Comparing Different Approaches for Subtyping Children with Conduct Problems: Callous-Unemotional Traits Only Versus the Multidimensional Psychopathy Construct

The aim of this study was to compare two youth psychopathy models (i.e., callous-unemotional versus multidimensional model) in their ability to predict future and stable conduct problems (CP). At baseline, mothers and fathers of 321 boys and 369 girls (ages 7–12) completed measures that tap callous-unemotional and other psychopathic traits. Parent-reported CP was collected at baseline and at 6- and 12 month follow-ups. Children were assigned to mutually exclusive groups based on their levels of CP and psychopathic traits. Children with CP who manifested callous-unemotional traits (Callous-Unemotional?+?CP) were occasionally at risk for future and stable CP. Yet, across gender, children with CP scoring high on all psychopathic trait dimensions (Psychopathic Personality?+?CP) showed the most robust and highest risk for future and stable CP. Also, Callous-Unemotional?+?CP children, and children who were only high in CP, often were at similar risk for future CP. The findings suggest that the callous-unemotional model is less sufficient than the multidimensional model in predicting future and stable CP. This can be concluded for both boys and girls and calls for more research reconsidering the multidimensional nature of psychopathy for CP subtyping purposes.     

Investigating the Components of Psychopathic Traits in Youth Offenders

Despite widespread acceptance of the importance of psychopathic traits in youth, the relative importance of different components of psychopathy remains controversial. This study was conducted to examine whether the interpersonal and lifestyle facets of psychopathy as measured with a valid clinical measure of psychopathic traits contribute to predicting relevant external criteria on top of the contributions of the affective facet. To address this issue, we conducted multiple regressions predicting antisocial behavior, exposure to violence, and psychopathology in a sample of 225 incarcerated adolescents. Results indicated that ratings on the affective component of psychopathy were important in helping to explain variance in many of the external criterion variables but that ratings on the interpersonal and lifestyle facets also helped to explain unique variance in a range of criteria including violent and non-violent crime, exposure to violence, impulsivity, and anger expression. These studies suggest that multiple components of psychopathy are likely to be important both in predicting real world outcomes and in understanding mechanisms involved in the development and manifestation of these traits.     

Reliable and Valid Coding of Thin Slices of Video Footage: Applicability to the Assessment of Mother-Child Interactions

When using behavioral-observation methods for coding video footage, it is unknown how much time of an interaction needs to be coded to gain results that are representative for the behavior of interest. The current study examined this problem using the INTAKT, a standardized observational measure for assessing the quality of mother-child interactions. Results from coding only 10 min of each video (i.e., thin slices) were compared with results from coding the remaining parts (averaging about 40 min) of the interaction. Inter-rater agreement for the short versions taken from the beginning or the middle, but not the end of the interactions indicated satisfactory observer accuracy. Coding results did not differ between short and long video sequences, when sequences were taken from the middle of the interactions. Importantly, characteristic differences between different interactive situations were equally well represented in the short and long video sequences. Therefore, our results show that coding only 10 min of an interaction is as reliable and valid as coding full-length videos, if those short sequences are taken from the middle of an interaction. Our findings support the idea that for every method, it is necessary to individually determine the window duration that is long enough to gain results that are reliable and valid.     

Executive Functioning Correlates of <Emphasis Type="Italic">DSM-5</Emphasis> Maladaptive Personality Traits: Initial Evidence from an Italian Sample of Consecutively Admitted Adult Outpatients

In order to evaluate the associations between computer-administered tasks of executive functioning (EF), and maladaptive personality domains and traits listed in DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorders, 53 consecutively admitted psychotherapy outpatients (female participants: n?=?27, 50.9%; male participants: n?=?26, 49.1%; participants’ mean age?=?37.28 years, SD?=?11.50 years) were administered the Psychology Experiment Building Language (PEBL) EF tasks and the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5). According to rank-order correlation analyses, a number of non-negligible and specific associations were observed between selected PID-5 scales and indices of participants’ performance on EF tasks. MM robust regression models showed that participants’ performance on computer-administered EF tasks explained a non-negligible amount of variance in selected PID-5 scale scores (median R² value?=?.17). As a whole, our trait-level analyses of PID-5 dimensions suggest the clinical usefulness of integrating self-reports and EF laboratory tasks in routine clinical assessment.     

Still a Hetero-Gendered World: A Content Analysis of Gender Stereotypes and Romantic Ideals in Chinese Boy Love Stories

Boy’s Love (BL) stories are a fictional fantasy textual story that describes a romantic relationship between men. Previous qualitative studies claimed that BL stories have depicted androgynous characters and egalitarian love relationships. The current study undertook a quantitative content analysis of 87 randomly sampled popular Chinese BL stories. Our coding system for coding both the masculinity and femininity of each main character in the selected BL stories was developed based on several previous studies. Gay male characters in BL stories were depicted as either similar to traditional masculine men (i.e., scoring high in masculinity and low in femininity) or similar to traditional feminine women (i.e., scoring high in femininity and low in masculinity). In the romantic relationships, BL stories typically paired a masculine character with a feminine character. In addition, heterosexual romantic ideals were prevalent in BL stories. Such an analysis challenges the previous analysis of BL stories. It suggests that heteronormative gender stereotypes exist in BL stories, even if these stories depict gay male characters and romantic relationships. These findings have important implications for understanding media effects in stereotypes toward gay men in contemporary Chinese society. It also encourages further research on alternative explanations for women’s motivation in reading and writing BL stories.     

The Bromance: Undergraduate Male Friendships and the Expansion of Contemporary Homosocial Boundaries

The present study provides the first known qualitative examination of heterosexual undergraduate men’s conceptualization and experiences of the bromance, outside research on cinematic representations. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 30 undergraduate men enrolled in one of four undergraduate sport-degree programs at one university in the United Kingdom, we find these heterosexual men to be less reliant on traditional homosocial boundaries, which have previously limited male same-sex friendships. Contrary to the repressive homosociality of the 1980s and 1990s, these men embrace a significantly more inclusive, tactile, and emotionally diverse approach to their homosocial relationships. All participants provided comparable definitions of what a bromance is and how it operates, all had at least one bromantic friend, and all suggested that bromances had more to offer than a standard friendship. Participants described a bromance as being more emotionally intimate, physically demonstrative, and based upon unrivalled trust and cohesion compared to their other friendships. Participants used their experiences with romances and familial relations as a reference point for considering the conditions of a bromance. Results support the view that declining homophobia and its internalization has had significantly positive implications for male expression and intimacy. Conclusions are made about the bromance’s potential to improve men’s mental health and social well-being because participants indicate these relationships provide a space for emotional disclosure and the discussion of potentially traumatic and sensitive issues.     

Too Many Boxes,or Not Enough? Preferences for How We Ask About Gender in Cisgender,LGB, and Gender-Diverse Samples

As U.S. society has become more aware of gender identity issues, there has been a push for more inclusive demographic categories that go beyond the traditional gender binary of male/female. In three studies, we assessed the attitudes of U.S. cisgender men and women across sexual orientations (Study 1), heterosexual cisgender men and women (Study 2), cisgender LGB men and women (Study 3), and transgender and gender non-binary individuals across sexual orientations (Study 3) regarding different formats of gender questionnaires. Studies 2 and 3 showed a strong overall preference for the non-binary formats. Across all three studies, preferences for the binary format and objections to the non-binary formats were related to gender-binary beliefs, distinctiveness threat, cisgender and mostly heterosexual male participants, conservative political orientation, and religiosity. These findings suggest that general opposition to utilizing non-binary formats may be influenced by institutionalized binary gender norms and heteronormativity. Across both cisgender and gender-diverse samples, most participants preferred a non-binary gender question format, and gender-diverse individuals overwhelmingly preferred the expanded format. We suggest that those who collect gender data use the expanded format in order to be more inclusive and allow gender-diverse individuals to identify themselves if they choose to do so.     

Menstrual Knowledge and Taboo TV Commercials: Effects on Self-Objectification among Italian and Swedish Women

Despite menstruation being a physiological phenomenon in women’s life, social research has highlighted that there are still many taboos, also conveyed by advertising, which prevent an open discourse on the topic and can have negative impacts on women’s well-being. The present study examined the influence of the exposure to existing TV advertisements for sanitary napkins depicting menstruation as a taboo on self-objectification in women from Italy (n = 160) and Sweden (n = 159). To do so, we also investigated the moderating role of menstrual knowledge in this relationship. Our findings showed that in the Italian sample, exposure to the taboo TV commercial led to more self-objectification especially for participants with lower knowledge of menstruation. These effects did not occur for their Swedish counterparts, showing no differences in self-objectification when women were exposed to the taboo advertisement. The present results are discussed in light of cultural differences in sexual and menstrual education between the two countries. Theoretical and practical implications are drawn.     

The Importance of Knowing your History: Perceiving Past Women as less Agentic than Contemporary Women Predicts Impaired Quantitative Performance

Research on dynamic stereotypes of women has shown that women perceive large differences between contemporary women and women who lived in the past in terms of agentic (or masculine) traits. This temporal discrepancy in agentic attributes of women may suggest that agency is not a stable trait of women and may result in impaired performance in domains associated with agency, such as quantitative reasoning. We propose that women who think that agency has always characterized their gender group would perform better in quantitative tasks. Indeed, we found that as the difference between agency attributed to present and past women decreased, U.S. college women’s (n?=?80) accuracy in a quantitative test increased (Study 1). Further, reading a text about women’s achievements in the history of science reduced the discrepancy between agency attributed to past and present women and had an indirect positive effect on quantitative performance by 150 U.S. college women (Study 2). Findings suggest that women’s participation and performance in science could be improved by raising awareness of women’s historical achievements in male-dominated areas.