Humour styles,personality, and well‐being among Lebanese university students

This research examined the structure and correlates of the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) in Lebanese university students. Four humour factors were found, as in the original Canadian samples: Affiliative, Self‐Enhancing, Aggressive, and Self‐Defeating humour. Scale reliabilities were generally acceptable, and inter‐correlations among the scales were low. Lebanese participants scored lower than Canadians on Affiliative and Self‐Enhancing humour and lower than Belgians on Affiliative and Aggressive humour. As in Canadian and Belgian samples, males reported significantly more use of Aggressive and Self‐Defeating humour than did females. Humour styles correlated differentially, and generally as predicted, with horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism, attachment styles, perceived health, and psychological well‐being. Overall, the findings support the cross‐cultural stability of the HSQ as well as the differential relationship of these humour styles with culture‐related personality traits and psychological well‐being. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evidence bearing on the affiliative tendency (MAFF) and sensitivity to rejection (MSR) scales

Affiliative Tendency (MAFF) is defined by generalized positive social expectations and behaviors. Relationships of the MAFF with various measures are given in parentheses following each item listed: liking of others (+), social anhedonia (−), social avoidance and distress (−), judged similarity and compatibility with others (+), favorable impressions of strangers (+), adjustments to high social density (+), concern about attractive appearance (+), self-disclosure and confidence (+), conversation and positiveness with others (+). Sensitivity to Rejection (MSR) essentially measures submissiveness and has the following relationships: assertiveness (−), leadership (−), competition performance (−), confidence (−), ability to deal with threat and hostility (−), submissive social behaviors (+). Dependency, loneliness, and popularity are derivative (mathematical) functions of the MAFF and MSR.     

大学生幽默风格与精神健康关系的初步研究

目的:测试幽默风格量表在中国大学生中的信度和效度,探讨幽默风格与精神健康之间的关系。方法:354名大学生接受幽默风格量表和症状自评量表(SCL-90)的问卷调查,4周后74名大学生重新填写幽默风格量表。结果:幽默风格量表所提出的4个因子结构在中国人的样本中也存在,该量表的信度和效度可接受。中国被试在4个子量表的得分均低于加拿大被试的得分。亲和型幽默、自强型幽默得分与症状自评量表的子量表以及总体症状指数得分全部呈现负相关,而嘲讽型幽默和自贬型幽默得分与症状自评量表的子量表以及总体症状指数得分全部呈现正相关。结论:(1)该量表的初步测试效度和信度可接受,但须结合中国文化作进一步的修订;(2)亲和型和自强型幽默有益于精神健康,但嘲讽型和自贬型幽默有害于精神健康;(3)中国人与加拿大人在幽默风格、幽默对精神健康起作用的方式上存在一定的文化差异。     

Beyond IQ: broad-based measurement of individual success potential or "emotional intelligence"

Individual-difference correlates of life success were studied using 302 participants aged 17-46 years (107 men, 195 women) and 31 individual-difference measures. Factor 1 (Relaxed Temperament) included Trait Pleasure-Displeasure (+), Anxiety (-), Depression (-), Optimism (+), Self-Esteem (+), Covert Index of Employee Reliability (+), and Functional Flexibility (-). Positively loading scales on Factor 2 (Arousable Temperament) were Trait Arousability, Emotional Empathy, Emotional Thinking, and Affiliative Tendency. Factor 3 (Disciplined Goal Orientation) included Delay of Gratification (+), Impulsivity (-), Procrastination (-), Patience (+), Integrity (+), Adaptive Coping (+), and Intelligence (+). Positively loading scales on Factor 4 (Dominant Temperament) were Trait Dominance-Submissiveness, Social Competence, Achieving Tendency, and Self-Actualization. Factors 1, 3, 4, and intelligence exhibited positive relations with all peer-rated criterion measures of life success. Trait Arousability, representing Factor 2, correlated negatively with relationship, physical, work, and overall success. Physical attractiveness correlated positively with all success measures except emotional success. When success measures were regressed against intelligence and personality scales or factors, intelligence did not account for variance beyond that explained by personality.     

Attempts to predict intelligent behavior: III. The relative importance of divergent and convergent production

Scores on a test built on Raaheim's (1974) theory of problem solving and intelligence (the Family Test, Part I) were correlated with scores of divergent and convergent production within the same ideational area (the Family Test, Parts II and III). The results indicate that both divergent and convergent production contribute to the solution of the problem-solving tasks. To expand the findings to a broader field of intelligence research scores on the tests of divergent and convergent production were correlated with school achievement. Multiple correlations of 0.61 (males) and 0.67 (females) were found between school achievement and the two tests. Comparisons of groups with scores above and below the means of the two tests show that school achievement depends on the combination of divergent and convergent production, suggesting that, although the two types of production reflect two different aspects of intellectual activity, as a rule they work together in the process of intelligent adjustment.     

Measuring the Big Five with single items using a bipolar response scale

The convergence on the Big Five in personality theory has produced a demand for efficient yet psychometrically sound measures. Therefore, five single‐item measures, using bipolar response scales, were constructed to measure the Big Five and evaluated in terms of their convergent and off‐diagonal divergent properties, their pattern of criterion correlations and their reliability when compared with four longer Big Five measures. In a combined sample (N = 791) the Single‐Item Measures of Personality (SIMP) demonstrated a mean convergence of r = 0.61 with the longer scales. The SIMP also demonstrated acceptable reliability, self–other accuracy, and divergent correlations, and a closely similar pattern of criterion correlations when compared with the longer scales. It is concluded that the SIMP offer a reasonable alternative to longer scales, balancing the demands of brevity versus reliability and validity. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Divergent, criterion-related, and discriminant validities for the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale

Three analyses were carried out. Analysis I estimated the correlation between the total score of the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale and a self-rating scale of happiness with large sample of male (n = 1,312) and female (n = 1,272) Kuwaiti adolescents. Pearson product-moment correlations were -.43 and -.44 (p < .001) for boys and girls, respectively, suggesting divergent validity of the anxiety scale. Analysis II examined the correlations between scores on the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale and the Somatic Symptoms Inventory for a nonclinical sample of women (n = 30), and female outpatients with anxiety disorder (n = 30). Pearson product-moment correlations were, respectively, .85 and .53, (p < .001), which support the criterion-related validity of the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale with respect to the Somatic Symptoms Inventory. In Analysis III a sample of 60 male and female outpatients with anxiety disorder and 60 nonclinical participants were matched on age, education, and occupation. All responded individually to the Kuwait University Anxiety Scale. Significant differences among groups, especially noticeable for men, support the discriminant validity of the scale. So, the clinical as well as research use of the scale can be recommended. By and large, the divergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validities of the scale have been adequately supported so subsequent replication is expected.     

Behavioral validation of the Children's Action Tendency Scale

The concurrent validity of the Children's Action Tendency Scale (CATS), a self-report measure of aggressiveness, assertiveness, and submissiveness, was assessed using behavioral observations in naturalistic settings. Forty-five third- to fifth-grade children were observed over an 8-month period in a wide variety of school (and school-related) activities. Scores on the CATS sub-scales were found to correlate significantly with a variety of behavioral indices of aggressiveness, assertiveness, and submissiveness; these correlations tended to be higher for boys than for girls. Explanations for these sex differences and recommendations for the questionnaire's use are offered.     

Affiliative stimuli as primers to prosocial predispositions

Affiliative stimuli are pleasant and highly biologically relevant. Affiliative cues are thought to elicit a prosocial predisposition. Here affiliative and neutral pictures were exposed prior to a reaction time task which consisted in responding to a visual target. Half the participants responded with finger-flexion, a movement frequently involved in prosocial activities. The other half responded with finger extension, a less prosocially compatible movement. Results showed that under the exposure to affiliative pictures, as compared to neutral ones, participants who used finger flexion were faster, while those using finger extension were slower. Performance benefits to the task, when flexing the finger, together with performance costs, when extending it, indicate the relevance of movement compatibility to the context. These findings put forward a possible link between affiliative primers and motor preparation to facilitate a repertoire of movements related to prosocial predispositions including finger flexion.     

新生市民主动发展倾向对城市生活适应性的影响:社会支持的中介效应

为探究主动发展倾向和社会支持对新生市民城市生活适应性的作用机制,本研究构建了结构方程模型.采用两个自编量表和一个现成量表,运用两阶段抽样调查法,在作为统筹城乡发展试验区的重庆市范围内,对已经取得城镇户口的新生市民进行问卷调查,获得有效样本322人.对采集的数据运用统计分析软件SPSS17.0和AMOS18.0进行数据分析和模型检验.结果表明,城市化新生市民的主动发展倾向和社会支持均对新生市民的城市生活适应具有显著影响,其中,社会支持在主动发展倾向对城市生活适应影响中具有部分中介作用.     

Influence of divergent and convergent thinking on visuomotor adaptation in young and older adults

Visuomotor adaptation declines in older age. This has been attributed to cognitive impairments. One relevant cognitive function could be creativity, since creativity is implicated as mediator of early learning. The present study therefore evaluates whether two aspects of creativity, divergent and convergent thinking, are differentially involved in the age-dependent decline of visuomotor adaptation.In 25 young and 24 older volunteers, divergent thinking was assessed by the alternative-uses-task (AUT), convergent thinking by the Intelligenz-Struktur-Test-2000 (IST), and sensorimotor-adaptation by a pointing task with 60° rotated visual feedback.Young participants outperformed older participants in all three tasks. AUT scores were positively associated with young but not older participants’ adaptive performance, whereas IST scores were negatively associated with older but not young participants’ adaptive performance. This pattern of findings could be attributed to a consistent relationship between AUT, IST and adaptation; taking this into account, adaptation deficits of older participants were no longer significant.We conclude that divergent thinking supports workaround-strategies during adaptation, but doesn’t influence visuomotor recalibration. Furthermore, the decay of divergent thinking in older adults may explain most of age-related decline of adaptive strategies. When the age-related decay of divergent thinking coincides with well-preserved convergent thinking, adaptation suffers most.     

述情障碍对大学生手机成瘾倾向的影响：孤独感与正念的作用

为考察述情障碍对大学生手机成瘾倾向的影响机制,以1224名大学生为被试,采用多伦多述情障碍量表、大学生手机成瘾倾向量表、孤独感量表和正念注意觉知量表进行测量。结果显示：（1）大学生述情障碍、手机成瘾倾向及孤独感彼此具有显著的相关性;（2）孤独感在述情障碍和手机成瘾倾向之间起到部分中介作用;（3）正念可以显著调节孤独感对大学生手机成瘾倾向的影响,正念和孤独感在述情障碍与大学生手机成瘾倾向之间形成了有调节的中介模型。     

Perceived self-efficacy and language differences

The relationship between language differences and perceived self-efficacy was examined for two different classes (ns = 89 and 66) of a linguistically diverse nursing student population. Sherer, et al.'s General Self-efficacy Scale was factor analyzed, producing two factors (subscales) labeled Tendency to Avoid/Give Up and Tendency to Persist. Students who were nonprimary speakers of English were more likely to avoid difficult tasks or give up because they believed they would fail than those students who were primary speakers of English. There were no significant differences between the groups on Tendency to Persist. Also, students' class level in the program was not related to self-efficacy.     

A Validation Study of the Brief Irrational Thoughts Inventory

This study examines the reliability and validity of the “Brief Irrational Thoughts Inventory” (BITI) in a sample of 256 justice-involved youths. The BITI is a questionnaire used to determine the nature and severity of irrational thoughts related to aggressive (externalizing), sub-assertive (internalizing), and distrust-related behavior in adolescents with conduct problems. The results of this study demonstrated adequate internal consistency reliability and supported validity of the BITI in terms of construct, convergent, concurrent and divergent validity. Construct validity was assessed using a confirmatory factor analysis. The BITI proved to be measurement invariant for sex and ethnic origin, i.e., the results indicated that items were interpreted in a similar way by boys and girls as well as native and non-native Dutch respondents. The BITI also proved to be insensitive to intelligence, education, and age (divergent validity). However, weak to moderate correlations were found between the degree of social desirability and irrational thoughts related to aggressive (externalizing) and distrust-related behavior (BITI). Finally, concurrent validity was satisfactory, with the exception of thoughts related to sub-assertive (internalizing) behavior.     

The Measurement and Prediction of Managerial Creativity

The relations between creative management performance and constructs from the cognitive ability and personality domains were explored. A new openness scale and measures of divergent thinking and general intelligence were correlated with independently obtained criterion assessments of creative-management performance for 221 managers from a variety of organizations. Divergent thinking and openness correlated significantly with key creative-management criteria. General intelligence correlated only marginally with the criteria, and when divergent thinking was statistically removed, not at all. Divergent thinking, conversely, retained its significant criterion correlations with general intelligence statistically removed. Finally, a predictive composite of both divergent thinking and openness is shown to provide solid prediction of managerial creativity and significant utility in a personnel selection context.     

Emotional flexibility and recovery from pain

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between two aspects of emotional flexibility (EF, i.e. flexible emotional responsiveness and affective flexibility) and tolerance for, and recovery from, experimentally-induced pain. Fifty-two adults completed a flexible emotional responsiveness task in which emotional responses on multiple dimensions were registered while watching positive and negative pictures. Affective flexibility was measured using a switching task with positive and negative pictures. Pain tolerance was assessed as the time participants endured an ischemic pain task and total time until recovery in terms of pain intensity and pain unpleasantness was registered. Flexible emotional responsiveness—reflected in divergent corrugator responses to positive and negative stimuli—was associated with faster recovery from pain unpleasantness. Affective flexibility was associated with recovery in terms of pain intensity, with faster switches from neutral towards affective aspects of positive stimuli being predictive of faster recovery. Results did not provide evidence for an association between EF and pain tolerance. The findings suggest that EF may protect against pain persistence.

     

Divergent thinking is not a general trait: A multidomain training experiment

Twenty‐one second‐grade subjects received divergent‐thinking training and 20 matched subjects received training in solving mathematical word problems. All subjects were then given five tasks: telling stories, writing stories, writing poems, writing mathematical word problems, and making collages. Experts evaluated the creativity of each product. The divergent‐thinking groups scored significantly higher than controls on the story‐telling, story‐writing, and poetry‐writing tasks. The lack of correlations among scores on the five tasks, however, suggests that several task‐specific factors, rather than one general factor, led to observed group differences. This is consistent with previous research using subjects untrained in divergent thinking in showing that divergent thinking is not a general trait.     

Structural validity of miokinetic psychodiagnosis-revised and digitalyzed (MKP-RD) lineograms

In this study, we have applied a principal components analysis to the data obtained from a graphical record of motor behaviour performed without vision. The data was obtained from two samples, one made up of men and the other one made up of women. Hand dominance was controlled in both samples. Five independent factors were obtained: Factor I (Tendency to increase or decrease the length), Factor II (Tendency to deviate in a sagittal direction), Factor V (Tendency to deviate in a frontal direction); two factors (III and IV) were found in a transversal direction. This factor structure did not depend on sex, because the same structure was found in both sexes, nor it could be explained by learning, because the same factors appeared for each hand, except for Factors III and IV which were different for each hand. This study supports different motor dispositions as foundations of behaviour tendencies.     

The Interpersonal Cognitive Distortions Scale: development and psychometric characteristics

In this study, an Interpersonal Cognitive Distortions Scale was developed to assess cognitive distortions in individuals' interpersonal relationships. The sample comprised 425 university students. A factor analysis yielded three factors: Interpersonal Rejection, Unrealistic Relationship Expectation and Interpersonal Misperception. To examine construct validity the correlations between the scores on the Interpersonal Cognitive Distortions Scale and the Automatic Thoughts Scale (.54), the Irrational Belief Scale (.54), and the Conflict Tendency Scale (.53) were estimated. The first factor, the second factor, and the total scale discriminated married individuals who had low and high conflict intensity and conflict frequency. The reliability of the scale was estimated by performing a test-retest correlation (.74). Cronbach internal consistency coefficient alpha was .67.     

Unmasking affiliative behavior among juvenile Midas cichlids (Cichlasoma citrinellum)

Adults of the Midas cichlid (Cichlasoma citrinellum) are predominantly normal-colored (N) morphs, although 8% in nature are gold (G) morphs. They tend to mate assortatively by color; that behavior may be influenced by prior experience with parents or siblings or by their own color. A previous experiment indicated that juveniles respond according to a rule that they avoid and behave defensively toward G juveniles and that they consort with and behave aggressively toward N juveniles (Barlow & Siri, 1987). The fear-provoking effect of G may have interfered with more subtle aspects of choice because the 4 treatment fish in each group reacted through the glass barrier to the approach of the subject. In the present experiment such feedback was eliminated by using one-way mirrors. N juveniles reared by normal parents (N X N) differentiated between N and G treatment fish only in that they attacked significantly more toward G; thus their behavior was contrary to that predicted by the fear-provoking effect of gold. The notable effect among juveniles reared by G parents (G X G) was that N spent more time with N and avoided G treatment fish, in keeping with the fear-provoking effect of gold. The results are discussed in terms of the differences in experiences between juveniles reared N X N, all of which were themselves N, and those reared G X G, consisting of both color morphs. Despite the differences in the two experiments, the main conclusion remains in place: Affiliative responses of juveniles, as measured in these tests, do not predict choice of mate among adults.