Factorial and Construct Validity of FACES IV Among Italian Adolescents

The aims of this study were to evaluate the reliability, validity and factorial structure of Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale, Version IV (FACES IV), investigate the relevance of sex and age on family functioning and study the relationship between family functioning and adolescents’ perception of parent and peer attachment. The sample consisted of 1,416 participants (672 women, 744 men, M_age = 17.38 years; age range = 13–22 years) divided into three age groups: 13–15, 16–18, and 19–22 years. Factor analysis confirmed the dimensions formulated to define the construct of family functioning: all the items of each dimension were loaded in the same factor with a correlation of at least 0.30. Groups differed with regard to the age on Cohesion, Enmeshed and Rigid scales: Younger adolescents (age 13–15 years) showed significantly higher scores than adolescents (age 16–18 and 19–22). Sex differences revealed that females had a higher mean score on Cohesion and Flexibility, whereas males had a higher mean score on Disengaged, Enmeshed and Chaotic. Correlations between FACES IV and Parent and Peer Attachment Scale demonstrated the convergent validity of the FACES IV. Data confirmed the validity of FACES IV’s Italian version and suggested that the Circumplex Model has a cross-cultural applicability and it could be a useful instrument in the Italian context.     

The Role of Rigidity in Adaptive and Maladaptive Families Assessed by FACES IV: The Points of View of Adolescents

Previous studies using Olson’s Circumplex Model and FACES IV, the self-report assessing family functioning, did not clarify the role of rigidity, a dimension of this model. Rigidity emerged as ambiguous: it was considered either as a functional or as a dysfunctional dimension. Building upon the results of previous studies, we provided a contribution intended to disambiguate the role of rigidity considering adolescents’ perceptions and using a non-a priori classification analysis. 320 Italian adolescents (13–21 years) participated in this study and responded to a questionnaire containing scales of the study variables. A latent class analysis was performed to identify the association of rigidity with the other dimensions of Olson’s model and with indicators of adaptive family functioning in adolescence: parental monitoring and family satisfaction. We found six clusters corresponding to family typologies and having different levels of functioning. Rigidity emerged as adaptive in the typologies named rigidly balanced and flexibly oscillating; it was associated with positive dimensions of family functioning, i.e. flexibility, cohesion, parental monitoring, and high levels of family satisfaction. Differently, when rigidity was associated with disengagement, low cohesion and flexibility, and lack of parental supervision, emerged as maladaptive. This was the case of two typologies: the rigidly disengaged and the chaotically disengaged. Adolescents of these families reported the lowest levels of satisfaction. In the two last typologies, the flexibly chaotic and the cohesively disorganized, rigidity indicated a mid-range functionality as these families were characterized by emotional connectedness but lack of containment. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Reasoning counterfactually: making inferences about things that didn't happen

The authors investigated the relationship between reasoners' understanding of subjunctive conditionals (e.g., if p had happened, then q would have happened) and the inferences they were prepared to endorse. Reasoners who made a counterfactual interpretation of subjunctive statements (i.e., they judged the statement to imply that p and q did not happen) endorsed different inferences than those who did not. Those who made a counterfactual interpretation were more likely to (a) judge the situation in which p and q occurred to be inconsistent with the conditional statement and (b) make negative inferences such as modus tollens (i.e., approximately q therefore approximately p). These findings occurred with familiar and unfamiliar content, affirmative and negative conditionals, and conditional and biconditional relations.     

Working wives and women's rights: The connection between the employment status of wives and the feminist attitudes of husbands

Women in the labor force tend to have more profeminist attitudes on women's rights and sex roles than women working in the home. In turn, the husbands of wives employed outside the home are more supportive of feminist positions than the husbands of wives working in the home. The difference is greater on attitudes relating to employment and traditional roles in the home and family but also occurs on some items dealing with political rights and general sexual equality. The causal connection between the attitude of husbands and the labor-force status of their wives can not be demonstrated, but causation is believed to work in both directions.This research was done for the General Social Survey project directed by James A. Davis and Tom W. Smith (GSS Technical Report No. 41). The project is funded by National Science Foundation Grant SES-8118731.     

Conciliatory gestures facilitate forgiveness and feelings of friendship by making transgressors appear more agreeable

The authors examined how conciliatory gestures exhibited in response to interpersonal transgressions influence forgiveness and feelings of friendship with the transgressor. In Study 1, 163 undergraduates who had recently been harmed were examined longitudinally. Conciliatory gestures exhibited by transgressors predicted higher rates of forgiveness over 21 days, and this relationship was mediated by victims' perceptions of their transgressors' Agreeableness. Study 2 was an experiment including 145 undergraduates who experienced a breach in trust from an anonymous partner during an iterated prisoner's dilemma. When transgressors apologized and offered financial compensation, participants reported higher levels of forgiveness and feelings of friendship when compared to a control condition and an aggravating condition. The effects of apology/compensation on forgiveness and perceived friendship were mediated by victims' perceptions of their transgressors' Agreeableness. Results suggest that conciliatory gestures promote forgiveness in part by depicting transgressors as more sympathetic, considerate, fair, and just (i.e., agreeable).     

Circumplex Model VII: Validation Studies and FACES III

This paper reviews some of the recent empirical studies validating the Circumplex Model and describes the newly developed self-report measure, FACES III. Studies testing hypotheses derived from the Circumplex Model regarding the three dimensions of cohesion, change, and communication are reviewed. Case illustrations using FACES III and the Clinical Rating Scale are presented. These two assessment tools can be used for making a diagnosis of family functioning and for assessing changes over the course of treatment. This paper reflects the continuing attempt to develop further the Circumplex Model and to bridge more adequately research, theory, and practice.     

When simple things are meaningful: Working memory strength predicts children’s cognitive flexibility

People often perseverate, repeating outdated behaviors despite correctly answering questions about rules they should be following. Children who perseverate are slower to respond to such questions than children who successfully switch to new rules, even after controlling for age and processing speed. Thus, switchers may have stronger working memory strength than perseverators, with stronger rule representations supporting both flexible switching and faster responses to questions. Alternatively, better inhibitory abilities may support switchers’ faster responses by helping to resolve conflict. The current study tested these accounts using a new one-dimensional card sort. Even with all possible sources of conflict removed, switchers still responded faster than perseverators to questions about rules, supporting the graded working memory account.     

Evaluating FACES III and the Circumplex Model: 2,440 families

Previous evaluations of the Circumplex Model's curvilinear hypothesis using FACES instruments have yielded conflicting results. A review of the different research procedures and samples used in those investigations revealed that none of the studies had samples large and/or heterogenous enough to test the curvilinear hypothesis adequately. The present study evaluates the curvilinear hypothesis of family functioning and the concurrent validity of FACES III with a sample of optimal size (N = 2,440 families) and diversity. The lack of support for the curvilinear hypothesis in this "greenhouse" sample is explained by different findings for the two FACES III subscales. There was no relationship between the study's measures of well-being and the adaptability subscale and a linear relationship between these measures and the cohesion subscale. Implications of these findings for the continuing use of the FACES III and for the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Systems are discussed.     

The Facial Expression Coding System (FACES): development, validation, and utility

This article presents information on the development and validation of the Facial Expression Coding System (FACES; A. M. Kring & D. Sloan, 1991). Grounded in a dimensional model of emotion, FACES provides information on the valence (positive, negative) of facial expressive behavior. In 5 studies, reliability and validity data from 13 diverse samples, including students, psychiatric patients, and community adults, are presented, and results indicate that raters can reliably agree on instances of positive and negative expressive behavior. Validity studies indicate that FACES ratings are related in predictable ways to another observational coding system, facial muscle activity, individual-difference measures of expressiveness and personality, skin conductance, heart rate, and reports of experienced emotion. FACES can be a useful tool for assessing expressive behavior in a variety of contexts.     

Logic in general philosophy of science: old things and new things

This is a personal, incomplete, and very informal take on the role of logic in general philosophy of science, which is aimed at a broader audience. We defend and advertise the application of logical methods in philosophy of science, starting with the beginnings in the Vienna Circle and ending with some more recent logical developments.     

Context effects in multi-alternative decision making: empirical data and a Bayesian model

For decisions between many alternatives, the benchmark result is Hick's Law: that response time increases log-linearly with the number of choice alternatives. Even when Hick's Law is observed for response times, divergent results have been observed for error rates-sometimes error rates increase with the number of choice alternatives, and sometimes they are constant. We provide evidence from two experiments that error rates are mostly independent of the number of choice alternatives, unless context effects induce participants to trade speed for accuracy across conditions. Error rate data have previously been used to discriminate between competing theoretical accounts of Hick's Law, and our results question the validity of those conclusions. We show that a previously dismissed optimal observer model might provide a parsimonious account of both response time and error rate data. The model suggests that people approximate Bayesian inference in multi-alternative choice, except for some perceptual limitations.     

Decision making under uncertainty: a comparison of simple scalability, fixed-sample, and sequential-sampling models

The purpose of this article is to investigate the learning and memory processes involved in decision making under uncertainty. In two different experiments, subjects were given a choice between a certain alternative that produced a single known payoff and an uncertain alternative that produced a normal distribution of payoffs. Initially this distribution was unknown, and in the first experiment it was learned through feedback from past decisions, whereas in the second experiment it was learned by observing sample outcomes. In the first experiment, a response deadline was used to limit the amount of time available for making a decision. In the second experiment, an observation cost was used to limit the number of samples that could be purchased. The mean and variance of the uncertain alternative and the value of the certain alternative were factorially manipulated to study their joint effects on choice probability, choice response time (Experiment 1), and number of observations purchased (Experiment 2). Algebraic-deterministic theories developed for decision making with simple gambles fail to explain the present results. Two new models are developed and tested--fixed- and sequential-sampling models--that attempt to describe the learning and memory processes involved in decision making under uncertainty.     

Data-based decision making: the impact of data variability, training, and context

The current study examines agreement among individuals with varying expertise in behavior analysis about the length of baseline when data were presented point by point. Participants were asked to respond to baseline data and to indicate when to terminate the baseline phase. When only minimal information was provided about the data set, experts and Board Certified Behavior Analyst participants generated baselines of similar lengths, whereas novices did not. Agreement was similar across participants when variability was low but deteriorated as variability in the data set increased. Participants generated shorter baselines when provided with information regarding the independent or dependent variable. Implications for training and the use of visual inspection are discussed.     

The shape of things to come: Exploring goal-directed prospection

Through the ability to preview the future (i.e., prospection), people can anticipate how best to think, feel and act in just about any setting. But exactly what factors determine the contents of prospection? Extending research on action identification and temporal construal, here we explored how action goals and temporal distance modulate the characteristics of future previews. Participants were required to imagine travelling to Egypt (in the near or distant future) to climb or photograph a pyramid. Afterwards, to probe the contents of prospection, participants provided a sketch of their imaginary experience. Results elucidated the impact of goal type and temporal distance on mental imagery. While a climbing goal prompted participants to draw a larger pyramid in the near than distant future, a photographic goal influenced only the compositional complexity of the sketches. These findings reveal how action goals and temporal distance shape the contents of future simulations.