Authoritarianism Beyond Disposition: A Literature Review of Research on Contextual Antecedents

in Frontiers in Psychology (2021), 12

A core debate in authoritarianism research relates to the stability of authoritarianism, i.e., whether it is a dispositional phenomenon socialized in early childhood or even genetically predisposed, or ... [more ▼]

A core debate in authoritarianism research relates to the stability of authoritarianism, i.e., whether it is a dispositional phenomenon socialized in early childhood or even genetically predisposed, or whether it is impacted by time-sensitive, exterior conditions. Whereas certain individual authoritarian tendencies emerge as a rather stable personality trait, there is also empirical evidence for a dynamic influence of external factors. This review article provides a conceptual multilevel framework for the study of authoritarianism and offers an insight into the state-of-research on socialization and situational influences, with a particular focus on threat. Findings are discussed with regard to key theories of authoritarianism. [less ▲]

A Typical Case Report: Internet Gaming Disorder Psychotherapy Treatment in Private Practice

in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (2021), 18(4),

Background: Online or internet gaming disorder (IGD) is currently not recognized as a mental disorder in the actual Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), although it is an ... [more ▼]

Background: Online or internet gaming disorder (IGD) is currently not recognized as a mental disorder in the actual Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), although it is an emerging disease. Non-substance-related addictions often have similarities with substance addictions. It is therefore important to have a good understanding of the client but also to have a good endurance. Due to the rise of e-sports, there is an anticipated and therefore possible trend to have many more patients with a non-substance addiction. There are many parallels, for instance tolerance, withdrawal and social problems, resulting from an increasing investment of time spent on the internet. Case presentation: To reduce possible inhibition in treating a patient with IGD, we present a case of a 19-year-old adolescent man who exhibited IGD and showed social problems associated with his addiction. Conclusions: This paper shows the importance and the effects of treating a non-substance addiction with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). After having successfully coped with an addiction, several shifts in addiction were often reported. In this case, no shifts were reported. The absence of such shifts makes our case a distinct and unique case. This is not a multimorbidity case, and that is the reason why we think this is an excellent example to show what we achieved, how we achieved it, and what we could establish. Of course, additional research and manuals are urgently needed. [less ▲]

Schule und soziale Ungleichheit

in Hascher, Tina; Idel, Till-Sebastian; Helsper, Werner (Eds.) Handbuch Schulforschung (2021)

Die Bedeutung der Schule als Bildungsinstitution nahm mit der Einführung der Schulpflicht im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert in vielen Regionen Europas zu. Aus der Industrialisierung in den europäischen Ländern ... [more ▼]

Die Bedeutung der Schule als Bildungsinstitution nahm mit der Einführung der Schulpflicht im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert in vielen Regionen Europas zu. Aus der Industrialisierung in den europäischen Ländern ergab sich einerseits die Notwendigkeit der Alphabetisierung der breiten Bevölkerung und andererseits – im Zuge der zunehmenden Arbeitsteilung sowie Trennung von Erwerbs- und Reproduktionssphäre – die Kinder während der Arbeitszeit der Eltern zu betreuen. Infolgedessen entwickelte sich seit dem ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert mit etlichen Vorläufern ein differenziertes staatlich geregeltes Bildungs- und Betreuungssystem. Bildung begann somit als Alphabetisierungs- und Betreuungsnotwendigkeit und höhere Bildung blieb bis in die Weimarer Republik (und teilweise bis in die Anfänge der Bundesrepublik im westlichen Teil Deutschlands) meist nur Jungen und Männern aus bürgerlichen und wohlhabenden Familien vorbehalten. Erst im Zuge der Modernisierungsprozesse des 20. Jahrhunderts wandelte sich Schulbildung zu einem Allgemeingut. Im Zuge der „Bildungsexpansion“, dem Ausbau von Bildungseinrichtungen und einer zunehmenden Bildungsnachfrage, die auch mit einer differenzierten Ausbildung und Qualifikation von Personal einherging, ist Schulbildung notwendige Voraussetzung für alle folgenden Qualifikationen in der Berufs- ebenso wie der Hochschulbildung geworden. Seitdem hat sich die Schule als wichtiges gesellschaftliches Subsystem etabliert und neben den eingangs erwähnten anfänglichen Aufgaben übernimmt Schule bedeutsame Funktionen für den Fortbestand der Gesellschaft. Schule hat sich nicht nur zu einer Bildungsanstalt, sondern auch zu einem Berechtigungswesen entwickelt, das Bildungschancen zuweist, die zentrale Voraussetzungen für den späteren Berufserwerb, Status, Einkommen sind. Letztere Aspekte sind wiederum mit weiteren Lebenschancen eng verknüpft, zum Beispiel politischer Partizipation, Gesundheit und Lebenserwartung. Im Folgenden wird der Beitrag nach begrifflich-theoretischen Bestimmungen von sozialer Ungleichheit und Bildungsungleichheit auf historische Meilensteine der Schulforschung eingehen. Anschließend werden zentrale Themen und Befunde der aktuellen Schulforschung zur sozialen Ungleichheit – von Merkmalen von Schüler*innen auf der individuellen Ebene über Lehrpersonen und Elternhaus hin zu Schulkulturen, Schüler*innenkomposition und Bildungssystem auf höheren Analyseebenen – in sechs Abschnitten näher ausgeführt. Zum Schluss geben wir einen Ausblick auf Trends und Desiderate. [less ▲]

Observing Many Researchers Using the Same Data and Hypothesis Reveals a Hidden Universe of Uncertainty

E-print/Working paper (2021)

How does noise generated by researcher decisions undermine the credibility of science? We test this by observing all decisions made among 73 research teams as they independently conduct studies on the ... [more ▼]

How does noise generated by researcher decisions undermine the credibility of science? We test this by observing all decisions made among 73 research teams as they independently conduct studies on the same hypothesis with identical starting data. We find excessive variation of outcomes. When combined, the 107 observed research decisions taken across teams explained at most 2.6 of the total variance in effect sizes and 10 of the deviance in subjective conclusions. Expertise, prior beliefs and attitudes of the researchers explain even less. Each model deployed to test the hypothesis was unique, which highlights a vast universe of research design variability that is normally hidden from view and suggests humility when presenting and interpreting scientific findings. [less ▲]

How Many Replicators Does It Take to Achieve Reliability? Investigating Researcher Variability in a Crowdsourced Replication

E-print/Working paper (2021)

The paper reports findings from a crowdsourced replication. Eighty-four replicator teams attempted to verify results reported in an original study by running the same models with the same data. The ... [more ▼]

The paper reports findings from a crowdsourced replication. Eighty-four replicator teams attempted to verify results reported in an original study by running the same models with the same data. The replication involved an experimental condition. A “transparent” group received the original study and code, and an “opaque” group received the same underlying study but with only a methods section and description of the regression coefficients without size or significance, and no code. The transparent group mostly verified the original study (95.5%), while the opaque group had less success (89.4%). Qualitative investigation of the replicators’ workflows reveals many causes of non-verification. Two categories of these causes are hypothesized, routine and non-routine. After correcting non-routine errors in the research process to ensure that the results reflect a level of quality that should be present in ‘real-world’ research, the rate of verification was 96.1 in the transparent group and 92.4 in the opaque group. Two conclusions follow: (1) Although high, the verification rate suggests that it would take a minimum of three replicators per study to achieve replication reliability of at least 95 confidence assuming ecological validity in this controlled setting, and (2) like any type of scientific research, replication is prone to errors that derive from routine and undeliberate actions in the research process. The latter suggests that idiosyncratic researcher variability might provide a key to understanding part of the “reliability crisis” in social and behavioral science and is a reminder of the importance of transparent and well documented workflows. [less ▲]

Changes in school alienation profiles among secondary school students and the role of teaching style: Results from a longitudinal study in Luxembourg and Switzerland

in International Journal of Educational Research (2020), early online

What students think about school has a major impact on learning and academic achievement. The multi-domain concept of school alienation distinguishes between alienation from learning, from teachers and ... [more ▼]

What students think about school has a major impact on learning and academic achievement. The multi-domain concept of school alienation distinguishes between alienation from learning, from teachers and from classmates. We aim to study a) alienation patterns among secondary school students, b) how school alienation profiles change from year 7 to year 9 and how secondary school students transition between profiles, and c) the role of teaching style for transitions between school alienation profiles. We draw on panel data of secondary school students from Luxembourg and Switzerland. Results of latent profile/latent transition analyses reveal distinct school alienation profiles, country differences and support for the idea that student-oriented, supportive teaching styles might prevent students from transitioning towards more-highly alienated profiles. [less ▲]

Rezension – Julia Reuter, Markus Gamper, Christina Möller, & Frerk Blome (Hrsg)

in Diskurs Kindheits- und Jugendforschung (2020), 15(3), 343-344

School alienation and academic achievement in Switzerland and Luxembourg: a longitudinal perspective

in Social Psychology of Education (2020), 23

Early adolescence represents a particularly sensitive period in the life of young learners, which is accompanied by an increase in school alienation. Due to its harmful nature (Hascher and Hadjar in Educ ... [more ▼]

Early adolescence represents a particularly sensitive period in the life of young learners, which is accompanied by an increase in school alienation. Due to its harmful nature (Hascher and Hadjar in Educ Res 60:171–188, 2018. https ://doi.org/10.1080/00131 881.2018.14430 21), school alienation may lead to unfavorable consequences such as low academic achievement (Johnson in J Educ Technol Soc8:179–189, 2005; Reinke and Herman in Psychol Schools 39:549–559, 2002). This study investigates the longitudinal relationship between school alienation domains, namely alienation from learning, from teachers, and from classmates, and academic achievement among secondary school students of grade 7 to grade 9 in Switzerland and Luxembourg. Data were collected from 403 students in the Swiss canton of Bern and 387 students in Luxembourg who participated in three waves of the “School Alienation in Switzerland and Luxembourg (SASAL)” research project. Cross-lagged modeling was applied to examine the correlations between school alienation domains and academic achievement at each of the three time points, the temporal stability of school alienation domains and academic achievement, and their cross-lagged effects across time, controlling for students’ gender, school track, parental occupational status, and migration background. Results show that the pattern of relationships is defined by the school alienation domain and the cultural context, pointing to the complex interplay between the multidimensional construct of school alienation and academic outcomes of secondary school students. [less ▲]

Why are male students less likely to opt for social science courses? A theory-driven analysis

in International Social Work (2020), early online

In this article, we discuss the question of why only a few men decide to study social science courses such as social work. While the conceptual base of our analysis includes the theory of planned ... [more ▼]

In this article, we discuss the question of why only a few men decide to study social science courses such as social work. While the conceptual base of our analysis includes the theory of planned behaviour and theories centring on gender role orientations, the empirical base is a random cluster sample of high-school graduates in Switzerland. The results show different gender effects, as well as direct and indirect effects, for all the theory of planned behaviour factors. Gender role orientations and the question of how a social science profession fits one’s own gender identity appear to be of particular importance only among male students. [less ▲]

The social stratification of student trajectories in German higher education

Poster (2019, March 22)