John Sachs

Assessing Thinking Styles in the Theory of Mental Self-Government: A Hong Kong Validity Study

The purpose of this study was to examine the appropriateness in a non-Western context of the Thinking Styles Inventory and Sternbergs underlying theory of mental self-government. The way to achieve this goal was through analyzing data collected from 88 Hong Kong postsecondary students. The results indicated that the scales were reasonably reliable, and factor analysis of the scales was fairly encouraging. The discrepancy found in the number of dimensions of thinking between the current study and what underlies the inventory may represent the participants being ‘tested’ in their second language. The theorys underlying assumptions that thinking styles are socialized and that developmental changes in stylistic preference should show significant effects of age and college class were supported by group differences in certain thinking styles on such variables as sex, college major, subject area taught, age, and college class.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Chinese Version of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the factor structure of a Chinese version of Pintrich and De Groot’s Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ). Data were gathered from a sample of 477 junior high and high school students, ranging in age from 12 to 19 years (M = 15.4, SD = 1.84), in Hong Kong. Results indicated that a modified five-factor model had a better overall fit to the data than the five-factor model reported by Pintrich and De Groot in a sample of junior high school students in the United States. Although the motivational factors of the original MSLQ and its Chinese version were similar, items from the two self-regulated learning factors of the MSLQ combined to form one factor on the MSLQ—Chinese Version.

Item-level and subscale-level factoring of Biggs’ Learning Process Questionnaire (LPQ) in a mainland Chinese sample

BACKGROUND The learning process questionnaire (LPQ) has been the source of intensive cross-cultural study. However, an item-level factor analysis of all the LPQ items simultaneously has never been reported. Rather, items within each subscale have been factor analysed to establish subscale unidimensionality and justify the use of composite subscale scores. AIMS It was of major interest to see if the six logically constructed items groups of the LPQ would be supported by empirical evidence. Additionally, it was of interest to compare the consistency of the reliability and correlational structure of the LPQ subscales in our study with those of previous cross-cultural studies. METHODS Confirmatory factor analysis was used to fit the six-factor item level model and to fit five representative subscale level factor models. SAMPLE A total of 1070 students between the ages of 15 to 18 years was drawn from a representative selection of 29 classes from within 15 secondary schools in Guangzhou, China. Males and females were almost equally represented. RESULTS The six-factor item level model of the LPQ seemed to fit reasonably well, thus supporting the six dimensional structure of the LPQ and justifying the use of composite subscale scores for each LPQ dimension. However, the reliability of many of these subscales was low. Furthermore, only two subscale-level factor models showed marginally acceptable fit. Substantive considerations supported an oblique three-factor model. CONCLUSIONS Because the LPQ subscales often show low internal consistency reliability, experimental and correlational studies that have used these subscales as dependent measures have been disappointing. It is suggested that some LPQ items should be revised and other items added to improve the inventorys overall psychometric properties.

Superstition and self-efficacy in Chinese postgraduate students.

43 Chinese postgraduate education students (16 men and 27 women), whose mean age was 33.5 yr., completed a questionnaire measuring superstitious beliefs (Superstitious Beliefs Scale) and self-efficacy (General Perceived Self-efficacy Scale). Higher scores on belief in superstition were associated with lower rated self-efficacy. While not significant, the observed correlation of –.28 between superstitious belief and self-efficacy was of a similar magnitude and in the same direction as that previously reported for western students. Such cross-cultural validation is consistent with the generality of this relationship. Suggestions for further research are made.

Robust Dual Scaling with Tukey's Biweight

Use of the method of reciprocal biweighted means (MBM) for dealing with the outlier problem in dual scal ing compared favorably with other robust estimation procedures, such as the method of trimmed reciprocal averages (MTA). Like the MTA, the MBM was easy to implement and it converged to a stable point when a two-step estimation procedure was used. One advantage of the MBM over the MTA was that it afforded greater control in fine tuning the final solution. Empirical re sults for four datasets, some containing multiple outli ers, are presented. Index terms: biweight, dual scaling, outliers, reciprocal averages, robust estimation, Tukey s biweight.

Bhargava and Ishizuka's BI-Method: A Neglected Method for Variable Selection.

Quite often in data reduction, it is more meaningful and economical to select a subset of variables instead of reducing the dimensionality of the variable space with principal components analysis. The authors present a neglected method for variable selection called the BI-method (R. P. Bhargava & T. Ishizuka, 1981). It is a direct, simple method that uses the same criterion—trace information—used in ordinary regression analysis. The authors begin by discussing the nature and properties of the BI-method and then show how it is different from other existing variable selection methods. Because the BI-method originally was applied to small datasets that had little or no relevance to psychology or education, the authors apply it to large datasets with relevance to the psychological and educational literature. Of particular interest was the application of the BI-method to select a subset of items from a large item pool. Two practical psychometric examples with 49 and 108 items, respectively, showed that item subsets selected with the BI-method reflected the underlying structure of the whole item pool and that the scales based on those item subsets showed good reliability and predictive validity. The appropriateness of this item selection method within the context of the domain-sampling model is discussed.

PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE PROACTIVE ATTITUDE SCALE IN STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

The 15-item Proactive Attitude Scale is defined as a unidimensional measure of belief in ones ability to effect positive life changes. The current study tested the scales unidimensionality assumption with confirmatory factor analysis on a mixed sample of 157 fourth-year Bachelor of Education (n = 30) and first year Masters of Education (n = 121) students from The University of Hong Kong. 49 were men and 108 women, with a median age of 31 yr. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that a two-factor congeneric model fit the data significantly better than the unidimensional model. The two factors were characterized as reflecting proactive attitude and independent mindedness, respectively. The moderate correlation between these factors clearly defined them as reflecting distinct constructs, making untenable the scales unidimensionality assumption.