So far in this course we have dealt entirely with the evolution of characters that are controlled by simple Mendelian inheritance at a single locus. There are notes on the course website about gametic disequilibrium and how allele frequencies change at two loci simultaneously, but we didn’t discuss them. In every example we’ve considered we’ve imagined that we could understand something about evolution by examining the evolution of a single gene. That’s the domain of classical population genetics. For the next few weeks we’re going to be exploring a field that’s actually older than classical population genetics, although the approach we’ll be taking to it involves the use of population genetic machinery. If you know a little about the history of evolutionary biology, you may know that after the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in 1900 there was a heated debate between the “biometricians” (e.g., Galton and Pearson) and the “Mendelians” (e.g., de Vries, Correns, Bateson, and Morgan). Biometricians asserted that the really important variation in evolution didn’t follow Mendelian rules. Height, weight, skin color, and similar traits seemed to

Human biochemical genetics

Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review.

Daniel Kahneman received the Nobel Prize in economics sciences in 2002, December 8, Stockholm, Sweden. This article is the edited version of his Nobel Prize lecture. The author comes back to the problems he has studied with the late Amos Tversky and to debates conducting for several decades already. The statement is based on worked out together with Shane Federik the quirkiness of human judgment. Language: ru

Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics

The author reviews research showing that repetitive thought (RT) can have constructive or unconstructive consequences. The main unconstructive consequences of RT are (a) depression, (b) anxiety, and (c) difficulties in physical health. The main constructive consequences of RT are (a) recovery from upsetting and traumatic events, (b) adaptive preparation and anticipatory planning, (c) recovery from depression, and (d) uptake of health-promoting behaviors. Several potential principles accounting for these distinct consequences of RT are identified within this review: (a) the valence of thought content, (b) the intrapersonal and situational context in which RT occurs, and (c) the level of construal (abstract vs. concrete processing) adopted during RT. Of the existing models of RT, it is proposed that an elaborated version of the control theory account provides the best theoretical framework to account for its distinct

/pdf/constructive-and-unconstructive-repetitive-thought-1cx5otpxi0.pdf

Constructive and Unconstructive Repetitive Thought.

The objective of the present study was to construct and validate a short-form version of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS). Two Dutch samples were used to construct and cross-validate the factorial structure of a 12-item Self-Compassion Scale–Short Form (SCS–SF). The SCS-SF was then validated in a third, English sample. The SCS–SF demonstrated adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ≥ 0.86 in all samples) and a near-perfect correlation with the long form SCS (r ≥ 0.97 all samples). Confirmatory factor analysis on the SCS–SF supported the same six-factor structure as found in the long form, as well as a single higher-order factor of self-compassion. The SCS–SF thus represents a reliable and valid alternative to the long-form SCS, especially when looking at overall self-compassion scores. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Key Practitioner Message:

• The 12-item Self-Compassion Scale–Short Form (SCS–SF) in Dutch and English offers an economical alternative to the long Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) to measure self-compassion. Although the original long form of the SCS is reduced to half, the SCS–SF is reliable and has the same factorial structure as the original scale.

http://depts.washington.edu/uwcssc/sites/default/files/hw00/d40/uwcssc/sites/default/files/Self-Compassion%20Scale.pdf

Construction and factorial validation of a short form of the Self-Compassion Scale.

Most researchers have studied economic performance linked to market orientation, while a lesser interest has been shown in validating this construct’s measure. We present a study of market orientation designed to obtain a valid measure of the market orientation construct. After presenting a theoretical model of market orientation, it is applied to investigate the usefulness of this construct in insurance companies of two European countries. Key features of the research methodology include several rounds of pretesting, multiple informant assessment, and a covariance structure procedure to show the structural validity of a measure of market orientation. The results show that the measure proposed is represented by a factorial structure that can be interpreted as an overall market orientation factor in both populations and a country‐specific additional factor.

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Measuring market orientation in several populations: A structural equations model

Despite the increasing research importance of market orientation in the marketing literature, few comparative studies between the European Union and the USA have been conducted. This limits the understanding of marketing orientation strategy in global markets. Investigates the influence of competitive environments on the uses of market orientation in insurance firms in the EU and the USA and the effects of market orientation on innovations. Using Lambin’s conceptualization of market orientation, our results indicate that, although EU and US insurance firms analyze and react to their environment differently, which in turn is reflected in a differential impact on their degree of innovation, this, however, does not translate into overall market orientation differences across markets, differential relations across markets between overall market orientation and innovation degree and innovation performance. Furthermore, there is a positive impact of overall market orientation on insurance firms’ innovation degree and innovation performance in both the US and EU markets. The managerial implications of these findings seem clear: the magnitude and the effectiveness of the innovation activities of a firm can be enhanced through the adoption of market orientation principles.

/pdf/exploring-the-link-between-market-orientation-and-innovation-2cykvypfen.pdf

Exploring the link between market orientation and innovation in the European and US insurance markets

L. L. Thurstone's (1927) model provides a powerful framework for modeling individual differences in choice behavior. An overview of Thurstonian models for comparative data is provided, including the classical Case V and Case III models as well as more general choice models with unrestricted and factor-analytic covariance structures. A flow chart summarizes the model selection process. The authors show how to embed these models within a more familiar structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. The different special cases of Thurstone's model can be estimated with a popular SEM statistical package, including factor analysis models for paired comparisons and rankings. Only minor modifications are needed to accommodate both types of data. As a result, complex models for comparative judgments can be both estimated and tested efficiently.

/pdf/structural-equation-modeling-of-paired-comparison-and-56magl7x9p.pdf

Structural equation modeling of paired-comparison and ranking data.

Bartholomew and Leung proposed a limited-information goodness-of-fit test statistic (Y) for models fitted to sparse 2(P ) contingency tables. The null distribution of Y was approximated using a chi-squared distribution by matching moments. The moments were derived under the assumption that the model parameters were known in advance and it was conjectured that the approximation would also be appropriate when the parameters were to be estimated. Using maximum likelihood estimation of the two-parameter logistic item response theory model, we show that the effect of parameter estimation on the distribution of Y is too large to be ignored. Consequently, we derive the asymptotic moments of Y for maximum likelihood estimation. We show using a simulation study that when the null distribution of Y is approximated using moments that take into account the effect of estimation, Y becomes a very useful statistic to assess the overall goodness of fit of models fitted to sparse 2(P) tables.

/pdf/limited-information-goodness-of-fit-testing-of-item-response-2ifiu9ucc7.pdf

Limited‐information goodness‐of‐fit testing of item response theory models for sparse 2P tables

http://www.ub.edu/gdne/documents/worry.pdf

Albert Maydeu-Olivares

Papers

Measuring market orientation in several populations: A structural equations model

Exploring the link between market orientation and innovation in the European and US insurance markets

Structural equation modeling of paired-comparison and ranking data.

Limited‐information goodness‐of‐fit testing of item response theory models for sparse 2P tables

Social problem solving and trait anxiety as predictors of worry in a college student population