The structure of the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale: A confirmatory factor analysis using UK psychology students

This study aimed to examine the structure of the statistics anxiety rating scale. Responses from 650 undergraduate psychology students throughout the UK were collected through an on-line study. Based on previous research three different models were specified and estimated using confirmatory factor analysis. Fit indices were used to determine if the model fitted the data and a likelihood ratio difference test was used to determine the best fitting model. The original six factor model was the best explanation of the data. All six subscales were intercorrelated and internally consistent. It was concluded that the statistics anxiety rating scale was found to measure the six subscales it was designed to assess in a UK population.

METAMORPHOSE European Doctoral Programs on Metamaterials - State-of-the-art

A new European Doctoral Program on Metamaterials has been initiated by the European Union (EU) Network of Excellence METAMORPHOSE. So far, twenty European academic institutions have established a consortium that operates a geographically distributed doctoral school in the emerging and multidisciplinary field of metamaterials.

Superficialidad máxima. Superficie como posibilidad de sentido: imagen y síntoma

En estas páginas se pretende proponer un modo de entender lo visto siempre como adaptación inmanente, deseo y simbolización, esto es, entenderlo como imagen. Se hará conforme a un concepto de ‘superficie’ que prolonga la lectura que hiciera Didi-Huberman del concepto de imagen-síntoma de Aby Warburg, y se apoya en textos de teoría psicoanalítica de la mano de Jacques Lacan, en un intento no de arruinar la capacidad de hermenéutica del observador, sino de entender la búsqueda del sentido y de la esencia –del arte por ejemplo– como la investigación sobre un conflicto histórico de pérdidas, crisis y memoria. ‘Superficie’ en tanto que masa átona y sin sentido donde el ojo siempre visiona formas: ver superficie es que el ojo siempre adapte lo visto, deseando abrirlo visionariamente en su significado para recabar su verdad oculta, pero paradójicamente cerrándolo. Porque mirar imágenes supone siempre perder visión respecto de una supuesta totalidad en la que se darían todos los significados en todas sus ambigüedades y en todas sus posibilidades históricas, pérdida sólo decible en su retorno en tanto que resignificación traumática. Aquí postulamos que la ilusión será creer no que las apariencias son ilusorias, sino que más allá de ellas hay “más realidad”. Este planteamiento no sólo ratifica la posición del sujeto, inserto en una superficie/cuadro dada-a-ver, sino que descubre la brecha constitutiva que le rige y que es un “más en él” que él mismo.

Common psychology problems in cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) refers to a collection of motor impairments which result in abnormal posture and movement following an insult or damage to the developing brain. Psychological adjustment in children with CP is under researched with little population-based or longitudinal data, but there is sufficient evidence to suggest that children with CP are at increased risk for psychological problems. The types of difficulties they experience include emotional, hyperactivity and peer problems with conduct disorder being more prevalent in mildly affected children. The origins of psychological problems in this group are complex but include ‘disease’ and ‘psychosocial’ factors related to having a brain-based disability in the family, as well as other factors that influence adjustment in all children. There are no intervention studies in children with CP aimed at preventing psychological problems or promoting mental wellbeing. However, evidence from other work suggests it is possible to work with the child and family to develop skills, manage symptoms, and build confidence and resilience. Acting as early as possible has been found to be beneficial for bonding, child development and reducing parental anxiety.

The "Art" of Criticism: Rubén Darío and his Unknown Chronicles of the 1895 Salon for "La Prensa"

With the impetus that has led recent studies on Latin American Modernism to a reevaluation of the sense of cultural fluxes from the modernity capitals to its peripheries –discarding categories such as “influence”, “exotism” and “ivory tower”, stereotypes that have clouded critical understanding of this aesthetics for decades- the present study intends to investigate a persistent practice of the main writers of the movement. This practice is modernist pictorial criticism, a genre that will be approached through the analysis of an unknown corpus: the seven chronicles Rubén Darío published in the journal La Prensa on occasion of the third art exposition of the Ateneo de Buenos Aires. Our hypothesis is that the rare creators of images portrayed by Darío by the end of 1895 work as a visual counterpoint of the eccentric writers’ biographical sketches that a year later will be part of the fundamental volume Los raros (1896). In this early “salon”, which we reproduce in its entirety, accompanied by explanatory notes, the leader of Modernism rehearses and consolidates his transcultural work with the universal tradition –now applied to the Salons (1845-1860) by Charles Baudelaire and to the monumental project by John Ruskin in Modern painters (1843-1860)- to legitimate, from another subgenre of Modernist criticism, a new figure of the critic, in dissent with the Enlightenment model of the writer.

Once a Criminal, Always a Criminal?: ‘Redeemability’ and the Psychology of Punitive Public Attitudes

Several studies have sought to link punitive public attitudes to attribution style and/or lay theories of crime. This research finds that those who believe criminal acts are the result of freely chosen and willful behavior are more likely to be punitive than those who feel crime is the result of external circumstances and constraints. These analyses focus on only one dimension of attributions: locus of control (internal/external). In this analysis, we include a second dimension, thought to be a better predictor of attitudes in social psychological research: stability/instability. In addition to measuring lay theories of crime causation, we also test for “belief in redeemability” (or beliefs about the ability of deviants to change their ways). Our hypothesis is that this other dimension of personal attributions (stability/instability) may be as critical in explaining support for highly punitive criminal justice policies as beliefs about criminal responsibility. We find evidence supportive of this model in an analysis of data from postal survey of residents of six areas in England.