In this study, we developed and evaluated a Swedish version of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI; Zimbardo & Boyd, 1999 ). The original version of the ZTPI was extended by including a Future Negative scale, and the psychometric properties of both versions were examined in a sample of 419 adults aged between 18 and 80 years. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) provided support both for the original five-factor solution proposed by Zimbardo and Boyd (1999 ) in a Swedish sample and for a six-factor solution with the Future Negative scale as an independent factor. These findings extend the original ZTPI and suggest that negative feelings about the future constitute a central dimension of the temporal perspective. The Swedish Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (S-ZTPI) provides a reliable and valid instrument for measuring time perspective in the context of Swedish research and to be beneficial in its application in multiple areas of psychology and related disciplines.

The overall aim of this study was to examine the different self-reported students’ socioeconomic status (SES) measures in the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in comparison to national SES measures obtained from Swedish official registers. A further aim was to determine if the same conclusions could be drawn if different student measures were used to define SES when modelling the students’ TIMSS mathematics achievement. The overall results showed that the choice of SES measures matters. The home educational resource index and books at home from the TIMSS data base were good indicators of SES. We conclude that when one has access to SES information from official registers it is recommended to use it because these measures have less missing information compared with the TIMSS variables.

The aim of this paper was to examine the relationship between Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) mathematics achievement and the two school achievement measures of grades and national test results in Sweden. A further aim was to examine the association of TIMSS mathematics achievement with different subgroups of students. The results show that there is a strong positive relationship between TIMSS mathematics achievement and national tests and obtained grades from both grade 6 and grade 9. Students from more educated homes performed better overall on TIMSS than those from less-educated homes, and the relationships between TIMSS and the school achievement measures were stronger for students from more educated home backgrounds. The school context and the students’ background had an impact on the students’ TIMSS result. The results have implications for how one should view the results from TIMSS as a measure of student mathematics achievement and thus how TIMSS results can be used in a national context.

When equating two tests, the traditional approach is to use common test takers and/or common items. Here, the idea is to use variables correlated with the test scores (e.g., school grades and other test scores) as a substitute for common items in a non-equivalent groups with covariates (NEC) design. This is performed in the framework of kernel equating and with an extension of the method developed for post-stratification equating in the non-equivalent groups with anchor test design. Real data from a college admissions test were used to illustrate the use of the design. The equated scores from the NEC design were compared with equated scores from the equivalent group (EG) design, that is, equating with no covariates as well as with equated scores when a constructed anchor test was used. The results indicate that the NEC design can produce lower standard errors compared with an EG design. When covariates were used together with an anchor test, the smallest standard errors were obtained over a large range of test scores. The results obtained, that an EG design equating can be improved by adjusting for differences in test score distributions caused by differences in the distribution of covariates, are useful in practice because not all standardized tests have anchor tests.

The aim was to revise a statistics course in order to get the students motivated to learn statistics and to integrate statistics more throughout a psychology course. Further, we wish to make students become more interested in statistics and to help them see the importance of using statistics in psychology research. To achieve this goal, several changes were made in the course. The theoretical framework to motivate teaching method changes was taken from the statistics education literature together with the ideas of student-centered learning and Kolb's learning circle. One of the changes was to give the students research problems in the beginning of the course that were used throughout the course and which they should be able to solve at the end of the course. Other changes were to create a course webpage and to use more computer-based assignments instead of assignments with calculators. The students' test results and their answers on the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics, SATS, ( Schau, Stevens, Dauphinee, & Del Vecchio, 1995 Romero, R. Ferrer, A. , Capilla, C. , Zunica, L. Balasch, S. , Serra, V. Alcover, R. (1995). Teaching Statistics to Engineers: An Innovative Pedagogical Experience. Journal of Statistics Education, 41, 3, [Online] (http://ww2.amstat.org/publications/jse/v3n1/romero.html) [Google Scholar] ) together with course evaluations showed that by changing the course structure and the teaching, students performed better, and were more positive towards statistics even though statistics was not their major.