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- Do masculine men smell better? An association between skin color masculinity and female preferences for body odorPublication . Carrito, Mariana L.; Santos, Isabel M.; Alho, Laura; Ferreira, Jacqueline; Soares, Sandra C.; Bem-Haja, Pedro; Silva, Carlos Fernandes; Perrett, DavidA recent study claimed face skin color as a sexually dimorphic variable that influences attractiveness preferences in mate choice. Thereby, skin color may assume the role of a mate quality signal influencing attractiveness preferences. As body odor is linked to attractiveness, this study aimed to explore whether the odors of men with more masculine facial skin color would be evaluated more positively than odors from less masculine men. Female raters were presented with body odors of 18 men and were asked to rate them in various characteristics. Multilevel modeling revealed that the odors of the donors with more masculine color were rated not only as more attractive, more pleasant, and sexier, but also healthier. This indicates that odor associated with men with more masculine skin color is attractive, just as other sexually dimorphic traits. Furthermore, we found a negative relation between skin color masculinity and perceived odor maleness. Regarding this last finding, a new discussion is introduced with respect to the influence of cognitive stereotypes in odor judgments. Altogether, the study supports the possibility that chemosensory signals may be communicating signs of mate quality associated with masculinity.
- The Portuguese Third Version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire: Preliminary Validation Studies of the Middle Version among Municipal and Healthcare WorkersPublication . Cotrim, Teresa P.; Bem-Haja, Pedro; Pereira, Anabela; Fernandes, Cláudia; Azevedo, Rui; Antunes, Samuel; Pinto, Joaquim S.; Kanazawa, Flávio; Souto, Isabel; Brito, Elisabeth; Silva, Carlos FernandesA third version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ III) was developed internationally aiming to respond to new trends in working conditions, theoretical concepts, and international experience. This article aims to present the preliminary validation studies for the Portuguese middle version of COPSOQ III. This is an exploratory cross-sectional study viewing the cross-cultural adaption of COPSOQ III to Portugal, ensuring the contents and face validity and performing field-testing in order to reduce the number of items and to obtain insight into the data structure, through classic test theory and item response theory approaches. The qualitative study encompassed 29 participants and the quantitative one 659 participants from municipalities and healthcare settings. Content analysis suggested that minor re-wording could improve the face validity of items, while a reduced version, with 85 items, shows psychometric stability, achieving good internal consistency in all subscales. The COPSOQ III Portuguese middle version proved to be a valid preliminary version for future validation studies with various populations, able to be used in correlational studies with other dimensions.
- Mediating role of compassion fatigue in the relationship between trauma and quality of lifePublication . Rodrigues, Fabiana; Bártolo, Ana; Santos, Isabel M.; Pereira, Anabela; Silva, Carlos Fernandes
- New methodologies for second language assessment : measuring and identifying profiles in migrant school contextsPublication . Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; Silva, Carlos FernandesIn Education, the policy related to immigrant school population is of upmost importance considering the migratory history and the current scenarios of Multilingual classrooms. The research evidence in second language area is a very recent period in science, mainly regarding the assessment concerns and responsiveness. To be inclusive, school professionals needs differentiated tools to assess and place students. The diagnostic evaluation is the first step in educational scientific research, in this field. On one hand, the language assessment in second language context is still a gap in portuguese schools and at research settings; on the other hand, the international scientific research still presents contradictory frameworks regarding standardization of norms and benchmarks to develop tests and scoring. In this work new methodologies are addressed as instrument for school improvement, specifically regarding second language learners. Our research is focused in the development of a diagnostic test to assess proficiency and skills of students in Portuguese language, creating validated measuring and reliable training in this area. Literacy practitioners should be aware of profiles and needs of immigrant students, so far this was not achieved in our national system using oversampling in research studies. Particularly here we will provide an examination of the type of responses that Portuguese language learners present in such second language diagnostic tests, integrating several tasks to ensure enough observations and reliable scores, to determine profiles that inform how to score constructed-response items. This research will be able to describe the type of responses and specific language errors that would be useful as training clues (as rubrics for each content area) to define correct language and grammar to be expected to receive positive scores in the test. Teachers and students are still unfamiliar with these tests and the orientation about fulfilment and scores should be supported by research results and validated material to help to apply specific evaluation to specific responses, in real school contexts.
- Avaliação diagnóstica em contextos migrantes : medidas e formatos de instrumentos nas escolas portuguesasPublication . Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; Silva, Carlos FernandesA investigação na área de língua segunda determinou a necessidade de procedimentos de medição sobre a proficiência e competência. Na primeira fase deste projeto científico, pretende-se aplicar e validar provas selecionadas do corpus de testes internacionais, em alunos locutores de Português Língua não Materna do 1.º, 2.º e 3.º Ciclos, de Lisboa e Aveiro. As provas adaptadas apresentam uma proposta alternativa e complementar aos dispositivos do Ministério da Educação, focando na emergência de instrumentos validados. Algumas provas serão discutidas no sentido da complexidade e singularidade da estrutura de diagnóstico em contexto de avaliação de alunos com experiência migratória.
- Assessment effectiveness for second language learners: predictors, reliability and discriminant profilesPublication . Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; Silva, Carlos FernandesThe main concerns that enhance the empirical studies in assessment of second language learners is to identify the prevalence of second language deficits, the validity of a new test, and to determine specificities and predictors of speakers’ profiles, among other variables (age, home language formal instruction, exposure to second language, first years of schooling, nationality, parent’s profiles). Hypotheses: different language speakers will perform differently in specific tasks in portuguese language, so age, home language, and first language instruction would be main predictors? Strong discriminant achievements could be identified in percentiles 25 and 75? In this post-doctoral research the main goal is to assess new immigrant students from several Portuguese schools to determine cognitive and linguistic profiles. Through new diagnostic test in second language area will be analyzed distinct verbal behaviors and determined cut-offs. Additionally will be evaluated the difficulty and reliability of each task. Method: the instrument was developed with 15 tasks based on international assessment sources such Alberta, TOEFL, DELNA and WMLSR. There is no knowledge of other validated tools to test portuguese immigrant students. Approximately 110 individuals were assessed, with ages between 7 and 17 years old, speakers of romance, indo-aryan, afro-asiatic, slavic, and mandarin languages, and at this phase we are conducting inferential tests (SPSS) to measure profiles and reliability coefficients. The collection of sample is still ongoing. Findings: in one hand, this paper reports preliminary data gathered from a large-scale district study that is examining language proficiency and cognitive performance of immigrants in Portuguese schools. Different language speakers and age groups, with different amounts of instruction in home language, from basic and high schools, will be analyzed regarding lowest and highest performances in picture-naming (1) and semantic relations tasks (2), particularly focusing the vocabulary decoding skills. Findings demonstrate reliable tasks and different student’s profiles, being crucial over proficiency levels identification. In the other hand, prior findings in this area will be expected to be confirmed such as the influence of age and mother tongue. Part of our hypotheses will be rejected considering the youngest learner’s low scores and the creoles language speakers with deficits in specific vocabulary domain. Particular assumptions of literature in this area will be discussed regarding divergent data observed and new insights. Older learners, with instruction in first language, speakers of slavic, mandarin and romance languages presented more positive results and expected greater cognitive profile in second language specific traits. But, other variables should be considered with further examination and with the conclusion of the empirical study. Also implications of results and test feasibility will be discussed for general educational policies and assessment in second language field.
- Attentional bias toward forest fires-related stimuli among firefighters and general populationPublication . Rodrigues, Fabiana; Bártolo, Ana; Santos, Isabel M.; Pereira, Anabela; Silva, Carlos Fernandes
- Pressuposto científico revisitado: aprendizagem diferenciada de acordo com o tipo de escolas e não de acordo com as minorias linguísticasPublication . Figueiredo, Sandra; Martins, Margarida Alves; Silva, Carlos FernandesO fator ‘escola’ é analisado pela literatura científica como crucial na conjuntura da explicação do desempenho cognitivo e linguístico dos alunos com origem na imigração e dos alunos em contexto de aprendizagem de Língua Estrangeira (LE). Porém, existe ainda uma importante lacuna quanto às especificidades dos efeitos que as escolas provocam em termos de desempenho e áreas de desempenho desses alunos, assim como sobre o modo como a escola pode moderar o efeito (no desempenho dos alunos) de outras variáveis paralelas tais como a língua materna e o nível socioeconómico. Também as dimensões do fator escola, como por exemplo os recursos e professores, não foram ainda claramente exploradas. O presente estudo tem como objetivo examinar essas relações de efeito e a predominância de variáveis que expliquem o desempenho e a diferenciação de performance entre grupos de minorias linguísticas que se encontram em condição de aquisição do Português como Língua Segunda (L2). É esperado verificar-se diferenças de desempenho, considerando quatro escolas portuguesas diferenciadas por tipo e qualidade de recursos (com foco no recurso ‘avaliação de proficiência’ dentro das escolas) percebidos pelos professores (i); é esperado que quando o efeito do tipo de escola é controlado, se verifique o aumento da relação de diferença estatisticamente significativa no desempenho entre os grupos não nativos (em várias tarefas de Português como Língua Segunda) dependendo da Língua Materna dos alunos (ii), da nacionalidade dos alunos (iii), e do nível socioeconómico dos alunos (iv). Os resultados obtidos esclarecem sobre a necessidade de diferenciação pedagógica nas escolas com maior recurso a testes de proficiência e a materiais multimédia. O corpus de resultados desta investigação será divulgado em formato de repositório eletrónico nacional com instrumentos e guiões para apoio aos docentes e outros profissionais quanto à construção de metodologias e à verificação de recursos e tarefas validadas nas escolas e respetivas salas de aula
- Um sistema de acompanhamento das crianças (SAC) em jardim-de-infância – Uma via para a diferenciação pedagógica e inclusãoPublication . Santos, Paula; Portugal, Gabriela; Libório, Ofélia; Figueiredo, Aida; Campos Abrantes Bromberg, Natália; Silva, Carlos Fernandes; Gois, SoniaO projecto de investigação-acção Avaliação em Educação Pré-Escolar – Sistema de Acompanhamento das Crianças1 focalizou-se no desenvolvimento de um instrumento para apoio à Prática Pedagógica em contextos de Educação de Infância, facilitando a relação entre as práticas de observação, avaliação e edificação curricular, protagonizadas pelos educadores, como via para a diferenciação pedagógica e inclusão. No enquadramento das Orientações Curriculares para a Educação Pré-Escolar (OCEPE) (ME, 1997) e inspirado no Process-Oriented Child Monitoring System (Laevers, Vandenbusschh, Kog, & Depondt, 1997), o Sistema de Acompanhamento das Crianças (SAC) assenta numa atitude do adulto/educador caracterizada por atenção, respeito e confiança nas competências da criança e propõe um ciclo contínuo de observação – avaliação/reflexão – intervenção, em que as variáveis processuais Implicação e Bem-Estar Emocional são os parâmetros que permitem ao educador continuamente aferir as características contextuais/oportunidades de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento que oferece às crianças – individualizando e optimizando a intervenção. Neste artigo, partilharemos alguns aspectos ilustrativos de virtualidades do SAC na intervenção junto de crianças a experienciar dificuldades emocionais e/ou de desenvolvimento, em contexto de jardim-de-infância.
- Validation of the Compassion Fatigue Short Scale among Portuguese firefightersPublication . Rodrigues, Fabiana; Bártolo, Ana; Sabino, Daniela; Santos, Isabel M.; Pereira, Anabela; Silva, Carlos Fernandes; Boscarino, Joseph; Adams, Richard E.Abstract: This study aimed to adapt the Compassion Fatigue-Short Scale to Portugal and examine the reliability and validity of the Portuguese version of the scale (Pt-CF-Short Scale) among Portuguese firefighters. The factor structure of the Pt-CF-Short Scale was compared to the one-factor model fit and a two-factor model and second-order factor model in a sample of 512 firefighters. Confirmatory factor analysis procedures confirmed the good fit of a second-order factor model with two first-order factors (secondary trauma and job burnout). The Pt-CF-Short Scale showed good internal consistency evidence. The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K-10), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and WHOQOOL-Bref were used as convergent measures to assess psychological distress, anxiety, depression, and interpersonal sensitivity and quality of life, respectively. The measure presented a strong correlation with psychological distress and weak and negative association with quality of life. The Pt-CF-Short Scale contributes to understanding compassion fatigue and its correlates within the context of emergency workers. Results indicate that this scale is a valid and reliable assessment tool in evaluating compassion fatigue.