Hi If you follow Chris's posting on empathy, you will find a link to an empathy quiz that actually includes several items of a cognitive sort (e.g., being able to see both sides of an issue). Here's the link.
http://umichisr.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_bCvraMmZBCcov52&SVID Dick Sorrentino at U of Western Ontario and others have done work on Uncertainty Orientation, and have developed relevant measures. See http://ebooks.iaccp.org/xian/PDFs/5_4Sorrentino.pdf Hofstede's Uncertainty Avoidance might also produce relevant measures. Here's one link in a business context: http://smib.vuw.ac.nz:8081/WWW/ANZMAC2006/documents/Quintal_Vanessa.pdf A final thought would be to look at work on Dialectical Reasoning (e.g., Nisbett and others), which has been used in comparisons of Euros and Asians. I think some caution is needed in measuring tolerance of ambiguity and uncertainty or related constructs, or at least in assuming that it is good to demonstrate these qualities. I do NOT believe that one should always hold that there are two sides to every issue. Indeed, one of the strategies of people promoting a lot of pseudoscience is to assert that one should be open-minded (vs. the close-mindedness of scientists). Do we want our students to learn, for example, that measures of psychological traits should demonstrate reliability and validity to be useful, or is that simply our narrow dogmatic view, which ignores the possibility of a more inclusive way of assessing human qualities? The alternative measures would undoubtedly show a number of qualities far more important (to the critics) than reliability and validity; for example, they would be natural vs. our artificial measures, holistic vs. our reductionistic scales, and so on. Good luck! Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [email protected] >>> "Frantz, Sue" <[email protected]> 28-May-10 4:30:16 PM >>> Hi all, Our department is currently planning for next year's assessment of student learning outcomes. Using this document as a reference, we were looking to evaluate the ability of our students to tolerate ambiguity: http://www.apa.org/ed/governance/bea/curriculum.pdf After much rousing discussion, we're not entirely satisfied with our efforts at designing such an assignment for Intro Psych. Before we throw in the towel or move forward with an assignment none of us are very excited about, I was wondering if anyone else had tackled this one. If so, how did you measure tolerance of ambiguity? Replies off-list are fine. Thanks! Sue -- Sue Frantz <http://flightline.highline.edu/sfrantz/> Highline Community College Psychology, Coordinator Des Moines, WA 206.878.3710 x3404 [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, Associate Director Teaching of Psychology Idea Exchange (ToPIX) APA Division 2: Society for the Teaching of Psychology <http://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/syllabi.php> APA's p...@cc Committee <http://www.apa.org/ed/pcue/ptatcchome.html> --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=2818 or send a blank email to leave-2818-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=2820 or send a blank email to leave-2820-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
