How Are Personality States Associated with Smartphone Data?

Smartphones promise great potential for personality science to study people's everyday life behaviours. Even though personality psychologists have become increasingly interested in the study of personality states, associations between smartphone data and personality states have not yet been investigated. This study provides a first step towards understanding how smartphones may be used for behavioural assessment of personality states. We explored the relationships between Big Five personality states and data from smartphone sensors and usage logs. On the basis of the existing literature, we first compiled a set of behavioural and situational indicators, which are potentially related to personality states. We then applied them on an experience sampling data set containing 5748 personality state responses that are self-assessments of 30 minutes timeframes and corresponding smartphone data. We used machine learning analyses to investigate the predictability of personality states from the set of indicators. The results showed that only for extraversion, smartphone data (specifically, ambient noise level) were informative beyond what could be predicted based on time and day of the week alone. The results point to continuing challenges in realizing the potential of smartphone data for psychological research. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

What Proportion of Adult Hispanics Are Catholic? A Review of Survey Data and Methodology

The proportion of Hispanics who are Catholic remains unclear, partly because of varying survey methods and limited understanding of how these variations affect estimates of Hispanic religious identification. We compare 12 national surveys conducted since 1990. Language use strongly predicts religious identification among Hispanics—more strongly than other indicators of assimilation—and evidence suggests English-only interviewing inflates Protestant identification. Additionally, identifying Hispanics through ancestry questions may inflate Catholic identification. We also explore effects of sampling bias, noncoverage bias, and weighting on religious identification. Analyses suggest that poststratification weighting is advisable, particularly for language use. However, weighting cannot fully substitute for extensive coverage of subpopulations such as recent immigrants and Spanish-only speakers. We conclude that 70 percent or slightly more is a reasonable estimate of the proportion of adult Hispanics who are Catholic, and 20 percent a reasonable estimate of the proportion who are Protestant or other Christian.     

How Accurate Are National Stereotypes? A Test of Different Methodological Approaches

We compared different methodological approaches in research on the accuracy of national stereotypes that use aggregated mean scores of real people's personality traits as criteria for stereotype accuracy. Our sample comprised 16,713 participants from the Central Europe and 1,090 participants from the Baltic Sea region. Participants rated national stereotypes of their own country using the National Character Survey (NCS) and their personality traits using either the Revised NEO Personality Inventory or the NCS. We examined the effects of different (i) methods for rating of real people (Revised NEO Personality Inventory vs. NCS) and national stereotypes (NCS); (ii) norms for converting raw scores into T‐scores (Russian vs. international norms); and (iii) correlation techniques (intraclass correlations vs. Pearson correlations vs. rank‐order correlations) on the resulting agreement between the ratings of national stereotypes and real people. We showed that the accuracy of national stereotypes depended on the employed methodology. The accuracy was the highest when ratings of real people and national stereotypes were made using the same method and when rank order correlations were used to estimate the agreement between national stereotypes and personality profiles of real people. We propose a new statistical procedure for determining national stereotype accuracy that overcomes limitations of past studies. We provide methodological recommendations applicable to a wider range of cross national stereotype accuracy studies. Copyright © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Is there an Effect of Print Exposure on the Word Frequency Effect and the Neighborhood Size Effect?

Orthographic and phonological processing skills have been shown to vary as a function of reader skill (Stanovich & West, Reading Research Quarterly, 24, 402-433, 1989; Unsworth & Pexman, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 56A, 63-81, 2003). One variable known to contribute to differences between readers of higher and lower skill is amount of print exposure: higher skilled readers read more often than lower skilled readers, and their increased print exposure is associated with faster responding to words and nonwords in lexical decision tasks. The present experiments examined the effect of print exposure on the word frequency effect and neighborhood size effect. We conclude that the different outcomes reported in previous studies (Chateau & Jared, Memory and Cognition, 28, 143-153, 2000; Lewellen, Goldinger, Pisoni, & Greene, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122, 316-330, 1993) were due to the type of nonwords used in the lexical decision task (regular nonwords versus pseudohomophones). Our results are explained in terms of differences in the reliance on orthographic and phonological information between readers of higher and lower print exposure.     

How Immersive Is Enough? A Meta-Analysis of the Effect of Immersive Technology on User Presence

The concept of presence, or “being there” is a frequently emphasized factor in immersive mediated environments. It is often assumed that greater levels of immersive quality elicit higher levels of presence, in turn enhancing the effectiveness of a mediated experience. To investigate this assumption the current meta-analysis synthesizes decades of empirical research examining the effect of immersive system technology on user experiences of presence. Aggregating 115 effect sizes from 83 studies, it finds that technological immersion has a medium-sized effect on presence. Additionally, results show that increased levels of user-tracking, the use of stereoscopic visuals, and wider fields of view of visual displays are significantly more impactful than improvements to most other immersive system features, including quality of visual and auditory content. These findings are discussed in light of theoretical accounts of the presence construct as well as practical implications for design.     

What Are the Brain Mechanisms on Which Psychological Processes Are Based?

ABSTRACT— That the human brain is the organ of the mind is not in dispute, but we know remarkably little about the brain mechanisms underlying the mind. What are the functional structures and computational processes of the human brain that subserve cognition, emotion, and behavior? Given the complexity of the human brain, progress in understanding the functional organization and structure of the human brain depends on sophisticated theoretical specifications of the psychological representations and processes that differentiate two or more comparison conditions. Psychological scientists, therefore, are well positioned to lead the search for brain mechanisms underlying psychological processes. Doing so constitutes an expansion of the purview of psychological science beyond a science of behavior, and beyond a science of the mind, to include a science of the brain. Such an expansion of the mission of psychological science has implications for the infrastructure and training needs of the discipline.     

Are Judgments of Linear Size More Accurate When Based on an Affordance?

Perceptual judgments of size affect a wide variety of activities but can be difficult to measure. Two methods of estimating size (linear extent) were compared. One required adjustment of the distance between a point created by a laser beam and a fixed reference line; the other involved adjusting the separation of 2 vertical posts. Two groups of adults were instructed to use these methods to indicate either simple linear extent ("width") or the affordance of passability (minimal opening) for identical dimensions of objects and their own bodies. Afterward, the participants completed a survey including the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26). Accuracy did not vary with instructions or EAT-26 scores. As predicted, accuracy was found to be lower for participants whose body weight had recently changed by 5% or more, presumably due to a less refined attunement to their current body sizes. Higher accuracy was expected for both the method (posts) and instructions ("opening") that should foster affordance-based judgments. Despite the greater ease and precision of the laser-based method, more accurate estimates were made using movable posts. These results are discussed in terms of 2 contrasting perceptual modes.     

How Are We to Interpret Heidegger's Oeuvre? A Methodological Manifesto

One may have different objectives in interpreting texts. If a judge interprets a statute in order to obtain a satisfactory solution to a case, his aim may be called "applicative". But if a historian of science wants to reconstruct the meaning of obscure passages of Ptolemy's "Hypotheses planetarum", his objectives are purely historical and theoretical.
The paper argues that these different aims, applicative and historical ones, require different methodologies of interpretation, and imply different criteria of success. In particular, the "principle of charity" according to which an interpretation is better to the extent that we agree more with what the text as interpreted says, is fitting for applicative interpretations, but not without further qualifications for historical ones.
The paper argues further that we should apply the methodology of historical interpretation to the entire body of German texts now available, if we want to interpret Martin Heidegger's philosophical oeuvre, assess its philosophical value, and investigate its links to Nazism. These were the aims of Herman Philipse's book "Heidegger's Philosophy of Being. A Critical Interpretation" (Princeton University Press, 1998, 555 pp.). Criticisms of this book by Taylor Carman and others are often off target because they presuppose applicative interpretations that aim at making Heidegger say things the interpreter believes himself, instead of striving for historical adequacy, and that are based upon a small selection of translations instead of upon the entire corpus of extant German texts.     

How Social Are Task Representations?

ABSTRACT— The classical Simon effect shows that actions are carried out faster if they spatially correspond to the stimulus signaling them. Recent studies revealed that this is the case even when the two actions are carried out by different people; this finding has been taken to imply that task representations are socially shared. In work described here, we found that the "interactive" Simon effect occurs only if actor and coactor are involved in a positive relationship (induced by a friendly-acting, cooperative confederate), but not if they are involved in a negative relationship (induced by an intimidating, competitive confederate). This result suggests that agents can represent self-generated and other-generated actions separately, but tend to relate or integrate these representations if the personal relationship between self and other has a positive valence.     

Commentary: Are Three Waves of Data Sufficient for Assessing Mediation?

Maxwell, Cole, and Mitchell (2011) demonstrated that simple structural equation models, when used with cross-sectional data, generally produce biased estimates of meditated effects. I extend those results by showing how simple structural equation models can produce biased estimates of meditated effects when used even with longitudinal data. Even with longitudinal data, simple autoregressive structural equation models can imply the existence of indirect effects when only direct effects exist and the existence of direct effects when only indirect effects exist.     

Employment Roles of College Graduates: How Important Are They?

For this study, the qualification data of 217 business majors at a large state university were collected just before graduation. The respondents' roles were evaluated prior to graduation and they were recontacted 3 months later to determine employment status and job satisfaction. Discriminant analysis of 187 responses was used to determine the relative impact of the various factors studied.     

How Ethical Are Ethical Purchasing Policies?

In recent years ethical purchasing policies have been promoted as potentially effective and promising ways of combatting global inequality and oppressive labour practices in developing countries. These initiatives have been launched on university campuses with the hope of opening a new front for improving labour rights under conditions of neo-liberal globalization. This paper is an attempt to respond to the critics of these policies, and especially their claims that ethical purchasing may have the perverse effect of increasing job losses and undercutting economic development in poorer countries. Although it can be shown that these criticisms are misguided, it is important to acknowledge that ethical purchasing should not be seen as a full-blown alternative to the kind of progress that can be achieved through state-centred labour regulation. Nevertheless, the new role of universities as monitors of corporate responsibility remains a promising one.     

Women Experiencing Psychological Abuse: Are They a Homogenous Group?

Dichotomizing women as “abused” versus “not abused” assumes that any psychological maltreatment results in similar outcomes. A national sample of women in conflictual relationships completed an online survey. Women with no incidence (N = 33), the lowest quartile (N = 86), and the top quartile (N = 81) of psychological maltreatment demonstrated significant differences in reactions to the maltreatment, mental health indicators, personality variables, perceived harm, problematic relationship schemas, and response styles. Women with no psychological abuse and women in the lowest quartile produced similar scores that were typically distinct from the top-quartile women. Effective treatment of women with lower amounts of psychological abuse might not require a unique intervention likely necessary for women experiencing much psychological abuse.     

Episcopal Applicants to Ordained Ministry: Are They Psychological Healthy?

The current investigation evaluated psychological and personality profiles of applicants to the diaconate and priesthood for several Episcopal dioceses. Applicants included both genders and their ages ranged from 29 to 67 years. A psychological testing battery including the MMPI-2, 16PF, and MCMI-III was administered to 42 applicants between 2008 and 2009 who subsequently entered the diaconate or priestly formation program in the Episcopal Church. Results indicate that these applicants were generally well-adjusted. Findings also suggest some tendency for defensiveness, repression, naïveté, and a strong need for affection, as well as for being emotionally stable, intelligent, trusting, and open to change. Finally, results suggest elevations on histrionic, narcissistic, and compulsive measures.