Bettina Hannover

Cross-Cultural Variations in Identifying Embedded Figures Comparisons from the United States, Germany, Russia, and Malaysia

Previous studies have found cross-cultural variation in field dependence. In this study, cross-cultural differences were expected depending on the degree of individualism or collectivism of the respective cultures. Samples were taken from two prototypically individualist cultures, the United States and Germany, and two collectivist cultures, Russia and Malaysia. As predicted, field dependence did not differ between those samples that represented the same type of culture, either collectivist or individualist. However, a clear difference could be found between the two types of cultures; that is, U.S. and German participants were more field independent than were Russian and Malaysian participants.

Das Berliner Evaluationsinstrument für selbsteingeschätzte, studentische Kompetenzen (BEvaKomp)

Zusammenfassung. Im Rahmen des Bologna-Prozesses werden europaweit Bachelor-Studiengange eingefuhrt, deren Abschlusse berufsqualifizierend sind. Die beteiligten Lander haben sich auf einen Qualifikationsrahmen, d.h. auf eine Liste von studienfachunspezifisch formulierten Kompetenzen verstandigt, die in Lehrveranstaltungen vermittelt werden sollen. Inwieweit diese Kompetenzen tatsachlich von den Studierenden erworben werden, ist empirisch nachzuweisen. Bisherige Lehrveranstaltungsevaluationsinstrumente konnen zu diesem Zweck nur bedingt genutzt werden, denn sie messen eher den Prozess als das Ergebnis einer Veranstaltung. Deshalb haben wir ein Instrument entwickelt, das in sechs Subskalen mit insgesamt 29 Items den selbsteingeschatzten Zuwachs an Fach-, Methoden-, Prasentations-, Kommunikations-, Kooperations- sowie Personalkompetenz erhebt. In einer Stichprobe mit insgesamt 2507 Fragebogen wurde das Instrument entlang der klassischen Testtheorie uberpruft. Die Ergebnisse zeigen gute Reliabilitaten und die...

Culture, context, and cognition: The Semantic Procedural Interface model of the self

Several studies have found evidence that social information processing is strongly influenced by the person either primarily defining his or her self as an autonomous entity (independent self-construal) or as related to other people (interdependent self-construal). In this chapter, we describe the psychological mechanisms by which independent and interdependent self-construals affect individual experience. We propose the Semantic Procedural Interface (SPI) model of the self, which distinguishes two such mechanisms. In addition to differences in the semantic content areas from which independent and interdependent self-construals arise (semantic application mechanism), there are also different procedural modes of thinking (procedural application mechanism) associated with them. Independent self-definitions coincide with the tendency to process stimuli unaffected by the context in which they appear. Relating the self to the social contexts within interdependent self-construals facilitates context-bounded thinking (i.e., processing stimuli by paying attention to their relation to the given context). The results of several experiments attesting to the value of the differentiation between both application mechanisms are presented. We discuss how far differences in information processing between members of different cultural groups can be traced back to the mechanisms described in the SPI model.

How Gender Differences in Academic Engagement Relate to Students' Gender Identity.

Background: Gender differences in educational outcomes encompass many different areas. For example, in some educational settings, boys lag behind girls on indicators of educational success, such as leaving certificates and type of school attended. In studies testing performance, boys typically show lower competence in reading compared with girls, yet tend to show higher competence in school subjects related to mathematics. While such differences in competence between the genders can be relatively small, they coincide with much greater differences in motivation-related variables emerging during the school years, and thus seem to channel students into lifelong gendered pathways via gendered educational and occupational preferences. Purpose: From a psychological perspective, we propose the Interests as Identity Regulation Model (IIRM) as a useful tool for understanding many of the gender differences in educational outcomes. Specifically, the focus is on two areas of research: girls’ and women’s under-representation in subjects such as maths and science; and boys’ lower engagement at school in general. Sources of evidence: Findings from recent research, mostly from a psychological perspective using quantitative measures and empirical studies testing the IIRM, are reported to illustrate different aspects of the interplay between students’ gender identity and gendered social meanings of academic domains (such as maths), as well as academic engagement in general. Main argument: IIRM suggests that the perceived fit between students’ gender identity and the gendered social meanings associated with different possible behaviours at school (e.g. choosing a subject, investing effort or not) is a relevant heuristic for students’ directing of their learning activities. The male stereotyping of maths and science implies a greater misfit between girls’ gender identity and engagement in these domains. The perception that displaying effort and engagement at school is feminine leads to a misfit between boys’ gender identity and academic engagement in general. Conclusions: Attempts to alleviate gender differences in educational outcomes that channel students into lifelong gendered pathways with regard to qualifications and occupations will benefit from an understanding of how closely these academic choices are related to students’ gender identity. Interventions should aim at enhancing the individually perceived fit between a student’s gender identity and engagement in specific subjects or learning activities. The nature of such interventions will be an important topic of future research.

Importance of personal goals in people with independent and interdependent selves

This paper investigates how the importance attached to personal goals differs according to the person’s independent or interdependent self. Results of one questionnaire study and two priming studies showed that, overall, independents considered their goals more important than interdependents. A closer analysis revealed, however, that interdependents assigned more relevance to social goals (e.g., harmony with others), than to individual goals (e.g., to be successful), whereas independents attached equal importance to both types of goals.

Who Shapes the Self of Independents and Interdependents? Explicit and Implicit Measures of the Self's Relatedness to Family, Friends and Partner.

We suggest that social relationships shape the self in different ways, depending on whether persons define themselves as independent or interdependent. While the self of independents is most strongly associated with mental representations of others to whom they are related because of their own deliberate action (e.g. friends), the self of interdependents is most strongly connected with representations of others with whom they share allocated group memberships (e.g. family members). We took both explicit (Study 1) and implicit measures (Studies 2, 3 and 4) on how strongly independent and interdependent selves are associated with self‐chosen versus allocated close others. In Studies 3 and 4, we additionally primed the independent or interdependent self. Both explicit and implicit measures indicated that mental representations of family members were more strongly associated with the interdependent self than with the independent self, while romantic partners and friends were connected with both the independent and interdependent self. Copyright

Der Einfluss independenter und interdependenter Selbstkonstruktion auf die Informationsverarbeitung im sozialen Kontext

Zusammenfassung. Zahlreiche Studien belegen, dass Personen in Abhangigkeit davon, ob sie sich selbst vor allem als eine autonome, von anderen unabhangige Einheit definieren (independente Selbstkonstruktion) oder aber ihre Identitat vorwiegend in ihrer Verbundenheit mit anderen Menschen sehen (interdependente Selbstkonstruktion), soziale Information unterschiedlich verarbeiten. Im vorliegenden Aufsatz gehen wir der Frage nach, auf welche Weise Selbstkonstruktionen das Denken, Fuhlen und Handeln von Menschen beeinflussen. Wir schlagen das Semantisch-Prozedurale Interface-Modell des Selbst (SPI) vor, in dem zwei relevante Verarbeitungsmechanismen miteinander verknupft werden. Neben Unterschieden in den semantischen Inhalten independenter und interdependenter Selbstkonstruktionen (semantischer Mechanismus) gehen beide Formen der Selbstkonstruktion auch mit unterschiedlichen Modi der Informationsverarbeitung einher (prozeduraler Mechanismus). Independente Selbstkonstruktionen begunstigen einen kontextunabhangi...

Monoedukativer Anfangsunterricht in Physik in der Gesamtschule

Zusammenfassung. In einem Berliner Schulversuch wurden in sieben Gesamtschulen die Schulerinnen und Schuler (N = 786) fur die Dauer des achten Schuljahres im Physikunterricht in koedukative und monoedukative Gruppen eingeteilt. Um die Auswirkungen der Geschlechterzusammensetzung der Lerngruppen abzuschatzen, wurden am Schulhalbjahres- und am Schuljahresende schriftliche Befragungen durchgefuhrt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Madchen aus monoedukativen Gruppen sich durch den Unterricht starker angesprochen fuhlten, sich aktiver am Unterricht beteiligten und mehr Spas an der Bearbeitung von Physikaufgaben angaben. Sie glaubten, den Anforderungen des Physikunterrichts besser entsprechen zu konnen, hielten ihre Begabung fur die Physik fur hoher und belegten zum Beginn und zur Mitte des neunten Schuljahres haufiger einen Fortgeschrittenenkursus in Physik als ihre Klassenkameradinnen, die in koedukativen Gruppen unterrichtet worden waren. Fur die Jungen hingegen wirkte sich die Geschlechtskonstellation der Lerngr...

Zum Zusammenhang zwischen Lehr- Orientierung und Lehr-Gestaltung von Hochschuldozierenden und subjektivem Kompetenzzuwachs bei Studierenden

Verschiedene Studien sprechen dafur, dass Lehrende, die Wissenserwerb als Ergebnis eines aktiven Konstruktions- prozesses verstehen (studierendenfokussierte Lehr-Orientierung), Lernprozesse wirkungsvoller unterstutzen konnen als Lehrende, die Wissenserwerb als Ergebnis des Transports von Wissen vom Lehrenden zum Lernenden verstehen (lehrendenfokussierte Lehr-Orientierung). In der vorliegenden Studie wird in einer Stichprobe von 68 Lehrveranstaltungen (68 Lehrende, 451 Studierende) a) eine deutschsprachige Version des im angelsachsischen Raum am haufigsten verwendeten Messinstruments zur Erfassung der Lehr-Orientierung von Hochschuldo- zierenden (Approaches to Teaching Inventory) gepruft; es wird gezeigt, dass b) Dozierende in Abhangigkeit ihrer Lehr-Orientierung ihre Hochschullehre unterschiedlich gestalten; und es wird c) in einem mehrebenenanalytischen Design nachgewiesen, dass sich die Lehr-Orien- tierung des Dozierenden im subjektiven Kompetenzge- winn der Studierenden niederschlagt.

Implications of Independent Versus Interdependent Self-knowledge for Motivated Social Cognition: The Semantic Procedural Interface Model of the Self

The Semantic Procedural Interface Model of the Self (SPI) suggests that, depending on the strength of the situational accessibility of independent or interdependent self-knowledge, people will tend to process stimuli either unaffected by context (context-independency) or cognizant of context (context-dependency). In this paper we describe the cognitive processes underlying context-independent or context-dependent information processing. We suggest that degree of context-dependency depends on cognitive control processes (attentional focus on focal or task-relevant information; inhibition of contextual or task-irrelevant information; task-management). Second, we predict motivational effects of the selfs independence/interdependence by including assumptions about possible selves.