Personality factors associated with psychological distress in testicular cancer survivors

The aim of this study was to investigate symptoms of anxiety and depression in testicular cancer survivors (TCSs) and to identify personality traits associated with psychological distress in these patients by means of the MMPI (Hathaway & McKinley, 1943). A total of 50 TCSs and 50 age-adjusted healthy men participated in the study, and we used the following self-report instruments: Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (Montgomery & Asberg, 1979), Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (Hamilton, 1959, 1969), Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1970, 2005), and the MMPI. TCSs displayed higher rates on all psychopathology scales studied compared to controls, but the majority of the patients' scores were within the "normal range," indicating rather mild psychological distress. TCSs' MMPI profiles showed higher rates on Scales 1, 3, 6, and 9 compared to controls; and within the TCSs sample, symptoms of depression were most closely associated with Scales 3 and 5. Similarly, anxiety symptoms were mainly associated with Scale 3. These findings indicate that TCSs present mild symptoms of psychological distress, mainly anxiety and depressive symptoms, suggesting that careful assessment and consultation in TC patients is essential to help them deal with distress after treatment and to minimize possible risk factors.     

On the dynamic information underlying visual anticipation skill

What information underwrites visual anticipation skill in dynamic sport situations? We examined this question on the premise that the optical information used for anticipation resides in the dynamic motion structures, or modes, that are inherent in the observed kinematic patterns. In Experiment 1, we analyzed whole-body movements involved in tennis shots to different directions and distances by means of principal component analysis. The shots differed in the few modes that captured most of the variance, especially as a function of shot direction. In Experiments 2 and 3, skilled and less skilled tennis players were asked to anticipate the direction of simulated shots on the basis of kinematic patterns in which only the constituent dynamic structures were manipulated. The results indicated that players predicted shot direction by picking up the information contained in multiple low-dimensional dynamic modes, suggesting that anticipation skill in tennis entails the extraction of this dynamic information from high-dimensional displays.     

The genetic and environmental relationship between Cloninger's dimensions of temperament and character

The purpose of this study was to determine whether Cloninger's revised 7-factor model of personality showed incremental validity over his four dimensions of temperament. A sample of 2517 Australian twins aged over 50 between 1993 and 1995 returned completed self-reported measures of Self-directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-transcendence from Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory. Many of these twins had participated in a 1988 study containing Cloninger's temperament measures of Harm Avoidance, Novelty Seeking, Reward Dependence and Persistence. Contrary to theoretical expectations, univariate analyses revealed that familial aggregation for the character dimensions could be entirely explained by additive gene action alone. Although temperament explained 26, 37 and 10% of additive genetic variance in Self-directedness, Cooperativeness and Self-transcendence, respectively, seven genetic factors were required to explain the genetic variance among the TPQ dimensions, and almost all of the non-shared environmental variance was unique to each dimension of character. Our results indicate that the inclusion of all seven dimensions in a taxonomy of personality is warranted.     

Eliciting salient beliefs in research on the theory of planned behaviour: The effect of question wording

The authors of the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and its extension, the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) recommend that researchers who use these theories to investigate the determinants of a given behaviour should first conduct an elicitation study to identify the modal salient beliefs in the target population. In spite of the importance accorded to salient beliefs by the TRA/TPB, the elicitation stage has received little research attention. This paper reports a detailed analysis of beliefs about “being more physically active in the next 12 months.” A general population sample of 213 adults completed a questionnaire while attending a research centre for a series of tests. The findings showed that the beliefs that were elicited by questions designed to prompt affective outcomes (like or enjoy, dislike or hate) differed systematically from those that were elicited by the traditional questions designed to prompt instrumental out-comes (advantages and disadvantages). Whether this resulted in different final sets of modal salient beliefs was found to depend on the particular decision rule that was employed. An alternative decision rule is proposed, based on maximizing the degree of overlap between the modal set and the full set of salient beliefs generated by the sample. The index of overlap can be used to gauge the adequacy of using a modal set of a given size to represent the salient beliefs of the whole sample. In the current dataset, the optimal modal set for “advantages and disadvantages” was associated with only 26 percent overlap with the salient beliefs of the whole sample, which was judged to be insufficient. In such cases, a better strategy may be to ask participants to generate and rate their own beliefs.     

Gaydar: Eye-gaze as identity recognition among gay men and lesbians

This paper examines eye-gaze associated with identity recognition among gay men and lesbians. Eye-gaze is argued to be crucial to forces that either trigger or reinforce one gay person’s perception of another person’s gay identity during social encounters. “Gaydar” is the folk concept used within the gay and lesbian culture to name this identity recognition device. An ethnography on Gaydar conducted over a period of three years reveals that eye-gaze in relation to Gaydar includes two different variations of visual contact, the direct and the broken stare. These types of gaze can be accentuated by the presence of other forms of nonverbal communication such as posture, gestures, and smiles. Consciousness in relation to eye-gaze is also discussed to be a distinct trigger and reinforcer of gay and lesbian identity recognition.     

Testing and Assessment Issues With Spanish‐English Bilingual Latinos

This article critically examines and integrates previous research in cross‐cultural and cross‐linguistic assessment. Issues that apply to the assessment of Latinos who speak both Spanish and English are examined. For ease of presentation, testing concerns with this population are divided into 3 broad areas: client issues, test issues, and clinician/assessor issues. Recommendations are made to assist in the provision of cross‐culturally and cross‐linguistically valid testing of Spanish‐English bilingual Latinos.     

The association between auditory memory span and speech rate in children from kindergarten to sixth grade.

This study reexamined the association between speech rate and memory span in children from kindergarten to sixth grade (N = 152) in order to potentially account for the inconsistencies within the published literature on this topic. Some of the inconsistencies in past research may reflect the different methods adopted in assessing speech rate. In particular, repeating word triples may itself involve memory demands, contaminating the correlation between speech rate and memory span in younger children. Analyses using composite speech rate and memory span measures showed that speech rate for word triples shared variance with memory span that was independent of speech rate for single words. Moreover, speech rate for word triples was largely redundant with age in explaining additional variation in memory span once the effects of speech rate for single words were controlled.