Life events and personality predicting loneliness among centenarians: findings from the Georgia Centenarian Study

Regarding the purpose of this study, the researchers analyzed the roles that both life events (life-time positive events and life-time negative events) and personality (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Trust, Competence, and Ideas) played in participants of the Georgia Centenarian Study. The researchers analyzed these variables to determine whether they predicted loneliness. Analyses indicated that life-time negative events significantly predicted loneliness. In essence, the higher was the number of life-time negative life events, the higher was the loneliness score. Moreover, Neuroticism, Competence, and Ideas were all significant predictors of loneliness. The higher was the level of Neuroticism and intellectual curiosity, the higher was the level of loneliness, whereas the lower was the level of Competence, the higher was the level of loneliness. In addition, both life-time positive and life-time negative life events were significant predictors of Neuroticism. The higher was the number of life-time positive events, the lower was the level of Neuroticism, and the higher was the number of life-time negative events, the greater was the level of Neuroticism. These results indicated that life-time negative events indirectly affect loneliness via Neuroticism. Last, our results indicated that the Competence facet mediated the relationship between lifetime negative life events and loneliness. Life-time negative life events significantly affected centenarians' perceived competence, and Competence in turn significantly affected the centenarians' loneliness. These results as a whole not only add to our understanding of the link between personality and loneliness, but also provide new insight into how life events predict loneliness.     

Personality Trait Development and Social Investment in Work

A longitudinal study of employed individuals was used to test the relationship between social investment at work—the act of cognitively and emotionally committing to one’s job—and longitudinal and cross-sectional personality trait development. Participants provided ratings of personality traits and social investment at work at two time-points, separated by approximately 3 years. Data were analyzed using latent change models. Cross-sectional results showed that extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability were related to social investment at work. Additionally, a positive association was found between longitudinal change in social investment in work and change in personality traits—especially conscientiousness. Finally, the correlated changes in social investment and personality traits were invariant across age groups, suggesting that personality traits remain malleable across the lifespan.     

心理干预的优先获益者——来自发展可塑性的研究证据

近些年, 发展可塑性领域出现两个新模型--差别易感性模型和优势敏感性模型, 两个模型均表明个体从积极环境中的获益具有差异性。而心理干预作为一种特殊的积极环境被引入到该领域的研究中。已有的研究已经发现一些证据表明, 具备某些特征的当事人从心理干预中获益更多。这些特征包括人格和气质类、遗传类和生理类。本质上, 这些研究在处理“什么对谁最有效”的问题, 但现有研究仅能部分回答这个问题。因此, 心理干预的效果差异有多少可归于这些易感特征, 是有待继续回答的问题。     

Adversity in adolescence predicts personality trait change from childhood to adulthood

This study examined whether cumulative adversity in adolescence predicted changes in the Big Five traits from childhood to adulthood in the Project Competence Longitudinal Study sample (N = 205) followed from childhood (age 10) through adolescence into adulthood (age 30). Personality traits were measured in childhood through multiple methods and in adulthood by self-report. Cumulative adversity, assessed in adolescence, differentiated independent adversity (likely unrelated to participants’ behavior) from dependent adversity (resulting from participants’ own behavior). Participants’ personality traits were modestly stable over 20 years, although Openness showed greater stability. Independent and dependent adversity predicted increases in Negative Emotionality/Neuroticism, and dependent adversity predicted decreases in Constraint/Conscientiousness and Agreeableness from childhood to adulthood, suggesting that cumulative adversity shapes personality development in young people.     

Counseling in Singapore

Singapore, a tiny island nation, rose from 3rd‐ to 1st‐world status in just 3 decades. Unlike in most developed countries, counseling in Singapore has a short history with faith‐based beginnings and currently faces challenges to remain culturally relevant. The authors trace the development of Singapore's counseling services, provide an update regarding counseling practices in the school and community, and describe counseling and its relation to psychology in the educational setting. The authors conclude by examining professional issues and future directions.     

From desire to development? A multi-sample,idiographic examination of volitional personality change

Using an idiographic-nomothetic methodology, we assessed individuals’ ability to change their personality traits without therapeutic or experimental involvement. Participants from internet and college populations completed trait measures and reported current personality change desires. Self-reported traits as well as perceptions of trait change were collected after 1-year (Internet) and 6-months (College). In large part, volitional personality change desires did not predict actual change. When desires did predict change, (a) desired increases in Extraversion, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness corresponded with decreases in corresponding traits, (b) participants perceived more change than actually occurred, and (c) decreases in Emotional Stability predicted perceptions of personality change. Results illustrate the difficulty in purposefully changing one’s traits when left to one’s own devices.     

生命史权衡的内在机制:动机控制策略的中介作用

本研究基于生命史理论框架,通过整合生命史理论以及毕生发展动机理论的研究,进一步探索并验证生命史权衡的内在机制:动机控制策略(而非控制感)的中介效应。研究1采取问卷调查的方法,选取Mini-K量表以及首要–次级控制优化量表,结果表明,最优化策略、选择性首要控制以及选择性次级控制均发挥中介作用。研究2采用实验法,针对性地验证暴露在负性环境线索中的个体的最优化策略是否起中介作用,结果表明,最优化策略中介童年社会经济地位和延迟满足的关系。     

Perceived emotional and life change impact of AIDS on homosexual men in two countries

Abstract

A comprehensive self-administered life event inventory examining both general life stress and stress from events specific to the homosexual and bisexual male population was developed in order to assess the impact of AIDS and HIV infection on homo- and bisexual men. Ranking of questions revealed that while general stressors affected homosexuals similarly to heterosexuals, there were critical stressors affecting homosexuals not measured by conventional inventories. Specifically, emotional distress from receiving an HIV antibody positive result was not significantly different to that caused by a diagnosis of AIDS or ARC, the diagnosis of AIDS in a lover or the death of a lover. A sharp discrepancy in emotional distress between current safer sex behaviour and current unsafe sexual behaviour was also found, and the implications for behavioural modification in this area noted. Those who were HIV antibody positive tended to evaluate the anticipated impact of further AIDS related diagnoses as having a greater emotional impact than those who had tested negative. There would appear to be a closer relationship between emotional distress and life change in homosexual men than in heterosexual samples. The relative emotional impacts and life change assessments of AIDS and HIV infection are discussed.     

Children,childhood, and development in evolutionary perspective

We examine children, childhood, and development from an evolutionary perspective. We begin by reviewing major assumptions of evolutionary–developmental psychology, including the integration of “soft” developmental systems theory with ideas from mainstream evolutionary psychology. We then discuss the concept of adaptive developmental plasticity and describe the core evolutionary concept of developmental programming and some of its applications to human development, as instantiated in life history theory and the theory of differential susceptibility to environmental influence. We then discuss the concept of adaptation from an evolutionary–developmental perspective, including ontogenetic and deferred adaptations, and examine the development of some adaptations of infancy and childhood from the domains of folk psychology and folk physics. We conclude that evolutionary theory can serve as a metatheory for developmental science.     

The General Factor of Psychosocial Development and its relation to the General Factor of Personality and Life History strategy

It was hypothesized that the eight Eriksonian psychosocial stages form a single latent variable or General Factor of Psychosocial Development (GFPD) and that this latent factor is associated with the General Factor of Personality (GFP) and Life History (LH) strategy to the extent that the variables form a higher order Super-K factor. Correlational analyses and confirmatory factor analyses each supported the hypothesized GFPD. Additionally, correlational and confirmatory factor analyses supported the hypothesis that the three variables form a single Super-K factor. The results of Study 3 suggest that the relationship between the psychosocial stages and between the GFPD, GFP, and LH strategy remained after controlling for social desirable response biases.