Another view of “we”: Majority and minority group perspectives on a common ingroup identity

Drawing on the evidence of the role of social categorisation and identity in the development and maintenance of intergroup biases, research on the Common Ingroup Identity Model (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000 Gaertner, S. L. and Dovidio, J. F. 2000. Reducing intergroup bias: The Common Ingroup Identity Model, Philadelphia, PA: The Psychology Press.  [Google Scholar]) has investigated how modifying the ways that the self and others are categorised can reduce prejudice and discrimination. In this article, we review more recent research that extends our initial formulation of the model by considering more fully alternative forms of recategorisation (a dual identity as well as a one-group representation), the different preferences of majority and minority groups for these different forms of recategorised representations, and the potential implications of these different preferences on the content of intergroup interaction and on the possibilities for social change towards equality.     

A Cross-Cultural Psychometric Evaluation of the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale

The Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS) is a widely used measure of athletic identity (Brewer & Cornelius, 2001 Brewer, B. W. and Cornelius, A. E. 2001. Norms and factorial invariance of the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale. Academic Athletic Journal, 15: 103–113.  [Google Scholar]). Although the factor structure of the AIMS has been tested repeatedly in an American population, its psychometric properties remain largely unexplored cross-culturally. Therefore, the purposes of the study were to further test the psychometric properties of the abbreviated 7-item AIMS in an American population, while also exploring its utility cross-culturally. Results revealed the AIMS to be a psychometrically sound measure of athletic identity for male contact and collision athletes in both American and English-speaking Hong Kong Chinese populations.     

On Pedagogy of Personality Assessment: Application of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

In this article, Bloom's (1956 Bloom, B. (Ed.), Englehart, M. D., Furst, E. J., Hill, W. H., &; Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: Handbook 1. Cognitive domain. White Plains, NY: Longman. [Google Scholar]) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, a pedagogical tool that can help instructors of personality assessment to develop effective and student-centered instructional design, is discussed. Bloom's taxonomy provides a progressive sequence of educational objectives used for lesson planning, needs assessment, and measurement of learning outcomes. The taxonomy comprises 6 categories of objectives that are ordered hierarchically, from the simplest to the most advanced. The levels are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. I explain how the taxonomy can be applied to the teaching of personality assessment and discuss the implications for assessment pedagogy. I provide examples of effective instructional activities, overview the signs of learners at each level, and highlight typical errors that students make in their oral and written work. Strategies to help learners progress to higher order thinking are also addressed.     

Sanctifying Work: Effects on Satisfaction,Commitment, and Intent to Leave

Sanctification involves perceiving objects or events: (a) theistically by viewing them as having spiritual significance, or (b) nontheistically by viewing them as extraordinary and worthy of veneration and respect without any reference to a higher being. Previous research has found positive outcomes associated with sanctification, including increased satisfaction with marriage (Mahoney et al., 1999 Mahoney, A., Pargament, K. I., Jewell, T., Swank, A. B., Scott, E.Emery, E. 1999. Marriage and the spiritual realm: The role of proximal and distal religious constructs in marital functioning. Journal of Family Psychology, 13: 321–338. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), body image (Mahoney, Carels, et al., 2005 Mahoney, A., Carels, R. A., Pargament, K. I., Wachholtz, A., Leeper, L. E.Kaplar, M. 2005. The sanctification of the body and behavioral health patterns of college students. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 15: 221–238. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) and sexual intercourse (Murray-Swank, Pargament, & Mahoney, 2002 Murray-Swank, N. A., Pargament, K. I. and Mahoney, A. 2002. At the crossroads of sexuality and spirituality: The sanctification of sex by college students. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 15: 199–219.  [Google Scholar]) to name a few. This study extends these findings into the world of work by demonstrating that those who sanctify their jobs are more satisfied, more committed to their organization, and at the same time less likely to intend to leave.     

Measuring Change During Behavioral Parent Training Using the Parent Instruction-Giving Game with Youngsters (PIGGY): A Clinical Replication

This is the second study to investigate the clinical use of the Parent-Instruction Game with Youngsters (PIGGY) which is a structured observation system derived from the Dyadic Parent-Child Interaction Coding System II (DPICS-II; Eyberg, Bessmer, Newcomb, Edwards, & Robinson, 1994) and the Behavior Coding System (BCS; Forehand & McMahon, 1981 Forehand , R. L. , & McMahon , R. J. ( 1981 ). Helping the noncompliant child . New York , NY : Guilford Press . [Google Scholar]). In a previous study, the PIGGY demonstrated strong reliability and validity as well as clinical utility (Hupp, Reitman, Forde, Shriver, & Kelley, 2008). The present study is a replication of the previous research on clinical utility by using the PIGGY to monitor changes in parent and child behavior during and after behavioral parent training.     

Do Korean Fraction Names Promote Part-Whole Reasoning?

We investigated the effects of transparent fraction names on children's reasoning about fractions. U.S. and Korean first and second graders were tested using verbal and nonverbal measures. On a verbal task, Korean students were worse at interpreting their own conventional fraction names than interpreting modified terms with a more familiar word for parts. This indicates that Korean fraction names may not be as transparent as previously claimed (e.g., Miura et al., 1999 Miura , I. T. , Okamoto , Y. , Vlahovic-Stetic , V. , Kim , C. C. , & Han , J. H. ( 1999 ). Language supports for children's understanding of numerical fractions: Cross-national comparisons . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , 74 , 356 – 365 . [Google Scholar]). On nonverbal tasks, such as matching equivalent pictures of fractions and solving mixed-number problems using objects, students from both nations performed above chance and about equally well. However, U.S. students were more likely than Korean students to misinterpret a sharing task in terms of whole numbers, leading to significantly below-chance performance in the former group.     

Modeling Hierarchical Relationships in Hinkle's Implications Grid Data

There have been few attempts to devise suitable methods of analysis for the implications grid devised by Hinkle (1965 Hinkle, D.N. (1965). The change of personal constructs from the viewpoint of a theory of construct implications. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, The Ohio State University, Columbus. [Google Scholar]). As Hinkle noted (Hinkle, 1965 Hinkle, D.N. (1965). The change of personal constructs from the viewpoint of a theory of construct implications. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, The Ohio State University, Columbus. [Google Scholar], p. 63), there are three implications needed to define a hierarchical relationship (A → B, B → C, and A → C). Hinkle did not attempt to test this requirement, as neither did the only other published use of the technique (Fransella, 1972). Subsequently, Caputi, Breiger, and Pattison (1990 Caputi, P., Breiger, R., & Pattison, P. (1990). Analyzing implications grids using hierarchical models. International Journal of Personal Construct Psychology, 3, 77–90.[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) published a technique that explicitly sought to model implications data with respect to this requirement. In this study we use this technique to both (a) evaluate some of the choice points in the technique using data from the 28 implications grids collected by Hinkle and published as an appendix to his thesis, and (b) subsequently analyze this data to examine the hierarchical relationships as defined above. Our evaluation of the choice points showed that the joint modification approach worked best and that there was a clear cut-off to most fully represent the relationships in the raw data. Our analysis via the modeling approach found that there was no difference between the mean number of transitive superordinate constructs implied by subordinate constructs and the mean number of transitive subordinate constructs implied by superordinate constructs in the modeled data, suggesting that the laddered constructs in this study were not necessarily superordinate to the generating constructs.     

Luck,propositional perception,and the Entailment Thesis

Looking out the window, I see that it’s raining outside. Do I know that it’s raining outside? According to proponents of the Entailment Thesis, I do. If I see that p, I know that p. In general, the Entailment Thesis is the thesis that if S perceives that p, S knows that p. But recently, some philosophers (McDowell, in Smith (ed.) Reading McDowell on mind and world, 2002; Turri, Theoria 76(3):197–206, 2010; Pritchard, Philos Issues (Supplement to Nous) 21:434–455, 2011; Pritchard, Epistemological disjunctivism, 2012) have argued that the Entailment Thesis is false. On their view, we can see p and not know that p. In this paper, I argue that their arguments are unsuccessful.     

Thinking Levels of Questions in Christian Reading Textbooks

If Christian schools desire students to achieve higher-level thinking, then the textbooks that teachers use should reflect such thinking. Using Risner's (1987 Risner, G. P. (1987). Cognitive levels of questioning demonstrated by test items that accompany selected fifth-grade science textbooks (Doctoral dissertation). Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. [Google Scholar]) methodology, raters classified questions from two Christian publishers’ fifth grade reading textbooks based on the revised Bloom's taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001 Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., Airasian, P. W., Cruikshank, K. A., Mayer, R. E., Pintrick, P. R., … Wittrock, M. C. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. New York, NY: Addison Wesley Longman. [Google Scholar]). The questions in the A Beka Book textbook contained 57.6% lower-level and 42.4% higher-level thinking; the questions in the Bob Jones University Press textbook contained 45.8% lower-level and 54.2% higher-level thinking. Analysis revealed a statistically significant difference between the percentages of thinking in the two publishers (p < .05).     

Epistemic and Ethical Constraints in Personal and Social Constructions: A Response to Raskin and Debany

In response to Raskin and Debany's lead article (this issue Raskin, J. D., &; Debany, A. E. (this issue). The inescapability of ethics and the impossibility of “anything goes”: A constructivist model of ethical meaning making. Journal of Constructivist Psychology. (Reprinted from Ethics in action: Dialogue between knowledge and practice, pp. 13–32, by S. Cipolletta &; E. Gius (Eds.), 2012, Milan, Italy: LED) [Google Scholar]), I offer support for their general conclusion that ethical implications are inescapable in relation to any version of constructionism, and concur that the frequent characterization of constructivism as ultimately reducing to a position of “anything goes” is not sustainable. I depart from Raskin and Debany on the question of whether an integrative framework for constructivist positions is possible, especially in relation to questions concerning the ethical dimension. I suggest that the reasons for considering the anything goes charge inappropriate are different for different versions of constructivism, and illustrate with analysis of the ethical dimensions of personal construct theory and social constructionism.     

Input and output modality effects in immediate serial recall

In immediate recall tasks, visual recency is substantially enhanced when output interference is low (Cowan, Saults, Elliott, & Moreno, 2002 Cowan, N., Saults, J. S., Elliott, E. M. and Moreno, M. V. 2002. Deconfounding serial recall. Journal of Memory & Language, 46: 153–177. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Craik, 1969 Craik, F. I. M. 1969. Modality effects in short-term storage. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 8: 658–664. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) whereas auditory recency remains high even under conditions of high output interference. This auditory advantage has been interpreted in terms of auditory resistance to output interference (e.g., Neath & Surprenant, 2003 Neath, I. and Surprenant, A. M. 2003. Human memory: An introduction to research, data and theory, London: Thomson Learning.  [Google Scholar]). In this study the auditory-visual difference at low output interference re-emerged when ceiling effects were accounted for, but only with spoken output. With written responding the auditory advantage remained significantly larger with high than with low output interference. These new data suggest that both superior auditory encoding and modality-specific output interference contribute to the classic auditory-visual modality effect.     

Changes in Athletic Identity Following Team Selection: Self-Protection versus Self-Enhancement

Self-protection and self-enhancement were investigated in a field study of female athletes who were vying for selection in state all-star teams. Participants completed the Athletic Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS; Brewer, Van Raalte, & Linder, 1993 Brewer, B. W., Van Raalte, J. L. and Linder, D. E. 1993. Athletic identity: Hercules' muscles or achilles heel?. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 24: 237–254. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) on three occasions, and changes over time were compared for players who made the team and players who did not make the team. Findings revealed similar AIMS scores in the two groups prior to selection, no change over time for selected players, and a significant decrease over time for the players who were not selected. These findings are consistent with predictions derived from self-categorization theory, and they suggest that self-protection processes may be related to short-term changes in domain-specific self-concept measures such as athletic identity.     

Commentary Research on gene–environment interdependence: Honing the tools and examining the angles

The insightful overview by Sir Michael Rutter (this issue) on gene–environment interdependence comes about 10 years after the breakthrough Science publications on gene–environment interactions (G×E) involving the MAOA and 5-HTT genes by Caspi et al. (2002 Caspi, A., McClay, J., Moffitt, T. E., Mill, J., Martin, J.Craig, I. W. 2002. Role of genotype in the cycle of violence in maltreated children. Science, 297: 851–854. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 2003 Caspi, A., Sugden, K., Moffitt, T. E., Taylor, A., Craig, I. W.Harrington, H. 2003. Influence of life stress on depression: Moderation by a polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene. Science, 301: 386–389. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Since then, a field of research has burgeoned that has produced replications as well as intriguing new evidence of gene–environment interdependence. At the same time, however, the field has witnessed a growing scepticism about the relevance of studying gene–environment interactions and has seen replication failures (see Duncan & Keller, 2011 Duncan, L. E. and Keller, M. C. 2011. A critical review of the first 10 years of candidate gene-by-environment interaction research in psychiatry. American Journal of Psychiatry, 168: 1041–1049. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Risch et al., 2009 Risch, N., Herell, R., Lehner, T., Liang, K.-Y., Eaves, L.Hoh, J. 2009. Interaction between the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR), stressful life events, and risk of depression: A meta-analysis. Journal of the American Medical Association, 301: 2462–2471. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Against this backdrop, we comment and elaborate on several of the key issues raised by Rutter, and suggest some directions for future research on G×E. Specifically, we discuss (1) replication issues; (2) the crucial role of experiments in understanding gene–environment interdependence; (3) current unknowns with regard to differential susceptibility; and (4) clinical and practical implications of G×E research.     

Personality Assessment in Today's Health Care Environment: Therapeutic Alliance and Patient Satisfaction

This autobiography traces my professional and, to a lesser extent, personal life through my career as a forensic and correctional psychologist. As an only child living in the country and later attending boarding schools from the fifth grade through high school, I learned to be self-reliant and independent. These traits led me to join an archaeological expedition to Oaxaca when I was 18, which fostered my interest in anthropology and then psychology at Amherst. I survived the clinical training program at the University of California at Berkeley and while still in graduate school obtained a staff position at the Alameda County Probation Department Guidance Clinic where I began my interrelated research paths on clinical assessment and the dynamics of aggression, paths I continued as an assistant professor at the University of Texas (1964–1967) and as an associate to full professor at the Florida State University (1967–2003). My major research contributions have been the (a) delineation of the overcontrolled and undercontrolled assaultive syndromes; (b) development of the MMPI–2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, &; Kaemmer, 1989 Butcher, J. N., Dahlstrom, W. G., Graham, J. R., Tellegen, A. and Kaemmer, B. 1989. MMPI-2: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2: Manual for administration and scoring, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.  [Google Scholar]) Overcontrolled Hostility (O–H) Scale; (c) formulation of the “Algebra of Aggression,” a theoretical framework for evaluating and understanding aggressive behavior; (d) exploration of how gender roles interact with dominance in leadership assumption; (e) empirical demonstration of the adverse effects of population density on adjustment in correctional institutions; and (f) development and validation of a classification system for adult criminal offenders based on the MMPI–2.     

The Effect of Plausible Versus Implausible Balance Scale Feedback on the Expectancies of 3- to 4-Year-Old Children

Previous studies (Case, 1985 Case , R. ( 1985 ). Intellectual development: Birth to adulthood . New York , NY : Academic . [Google Scholar]; Siegler, 1981 Siegler , R. S. ( 1981 ). Developmental sequences within and between concepts . Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development , 46 , 1 – 84 . [Google Scholar]) have shown that children under the age of 5 years have little understanding of balance scales when required to encode the influence of weight or distance from the fulcrum. More recently, however, Halford, Andrews, Dalton, Boag, and Zielinski (2002 Halford , G. S. , Andrews , G. , Dalton , C. , Boag , C. , & Zielinski , T. ( 2002 ). Young children's performance on the balance scale: The influence of relational complexity . Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , 81 , 417 – 445 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) noted that an understanding based on weight alone is present even in 2-year-olds. In all these experiments, weight was varied using multiple objects of the same weight. Consequently, the children's decisions could have been based upon visual features (size, number) without necessarily taking the weight into account. The present study investigated whether young children are able to correctly encode the relevance of weight in influencing the behavior of a balance scale. We studied how well 3- to 4-year-old children learn to use one of two different weights (of equal appearance) to tip the scale. In the plausible condition, the heavy weight produced the desired outcome. In the implausible condition, the light weight caused the scale to tip. Only 4-year-olds' performance differed between conditions by learning more effectively in the plausible than the implausible condition. Our results suggest that children younger than 4 years of age have not yet developed clear expectations of the role of weights on the movements of a balance scale.     

Examining Current Conceptualizations of Psychopathology With the MMPI–2/MMPI–2–RF Restructured Clinical Scales: Preliminary Findings From a Cross-Cultural Study

Watson (2005 Watson, D. (2005). Rethinking the mood and anxiety disorders: A quantitative hierarchical model for DSM–V. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 522–536.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) proposed a hierarchical reorganization of the underlying structure of emotional disorders. This study cross-culturally evaluated Watson's (2005) structure of mood and anxiety disorders, using mainly dichotomous criteria, and explored the placement of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) in this model. It also tested Sellbom, Ben-Porath, and Bagby's (2008) proposed elaboration of the 2-factor model (positive and negative activation) that incorporates a higher order dimension of demoralization. One hundred men and 133 women from psychiatric settings in Israel completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2 (Butcher et al., 2001 Butcher, J. N., Graham, J. R., Ben-Porath, Y. S., Tellegen, A., Dahlstrom, W. G., &; Kaemmer, B. (2001). Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2 (MMPI–2): Manual for administration, scoring and interpretation (Rev. ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and the Maudsley Obsessional–Compulsive Inventory (Hodgson &; Rachman, 1977 Hodgson, R. J., &; Rachman, S. (1977). Obsessive–compulsive complaints. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 15, 389–395.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). They were interviewed using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (Sheehan et al., 1998 Sheehan, D. V., Lecrubier, Y., Sheehan, K. H., Amorim, P., Janavs, J., &; Weiller, E. (1998). The Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.): The development and validation of a structured diagnostic psychiatric interview for DSM–IV and ICD–10. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 59, 22–33.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Confirmatory factor analyses replicated Watson's structure for women but not for men. Mixed results were obtained regarding OCD's location in the model. Findings among women support the applicability of Watson's (2005) model across a variety of assessment modalities, as well as in a different language and for diversified cultural backgrounds. This conclusion, however, should be tempered in consideration of the results among men. Findings also provide evidence of the importance of demoralization in mood and anxiety disorders.     

Potential Psychological Predictors of Religiosity

Seventeen potential psychological predictors of religiosity—10 of them measuring psychopathology—were first correlated with the 8-item nonsectarian Religiosity Scale devised by Haraldsson (1981) Haraldsson, E. 1981. Some determinants of belief in psychical phenomena. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research., 75: 297–309.  [Google Scholar]; they were then entered simultaneously into a multiple regression analysis to uncover those variables that were independently related to religiosity. The only variable significantly related to religiosity after this process was mystical experience. These findings are consistent with the view that, certain skeptics notwithstanding, religiosity appears not to be related to psychopathology, at least not in this sample of psychology undergraduates.     

Psychometric Properties of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent (MMPI–A) Clinical,Content, and Supplementary Scales in a Forensic Sample

In this study, we evaluated the internal psychometric properties and external correlates of scores on the Clinical, Content, and Supplementary scales in a forensic sample of 496 adolescents (315 boys and 181 girls) who were court-ordered to receive psychological evaluations. We examined Cronbach's alpha coefficients, scale intercorrelation matrices, and frequencies of scale elevations. Further, we found varying degrees of support for the convergent and discriminant validity of scores on the MMPI–A (Butcher et al., 1992 Butcher, J. N., Williams, C. L., Graham, J. R., Archer, R. P., Tellegen, A., Ben-Porath, Y. S. and Kaemmer, B. 1992. MMPI–A (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent): Manual for administration, scoring, and interpretation, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.  [Google Scholar]) Clinical, Content, and Supplementary scales. This study adds to the body of literature establishing the utility of the MMPI–A in forensic evaluations.