Latent Congruence Model to Investigate Similarity and Accuracy in Family Members' Perception: The Challenge of Cross-National and Cross-Informant Measurement (Non)Invariance

Several methods are available to answer questions regarding similarity and accuracy, each of which has specific properties and limitations. This study focuses on the Latent Congruence Model (LCM; Cheung, 2009), because of its capacity to deal with cross-informant measurement invariance issues. Until now, no cross-national applications of LCM are present in the literature, perhaps because of the difficulty to deal with both cross-national and cross-informant measurement issues implied by those models. This study presents a step-by-step procedure to apply LCM to dyadic cross-national research designs controlling for both cross-national and cross-informant measurement invariance. An illustrative example on parent–child support exchanges in Italy and Germany is provided. Findings help to show the different possible scenarios of partial invariance, and a discussion related to how to deal with those scenarios is provided. Future perspectives in the study of parent–child similarity and accuracy in cross-national research will be discussed.

Emotions Toward Sustainable Innovations: A Matter of Value Congruence

Public resistance to sustainable innovations is oftentimes accompanied by strong negative emotions. Therefore, it is essential to better understand the underlying factors of emotions toward sustainable innovations to facilitate their successful implementation. Based on the Value-Innovation-Congruence model of Emotional responses (VICE model), we argue that positive and negative emotions toward innovations reflect whether innovations are congruent or incongruent with (i.e., support or threaten) people's core values. We tested our reasoning in two experimental studies (N = 114 and N = 246), by asking participants to evaluate innovations whose characteristics were either congruent or incongruent with egoistic values (study 1) or with biospheric values (study 1 and study 2). In line with the VICE model, we found overall that the more an innovation was perceived to have characteristics congruent with these values, and biospheric values in particular, the stronger positive and the weaker negative emotions they experienced toward the innovation, especially the more strongly people endorsed these values. Emotions, in turn, were related with acceptability of innovations. Our findings highlight that emotions toward innovations can have a systematic basis in people's values that can be addressed to ensure responsible decision-making on sustainable innovations.

Challenging response latencies in faking detection: The case of few items and no warnings

Faking detection is an ongoing challenge in psychological assessment. A notable approach for detecting fakers involves the inspection of response latencies and is based on the congruence model of faking. According to this model, respondents who fake good will provide favorable responses (i.e., congruent answers) faster than they provide unfavorable (i.e., incongruent) responses. Although the model has been validated in various experimental faking studies, to date, research supporting the congruence model has focused on scales with large numbers of items. Furthermore, in this previous research, fakers have usually been warned that faking could be detected. In view of the trend to use increasingly shorter scales in assessment, it becomes important to investigate whether the congruence model also applies to self-report measures with small numbers of items. In addition, it is unclear whether warning participants about faking detection is necessary for a successful application of the congruence model. To address these issues, we reanalyzed data sets of two studies that investigated faking good and faking bad on extraversion (n = 255) and need for cognition (n = 146) scales. Reanalyses demonstrated that having only a few items per scale and not warning participants represent a challenge for the congruence model. The congruence model of faking was only partly confirmed under such conditions. Although faking good on extraversion was associated with the expected longer latencies for incongruent answers, all other conditions remained nonsignificant. Thus, properties of the measurement and properties of the procedure affect the successful application of the congruence model.

A Realist Evaluation of a Recovery-Oriented Inpatient Service

Background: Finding effective means of supporting individuals with a mental illness in their recovery is essential. A new recovery-oriented inpatient service in South Wales, “Woodlands”, aimed to provide an environment that would support individuals with severe and enduring mental illness in their recovery. Woodlands focuses on providing a staffing group that were recovery-oriented and deliver high levels of therapeutic engagement, as well as promoting choice and responsibility to develop service-users’ skills and confidence for living in the community in the future. This thesis aimed to explain which parts of Woodlands worked, for whom and in what circumstances.Design: Three areas of Woodlands’ service delivery were evaluated. This included - Woodlands trying to establish itself as a new service, how the staffing model supported individuals in their recovery, and how service-user choice and responsibility was promoted and supported by the service. Realist evaluation and ecological systems theory were used to guide the analysis of multiple data strands. This included quantitative data routinely collected at Woodlands and qualitative research interviews. The qualitative research interviews were conducted with senior figures involved in the design of the service, staff members, service-users and commissioners who were involved in referring individuals to Woodlands.Findings: The findings of this study are multifaceted and focus on the conditions of successful or unsuccessful implementation and delivery of a new recovery-oriented inpatient service. Such conditions included there being a market demand for this type of service and having the ability to quantifiably evidence the effectiveness of the service in order to secure referrals. Several service-user and staff characteristics were identified as conditions for the successful or unsuccessful engagement with key resources at Woodlands. These individual-level conditions included service-users and staff having the confidence, skills and desire to engage or deliver these resources. The congruence model (Nadler & Tushman, 1980) was used to provide explanatory power to the findings of this thesis, focusing specifically upon Woodlands challenge of establishing itself as a provider. The findings highlight that the four facets of organisational effectiveness (the people, tasks, culture and structure), were not congruent with the service’s inputs, nor were they congruent when the service was forced to adapt its service-user criterion.Discussion: The findings are presented in a nuanced middle-range theory which uses the underpinnings of the congruence model (Nadler & Tushman, 1980). The nuanced theory captures the challenges of establishing a new mental health service, which has translatability for other services trying to establish themselves within the competitive and commercial arena of healthcare. The findings of this thesis raise the question of whether recovery-oriented care can ever truly be achieved within the confines of inpatient care and it is argued that perhaps what services are really doing is a form of contemporary rehabilitation but dressed up in the clothes of recovery.

The Effect of Celebrity Trustworthiness on Endorsement Effectiveness: A Comparison of Congruence and Hybrid Model

The research evaluates the effect of celebrity trustworthiness in creating effective endorsements. The previous research in the field has suggested two competing theories in explaining the influence of celebrity trustworthiness on endorsement effectiveness. This study tries to incorporate this theory for developing a comprehensive model for explaining the effectiveness of celebrity trustworthiness. The article opted cross-validation methodology for evaluating the models. The study selected two advertisements based on a pretest conducted in MG University. The highly recalled female celebrity advertisement formed calibration stage and highly recalled male celebrity advertisement formed validation stage. The calibration stage of the study had 386 respondents and validation stage had 378 respondents. Path analysis, chi-square analysis for model difference and critical ratio analysis for the model difference were employed in the study. The findings of the study suggest that the hybrid model brought statistically significant improvements to the congruence model. The study also found that the trustworthiness was the second highest influencer in case of male celebrity whereas in case of female celebrity, attitude towards brand was second highest influencer. Further the chi-square analysis of group difference showed no significant difference in model among male and female celebrity confirming the robustness of the model.

Genetic and environmental canalization are not associated among altitudinally varying populations of Drosophila melanogaster

Organisms are exposed to environmental and mutational effects influencing both mean and variance of phenotypes. Potentially deleterious effects arising from this variation can be reduced by the evolution of buffering (canalizing) mechanisms, ultimately reducing phenotypic variability. As such, there has been interest regarding the plausible conditions that enable canalizing mechanisms to evolve. Under some models, the circumstances under which genetic canalization evolves is limited, despite apparent empirical evidence for it. It has been argued that canalizing mechanisms for mutational effects may evolve as a correlated response to environmental canalization (the congruence model). Yet, empirical evidence has not consistently supported the prediction of a correlation between genetic and environmental canalization. In a recent study, a population of Drosophila melanogaster adapted to high altitude showed evidence of genetic decanalization relative to those from low-altitudes. Using strains derived from these populations, we tested if they also varied for environmental canalization, rearing them at different temperatures. Using wing morphology, we quantified size, shape, cell (trichome) density and frequencies of mutational defects. We observed the expected differences in wing size and shape, cell density and mutational defects between the high- and low-altitude populations. However, we observed little evidence for a relationship between a number of measures of environmental canalization with population or with visible defect frequency. Our results do not support the predicted association between genetic and environmental canalization.

The structure of genetic and environmental influences on normative personality, abnormal personality traits, and personality disorder symptoms

BackgroundCan the structure of genetic and environmental influences on normative personality traits (NPTs), abnormal personality traits (APTs), and DSM-IV criteria for personality disorders (PD) fit a high or low congruence model positing, respectively, close or more limited etiologic continuity?MethodExploratory factor analysis was applied to transformed correlation matrices from Cholesky twin decompositions obtained in OpenMx. In 2801 adult twins from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health Twin Panel, NPTs and APTs were assessed by self-report using the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and PID-5-Norwegian Brief Form (PID-5-NBF), respectively. PDs were assessed at interview using the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality (SIDP-IV).ResultsThe best model yielded three genetic and three unique environmental factors. Genetic factors were dominated, respectively, by (i) high loadings on nearly all PDs and NPT/APT neuroticism and compulsivity, (ii) negative loadings on NPT agreeableness/conscientiousness and positive loadings on APT/PD measures of antisocial traits, and (iii) negative loadings on NPT extraversion and histrionic PD, and positive loadings on APT detachment and schizoid/avoidant PD. Unique environmental factors were dominated, by (i) high loadings on all PDs, (ii) high loadings on all APT dimensions and NPT neuroticism, and (iii) negative loadings on NPT extraversion and positive loadings on NPT detachment/avoidant PD.ConclusionsTwo genetic and one environmental common factor were consistent with a high congruence model while one genetic and two environmental factors were more supportive of a low congruence model. The relationship between genetic and environmental influences on personality assessed by NPTs, APTs, and PDs is complex and does not fit easily into a low or high congruence model.

RELEVANSI MATERI MATA PELAJARAN PEMELIHARAAN ENGINE SEPEDA MOTOR TERHADAP TUNTUTAN INDUSTRI

Tujuan penelitian ini yaitu untuk mendeskripsikan relevansi materi pada mata pelajaran Pemeliharaan Engine Sepeda Motor dengan tuntutan industri, dan membuat pemetaan sekuen antara kedua kompetensi tersebut. Metode Penelitian ini menggunakan metode evaluasi congruence model. Instrumen yang digunakan pada penelitian ini berupa dokumentasi, wawancara dan angket. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan di SMKN 8 Bandung dan PT. Daya Adicipta Motora Cibeureum. Partisipan dalam penelitian ini yakni Kepala Diklat divisi Service, Workshop Head, dan instruktur di PT. Daya Adicipta Motor. Partisipan dari pihak SMKN 8 Bandung yakni Wakil Kepala Sekolah bidang Kurikulum serta Guru paket keahlian Teknik Sepeda Motor. Hasil dari relevansi antar kedua kompetensi tersebut adalah 70,3%, hasil ini menunjukkan bahwa relevansi materi pemeliharaan engine sepeda motor di SMKN 8 Bandung termasuk kategori relevan. Pemetaan sekuen dari kedua kompetensi tersebut menghasilkan bahwa kompetensi mata pelajaran pemeliharaan engine sepeda motor sudah sesuai dengan tuntutan industri