Search

The importance of programs that develop the thinking skills of students has been emphasized by many educational researchers. However, the majority of these studies have focused on developing these skills of gifted students and of students in public schools. Few have focused on developing and strengthening such skills in students with learning disabilities. Thus, we aimed to a test a program that elevates thinking skills using a sample who have learning disabilities. A quasi-experimental design was employed with 20 female sixth-grade students with learning disabilities who were divided into an experimental group (n = 10) and a control group (n = 10). The instruments utilized were the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT)-Figural Test B and a training program based on active learning strategies (e.g. discussion, dialogue, brain-storming, mind-mapping) comprising 18 training sessions over 6 weeks. Differences (

Background: Understanding individual differences in psychology, and how they relate to specific addictions, may allow society to better identify those at most risk and even enact policies to ameliorate them. Internet addiction is a growing health concern, a research focus of which is to understand individual differences and the psychology of those most susceptible to developing it. Western countries are strongly overrepresented in this regard. Method: Here, sex and national differences in internet addiction are measured, using Young's ‘Internet Addiction Test,’ in two non-Western countries, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. >800 students aged 18 and 35 years (M = 20.65, SD = 1.48) completed a multidimensional internet addiction instrument. The instrument measures traits such as Withdrawal and Social Problems, Time Management and Performance and Reality Substitute. Results: Analyses revealed that males scored higher than females and Saudis higher than Egyptians on nearly all scales, including the total score. Factor analysis of the 20-item instrument revealed three factors, all exhibiting sex and culture differences. Conclusions: These findings add to the body of evidence that males are higher than females in problematic internet use, as they are in addictive behaviors in general. Our findings may also imply that restrictions on male-female interaction, which are more pronounced in Saudi Arabia, may elevate the prevalence of internet addiction. The internet is also easier and cheaper to access in Saudi Arabia than in Egypt.

The Simber Effect refers to the phenomenon whereby, in Arabic countries, young children have an IQ that is little different from that of Western children but that these differences increase throughout childhood culminating in a difference of around 20 points by adulthood. The true nature of this phenomenon is revealed by an examination of 125 samples from all around the globe measured with Raven's Progressive Matrices. We show that in many cases different speeds of cognitive development increase the IQ score differences between countries mostly between 4 and 9 years of age, and that these increases can in part be explained by poor environmental conditions. However, the patterns are not completely clear, either in terms of regularity or strengths. Methodological problems, in particular the cross-sectional designs of the included samples, as well as the significance of the Simber Effect for country comparisons in intelligence are discussed.

Previous studies have suggested that a general factor exists at the top of the hierarchal structure of personality. One interpretation of this General Factor of Personality (GFP) is that it reflects social effectiveness. Accordingly, in a large employee sample (N = 1267), we tested whether the GFP relates to several outcomes assumed to be linked with social effectiveness. Specifically, we examine whether the GFP is positively related to salary and to obtaining a leadership position. Additionally, we test whether high-GFP employees more often work in social occupations. Controlling for demographics and background variables, it was found that the GFP is indeed positively related to monthly (gross) salary. Moreover, employees occupying leadership positions in organizations scored higher on the GFP. GFP scores of employees in more social occupations (e.g., education, health care) were higher than of employees in other types of jobs (e.g., construction). GFP scores were also positively associated with the extent to which one has to relate to others in the job. Overall, the pattern of findings is in line with the notion of the GFP as relating to social effectiveness or adaptiveness, which are assumed to play a significant role in occupational outcomes.

Performances on tests of creativity have been found to be in decline in the USA. Here, we explore scores on divergent thinking tests in private schools in Khartoum State in Sudan by comparing a 2005 and a 2018 administration of the Torrance Standardized Circles test to 8- to 12-year-olds of both sexes. We find a decline across the period in all three dimensions of the test (Fluency, Flexibility and Originality), as well as in the overall index of divergent thinking. In line with much previous research, females consistently outperform males. Examining previous studies that report Negative Flynn Effects on IQ in Arab countries, we conclude that our results most likely reflect highly localized and exclusively environmental causes, and caution against assuming that the same processes that underlie Negative Flynn Effects in the West, whether on IQ or any trait correlated with it, also underlie it in the Arab World.

Cultural Intelligence (CI) refers to the motivation and ability to understand and deal with cultural differences. As such, it is assumed to play a role in the effectiveness of social contact and communication between people from different cultures. Given its relevance to international relations, it is imperative to test which individual and group factors are associated with CI. Therefore, in the present study we examine cross-cultural and gender differences in CI. In one of their classes at their university, students ( N = 829) from Egypt and Saudi Arabia completed a multidimensional measure of CI. The results showed an interesting pattern of interactions between country and gender, which indicated that Egyptian men did not significantly differ from co-national women, but Saudi men scored significantly lower than women. We suggest that the different patterns of results in the two countries may partly arise from different levels of exposure to different cultures and partly from subtle differences in the constitution of the samples. Knowledge of individual and group differences in cultural intelligence may potentially contribute to explaining differential levels of success in individuals or countries in dealing with cultural differences.

This article will shed new light on the Confession of St Patrick by examining it through the prism of the culture shock model. It will argue that the stages of the saint's conversion broadly follow the stages of culture shock and that some modern examples of culture shock are very similar to religious conversion experience. It will contextualise these observations into the thesis that 'religion' and 'culture' are only clearly distinguished in Western or post-Enlightenment societies, that 'culture' has come to replace God in many modern societies and that a strong divide between the two concepts is not philosophically sustainable. Accordingly, it will apply the modern model of 'culture shock' to Patrick's experience, arguing that it exemplifies this model.

This article aims to make an original contribution to the discussion of the dynamics of social status expression in Finland. Drawing upon fieldwork in Oulu and Kokkola, it will examine how a sample of Finnish people express and play for social status through the objects with which they decorate their homes. It suggests that Finnish social stratification may be undergoing a shift away from correlation with formal education towards identification with broader consumption patterns, especially amongst the young. However, it will also highlight social status-based differences in terms of both forms of expression and touch on how these reflect the evolution of Finnish social stratification and culture more broadly. Keywords: Finland, social status, home, decoration