Interactive Effects of Multicultural Experiences and Openness to Experience on Creative Potential

Extensiveness of multicultural experiences and Openness to Experience were used to predict European American undergraduates' performance on two measures of creative potential: (a) generation of unusual uses of garbage bags and (b) retrieval of nonprototypical or normatively inaccessible exemplars in the conceptual domain of occupation. The results showed that having extensive multicultural experiences predicted better performance on both measures of creative potential only among participants who were open to experience. Among those who were not open, having more extensive multicultural experiences was associated with a lower level of creative potential. Implications of these findings for promoting creativity in schools are discussed.     

Bodily perspective taking goes social: the role of personal,interpersonal, and intercultural factors

Mentally placing the self in the physical position of another person might engage social perspective taking because participants have to match their own position with that of another. We investigated the influence of personal (sex), interpersonal (siblings, parental marital status), and cultural (individualistic, collectivistic) factors on individuals' abilities to mentally take the position of front‐facing and back‐facing figures in an online study (369 participants). Replicating findings from laboratory studies responses were slower for front‐facing than back‐facing figures. Having siblings, parents' marital status, and cultural background influenced task performance in theoretically predictable ways. The present perspective‐taking task is a promising experimental paradigm to assess social perspective taking and one that is free from the response biases inherent in self‐report.     

Specifying General Strain Theory: An Ethnically Relevant Approach

The current study incorporated principles from the acculturation literature to specify an ethnically relevant general strain theory (GST). This study argues that the acculturation process exposes Hispanics to unique types of strain (e.g., prejudice and discrimination) that may increase the likelihood of delinquency. Further varying levels of Hispanic concentration can moderate the effect of acculturative strain on delinquency, whereby the effect of ethnic-specific strains may be more pronounced where ethnic concentration is low. Responses from self-administered questionnaires of 1,729 Hispanic adolescents were analyzed to test various hypotheses regarding the effects of traditional and acculturation-related strains on violent delinquency. The findings indicated that GST is generalizable to Hispanic adolescents. The analyses also found support for the prediction that, conditional on the level of Hispanic concentration, ethnic-specific strain measures increased the likelihood of violent delinquency among Hispanic adolescents. This study provided a foundation for future empirical analyses of criminological theories among Hispanic populations.     

Understanding alexithymia in female adolescents: The role of attachment style

Adults with alexithymia retrospectively report emotional difficulties with caregivers during childhood. However, the association between attachment style and alexithymic traits may be evident at an earlier stage than adulthood, i.e. during adolescence. Sixty school-based healthy females aged 9–18 years (mean 14.08, SD 2.71 years) participated in an Attachment Style Interview (ASI) and completed the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Greater levels of alexithymia were exhibited by both anxious and avoidant insecurely attached groups compared to securely attached participants. Fear of separation (characteristic of anxious attachment style) predicted both overall alexithymia scores and the specific alexithymic trait of ‘difficulty identifying feelings’ (DIF). Constraints on closeness (an avoidant attachment attitude) predicted ‘difficulty describing feelings’ (DDF). Low felt attachment to primary caregiver was a predictor of ‘externally oriented thinking’ (EOT). These findings indicate that features of anxious and avoidant insecure attachment styles are differentially related to the separate facets of alexithymia in female adolescents. Specifically, the findings concerning fear of separation may reflect the adolescent struggle for autonomy and the resulting effects on the affect regulation system. Our results also suggest that the normative differentiation of the emotional and cognitive aspects of alexithymia may occur on a developmental trajectory.     

The Effect of Electrophysiological Neuroscientific Deception Detection Evidence on Juror Judgments in a Criminal Trial

There are concerns that if neuroscientific deception detection evidence becomes admissible in court, jurors may weigh it inappropriately. We investigated whether mock jurors were influenced more by electrophysiological than behavioral evidence that a defendant in a criminal trial was lying. Participants’ perceptions of evidence quality predicted verdict choice, and quality ratings were higher for neuroscientific than for behavioral evidence. However, both types of evidence increased guilty verdicts similarly, and the inclusion of neuroimages had no additional impact. These findings suggest that neuroscientific evidence may be processed differently than other types of deception evidence, but it is not necessarily more persuasive.     

Entrevista a Urie Bronfenbrenner

RESUMEN

Urie Bronfenbrenner comienza repasando su biografía y explicando la influencia de figuras como Kurt Lewin, Tolman o sus propios padres en su formación científica. A continuación se ocupa de los problemas metodológicos de la investigación en Psicología, sus estudios incorporando el modelo “persona-proceso-contexto” o los trabajos de laboratorio, centrándose en diversas reflexiones en torno a la perspectiva ecológica y la consideración del ambiente. Además el autor adelanta algunos conceptos de su último trabajo todavía inédito, como el factor tiempo o la relevancia del sistema de creencias para comprender el desarrollo. Finalmente aborda su vinculación a programas de intervención social y comunitarios y aporta algunas ideas acerca del futuro de la psicología europea y española.     

Comparación entre dos escalas de medida subjetiva: Thurstone y Anderson

RESUMEN

La autora comienza exponiendo una síntesis de los modelos de Thurstone y Anderson -Ley del Juicio Comparativo y Teoría de la Integración de la Información, respectivamente- los cuales, desde supuestos distintos, permiten establecer una escala de intervalos en la medición de estímulos subjetivos. En esta investigación el objetivo es descubrir la existencia de una transformación admisible para la escala de intervalos que permita pasar de la escala de medida proporcionada por un modelo a la proporcionada por el otro, utilizando los mismos estímulos y los mismos sujetos. El trabajo concluye considerando que los resultados son esperanzadores aunque se sugiere aceptarlos con cierta cautela ya que se utilizaron pocas categorías de estímulos.     

Reading and Social Imagination: What Relationally Oriented Reading Instruction Can Do for Children

Twenty-two second and third grade children experiencing difficulties with social relationships and reading comprehension participated in small group Relationally Oriented Reading Instruction for eight weeks. Developmental and literacy assessments done before and after the reading intervention showed statistically significant improvements in the understanding of text and in social imagination. Analysis of writing samples resulted in a typology of relationally oriented response. Together these data provide initial evidence linking the understanding of texts to the development of other relational capacities like social imagination, and indicate that purposeful use of picture books within relationally oriented reading instruction may enhance this development.     

The Moderating Effect of Machiavellianism on the Psychological Contract Breach–Organizational Identification/Disidentification Relationships

Purpose

We explore whether Machiavellianism—a personality trait which describes the extent to which individuals ignore values and ethical considerations when the ends justify the means—will influence their responses to their employing organizations’ failure to fulfil promised obligations (psychological contracts). Specifically, we draw on psychological contracts theory and the group value model to argue that Machiavellianism will moderate the relationships between psychological contract breach and (1) organizational identification; and (2) organizational disidentification.

Design/Methodology/Approach

We tested our hypotheses in a study of 262 employees from various organizations at two points in time.

Findings

We found that psychological contract breach was negatively related to organizational identification and positively related to organizational disidentification. Furthermore, employees with higher levels of Machiavellianism tended to disidentify with their organizations to a greater extent (at Time 2) in response to psychological contract breach (at Time 1) than did employees with low levels of Machiavellianism. Machiavellianism did not moderate the relationship between psychological contract breach and organizational identification.

Implications

Our study contributes to extant research exploring the importance of Machiavellianism in the workplace. Specifically, we show that employees with high levels of Machiavellianism are more likely to disidentify in response to psychological contract breach but do not tend to identify to a lesser degree.

Originality/Value

This study builds on the extant research exploring individual differences in the psychological contract dynamics by considering Machiavellianism as a moderator of the breach–outcome relationship.