Steven M Downing
Biographic Data
| ID | 4508810 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steven M Downing |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steven M |
| FAMILY NAME | Downing |
| SIGNATURE | DOWNING S M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ontario Tech University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
(Mis)Representations of Prison
This theoretical inquiry explores how prison-themed video games embody gendered stereotypes about prison and how these portrayals more broadly represent gendered representations serving to create a double-masculinization effect through intersecting masculine gaming cultures and masculinized assumptions about prison. Here, we form conceptual linkages between literature on gaming and gender, prison and gender, and two prior studies on prison-themed…
Virtual Total Control
Previous studies have examined media portrayals of total control and institutionalization in prison, and a few studies have considered the connection between media portrayals and depictions of prison escape attempts. The current inquiry seeks to fill this gap in the literature through an autoethnographic case study of the video game The Escapists, in which players assume the role of an inmate whose ultimate goal is to escape prison amid an enviro…
Virtual Parent-Child Relationships
Studies on parenting and online gaming abound, most of this literature considering the role of parents in educating their children about online safety, maintaining boundaries and limiting time spent online. Embedded within these inquiries is often the assumption that parents live with their children and must balance the physical-virtual divide. Relatively little research has considered the role of the virtual in the lives of parents who do not li…
They're Not Mean Girls If They Are Adult Women
Drawing on a first-hand account from co-author and participant in a recent season of a popular romance-based reality TV show, this study considers how such shows construct and reinforce stereotypes about women's relational dynamics with men and other women. It is argued that through careful production and gender scripting, these typologies are situated within a hierarchy of women's relational interaction that normalizes aggression and bullying am…
Criminality, Interpersonal Proximity and the Stop-Snitching Code
A number of studies have examined the relationship between the ‘code of the street’ and the concept of snitching (that is, informing the police). With some notable exceptions, these studies have generally focused on the pervasiveness of a ‘stop-snitching code’ or ‘code of silence’ among street offenders. In this study we seek to broaden understanding of the stop-snitching code by exploring perceptions of active, former, and non-offenders living i…
Developing and Validating Test Items
Since test items are the building blocks of any test, learning how to develop and validate test items has always been critical to the teaching-learning process. As they grow in importance and use, testing programs increasingly supplement the use of selected-response (multiple-choice) items with constructed-response formats. This trend is expected to continue. As a result, a new item writing book is needed, one that provides comprehensive coverage…
Space, Time, and Reflexive Interviewing
Space and time are concepts familiar to physicists, philosophers, and social scientists; they are operationalized with varying degrees of specificity but are both heralded as important to contextualizing research and understanding individual, cultural, and historical differences in perception and the social construction of reality. Space can range from, at the macro level, geographic region, to at the micro level, the immediate physical surroundi…
Attitudinal and Behavioral Pathways of Deviance in Online Gaming
Using data gathered from a qualitative study of a popular online game, this analysis considers the relationship between online deviance and real deviance, as well as the relationship between social control in the online setting and its subsequent impact on real world beliefs and behaviors. Findings suggest that three pathways of connectivity prevail in the current setting. Each pathway has in common the role of a transition block that promotes th…
Validity
Context All assessments in medical education require evidence of validity to be interpreted meaningfully. In contemporary usage, all validity is construct validity, which requires multiple sources of evidence; construct validity is the whole of validity, but has multiple facets. Five sources – content, response process, internal structure, relationship to other variables and consequences – are noted by the Standards for Educational and Psychologi…
A Review of Multiple-Choice Item-Writing Guidelines for Classroom Assessment
A taxonomy of 31 multiple-choice item-writing guidelines was validated through a logical process that included two sources of evidence: the consensus achieved from reviewing what was found in 27 textbooks on educational testing and the results of 27 research studies and reviews published since 1990. This taxonomy is mainly intended for classroom assessment. Because textbooks have potential to educate teachers and future teachers, textbook writers…
How Many Options is Enough for a Multiple-Choice Test Item
Textbook writers often recommend four or five options per multiple-choice item, and most, if not all, testing programs in the United States also employ four or five options. Recent reviews of research on the desirable number of options for a multiple-choice test item reveal that three options may be suitable for most ability and achievement tests. A study of the frequency of acceptably performing distractors is reported. Results from three differ…
Space, Time, and Reflexive Interviewing
Space and time are concepts familiar to physicists, philosophers, and social scientists; they are operationalized with varying degrees of specificity but are both heralded as important to contextualizing research and understanding individual, cultural, and historical differences in perception and the social construction of reality. Space can range from, at the macro level, geographic region, to at the micro level, the immediate physical surroundi…
Attitudinal and Behavioral Pathways of Deviance in Online Gaming
Using data gathered from a qualitative study of a popular online game, this analysis considers the relationship between online deviance and real deviance, as well as the relationship between social control in the online setting and its subsequent impact on real world beliefs and behaviors. Findings suggest that three pathways of connectivity prevail in the current setting. Each pathway has in common the role of a transition block that promotes th…
(Mis)Representations of Prison
This theoretical inquiry explores how prison-themed video games embody gendered stereotypes about prison and how these portrayals more broadly represent gendered representations serving to create a double-masculinization effect through intersecting masculine gaming cultures and masculinized assumptions about prison. Here, we form conceptual linkages between literature on gaming and gender, prison and gender, and two prior studies on prison-themed…
Virtual Total Control
Previous studies have examined media portrayals of total control and institutionalization in prison, and a few studies have considered the connection between media portrayals and depictions of prison escape attempts. The current inquiry seeks to fill this gap in the literature through an autoethnographic case study of the video game The Escapists, in which players assume the role of an inmate whose ultimate goal is to escape prison amid an enviro…
They're Not Mean Girls If They Are Adult Women
Drawing on a first-hand account from co-author and participant in a recent season of a popular romance-based reality TV show, this study considers how such shows construct and reinforce stereotypes about women's relational dynamics with men and other women. It is argued that through careful production and gender scripting, these typologies are situated within a hierarchy of women's relational interaction that normalizes aggression and bullying am…
How Many Options is Enough for a Multiple-Choice Test Item
Textbook writers often recommend four or five options per multiple-choice item, and most, if not all, testing programs in the United States also employ four or five options. Recent reviews of research on the desirable number of options for a multiple-choice test item reveal that three options may be suitable for most ability and achievement tests. A study of the frequency of acceptably performing distractors is reported. Results from three differ…
A Review of Multiple-Choice Item-Writing Guidelines for Classroom Assessment
A taxonomy of 31 multiple-choice item-writing guidelines was validated through a logical process that included two sources of evidence: the consensus achieved from reviewing what was found in 27 textbooks on educational testing and the results of 27 research studies and reviews published since 1990. This taxonomy is mainly intended for classroom assessment. Because textbooks have potential to educate teachers and future teachers, textbook writers…
Validity
Context All assessments in medical education require evidence of validity to be interpreted meaningfully. In contemporary usage, all validity is construct validity, which requires multiple sources of evidence; construct validity is the whole of validity, but has multiple facets. Five sources – content, response process, internal structure, relationship to other variables and consequences – are noted by the Standards for Educational and Psychologi…
Attitudinal and Behavioral Pathways of Deviance in Online Gaming
Using data gathered from a qualitative study of a popular online game, this analysis considers the relationship between online deviance and real deviance, as well as the relationship between social control in the online setting and its subsequent impact on real world beliefs and behaviors. Findings suggest that three pathways of connectivity prevail in the current setting. Each pathway has in common the role of a transition block that promotes th…
Developing and Validating Test Items
Since test items are the building blocks of any test, learning how to develop and validate test items has always been critical to the teaching-learning process. As they grow in importance and use, testing programs increasingly supplement the use of selected-response (multiple-choice) items with constructed-response formats. This trend is expected to continue. As a result, a new item writing book is needed, one that provides comprehensive coverage…
Space, Time, and Reflexive Interviewing
Space and time are concepts familiar to physicists, philosophers, and social scientists; they are operationalized with varying degrees of specificity but are both heralded as important to contextualizing research and understanding individual, cultural, and historical differences in perception and the social construction of reality. Space can range from, at the macro level, geographic region, to at the micro level, the immediate physical surroundi…
Criminality, Interpersonal Proximity and the Stop-Snitching Code
A number of studies have examined the relationship between the ‘code of the street’ and the concept of snitching (that is, informing the police). With some notable exceptions, these studies have generally focused on the pervasiveness of a ‘stop-snitching code’ or ‘code of silence’ among street offenders. In this study we seek to broaden understanding of the stop-snitching code by exploring perceptions of active, former, and non-offenders living i…
Virtual Parent-Child Relationships
Studies on parenting and online gaming abound, most of this literature considering the role of parents in educating their children about online safety, maintaining boundaries and limiting time spent online. Embedded within these inquiries is often the assumption that parents live with their children and must balance the physical-virtual divide. Relatively little research has considered the role of the virtual in the lives of parents who do not li…
They're Not Mean Girls If They Are Adult Women
Drawing on a first-hand account from co-author and participant in a recent season of a popular romance-based reality TV show, this study considers how such shows construct and reinforce stereotypes about women's relational dynamics with men and other women. It is argued that through careful production and gender scripting, these typologies are situated within a hierarchy of women's relational interaction that normalizes aggression and bullying am…
(Mis)Representations of Prison
This theoretical inquiry explores how prison-themed video games embody gendered stereotypes about prison and how these portrayals more broadly represent gendered representations serving to create a double-masculinization effect through intersecting masculine gaming cultures and masculinized assumptions about prison. Here, we form conceptual linkages between literature on gaming and gender, prison and gender, and two prior studies on prison-themed…
Virtual Total Control
Previous studies have examined media portrayals of total control and institutionalization in prison, and a few studies have considered the connection between media portrayals and depictions of prison escape attempts. The current inquiry seeks to fill this gap in the literature through an autoethnographic case study of the video game The Escapists, in which players assume the role of an inmate whose ultimate goal is to escape prison amid an enviro…
Psychology (11 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Psychometric Methodologies and Testing (4 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (3 works) · Criminology (3 works) · Digital Games and Media (3 works) · Student Assessment and Feedback (3 works)