BA Degree Research Articles

Checking out the unexplained: With age, children become increasingly skeptical of surprising claims.

When presented with surprising claims, older children investigate such claims more often than younger children. The present study tests whether older children (6-7-year-olds) are more skeptical than younger children (4-5-year-olds) about surprising claims that lack supporting evidence because they expect informants to provide evidence for them. To test this hypothesis, we presented 140 4-7-year-old children (47-96 months, 46.4% girls, 53.6% boys, 86.4% with at least one parent who completed a BA degree, 50% parents with income above median) with a series of vignettes. In each vignette, the protagonist wanted to accomplish a task and needed to select the most appropriate object for that task. Before deciding which object to use, the protagonist heard a surprising claim about one of the object's properties, presented with or without supporting evidence. For example, in the supporting explanation condition, the informant stated that the smallest object was the heaviest and that they knew because they had lifted the objects. Children were then asked whether the protagonist knew which object to use and why. Contrary to expectation, children across all ages typically indicated that the protagonist had sufficient knowledge, regardless of whether an informant provided supporting evidence or not. However, with increasing age, children became more skeptical of both supported and unsupported surprising claims and increasingly stated that the protagonist should not select the object suggested by the informant. Finally, when asked to justify this judgment, older children were more likely than younger to express skepticism toward the claims, especially when presented without supporting evidence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Motivations for Using Religious Digital Media: A Hierarchical Regression Analysis Among Jordanian University Students

This study investigated the factors influencing motivations for using religious digital media (RDMUM) among 330 Jordanian university students through hierarchical regression analysis. The analysis revealed that demographic factors, particularly age and gender, significantly predicted motivation, with younger individuals and males showing higher engagement. Educational level, explicitly having a BA degree, also influences motivation, whereas university location and specialization do not have significant effects. The type of digital media used (websites, social media, podcasts) does not significantly impact motivation, although a negative association with Twitter suggests that platform-specific characteristics may affect engagement. Prior knowledge and specific interests in Islamic thought, faith, and jurisprudential topics are strong motivators that highlight the importance of content relevance and depth. The final model, which explains 49% of the variance in the RDMUM, underscores the robust explanatory power of the included variables. These findings emphasize the need for tailored content to address user interests and knowledge levels. Content creators and practitioners can leverage these insights to develop more engaging and effective religious digital media, ultimately enhancing users’ engagement and satisfaction. Moreover, this study's potential to inspire and guide future research in this field is significant and contributes to the academic community's understanding of religious digital media.

Travis I. Thompson (1937-2023).

Travis I. Thompson was born on July 20, 1937, in Minneapolis to William and Loretta Thompson. Travis completed his BA (1958), MA (1961), and PhD (1961) degrees all at the University of Minnesota in Psychology, with postdoctoral work at the University of Maryland with Joseph V. Brady and at Cambridge University (United Kingdom) with Robert Hinde. Travis began his academic career at the University of Minnesota in 1963 rising to the rank of professor of Psychiatry and Neurology and Psychology and Pharmacology in 1969. A prolific writer, Travis, published more than 200 articles and chapters and 30 books including four on the translation of research on autism for parents, teachers, and professionals. He had a knack for motivating people to believe in their ability to grow and develop as researchers and work collaboratively on complex issues related to intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Travis was part of the intellectual force founding the area now known as behavioral pharmacology. Throughout his career, Travis remained deeply curious about how basic principles could be used to understand how things worked-his approach was to identify the functional pieces, take them apart, and put them back together. He wanted that activity to matter. It did. He is survived by his wife, Anneke, four children, and seven grandchildren. He died in Roseville, Minnesota, on August 2, 2023, at the age of 85. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Employment wages and diseases of despair in early adulthood: Links through subjective socioeconomic status and cumulative stressor exposure

Rising mortality due to suicides, overdoses, and substance-related diseases, also called “deaths of despair,” has attracted significant academic, public, and media attention in recent years. This type of mortality, and key precursor “diseases of despair” like depressive mood and substance-related problems, tend to concentrate in people affected by deindustrialization and the loss of well-paid industrial jobs, that is, working-age adults with less than a BA degree. It is thought that risks build up when young adults with less education struggle to find decent jobs upon entering the labor market, which in turn triggers (1) subjective perceptions of being stuck in lower socioeconomic rungs; and (2) exposure to chronic stressors in various domains (e.g., housing, relationships). This study examined whether wages were related to diseases of despair (i.e., depressive mood and substance-related problems) through these two types of processes in a longitudinal sample (N = 543) overrepresenting young Canadian adults with lower educational attainment followed from their mid-teens to their mid-20s. Psychological processes and outcomes were self-reported, whereas exposure to stressors was assessed with a gold-standard interview-based protocol. After taking into account key potential confounders measured in adolescence (e.g., stressor exposure, mental health symptoms), results show that wages in early adulthood (in the early and mid-20s) were indirectly associated with depressed mood and substance-related problems in the mid-20s, through internal psychological processes and external exposure to chronic stressors. The specific processes in play varied by outcome. For depressive mood, subjective perceptions of one's relative socioeconomic position emerged as particularly relevant, whereas for substance-related problems, significant indirect associations emerged only when both internal psychological processes and external exposures to stressors were considered jointly. Access to decent jobs offering good wages among young adults without university degrees should thus be considered when designing policies aimed at reducing diseases of despair in younger generations.

Suniya Luthar (1958-2023).

Co-founder Emerita of Authentic Connections, Founder of Authentic Connections Groups, and Professor Emerita at Columbia University's Teachers College, Suniya Luthar passed away on February 16, 2023. Suniya was born on December 9, 1958, in New Delhi, India, where she studied for BA (1978) and MA (1980) degrees and served as a lecturer on child development (1981-1984), all at Lady Irwin College. After decades of studying youth across the economic spectrum, Suniya concluded that ultimately children's ability to be resilient is most linked to their mother's well-being and that became the final focus of her empirical and community work. Suniya initiated several projects to support mothers. They include a relational group therapy for low-income mothers with histories of addiction and serious mental illness and the Authentic Connections Groups program, an evidence-based supportive community intervention that has been successfully used in hospitals, schools, and university settings. Suniya used to say that, even as a young child, she was sensitive to the psychological pain of others and decided at the age of 15 to help children in distress. She certainly accomplished that goal. As testaments to her vast scholarly contributions to the well-being of children and their families, Suniya received numerous awards and honors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Assessing Atlanta’s Placed-Based College Scholarship

We investigate whether and how Achieve Atlanta’s college scholarship and associated services impact college enrollment, persistence, and graduation among Atlanta Public School graduates experiencing low household income. Qualifying for the scholarship of up to $5,000 per year does not meaningfully change college enrollment among those near the high school GPA eligibility thresholds. However, scholarship receipt does have large and statistically significant effects on early college persistence (i.e., 14%) that continue through BA degree completion within 4 years (22%), although scholarship receipt does not impact graduation from 2-year colleges. We discuss how the selection criteria and processes of place-based programs intended for those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds may influence results for different types of students.

Harvey Warren Zorbaugh (1896-1965)

Harvey Warren Zorbaugh was born in East Cleveland, Ohio (US) on September 20, 1896. He received a BA degree from Vanderbilt University and a PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago. Starting in the mid-1920s, sociologists directed or were centrally involved in clinics in several US cities. In Chicago, Zorbaugh was one of the directors of the Lower North Child Guidance Clinic.

30 Item response theory and differential item functioning of the AD8: The High School & Beyond Study

Objective:The AD8 is a validated screening instrument for functional changes that may be caused by cognitive decline and dementia. It is frequently used in clinics and research studies because it is short and easy to administer, with a cut off score of 2 out of 8 items recommended to maximize sensitivity and specificity. This cutoff assumes that all 8 items provide equivalent “information” about everyday functioning. In this study, we used item response theory (IRT) to test this assumption. To determine the relevance of this measure of everyday functioning in men and women, and across race, ethnicity, and education, we conducted differential item functioning (DIF) analysis to test for item bias.Participants and Methods:Data came from the 2021 follow up of the High School & Beyond cohort (N=8,690; mean age 57.5 ± 1.2; 55% women), a nationally representative, longitudinal study of Americans who were first surveyed in 1980 when they were in the 10th or 12th grade. Participants were asked AD8 questions about their own functioning via phone or internet survey. First, we estimated a one-parameter (i.e., differing difficulty, equal discrimination across items) and two-parameter IRT model (i.e., differing difficulty and differing discrimination across items). We compared model fit using a likelihood-ratio test. Second, we tested for uniform and non-uniform DIF on AD8 items by sex, race and ethnicity (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic), education level (high school or less, some college, BA degree or more), and survey mode (phone or internet). We examined DIF salience by comparing the difference between original and DIF-adjusted AD8 scores to the standard error of measurement of the original score.Results:The two-parameter IRT model fit the data significantly better than the one-parameter model, indicating that some items were more strongly related to underlying everyday functional ability than others. For example, the “problems with judgment” item had higher discrimination (more information) than the “less interest in hobbies/activities” item. There were significant differences in item endorsement by race/ethnicity, education, and survey mode. We found significant uniform and non-uniform DIF on several items across each of these groups. For example, for a given level of functional decline (theta) White participants were more likely to endorse “Daily problems with thinking/memory” than Black and Hispanic participants. The DIF was salient (i.e., caused AD8 scores to change by greater than the standard error of measurement for a large portion of respondents) for those with a college degree and phone respondents.Conclusions:In a population representative sample of Americans ∼age 57, the items on the AD8 contributed differing levels of discrimination along the range of everyday functioning that is impacted by later life cognitive impairment. This suggests that a simple cut-off or summed score may not be appropriate since some items yield more information about the underlying construct than others. Furthermore, we observed significant and salient DIF on several items by education and survey mode, AD8 scores should not be compared across education groups and assessment modes without adjustment for this measurement bias.

Iranian EFL teachers’ knowledge and skills in a language teaching methodology course: a gap-analysis study

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the perceptions of Iranian English teachers about their teaching efficiency through a specific practicum course, namely, language teaching methodology. Drawing on a marketing education perspective, the researchers sought to measure the service quality offered in universities by examining teachers’ satisfaction with the curriculum.Design/methodology/approachUsing quantitative gap analysis, the study evaluated the knowledge and skills of teachers in their preservice education regarding the perceived importance of knowledge and skills required in practice. The study involved 120 English as a foreign language teachers holding a BA degree from two universities in Iran, each with two to four years of teaching experience in the private sector. Data were collected using a 40-item semantic differential Likert scale developed by the researchers. The scale incorporated two components that assessed teachers’ perceived importance of knowledge and skills and their preservice educational preparation.FindingsThe findings revealed that most participants were overprepared in various items. However, there were some gaps in content knowledge and skills. Reasons for these gaps mainly included having adequate experience of and/or familiarity with course content, having completed relevant courses beforehand and imitating role model teachers. Teachers’ underpreparation was attributed to their lack of preparation in some specific subjects due to limited skill, practice, motivation, experience and familiarity with that content area.Originality/valueThis study explores the perceived knowledge and skills of Iranian English teachers and provides empirical insights into higher education service quality and customer satisfaction.

Stability and change in predictors of marital dissolution in the US 1950–2017

AbstractObjectiveOur goal is to measure change over time in the predictors of marital dissolution in the United States.BackgroundThe last comprehensive comparative analysis of predictors of marital dissolution is more than 20 years out of date. Rising inequality in the United States requires a fresh look at the predictors of marital dissolution. The Diverging Destinies hypothesis predicts greater inequality over time in the divorce rate between groups, whereas the Converging Destinies hypothesis predicts convergence in divorce rates.MethodWe use a variety of event history models to examine the change over time in race, ethnicity, intermarriage, premarital cohabitation, education, teen marriages, and family of origin intactness as predictors of marital dissolution using data on first marriages from the National Survey of Family Growth covering seven decades of marital histories. We examine racial differences in the nonracial predictors of divorce.ResultsIn the post‐Civil Rights era, Black women's and White women's marital dissolution rates converged. In the most recent marriage cohorts, marital dissolution rates for Black women have increased relative to White women and teen marriage is increasingly associated with divorce. Women without the BA degree appear to be increasingly at risk for divorce. We find that wives from racial minority groups have divorce rates that are less impacted by premarital cohabitation, low education, and teen marriage.ConclusionThe demographic profile of women at marriage has changed dramatically, while the predictors of divorce have changed modestly. Where there are changes in the predictors of divorce, we find more support for Diverging Destinies.

You Accepted What?: The Impact of Location, Education, and Negotiation on Technical Communication Graduates’ Salaries

In the discipline of technical/professional writing and communication, one of the strongest recruiting tools we use is the potential earning power students will have once they obtain a degree and secure a job in the industry. This article is the result of two professors learning that one of their most advanced and dedicated students accepted, in her first job out of graduate school, a salary we thought was thousands below her earning potential. Our conversations around this student's situation led us to survey other alumni from our programs. What we have learned is that students often do not know what salaries they should expect, nor do they feel comfortable negotiating a salary offer. In addition, graduates’ location (urban vs. rural) and level of education (BA or BS degree vs. MA) impact their earning potential.

Lifetime years married held steady for men with a BA degree since 1960 but dropped to lowest level since 1880 for men without a BA

Trends in life expectancy and marriage patterns work together to determine expected lifetime years married. In 1880, adult life expectancy was short and marriages were more likely to end by death than divorce. Since then, although there have been substantial life expectancy gains in adulthood, marriage has been increasingly delayed or forgone and cohabitation and divorce are far more prevalent. Whether adults today can expect to spend more or fewer years married than in the past depends on the relative magnitude of changes in mortality and marriage. We estimate trends in men's expected lifetime years married (and in other marital statuses) from 1880 to 2019 and by bachelor's degree (BA) status from 1960 to 2019. Our results show a rise in men's expected lifetime years married between 1880 and the Baby Boom era and a subsequent fall. There are large and growing differences by BA status. Men with a BA have had high and relatively stable expected lifetime years married since 1960. For men without a BA, expected lifetime years married has plummeted to lows not seen among men since 1880. Cohabitation accounts for a substantial fraction, although not all, of these declines. Our results demonstrate how increasing inequality in both life expectancy and marriage patterns combine to amplify educational differences in lifetime experiences of coresidential partnerships.

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Imaging Workers: Infection Sources, Awareness and Commitment to relevant Safety Guidelines

COVID-19 virus disease is an infectious disease caused by SARS-Cov-2 virus, as the diagnostic imaging department play a remarkable role in detecting and diagnosing of COVID-19 in early stages, therefore, medical imaging workers should be aware of infection control guidelines to prevent the transmission of the disease. A cross-sectional descriptive study survey design was conducted from July 15, 2020 to September 15, 2020, in diagnostic imaging departments in Palestine, aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on medical imaging workers; in terms of infection sources, awareness and commitment to relevant safety guidelines. From a 205 valid responses, there was 54.5% governmental, 27.2% private, and 18.3% from NGOs sector. Female were 26.8% and 81.9% holding BA degree, about 41.2% are less than five years of experience. 36.1% had a previous positive COVID-19 result, of them there was 61.6% due to nosocomial infection. Only 63.2% were confidence of their hospital preparedness for COVID-19, 65.1% felt that their department is capable of dealing with COVID-19 patients, 43.3% revealed that they had training on handling COVID-19 patients, 58.7% reported that selfreading was their source of information about COVID-19, inadequate training or knowledge about hand hygiene and proper use of PPE was noted. Our findings emphasize the vital need of expanded COVID-19 pandemic training for medical imaging workers, as well as related protective measures

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Imaging Workers: Infection Sources, Awareness and Commitment to relevant Safety Guidelines

COVID-19 virus disease is an infectious disease caused by SARS-Cov-2 virus, as the diagnostic imaging department play a remarkable role in detecting and diagnosing of COVID-19 in early stages, therefore, medical imaging workers should be aware of infection control guidelines to prevent the transmission of the disease. A cross-sectional descriptive study survey design was conducted from July 15, 2020 to September 15, 2020, in diagnostic imaging departments in Palestine, aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on medical imaging workers; in terms of infection sources, awareness and commitment to relevant safety guidelines. From a 205 valid responses, there was 54.5% governmental, 27.2% private, and 18.3% from NGOs sector. Female were 26.8% and 81.9% holding BA degree, about 41.2% are less than five years of experience. 36.1% had a previous positive COVID-19 result, of them there was 61.6% due to nosocomial infection. Only 63.2% were confidence of their hospital preparedness for COVID-19, 65.1% felt that their department is capable of dealing with COVID-19 patients, 43.3% revealed that they had training on handling COVID-19 patients, 58.7% reported that selfreading was their source of information about COVID-19, inadequate training or knowledge about hand hygiene and proper use of PPE was noted. Our findings emphasize the vital need of expanded COVID-19 pandemic training for medical imaging workers, as well as related protective measures

The Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Imaging Workers: Infection Sources, Awareness and Commitment to relevant Safety Guidelines

COVID-19 virus disease is an infectious disease caused by SARS-Cov-2 virus, as the diagnostic imaging department play a remarkable role in detecting and diagnosing of COVID-19 in early stages, therefore, medical imaging workers should be aware of infection control guidelines to prevent the transmission of the disease. A cross-sectional descriptive study survey design was conducted from July 15, 2020 to September 15, 2020, in diagnostic imaging departments in Palestine, aimed to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on medical imaging workers; in terms of infection sources, awareness and commitment to relevant safety guidelines. From a 205 valid responses, there was 54.5% governmental, 27.2% private, and 18.3% from NGOs sector. Female were 26.8% and 81.9% holding BA degree, about 41.2% are less than five years of experience. 36.1% had a previous positive COVID-19 result, of them there was 61.6% due to nosocomial infection. Only 63.2% were confidence of their hospital preparedness for COVID-19, 65.1% felt that their department is capable of dealing with COVID-19 patients, 43.3% revealed that they had training on handling COVID-19 patients, 58.7% reported that selfreading was their source of information about COVID-19, inadequate training or knowledge about hand hygiene and proper use of PPE was noted. Our findings emphasize the vital need of expanded COVID-19 pandemic training for medical imaging workers, as well as related protective measures

David A. Varel. The Scholar and the Struggle: Lawrence Reddick’s Crusade for Black History and Black Power.

Born in Jacksonville, Florida, the son of a Pullman porter and a housewife, Lawrence D. Reddick (1910–1995) became an important historian, archivist, librarian, and activist who played key roles in promoting African American history and pursuing civil rights. In this well-written and meticulously researched first biography of Reddick, David Varel argues that as an advisor and mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr., “Reddick shaped the policy decisions of the [civil rights] movement’s highest leadership” (8). Varel also demonstrates that “Reddick’s lifelong crusade for black history—for a useable past—was the centerpiece of his larger struggle for black empowerment” (12). Reddick’s path in life was set at Fisk University, where he earned BA and MA degrees, studying under such prominent Black intellectuals as Lorenzo Turner, Horace Mann Bond, Charles S. Johnson, and Arturo Schomburg. During the 1930s, Reddick taught history at Kentucky State Industrial College and Dillard University, serving as Department of History chair, and earned a PhD in history at the University of Chicago. He was the first African American to publish in the Journal of Southern History, contributing a book review in 1940. Not until 1955 did the journal accept an article published by a Black scholar (Elsie Lewis).

Ideologies and attitudes of Spanish pre-service teachers on ELF

Abstract The emergence of English as a tool for global communication among multilingual speakers poses relevant challenges to traditional ways of learning and teaching the language. To this end, teacher education becomes of crucial importance not only to raise students’ awareness of the global status of the language, but also to align their practices in a way that respond to the changes brought about by English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) research, from an Anglocentric and monolingual-based perspective to a pluricentric representation of English in multilingual environments. In this paper, we intend to unearth the ideology and attitudes towards English as a global lingua franca held by 569 pre-service teachers through a survey addressed to students in English-related university BA and MA degrees across Spain. The survey seeks to explore the impact on pre-service teachers’ views and attitudes towards the language of the following factors: (i) study-abroad experience; (ii) attendance to courses promoting ELF-awareness; (iii) current year of study. The findings suggest that a positive effect is found at the level of ideology; however, participants are less prone to adhere to principles of ELF-aware teaching when practically evaluating non-standard forms.

Robert James Graves (1796-1853), The Irish School of Medicine, and Graves' Disease.

Robert James Graves, a native of Dublin, Ireland, was a physician rather than a surgeon; however, his name is well-known to all general and endocrine surgeons. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, and received his BA and MB degrees from Trinity College (formerly, Dublin University). After further studies throughout Europe, he received his "licentiate" from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1820 and was appointed Physician to the Meath Hospital in Dublin in 1821. Graves received many honors during his career including the following: King's Professor in the Institute of Medicine (1824); President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (1843-44); and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS, 1849). In addition, he was a prominent member of the Irish School of Medicine which also included William Stokes (1804-1878) (Cheyne-Stokes breathing, Stokes-Adams attacks) and Dominic Corrigan (1802-1880) (Corrigan's pulse). Graves' description of exophthalmic goiter was in 1835, some 49 years after that of Caleb Hillier Parry (1755-1822) of Bath, England; however, Bath's report was not published till 1825 or 3 years after his death. Graves' disease is still the eponym applied to this form of hyperthyroidism in the United States.

Reflecting on Teaching Practice: Adopting Islamic Liberatory Pedagogies within Muslim Institutes of Higher Education in UK (MIHEUK)

The aim of this paper is to discuss the practice of Islamically informed liberatory pedagogical practice within a MIHEUK, through a ‘self-reflective’ dialogue. As the former course leader for Education Studies at the Markfield Institute of Higher Education, the paper examines the derived reflections and experience of the author teaching the BA degree program in Islamic studies with Education and the MA Post-Graduate Degree program in Islamic Education (2019–2022). In contributing to the discussion, the paper adopts a critically reflective interpretivist–hermeneutical methodology, whereby Fazlur Rahman’s double hermeneutical model is utilised to contextualise core educational principles from the Islamic weltanschauung (1982). The paper cites an example exercise study utilised to analyse the adoption of Islamically informed liberatory pedagogical practices. The findings from this exercise reveal that the students’ general ability to critically reflect upon the Islamic educational tradition reflect the influence of the teacher. However, the increased ability of the students to act independently and think critically to challenge the limits to their own potential or understanding of the sources dictating their religiosities and subjectivities is from a place of authenticity, thereby demonstrating the transformative nature of self-realisation as conscientization (critical consciousness) and its realisation of latent potentialities.

От филология към „нещо друго“ през погледа на студентите англицисти в ПУ „Паисий Хилендарски“

The text reflects on the dynamic changes that have occurred in the makeup and rationale of English Studies associated majors on offer at Plovdiv University Paisii Hilendarski (PU) as revealed through the views of students enrolled in three distinctive strands of programs. The contours of these developments are addressed by comparing cohorts of ES students at PU across time. Namely, the discussion relies on a comprehensive student survey that registered students’ views in 2008 and 2018, i.e. with a time lapse of a decade, against the background of broader contextual developments and narrowly institutional such (PU institutional policies) in the interim period. Within the institutional context of PU, the developments amount to diversifying the portfolio of BA degree options from traditionally philologically-oriented such to those following an applied linguistics model on one hand, and majors involving a degree of interdisciplinary “hybridization” on the other. These transformations appear further nuanced with a view to the distinctive features that come across the responses of three qualitatively different student cohorts. One, those pursuing ES degrees within a more conventional philological model; two, those engaged in ES related degrees following an Applied Linguistics model; and finally, those who study ES as a component in combinations with IT, Marketing and Business Administration. Even if limited to the institutional context of PU, the survey offers scope for considering the implications for the HE philological horizons of foreign language education from the perspective of the changing expectations, attitudes and career aspirations of the undergraduates involved in them.