Measures Of Beliefs Research Articles

The spiritual contagion scale: A measure of beliefs in the transfer of metaphysical properties

AbstractContagion is the belief that an entity's invisible or essential qualities can be transferred to a target. Researchers studying contagion have often distinguished between physical contagion (the perceived transfer of germs, toxins, and pathogens) and spiritual contagion (the perceived transfer of metaphysical properties such as spirits, essence, and moral characteristics). While sensitivity to physical contagion is a component of several existing scales, to date, there are no scales that measure sensitivity to spiritual contagion. Here, we develop and validate a measure of Spiritual Contagion Sensitivity (SCS), which considers positive, negative, and neutral aspects of spiritual contagion. We demonstrate discriminant validity from existing measures of physical contagion sensitivity, such as perceived vulnerability to disease and disgust sensitivity (Study 1). We demonstrate construct validity by showing the correlation between SCS and a variety of published findings in the literature for which spiritual contagion beliefs have been hypothesized to play a role (Study 2). Finally, we demonstrate predictive utility of the SCS scale by showing significant moderation of spiritual contagion effects from the literature (Studies 3A–3C).

Initial Evidence for Shifting Race Essentialism Beliefs in the Classroom

Background Teaching students about race and racism is critical to and relevant in psychology classrooms. Objective We explored whether direct instruction dismantling ideas that race is genetic affects students' race essentialist and other related beliefs. Method Undergraduate students enrolled in four social psychology courses completed measures of race essentialism and other related beliefs before and after engaging in course-directed activities designed to reduce endorsement of biological essentialist beliefs about race. Results After class activities, students reported lower levels of general racial essentialist beliefs and estimated that more progress is needed to reduce racial inequality. However, attitudes towards racially minoritized groups or perceived need for anti-racist actions did not shift, and colorblind ideology may have increased. Conclusion These data provide evidence that essentialism shifts can be accomplished in the psychology classroom, but shifting related beliefs may require additional instruction. Teaching Implications The class activities described in this research provide a way for instructors to introduce students to a new concept (race essentialism) and change students’ beliefs in the genetic underpinning of race.

An Empirical Study of the Pathway Model Link Between Cognitive Distortions and Gambling Problems.

This research empirically tests the relationship between gambling-related cognitive distortions and the development of gambling problems. In two separate studies using methodologies designed to support non-experimental causal inference, we demonstrate that holding false beliefs about gambling experiences is related to current and future risk of developing problems with gambling. In our first study, we use an instrumental variable estimation strategy on an internet sample (n = 184) and observe a statistically significant relationship between Gamblers' Belief Questionnaire scores and measures of loss chasing, overspending, and gambling problems. These findings were robust to linear and ordinal estimation strategies and multiple model specifications. In our second study, we examine five-year prospective longitudinal data (n = 1,431) to validate our initial findings and test whether irrational thoughts are also related to future problems with gambling. While controlling for current fallacies, we find that past Gambling Fallacies Measure scores are related to present gambling problems across two survey waves. The effect size of each of the past fallacy levels is roughly half of the effect size of present levels, suggesting meaningful impacts. Our findings support the Pathways Model of Problem and Pathological Gambling.

On some bridges to complex evidence theory

Complex evidence theory, an extension of Dempster–Shafer evidence theory, is a generalized evidence theory based on complex values, which has been widely used to solve decision making of uncertainty information. In order to make a step development based on previous researches, we set out to make a connection between CET and other uncertainty theories like possibility theory, modal logic, fuzzy set theory and probability theory. With a restricted condition of a special generalized consonant belief function, it is found that possibility and necessity measure can be regarded as generalized plausibility measure and belief measure in possibility theory, and the standard interpretation of fuzzy sets in complex evidence theory is obtained by summing up the experience of predecessors and modifying the upper bound of fuzzy sets in this paper. In addition, we established the relationship between generalized plausibility, belief function and modal logic, and elaborate how to explain the complex basic belief distribution with the general semantics of modern modal logic. Finally, the transformation algorithm between complex basic belief assignment and probability distribution is proposed by using the transformation of uncertainty invariance principle, and some properties of them are derived.

"Between-person methods provide limited insight about within-person belief systems": Correction to Brandt and Morgan (2022).

Reports an error in "Between-person methods provide limited insight about within-person belief systems" by Mark J. Brandt and G. Scott Morgan (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2022[Sep], Vol 123[3], 621-635). In the article (https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000404), the third sentence in the second paragraph of the Participants and Procedure section should appear instead as follows: Over this period, participants complete two surveys per month (12 waves in total). Each survey is open for approximately 2 weeks. Participants can complete the survey at any point during the 2 week period. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2022-19898-001.) Belief systems are individual-level phenomena that describe the interrelationships of the political attitudes of a person. However, the modal study of the structure of political ideologies and beliefs uses cross-sectional survey data to estimate what is central to the belief system or the dimensionality of the belief system, aggregating across many people. Cross-sectional data, however, are ill-suited to the task of studying individual-level phenomena because they contain an unobservable mixture of within-person and between-person variation. In this project, we use longitudinal datasets from the Netherlands (representative) and the United States (convenience), spanning between 6 months and 10 years, to we ask whether between-subjects methods can help us understand the within-person structure of belief systems. First, we use Bayesian STARTS models (Lüdtke et al., 2018) to assess what type of variance cross-sectional studies are likely tapping into. We find that variability in measures of ideology and political beliefs is primarily due to stable between-person differences, with relatively smaller amounts of variation due to within-person differences. Second, we estimate between-person, within-person, and cross-sectional correlations between all items in our study and find that between-person correlations are larger and in some cases differ in their direction from within-person correlations. Furthermore, cross-sectional correlations are most similar to between-person correlations. Taken together, these findings indicate that the modal study may help describe differences between people, but is ill-suited to tell us about the structure of individuals' belief systems. New methods are necessary for a complete understanding of political belief systems that clarify both between- and within-person processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Robust online updating of a digital twin with imprecise probability

We present a method for the robust online updating of the parameters of a digital twin for engineering dynamics. The method is robust because it makes neither prior nor likelihood assumptions while rigorously quantifying the inferential uncertainty, which is useful in the context of scarce data. With the proposed updating strategy, the digital twin can update effectively instantaneously when presented with additional data. An algorithm for nonparametric inference with consonant random sets recently developed by the authors is applied. The method constructs a consonant joint structure of the updating parameters. This structure is composed of a sequence of nested sets, each of which is assigned a belief measure, i.e., a lower probability, a nominal level of confidence. This joint structure represents an outer approximation of the credal set where the target joint probability distribution resides. Thus, it can be regarded as a rigorous inferential model. The obtained joint structure has a possibilistic interpretation so that it can be seen as a joint fuzzy set and can be converted to a joint probability box using an established transformation. The method is arguably more efficient than traditional alternative Bayesian updating methods because it is intrinsically non-sequential thus parallelizable. The inference method can also be extended, with nearly no additional computational cost, to the case of interval measurement uncertainty. Because of its efficiency, the method can update the parameters of a digital twin model practically in real time, provided that (1) the data-generating mechanism is stationary, (2) the physical model has not changed, e.g. due to damage, and (3) input–output simulation data within the range of interest is available. We present an application to online updating of a digital twin of an aluminium three-storey structure subject to impact-hammer excitation.

The generational divide over climate change among American evangelicals

As urgency grows to address global warming, younger generations can play a strategic role in mobilizing communities that have generally been more opposed to climate action and policy, such as political and religious conservatives in the United States. American evangelical Protestants—and white evangelicals in particular—are the largest religious group in the U.S. and also the most skeptical of climate science. There is growing interest, however, around whether evangelicals are becoming ‘greener,’ and whether climate attitudes among younger generations are diverging from their elders. We analyze empirical evidence for such generational divides by comparing data from two Climate Change in the American Mind surveys (n = 2332) with a national survey of Generation Z evangelicals (n = 1063). Our results show that young evangelicals are highly likely to say that global warming is happening (89%) and anthropogenic (75%), with approximately a third of young evangelicals doing so despite perceptions that their parents disagree. They are also consistently more likely than older evangelicals to express pro-climate positions on a range of belief and attitudinal measures. The results are more mixed when young evangelicals are compared more broadly with the general American public as well as with Generation Z Americans. Notably, however, young evangelicals are more supportive of climate policies, such as funding renewable energy research, than Americans overall, even though they are also more politically conservative and Republican. These results suggest that a generational ‘greening’ of American evangelicals may indeed be taking place, potentially along with some decoupling of climate attitudes from political identity. This may have major implications for the future of climate action and policy in the United States and beyond.

Do young children track other's beliefs, or merely their perceptual access? An interactive, anticipatory measure of early theory of mind.

This paper aimed to contribute to answering three questions. First, how robust and reliable are early implicit measures of false belief (FB) understanding? Second, do these measures tap FB understanding rather than simpler processes such as tracking the protagonist's perceptual access? Third, do implicit FB tasks tap an earlier, more basic form of theory of mind (ToM) than standard verbal tasks? We conducted a conceptual replication of Garnham & Perner's task (Garnham and Perner 2001 Br. J. Dev. Psychol. 19, 413–432) simultaneously measuring children's anticipatory looking and interactive behaviours toward an agent with a true or FB (N = 81, M = 40 months). Additionally, we implemented an ignorance condition and a standard FB task. We successfully replicated the original findings: children's looking and interactive behaviour differed according to the agent's true or FB. However, children mostly did not differentiate between FB and ignorance conditions in various measures of anticipation and uncertainty, suggesting the use of simpler conceptual strategies than full-blown ToM. Moreover, implicit measures were all related to each other but largely not related to performance in the standard FB task, except for first look in the FB condition. Overall, our findings suggest that these implicit measures are robust but may not tap the same underlying cognitive capacity as explicit FB tasks.

Testing the practical utility of implicit measures of beliefs for predicting drunk driving.

Despite the potential benefits of implicit measures over self-report measures, they are rarely used in real-world contexts to predict behavior. Two potential reasons are that (a) traditional implicit measures typically show low predictive validity and (b) the practical utility of implicit measures has hardly been investigated. The current studies test the practical utility of a new generation of implicit measures for predicting drunk driving. Study 1 (N = 290) examined whether an implicit measure of beliefs about past drunk driving (i.e., the Past Driving Under the Influence Implicit Association Test; P-DUI-IAT) retrospectively predicts drunk driving in driving school students, a population for which this measure could have applied value. Study 1 also explored whether P-DUI-IAT scores prospectively predicted drunk driving over six months. Due to the low number of offenders, however, Study 1 had low statistical power to test this latter question. In Study 2 (N = 228), we therefore examined the utility of the P-DUI-IAT and a new variant of this test (i.e., the Acceptability of Driving Under the Influence Implicit Association Test; A-DUI-IAT) to prospectively predict drunk driving in an online sample with a high number of offenders. Results from Study 1 show that the P-DUI-IAT predicts self-rated past drunk driving behavior in driving school students (ORs = 3.11-6.12, ps < .043, 95% CIs = [1.11, 37.69]). Results from Study 1 do not show evidence for utility of the P-DUI-IAT to prospectively predict self-rated drunk driving. Results from Study 2, on the other hand, show strong evidence for the utility of both implicit measures to prospectively predict self-rated drunk driving (ORs = 3.80-5.82, ps < .002, 95% CIs = [1.72, 14.47]). Although further applied research is necessary, the current results could provide a first step towards the application of implicit measures in real-world contexts.

A psychometric assessment of the Military Suicide Attitudes Questionnaire (MSAQ)

Suicide rates remain high among military populations. Stigmatizing beliefs about suicide contribute to the problem of heightened suicide risk as a deterrent for help-seeking. Measurement of military suicide stigma is therefore an important gap in the literature as a necessity toward the development of military suicide prevention programming. This paper assessed the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Military Suicide Attitudes Questionnaire (MSAQ). Study 1 featured secondary analysis of a suicide risk dataset from active duty treatment-seeking military personnel (N = 200). Study 2 was a secondary analysis of a statewide assessment of Army National Guard service members’ beliefs about mental health and suicide (N =1116). Factor analyses results collectively supported a four-factor Military Suicide Attitudes Questionnaire (MSAQ) structure: discomfort, unacceptability, support, and empathic views. Subscale reliabilities ranged from 0.77 to 0.83 across samples. Unacceptability and support displayed significant negative correlations with psychological distress. Men displayed more negative suicide-related beliefs compared to women counterparts. Discomfort and unacceptability beliefs displayed significant positive associations with perceived barriers to care. The final short version of the MSAQ is an efficient, multi-dimensional measure of military suicide-related beliefs. The instrument can be used for public health assessment and program evaluation in military settings.

Intentions to advance professional identity attributes among DNP students: The make it POP series leadership pilot program study.

Make It POP (Pathway Optimizing Professionalism) Series (MIPS) leadership educational sessions were developed and taught by the Dean as a curricular focus on professionalism for Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students. Evaluating the association between Behavioral Beliefs, Normative Beliefs, Control Beliefs, and Intention to advance professional identity and values was a focus of this study. A secondary focus was to discern whether these Belief measures and attendance to the MIPS education series were predictive of Intention to increase professional identity and values. Over a two-year period, 227 students were invited to attend the MIPS courses, which included four once per semester sessions. Students were invited to complete a survey structured around the tenants of the Theory of Planned Behavior prior to attending the MIPS and following each session; 91 students completed the survey at least once. A significant relationship was not noted between attendance to one or more MIPS sessions and Intention to advance professional identity and values. Behavioral Beliefs and Control Beliefs had the strongest associations with Intentions, but normative beliefs were not significantly associated with Intentions. Integrating curricular innovation with meaningful engagement and reflection in DNP education may advance DNP student's commitment for sustained professional growth.

Unmarried Black Women's Sexual Socialization: The Role of Dating, Motherhood, and Intimate Partner Violence Across Media Types.

The terms single and singlehood conflate marital (e.g. divorced, widowed, and never married) and relationship (e.g. partnered or not) statuses, complicating researchers’ understandings of their unique impact on women’s lives. Despite qualitative research demonstrating unmarried and unpartnered statuses have distinct implications for women’s sexual socialization, little quantitative research has explored these differences. To address this gap, the current project surveyed 506 unmarried Black women (Mage = 33.02) to explore how common singlehood experiences (dating, motherhood, and intimate partner violence [IPV]) moderated associations between respondents’ media use (television, social media, movies, and magazines) and relationship beliefs. This project focused on Black women because of their high rates of unmarried status and the pervasiveness of media stereotypes of their singlehood. Hierarchical linear regressions and the PROCESS model were used to test two-way interactions of media and singlehood experiences. Ecological systems and cultivation theories guided analyses. Across the dependent variables, media types were differentially associated with measures of relationship beliefs and these associations were differentially moderated by singlehood experiences. Weekly television was the most consistent predictor of relationship beliefs and experience with IPV was the most consistent moderator of associations. Women without partners, children, or experiences of IPV exhibited significant associations between media and relationship beliefs while their more experienced peers did not, suggesting singlehood experiences and media work together to shape unmarried Black women’s sexual socialization, though more work is needed to determine how. Results illuminated key differences between groups of unmarried Black women, complicating current understandings of single status and challenging how singlehood is conceptualized in sexual socialization research.

Between-person methods provide limited insight about within-person belief systems.

Belief systems are individual-level phenomena that describe the interrelationships of the political attitudes of a person. However, the modal study of the structure of political ideologies and beliefs uses cross-sectional survey data to estimate what is central to the belief system or the dimensionality of the belief system, aggregating across many people. Cross-sectional data, however, are ill-suited to the task of studying individual-level phenomena because they contain an unobservable mixture of within-person and between-person variation. In this project, we use longitudinal datasets from the Netherlands (representative) and the United States (convenience), spanning between 6 months and 10 years, to we ask whether between-subjects methods can help us understand the within-person structure of belief systems. First, we use Bayesian STARTS models (Lüdtke et al., 2018) to assess what type of variance cross-sectional studies are likely tapping into. We find that variability in measures of ideology and political beliefs is primarily due to stable between-person differences, with relatively smaller amounts of variation due to within-person differences. Second, we estimate between-person, within-person, and cross-sectional correlations between all items in our study and find that between-person correlations are larger and in some cases differ in their direction from within-person correlations. Furthermore, cross-sectional correlations are most similar to between-person correlations. Taken together, these findings indicate that the modal study may help describe differences between people, but is ill-suited to tell us about the structure of individuals' belief systems. New methods are necessary for a complete understanding of political belief systems that clarify both between- and within-person processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Commentary: Developing a Measure of Inpatient Rehabilitation Treatment Beliefs and Expectations for Youth With Chronic Illness.

Commentary: Developing a Measure of Inpatient Rehabilitation Treatment Beliefs and Expectations for Youth With Chronic Illness.

Boredom belief moderates the mental health impact of boredom among young people: Correlational and multi-wave longitudinal evidence gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

ObjectivesYoung people's experience of boredom and its psychological health sequelae have been exacerbated by the COVID‐19 pandemic. The present study examined the moderating role of boredom beliefs—the extent to which one affectively dislikes boredom (boredom dislike) and cognitively accepts it (boredom normalcy)—on the association between boredom experience and mental well‐being. We also validated a new measure of boredom beliefs in two different samples of young people.MethodWe report data from a correlational study with British young people aged 12–25 (Study 1; N = 2495) and a 16‐week eight‐wave within‐subject study with Israeli adolescents aged 12–18 (Study 2; N = 314).ResultsAcross both studies, disliking boredom was associated with higher frequency and intensity of boredom. Boredom dislike moderated the negative association between boredom and mental well‐being, such that the association was more salient among those who strongly disliked boredom. Normalizing boredom was positively associated with mental well‐being. The measure of boredom beliefs demonstrated fair validity and reliability.ConclusionResults provide novel insights into the potential buffering effect of boredom beliefs against the mental health impact of boredom, particularly at a time of reduced activity. These findings generalize across two different countries.

Spiritual Beliefs, Illness Controllability and Subjective Wellbeing of Breast Cancer Patients

The present study examines the relationship of spiritual beliefs (karma or action, generosity, surrender to almighty, altruism) and illness controllability beliefs (self, doctor, supernatural) with subjective well-being and health outcomes of women patients (N = 100) suffering from breast cancer. Participants were drawn from various medical centers and hospitals located in Varanasi city. These participants were given the measures of spiritual beliefs, illness controllability beliefs, life satisfaction, and health outcomes. Analysis showed a positive association of beliefs in “Karma” and “altruism” with “life-satisfaction” and “positive health outcomes” (e.g., hope, functional wellbeing, treatment satisfaction), and negatively with “pain” and “severity” of illness. “Self” and “doctor-control” showed a positive association with “life-satisfaction”, “hope”, “functional-wellbeing”, and “treatment- satisfaction” and negative with “pain” and “severity”. Beliefs in “Karma” and ‘altruism”, and “self” and “doctor-control” emerged as significant predictors of “life-satisfaction” and “positive health outcomes” of women patients.

The development and validation of the Death Anxiety Beliefs and Behaviours Scale.

Research spanning the fields of clinical, social and health psychology suggests that death anxiety is an important construct. However, no comprehensive, psychometrically adequate measure of the construct exists. The current studies outline the development of a new measure of death anxiety, the Death Anxiety Beliefs and Behaviours Scale (DABBS), which is the first measure to specifically assess unhelpful beliefs and behaviours that may underlie fears of death. In Study 1, items were piloted in a large community sample (N= 505). In Studies 2A and 2B, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed using a treatment-seeking (N= 200) and non-treatment-seeking sample (N= 200). These analyses resulted in the final 18-item scale. The DABBS demonstrated good construct validity, criterion validity, internal consistency and test-retest reliability. In Study 3, the DABBS effectively distinguished participants with clinically significant death anxiety and distress from those without, demonstrating excellent discriminant validity. The present data indicate that the DABBS is a valid and reliable measure of affect, beliefs and behaviours relating to death anxiety, in a community sample of adults and among those seeking mental health treatment. Given the increasing recognition of the importance of death anxiety, the DABBS offers a useful research and clinical tool.

The effect of visual interventions on illness beliefs and medication adherence for chronic conditions: A scoping review of the literature and mapping to behaviour change techniques (BCTs).

Maintaining health with chronic conditions often involves taking multiple medications; however, approximately 50% of patients with chronic conditions are non-adherent to medication. Patients' illness beliefs inform health behaviour, including medication-taking. Research has shown that visuals accompanying health information increased patient comprehension and the accuracy of illness perceptions. To date, the influence of visuals on illness beliefs and medication adherence has not been comprehensively reviewed. The review aimed to collate available literature on visualisation interventions for illness beliefs and medication adherence in chronic conditions and identify key intervention characteristics. A scoping review was conducted according to recommended guidelines and the PRISMA-ScR statement. Searches used keywords relating to 'illness', 'visual', 'adherence', 'illness perception', 'intervention', and 'medication'. Six databases were searched from inception to 2019; reference-list searching provided additional articles. Articles were included if the study population had a chronic health condition, the intervention included a visual element, had a measure of illness beliefs or medication adherence. Data regarding intervention characteristics and outcomes were extracted. Behaviour change techniques (BCTs) were identified to provide further insight into intervention characteristics. Initially, 18,012 articles were identified. Screening led to 293 full-text articles, ultimately resulting in 45 studies for final analysis. Forty-four were quantitative studies, 1 was qualitative. Studies were grouped into those using visuals to conceptualise a condition, medication reminders and educational interventions. Almost two-thirds of visual interventions were effective post-intervention, 3 sustained post-1-year, although many studies only assessed impact immediately post-intervention. BCTs from 'Natural consequences', 'Socialsupport' and 'Feedback and monitoring' categories were prevalent in effective interventions for both outcomes, particularly the 'Salience of consequences' BCT. This comprehensive scoping review found that visual interventions can positively influence illness beliefs and medication adherence. These findings highlight the need to further evaluate the impact and sustainability of visual interventions.

Where would Canadians prefer to die? Variation by situational severity, support for family obligations, and age in a national study

BackgroundDeath at home has been identified as a key quality indicator for Canadian health care systems and is often assumed to reflect the wishes of the entire Canadian public. Although research in other countries has begun to question this assumption, there is a dearth of rigorous evidence of a national scope in Canada. This study addresses this gap and extends it by exploring three factors that moderate preferences for setting of death: situational severity (entailing both symptoms and supports), perceptions of family obligation, and respondent age.MethodsTwo thousand five hundred adult respondents from the general population were recruited using online panels between August 2019 and January 2020. The online survey included three vignettes, representing distinct dying scenarios which increased in severity based on symptom management alongside availability of formal and informal support. Following each vignette respondents rated their preference for each setting of death (home, acute/intensive care, palliative care unit, nursing home) for that scenario. They also provided sociodemographic information and completed a measure of beliefs about family obligations for end-of-life care.ResultsHome was the clearly preferred setting only for respondents in the mild severity scenario. As the dying scenario worsened, preferences fell for home death and increased for the other options, such that in the severe scenario, most respondents preferred a palliative care or hospice setting. This pattern was particularly distinct among respondents who also were less supportive of family obligation norms, and for adults 65 years of age and older.ConclusionsHome is not universally the preferred setting for dying. The public, especially older persons and those expressing lower expectations of families in general, express greater preference for palliative care settings in situations where they might have less family or formal supports accompanied by more severe and uncontrolled symptoms. Findings suggest a) the need for public policy and health system quality indicators to reflect the nuances of public preferences, b) the need for adequate investment in hospices and palliative care settings, and c) continuing efforts to ensure that home-based formal services are available to help people manage symptoms and meet their preferences for setting of death.

The effects of accelerated mathematics on self-efficacy and growth mindset

Student's educational investment decisions are influenced by their beliefs about the returns to study effort and their chances of academic success. This highlights the importance of studying the effects of school policies on students’ beliefs about their ability to learn and achieve. To this end, we examine the effects of accelerated math on students’ self-efficacy and growth mindset, using survey measures of these beliefs. We argue, based on economic theory, that effects on growth mindset should be considered as more important relative to those on self-efficacy. We examine the effects of accelerated math empirically using a difference-in-differences design and find negative effects on both belief measures. However, the effects on growth mindset are much smaller, and in some analyses indistinguishable from zero, although these effects are larger in magnitude for female students. In exploring potential mechanisms, we find accelerated math leads to a precipitous drop in math course grades, with no similar drop in math test performance. Our findings suggest that there may be negative effects of acceleration on important student beliefs, but these effects appear modest. Our work motivates further study of the information environment surrounding these students at the time of acceleration.