Iasonas Lamprianou | University of Cyprus (original) (raw)

Uploads

Papers by Iasonas Lamprianou

Supplemental material, Supplementary_Material-final for The longitudinal stability of rating char... more Supplemental material, Supplementary_Material-final for The longitudinal stability of rating characteristics in an EFL examination: Methodological and substantive considerations by Iasonas Lamprianou, Dina Tsagari and Nansia Kyriakou in Language Testing

Language Testing, 2020

This longitudinal study (2002–2014) investigates the stability of rating characteristics of a lar... more This longitudinal study (2002–2014) investigates the stability of rating characteristics of a large group of raters over time in the context of the writing paper of a national high-stakes examination. The study uses one measure of rater severity and two measures of rater consistency. The results suggest that the rating characteristics of individual raters are not stable. Thus, predictions from one administration to the next are difficult, although not impossible. In fact, as the membership of the group of raters changes from year to year, past data on rating characteristics become less useful. When the membership of the group of raters is retained, the community of raters develops more stable characteristics. However, “cultural shocks” (low retention of raters and large numbers of newcomers) destabilize the rating characteristics of the community and predictions become more difficult. We propose practical measures to increase the stability of rating across time and offer methodologi...

Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 2018

Research Papers in Education, 2018

Research has shown that consistent family support improves higher education (HE) students' chance... more Research has shown that consistent family support improves higher education (HE) students' chances for adjustment and graduation but family over-involvement negatively affects students' well-being. We theoretically bridge three largely disjointed bodies of literature (namely, family 'support' , 'involvement' and 'over-involvement') and show that families of undergraduate students very often engage in roles traditionally reserved for lower levels of education. Through a large-scale, quantitative university student survey in two universities in Cyprus, we empirically show that the three bodies of literature should be unified, because family involvement in HE is better conceptualised and operationalised as a continuum. We further suggest that family involvement in HE can be split into two qualitatively different and empirically not significantly related constructs: rearguard and front line family involvement. In addition, the students seem not only to approve, but also encourage more family involvement (even 'overinvolvement'), and state that they would like their families to provide them not just with more financial help, but with more emotional support as well. The discussion extends to include an analysis of students' perceptions of university actors' attitudes towards family involvement.

International Studies Review, 2018

Political Psychology, 2018

The way emotions affect political behavior has been a central theme in politics since ancient tim... more The way emotions affect political behavior has been a central theme in politics since ancient times, but it is only in the past few decades that it has been the focus of rigorous empirical inquiry. Recent empirical research suggests that emotions may affect different groups of people in distinct ways, but experimental evidence remains scant. Through a double-blind experiment, this article investigates the degree to which emotions (shame and anger) motivate people with different levels of political sophistication to be more politically active. The findings are twofold: (1) Once treated with shame, more sophisticated individuals are more likely to change their political behavior than less sophisticated ones; and (2) once treated with anger, it is people with low levels of prior political involvement who are more likely to report a change in their behavior. The findings highlight the potential of going beyond the existing investigations by adding shame in empirical analyses of how emotions affect behavioral change. The evidence here also shows that different emotions might display different patterns of interaction with sophistication. Practically, the findings point to an emotional venue for the mobilization of citizens who are generally difficult to engage in political life.

South European Society and Politics, 2016

Abstract This article examines the effect of institutional grievances on extreme right voting by ... more Abstract This article examines the effect of institutional grievances on extreme right voting by using an original survey to analyse voter support for the Greek Golden Dawn (GD). The article first examines various theories of extreme-right voting and then develops the concept of institutional grievances. Using structural equation modeling, it shows that that the strongest correlates of GD voting are those capturing institutional grievances. Economic grievances have a limited and cultural grievances a moderate effect on GD voting. The article compares the findings with those of the broader literature on extreme-right voting. It concludes with some suggestions on how to link the findings with broader developments in Europe.

International Journal of Testing, 2015

The purpose of this article is to explore crossing differential item functioning (DIF) in a test ... more The purpose of this article is to explore crossing differential item functioning (DIF) in a test drawn from a national examination of mathematics for 11-year-old pupils in England. An empirical dataset was analyzed to explore DIF by gender in a mathematics assessment. A two-step process involving the logistic regression (LR) procedure for detecting uniform and nonuniform DIF was applied to identify crossing DIF. The results showed 36 uniform and 19 nonuniform statistically significant gender DIF items. Out of the 19 nonuniform DIF items, 10 items were crossing DIF. We explained nonuniform DIF using the crossing point in item characteristic curves and the LR-DIF coding scheme. This study showed that crossing DIF exists in empirical data and the findings from this study provide a potentially valuable contribution in understanding such items.

Government and Opposition, 2014

The economic crisis has meant that radical left parties in Europe have been faced with changing s... more The economic crisis has meant that radical left parties in Europe have been faced with changing socioeconomic environments. In this study we examine how European radical left parties have responded to the crisis in terms of their societal mobilization strategies and seek to explain their responses. Discussions in the relevant literature advocate that party-specific characteristics matter greatly in how parties mobilize in society and establish relations with social groups in times of stability. But do they continue to be as important at times of dramatic change, when new realities emerge in society? We look at the cases of the Greek (Greek Communist Party and Coalition of the Radical Left), Irish (Sinn Féin), Portuguese (Portuguese Communist Party and Bloco) and Spanish (Spanish Communist Party/United Left) radical left parties, which are alike at the country level but exhibit differences at the party level. Utilizing data from an original expert survey, we show that both ideology a...

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 2009

European Political Science Review, 2015

So far little has been done to explore similarities and differences between radical left parties ... more So far little has been done to explore similarities and differences between radical left parties and other traditionally perceived party families of the left at the societal level. A noticeable gap thus remains in the study of the European radical left: whether and in what ways social divides form the basis of radical left party support. Using data from the fourth round of the European Social Survey (2008), for five West European countries, we investigate radical left party supporters’ socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics, juxtaposing them with those of social democratic party supporters and green party supporters. Our approach departs from related studies by distinguishing three cognitional operations within the economic left-right axis, that are based on the distinction between ideals and their effects on reality; and by testing for intra-left divides revolving around trust. Based on insights from cleavage research, we devise a number of hypotheses, most of which test positively. Our findings suggest left party families across Western Europe do reflect certain lines of division in society, albeit with qualifications. While structural divides are not found to be significant, there appears to be correspondence between political and attitudinal divides on a three-dimensional space. These concern the cognitive divisions within the economic left-right axis, issues of political trust and attitudes towards the environment. Our findings have conceptual and empirical implications both for the left and for investigations into cleavage politics.

Work, Employment & Society, 2013

Higher Education (HE) is a major determinant of economic and social development, and thus, many c... more Higher Education (HE) is a major determinant of economic and social development, and thus, many countries strive to remain competitive through relevant national education strategies. HE is also relevant for the production and reproduction of a social class system and it is mediated to realities and discourses on the knowledge society and knowledge capitalism (PFIE, 2006).

Democracy in Transition, 2012

Private Tutoring Across the Mediterranean, 2013

Supplemental material, Supplementary_Material-final for The longitudinal stability of rating char... more Supplemental material, Supplementary_Material-final for The longitudinal stability of rating characteristics in an EFL examination: Methodological and substantive considerations by Iasonas Lamprianou, Dina Tsagari and Nansia Kyriakou in Language Testing

Language Testing, 2020

This longitudinal study (2002–2014) investigates the stability of rating characteristics of a lar... more This longitudinal study (2002–2014) investigates the stability of rating characteristics of a large group of raters over time in the context of the writing paper of a national high-stakes examination. The study uses one measure of rater severity and two measures of rater consistency. The results suggest that the rating characteristics of individual raters are not stable. Thus, predictions from one administration to the next are difficult, although not impossible. In fact, as the membership of the group of raters changes from year to year, past data on rating characteristics become less useful. When the membership of the group of raters is retained, the community of raters develops more stable characteristics. However, “cultural shocks” (low retention of raters and large numbers of newcomers) destabilize the rating characteristics of the community and predictions become more difficult. We propose practical measures to increase the stability of rating across time and offer methodologi...

Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 2018

Research Papers in Education, 2018

Research has shown that consistent family support improves higher education (HE) students' chance... more Research has shown that consistent family support improves higher education (HE) students' chances for adjustment and graduation but family over-involvement negatively affects students' well-being. We theoretically bridge three largely disjointed bodies of literature (namely, family 'support' , 'involvement' and 'over-involvement') and show that families of undergraduate students very often engage in roles traditionally reserved for lower levels of education. Through a large-scale, quantitative university student survey in two universities in Cyprus, we empirically show that the three bodies of literature should be unified, because family involvement in HE is better conceptualised and operationalised as a continuum. We further suggest that family involvement in HE can be split into two qualitatively different and empirically not significantly related constructs: rearguard and front line family involvement. In addition, the students seem not only to approve, but also encourage more family involvement (even 'overinvolvement'), and state that they would like their families to provide them not just with more financial help, but with more emotional support as well. The discussion extends to include an analysis of students' perceptions of university actors' attitudes towards family involvement.

International Studies Review, 2018

Political Psychology, 2018

The way emotions affect political behavior has been a central theme in politics since ancient tim... more The way emotions affect political behavior has been a central theme in politics since ancient times, but it is only in the past few decades that it has been the focus of rigorous empirical inquiry. Recent empirical research suggests that emotions may affect different groups of people in distinct ways, but experimental evidence remains scant. Through a double-blind experiment, this article investigates the degree to which emotions (shame and anger) motivate people with different levels of political sophistication to be more politically active. The findings are twofold: (1) Once treated with shame, more sophisticated individuals are more likely to change their political behavior than less sophisticated ones; and (2) once treated with anger, it is people with low levels of prior political involvement who are more likely to report a change in their behavior. The findings highlight the potential of going beyond the existing investigations by adding shame in empirical analyses of how emotions affect behavioral change. The evidence here also shows that different emotions might display different patterns of interaction with sophistication. Practically, the findings point to an emotional venue for the mobilization of citizens who are generally difficult to engage in political life.

South European Society and Politics, 2016

Abstract This article examines the effect of institutional grievances on extreme right voting by ... more Abstract This article examines the effect of institutional grievances on extreme right voting by using an original survey to analyse voter support for the Greek Golden Dawn (GD). The article first examines various theories of extreme-right voting and then develops the concept of institutional grievances. Using structural equation modeling, it shows that that the strongest correlates of GD voting are those capturing institutional grievances. Economic grievances have a limited and cultural grievances a moderate effect on GD voting. The article compares the findings with those of the broader literature on extreme-right voting. It concludes with some suggestions on how to link the findings with broader developments in Europe.

International Journal of Testing, 2015

The purpose of this article is to explore crossing differential item functioning (DIF) in a test ... more The purpose of this article is to explore crossing differential item functioning (DIF) in a test drawn from a national examination of mathematics for 11-year-old pupils in England. An empirical dataset was analyzed to explore DIF by gender in a mathematics assessment. A two-step process involving the logistic regression (LR) procedure for detecting uniform and nonuniform DIF was applied to identify crossing DIF. The results showed 36 uniform and 19 nonuniform statistically significant gender DIF items. Out of the 19 nonuniform DIF items, 10 items were crossing DIF. We explained nonuniform DIF using the crossing point in item characteristic curves and the LR-DIF coding scheme. This study showed that crossing DIF exists in empirical data and the findings from this study provide a potentially valuable contribution in understanding such items.

Government and Opposition, 2014

The economic crisis has meant that radical left parties in Europe have been faced with changing s... more The economic crisis has meant that radical left parties in Europe have been faced with changing socioeconomic environments. In this study we examine how European radical left parties have responded to the crisis in terms of their societal mobilization strategies and seek to explain their responses. Discussions in the relevant literature advocate that party-specific characteristics matter greatly in how parties mobilize in society and establish relations with social groups in times of stability. But do they continue to be as important at times of dramatic change, when new realities emerge in society? We look at the cases of the Greek (Greek Communist Party and Coalition of the Radical Left), Irish (Sinn Féin), Portuguese (Portuguese Communist Party and Bloco) and Spanish (Spanish Communist Party/United Left) radical left parties, which are alike at the country level but exhibit differences at the party level. Utilizing data from an original expert survey, we show that both ideology a...

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability, 2009

European Political Science Review, 2015

So far little has been done to explore similarities and differences between radical left parties ... more So far little has been done to explore similarities and differences between radical left parties and other traditionally perceived party families of the left at the societal level. A noticeable gap thus remains in the study of the European radical left: whether and in what ways social divides form the basis of radical left party support. Using data from the fourth round of the European Social Survey (2008), for five West European countries, we investigate radical left party supporters’ socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics, juxtaposing them with those of social democratic party supporters and green party supporters. Our approach departs from related studies by distinguishing three cognitional operations within the economic left-right axis, that are based on the distinction between ideals and their effects on reality; and by testing for intra-left divides revolving around trust. Based on insights from cleavage research, we devise a number of hypotheses, most of which test positively. Our findings suggest left party families across Western Europe do reflect certain lines of division in society, albeit with qualifications. While structural divides are not found to be significant, there appears to be correspondence between political and attitudinal divides on a three-dimensional space. These concern the cognitive divisions within the economic left-right axis, issues of political trust and attitudes towards the environment. Our findings have conceptual and empirical implications both for the left and for investigations into cleavage politics.

Work, Employment & Society, 2013

Higher Education (HE) is a major determinant of economic and social development, and thus, many c... more Higher Education (HE) is a major determinant of economic and social development, and thus, many countries strive to remain competitive through relevant national education strategies. HE is also relevant for the production and reproduction of a social class system and it is mediated to realities and discourses on the knowledge society and knowledge capitalism (PFIE, 2006).

Democracy in Transition, 2012

Private Tutoring Across the Mediterranean, 2013

Symeou, L. & Lamprianou, J.

Before presenting some of the research methods commonly used for the investigation of social phen... more Before presenting some of the research methods commonly used for the investigation of social phenomena, it would be useful to examine how different social researchers interpret the concepts of 'valid' and 'rigorous' research. There are two main schools of thought: the qualitative and the quantitative. These two main research paradigms (as we will hence call them), draw their claims from different philosophical perceptions about how people gain scientific knowledge and what constitutes valuable and valid knowledge. Without involving too much philosophy in this chapter, it suffices to say that the quantitative research paradigm is based on the use of 'hard data ' (i.e. numbers, statistics, graphs) to answer questions through describing, quantifying and measuring facts of life. On the other hand, the qualitative paradigm assumes a 'softer' approach to our world: the qualitative researcher tries to answer his/her questions through words, pictures, feelings, body language and human activity. Being more practical and concrete, the use of quantitative methods could entail questionnaire or telephone surveys, experiments and structured observations. These data collection methods are called on when the aims and the questions of the research are descriptive and explanatory. The researcher will then use statistics to analyse the data and he/she will present the results in the form of statistical jargon, numbers and graphs.

International Studies Review, 2018

Extending cue theory and arguments about heuristics, in this article we argue that in the Europea... more Extending cue theory and arguments about heuristics, in this article we argue that in the European Union (EU) member states, trust in the EU acts as a proxy for trust in the United Nations. While existing studies have shown that citizens take cues from national political institutions in order to form an opinion about institutions at the transnational and international level, this study illuminates why and shows how the same is done from the EU to the international level. It further shows that the less politically aware citizens are, the more likely they are to use the EU as a proxy for assessing institutional structures at the international level. The findings suggest that the sociological legitimacy of international organizations should be assessed in a more nuanced manner that takes into consideration regional institutions. This is a methodologically instructive paper, drawing on several waves of the European Social Survey and additionally employing an elaborate replication design, confirming our main findings using empirical data from four international studies, with alternative question wordings, different question order and different response formats.