Personality plasticity after age 30

Rank-order consistency of personality traits increases from childhood to age 30. After that, different summaries of the literature predict a plateau at age 30, or at age 50, or a curvilinear peak in consistency at age 50. These predictions were evaluated at group and individual levels using longitudinal data from the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory for periods of up to 42 years. Consistency declined toward a nonzero asymptote with increasing time interval. Although some scales showed increasing stability after age 30, the rank-order consistencies of the major dimensions and most facets of the Five-Factor Model were unrelated to age. Ipsative stability, assessed with the California Adult Q-Set, also was unrelated to age. These data strengthen claims of predominant personality stability after age 30.     

Evaluation of violent behaviors in secondary school

School harassment, or bullying, is a term that for being so frequent already forms a part of our vocabulary. In the present work one presents a new instrument of evaluation of the violence that happens in the school centers. The Questionnaire of School Violence (CUVE) has been elaborated and, later, applied to a sample of 1637 teenagers of seven centers of Secondary Obligatory Education (public and compound). The CUVE evaluates in a trustworthy way five dimensions of the school violence: a) physical indirect violence on the part of the student body; b) verbal violence of the student body towards companions; c) physical direct violence between (among) pupils; d) verbal violence of the student body towards the professorship; and e) violence of the professorship towards the student body.     

Exploratory factor analysis and psychometric properties of the Valencia Scale on attitudes and beliefs toward hypnosis

Exploratory factor analysis and psychometric properties of the valencia scale on attitudes and beliefs toward hypnosis. Therapist version. This investigation examines the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Valencia Scale on Attitudes and Beliefs toward Hypnosis-Therapist version. Data from 775 professional psychologists belonging to the Spanish Association of Psychologists were used for the exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Retest included data from 426 participants who answered to the test. The EFA revealed eight factors (Fear, Memory, Help, Control, Collaboration, Interest, Magic and Marginal). Each factor showed good internal consistency and reliability, similar to the client version of this scale. ANOVA indicate that some variables (having scientific knowledge, having received practical information on hypnosis, to use hypnosis, and to show interest in receiving more theoretical and practical information on hypnosis), tend to reduce inadequate beliefs and negative attitudes toward hypnosis. Our results provide the basis for carrying out confirmatory factor analysis and studies of convergent validity on the scale, and of the sensitivity of the scale to change.     

Attitude to primary prevention advice of the European Code against cancer in relatives of cancer patients: implications for the development of preventive programmes

Achieving a preventive attitude is the first step in eliminating cancer risk behaviours. This cross-sectional study evaluated the attitude towards the European Code against Cancer, in 3,031 relatives of cancer patients. The study looked for keys to improve attitude by means of educational interventions. Attitude was evaluated using a questionnaire with 63 items and a Likert's scale. Measured from -2 to +2 , the mean score was 0.905 [0.894 - 0.971]. Five per cent had a mean score under 0.38 and another 5% over 1.46. A multivariate analysis found that age, sex and level of education were significantly associated with attitude: young men with a low cultural level were those with the lowest preventive attitude. The family history of cancer was not associated with attitude. Educational interventions should modify the perceived advantages of smoking and drinking, and the disadvantages related to preventive diet and sun and workplace protection.     

A new scale for the assessment of the quality of hospitality services

In the last 20 years the services sector has experienced a highly significant growth, being currently one of the most important economic sectors in our country. Inside the touristic sector, a strong competence has being experienced among the lodging and restoration establishments. In a scenario characterized by competitiveness, the bet for quality represents a difficult competitive advantage to surpass (García-Buedes, 2001). The objective of this study is to carry out an approach to the evaluation of the perceived quality of the restaurants. As a result of bibliographic revision, and also a first approach of a qualitative nature, we started from a scale of 31 items that included 5 dimensions: access, personal, service, product and installations. The results obtained applying the questionnaire to more than 2400 clients of 180 establishments of Santiago de Compostela and region, by means of structured interviews, confirmed that not all these dimensions had the same importance as predictors of customer satisfaction. Specifically, the product emerges as the most important dimension. Likewise, the elimination of the dimension service and a more exhaustive selection of the items, based on psychometric criteria, has permitted to define a brief scale, consisting of only 15 items, which makes it very attractive as a management tool. The final scale proposed to evaluate the perceived quality in the restaurant sector includes four fundamental and non-independent dimensions. These are, ordered by importance: product, personal, installations and access.     

Hidden patterns of play interaction in soccer using SOF-CODER

Traditional methods for quantifying sport performances are limited in their capacity to describe the complex interactions of events that occur within a performance over time. The following article outlines a new approach to the study of actions between players in team sports—mainly, soccer. Since the observational design is nomothetic, point, and multidimensional, an observational and data-collecting instrument has been developed. The instrument is mixed and combines a field format with a category system for game events, as well as an ad hoc instrument that considers the game actions of one or both teams, each recorded according to the same criteria. The article also outlines a new approach to the analysis of time-based event records—in this case, sports performance—known as T-pattern detection. The relevant elements of the T-pattern detection process are explained, and exemplar data from analyses of soccer matches are presented to highlight the potential of this form of data analysis. The results suggest that it is possible to identify new kinds of profiles for both individuals and teams on the basis of observational criteria and a further analysis of temporal behavioral patterns detected within the performances.     

The Espinet and the perceptual learning effects in flavour aversion conditioning: do they depend on a common inhibitory mechanism?

In three experiments rats were given short or long preexposure (4 or 10 sessions) to two compound flavours, AX and BX, according to an intermixed or a blocked schedule. Following preexposure, aversion conditioning trials were given with AX as the conditioned stimulus (CS). In Experiments 1 and 2, retardation and summation tests were then carried out to assess the inhibitory properties of B (an Espinet procedure). In Experiment 3, test trials evaluated generalization from AX to BX (the standard perceptual learning procedure). The results showed that B performed as an inhibitor of the unconditioned stimulus (US; an Espinet effect) only after long intermixed preexposure, whereas a reliable perceptual learning effect was observed both after short and after long preeexposure. The observation that B had no detectable inhibitory properties after short preexposure casts doubt on the suggestion that inhibitory learning is responsible for perceptual learning after brief exposure to AX and BX.     

Hierarchical linear modeling analyses of the NEO-PI-R scales in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging

The authors examined age trends in the 5 factors and 30 facets assessed by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory in Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging data (N=1,944; 5,027 assessments) collected between 1989 and 2004. Consistent with cross-sectional results, hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed gradual personality changes in adulthood: a decline in Neuroticism up to age 80, stability and then decline in Extraversion, decline in Openness, increase in Agreeableness, and increase in Conscientiousness up to age 70. Some facets showed different curves from the factor they define. Birth cohort effects were modest, and there were no consistent Gender x Age interactions. Significant nonnormative changes were found for all 5 factors; they were not explained by attrition but might be due to genetic factors, disease, or life experience.     

Using a combined blocking procedure to teach color discrimination to a child with autism

A combined blocking procedure was used to teach a child with autism to select two colors on request. First, two color cards were placed at fixed locations on a table and the experimenter repeatedly requested the child to touch one of the colors. After 10 consecutive correct selections, the child was asked to touch the other color. Blocks of trials with each color were systematically thinned until requests were presented randomly with few errors. Subsequently, the location of the selection cards was systematically alternated until the child was able to touch the correct card when both requests and card positions were presented in random fashion.     

Psychometric testing and applications of the Body Attitudes Questionnaire translated into Portuguese

Although many body attitudes scales have been developed, none have been translated into Portuguese. This study aimed to translate the Ben-Tovim and Walker Body Attitudes Questionnaire and assess validity and reliability for a Brazilian sample. Women with (n = 39) and without (n = 57) eating disorders completed the scale, to assess discriminant validity. Convergent validity was assessed by the correlations between the scores and a measure of body dissatisfaction. The questionnaire was applied twice to controls after 1 mo. to evaluate reliability. Eating-disordered women had significantly higher mean scores on Feeling Fat, Disparagement, Salience and Lower Body Fatness, and lower scores on Attractiveness. No mean difference on Strength and Fitness was found. Most subscales were significantly correlated with the body-dissatisfaction measure. Test-retest coefficients ranged from .57 to .85. The translated version of the Body Attitudes Questionnaire seems to be a valid and reliable measure of body attitudes.