Facet Theory (Louis Guttman)

The term school principals’ self-efficacy has changed over the past three decades because principals’ roles and duties have changed. Given that professional self-efficacy deals with competence in the profession, if the nature of the profession changes, the level of one’s professional self-efficacy will change as well. There have been found connections between self-efficacy and choosing a career and that efficacy is a robust contributor to career development. People seek a match between their interests and occupational environments. Thus, self-efficacy is believed to be a situational rather than a stable trait. Therefore, understanding that the term principals’ self-efficacy includes certain level of confidence in one’s knowledge, skills, and abilities, which are associated with the task of leading. This has a great importance with respect to the overall managing of schools.
Self-efficacy should not be confused with self-esteem or self-concept since it is a task-specific evaluation. In contrast, self-esteem and self-concept reflect more general affective evaluations of the self.
Research on principals’ self-efficacy usually includes measures of multidimensional self- efficacy, which enables to capture the various elements of the principals’ work.
Few studies have been conducted on the measurement of school principals’ self-efficacy, and most of these are based on the quantitative methodology, emphasizing instruments and scales that describe situations and areas of the principal’s work.
Understanding principals’ self-efficacy could assist policymakers with decisions concerning continuing professional development.

The application of information systems has become an important element because of the effectiveness and efficiency that can accelerate performance so as to encourage excellence both financially and networked. This result in the importance of a framework for ensuring that information technology enables maximizing business profits, the risk of information technology being managed appropriately, and that information technology resources are used responsibly, to achieve these objectives careful planning, implementation, support, supervision and evaluation are needed and optimal. Competition in Tight business, now making people do specific strategies to increase profits and still maintain its existence. Many frameworks are used to measure the maturity level of Information technology strategy alignment with an organization's business strategy, one of framework is COBIT (Control Objective for Information and Related Technology). COBIT 5 frameworks provide a solution in implementing IT governance models. This research focuses on the APO02 (manage strategy) and MEA (Monitor, Evaluate and Assess Performance) process MEA01 (Monitor, Evaluate and Assess Performance and Performance) process. The stages of analysis in this study are initiation, Planning the Assessment, Briefing, Data Collection, Data Validation, Process Attribute Level and Reporting the Result as contained in COBIT 5 Assessment Process Activities. This audit uses the Guttman scale to determine the results and Capability Levels of APO02 and MEA01. After the capability level value is obtained, recommendations are prepared as input for managing the information system for receiving life insurance letters using application.

Facet Theory: Searching for structure in complex social, cultural & psychological phenomena
Edited by Antonio Roazzi, Bruno Campello de Souza, Wolfgang Bilsky. – Recife: Editora UFPE, 2015.
Facet Theory (FT) is a meta-theory for designing structural and other theories in the behavioral sciences. Basic assumptions of FT are that social and behavioral concepts are complex constructs and that their study, therefore, requires a systematic design for defining observations and for examining the correspondence between the observations and the theory.  Because such a definitional design should facilitate the evaluation of systematic relations between the data and the theory, it should lead to cumulative results. In the above sense, FT is a systematic approach for coordinating theory and research. 
FT comprises the universe of observations, the population of respondents, and the range of observations. It stratifies these universes by facets and integrates the design by means of a mapping sentence which guides the construction of items and the formulation of hypotheses. Finally, particular multivariate data analysis methods (such as SSA, POSAC, MSA) have been developed to test these hypotheses.
Facet Theory has been successfully applied to a large number of research areas where it has significantly contributed to the discovery and refinement of empirical laws.
Our aims in this book are:
1) To review recent and innovative research results arising from the application of the Facet Theory approach to complex social and psychological issues;
2) To present methodological advances in comparative studies and applications of Similarity Structure Analysis (SSA), Multidimensional Scalogram Analysis (MSA), Factor Analysis (FA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Partial Order Scalogram Analysis (POSAC), and other multivariate procedures and techniques related to FT;
3) To present theoretical advances in Facet Theory and related approaches;
4) To present new reflections on the role of Facet Theory in modern science and in the emergence of new scientific paradigms.

When behavior is interpreted in a reliable manner (i.e., robustly across different situations and times) its explained meaning may be seen to possess hermeneutic consistency. In this essay I present an evaluation of the hermeneutic consistency that I propose may be present when the research tool known as the mapping sentence is used to create generic structural ontologies. I also claim that theoretical and empirical validity is a likely result of employing the mapping sentence in research design and interpretation. These claims are non-contentious within the realm of quantitative psychological and behavioral research. However, I extend the scope of both facet theory based research and claims for its structural utility, reliability and validity to philosophical and qualitative investigations. I assert that the hermeneutic consistency of a structural ontology is a product of a structural representation's ontological components and the mereological relationships between these ontological sub-units: the mapping sentence seminally allows for the depiction of such structure.

The main purpose of this study was to define and conceptualize the term parental involvement. A questionnaire was administrated to parents (140), teachers (145), students (120) and high ranking civil servants in the Ministry of Education (30). Responses were analyzed through Smallest Space Analysis (SSA). The SSA solution among all groups rendered a two dimensional solution with a coefficient of alienation .18. The SSA map clearly divided 44 parental activities into four quadrants. The left and right regents represent the focus of parental activity: The left regent represents in-school activities and the right side represents out-school activities. The upper and lower regents represent the organizational level: The upper regent represents organizational based activities and the lower regent represents student-based activities. The initial findings also demonstrated that parental involvement can be defined by the 44 actions, which are deployed on the SSA map in a polarized facet. The facet includes four elements (separation index 1.00): Resources, school welfare, control processes and pedagogical and wellbeing contents. We now have a better understanding of what constitutes school-related parental involvement; we know that it reflects a broad spectrum of parental actions and activities, which can take place either at school or outside the school. The involvement can be expressed actively or passively, often relating to the school as an organization and often in the personal context of one's own child.

Roazzi, A. & Dias, M.G.B.B. (2001). Teoria das facetas e avaliação na pesquisa social transcultural: Explorações no estudo do juízo moral. Em Conselho Regional de Psicologia – 13a Região PB/RN (Ed.) A diversidade da avaliação psicológica: Considerações teóricas e práticas (pp. 157-190). João Pessoa: Idéia.
A crise de confiança da pesquisa em psicologia social é um ponto que já tem sido objeto de discussão e reflexão a partir dos anos '70 (Argyle, 1969; Armistead, 1974; Bruner, 1976; Gergen, 1973; McGuire, 1973; Levine, 1974). Esta crise foi decorrente principalmente de uma perda de confiança e desilusão em relação a uma abordagem que parecia demasiadamente ligada ao laboratório e muito pouco às situações cotidianas nas quais os processos psicológicos entram em ação. A psicologia em geral e a psicologia social em específico começam a ser vistas como fenômeno social complexo e multifacetado, não sendo possível isolar suas diferentes dimensões sem incorrer no perigo de reducionismos e imprecisões em seu estudo. A questão que se propõe não se refere ao fato de considerar os processos psicológicos e suas representações simplesmente como um reflexo complexo do mundo social externo, mas considerar estes processos como socialmente organizados na mente do indivíduo, sendo impossível a sua decomposição, até mesmo as mais simples.  Contesta-se o excessivo artificialismo de determinadas situações de laboratório (Israel & Tajfel, 1972), a partir das quais a abordagem da psicologia social tinha recebido seus respaldes teóricos como também tinha possibilitado a elaboração de modelos explicativos dos processos sócio-psicológicos. Esta contestação não se limita a aspectos unicamente metodológicos mas considera as próprias bases epistemológicas da investigação em psicologia social (Harré & Secord, 1972). Em uma primeira fase, as possíveis alternativas propostas para sair desta crise, inicialmente, têm apelado para investigações de tipo mais “naturalistas” e uma maior ênfase nos estágios descritivos e pré-experimentais do processo científico.
Mais recentemente, a partir da constatação das desvantagens e limitações dos métodos e procedimentos de análise estatística tradicionais e do desenvolvimento de programas estatísticos mais sofisticados, uma outra alternativa tem sido proposta: o uso de análises escalonares multidimensionais (MDS) (e.g., Canter & Monteiro, 1993; Doise, Clemence and Lorenzi-Cioldi, 1993; Forgas, 1976; Purkhardt & Stockdale, 1993; Roazzi, 1999a e b; Roazzi & Monteiro, 1995; Roazzi, Wilson & Federicci, no prelo). As análises MDS fornecem uma representação geométrica ou espacial das relações entre um conjunto de estímulos, que torna possível uma interpretação significativa  das distâncias entre os estímulos e suas inter-relações. A principal vantagem das análises MDS é possibilitar que o investigador quantifique e descreva de forma precisa fenômenos psicológicos extremamente complexos que não poderiam ser acessíveis através de métodos de análises tradicionais.  As análises referidas permitem ao pesquisador ter acesso às dimensões latentes que descrevem  as relações entre um conjunto representativo de objetos sociais ou psicológicos. O pressuposto central subjacente ao uso na área psicológica de técnicas MDS é que as distâncias ou similaridades psicológicas (entre julgamentos, conceitos, pessoas, construtos, traços, episódios sociais, estereótipos etc.) possam ser representadas e analisadas em termos de distâncias euclidianas (Davidson, 1983; Kruskal & Wish, 1978; Schiftmann, Reynolds & Young, 1981). Como afirma Jackson (1969), após termos estabelecido um paralelo confiável entre distâncias psicológicas e euclidianas, “muitos temos ganhados nas técnicas  disponíveis para analisar  e interpretar dados psicológicos. Podemos abordar impunes áreas em relação as quais somos bastantes ignorantes, armados com métodos de grande precisão e poder” (p. 228). De forma similar e contundentes, Forgas (1980) ressalta que fornecendo uma representação sensitiva e multidimensional de fenômenos psicológicos complexos, “as análises MDS podem ser um importante instrumento para descoberta e uma alternativa excelente às metodologias qualitativas descritivas e jornalísticas atualmente defendidas por alguns críticos. As poucas áreas de pesquisa nas quais as análises MDS têm sido já aplicadas, como a percepção das pessoas, o comportamento político, o estudo da estrutura social, os episódios sociais e o estudo do auto-conceito, têm afetado profundamente a pesquisa. É neste sentido que os métodos MDS podem ser vistos como muito mais do que um outro grupo de técnicas estatísticas. Realmente, elas constituem uma nova e emergente estratégia de pesquisa em psicologia social” (p. 254).
A partir desta premissa, o objetivo deste capitulo é apresentar uso de análises MDS a partir da 'Teoria das Facetas' (TF) – uma metodologia de pesquisa que visa integrar planejamento e análise de dados através de análises MDS, e cujo objetivo primordial é facilitar o conhecimento cumulativo e abrir novas perspectivas e possibilidades para o descobrimento de novas leis em varias áreas de investigação. A TF tem sido inicialmente proposta por Louis Guttman (1954, 1959), em decorrência de sua insatisfação com as acima citadas restrições da Análise Fatorial (Guttman, 1992) e das escalas de avaliação como meios para selecionar itens apropriados na construção de testes. Sua natureza multivariada e não-métrica evita as restrições e imperfeições dos métodos tradicionais. Um recente desenvolvimento da teoria tem contribuído para que ela seja aplicada em inúmeras outras áreas do conhecimento humano (Borg, 1979, 1993; Canter, 1983a,b; Canter & Kenny, 1981; Dancer, 1990; Donald, 1985; Feger & Von Hekher, 1993; Guttman, 1965; Levy, 1985, 1993). Enfim, a finalidade deste trabalho é introduzir para reflexão os pressupostos da TF e uma exemplificação de sua utilização na área de avaliação em uma investigação transcultural sobre o juízo moral.

The authors present a flexible framework for the understanding of international student mobility. The framework is in the form of a mapping sentence, which has been found to be useful to assist in the understanding of areas of complex human behavior. The second author has previously proposed a mapping sentence for understanding international students' issues in general. The present mapping sentence adapts this framework and suggests a series of important dimensions along which international students' mobility issues can be understood. The proposed mapping sentence in this chapter does not offer data or results from empirical research. Rather, the mapping sentence is suggested as a theoretical interpretative device that may be used to bring order and insight to extant and future research in this area. The mapping sentence constitutes a guide for researchers to design consistent flexible research tools to address international student veridical mobility experiences.

Attili, G., Roazzi, A., & Toni, A., Gianfelice, S. di (2011). Children’s family drawings and attachment: A multidimensional scaling approach to study Internal Working Models. In: Y. Fisher & I. A. Friedman (Eds.), New horizons For Facet Theory: Searching for Structure in Content Spaces and Measurement (pp. 111-122). Israel: FTA Publications.  DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3947.0167
The present study was designed to address this point by scoring family drawings of 83 5 to 9 olds whose contemporary expectations related to attachment figures were assessed by Bowlby’s SAT. The drawing attachment-based coding scheme included categories adapted from the pioneer work by Kaplan and Main (1986). By using SSA and the External Variables as Points Technique, many drawings’ features appeared to relate to attachment typologies. The SSA Plot showed a structure based on an axial partitioning of the space having secure and ambivalent groups one on the opposite site of the other one, each having drawings’ specific characteristics. Secure children’s drawings were characterized by the presence of a floor under figures’ feet and by a high proportion between family members. In ambivalent children’s drawings appeared floating figures who were small in their size The avoidant group located in the middle between the previous two groups with a set of drawings’ features either specific (such as big and encapsulated figures, often with barriers in between, lack of body’s parts) either related with secure and ambivalent children’s drawings’ items. Finally, the findings will be discussed in terms of the uses of family drawings to evaluate internal working models on which children’s attachment behaviour is based and their use in clinical psychology and research.

Roazzi, A., Doring, A. K., Gomes, Y. De A., Souza, B.C. De, &  Bilsky, W. (2011). The Emergence of a Value Structure at an Early Age: Cross-Cultural Evidence. In: Y. Fisher & I. A. Friedman (Eds.), New Horizons for Facet Theory: Searching for Structure in Content Spaces and Measurement (pp. 99-110). Israel: FTA Publications. ISBN 978-965-7473-02-3
Schwartz’ (1992) theory on the structure of universal human values has been validated in a large number of studies in the last three decades. Until very recently, however, the empirical investigation of the universals of moral values could not be properly carried out with children due to a lack of adequate instruments. Döring and colleagues (Döring, 2008; Döring, Blauensteiner, Aryus, Drögekamp & Bilsky, 2010) contributed to the overcoming of that gap by developing an instrument capable of assessing values in children: The Picture-Based Value Survey for Children (PBVS-C). The test is a simplified version of the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) that, in order to be suitable for children, has fewer items and makes extensive use of pictures. The current paper will present the results of the first applications of PBVS-C in a sample of 8- to 12-year-old Brazilian children. Using Facet Theory, the SSA structural patterns found in this sample will be compared with the results found by Döring et al. with a similar sample of German children. Finally, the findings will be discussed in terms of the uses of this new instrument with respect to Schwartz’s theory of moral values and the future directions of values research

Typologies are ubiquitous in terrorism studies, illustrating their continued appeal as a tool to further our understanding of this form of political violence. Despite this, to date, the promise of an empirically derived typology has largely been neglected. In addressing this gap, this article sets out a typology developed from Social Movement Theory. Using a novel statistical technique to derive a three-dimensional framework for categorising militant groups, the typology incorporates both organisational characteristics and the wider political context. The result is a typology defined by three conceptual constructs: political capacity, war-making capacity, and network capacity. Alongside these organisational features, imposing measures of the wider political opportunity structure reveals eight types of militant organisation. To explore the utility of the framework, a preliminary analysis interprets the typology in light of the presence of wider conflict. That a robust relationship is found between the various types and whether groups were operating in peacetime, civil war, or low-intensity conflict, goes some way to demonstrating its utility as an analytical tool. Conclusions draw attention to the importance of contextualising militant groups in their socio-political setting, and the benefits of combining theory alongside empirical analysis to develop robust characterisations of violent organisations.

Monteiro, C. M. G., & Roazzi, A. (2009). Polemic Images: Dwellers´ Concepts of Life in Historic Areas. In: Arie Cohen. (Ed.), Facet Theory and Scaling: In Search of Structure in Behavioral and Social Sciences (pp. 99-109). Tel Aviv: Facet Theory Association Press. https://goo.gl/ilxlhZ
This article presents an investigation of people’s images and desires towards life in the historic city center of Recife, a capital city in Northeast Brazil. The study looks for desired urban qualities for the city center according to different population groups. The investigation was designed according to Facet Theory and Multidimensional Statistical Analysis was used analyze the data producing projection for place images according to populations with different social cultural values. Social class and education level seems to be determinant variables explaining why groups do not share a homogeneous view of life in the historical area as well as their different attitudes to move into conservation areas. The results bring into discussion the contributions of environmental studies and theories of place to understand the complexity of urban conservation processes and to better act towards a shared idea of life in historical areas.

Este artigo está dividido em duas partes. Na primeira, é apresentada e discutida a situação da pesquisa básica em psicologia cognitiva no contexto internacional e suas críticas. É examinado também o contexto histórico do surgimento e estabelecimento da psicologia cognitiva através de uma análise crítica do seu paradigma em oposição ao behaviorismo, como também da emergência de um novo paradigma no quadro internacional. Na segunda parte, antes de tudo, discute-se a necessidade de considerar a influência da psicologia cognitiva e seu novo paradigma na psicologia social. Em seguida, esta influência é exemplificada a partir das pesquisas em representação social, enfatizando-se a necessidade cada vez mais importante de se integrar aspectos teóricos e metodológicos na pesquisa. No contexto desta discussão, apresenta-se, à guisa de exemplo, uma investigação sobre satisfação escolar baseada na Teoria da Facetas (uma metodologia de investigação que verdadeiramente procura integrar teoria, planejamento e análise dos dados). Enfim, na tentativa de superar dicotomias, como teoria-método, conceitos-procedimentos, etc., sugere-se um tipo de integração entre métodos de investigação quantitativos e métodos qualitativos.

The term school principals’ self-efficacy has changed over the past three decades because principals’ roles and duties have changed. Given that professional self-efficacy deals with competence in the profession, if the nature of the profession changes, the level of one’s professional self-efficacy will change as well. There have been found connections between self-efficacy and choosing a career and that efficacy is a robust contributor to career development. People seek a match between their interests and occupational environments. Thus, self-efficacy is believed to be a situational rather than a stable trait. Therefore, understanding that the term principals’ self-efficacy includes certain level of confidence in one’s knowledge, skills, and abilities, which are associated with the task of leading. This has a great importance with respect to the overall managing of schools. Self-efficacy should not be confused with self-esteem or self-concept since it is a task-specific evaluation. ...