Belief in a just world and depression in elderly nursing home residents.

OBJECTIVE: Belief in a just world (BJW) modulates people's abilities to cope with anxiety, fear, and life transitions and thus depression and its debilitating effects. Little is known about how Belief in a just world modulates these coping abilities in elderly nursing home residents or their levels of depression either. PARTICIPANTS: A sample of 354 cognitively able elderly nursing home residents in Lebanon was selected for the study. METHODS: This study, therefore, explored elderly belief in a just world (BJW-S) by gender and length of time in elderly homes in its relation to levels of depression as measured by the Geriatric Depression Rating Scale (GDS) and the Mini-Mental State Examination screening instrument for older adults. RESULTS: The findings showed no main significant effects for gender or length-of-stay on level of depression. The chief significant difference found was for scores on the belief in a just world scale and levels of depression. Those who had high scores on belief in a just world scored low on depression, and vice-versa. CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, a strong belief in a just world seemed to act as a preventative or coping mechanism against depression from initial transition forward for elderly nursing home residents.

Organizational and leadership perceptions assessment: opportunities and challenges using the Baldrige companion surveys.

Combining the use of employee perception surveys with sound analytical techniques and models is critical to capturing high quality data from which effective decisions can be made in complex healthcare settings. This study used the Baldrige Award companion surveys with an analysis of variance (ANOVA) framework to identify discordant perceptions of hospital staff and leadership in the areas of customer focus, knowledge management, and results that were significant at the 0.05 and 0.01 levels. Senior leaders in the organization found the ANOVA framework helpful as they interpreted results from the Baldrige companion surveys and planned future improvement activities. During the execution of our study a number of difficulties and challenges arose that are not uncommon to survey administration in smaller settings, such as community hospitals, or in larger hospital settings with no research staff or research staff with relevant psychometric expertise. Our experience suggests that the Baldrige companion survey process would be enhanced by providing organizations with general guidance and protocols for optimal survey administration and data analysis. The purpose of this article is to outline the ANOVA model we used with the Baldrige companion surveys and to provide guidance related to the administration and analysis of these companion surveys for those that use them.

Further validation of Hanson's Learning Profile Indicator and Silver, Hanson, and Strong's Teaching Style Inventory.

The purpose of this study was to validate Hanson's Learning Profile Inventory (LPI) and Teaching Style Inventory (TSI) further, and to assess the degree to which self-reported style preferences on these scales corresponded to actual observable learning and teaching style behaviors of students and teachers in differing instructional situations. No significant differences were found between the reported and observed learning and teaching style preferences of students and their instructors. Further, student and teacher classifications on the GEFT test of field independence/dependence corresponded to their classifications on the introversion/extroversion scale of the LPI and TSI further clarifying and validating this component of this scale on these two measures. This study was a formative study with a small sample (N=12) due to the burdens of observational ratings, which needs to be replicated with a confirmatory study.

Construct validities and the empirical relationships between optimism, hope, self-efficacy, and locus of control.

This study assessed the construct validities and the relationships between Optimism [21], Hope [27], Self-Efficacy [18], and Locus of Control [12]. The validities and relationships between these scales were examined not only because they are to some degree rival constructs but also because there is an outstanding theoretical question in the literature of whether each of these variables is a state or trait variable or both. Synder' Hope scale was the "know marker" trait-state scale in this study. Data were obtained on all scales from 78 at-risk university students and 22 regular (or normal) students, as all scales either make claims about or have existing data on these two different types of subjects. Other background data were also collected. A Manova on the 13 variables for which data were obtained found significant profile differences between the two groups of subjects as theory and the literature predicted at the 0.01 level. The trait-state two factor structure of Synder's Hope scale was found except the structure was orthogonal in at-risk students as opposed to the oblique structure Synder found in normals. The same strong results were obtained for Schiever and Carver's Optimism scale which additionally resolved an outstanding interpetability issue with this scale. Hypothesized factor structures were not obtained for the self-efficacy or the locus of control scales and both scales best fit the trait-sate model, which contradicts Bandura's and other prevailing view of these two variables, but supports the results found by Bandalos et al. [2].

Professional development for university faculty through service.

The purpose of this article is to identify the contexts for service that are useful for the professional development of university faculty as well as to suggest a model for delivering the work that is part of this type of professional development. The article accomplishes this goal by examining contexts for service, related activities and transformable skills. The model suggested for developing and implementing service activities consists of three components: 1) an initiating force, 2) ways for testing and sharing ideas, and 3) proposed solutions.

Achieving proficiency in various specialized literacies.

The primary purpose of this article is to share conceptualizations of selected specialized literacies, such as scientific, health and technological literacy, that are moving from boundaried work environments to the world at large, Secondly, We relate those conceptualiztions to the attributes of the adult literate reader that are necessary for world in general. The final goal is to develop preliminary guidelines for the specialist to use with the general public when communicating ideas from the specialized environment.