Constructive Thinking and Elevated Ratings of Self in Interpersonal Groups

Probing Taylor and Brown's (1988) connection of mental health with favorably slanted self-evaluations, responses to Epstein's (1987) Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI) were correlated with ratings of interpersonal behavior. Several weeks after completing the CTI, 103 small-group members rated themselves and each other for self-accepting and other-accepting conduct. Separately for each acceptance scale, eight CTI measures were correlated with differences of self-ratings (S) from the mean rating individuals' received (R) from others, the mean rating each gave (G) to these others, and all components. Agreeing substantially, indicators S and R also correlated with the CTI measures similarly but in a pattern opposite to G's correlations. Supporting Taylor and Brown, 12 of 16 correlations of CTI measures with intrarater (S – G) differences attained statistical significance (p < .05) unlike any parallel correlation with interrater differences (S – R). Constructive thinking and rating oneself above peers—especially for acceptance of self—consistently correlated positively, suggesting an underlying sense of independence.     

Constructive thinking: a broad coping variable with specific components

The structure of constructive thinking and the development of an instrument for measuring it, the Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI), were discussed. Scales were derived from a factor analysis of an item domain of people's everyday automatic thinking. When the CTI and other tests were factor analyzed, separate intellective and nonintellective factors were found, with the CTI loading more strongly on the nonintellective factor than any other test. Only measures of IQ loaded on the intellective factor. The global constructive thinking scale correlated significantly with success in work, love, social relationships, and in maintaining emotional and physical well-being, but not with academic achievement, the only criterion with which the measures of IQ correlated strongly. The patterns of correlations between the CTI scales and the various criteria as well as the factor analysis demonstrated that the construct of constructive thinking is differentiated as well as integrated.     

Dimensions of perfectionism and constructive thinking as a coping response

The present study examined perfectionism and general coping ability as assessed by a new measure of constructive thinking. A sample of 77 students completed the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS) and the Constructive Thinking Inventory (CTI). The MPS provides measures of selforiented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed perfectionism, while the CTI provides various measures, including summary scores of global constructive thinking, emotional coping, behavioral coping, categorical thinking, personal superstitious thinking, naive optimism, and esoteric thinking. Subjects also completed a measure of depressive symptoms so that we could examine perfectionism and coping independent of current levels of adjustment. The main finding was that socially prescribed perfectionism was associated with less constructive thinking and more negative coping across most of the CTI subscales, and these associations remained significant after removing variance due to levels of depression symptoms. Self-oriented perfectionism was adaptive in that it was associated with active forms of behavioral coping, but it was maladaptive in that it was associated with a form of emotional coping involving reduced self-acceptance. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the cognitive treatment of perfectionists. Queen's University This research was supported by grant #410-91-0856 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to the authors     

Constructive thinking inventory: evidence of validity among Iranian managers

This study examined the validity and incremental validity of the Constructive Thinking Inventory in a sample of Iranian managers. These 159 men were 39.9 yr. old (SD=2.5) and volunteered to participate in a project in which they responded to the Constructive Thinking Inventory, the Big Five Factors, the Costello and Comrey Depression and Anxiety Scales, and the Perceived Stress Scale. Numerous findings confirmed the validity of the Constructive Thinking Inventory, and the Global Constructive Thinking subscale displayed incremental validity. These data supported the validity of the Constructive Thinking Inventory and its associated theoretical assumptions in a sample of Iranian managers.     

Folk Concepts, Natural Language, and Psychological Constructs: The California Psychological Inventory and the Five-Factor Model

ABSTRACT Both the California Psychological Inventory (CPI; Gough, 1987) and the five-factor model of personality have roots in folk concepts of personality. The present article offers a conceptual analysis of CPI scales in terms of the five-factor model. In the first study, judges rated the item content of CPI scales in terms of the five factors. In the second, CPI scales were correlated with the factors as measured by the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI; Costa & McCrae, 1985b) in a sample of 348 men and women ages 19 to 92. Both studies showed meaningful links between CPI scales and four of the factors; Agreeableness appeared to be underrepresented in CPI scales. The utility of systematic rational item analysis in terms of the five factors and the evolving relation of folk concepts to psychological constructs are discussed.     

Beyond cognitive ability: Improving the prediction of performance

New measures of practical intelligence and personality traits were assessed for their ability to improve the prediction of performance beyond cognitive ability. Measures of practical intelligence from the newly developed Constructive Thinking Inventory and traits measuring emotional stability and expedience were used as independent variables in regression analyses predicting academic performance, training performance and leadership ratings of 86 student leaders. The constructive thinking scales added significantly to the prediction of academic performance, beyond measures of cognitive ability. Constructive thinking also accounted for unique variance predicting training performance and leadership ratings. Personality traits were unrelated to performance or leadership.     

Further evidence of reliability and validity for the driving anger expression inventory

This study provided evidence of reliability and validity for the four scales of the Driving Anger Expression Inventory. Alpha reliabilities for scales ranged from .84 to .89. Measures of aggressive anger expression while driving (Verbal Aggressive Expression, Personal Physical Aggressive Expression, and Use of the Vehicle to Express Anger scales) correlated positively with each other and negatively with the Adaptive/Constructive Expression scale. Scores on the three aggressive forms of anger expression correlated positively with trait anger and measures of driving-related anger, aggression, and risky behavior, whereas scores on the Adaptive/Constructive Expression scale correlated negatively with these variables. Reports of aggressive and risky behavior correlated most strongly with the Use of the Vehicle to Express Anger scale. Forms of anger expression were minimally or uncorrelated with rated trait anxiety and reports of moving violations, close calls, and accidents. Findings replicated earlier findings and provided further evidence for the reliability and validity of the Driving Anger Expression Inventory.     

Assent and Dissent: Ethical Considerations in Research With Toddlers

In accordance with ethical principles and standards, researchers conducting studies with children are expected to seek assent and respect their dissent from participation. Little attention has been given to assent and dissent in research with toddlers, who have limited cognitive and emotional capabilities. We discuss research with toddlers in the context of assent and dissent and propose guidelines to ensure that research with toddlers still adheres to ethical principles. These guidelines include designing engaging studies, monitoring refusal and distress, and partnering with parents. Research with toddlers requires flexibility and creativity to respect toddlers in the context of their developmental capabilities.     

Relationships of Experiential and Reflective Self-Knowledge with Trait Meta-Mood Scale, constructive thinking inventory, and the Five Factors in Iranian managers

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity and the incremental validity of recently developed Reflective and Experiential Self-knowledge Scales. Along with measures of the Five Factors and of psychological adjustment, 201 male Iranian managers responded to the Self-knowledge Scales along with tests relevant to emotional intelligence, including the Trait Meta-mood Scale and the Constructive Thinking Inventory. As hypothesized, Self-knowledge Scales predicted greater self-reported emotional intelligence. Multiple regression also confirmed the incremental validity of these scales, showed each explained a separate source of variance, and supported the presumed temporal dynamics that theoretically underlie these constructs.     

A psychometric evaluation of the new NEO-PIR facet scales for agreeableness and conscientiousness

The five-factor model of personality represents one of the more important developments in the area of personality theory and assessment. This empirically derived model consists of the major factors of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Currently there is only one commercially available measure of these dimensions: The NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI). The NEO-PI measures each of these global domains as well as more specific facets of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience. The new revision of the NEO-PI (NEO-PIR) now includes facet scales for Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. The purpose of this article is to provide a psychometric evaluation of these new scales using a sample of working adults and relying on both self-report and observer ratings. The results provide strong support for the reliability and construct validity of these new scales.     

Early Memories,Normal Personality Variation,and Coping

Relationships between earliest childhood memories (EMs)and normal-range personality traits and coping variables were assessed with data provided by 134 undergraduates. Subjects completed an EM questionnaire, the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (Costa & McCrae, 1992), and the Constructive Thinking inventory (Epstein, 1992; Epstein & Meier, 1989). EMs were scored via the Early Memory Relationship Scoring System (EMRSS; Acklin, Bibb, Boyer, & Jain, 1991) and the Transparent Bipolar Inventory (Goldberg, 1992). Factor analytic results supported the EM Relationship scale of the EMRSS. Correlational analyses suggested that the EM Relationship scale was inversely related to negative expectations of the future and dichotomous thinking, but unrelated to general neuroticism and coping ability in this nonclinical sample. The EM protagonist's level of activity was associated with subjects' general coping ability, the ability to avoid emotional upset, and inversely related to general neuroticism.     

Construct validity of the psychological inventory of criminal thinking styles in relationship to the PAI, disciplinary adjustment, and program completion

We evaluated the convergent and discriminant validity of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS; Walters, 1995) in a group of 199 maximum security prisoners. As anticipated, the PICTS Confusion scale correlated with the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) Negative Impression scale, whereas the PICTS Defensiveness scale paralleled the PAI Positive Impression scale. Also as predicted, a greater portion of the PICTS thinking style scales correlated with the PAI Antisocial Features scale than correlated with the PAI Somatic Complaints, Anxiety, Depression, Mania, Paranoia, and Schizophrenia scales. When the PICTS composite scales were converged onto behavioral indexes, modest statistically significant relationships surfaced between the PICTS Reactive scale and a record of disciplinary infractions and between the PICTS Proactive scale and program completion.     

The five-factor model and its assessment in clinical settings.

Personality researchers have recently converged on the five-factor model as an adequate representation of the structure of personality traits. This article introduces the factors and the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI), a questionnaire designed to measure the factors and some of the traits that define them. Data on the comprehensiveness of the model and on the reliability, validity, and stability of measures of the factors are reviewed, and correlations between scales from the NEO-PI and two instruments widely used in clinical practice (the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory [MMPI] and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory [MCMI]) are used to illustrate similarities and differences between normal and clinical assessment. Some issues regarding the clinical use of the five-factor model are discussed.     

A Psychometric Evaluation of the New NEO–PIR Facet Scales for Agreeableness and Conscientiousness

The five-factor model of personality represents one of the more important developments in the area of personality theory and assessment. This empirically derived model consists of the major factors of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. Currently there is only one commercially available measure of these dimensions: The NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI). The NEO-PI measures each of these global domains as well as more specific facets of Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience. The new revision of the NEO-PI (NEO-PIR) now includes facet scales for Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. The purpose of this article is to provide a psychometric evaluation of these new scales using a sample of working adults and relying on both self-report and observer ratings. The results provide strong support for the reliability and construct validity of these new scales.     

Bonus Allocation Points for Those Willing to Donate Organs

The U.S. federal regulations require investigators conducting nonbeneficial research to obtain the assent of children who are capable of providing it. Unfortunately, there has been no analysis of which children are capable of assent or even what abilities ground the capacity to give assent. Why should investigators be required to obtain the positive agreement of some children, but not others, before enrolling them in research that does not offer a compensating potential for direct benefit? We argue that the scope of children's research decision making should be based on the principles of respect for autonomy and nonmaleficence. These principles imply that the threshold for assent should be fixed at 14 years of age, and a dissent requirement should be adopted for all children in the context of nonbeneficial research.     

The Revival of Rejective Negation

Whether assent (acceptance) and dissent (rejection) are thought of as speech acts or as propositional attitudes, the leading idea of rejectivism is that a grasp of the distinction between them is prior to our understanding of negation as a sentence operator, this operator then being explicable as applying to A to yield something assent to which is tantamount to dissent from A. Widely thought to have been refuted by an argument of Frege"s, rejectivism has undergone something of a revival in recent years, especially in writings by Huw Price and Timothy Smiley. While agreeing that Frege"s argument does not refute the position, we shall air some philosophical qualms about it in Section 5, after a thorough examination of the formal issues in Sections 1–4. This discussion draws on – and seeks to draw attention to – some pertinent work of Kent Bendall in the 1970s.     

Discrimination Learning and Discrimination Reversal Learning in Normal and Feebleminded Children

Two studies compared methods of estimating factor scores for the Child's Report of Parental Behavior Inventory. In Study I, least squares factor scores for 5th and 6th graders were computed and correlated with estimates obtained by multiple regression, weighted summation, and unweighted summation with either (a) all scales best defining each factor, (b) the three best, or (c) the two best defining scales. All three estimation methods were highly accurate, and estimates obtained with three and even two scales per factor still correlated highly with the factor scores. In Study 11, factor scores for college students were correlated with estimates obtained by multiple regression and unweighted summation of the same subsets of scales. Again both estimation methods were highly accurate, and reducing the number of scales did not markedly reduce the correspondence of estimated scores to exact scores.     

Correlations for scores on the 180-item version of the MMPI-2 and the Neuroticism scale of the NEO-Personality Inventory

64 normal adult controls (53 men, 11 women; M age 45.2 yr.) in a study of an estuary-associated syndrome were administered the MMPI-2-180 and the Neuroticism scale from the NEO-Personality Inventory. Pearson product-moment correlations between MMPI-2 scales and the Neuroticism scale were similar to those reviously reported using the full-length MMPI. Correlations between MMPI-2 scales, D, Pt, Sc, and Si, and NEO-PI Neuroticism (range .44 to .52) suggest that many psychiatric conditions are associated with psychological distress of the type individuals high in trait neuroticism are prone to experience.     

The Relationship Between Masculinity,Femininity, and Criminal Thinking in Male and Female Offenders

The 4 factor scales of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) were correlated with the Femininity and Masculinity scales of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) in 100 adult male (33% Caucasian, 44% African American, 21% Hispanic, 1% other) and 100 adult female (50% Caucasian, 30% African American, 8% Hispanic, 12% other) federal prison inmates. It was hypothesized that the BSRI Masculinity scale would correlate negatively with the PICTS problem avoidance scale and positively with the PICTS self-deception/assertion scale, and that the BSRI Femininity scale would correlate negatively with the PICTS interpersonal hostility scale and positively with PICTS denial of harm scale. In male inmates, as predicted, the BSRI masculinity scale correlated negatively with the PICTS problem avoidance scale and positively with the self-deception/assertion scale, although the latter coefficient fell short of statistical significance. In the case of female inmates the BSRI femininity scale correlated positively with denial of harm but failed to correlate significantly with interpersonal hostility. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Creative thinking abilities and hemispheric asymmetry in schizotypal college students

Two groups of college students that scored high (N=25) and low (N=60) on a schizotypal personality index based on the Perceptual Aberration, Magical Thinking, and Schizotypal Personality Scales, were tested for hemisphericity using a dichotic listening task and completed the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. The schizotypy scales correlated with high scores on the nonverbal portion of the creativity tests and with a left ear preference to dichotically presented verbal stimuli. The Torrance Test of Creative Thinking did not correlate, however, with hemispheric asymmetry. These results clarify the relationship between schizotypy and creating thinking abilities but fail in establishing the role of hemispheric asymmetry in the production of creative thinking ideas. This article is based on a portion of the first author’s dissertation at Wayne State University.