Emotional well-being depends in part on affect modulation. The present study extends research on emotion regulation by assessing the physiological and cognitive effects of a novel response-focused regulation strategy, termed "expressive dissonance." Expressive dissonance refers to the incongruence between an emotional state (e.g., sadness) and a…

Objective: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC), which measures physical symptoms, harm avoidance, social anxiety, and separation/panic. Method: Using a community sample of Australian children (8-13 years old), the internal stability, factor structure, and convergent validity of child-…

This paper describes the development of the fear survey for adults with mental retardation (FSAMR) and provides initial evidence of its psychometric properties. The FSAMR was designed to be sensitive to the assessment needs of individuals with mental retardation. The items were developed through open-ended interviews, a review of existing…

This report describes the purposes of benchmark assessments and provides recommendations for selecting and using benchmark assessments--addressing validity, alignment, reliability, fairness and bias and accessibility, instructional sensitivity, utility, and reporting issues. We also present recommendations on building capacity to support schools'…

Many students experience difficulties learning to program. They find learning to program in the object-oriented paradigm particularly challenging. As a result, computing educators have tried a variety of instructional methods to assist beginning programmers. These include developing approaches geared specifically toward novices and experimenting…

This comprehensive "Handbook" focuses on the most used polytomous item response theory (IRT) models. These models help us understand the interaction between examinees and test questions where the questions have various response categories. The book reviews all of the major models and includes discussions about how and where the models…

Epidemiological studies indicate a worldwide increase in the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) over the past decade. ASDs are no longer considered rare conditions. Although the reason(s) for this rise are uncertain, research indicates that specialised intervention at an early age is vital for optimising the outcomes of children with…

Background: Interpersonal staff behaviour is one of the instigating factors associated with challenging behaviour in clients with intellectual disabilities (ID). There are several studies focusing on the influence of intrapersonal staff characteristics--such as beliefs, attributions and emotional reactions--on staff behaviour. Little is known,…

Holland's theory of six work personalities has become a staple of vocational psychology, providing a robust and simple model for understanding the structure of vocational interests. Though Holland's types provide a common vocabulary for vocational psychologists working with a variety of populations, until this point there has not been a measure of…

Background: Most previous studies in Western societies have demonstrated a general decline in school motivation. However, it is not clear whether motivational decline occurs uniformly for all students. The moderating effects of individual and cultural differences on students' motivational decline need to be further explored. Aims: This study aimed…

In this article, we introduce a person-fit statistic called the hierarchy consistency index (HCI) to help detect misfitting item response vectors for tests developed and analyzed based on a cognitive model. The HCI ranges from -1.0 to 1.0, with values close to -1.0 indicating that students respond unexpectedly or differently from the responses…

Because technological pedagogical content knowledge is becoming an increasingly important construct in the field of teacher education, there is a need for assessment mechanisms that capture teachers' development of this portion of the knowledge base for teaching. The paper describes a proposal drawing on qualitative data produced during lesson…

In cognitive diagnosis a Q-matrix (Tatsuoka, 1983, 1990), which is an incidence matrix that defines the relationships between test items and constructs of interest, has great impact on the nature of performance feedback that can be provided to score users. The purpose of the present study was to identify meaningful skill coding categories that…

By focusing on school-based behaviors, this study examined the validity of a lay assumption that peers match, and even surpass, parents in terms of their importance as socialization agents by early adolescence. Self-reported academic and social behaviors, peer group norms, and perceived parent values were assessed among fourth, sixth, and eighth…

Self-efficacy is an important cognitive predictor of substance abuse treatment outcome. Although measures of coping self-efficacy are related to substance use relapse in adults, their properties are not well-known in adolescent populations. The present study examined 223 adolescents while in treatment for substance abuse and comorbid psychiatric…