Psychopathy in Children and Adolescents: The Need for a Developmental Perspective

The current paper introduces the special issue on research attempting to extend the construct of psychopathy to child and adolescent samples. Past special sections and reviews have typically focused on the implications of this research for forensic research and practice. The current special issue focuses on topics relevant for integrating this research within the broader literature on childhood psychopathology. Papers included in this special issue focus on the structure of psychopathic traits in youth, the relation of these traits to other important psychopathological and personality constructs in children and adolescents, and the utility of these traits for identifying a distinct subgroup of antisocial youth who differ on important cognitive processes and on the severity and stability of their problem behavior. These empirical works are followed by commentary provided by two prominent scholars who outline the potential importance of the construct for advancing our understanding of childhood psychopathology. In addition, these scholars provide a discussion of important directions for future research.     

Conscientiousness in the classroom: a process explanation

Although the research literature has established that Conscientiousness predicts task performance across a variety of achievement contexts (e.g., ; ), comparatively less is known about the processes that underlie these relations. To the latter end, the current research examines effortful strategies and achievement goals as mediating factors that might explain why people with higher levels of Conscientiousness are predicted to reach higher levels of academic performance. In a longitudinal study, 347 college students completed measures of personality and achievement goals at the beginning of the class, followed by measures of effortful strategies multiple times throughout the semester. Results support the hypothesis that effortful strategies mediate the association between Conscientiousness and academic performance. Moreover, the statistical effects of Conscientiousness were generally independent of achievement goals, but a small portion of the effect was mediated through approach, not avoidance, achievement goals. These results highlight the importance of examining mediating processes between personality and outcomes, and in the case of Conscientiousness, our results suggest that effortful strategies might serve as a useful target for performance-enhancing interventions.     

Antecedents of everyday positive emotions: An experience sampling analysis

The focus of this study is on everyday positive emotions and their relations to critical appraisal antecedents. Following from classical appraisal theory and Pekrun’s (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions, two research questions were addressed, namely whether cognitive appraisals of control and value were related to discrete positive emotions in everyday situations and whether control and value antecedents interact in predicting these emotions. We further investigated whether control/value and positive emotion relations changed as a function of situational factors (achievement vs. non-achievement settings). 50 university freshmen (78% female) were assessed by use of the experience sampling method for a period of 1 week, with intraindividual analyses conducted using a multilevel, idiographic approach. Consistent with our hypotheses, the emotions of enjoyment, pride, and contentment were positively related to control and value appraisals. Further, control and value interacted to predict these positive emotions. The strength of appraisal/positive emotion relations was equivalent across achievement vs. non-achievement settings. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Positive and Negative Affective Dysfunction in Psychopathology

Moods are a constant feature of human experience. Although we all experience good and bad moods, there are individual differences in the propensity to experience positive and negative feeling states. These individual differences are assessed as traits under the terms positive affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA), respectively. Studying the relations between PA, NA, and psychopathology has provided a basic understanding of emotional dysfunction in a range of symptoms and disorders. A substantial body of evidence indicates that general NA is a core feature of many types of psychopathology. In contrast, the relations for general PA are more varied, as it correlates negatively with some disorders but positively with others. Additionally, some research has investigated how more specific components of PA and NA relate to psychological disorders and their symptoms. However, further research of this type is needed to improve our conceptualization of emotional dysfunction across disorders.     

Personality and anxiety disorders: a review

In this article, we summarize research on how normal personality and personality disorder traits may relate to anxiety disorders as predisposing factors, complications, and results of common underlying etiologies. We outline important questions and how these may be addressed through future research using genetically informative longitudinal and other designs, including: Are high neuroticism/cluster C personality traits causally related to the development of anxiety disorders? To what extent does the state of having an anxiety disorder influence the assessment of personality traits? Do high neuroticism/personality disorder traits and anxiety disorders co-occur because of shared genetic and environmental determinants? And, do personality disorder traits add to the prediction of anxiety disorders when normal personality traits are taken into account?     

Students’ achievement values,goal orientations,and interest: Definitions,development, and relations to achievement outcomes

Students’ achievement task values, goal orientations, and interest are motivation-related constructs which concern students’ purposes and reasons for doing achievement activities. The authors review the extant research on these constructs and describe and compare many of the most frequently used measures of these constructs. They also discuss their development during childhood and adolescence. They review the research on the relations of these constructs to achievement outcomes, and their relations to each other both contiguously and over time. Suggestions for future research include testing theoretically derived predictions about how students’ achievement values, goal orientations, and interest together predict various achievement outcomes; and examining how their relations with one another become established and change over time.     

Achievement Emotions: A Control-Value Approach

Emotions are ubiquitous in achievement settings. Apart from test anxiety research and attributional studies, psychological research has neglected these emotions. We argue that more research on the functions, origins, and regulation of achievement emotions is needed, addressing both outcome emotions related to success and failure, such as hope, pride, anxiety, shame, and hopelessness, and activity emotions such as the enjoyment and boredom experienced in achievement settings. Using Pekrun’s (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions as a theoretical framework, we first outline a three-dimensional (object focus × valence × activation) taxonomy of achievement emotions. We then summarize research on the individual and social origins of these emotions, arguing that control appraisals, value appraisals, achievement goals, and related contextual factors are of specific relevance for achievement emotion arousal. Next, the importance of emotions for achievement behavior and performance is addressed. In conclusion, we discuss the regulation and modification of achievement emotions and their relative universality across genders, settings, and cultures.     

Personality and psychopathology: working toward the bigger picture

There are systematic and meaningful links among normal and abnormal personality traits and Axis I and II constructs from the DSM. Nevertheless, much research in this area focuses on pairs of constructs (e.g., the link between personality traits and a specific Axis I disorder), rather than on the broader multivariate structure of the personality-psychopathology domain. We underscore the need for this broader perspective, a perspective that would transcend largely artificial boundaries between current constructs (e.g., normal and abnormal personality). We outline our approach to research from this perspective and we emphasize the internalizing (mood and anxiety) and externalizing (substance use and antisocial behavior) spectra as promising foci for initial research on the joint structure of personality and psychopathology.     

营销人员心理品质的研究及其测评

运用自编的＂营销人员心理品质评定量表＂分析了成功营销人员应具备的七项心理品质,它们分别是自我控制力、社会适应能力、自信心、成就动机、推销技巧,创造性和职业兴趣。结果表明,该量表具有较好的信度与效度,这些心理品质可以作为人员选拔的指标。     

人格特质与认知能力的关系及其年龄差异

人格是影响认知能力的重要因素, 不同的人格特质与认知能力的关系不同, 人格与认知能力的关系在不同年龄阶段也有所不同。当前的研究主要探讨了人格特质与认知能力之间的关系以及不同人格特质对不同认知能力的影响, 并在不同的年龄阶段进行比较。有关不同人格特质对认知能力的影响结果逐渐清晰, 但现有的研究结果存在很多争议。未来可以在人格的稳定性及其对认知能力的影响、人格对认知能力影响的作用机制及其相关影响因素、跨文化研究和研究范式等方面继续深化, 以获取对该研究问题更科学的研究结论。     

Profiling the "pro-environmental individual": a personality perspective

There is considerable scientific interest in the psychological correlates of pro‐environmental behaviors. Much research has focused on demographic and social‐psychological characteristics of individuals who consistently perform such actions. Here, we report the results of 2 studies in which we explored relations between broad personality traits and pro‐environmental actions. Using a wide variety of behavior and personality measures, we consistently found moderate positive relations between Openness to Experience and pro‐environmental activities in both a community sample (Study 1: N = 778) and an undergraduate student sample (Study 2: N = 115). In Study 2, we showed that the effect of Openness on pro‐environmental behaviors was fully mediated by individuals’ environmental attitudes and connection to nature. Our findings suggest that high levels of aesthetic appreciation, creativity, and inquisitiveness, but not personality traits associated with altruism, may have motivated the performance of pro‐environmental actions among our respondents. Implications for intervention development are discussed.     

Personality facets and RIASEC interests: An integrated model

Research examining links between personality and interest have typically focused on links between measures of the five factor model and Holland’s RIASEC types. However, the five factor model of personality can be divided in to a larger set of narrow domain personality scales measuring facets of the ‘big five’ traits. Research in a number of fields indicates that facet scales are effective for clarifying the relationship between personality and other broad constructs, including academic achievement, job performance, stress and coping, and achievement motivation. In the present study links between personality facets and the RIASEC model were examined using property vector fitting. Obtained results are consistent with previous research suggesting that the use of facet-level personality measures can clarify relations between personality and other constructs, and provides new information linking personality facets and interests. The use of facet-level measures of personality expands the range of personality concepts that can be presented to individuals who are exploring career options.     

Perceived control and posttraumatic stress: A temporal model

In this article we present a temporal model for understanding the relations between perceived control and posttraumatic distress. Although perceived control generally is seen as adaptive, a review of the research using a temporal framework reveals that the relations between different types of control and distress vary greatly. Specifically, present and future control tend to be associated with better adjustment and fewer posttraumatic stress disoorder (PTSD) symptoms, whereas past control tends to be unrelated to distress or associated with more distress. Following this review, we outline an agenda for future research on past, future, and present control and posttraumatic distress using our temporal framework and discuss general methodological issues that need to be addressed in future research.     

Type A behavior, achievement striving, and a dysfunctional self-evaluation system

We conducted two experiments to examine the relations among characteristics of how Type A individuals strive for achievement, including goal achievement, self-evaluation, and psychological distress. We evaluated these relations as subjects performed two sequential general information tests. Experiment 1 indicated that achievement striving associated with the Type A behavior pattern is characterized by a tendency to set personal goals in excess of performance and is associated with a low probability of achieving goals. The results of Experiment 2 indicated that the achievement strategy Type A individuals adopted was associated with low self-evaluation of their actual performance. Furthermore, a pre- and postexperiment self-report questionnaire of psychological state suggested that failure to achieve personal goals was related to increased psychological distress. The results of our study suggest that unrealistically high performance standards and failure to achieve personal goals may be a mechanism that triggers the negative psychological states and performance dissatisfaction associated with the Type A behavior pattern. Our study also supports theoretical conceptualizations that excessive achievement striving can act as a potential motivational mechanism but can also have potential pathogenic consequences through misregulation of achievement expectancy and evaluation.     

The contribution of personality traits and self‐efficacy beliefs to academic achievement: A longitudinal study

Background. The personal determinants of academic achievement and success have captured the attention of many scholars for the last decades. Among other factors, personality traits and self‐efficacy beliefs have proved to be important predictors of academic achievement. Aims. The present study examines the unique contribution and the pathways through which traits (i.e., openness and conscientiousness) and academic self‐efficacy beliefs are conducive to academic achievement at the end of junior and senior high school. Sample. Participants were 412 Italian students, 196 boys and 216 girls, ranging in age from 13 to 19 years. Methods. The hypothesized relations among the variables were tested within the framework of structural equation model. Results and conclusions. Openness and academic self‐efficacy at the age of 13 contributed to junior high‐school grades, after controlling for socio‐economic status (SES). Junior high‐school grades contribute to academic self‐efficacy beliefs at the age of 16, which in turn contributed to high‐school grades, over and above the effects of SES and prior academic achievement. In accordance with the posited hypothesis, academic self‐efficacy beliefs partially mediated the contribution of traits to later academic achievement. In particular, conscientiousness at the age of 13 affected high‐school grades indirectly, through its effect on academic self‐efficacy beliefs at the age of 16. These findings have broad implications for interventions aimed to enhance children's academic pursuits. Whereas personality traits represent stable individual characteristics that mostly derive from individual genetic endowment, social cognitive theory provides guidelines for enhancing students’ efficacy to regulate their learning activities.     

Creative Genius as a Personality Phenomenon: Definitions,Methods, Findings,and Issues

Genius first became the subject of scientific inquiry in the early 19th century, and it has continued to attract research interest to the present day. Although genius can be defined as either superlative intelligence or achieved eminence, this review is restricted to the latter definition, and is further confined to creative achievement. The article then describes the main methods for studying creative genius as a personality phenomenon. These methods entail three central dichotomous methodological decisions: single‐case versus multiple‐case samples, qualitative versus quantitative analyses, and direct versus indirect assessments. Next, the main empirical findings are presented with respect to both generic traits and domain‐contingent traits. There follows a brief discussion of three major issues: genetic and environmental influences, additive and multiplicative effects, and individual and situational factors. Given the intrinsic importance of the phenomenon and the many questions still unanswered, creative genius certainly deserves future treatment in personality psychology.     

Personal Explicit Theories of Creativity

In this investigation 143 creativity researchers completed a survey to rate the importance of various traits and developmental influences on creative achievement. They also rated the importance of various topics for future research. Sixteen composite variables were formed from the traits and developmental factors. Behaviors in the Motivational Composite were rated as most important for recognized creative achievement, followed by Problem Finding and Questioning Skills, and traits reflecting Adaptive Cognition. The ratings of the Developmental survey items suggested that Education and Learning were most important for achievement, followed by Cultural and Social factors, and then Family and Early Background. The top five ranked topics for future research included actual creative behavior, motivation and drive, imagery, imagination, and creative products. Group differences were explored, but few differences were found in, comparisons of ratings from researchers who had experience; teaching creativity courses and those who had published a book or article, and those who had not. Similarly, only slight group differences were found for ratings of important research topics. Differences in self-reported creative interests (i.e., writing and music) were related to selected ratings of creative achievement variables and important research topics. In general, the results suggested that researchers believe creativity to be a complex or syndrome which draws from cognitive, affective, social, and perhaps even physical realms. The lack of group differences implies a homogeneity of opinion and consensus with respect to the importance of traits, developmental factors, and research topics.     

Towards a critical psychology of human–animal relations

This article argues that critical psychological engagement with the field of human–animal relations is largely absent, but of potential significance, and begins to outline more concretely what such a perspective might contribute, especially as a form of social psychology. The article provides a brief overview of the emerging psychology of human–animal relations and the extent to which it emphasises situated human–animal interactions in real‐world settings, including from the standpoint of animal participants. Recent elaborations of the “animal turn” outside of the discipline of psychology are considered, as they place fresh emphasis on human–animal interaction and interdependence and might further extend the boundaries of what counts as relations that matter in critical and social psychology. These foundations are argued to offer an invitation to critical psychology to engage more fully in the study of human–animal relations and enliven it as a result.     

Achievement motivation and memory: achievement goals differentially influence immediate and delayed remember-know recognition memory

Little research has been conducted on achievement motivation and memory and, more specifically, on achievement goals and memory. In the present research, the authors conducted two experiments designed to examine the influence of mastery-approach and performance-approach goals on immediate and delayed remember-know recognition memory. The experiments revealed differential effects for achievement goals over time: Performance-approach goals showed higher correct remember responding on an immediate recognition test, whereas mastery-approach goals showed higher correct remember responding on a delayed recognition test. Achievement goals had no influence on overall recognition memory and no consistent influence on know responding across experiments. These findings indicate that it is important to consider quality, not just quantity, in both motivation and memory, when studying relations between these constructs.     

Big fish in big ponds: a multilevel analysis of test anxiety and achievement in special gifted classes

This study analyzes the effects of individual achievement and achievement level of student reference group on test anxiety in a national sample of 769 gifted Israeli students (grade levels 4-9), which was previously investigated by Zeidner and Schleyer (1999a). We hypothesized that when controlling for individual achievement, students' experiences of test anxiety should increase with the increasing ability level of their peer reference group. It was assumed that this effect was largely mediated by reference group effects on academic self-concept (big-fish-little-pond effect). Zeidner and Schleyer found that gifted students within a gifted peer reference group showed higher levels of test anxiety than gifted students within a non-gifted peer reference group. Of note, the present study focused exclusively on gifted students attending special gifted classes. The main research question was whether or not the assumed effects of individual and class achievement can be found for gifted students in special gifted classes when taking the variance of achievement level (grades) of the special gifted classes into account. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) methodology, the assumed effects were vindicated for this special group of high ability students. Thus, in line with previous results, the Worry component of test anxiety was more highly reactive to the effects of individual achievement than the Emotionality component. Also, in line with our theoretical assumptions, achievement/anxiety relations were largely mediated by the effects of academic self-concept.