Affect and alcohol use: an ecological momentary assessment study of outpatients with borderline personality disorder

Alcohol use may be viewed as an attempt (albeit maladaptive) to regulate negative emotional states. We examined associations between both negative and positive affects and alcohol use in outpatient women diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD; n=74), a prototype of emotional dysregulation, as well as a psychiatric control group of women with current depressive disorder (major depressive disorder/dysthymic disorder [MDD\DYS]; n=50). Participants completed randomly prompted reports of mood and alcohol use up to six times a day over a 28-day period using electronic diaries. Mean levels of either positive or negative affects did not distinguish between drinkers and nondrinkers in either diagnostic group. However, levels of both negative and positive affects were positively associated with alcohol use at the momentary level in BPD drinkers. More robust findings were obtained with respect to within-person affective variability, which was related to alcohol use in multiple ways. BPD drinkers showed higher within-person variability for most negative affects than BPD nondrinkers; MDD\DYS drinkers in general showed less within-person variability than MDD\DYS nondrinkers for negative affects. Multilevel lagged analyses for BPD drinkers indicated that alcohol use was positively related to variability in all affects, concurrently, but fewer significant effects of affect variability on the next day's drinking or significant effects of alcohol use on the next day's affect variability were observed. Among MDD\DYS drinkers, we observed more significant associations between affect variability on next day's alcohol use and of alcohol use on next day's affect variability. We discuss theoretical and methodological issues relevant to these findings as well as implications for future research.     

Relational humility: conceptualizing and measuring humility as a personality judgment

The study of humility has progressed slowly due to measurement problems. We describe a model of relational humility that conceptualizes humility as a personality judgment. In this set of 5 studies, we developed the 16-item Relational Humility Scale (RHS) and offered initial evidence for the theoretical model. In Study 1 (N = 300), we developed the RHS and its subscales--Global Humility, Superiority, and Accurate View of Self. In Study 2, we confirmed the factor structure of the scale in an independent sample (N = 196). In Study 3, we provided initial evidence supporting construct validity using an experimental design (N = 200). In Study 4 (N = 150), we provided additional evidence of construct validity by examining the relationships between humility and empathy, forgiveness, and other virtues. In Study 5 (N = 163), we adduced evidence of discriminant and incremental validity of the RHS compared with the Honesty-Humility subscale of the HEXACO-PI (Lee & Ashton, 2004).     

Accountability and judgment processes in a personality prediction task

In this experiment, we investigated the impact of accountability--social pressures to justify one's views to others--on cognitive processing in a personality-prediction task. Subjects were presented with the responses of actual test-takers to 16 items from Jackson's Personality Research Form (PRF) and asked to predict how these individuals responded to an additional set of 16 items from the same test. Subjects were assigned to a no-accountability condition (they learned that all of their responses would be anonymous), a preexposure-accountability condition (they learned of the need to justify their responses before seeing the test-takers' PRF responses), and a postexposure-accountability condition (they learned of the need to justify their responses after seeing the test-takers' PRF responses). Preexposure-accountability subjects reported more integratively complex impressions of test-takers, made more accurate behavioral predictions, and reported more appropriate levels of confidence in their predictions than did either no-accountability or postexposure-accountability subjects. We conclude by considering possible psychological mediators of these effects as well as the broader theoretical implications of the findings for the development of contingency models of judgment and choice.     

Affective instability: measuring a core feature of borderline personality disorder with ecological momentary assessment

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA; Stone & Shiffman, 1994) was used to characterize and quantify a dynamic process--affective instability in borderline personality disorder (BPD). Sixty outpatients (34 with BPD and affective instability; 26 with current depressive disorder but not with BPD or affective instability) carried electronic diaries for approximately 1 month and were randomly prompted to rate their mood state up to 6 times a day. Results indicated that BPD patients (a) did not report significantly different mean levels of positive or negative affect; (b) displayed significantly more variability over time in their positive and negative affect scores; (c) demonstrated significantly more instability on successive scores (i.e., large changes) for hostility, fear, and sadness than did patients with depressive disorders; and (d) were more likely to report extreme changes across successive occasions (>or=90th percentile of change scores across participants) for hostility scores. Results illustrate different analytic approaches to quantifying variability and instability of affect based on intensive longitudinal data. Further, results suggest the promise of electronic diaries for collecting data from individuals in their natural environment for purposes of clinical research and assessment.     

Compliance to a cell phone-based ecological momentary assessment study: The effect of time and personality characteristics

Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a method that is now widely used to study behavior and mood in the settings in which they naturally occur. It maximizes ecological validity and avoids the limitations of retrospective self-reports. Compliance patterns across time have not been studied. Consistent compliance patterns could lead to data not missing at random and bias the results of subsequent analyses. In order to use modern statistical approaches for handling missing data, it is important to include variables predicting missing values into the statistical analysis. Therefore, these predictors have to be known and measured. The authors collected data on 3 four-item mood scales measuring well-being, wakefulness, and nervousness on 6 occasions per day for 7 days (N = 305) and examined compliance rate across time, within day, and within week. Results show good global compliance (mean compliance: 74.9% of calls answered). Compliance varied more within day than within week. Within day, it was lower for the first call of the day between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. and higher for the call between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Within week, calls were equally answered across days of the week, but, as the study progressed, there was a slight drop in compliance with a progressive decrease that was stronger for the first 2 calls. Compliance on the person level did not depend on personality or on satisfaction with life. Practical consequences of the results for conducting ambulatory assessment studies are discussed, and some recommendations are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Humility: Review of measurement strategies and conceptualization as personality judgment

Humility is an understudied virtue in positive psychology. Both conceptual and methodological challenges have retarded its study. In this article, we discuss how humility has been defined. Specifically, researchers disagree whether humility refers to the accuracy of an individual's view of self, or whether humility primarily describes someone's interpersonal stance toward others. We critique four approaches that researchers have used to measure humility: self-reports, implicit measures, social comparisons of self to others, and informant ratings of humility. We then theoretically elaborate on the later method, which has been mostly overlooked. Accordingly, we present a model of relational humility. We define humility as a relationship-specific personality judgment, and we describe the relationship factors that affect how humility is perceived [Funder, D.C. (1995 Funder, DC. 1995. On the accuracy of personality judgment: A realistic approach. Psychological Review, 102: 652–670. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). On the accuracy of personality judgment: A realistic approach. Psychological Review, 102, 652–670.]. Finally, we provide next steps for researchers using a relational approach.     

Friends and strangers: acquaintanceship, agreement, and the accuracy of personality judgment

We examined the effect of acquaintanceship on interjudge agreement in personality ratings. Approximately 150 undergraduates described their own personalities using the Q-sort. They were also described by two close acquaintances and by two "strangers" who knew them only via a single, spontaneous interaction viewed on videotape. The effect of acquaintanceship was powerful: Judgments by close acquaintances agreed with each other and with subjects' self-judgments much better than did judgments by strangers, even though strangers' judgments agreed with each other and with subjects' self-judgments beyond a chance level. This result implies that agreement among acquaintances' judgments must derive at least partly from experience with and observation of the person who is judged. The same traits that yielded better agreement among acquaintances also yielded better agreement among strangers and tended to be rated higher in subjective visibility, suggesting that people are intuitively knowledgeable about the traits they can judge with more and less agreement.     

The influence of chronically and temporarily accessible information on life satisfaction judgments

The authors examined the influence of temporarily and chronically accessible information on life satisfaction judgments. Meta-analyses revealed high retest-reliability of life satisfaction judgments and weak effects of the item order of domain and global satisfaction judgments. Study 1 (N=225) failed to replicate a widely cited finding of strong item-order effects. In Studies 2 (N=100), 3 (N=200), and 4 (N=222), chronically accessible information was a strong predictor of life satisfaction judgments, whereas item order had a relatively small effect. Study 5 (N=651) demonstrated that the results generalize to single item measures and judgments of shorter time periods. The results suggest that life satisfaction judgments are more heavily based on chronically accessible than temporarily accessible information.     

Information quantity and quality affect the realistic accuracy of personality judgment

Triads of unacquainted college students interacted in 1 of 5 experimental conditions that manipulated information quantity (amount of information) and information quality (relevance of information to personality), and they then made judgments of each others' personalities. To determine accuracy, the authors compared the ratings of each judge to a broad-based accuracy criterion composed of personality ratings from 3 types of knowledgeable informants (the self, real-life acquaintances, and clinician-interviewers). Results supported the hypothesis that information quantity and quality would be positively related to objective knowledge about the targets and realistic accuracy. Interjudge consensus and self-other agreement followed a similar pattern. These findings are consistent with expectations based on models of the process of accurate judgment (D. C. Funder, 1995, 1999) and consensus (D. A. Kenny, 1994).     

Recognising faces but not traits: Accurate personality judgment from faces is unrelated to superior face memory

It is suggested that accurate personality judgments of faces are driven by a morphological ‘kernel of truth’ from face shape. We hypothesised that this relationship could lead to those with better face identification ability being better at personality judgments. We investigated the relationship between face memory, face matching, Big Five personality traits, and accuracy in recognising Big Five personality traits from 50 photographs of unknown faces. In our sample (n = 792) there was overall good (but varying) face memory and personality judgment accuracy. However, there was convincing evidence that these two skills do not correlate (all r < 0.06). We also replicate the known relationship between extraversion and face memory ability in the largest sample to date.     

Information quality in personality judgment: The value of personal disclosure

We examined the relative quality of different types of information and its effects on accuracy in personality judgment. Three hundred and forty-four unacquainted undergraduates participated in a small group round-robin rating scheme. In one condition, participants were asked to disclose three things that were very important to them in life. In a second condition, participants were asked to disclose three distinctive personal facts: things that differentiated them from others. We found that (a) people believed values information was more personality-relevant than facts information and (b) although there was no clear advantage for one condition over the other in terms of generalized accuracy, there were some differences across conditions for specific traits. Implications for the study of information quality in personality judgment are discussed.     

Nonverbal emotion displays, communication modality, and the judgment of personality

The goal of this research was to investigate the impact of nonverbal expressive cues on the attribution of the Big Five personality traits. Expressive cues of fear, disgust, happiness, and sadness were elicited in a sample of 22 encoders while watching films, narrating, and posing. Encoders’ personalities were rated by themselves and unacquainted raters who watched the encoders, and blind judges rated the traits of a typical student. Expressive cues influenced the raters’ attribution of personality, but this influence was weakest when the encoders expressed happiness (vs. negative emotions) and when they were narrating an emotional experience (when the cues were least potent). Negative and strong expressive cues interfered with the application of a normative, and more accurate, judgment strategy.     

Personality judgment and personality pathology: self-other agreement in adolescents with conduct disorder

We examine two issues linking personality pathology and judgment of traits within the Five-Factor Model of personality. We hypothesize that pathology moderates self-other agreement--"target" participants with pathology should be less judgable than participants without pathology. In addition, we hypothesize that pathology could partially produce agreement across a variety of traits, particularly those traits fundamental to the pathology. In an adolescent sample including a group with Conduct Disorder (CD) and a Control group, we examine agreement between adolescents' self-reports and their mothers' informant reports. Using trait-centered and person-centered perspectives, we find support for both hypotheses. Results have implications for understanding the processes affecting personality judgment, for increasing integration of traditional personality research and personality pathology, and for personality assessment.     

Interactive effects of personality and mood on emotion-congruent memory and judgment

Prior research on emotion congruency has tended to focus on either the effects of mood states or of personality traits on cognition. The aim of the present research was to explore when and how personality traits and mood states interact to influence emotion-congruent memory and judgment. In Study 1, participants filled out measures of personality and natural mood and then completed a series of memory and judgment tasks. The same procedure was used in Study 2, except a positive or negative mood state was induced prior to completion of the cognitive tasks. Extraversion and positive affectivity were related to retrieval of positive memories and the tendency to make positive judgments. Neuroticism and negative affectivity were related to retrieval of negative memories and the tendency to make negative judgments. In addition, several significant personality by mood interaction effects on memory and judgment were obtained in Study 2, which suggests that personality and mood effects on cognition are not independent of one another. Discussion focuses on integrating mood-congruency theories with personality theories and specifying the conditions under which mood by trait interaction effects effects emerge.     

Automaticity of chronically accessible constructs in person x situation effects on person perception: it's just a matter of time

Models of Person X Situation influences on social behavior and judgement have invoked two distinct mechanisms: a personality disposition and a situational press. In this study we conceptualized both influences in terms of a single underlying mechanism, construct accessibility. We pitted the characteristic ways that individuals perceive others against situational influences on accessibility (i.e., contextual priming) and tracked over time the relative power of these competing influences on the outcome of an impression-formation task. Subjects possessed either a chronically accessible (chronics) or an inaccessible (nonchronics) construct for either outgoing or inconsiderate behavior. As predicted, as the delay since the priming event lengthened (from 15 to 180 s), chronics were progressively more likely to use the chronically accessible construct instead of the primed alternative construct to categorize an ambiguous target behavior, whereas nonchronics' relative use of the primed and alternative constructs did not change as a function of postpriming delay.     

Relating momentary affect to the five factor model of personality: A Japanese case1

Abstract: This article shows that fundamental aspects of the structure of momentary affect are similar in Japanese and Canadian societies. We developed questionnaire scales in Japanese in four different formats for assessing self-reported momentary affect. Scales can be scored for dimensions defined by Feldman Barrett and Russell (1998 ), Thayer (1996 ), Larsen and Diener (1992 ), and Watson and Tellegen (1985 ). We administered these newly developed affect scales and NEO five-factor inventory ( Costa & McCrae, 1992 ) to a sample of 450 Japanese respondents. The affect scales were found to be psychometrically sound and to be interrelated, as found with English-speaking Canadians. Dimensions could be integrated into a two-dimensional affective space. Personality correlated with momentary affect, though not in the same pattern as found in Canada.     

Cross-cultural clinical judgment bias in personality disorder diagnosis by forensic psychiatrists in the UK: a case-vignette study

Previous research in the UK has suggested that cross-cultural bias in personality disorder diagnosis might partly account for the smaller proportion of Black, relative to White, patients with personality disorder in secure psychiatric hospitals. Using the case-vignette method, we investigated cross-cultural clinical judgment bias in the diagnosis of personality disorder in African Caribbean men by 220 forensic psychiatrists in the UK. In the vignette describing possible DSM-IV antisocial personality disorder, Caucasians were 2.8 times more likely to be given a diagnosis of personality disorder than African Caribbeans. Diagnosis also varied according to the ethnicity of the clinicians. No cross-cultural bias was found in the vignette describing possible DSM-IV borderline personality disorder. These findings are important in relation to recent policies for offenders and others with personality disorder, and to the current focus on delivering race equality in mental health services in the UK. Ongoing debates about the strengths and limitations of the case-vignette method are also discussed.     

Tuned for the future: Intentions are only accessible when a retrieval opportunity is near

The intention-superiority effect describes faster reaction times for stimuli related to an intention than for more neutral material during the retention interval. Some authors have interpreted the effect in terms of a more persistent activation of intention-related material. However, typically participants are instructed to realize the intention immediately after completing the task in which reaction times are assessed (e.g., a recognition task) in order to yield the intention-superiority effect. Thus, the reaction-time task is also associated with a retrieval context. We tested whether the proximity of a retrieval opportunity affects the intention-superiority effect by manipulating whether or not a recognition task indicated a retrieval opportunity. We observed an intention-superiority effect only if the task itself was a meaningful cue for a near retrieval opportunity. This finding indicates that even short-term-delayed intentions flexibly become more or less accessible, depending on the proximity of a retrieval opportunity. We further demonstrated that the intention-superiority effect is not restricted to motor tasks, but is also found for monitoring tasks when the task realization has personally relevant consequences (replicating Schult & Steffens, Memory & Cognition, 39, 1487–1495, 2011).     

Effortful control as a personality characteristic of young children: antecedents, correlates, and consequences

Effortful control, the ability to suppress a dominant response to perform a subdominant response, was assessed in 106 children during early childhood (at 22, 33, and 45 months) using multitask behavioral batteries. By 45 months, effortful control was highly longitudinally stable and coherent across tasks and thus appeared to be a traitlike characteristic of children's personality. Children who had been less intense in terms of proneness to anger and joy, and those who had been more inhibited to the unfamiliar in the second year developed higher effortful control. Children with higher effortful control at 22-45 months developed stronger consciences at 56 months and displayed fewer externalizing problems at 73 months. Effortful control mediated the oft-reported relations between maternal power assertion and impaired conscience development in children, even when child management difficulty was controlled.