Several statistical models exist to study panel dropouts with respect to the underlying missing data mechanism. The paper discusses two models which extend the classical growth curve model: the selection model and the pattern mixture model. Specific variants of these models are applied with five-wave data from a criminological panel study. The selection model shows that the observed variable has an influence on the rate of panel dropouts within the same panel wave when the average delinquency rate has its peak. In this case the dropout process is not missing at random. With decreasing delinquency the results suggest that the dropout process is missing at random. In addition, the pattern mixture model is able to identify the class of respondents with the highest amount of dropouts which are also those ones which reach the highest delinquency rates in the entire time range of the study.
Assessment of change in patient-reported outcomes may be invalidated by the occurrence of response shift. Response shift refers to a change in a respondent’s internal standards that may cause changes in observed variables that are not directly related to change in the construct of interest. An established approach for detecting response shift in the area of health-related quality of life (HRQL) is to administer a retrospective pre-test (then-test). In this study, the then-test was incorporated in the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to (1) compare the then-test approach and the SEM approach in their decomposition of observed change and (2) to test the underlying assumptions of the then-test approach. In an application to HRQL data of 170 cancer patient sundergoing invasive surgery, we found that both approaches revealed a similar pattern of decomposition, although there were some differences in the size and direction of change. With regard to the underlying assumptions of the then-test approach, results showed: (1) no evidence for recall-bias (Recall Assumption supported for all scales), (2) that internal standards of measurement were not invariant across post- and then-test measures (Consistency Assumption rejected for four out of nine scales), and (3) that internal standards were not only affected by the recalibration type of response shift (Recalibration Assumption rejected for three out of nine scales). Valid approaches for detecting response shift and the consequences assessing changes in HRQL should be further investigated.
This study examines the educational power of edutainment software for young children. A theoretically justified checklist is presented, based on literature about characteristics of powerful learning environments. The checklist can be used to evaluate characteristics of edutainment (online) games for children in order to obtain an overview of the power of educational software as a powerful learning environment. eight Dutch edutainment games for young children were selected based on two criteria: the educational aspect of the game and the child’s recommended age. This article suggests that current Dutch edutainment software does not seem to meet the theoretical requirements for powerful learning environments. The current checklist can help designers of new edutainment games to improve the educational quality of edutainment software.
This study expands upon previous findings that justice plays an important role in shaping cooperation with the group. The authors argue that specific aspects of procedural justice can act differently and encourage varying degrees of norm-following compliance behaviours and voluntary helping behaviours. Specifically, when employees perceive their supervisors as neutral and fair in their decision-making, the employees should particularly increase their compliance with norms and expectations. When employees perceive their supervisors as treating them respectfully, the employees should particularly increase their voluntary efforts to help the group or organisation. Results of a longitudinal field study in an organisational context revealed support for these predictions. (Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 65, 146-154).
Recent research on justice in organisations has demonstrated the importance of justice perceptions for a wide range of organisational outcomes. This article examines the role of justice perceptions in the context of organisational change. First, the relevance of organisational justice during organisational change is discussed. Next, a review is presented of the literature on organisational justice and employee reactions to organisational change, whereby justice is considered either an antecedent or consequence of change reactions. Finally, several guidelines for future research are proposed. ( Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 65 , 127-135.)
The purpose of this paper is to study the relation between fairness considerations and tax compliance attitudes and intentions. Data from a large panel survey among small business owners in the Netherlands were analysed. Besides a number of background and control variables the questionnaire contained measures of personal norms, procedural and distributive justice, tax compliance attitudes and intentions to comply with tax rules. Results support the hypothesis that personal norms and justice concerns are related to tax compliance attitudes. Moreover, analyses confirm the hypothesis that distributive fairness positively affects both tax compliance attitudes and intentions to comply among entrepreneurs with relatively low personal norms, while distributive justice has no significant effect among entrepreneurs with high personal norms. Implications of these results for research on tax compliance and for tax policy are discussed. (Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 65, 136-145).
This paper introduces the idea of justice as a social regulation tool to explain why justice information has such a significant impact in our social lives. Our approach holds that justice shapes people’s social self, motivations and behaviour and therefore has to be considered fundamentally social in nature. Given our unique position as social animals, it is concluded that justice as an important social concern classifies as an important regulation tool in our social lives. (Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 65, 114-117).
For decades, the effects of achievement goals on various aspects of individual task performance have been examined. Although these goals are often pursued in social contexts, surprisingly little research has focused on interpersonal effects of achievement goals. One process that is particularly important for successful task performance is the exchange of information between individuals, because by doing so people can profit from their collective task-related knowledge and skills. In this paper, the author reviews extant achievement motivation research that focuses on interpersonal processes. In addition, the results of recent studies on the effects of achievement goals on information exchange processes are presented and discussed. ( Netherlands Journal of Psychology 65, 53-61.)
Previous studies demonstrated that positive implicit attitudes toward alcohol, assessed with unipolar Implicit Association Tests (IATs), are related to drinking behaviour while negative implicit alcohol attitudes are not. However, because the IAT is a relative measure, the present study aimed at replicating these findings with non-relative unipolar Single Target-IATs (ST-IATs). Further, participants performed ST-IATs with either alcohol or beer as the target concept. Because we only included regular beer drinkers in this study, it was expected that scores on the beer ST-IAT would be more strongly related to drinking behaviour than scores on the alcohol ST-IAT. Consistent with previous findings, both alcohol and beer ST-IATs supported the coexistence of positive and negative implicit alcohol-related attitudes. Further, correlational analyses showed that positive implicit attitudes toward beer were related to drinking behaviour, while negative implicit attitudes were not. Implicit attitudes toward alcohol, in contrast, were unrelated to drinking behaviour. Hence, these findings suggest that the beer ST-IAT assessed more behaviour-relevant implicit attitudes compared with the alcohol ST-IAT. Implications and limitations of these results are discussed and suggestions for future research are given in the discussion. (Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 65, 10-21.)
