A hierarchical analysis of 1,710 English personality-descriptive adjectives

The structure of the English personality lexicon was investigated using self-ratings (N = 310) on a set of 1,710 personality-trait adjectives. The 5-factor solution resembled the Big Five structure, but included rotational variants of Agreeableness and Emotional Stability similar to those of other languages. In the 6-factor solution an additional factor, defined by terms such as unpretentious versus sly, resembled an Honesty-Humility factor observed in other languages. The 6-factor solution also produced an especially clear 5th factor, defined by Intellect, Imagination, and Unconventionality content. The hierarchical emergence of factors from 1 to 7 was explored, and the 7-factor solution yielded a Religiosity factor, adding to the diverse array of 7th factors observed in other languages.     

A six-factor structure of personality-descriptive adjectives: solutions from psycholexical studies in seven languages

Standard psycholexical studies of personality structure have produced a similar 6-factor solution in 7 languages (Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Korean, Polish). The authors report the content of these personality dimensions and interpret them as follows: (a) a variant of Extraversion, defined by sociability and liveliness (though not by bravery and toughness); (b) a variant of Agreeableness, defined by gentleness, patience, and agreeableness (but also including anger and ill temper at its negative pole); (c) Conscientiousness (emphasizing organization and discipline rather than moral conscience); (d) Emotionality (containing anxiety, vulnerability, sentimentality, lack of bravery, and lack of toughness, but not anger or ill temper); (e) Honesty-Humility; (f) Intellect/Imagination/Unconventionality. A potential reorganization of the Big Five factor structure is discussed.     

Personality‐relevant attribute‐nouns: a taxonomic study in the Italian language

The present study was based on psycholexical approach premises and explored the structure of a large set of personality attribute‐nouns in the Italian language. Content inspection (based on Big Five categories) and quantitative indices were used to interpret the attribute‐noun dimensions. Results showed (a) a stable three‐component solution which replicated the Big Three; (b) an unstable five‐factor solution which did not reproduce the Big Five; (c) an unstable six‐factor solution which represented deviations from the Big Five system, which have been found in most psycholexical studies conducted in the Italian language. The six lexical dimensions were interpreted as follows: Conscientiousness (replicating the III of the Big Five); Self‐Assurance (combining the Big Five I assertiveness and IV fearfulness subcategories); Sociability (defined by the Big Five I sociableness and I impulse expression subcategories); Placidity (combining the Big Five II peacefulness, II unassertiveness, and IV irritableness subcategories); Honesty and Humility (comprising the Big Five II modesty and II helpfulness subcategories plus integrity values); Cleverness and Sophistication (defined by the Big Five V subcategories). The conclusion was that personality word organisation in the Italian language reflects the psycholexical Big Three and Big Six, but not the Big Five. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An alternative multi‐language structure for personality attributes

A scientific taxonomy of human personality attributes should optimally be based on studies from multiple languages and cultures. Study 1 demonstrates convergence between seven‐factor structures found in previous studies of Filipino and Hebrew languages. Study 2 shows that this ‘Multi‐Language Seven’ (ML7) factor model overlaps partially with the Big Five model, but includes four rather than three affective–interpersonal factors, replicates in American English lexical data nearly as well as the Big Five, and has close correspondences to the structure upon which two Italian lexical studies have converged. Correlates were used to clarify interpretation of ML7 factors labelled Gregariousness, Self‐Assurance, Even Temper ‘versus Temperamentalness’, Concern for Others, Conscientiousness, Originality/Virtuosity, and Negative Valence ‘or Social Unacceptability’. These studies indicate the viability of a lexically derived ‘etic’ alternative to the Big Five. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality described by adjectives: The generalizability of the Big Five to the Italian lexical context

Two studies have been performed in the frame of the Big Five model to describe personality. In the first study, the most useful adjectives for describing personality have been selected, trying to adopt a procedure as objective and empirically driven as possible. The resulting pool of adjectives (n = 492) has been administered to a sample of 274 subjects to verify the emergence of the Big Five in the Italian context. In the second study the pool of original adjectives has been reduced to 260 adjectives selecting the most representative terms (with regard to the factorial structure that has emerged). This pool of 260 adjectives has been administered to a sample of 862 subjects, together with the NEO-PI and the BFQ to facilitate the interpretation of the resulting factorial structure. Results showed the emergence of an Italian Big Five factorial structure that resembles the ‘canonical’ Big Five, although some of the factors, viz. Agreeableness and Emotional Stability, emerged as ‘blended’ dimensions.     

An approach to the study of determiners in early language development

The definite and indefinite articles (the and a) are usually regarded as being a contrastive system. Either the or a is required with a noun, depending on certain semantic and pragmatic considerations. Developmental research views the child as progressively attaining appropriate (adult) use of the two forms. However, both historical and recent developmental evidence indicates that the articles should be incorporated into a total system of determination, including both verbal and nonverbal determiners. A single experiment is described to show 3-year-old children's use of the articles (and other determiners). Several functions of the articles within the two conditions of the experimental context were elicited, as were other verbal (e.g., this, that) and nonverbal (e.g., a point) determiners. It is argued that instead of regarding the child's use of the articles as correct or incorrect, we should look at the form and function of those determiners used and omitted and consider why they are elicited.     

Fairness Reactions to Selection Methods: An Italian study

This study examined the fairness reactions to 10 personnel selection methods in a sample of Italian students. University students (N=137) were asked to rate the favorability of these selection procedures and then to evaluate them on eight procedural justice dimensions. Work‐sample tests were the most favorably rated of the selection methods, followed by résumés, written ability tests, interviews and personal references. Graphology was perceived negatively. Opportunity to perform and the perceived face validity of selection procedures were the strongest procedural justice dimensions for predicting the process favorability ratings. The results of this study are compared with those from similar studies conducted in other countries. Similar results have been found in the various countries where such research has been conducted to date.     

藏语阅读知觉广度的眼动研究

不同语体阅读知觉广度的研究由来已久,研究重心多集中于拼音文字和表意文字,已有研究表明阅读知觉广度存在语言加工的特异性。藏语作为拼音文字,同时具有表意文字的特征,是阅读知觉广度研究尚未涉及的语言材料。因此,藏语阅读知觉广度的范围尚不清楚,藏语阅读知觉广度是否也表现出语言加工的特异性也有待证实。为了探测藏语阅读知觉广度的大小,使用Eye Link 1000 Plus型眼动记录仪,以35名在校藏族大学生为被试,采用经典的移动窗口范式,设计了7种窗口(5、9、13、17、21、25和整行)。结果发现,L2R2-L12R12在所有指标的观测值上均存在显著差异,L4R4-L12R12在总注视次数、总注视时间和向右眼跳幅度三个指标的观测值上存在显著差异,L6R6-L12R12在向右眼跳幅度指标的观测值上存在显著差异,L8R8-L12R12在所有指标的观测值上均不存在显著差异,达到了基准水平。结果支持藏族大学生藏语阅读知觉广度的右侧范围大约是注视点右侧4~8个字符的空间。阅读知觉广度存在语言加工的特异性。     

An experimental study of the second-signaling systems of man through the printed language

The author has published previously in this journal his findings that not only the sight of a “pickled plum” increased the resting saliva of Japanese adults, but the spoken words “pickled plum” also increased the amount of saliva as a natural conditional reflex. It was also found that the reflex was stronger when an oral interpretation of the words “pickled plum” was added to their mere phonation. The author deduced that language is a conditional stimulus, the concept of which is released by unconditional stimulation. In this paper the author experimentally shows that reading printed language as well as writing it has the same effect in the human.     

Building phrases in language production: An MEG study of simple composition

Although research on language production has developed detailed maps of the brain basis of single word production in both time and space, little is known about the spatiotemporal dynamics of the processes that combine individual words into larger representations during production. Studying composition in production is challenging due to difficulties both in controlling produced utterances and in measuring the associated brain responses. Here, we circumvent both problems using a minimal composition paradigm combined with the high temporal resolution of magnetoencephalography (MEG). With MEG, we measured the planning stages of simple adjective–noun phrases (‘red tree’), matched list controls (‘red, blue’), and individual nouns (‘tree’) and adjectives (‘red’), with results indicating combinatorial processing in the ventro-medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and left anterior temporal lobe (LATL), two regions previously implicated for the comprehension of similar phrases. These effects began relatively quickly (∼180 ms) after the presentation of a production prompt, suggesting that combination commences with initial lexical access. Further, while in comprehension, vmPFC effects have followed LATL effects, in this production paradigm vmPFC effects occurred mostly in parallel with LATL effects, suggesting that a late process in comprehension is an early process in production. Thus, our results provide a novel neural bridge between psycholinguistic models of comprehension and production that posit functionally similar combinatorial mechanisms operating in reversed order.     

A taxonomic study of aggression in institutionalized delinquents

The taxonomy of aggressive behavior has been studied by many social scientists. In the present study this topic is approached empirically. A group of convicts were asked to quantify pairwise dissimilarity among aggressive social situations. The data obtained were processed by Multidimensional Scaling. The results show the necessity of taking into account 3 dimensions (justifiability, instrumentality and degree of involvement with the victim) in distinguishing among aggressive episodes. This finding is discussed in terms of cultural differences, and the usefulness of the perception of aggressive episodes as a basis for a taxonomic system is proposed.     

The embodiment of emotional words in a second language: An eye-movement study

The hypothesis that word representations are emotionally impoverished in a second language (L2) has variable support. However, this hypothesis has only been tested using tasks that present words in isolation or that require laboratory-specific decisions. Here, we recorded eye movements for 34 bilinguals who read sentences in their L2 with no goal other than comprehension, and compared them to 43 first language readers taken from our prior study. Positive words were read more quickly than neutral words in the L2 across first-pass reading time measures. However, this emotional advantage was absent for negative words for the earliest measures. Moreover, negative words but not positive words were influenced by concreteness, frequency and L2 proficiency in a manner similar to neutral words. Taken together, the findings suggest that only negative words are at risk of emotional disembodiment during L2 reading, perhaps because a positivity bias in L2 experiences ensures that positive words are emotionally grounded.     

The role of comparison in the extension of novel adjectives

Previous reseach has documented that basic-level object categories provide an initial foundation for mapping adjectives to object properties. Children ranging from 21 months to 3 years can successfully extend a novel adjective (e.g., transparent) to other objects sharing a salient property if the objects are all members of the same basic-level category; if the objects are members of different basic-level categories, they fail to extend adjectives systematically (R. S. Klibanoff & S. R. Waxman, 2000a; S. R. Waxman & D. B. Markow, 1998). The present study proposed that the process of comparison is instrumental in children's ability to move beyond this foundation. To promote comparison, 2 target objects were introduced to 3-year-olds. In Experiment 1, the targets had contrastive properties (e.g., 1 transparent and 1 opaque object); in Experiment 2, the targets had consistent properties (e.g., 2 transparent objects). The results of both experiments illustrate that comparison--a general psychological process--operates in conjunction with naming to support the extension of novel adjectives to properties of objects from diverse basic-level categories.     

The future case: An alternative to single case study

Traditional single case studies have tended to focus on the individual's past and/or present with minimal reference to one's future. This allows for an incomplete assessment of the reality in which humans participate as organisms-in-process. The future case is advanced as a complement to traditional single case designs. Emphasis is upon imaginative and creative involvement with one's future in the clinical setting. The rationale and concrete outline for this future invention process reflect how individuals can move beyond restricting conditions to higher levels of emotional growth and satisfaction.     

In search of the language switch: An fMRI study of picture naming in Spanish-English bilinguals

For many years, researchers investigating the brain bases of bilingualism have concentrated on two basic questions. The first concerns the nature of language representation. That is, are a bilinguals' two languages represented in distinct or overlapping areas of the brain. The second basic question in the neuropsychology of bilingualism concerns the neural correlates of language switching, that is, the areas that are active when bilinguals switch from one language to the other. Performance between single-language and dual-language picture naming was compared in a group of six Spanish-English bilinguals using behavioral measures and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Participants showed slower reaction times and increased activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the mixed language condition relative to single language condition. There was no evidence that each language was represented in different areas of the brain. Results are consistent with the view that language switching is a part of a general executive attentional system and that languages are represented in overlapping areas of the brain in early bilinguals.     

Coparenting interactions observed by the prenatal lausanne trilogue play: An Italian replication study

The infant–parent interaction is the focus of interest on early interactive relational models in the triadic perspective. This approach considers the mother–father–child interaction as the matrix of early competences, which start to develop well before delivery. This theoretical approach has generated an observation paradigm, the Lausanne Trilogue Play (LTP; E. Fivaz‐Depeursinge & A. Corboz‐Warnery, 1999). The aim of the study was to investigate (a) the psychometric characteristics of coding of the prenatal LTP procedure and their comparison with the Lausanne validation studies and (b) the characteristics of triadic interactions during pregnancy. Ninety‐eight nonreferred, primiparous families were recruited at childbirth courses. In addition to validated questionnaires, observational data were collected at the seventh month of pregnancy in the prenatal LTP. The collected data show good reliability of the LTP coding and a consistent factorial structure in line with the Lausanne validation studies (C. Carneiro, A. Corboz‐Warnery, & E. Fivaz‐Depeursinge, 2006; N. Favez et al., 2006). The Structure of the Play and the Intuitive Parenting Behaviors Scales seem the most representative dimensions in the prenatal period. Coparental abilities during pregnancy represent an interactive matrix for the construction of early family relations and may be considered as protective factors in the child's development of early triadic interactive abilities.