study whether facial appearance is sufficient to impute the type of school a pupil is attending, and whether these categorizations evoke different status evaluations of wealth and morality based on race. Results confirm that participants’ perceptions of facial appearance allow them to situate pupils in the Chilean social structure. Faces categorized as studying at different types of schools varied in their perceived wealth. However, the relationship between moral traits and types of schools was weak. We also found evidence of racial bias in the participants’ perceptions of pupils’ faces: faces categorized as enrolled in municipal schools (low status) were judged with Amerindian or mestizo racial traits, while faces categorized as attending private fee‐paying schools (high status) were judged with white racial traits. We did not find a relationship between race and morality.     

制度条件下的扭曲是目前我国房地产市场的“症结”

中国房地产市场的＂症结＂来自于制度条件下的扭曲。第一是土地制度问题,数字显示资源限制和垄断对住房市场的巨大压力。第二是因为资源垄断而产生的博弈。博弈分不同的方式来说,市场上所谓的规范性力量等都是因为制度造成的。     

The Newsworthiness and Selection Bias in News About Murder: Comparative and Relative Effects of Novelty and Race and Gender Typifications on Newspaper Coverage of Homicide

Previous research suggests that journalists assess the newsworthiness of homicide occurrences using the relative frequency of particular types of murders and how well specific murder occurrences mesh with stereotypical race and gender typifications. However, previous research also is marked by four important limits, including the failure to systematically examine intersections of race and gender. The present research remedies these problems and clarifies existing understandings of selection bias in news about murder in two important respects. Newsworthiness as represented by novelty is an incomplete explanation of selection bias. Instead, news about murder is the product of journalistic assessments of newsworthiness firmly grounded in long-standing race and gender typifications.     

Sexual Orientation Bias Experiences and Service Needs of Gay,Lesbian, Bisexual,Transgendered, and Two-Spirited American Indians

Summary

Employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this study examined: sexual orientation bias experiences among American Indians (AIs) who were gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgend-ered, or two-spirited (GLBTT-S); service provider attitudes toward AI GLBTT-S; and service barriers and needs with respect to AI GLBTT-S at one AI community-based organization. Among the 14 AI GLBTT-S surveyed, the percentages reporting various bias-related experiences were comparable or greater to those reported for non-AI GLBTT-S in other studies (e.g., 36% had been physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation). The 22 service providers surveyed revealed generally low levels of heterosexism, which was inversely related to contact and comfort with AI GLBTT-S as well as understanding of AI GLBTT-S terms. Data from 8 focus groups (7 with service providers and 1 with AI two-spirited men) yielded four main themes related to problems and barriers to service utilization for AI GLBTT-S (i.e., invisibility, discrimination, trauma, and identity) as well as ideas for community-based program planning with this population.     

To Life: Optimism Bias and Technological Ties in the Face of the Worst

This essay addresses a recent media controversy. Two journalists actively questioned the appropriateness of a popular blog that chronicles a young woman's fight with cancer. Elaine Replogle ( 2014 ) unfolds the facts of this case and discusses the role of fame and status in understanding the journalists' response to the blog. Here, I extend that conversation, exploring how our culture's optimism bias, as well as the increasing importance of our technological ties, informs our understanding of both the blog and its critics.     

The Inability of Self-affirmations to Decrease Defensive Bias Toward an Alcohol-Related Risk Message Among High-Risk College Students

Abstract

Objective: To examine the efficacy of a self-affirmation task in deterring college alcohol misuse and the importance of preexisting beliefs in predicting subsequent behavior change. Participants: Heavy-drinking undergraduates (N = 110) participated during the 2011–2012 academic year. Methods: Participants were randomized to complete an affirmation or control task before reading an alcohol risk message. Alcohol-related beliefs and behaviors were assessed. Participants completed a 2-week online follow-up assessing alcohol-related behaviors. Results: Both groups reported increased perceived problem importance, but neither group displayed changes in personal risk. Follow-up assessment revealed similar, significant declines in peak consumption in both groups, with no significant between-group differences. Preexisting beliefs accounted for 5% to 10% of variance in drinking outcomes. Conclusions: An affirmation task does not seem to decrease defensive processing or alter high-risk drinking behaviors among college students and should not be utilized in lieu of more effective strategies.     

I Knew It All Along: The Sexual Grooming Behaviors of Child Molesters and the Hindsight Bias

Recent high profile cases of child sexual abuse have increased interest in the grooming behaviors of child molesters and why these offenders are not identified sooner. This study examined one possible explanation—the hindsight bias. Five hundred and twenty-six undergraduates were randomly assigned to read one of six vignettes and asked to rate the likelihood the person in the story is a child molester. Results supported the presence of the hindsight bias, with participants who were given outcome information overestimating the likelihood they would have predicted that the person was a child molester. Also, participants were able to recognize sexual grooming behaviors when the potential child molester was a relative and nonrelative. Findings indicated that sexual grooming behaviors may be more easily identified than previously proposed, but individuals greatly overestimate the likelihood they would have predicted a person was a child molester once they are given outcome information.     

The Victim Advocacy and Research Group: Serving a Growing Need to Provide Rape Victims with Personal Legal Representation to Protect Privacy Rights and to Fight Gender Bias in the Criminal Justice System

The Constitutional guarantee of procedural due process, arguably the most essential principle of the American justice system, provides that no person should be deprived of their rights without, at a minimum, notice and an opportunity for a meaningful hearing. Yet the personal rights of crime victims and other third parties are often violated in criminal proceedings in the absence of even minimal respect for due process. The problem persists, in part, because the system does not provide victims with personal legal advocacy and prosecutors are neither obligated nor empowered to serve as the victim's lawyer. This lack of systematic zealous advocacy for victims produces harmful common law principles that depend on and perpetuate false and prejudicial notions about the credibility of rape victims, and women as a class. This article calls for the creation of public and privately supported lawyers for victims at both the trial and appellate levels of the criminal justice system in an effort to ensure respect for fundamental constitutional principles, and to identify and eradicate gender bias in the criminal common law.     

Countertransference and Zebras: Forensic Obfuscation

ABSTRACT

Responding to Daniel Pickar's article entitled “Counter-transference Bias in the Child Custody Evaluator” (this issue), the authors opine that attaching new labels to familiar dynamics fails to contribute to an understanding of interpersonal dynamics with which all participants in the custody evaluation process are already familiar. The position is advanced that, in examining the reports and testimony of evaluators, biases are only relevant when they are manifested in identifiable behavior. Such behaviors include the application by the evaluator of different standards in examining and commenting on the actions of the two parents; the use of insulting terminology in describing the non-favored parent; the use of glowing terminology in describing the favored parent; assignment of minimal importance to possible parenting deficiencies in the favored parent; the assignment of much importance to reported flaws in the non-favored parent; an apparent unquestioning acceptance of the favored parent's perspective; and an apparent rejection of the non-favored parent's perspective.     

Investigating recruitment and completion mode biases in online and door to door electronic surveys

Electronically assisted survey techniques offer several advantages over traditional survey techniques. However, they can also potentially introduce biases, such as coverage biases and measurement error. The current study compares the relative merits of two survey distribution and completion modes: email recruitment with internet completion; and door to door recruitment with either tablet or internet completion. Presentation mode is held constant so that we are able to separate the impacts of recruitment mode and completion mode on responses. Recruitment mode appeared to influence both response rates and which socio-demographic groups were represented. However, the difference between the two recruitment modes was relatively small. Completion mode appeared to have little or no impact on responses although it did influence completion times. The email distributed survey performed better with regard to time costs and the number of respondents obtained. Differences between the two survey modes appeared to be largely due to recruitment method rather than completion mode.     

Bias decomposition and estimator performance in respondent-driven sampling

Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) is a method of network sampling that is used to sample hard-to-reach populations. The resultant sample is non-random, but different weighting methods can account for the over-sampling of (1) high-degree individuals and (2) homophilous groups that recruit members more effectively. While accounting for degree-bias is almost universally agreed upon, accounting for recruitment-bias has been debated as it can further increase estimate variance without substantially reducing bias. Simulation-based research has examined which weighting procedures perform best given underlying population network structures, group recruitment differences, and sampling processes. Yet, in the field, analysts do not have a priori knowledge of the network they are sampling. We show that the RDS sample data itself can determine whether a degree-based estimator is sufficient. Formulas derived from the decomposition of a ‘dual-component’ estimator can approximate the ‘recruitment component’ (RC) and ‘degree component’ (DC) of a sample’s bias. Simulations show that RC and DC values can predict the performance of different classes of estimators. Samples with extreme ‘RC’ values, a consequence of network homophily and differential recruitment, are better served by a classical estimator. The use of sample data to improve estimator selection is a promising innovation for RDS, as the population network features that should guide estimator selection are typically unknown.     

Change resistance moderates existence and longevity biases

Evidence has been found for existence and longevity biases—inferences of goodness from prevalence or longevity. We argue these biases actually emerge among change-resisting individuals. Our evidence suggests change-accepting individuals can even demonstrate a reversal of these biases. In two studies, change-resisting individuals’ attitudes were suggestive of existence and longevity biases while change-accepting individuals significantly reversed this pattern by evaluating long-standing or prevalent objects less favorably. Finally, we reanalyzed data from the existence and longevity biases literature previously reported in Social Influence. We found Americans identifying as more Republican—thus theorized as more change-resisting—were those who favored a long-standing practice. Altogether, we argue that existence and longevity biases emerge depending on individuals’ change resistance, indicating an important theoretical expansion.     

Control variables and causal inference: a question of balance

A common motivation for adding control variables to statistical models is to reduce the potential for spurious findings when analyzing non-experimental data and to thereby allow for more reliable causal inferences. However, as I show here, unless all potential confounding factors are included in an analysis (which is unlikely to be achievable with most real-world data-sets), adding control variables to a model in many circumstances can make estimated effects of the variable(s) of interest to the researcher on the dependent variable less accurate. Due to this fact, in some circumstances omitting control variables, even those that affect the dependent variable and are correlated with the variable(s) of interest, may allow for more accurate estimates of the effect(s) of the variable(s) of interest.     

The Social Vulnerability Scale for Older Adults: An Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analytic Study

The Social Vulnerability Scale (SVS), a 22-item informant report of vulnerability to exploitation and, in particular, financial exploitation of older adults, was administered to 266 respondents who assessed the social vulnerability of a significant other aged 50 years or over, either a person with dementia or other neurological condition (n?=?116), or a healthy adult (n?=?150). Exploratory factor analysis in the combined sample revealed a 15-item two-factor solution labeled gullibility and credulity. Stability in factor structure was established in an independent sample (n?=?123) using confirmatory factor analysis, and sound reliability (internal consistency) and validity (known-groups) were demonstrated. The SVS15 is a potentially useful instrument for assessing older adults' vulnerability to exploitation.