Measurement of adult performance on Piaget's water horizontality task

Three versions of Piaget's water-level-horizontality task (multiple choice, drawing, and apparatus tests) were administered to 121 female and 74 male adult volunteers. Sex differences and container orientation effects were replicated. Men were more accurate than women and horizontal and vertical container orientations evoked more accurate responses than oblique orientation. Reliability estimates ranged from .78 to .97 and correlations among the measures ranged from .78 to .88. The relative merits of alternative water-level testing and scoring methods and the orientation and type of stimuli to be used are discussed.     

Use of eye movement to measure smokers' attentional bias to smoking-related cues.

Smokers have attentional biases towards smoking-related cues, and such cues elicit cravings. Smokers also feel anxious during nicotine deprivation, and anxiety may exacerbate attentional biases toward aversive cues. We examined the attentional bias of smokers (n = 14) and a control group of nonsmokers (n = 16) towards smoking-related and aversive cues. Using an eye-tracking device, we measured eye movement when smoking-related, aversive, and control cues were presented simultaneously. We analyzed the number of initial fixations, and gaze duration, to identify the attentional bias. Smokers initially fixed their gaze on aversive cues, and maintained their gaze longer on smoking-related cues, in comparison to the control group. These results suggest that smokers show biased attentional orientation to smoking-related and aversive cues.     

Personality and performance on a missing-letter measure of perceptual defence

Fifty-two Ss were required to make complete words from 20 neutral and 20 unpleasant ‘target’ words whose alternate letters had been removed. The four personality scales from the EPQ and the Psychoticism scale from the unpublished PEN inventory were employed as independent variables in repeated-measures analyses of variance in which the dependent variable was the number of neutral or bad target words produced in the missing-letter task. A significant two-way interaction was obtained between PEN Psychoticism and performance on the task, such that Ss scoring low on the personality scale hit significantly more neutral targets than Ss scoring high on the scale. These results did not support previous studies on the relationship between personality and perceptual defence and were interpreted within the framework provided by Mednick, whereby schizophrenia is characterized by a flattening of associative hierarchies.     

Development of a scale to measure problem use of short message service: the SMS Problem Use Diagnostic Questionnaire.

This exploratory study examines a subset of mobile phone use, the compulsive use of short message service (SMS) text messaging. A measure of SMS use, the SMS Problem Use Diagnostic Questionnaire (SMS-PUDQ), was developed and found to possess acceptable reliability and validity when compared to other measures such as self-reports of time spent using SMS and scores on a survey of problem mobile phone use. Implications for the field of addiction research, technological and behavioral addictions in particular, are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.     

Development of a reaction inventory to measure guilt.

The Reaction Inventory-Guilt was developed to isolate, in individuals, the specific stimulus situations which result in guilt. The 50-item inventory was administered to 96 subjects. The estimate of the internal consistency coefficient was .94. The inter-item correlations were factor analyzed by the principle axis method, and rotation to oblique simple structure was accomplished by the Promax method. Four oblique factors were obtained: intentional behavior disrupting interpersonal relations; self-destructive behavior; behavior contrary to moral or ethical principles; and unintentional behavior disrupting interpersonal relationships.     

Introduction to the special section on the concept of disorder.

Despite the absence of a consensual definition of disorder, considerable research and clinical work is based on the categorization and diagnosis of mental disorder. This article introduces a special section of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology that expands the debate between J. C. Wakefield (1999), who has proposed a "harmful dysfunction" analysis of disorder and S. O. Lilienfeld and L. Marino (1995, 1999), who offer an alternative "Roschian" or prototype analysis. This introduction summarizes the main arguments of Wakefield's target article and 8 critiques and discusses the conceptual value of the debate, especially an integration of diverse viewpoints and stimulation to further consideration of this important topic.     

A comparison of adult women's and men's ascriptions of negative traits to the same and opposite sex

College students (N=135), ranging from 19 to 55 years of age, were studied to determine their sex stereotypes. Results from the present study indicated that adult males were significantly more negative than adult females in their evaluations of both sexes. One possible explanation that may be offered to account for these findings is that current emphasis of female rights may be causing negativistic reactions on the part of males toward both sex groups.     

Use of the TAT to measure change in defense mechanisms following intensive psychotherapy

Changes in the use of defense mechanisms (denial, projection, and identification) were examined over a period of approximately 15 months of intensive treatment of 90 seriously disturbed young adults who were hospitalized in an intensive, open, long-term treatment setting. Patients independently judged to have primarily an anaclitic or an introjective personality configuration (Blatt, 1974; Blatt & Shichman, 1983) were assessed for psychiatric symptoms and aspects of interpersonal behavior both on admission and after an average of 15 months of treatment. Findings based on an independent assessment of TAT protocols at these two times indicated a significant (p less than .05) decline in total use of defenses for the entire sample, but especially for introjective patients. Further, this decline in total use of defenses in the TAT was significantly associated with a reduction in psychiatric symptoms. Also, sex-incongruent patients (anaclitic men and introjective women) were found to use different defenses and to change in ways different from sex-congruent patients (anaclitic women and introjective men).     

In search of a measure to investigate mental performance among children: Development of the mental speed test

Processing speed is a component of general intelligence and an indicator of learning potential. There is a need for robust measures of mental speed based on contemporary theoretical developments. The current study addressed this need by proposing a mental speed test for children aged 60 to 96 months (5 to 8 years) and examining its psychometric properties. The test included indicators of perceptual speed, memory speed, reasoning speed, and fluency-flexibility speed presented through nonverbal items administered individually using touchscreen tablets. After establishing gender non-bias and concurrent validity with a contemporary intelligence test (i.e., ASIS, r = .59) with 107 children, the next administration included 373 children. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with subtest scores revealed a single-factor structure accounting for 45% of the total variance. Additional data from 212 children were used to assess structural validity and gender bias, which showed acceptable goodness of fit, providing evidence of the validity and reliability of the new measure for further use.     

Adding a baby to the equation. married and cohabiting women's relationship satisfaction in the transition to parenthood

The trajectory of relationship satisfaction among married and cohabiting women in their transition to parenthood was compared in a potential sample of 71,504 women taking part in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). Prospective longitudinal data were collected in 4 waves over a 2-year period starting 6 months prebirth. Results from latent curve models suggested that married and cohabiting women experience similar negative change in relationship satisfaction during the transition to parenthood. However, cohabiting women start off and stay less satisfied throughout the transition period, suggesting the presence of a negative cohabitation effect that prevailed after controlling for various covariates. Extending investigation on the cohabitation effect to the transition to parenthood, and replicating it in a Scandinavian context, is discussed in relation to the understanding of what causes the cohabitation effect, and its clinical implications.     

Use of situational judgment tests to predict job performance: a clarification of the literature

Although situational judgment tests have a long history in the psychological assessment literature and continue to be frequently used in employment contexts, there has been virtually no summarization of this literature. The purpose of this article is to review the history of such tests and present the results of a meta-analysis on criterion-related and construct validity. On the basis of 102 coefficients and 10,640 people, situational judgment tests showed useful levels of validity (rho = .34) that were generalizable. A review of 79 correlations between situational judgment tests and general cognitive ability involving 16,984 people indicated that situational judgment tests typically evidence relationships with cognitive ability (rho = .46). On the basis of the literature review and meta-analytic findings, implications for the continued use of situational judgment tests are discussed, particularly in terms of recent investigations into tacit knowledge.