Individual versus provided constructs, cognitive complexity and extremity of ratings in person perception

Abstract.— Bruner & Tagiuri's (1954) concept of implicit personality theory, and Kelly's (1955) theory of personal constructs were used as a basis for a hypothesis that an individual's own constructs mediate more differentiated perceptions of other people than constructs provided by the experimenter. The hypothesis was tested by using four indices of cognitive complexity and one index of extremity of ratings to measure differentiation. The individual constructs were derived by using Reptest. The provided constructs were Semantic Differential and Personality Differential scales. The subjects were 36 psychology students. Two experimenters were employed to control experimenter effects. The data did not support the hypothesis but showed that differences between individual constructs and provided constructs are dependent upon which criterion is chosen to contrast the two types of constructs, which indices are used to measure the chosen criterion, and what type of provided constructs are compared with individual constructs.     

The native mind: biological categorization and reasoning in development and across cultures

This article describes cross-cultural and developmental research on folk biology: that is, the study of how people conceptualize living kinds. The combination of a conceptual module for biology and cross-cultural comparison brings a new perspective to theories of categorization and reasoning. From the standpoint of cognitive psychology, the authors find that results gathered from standard populations in industrialized societies often fail to generalize to humanity at large. For example, similarity-driven typicality and diversity effects either are not found or pattern differently when one moves beyond undergraduates. From the perspective of folk biology, standard populations may yield misleading results because they represent examples of especially impoverished experience with nature. Certain phenomena are robust across populations, consistent with notions of a core module.     

The Relationship Between the Constructs of Religiousness and Prejudice: A Structural Equation Model Analysis

Research examining the connection between religiousness and prejudice has used scales exclusively as proxies for the underlying constructs. Scholars in the psychology of religion, however, are ultimately concerned about the nature of religious constructs and their relationships with other variables, and the use of scales provides only indirect information concerning these constructs. To overcome this limitation, structural equation modeling (SEM) allows researchers to gather information about the relationship among constructs directly. The present study used SEM to examine the relationship between religion and prejudice using four of the most important and heavily researched constructs in the psychology of religion: religious commitment, orthodoxy, fundamentalism, and openness, as well as their relationships with three types of prejudice: racial, sexual orientation, and religious. The strongest results revealed that religious commitment, orthodoxy, and fundamentalism were linked positively with sexual orientation prejudice, whereas religious openness was linked negatively with that type of prejudice. Other religiousness–prejudice relationships were weaker and also more complex.     

工作记忆训练对药物成瘾者认知功能的改善及其机制

对处于戒断期的各类药物成瘾群体进行认知训练，训练后药物成瘾个体认知能力得到改善，成瘾症状也得到了一定缓解。认知训练能够加速药物成瘾者大脑受损区域的自发性恢复，尤其是使影响个体抑制控制能力的中脑边缘多巴胺系统和前额叶系统发生功能性和结构性的积极变化，实现药物成瘾个体高级认知能力的改善。今后可以从不同类别的药物成瘾是否全部具有可逆性，设置的认知训练任务能否起到改善认知能力的效果，药物成瘾个体训练的性别差异以及训练效果的保持时间等角度进行研究。     

后现代心理学与现代心理学的对话

当现代心理学正身处众多困境时,后现代心理学者们从新的视角和观点对其展开了攻势,因此在这近十多年里,西方心理学界充满了激烈辩论的声音。文章总结了西方心理学界围绕着后现代心理学这个话题展开的各种对话,包括心理学的认识论、研究性质、研究方法以及后现代心理学的价值等各个方面的讨论。作者在梳理这些对话的同时,对二者的观点进行了论述,其目的是为了更加深入地了解后现代心理学和现代心理学的理论建构,从而推进心理学科的深入研究。     

网络成瘾与心理梳理

网络成瘾问题的形成往往涉及到自身、家庭和社会等多种复杂因素,因此单纯的药物治疗、心理辅导、说教等方式都很难取得根本的实效。尝试以心理学为主,综合运用社会学、教育学、医学等多门学科知识,选取一个典型的青少年个案进行介入和研究,结果发现,网络成瘾的矫治是一个复杂而又漫长的过程,需要多方面的努力,发人深思。     

Introduction to The Special Issue on The Behavior Analysis and Treatment of Drug Addiction

Extensive evidence from the laboratory and the clinic suggests that drug addiction can be viewed as operant behavior and effectively treated through the application of principles of operant conditioning. Contingency management interventions that arrange for the direct reinforcement of drug abstinence or of other therapeutically important target behaviors (e.g., regular use of drug abuse treatment medications) are among the most studied type of operant treatments. Behavior analysts have contributed to the substantial and rapidly growing literature on operant treatments for drug addiction, but the publications of this work usually appear in medical, clinical psychology, or drug abuse journals. This special issue of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis represents an effort to bring this important work to the attention of the behavior-analytic community. The articles in this special issue illustrate both the enormous potential of contingency management interventions to address the serious and seemingly intractable problem of drug addiction as well as the real challenges involved in attempting to develop and disseminate treatments that will produce substantial and lasting changes in the lives of individuals plagued by the chronic problem of drug addiction.     

工作倦怠和工作投入的整合

工作投入是近期组织心理学家引入的一个新概念,这是一种重视员工职业发展的积极心理学视角的工作追求,它与传统职业健康心理学工作倦怠的整合研究,越来越引起人们的关注。积极心理学研究取向推动了整合研究的实施;能量和认同量表为整合研究提供了测量工具;员工健康的积极和消极双过程模型是整合研究的主要模型;整合研究具有重要的理论和实践价值,更有利于提高员工的身心健康。今后的整合研究应当在研究方法上增加访谈研究、个案研究和追踪研究;在研究内容上多研究积极心理因素;在研究范围上加强跨文化的比较研究;在整合途径上进一步对现有的整合模型进行改进和创新。     

药物成瘾理论的新进展

成瘾过程伴随着一系列脑机能和心理机能的改变,但对药物滥用如何导致这些改变以及它们如何诱发成瘾却存在着不同的解释。近年来,由于认知心理学和认知神经科学研究技术在该领域的应用,研究者对药物成瘾过程的认知机能及其脑机制获得了新的认识,且基于对负性生活事件及外部压力在维持药物滥用及诱发复吸行为中的作用的测量学研究和动物实验研究而提出的成瘾理论为该领域的研究开辟了新的思路。本文重点评述了药物成瘾的认知加工模型和以压力或负性情绪为核心的相关理论模型及其研究,并提出进一步研究的方向。     

Bridging the idiographic-nomothetic divide: a follow-up study

In a replication and extension of Grice (2004), participants in the current study rated themselves and other known individuals on scales constructed from their own personal constructs and on marker items for the Big Five model personality traits. Confirmatory components analyses revealed excellent fit for the Big Five Model when applied to aggregate trait ratings but highly variable fit when applied to participants' individual ratings. Comparisons of the personal construct and trait ratings indicated an approximate average overlap of only 51%, and additional analyses revealed several factors that contributed to the uniqueness of the personal constructs. These findings were discussed in the context of the idiographic-nomothetic distinction drawn in personality psychology.     

The role of factor analysis in the development and evaluation of personality scales

The purpose of this paper is to examine the usefulness of factor analysis in developing and evaluating personality scales that measure limited domain constructs The approach advocated follows from several assumptions that a single scale ought to measure a single construct, that factor analysis ought to be applied routinely to new personality scales, and that the factors of a scale are important if it can be demonstrated that they are differentially related to other measures A detailed study of the Self-Monitoring Scale illustrates how factor analysis can help us to understand what a scale measures A second example uses the self-esteem literature to illustrate how factor analysis can clarify the proliferation of scales within a single content domain Both examples show how factor analysis can be used to identify important conceptual distinctions Confirmatory techniques are also introduced as a means for testing specific hypotheses It is concluded that factor analysis can make an important contribution to programmatic research in personality psychology     

Interaction Analysis and Psychology: A Dialogical Perspective

Interaction analysis is not a prerogative of any discipline in social sciences. It has its own history within each disciplinary field and is related to specific research objects. From the standpoint of psychology, this article first draws upon a distinction between factorial and dialogical conceptions of interaction. It then briefly presents the basis of a dialogical approach in psychology and focuses upon four basic assumptions. Each of them is examined on a theoretical and on a methodological level with a leading question: to what extent is it possible to develop analytical tools that are fully coherent with dialogical assumptions? The conclusion stresses the difficulty of developing methodological tools that are fully consistent with dialogical assumptions and argues that there is an unavoidable tension between accounting for the complexity of an interaction and using methodological tools which necessarily “monologise” this complexity.     

The convergent validity of four indices of cognitive complexity in person perception A multi-index multimethod and factor analytical approach

Abstract.— An application of the Campbell and Fiske multimethod-multitrait analysis and factor analysis was used to study the convergent validity of the following indices of cognitive complexity: Bieri's Index, Vannoy's Interaction Variance Measure, Number of Factors, and First Factor Percentage. In the analysis the individual constructs elicited by Reptest were contrasted with two sets of provided constructs, namely Semantic Differential and Personality Differential scales. The subjects were 36 psychology students. The results indicated that the convergent validity of the indices over construct type was low and that the construct type had an effect upon the intercorrelations of different indices of cognitive complexity.     

Addiction Recovery: 12-Step Programs and Cognitive-Behavioral Psychology

This article provides the helping professional with an overview of treatment issues referred to as spiritual by those recovering from alcohol and drug addictions through 12-step programs like that of Alcoholics Anonymous. Conflicts between academically trained helping professionals and researchers, and those advocating spiritually oriented treatment programs are reviewed. Spiritual aspects of recovery may be foreign constructs for the academically trained helping professional. The goal of this article is to discuss these spiritual constructs in terms of cognitive-behavioral psychology, a knowledge base common to most professionally trained helpers.     

饥无食寒无衣则乱无治:社会保障感受与不道德行为的关系

从社会心理学的角度探索社会保障感受与不道德行为的关系,及焦虑在其中的作用。用三个实验对假设进行检验,实验1和实验2探索社会保障感受对不道德行为的影响; 实验3则进一步探索焦虑在其中的作用。回归分析表明,社会保障感受可显著预测人们的不道德行为,社会保障感受越低人们的不道德行为越多; 焦虑在其中起中介作用,低社会保障感受会促进焦虑的产生,继而增加不道德行为。研究从社会心理学角度探索并证实了社会保障感受引发不道德行为的微观心理机制,拓宽了社会保障的伦理道德价值研究视域,为未来从社会心理学的角度研究社会保障与伦理道德的关系提供了可资借鉴的思路。     

The role of ultrarunning in drug and alcohol addiction recovery: An autobiographic study of athlete journeys

PurposeThere is contentious understanding of the role of sport in adult recreational drug and alcohol addiction recovery. This study explored athlete autobiographies as cultural sites of analysis in relation to the role that one sport (i.e., ultrarunning) plays in addiction recovery capital pathways.DesignWorking at the intersection of an autobiographical approach grounded in relativist narrative inquiry, a social constructionist narrative thematic analysis was conducted of two autobiographies--Catra Corbett and Carlie Engle—about addiction recovery through ultrarunning (i.e., distances of 43 km or more). The narratives used to construct life transformation and recovery capital in relation to ultrarunning were centralized in the analysis using Frank’s (2013) work on illness narratives and the body.ResultsTwo narrative themes threaded athletes’ addiction recovery journeys: chaos narrative and quest narrative. Two sub-themes related to fluid identity transformation intertwined with ultrarunning were identified within these narratives: 1. ‘addict-runner’ (chaos) and 2. ‘addict runner to ultra-runner’ (quest). Nuanced meanings of suffering were connected to identity transformation and running and two forms of addiction recovery capital: human (e.g., psychological adjustment, life perspective) and social (e.g., family connection, community).ConclusionsThe research findings provide insight into the role of sport in psychosocial aspects of addiction recovery using an autobiographical approach grounded in narrative theory. This study also extends work in sport psychology focusing on autobiographies as research and pedagogical resources to learn more about athlete mental health.     

Drug addiction. Is it a disease or is it based on choice? A review of Gene Heyman's Addiction: A disorder of choice.

In Addiction: A disorder of choice, Gene Heyman surveys a broad array of evidence—historical, anthropological, survey, clinical, and laboratory‐based to build an argument about the role of basic choice processes in the phenomena that comprise drug addiction. He makes a compelling, multifaceted argument that conceptualizing drug addiction as a chronic disease (like schizophrenia or diabetes) is both misleading and erroneous. In developing his argument, he points out that the best survey data available indicate that most drug addicts quit their addiction, a fact inconsistent with a chronic‐disease model. He illustrates how basic, normal choice processes can lead to addiction, arguing that people do not choose to be addicts, but that normal choice dynamics can lead them to that condition. He points to a variety of factors that keep most from becoming addicted, with a focus on the role of choice governed by choice‐by‐choice contingencies versus choice governed by the outcome of sequences of choices, a difference in an under‐described activity called framing. His view is consistent with the most effective treatments currently available, and provides a basis for continued basic research on choice as well as research on treatment and prevention.     

Constructing a Theory and Evidence-Based Approach to Promote and Evaluate Autonomy in Addiction

ABSTRACT

In this article we use theory and empirical evidence to synthesize a model for the analysis of autonomy in people with addictions. We review research on motivation and denial as accepted addiction constructs that need to be replaced with non-stigmatizing and autonomy-supportive language when seeking to ‘treat’ addicts. We present three main factors involved in relational autonomy in addiction (mentalizing, positive self-concept, and stigma), and illustrate our model by examining variations on these parameters in two case studies of heroin addicts. We conclude that a growth perspective is needed to assess functioning in populations believed to be ‘addicted’ and make suggestions for assessment.     

Convergent and Discriminant Validity of Five Interest Inventories

This study investigated whether interest inventories that purport to measure the same constructs actually yield scores that correspond. The study examined the empirical relation of scores for similarly and same-named scales on five widely used interest inventories: the Campbell Interest and Skills Survey, the Kuder Occupational Interest Survey-Form DD, the Self-Directed Search, the Strong Interest Inventory-Skills Confidence Edition, and the Revised Unisex Edition of the ACT Interest Inventory. Comparisons were made among scores for (a) vocational interests measured by homogeneous, rationally based scales; (b) occupational interests measured by heterogeneous, criterion-based scales; and (c) self-efficacy for RIASEC tasks. The participants consisted of 80 women and 38 men employed as career counseling practitioners and professors. Results from analyses of multitrait-multimethod matrices indicated that similarly and same-named scales correlated moderately and that, with few exceptions, these matched scales demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity. These conclusions were interpreted by distinguishing between the linguistic explication and operational definition of constructs in theories of vocational and occupational interests. The implications of these interpretations were considered for both the science of vocational psychology and the practice of career counseling. Future research should investigate both the profile validity and the interpretive validity of interest inventories that yield scale scores derived from different scaling strategies.     

The increasing relevance of European rural young people in policy agendas: Contributions from community psychology

Our paper aims to provide a short guide on how community psychologists can contribute to the improvement of rural young people's prospects. After briefly introducing the demographic trends of these young people in continental Europe for the past decade, we list the current challenges faced by rural European young generations, as well as the opportunities emerging for them from the twin transition that can inspire the community psychology field. We then contextualize community psychologists' interventions in this domain according to an ecological-systemic standpoint and by embracing a Participatory Action Research (PAR) perspective on research and practice. We further detail the reasons for adopting a PAR approach in research and practice to address rural young people's challenges and opportunities. Finally, we highlight four potential intermediation missions to uphold community psychologists' rural youth development input, based on the adopted theoretical and methodological standpoint. We conclude that our short guide can facilitate community psychology professionals' complete understanding of rural young generations' prospects, in line with the expected increase in the need for rural young people's participation. Our proposal may also have long-term benefits for rural communities by contributing to the redesigning of intergenerational relationships and securing critical mass.