Mitigating turnover intention among private school teachers

This study explored the effect of compensation on teachers’ turnover intention mediated by organizational commitment. The research data was collected by a questionnaire through the survey methods toward 207 honorary teachers of a private school in Indonesia. Data analysis employed path analysis, supported by descriptive statistics and a correlational matrix. The result indicated that compensation significantly affects teachers’ turnover intention meditating by organizational commitment. This study also found a fit research model that can discuss among researchers and practitioners as references/discourse or a strategy for mitigating turnover intention in various contexts and research fields.

Prolonged Grief Disorder and Depression in Widows Due to the Rwandan Genocide

Should pathological grief be viewed as a nosological category, separate from other forms of mental diseases? Diagnostic criteria for “Prolonged Grief Disorder” (PGD) have recently been specified by Prigerson and her coworkers. We interviewed a total of 40 widows who had lost their husbands during the Rwandan genocide in 1994. We assessed Major Depression using the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) and prolonged grief reactions with the PG-13. In order to examine the distinctiveness of the two syndromes we performed a multitrait correlational matrix analysis using modified versions of Generalized Proximity Functions (GPFs). 12.5% ( n = 5) of the sample fulfilled the criteria for a diagnosis of PGD; 40% ( n = 16) met criteria for Major Depressive Episode. The two syndromes were strongly associated. No discriminant validity was found between the two constructs suggesting that PGD may rather be an appearance of depression than a separate nosological entity.

Towards a theory of intelligence beyond g

Brain physiology and IQ gains over time both show that various cognitive skills, such as on-the-spot problem solving and arithmetic reasoning, are functionally independent, despite being bundled up in the correlational matrix called g. We need a theory of intelligence that treats the physiology and sociology of intelligence as having integrity equal to the psychology of individual differences.

Factorial Structure of the Manic-Depressiveness Scale in American College Students

In a sample of 503 American college students, the correlational matrix (18 × 18) of the Thalbourne, et al. Manic-Depressiveness Scale (1994) was subjected to exploratory factor analysis with a varimax rotation, which showed 13 items had the correct assignment to one of the scales (six for depression and seven for mania).

Reassessment of Factor Solution of Halstead's Matrix

Halstead's correlational matrix of 13 neuropsychological tests was reanalyzed with the objective of obtaining a more neuropsychologically meaningful solution. The emphasis was on solving for different numbers of factors (three and five). The three-factor solution supported and perhaps refined two of Halstead's original factors (P and A). The third factor loadings resulted in a considerably different concept than Halstead's D. The three factors (psychological vigilance, abstraction, and perception and memory for incidental stimuli) may be an essential factor pattern in recovery from head traumas. It was concluded that the investigator should not a priori be committed to a structure involving a particular number of factors. Experimentation with factor number or method would allow evaluation of the best psychological fit to the data.

Cultural, Motivational and Temporal Problems with the 16 P.F. Test

In view of the queries raised about the validity of the 16 P.F. factors when applied to a large New Zealand sample (vide Adcock & Adcock 1977), it was decided to make a study of individual items which did not seem to be satisfactory in the light of three criteria: inadequate loadings on any of the factors found in the analysis; gross failure to yield any indication of face validity; and failure to gain appreciable loading on group factors as defined by group factor analysis of the correlational matrix sectioned in accord with the scoring material. Consideration of these items indicates that many are greatly affected by cultural and temporal differences and by test climate.

“Intolerance of Ambiguity,” Walk's a Scale: Historical Comment

Walk's A Scale has been reported to be associated positively and significantly with attitude measures of authoritarianism. The present writer, using two independent samples, found the Walk A Scale to have virtually no internal consistency. With 128 male university students, the application of the K-R 20 produced an r of .08. With 88 male college and female nursing students, use of the Tryon's Variance Form gave an r of .10. Moreover, computation of an inter-item correlational matrix for the 8 Walk A Scale items on the second sample produced consistently low, predominantly non-significant, and in one-third of the cases negative coefficients. Since these results indicate that Walk's A Scale it not homogeneous in a statistical sense, the scale should not be considered as a pure measure of “intolerance of ambiguity.”

A Factor Analysis of Mathematical Giftedness

90 mathematically gifted high school students selected on the basis of aptitude and interest in mathematics were compared with 63 unselected college preparatory high school students in the same general ability range. A principal-component method of factor analysis was used to determine the minimum number of independent dimensions needed to account for the variance in the correlational matrix.

I.—On a Problem concerning Matrices with Variable Diagonal Elements

Suppose that in a given non-negative definite symmetric matrix R = [rij] of order n the diagonal entries are replaced by arbitrary quantities x1, x2,…, xn so that the matrix assumes the formMatrices of this type are met with in the statistical technique known as Factorial Analysis (Thurstone, 1935; Thomson, 1939); there the nondiagonal elements rij(i≠j) are the correlation coefficients of certain tests and are given by observation. The diagonal entries of the “correlational matrix,” which is always non-negative definite, are originally all equal to unity, but, on the hypothesis which underlies the process of Factorial Analysis, it is permissible to diminish the diagonal entries arbitrarily provided the modified matrix is still non-negative definite, it being assumed that the amount which has been deducted from the diagonal cells is due to the variance of the specific factors, the investigation of which is not the primary aim of the theory.