The White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI) focuses on failing suppression attempts

Experimental studies have produced evidence to suggest that suppressing unwanted thoughts paradoxically results in even more unwanted thoughts. Therefore, suppression is considered to be an inadequate control strategy. Wegner and Zanakos ( 1994; Journal of Personality, 62, 615–640 ) introduced the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI) as a measure to identify people who chronically tend to suppress unwanted thoughts. However, recent studies suggest that the WBSI does not exclusively measure thought suppression, but also addresses the experience of intrusive thoughts. Hence, the WBSI does not seem to measure suppression per se, but rather failing suppression. Three studies elaborate on this idea. In study 1, factor analysis of 674 non‐clinical WBSI scores is found to support the hypothesis that the WBSI addresses both suppression and intrusion. By and large, study 2 replicates these findings in a clinical sample (N=106). In study 3, an alternative suppression questionnaire is introduced, focusing on suppression and intrusions, but also on successful suppression. It is concluded that the WBSI, and thought suppression research in general, is biased toward failing suppression attempts, and has ignored the possibility of successful suppression. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Criterion Validity of the MSI-BPD in a Community Sample of Women

The criterion validity of the McLean Screening Instrument for Borderline Personality Disorder (MSI-BPD; Zanarini et al., Journal of Personality Disorders 17:568–573, 2003) as a quick screening device for borderline personality disorder (BPD) was evaluated alongside the more established Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ Borderline subscale (PDQ-BPD; Hyler 1994) using receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis. Both instruments demonstrated adequate criterion validity with the diagnosis of BPD derived from a clinician-administered diagnostic interview. Optimal cutoffs for each measure were determined using sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios. The previously established cutoff for the MSI-BPD of seven (Zanarini et al., Journal of Personality Disorders 17:568–573, 2003) was confirmed. The current study provides the first support for the use of the MSI-BPD as a screening measure for use in community-based studies of BPD.     

How Introspections Concerning Cloninger’s Concepts of Temperament and Character Influence Eysenckian Personality Structure

Two studies examine the consequences of distinguishing between self-report responses on the Eysenck Personality Profiler (Eysenck et al. The European Journal of Psychological Assessment 8: 109–117, 1992) in terms of Cloninger’s concepts of Temperament and Character (Cloninger et al. Archives of General Psychiatry 50: 975–990, 1993). Character is thought to reflect conscious, maturation-related influences on personality, while Temperament is thought to reflect instinctive, biologically-based influences. In Study one, one-hundred and thirty-three participants (76.6% female) classify primary scales of the Eysenck Personality Profiler as relating to Character or Temperament. Impulsiveness, Anxiety and Aggression are perceived as the most Temperament-based scales, while Responsibility, Manipulativeness and Assertiveness are perceived as the most Character-based scales. In Study two, one-hundred and seventy-seven participants (74.4% female) complete the Eysenck Personality Profiler using the standard response scale, while one-hundred and thirty-eight participants (62.3% female) complete the Eysenck Personality Profiler using a scale which distinguishes between Character and Temperament. Results demonstrate differences in the factor structure and concurrent validity of the Eysenck Personality Profiler when scoring distinguishes between Temperament and Character. We conclude that the concepts of Temperament and Character might usefully be applied to Eysenck’s personality taxonomy.

Antecedent-Focused Emotion Regulation,Response Modulation and Well-Being

The aim of the research was to examine the full range of emotion regulation strategies proposed by the Gross and John (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85:348–362, 2003; John, O. P., & Gross, J. J. (2007). Individual differences in emotion regulation. In J. J. Gross (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 351–372). New York: Guilford) process model of emotional regulation. Seventy-three participants from Australia provided information on their use of emotion regulation strategies, well-being, and emotional intelligence. As predicted by the process model of emotional regulation, antecedent focused regulation strategies were associated with greater well-being. Response-modulation strategies predicted no additional variance in well-being beyond antecedent-regulation strategies. In contrast to past research on the selected response modulation strategy of suppression, in the present research response modulation was not associated with negative well-being outcomes. Individuals higher in emotional intelligence showed more antecedent-focused regulation, a finding congruent with model-based predictions.     

Construct Validity of the Relationship Profile Test: Links with Defense Style in Substance Abuse Patients and Comparison with Nonclinical Norms

One-hundred fourteeen adults undergoing voluntary inpatient treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs) completed the Relationship Profile Test (RPT; Bornstein et al. 2003), and Bond, Gardner, and Christian’s (1983) Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ). Analyses examined gender differences in RPT subscale scores and evaluated patterns of RPT-DSQ correlations in the SUD sample; a secondary analysis compared RPT scores in the present sample with those of Bornstein et al.’s (Journal of Personality Assessment 80:64–74, 2003) nonclinical sample. Results supported the construct validity of the RPT as a measure of destructive overdependence (DO), dysfunctional detachment (DD), and healthy dependency (HD) and provided preliminary clinical norms for the DO, DD, and HD scales. Findings also documented potential limitations of the RPT in SUD patients. Continued evaluation is needed to assess the utility of the RPT in clinical populations.     

Subjective Well-Being in Cities: A Multidimensional Concept of Individual, Social and Cultural Variables

Subjective indicators of well-being have been proposed as guides for development policy since development is not limited to material wealth (Veenhoven, Social Indicators Research, 58:33–45 2002; Diener, Journal of Happiness Studies 7:4–397 2006). Development studies have suffered from a materialistic bias (Easterlin, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 27:35–47 1995). The paper presents a comparative cross-cultural investigation of domains of subjective well-being (SWB) and a global measure of Satisfaction with Life as a Whole (SWLS) in three cities: Bogotá-Colombia; Belo-Horizonte-Brazil and Toronto-Canada. The Personal and National Wellbeing Indexes (PWI and NWI) developed by the International Wellbeing Group (IWG, Cummins, Social Indicators Research 38:303–328 1996; Cummins et al., Social Indicators Network News 69:8 2002) as well as the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS, Diener et al., Journal of Personality Assessment 49:71–75 1985) were applied and successfully validated at the city level. The cities chosen have similar democratic institutions but different cultures and different “objective” indicators of development. Significant differences across cities as well as significant interaction effects were found for the subjective well-being indexes and demographic variables. Based on these results, we propose that NWI may be seen as a contextual antecedent of PWI, consistent with our view that individual evaluations of SWB may be determined by dispositional factors (top-down), context (bottom-up domains) and cultural values. The validation of the subjective well-being indexes in diverse cultural contexts is an important contribution in a field that has been mainly dominated by European, American and Australian samples.     

Unsuccessful suppression is associated with increased neuroticism,intrusive thoughts,and rumination

Studies of thought suppression, the reduction in accessibility for intentionally unrehearsed and actively avoided thoughts, vary dramatically in the level of suppression reported. The purpose of our research was to explore individual differences associated with self-reports of the success, failure, or avoidance of thought suppression in everyday life. Participants completed a survey measuring intrusive thoughts, neuroticism, rumination, and autobiographical knowledge of suppression tendencies and capabilities. Individuals who reported successful suppression were less neurotic, ruminative, and experienced less thought intrusion than individuals who reported unsuccessful suppression attempts. Our findings suggest that the high-ends of the neuroticism and intrusive thought spectrums are occupied by individuals who unsuccessfully attempt to suppress undesirable information, while successful suppressors differ minimally from non-suppressors.     

Exploring Academic Dishonesty among University Students in Barbados: An Extension to the Theory of Planned Behaviour

This paper applies Beck and Ajzen’s (Journal of Research in Personality 25:285–301, 1991) extended version of the theory of planned behaviour model to the decisions of students to engage in academic dishonesty (cheating and lying). The model proposes that students’ intentions to engage in dysfunctional behaviours may be influenced by attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and moral obligation. This study was done using a survey questionnaire of 363 undergraduate students at a West Indian University. Based on the extended version of the theory of planned behaviour, with the exception of subjective norms which only predicted students’ intentions to cheat, it was found that attitudes, perceived behavioural control and moral obligation were significant predictors of students’ intentions to perform academic dishonesty behaviours in the form of cheating and lying. The results of the study have given further support to the use of the extended version of the theory of planned behaviour. Implications are discussed.     

Cognitive contours: recent work on cross-cultural psychology and its relevance for education

This paper outlines new work in cross-cultural psychology largely drawn from Nisbett, Choi, and Smith (Cognition, 65, 15–32, 1997); Nisbett, Peng, Choi, & Norenzayan, Psychological Review, 108(2), 291–310, 2001; Nisbett, The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why. New York: Free Press 2003), Ji, Zhang and Nisbett (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(1), 57–65, 2004), Norenzayan (2000) and Peng (Naive Dialecticism and its Effects on Reasoning and Judgement about Contradiction. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 1997) Peng and Nisbett (Cross-Cultural Similarities and Differences in the Understanding of Physical Causality. Paper presented at the Science and Culture: Proceedings of the Seventh Interdisciplinary Conference on Science and Culture, Frankfort, K. Y. 1996), and Peng, Ames, & Knowles (Culture and Human Inference: Perspectives from three traditions. In: D. Matsumoto (Ed.), Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology (pp. 1–2). Oxford: Oxford University Press 2000). The paper argues that the findings on cultural influences on inference-making have implications for teaching and education generally, and specifically for the debate on conceptions and misconceptions of Asian students studying in western tertiary institutions around the world. The position defended is that, while there seems to be compelling empirical evidence for intercultural differences in thought patterns, these patterns are, for the most part, insignificant in everyday exchanges, though language and culture might subtlety modulate our inference-making at the margins. Linguistic determinism however is not defended. Nonetheless, the evidence provides food for thought, and it needs to inform the recent debates about international students studying overseas.

Incremental Validity of Components of Mindfulness in the Prediction of Satisfaction with Life and Depression

Self-report measures of mindfulness have consistently demonstrated positive relationships with well-being and inverse relationships with depression symptoms. The goal of this study was to extend the existing literature to include a test of the incremental validity of the components of mindfulness (as measured by the four factors of the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills [KIMS]; Baer et al. Assessment, 11, 191–206, 2004) and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS; Brown and Ryan Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822–848, 2003) in the prediction of satisfaction with life (relative to self-esteem) and depression (relative to negative cognitions) among a sample of 365 college students. Results revealed only KIMS Observe accounted for a significant amount variance relative to self-esteem in the prediction of satisfaction with life, and in the prediction of depression symptoms, only KIMS Accept without Judgment accounted for a significant amount of variance relative to negative cognitions. These results are discussed in relation to the measurement of mindfulness and methods used to assess the validity of these scales.     

The construct validity of three entry level personality inventories used in the UK: a cautionary case study

We report an error in “The Construct Validity of Three Entry Level Personality Inventories Used in the UK: A Cautionary Case Study” by Neil Anderson and Deniz S. Ones (European Journal of Personality, 2003, Vol. 17, S39–S66). We also alert the reader to a potential data shift of one data row in the dataset reported on in Anderson and Ones (2003) and provide an alternate table. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Indirect Paper-and-Pencil Measure of Prejudice: A German Version of the Racial Argument Scale

Prejudices against minorities are still a cause of inter-ethnic conflict and violence, although their expression has changed from blatant to more subtle forms. There has been a shortage of valid and reliable German-language scales for the measurement of contemporary racial prejudices. The Racial Argument Scale (RAS; Saucier & Miller Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 35:433–450, 2003) measures contemporary prejudice indirectly by asking respondents to judge how well given arguments support a conclusion. This scale was adapted to the German context with Turks as the target group. A validation study using a diverse sample of German adults (N = 194) attests to the reliability and construct validity of the German RAS (RAS-G). The adapted instrument is thus suitable for the indirect measurement of prejudice in German-speaking samples.     

The metaphysics of rule-following

This paper proposes a causal–dispositional account of rule-following as it occurs in reasoning and intentional agency. It defends this view against Kripke’s (Wittgenstein on rules and private language, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1982) objection to dispositional accounts of rule-following, and it proposes a solution to the problem of deviant causal chains. In the first part, I will outline the causal–dispositional approach. In the second part, I will follow Martin and Heil’s (Philos Perspect 12:283–312, 1998) realist response to Kripke’s challenge. I will propose an account that distinguishes between two kinds of rule-conformity and two kinds of rule-following, and I will defend the realist approach against two challenges that have recently been raised by Handfield and Bird (Philos Stud 140:285–298, 2008). In the third part, I will turn to the problem of deviant causal chains, and I will propose a new solution that is partly based on the realist account of rule-following.     

DO PEOPLE REALLY ADAPT TO MARRIAGE?

Although cross-sectional studies have shown a reliable association between marital status and subjective well-being, a recent longitudinal study [Lucas et al. 2003, Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 84(3), pp.␣527–539] found no support for the idea that happiness increases after marriage. Instead, participants who got married reported short-term increases followed by complete adaptation back to baseline levels of well-being. However, researchers have criticized this study on two grounds. First, these results contradict cohort-based analyses from a nationally representative sample. Second, these analyses do not control for pre-marriage cohabitation, which could potentially inflate baseline levels of well-being. The original data (plus four additional waves) are reanalyzed to address these concerns. Results confirm that individuals do not get a lasting boost in life satisfaction following marriage.The data used in this paper were made available by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). This research was supported by a grant from the Anthony Marchionne Foundation.     

Mindfulness in Iran and the United States: Cross-Cultural Structural Complexity and Parallel Relationships with Psychological Adjustment

In theory, mindfulness has a role to play in resolving intercultural conflicts. This suggestion rests upon the relatively untested presumption that mindfulness operates similarly across cultures. In a test of this presumption, university students from two countries that are often in conflict at the governmental level, Iran (N = 723) and the United States (N = 900), responded to the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (Brown and Ryan Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(4):822–848, 2003), along with an array of other psychological measures. This Mindfulness Scale displayed structural complexities in both societies, but a measurement invariant subscale was nevertheless identified. Similar cross-cultural evidence of concurrent validity was obtained in relationships with wide-ranging measures of adjustment. Nonsignificant linkages with Public Self-Consciousness and Self-Monitoring demonstrated discriminant validity in both societies. These data identified mindfulness as a cross-culturally similar psychological process that could plausibly have a role in resolving intercultural conflicts.     

The Functional Analytic Psychotherapy Rating Scale: a Replication and Extension

Few theories of psychotherapy give direction to the therapist on a moment-to-moment level or make predictions about how specific therapist techniques change client behavior in session. Functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP, Kohlenberg and Tsai in Functional analytic psychotherapy: a guide for creating intense and curative therapeutic relationships. Plenum, New York 1991) provides this direction and prediction. Specifically, FAP claims that client problem behaviors will be displayed in the therapeutic relationship and that the therapist can improve client in-session behavior through differential, contingent responding. Further, it is assumed that these improvements in session can be generalized to out of session relationships. The FAP rating scale (FAPRS) was developed for the purpose of coding in-session client and therapist behaviors in an effort to test FAP’s purported mechanism of change. The current study seeks to replicate and extend initial FAPRS findings (Callaghan et al. in J Contemp Psychother 33:321–339, 2003) regarding mechanism of change and to address transportability. FAPRS coding data from a single successful case of an individual diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder and treated with FAP is presented. Results indicate that the FAPRS system is transportable and are generally supportive of the claim that therapist contingent responding leads to client improvement.     

The Role of Postformal Cognitive Development in Death Acceptance

This research is the first to test the relation between postformal complex thought (PFT) and death acceptance. College students (N = 225) completed the PFT questionnaire (Cartwright et al., J Adult Dev, 2009), the Need for Cognition scale (Cacioppo et al., J Personality Assess 48:3, 1984), and Klug’s Death Acceptance Scale, comprised of death integration and confrontation scales (Klug and Sinha, Omega 18:229–235, 1987). A series of hierarchical regression analyses showed PFT made a significant contribution to death acceptance over the contributions of other cognitive and demographic variables, as predicted. Further, PFT made a significant contribution to death integration but not to death confrontation. These results are consistent with contemporary theories of adult cognitive development and PFT.     

Conscious machines: Memory,melody and muscular imagination

A great deal of effort has been, and continues to be, devoted to developing consciousness artificially (A small selection of the many authors writing in this area includes: Cotterill (J Conscious Stud 2:290–311, 1995, 1998), Haikonen (2003), Aleksander and Dunmall (J Conscious Stud 10:7–18, 2003), Sloman (2004, 2005), Aleksander (2005), Holland and Knight (2006), and Chella and Manzotti (2007)), and yet a similar amount of effort has gone in to demonstrating the infeasibility of the whole enterprise (Most notably: Dreyfus (1972/1979, 1992, 1998), Searle (1980), Harnad (J Conscious Stud 10:67–75, 2003), and Sternberg (2007), but there are a great many others). My concern in this paper is to steer some navigable channel between the two positions, laying out the necessary pre-conditions for consciousness in an artificial system, and concentrating on what needs to hold for the system to perform as a human being or other phenomenally conscious agent in an intersubjectively-demanding social and moral environment. By adopting a thick notion of embodiment—one that is bound up with the concepts of the lived body and autopoiesis (Maturana and Varela 1980; Varela et al. 2003; and Ziemke 2003, 2007a, J Conscious Stud 14(7):167–179, 2007b)—I will argue that machine phenomenology is only possible within an embodied distributed system that possesses a richly affective musculature and a nervous system such that it can, through action and repetition, develop its tactile-kinaesthetic memory, individual kinaesthetic melodies pertaining to habitual practices, and an anticipatory enactive kinaesthetic imagination. Without these capacities the system would remain unconscious, unaware of itself embodied within a world. Finally, and following on from Damasio’s (1991, 1994, 1999, 2003) claims for the necessity of pre-reflective conscious, emotional, bodily responses for the development of an organism’s core and extended consciousness, I will argue that without these capacities any agent would be incapable of developing the sorts of somatic markers or saliency tags that enable affective reactions, and which are indispensable for effective decision-making and subsequent survival. My position, as presented here, remains agnostic about whether or not the creation of artificial consciousness is an attainable goal.     

The Less is More: The 17-Item Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory

In this article the goal was the examination of the factorial structure of a short, Hungarian version of Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI; Zimbardo and Boyd Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1271–1288, 1999) in a sample of 1370 participants, comparing alternative factor structures through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). According to the results the short, 17 item version of ZTPI includes the original five factors and has appropriate model fit indices. Furthermore, it is reliable in terms of internal consistency and temporal stability. In the light of previous ZTPI validations with severe shortcomings, the present results might encourage radical shortening of the original ZTPI scale.     

Personality Psychology in the First Decade of the New Millennium: A Bibliometric Portrait

Nine principal personality psychology journals—Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JPSP), Journal of Personality (JP), Journal of Research in Personality (JRP), European Journal of Personality (EJP), Personality and Individual Differences (PAID), Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (PSPB), Personality and Social Psychology Review (PSPR), Journal of Personality Assessment (JPA), and Journal of Personality Disorders (JPD)—have published 8510 research papers from 2001 to 2010. These papers have been cited 149 108 times (September 2011) by papers published in journals indexed in the Web of Science. Although personality psychologists from the US published the largest number of papers (4924, 57.9%) and had the largest number of citations (101 875, 68.3%), their relative contribution to personality literature has slightly diminished during the first decade of the new millennium. Unlike other countries, personality psychologists residing in the US demonstrated a strong country self‐citation bias: They were about 14% more likely to cite papers which were written by their compatriots rather than non‐US authors in three leading journals JPSP, PSPB, and PSPR. The intensity and pattern of citations indicate that personality psychology indeed occupies one of the core positions at the heart of psychological knowledge. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.