One Aspect of Hartmann's Review of Human Nature and Enduring Peace

Summary

Eighty Negro boys and girls, ages 3 to 5, were assigned to one of eight conditions. Race of model (Negro vs. white), type of consequence to model (reward vs. punishment), and percent of rewarded or punished responses (20 vs. 80 percent) were varied. The Ss viewed a television tape of a model (M) performing a simple two-choice discrimination task with either verbal reward or verbal punishment administered. After watching M make his choice, the S then made his own choice. When S's choice was the same as M's, imitative behavior was said to have occurred. There were significant effects of both race of M and type of consequence to M. Negro S imitated the white M more than the Negro M and imitated the rewarded M more than the punished M. The punished white M was imitated at approximately the same level as the rewarded Negro M. No significant effects of percent of reinforcement were found. Possible explanations of the experimental results were discussed.     

The Prevalence of Well-Being on Teachers in Afri Twin Schools as Well as Non Afri Twin Schools

This study investigated the self-perceived preparedness of students from a historically disadvantaged rural South African setting for psychology studies at a university. The study sample comprised 399 beginning students with a historically Black university (age M = 22.8 years, SD = 5.1; 72.2% women; 65.7% rural background) students. The students responded to a questionnaire investigating, inter alia, prior awareness of the subject, access to psychology literature, awareness of psychologists in their communities, perceived relevance to or clashes with their culture, and parental awareness of the subject. Of the sample, 48.1% first heard about psychology upon entering a university, 75.7% had no access to books on the subject, and only 44.6% received information from their school teachers about psychology as a career. Significantly more urban (65.2%) than rural (34.8%) students had received information about psychology before coming to university.     

Comparing score tests and other local dependence diagnostics for the graded response model

Score tests for identifying locally dependent item pairs have been proposed for binary item response models. In this article, both the bifactor and the threshold shift score tests are generalized to the graded response model. For the bifactor test, the generalization is straightforward; it adds one secondary dimension associated only with one pair of items. For the threshold shift test, however, multiple generalizations are possible: in particular, conditional, uniform, and linear shift tests are discussed in this article. Simulation studies show that all of the score tests have accurate Type I error rates given large enough samples, although their small‐sample behaviour is not as good as that of Pearson's Χ² and M₂ as proposed in other studies for the purpose of local dependence (LD) detection. All score tests have the highest power to detect the LD which is consistent with their parametric form, and in this case they are uniformly more powerful than Χ² and M₂; even wrongly specified score tests are more powerful than Χ² and M₂ in most conditions. An example using empirical data is provided for illustration.     

Radical Otherness: Sociological and Theological Approaches

Abstract

This article reports two studies on the development of the Embodied Spirituality Scale (ESS), an instrument designed to measure the level of integration between one's experience of sexuality and spirituality. Both studies were limited to specifically Christian samples. Study 1 reports the initial construction of the ESS. Participants in Study 1 consisted of 128 women and 64 men (ages 16 to 75, M = 22.7 years). Study 2 reports a validation study of the ESS. Participants in Study 2 consisted of 125 female (46.5 per cent) and 142 male (52.8 per cent) adults between the ages of 18 and 78 (M = 47; SD = 10.9). The results offer empirical support for the concept of embodied spirituality as an integral relationship between sexuality and spirituality. The results also suggest that, as a measure of embodied awareness, the ESS may offer clues to the nature of the ‘active ingredient’ in the relationship between spirituality and health.     

Equivalent models in covariance structure analysis

Defining equivalent models as those that reproduce the same set of covariance matrices, necessary and sufficient conditions are stated for the local equivalence of two expanded identified modelsM ₁ andM ₂ when fitting the more restricted modelM ₀. Assuming several regularity conditions, the rank deficiency of the Jacobian matrix, composed of derivatives of the covariance elements with respect to the union of the free parameters ofM ₁ andM ₂ (which characterizes modelM ₁₂), is a necessary and sufficient condition for the local equivalence ofM ₁ andM ₂. This condition is satisfied, in practice, when the analysis dealing with the fitting ofM ₀, predicts that the decreases in the chi-square goodness-of-fit statistic for the fitting ofM ₁ orM ₂, orM ₁₂ are all equal for any set of sample data, except on differences due to rounding errors.This research was supported by the Foundation of Social-Cultural Sciences which is subsidized by the Dutch Scientific Organization (N.W.O.) under project number 500-278-003. The author wishes to thank Anne Boomsma, Ivo Molenaar, Albert Satorra, and Tom Snijders for their stimulating and crucial comments during the research, and the Editor, Paul Bekker, Henk Broer, and anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions.     

What Is Engagement? Proactivity as the Missing Link in the HEXACO Model of Personality

We tested the hypothesis that proactivity represents the engagement vector in the HEXACO model of personality. Questionnaire data were obtained in five studies, three of which consisted (mostly) of students: Study 1 (N = 188, M_age = 20.0, 89.4% women), Study 3 (N = 315, M_age = 20.4, 80.6% women), and Study 4 (N = 309 self‐ratings, M_age = 20.0, 78.3% women; N = 307 other‐ratings, M_age = 24.5, 62.2% women). Participants in the other two studies came from an ISO‐certified representative community panel: Study 2 (N = 525, M_age = 51.2, 52.0% women) and Study 5 (N = 736, M_age = 42.2, 48.0% women). Proactive Personality and Proactivity were positively related to Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience, but only weakly related or unrelated to Honesty‐Humility, Emotionality, and Agreeableness, supporting the alignment of Proactive Personality/Proactivity with the hypothesized HEXACO engagement vector. Additionally, Proactivity explained incremental variance in self‐rated job performance on top of the HEXACO facets that were most closely associated with Proactive Personality/Proactivity, that is, Social Boldness (an Extraversion facet), Diligence (a Conscientiousness facet), and Creativity (an Openness to Experience facet), but not in entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship. Proactivity is the missing engagement link in the HEXACO model of personality. The results are discussed in light of higher‐order factors (e.g., general factor of personality and Alpha and Beta) of personality and bandwidth‐fidelity controversies.     

Explanation of Two Anomalous Results in Statistical Mediation Analysis

Previous studies of different methods of testing mediation models have consistently found two anomalous results. The first result is elevated Type I error rates for the bias-corrected and accelerated bias-corrected bootstrap tests not found in nonresampling tests or in resampling tests that did not include a bias correction. This is of special concern as the bias-corrected bootstrap is often recommended and used due to its higher statistical power compared with other tests. The second result is statistical power reaching an asymptote far below 1.0 and in some conditions even declining slightly as the size of the relationship between X and M, a, increased. Two computer simulations were conducted to examine these findings in greater detail. Results from the first simulation found that the increased Type I error rates for the bias-corrected and accelerated bias-corrected bootstrap are a function of an interaction between the size of the individual paths making up the mediated effect and the sample size, such that elevated Type I error rates occur when the sample size is small and the effect size of the nonzero path is medium or larger. Results from the second simulation found that stagnation and decreases in statistical power as a function of the effect size of the a path occurred primarily when the path between M and Y, b, was small. Two empirical mediation examples are provided using data from a steroid prevention and health promotion program aimed at high school football players (Athletes Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids; Goldberg et al., 1996), one to illustrate a possible Type I error for the bias-corrected bootstrap test and a second to illustrate a loss in power related to the size of a. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Mirror and I: When private opinions are in conflict with public norms

In two studies it is demonstrated that two self-saliency manipulations, often used interchangeably, can have profoundly different consequences. Whereas self-activation increased stereotyping in highly prejudiced participants, a mirror decreased stereotyping. Results show that this difference can be ascribed to the activation of specific self-aspects. Whereas a mirror increased both private and public self-awareness (and, hence, awareness of the social norm that stereotyping is bad), self-activation increased private self-awareness exclusively (and, hence, awareness of privately held negative stereotypes). The implications of these findings for the relation between self-awareness and conformity to social norms are discussed.     

Achievement motives and emotional processes in children during problem-solving: Two experimental studies of their relation to performance in different achievement goal conditions

In two studies, the influence of key emotional and motivational factors on performance in different achievement goal-type situations is examined. In study 1, based on 314 sixth-graders, two types of goal situations were induced; performance and mastery. The goals were examined with respect to important antecedents (e.g., motive dispositions) and several consequences (e.g., performance, satisfaction, pleasant affect, worry, and emotionality). The results showed that the motive to achieve success (M _s) produced positive affects, satisfaction, and increased performance, whereas the motive to avoid failure (M _f) produced worries and performance reduction. In study 2, based on 331 sixth-graders, three types of goal situations were induced; performance–approach, performance–avoidance, and mastery goals. The findings revealed that the most important single factors positively related to performance were M _s and mastery–goal situation. In addition, high M _s pupils performed better under mastery condition than under performance condition. Finally, avoidance-goal situation accentuate the negative effects of high M _f on performance.     

Electronic Diaries: A Feasible Method of Assessing Emotional Experiences in Youth?

The primary goal of this study was to examine whether electronic diaries are a feasible method of monitoring transitory emotional states with a school-age, community sample of youth. A second goal was to examine preliminary relations between indices of emotional functioning captured via electronic diaries and other measures of child emotional and psychological functioning. Participants included 38 youth between the ages of 7 and 12 (51% males, M age = 9 [1.52] years and 49% females, M age = 9 [1.94] years) and their mothers (M age = 39 years) and fathers (M age = 42 years). Children were prompted to indicate the intensity of their current emotion four times a day for 1 week using Palm Tungsten E2s. Youth also completed self-report measures of emotion intensity, awareness, and dysregulation. Parents completed measures of child emotion regulation and symptoms of externalizing and internalizing psychopathology. Sixty percent of the prompts were answered as intended. Higher levels of positive emotion intensity based on electronic diary ratings were negatively related to parent reports of adaptive emotion regulation and were positively related to youths’ reports of emotion dysregulation and poor emotion awareness. Given that the electronic diary data offered unique information on youth emotional functioning, strategies to increase compliance with the diaries are suggested.     

The watching eyes phenomenon: The role of a sense of being seen and public self‐awareness

In recent years, a growing number of researchers have examined the watching eyes phenomenon (i.e., increased prosocial and decreased antisocial behavior when subtle watching eyes are present in the environment). Somewhat surprisingly, the questions of how and under what conditions subtle cues of being watched operate have been unanswered so far. The present contribution addresses this research gap. In two studies, we document that (a) subtle cues of being watched induce a sense of being seen and (b) chronic public self‐awareness moderates the watching eyes phenomenon in that specifically individuals with strong chronic public self‐awareness show more prosocial behavior under conditions of watching eyes. The applicability of subtle cues of being watched in research on social presence is discussed.     

Virtually Perfect: Image Retouching and Adolescent Body Image

Most studies of ideal-body media effects on body image focus on the extreme thinness of the models, not their idealness. In modern media, this idealness is often created or maximized via digital image editing. This experiment tested the effects of image editing outside the research-typical context of exclusive thinness. Original unretouched photographs were manipulated by a professional retoucher to produce unretouched and retouched image conditions. In a third condition (retouched-aware), the retouched images were explicitly labeled as retouched. Adolescents ( N = 393, average age 15.43) were randomly assigned to one of these conditions or a no-exposure control, and they completed a questionnaire following exposure. Objectified body consciousness increased and physical self-esteem decreased among male and female adolescents in the retouched-aware condition only. This boomerang effect of retouching awareness is explored in the discussion.     

Methodological appraisals, advice, and historiographical models

In the paper I examine (Section I) the best defense for the claim that methodologies shouldnot function heuristically (thesis-LW) as it appears in John Worrall. I then evaluate (Section II) his proposal of a criterion^* M which is offered as a criterion for evaluating competing methodologies such as falsificationism, conventionalism, methodology of research programmes. etc. Finally, I consider (Section III) the consequences of arguments presented earlier (Section I and II) as they bear on the problem of selecting a historiographical model.I argue, among other things, (I) that thesis-LW is defended on some very dubious assumptions; (II) that Worrall's criterion^* M falters under three clear cases two of which at least^*M should accomodate, and that part of^* M's failure can be linked to its being hooked to thesis-LW. By arguments analogous to the ones which serve^* M, I show thatcontra John Worrall and John Watkins, thesis-LW is testable; finally, (III) if we accept arguments for thesis-LW and^* M we are left with a skeptical conclusion with respect to the choice of a historiographical model which Worrall by parity of reasoning should accept, but does not.     

fMRI responses to Jung's Word Association Test: implications for theory,treatment and research

Jung's Word Association Test was performed under fMRI conditions by 12 normal subjects. Pooled complexed responses were contrasted against pooled neutral ones. The fMRI activation pattern of this generic ‘complexed response’ was very strong (corrected Z scores ranging from 4.90 to 5.69). The activation pattern in each hemisphere includes mirror neurone areas that track ‘otherness’ (perspectival empathy), anterior insula (both self‐awareness and emotional empathy), and cingulated gyrus (self‐awareness and conflict‐monitoring). These are the sites described by Siegel and colleagues as the ‘resonance circuitry’ in the brain which is central to mindfulness (awareness of self) and empathy (sense of the other), negotiations between self awareness and the ‘internal other’. But there is also an interhemispheric dialogue. Within 3 seconds, the left hemisphere over‐rides the right (at least in our normal subjects). Mindfulness and empathy are central to good psychotherapy, and complexes can be windows of opportunity if left‐brain hegemony is resisted. This study sets foundations for further research: (i) QEEG studies (with their finer temporal resolution) of complexed responses in normal subjects (ii) QEEG and fMRI studies of complexed responses in other conditions, like schizophrenia, PTSD, disorders of self organization.     

Further Evaluation of the Tripartite Structure of Subjective Well‐Being: Evidence From Longitudinal and Experimental Studies

Subjective well‐being (SWB; Diener, 1984) comprises three primary components: life satisfaction (LS), positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA). Multiple competing conceptualizations of the tripartite structure of SWB have been employed, resulting in widespread ambiguity concerning the definition, operationalization, analysis, and synthesis of SWB‐related findings (Busseri & Sadava, 2011). We report two studies evaluating two predominant structural models (as recently identified by Busseri, 2015): a hierarchical model comprising a higher‐order latent SWB factor with LS, PA, and NA as indicators; and a causal systems model specifying unidirectional effects of PA and NA on LS. A longitudinal study (N = 452; M_age = 18.54; 76.5% female) and a lab‐based experiment (N = 195; M_age = 20.42 years; 87.6% female; 81.5% Caucasian) were undertaken. Structural models were evaluated with respect to (a) associations among SWB components across time (three months, three years in Study 1; one week in Study 2) and (b) the impact of manipulating the individual SWB components (Study 2). A hierarchical structural model was supported in both studies; conflicting evidence was found for the causal systems model. A hierarchical model provides a robust conceptualization for the tripartite structure of SWB.     

A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis

A family of scaling corrections aimed to improve the chi-square approximation of goodness-of-fit test statistics in small samples, large models, and nonnormal data was proposed in Satorra and Bentler (1994). For structural equations models, Satorra-Bentler's (SB) scaling corrections are available in standard computer software. Often, however, the interest is not on the overall fit of a model, but on a test of the restrictions that a null model sayM ₀ implies on a less restricted oneM ₁. IfT ₀ andT ₁ denote the goodness-of-fit test statistics associated toM ₀ andM ₁, respectively, then typically the differenceT _d =T ₀−T ₁ is used as a chi-square test statistic with degrees of freedom equal to the difference on the number of independent parameters estimated under the modelsM ₀ andM ₁. As in the case of the goodness-of-fit test, it is of interest to scale the statisticT _d in order to improve its chi-square approximation in realistic, that is, nonasymptotic and nonormal, applications. In a recent paper, Satorra (2000) shows that the difference between two SB scaled test statistics for overall model fit does not yield the correct SB scaled difference test statistic. Satorra developed an expression that permits scaling the difference test statistic, but his formula has some practical limitations, since it requires heavy computations that are not available in standard computer software. The purpose of the present paper is to provide an easy way to compute the scaled difference chi-square statistic from the scaled goodness-of-fit test statistics of modelsM ₀ andM ₁. A Monte Carlo study is provided to illustrate the performance of the competing statistics. This research was supported by the Spanish grants PB96-0300 and BEC2000-0983, and USPHS grants DA00017 and DA01070.     

A defense of contingent logical truths

A formula is a contingent logical truth when it is true in every model M but, for some model M, false at some world of M. We argue that there are such truths, given the logic of actuality. Our argument turns on defending Tarski’s definition of truth and logical truth, extended so as to apply to modal languages with an actuality operator. We argue that this extension is the philosophically proper account of validity. We counter recent arguments to the contrary presented in Hanson’s ‘Actuality, Necessity, and Logical Truth’ (Philos Stud 130:437–459, 2006).     

The Roles of Values,Behavior, and Value‐Behavior Fit in the Relation of Agency and Communion to Well‐Being

Four studies examined whether agency and communion values, behaviors, or an interaction between values and behaviors (value‐behavior fit) would predict well‐being. In addition, Study 2 examined whether agency and communion goals, behaviors, or goal‐behavior fit would predict well‐being. In all four studies, participants completed online questionnaires containing measures of agency and communion values, behaviors, and well‐being. In Studies 1 and 4, participants were recruited from the general population (respectively, N = 371, M_age = 37.49, and N = 133, M_age = 36.59). In Studies 2 and 3, participants were undergraduate students (respectively, N = 239, M_age = 20.8, and N = 242, M_age = 21.6). All four studies consistently found that agency and communion behaviors were significantly positively correlated with both subjective and psychological well‐being. There was no strong indication that either values were directly associated with well‐being. Neither was there any indication that well‐being was predicted by value‐behavior fit. The implications of these findings for theory and improving well‐being are discussed.     

Limited‐information goodness‐of‐fit testing of hierarchical item factor models

In applications of item response theory, assessment of model fit is a critical issue. Recently, limited‐information goodness‐of‐fit testing has received increased attention in the psychometrics literature. In contrast to full‐information test statistics such as Pearson’s X² or the likelihood ratio G², these limited‐information tests utilize lower‐order marginal tables rather than the full contingency table. A notable example is Maydeu‐Olivares and colleagues’M₂ family of statistics based on univariate and bivariate margins. When the contingency table is sparse, tests based on M₂ retain better Type I error rate control than the full‐information tests and can be more powerful. While in principle the M₂ statistic can be extended to test hierarchical multidimensional item factor models (e.g., bifactor and testlet models), the computation is non‐trivial. To obtain M₂, a researcher often has to obtain (many thousands of) marginal probabilities, derivatives, and weights. Each of these must be approximated with high‐dimensional numerical integration. We propose a dimension reduction method that can take advantage of the hierarchical factor structure so that the integrals can be approximated far more efficiently. We also propose a new test statistic that can be substantially better calibrated and more powerful than the original M₂ statistic when the test is long and the items are polytomous. We use simulations to demonstrate the performance of our new methods and illustrate their effectiveness with applications to real data.     

Does participation in research lead to changes in attitudes among clinicians? Report on a survey of those involved in a French practice research network

Background/Objective: With increasing awareness of some of the limitations of randomised controlled trials as the ‘gold standard’ of psychotherapy evaluation, researchers at the start of the twenty‐first century have focused on a number of new priorities: developing studies in natural conditions; investigating the psychotherapeutic process to better understand the conditions, causes and mechanisms of change; and reducing the gap between clinicians and researchers. Can these three interrelated objectives be combined? Method: A French psychotherapy practice‐based research network (PRN) is used as a field of research for these issues. A survey was used to investigate the conditions that encouraged the clinicians to participate in the PRN study within the context of clinicians’ general opposition to research. Results: Several elements emerged as the key to clinicians’ positive involvement in research: the methodology implemented (intensive case studies during one year); the choice of measures; the constant attention to the practicalities and the potential contribution of studies to clinical practice; the organisation of work in peer groups; the training methods; the use of new information technologies and the sense of participation in a project that would support the profession. Implications: These elements are briefly discussed in relation to the question of how best to encourage clinicians to engage with research.