Subjective Age and Personality Development: A 10‐Year Study

Personality theory and research typically focus on chronological age as a key indicator of personality development. This study examines whether the subjective experience of age is an alternative marker of the biomedical and psychosocial factors that contribute to individual differences in personality development. The present study uses data from the Midlife in the United States longitudinal survey (N = 3,617) to examine how subjective age is associated with stability and change in personality and the dynamic associations between subjective age and personality traits over a 10‐year period. Regression analyses indicated that a younger subjective age at baseline was associated with increases in Openness, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness; correlated changes were also found. The rank‐order stability of Extraversion and Openness and overall profile consistency were higher among those with a younger subjective age at baseline and were also associated with the rate of subjective aging over time. The present study reveals that beyond chronological age, the age an individual feels is related to changes in characteristic ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving over time.     

Body Dissatisfaction and Eating Disorder Symptomatology: A Latent Structural Equation Modeling Analysis of Moderating Variables in 18-to-28-Year-Old Males

ABSTRACT. Although body dissatisfaction is recognized as the strongest risk factor for eating disturbances, a majority of young males are body dissatisfied, but do not concomitantly report severe levels of eating disorder symptomatology. The present investigation was designed to examine five theoretically relevant variables (i.e., body checking, emotional dysregulation, perfectionism, insecure-anxious attachment, and self-esteem) as potential moderators of the relationship between body dissatisfaction and two critical components of male eating disorder symptomatology: drive for muscularity and bulimic behaviors. Data collected from 551 Italian males between 18 and 28 years old were analyzed using latent structural equation modeling. The authors found that emotional dysregulation, body checking, insecure-anxious attachment and perfectionism intensified the relationship between body dissatisfaction and each criterion variable representing male eating disorder symptomatology; the interactions accounted respectively for an additional 2%, 7%, 4% and 5% of variance in drive for muscularity and for an additional 6%, 4%, 5%, and 2% of the variance in bulimic behaviors. By contrast self-esteem weakened this relationship and the interactions accounted for an additional 3% of the variance in both drive for muscularity and bulimic behaviors. Implications of these findings for prevention and treatment of male eating disturbances are discussed.     

State test‐anxiety,selective attention and concentration in university students

The principal aim of this study was to assess the level of selective attention and mental concentration before exams in a sample of university students and to determine a possible relationship between anxiety and reduction of levels of attention in this circumstance. A total of 403 university students, 176 men and 227 women, aged from 18 to 46 years, participated in the study. Of them, 169 were first‐year undergraduates, 118 were second to fourth‐year undergraduates and 116 were postgraduate Master's degree students. All of them completed the Spanish version of the Spielberger State‐Anxiety Inventory and the D2 Attention Test just before taking an exam. Our results showed that participants with lower levels of anxiety had higher levels of selective attention and mental concentration before the exam. These results specifically indicate that when anxiety levels are very high, this could over‐activate the orientating and alerting functions and to reduce the capacity of attentional control. These processes could have a negative impact on specific attentional processes and become a negative influence on performance in exams.     

Re-analysis of correlations among four impulsivity scales

Impulsivity plays a key role in normal and pathological behavior. Although there is some consensus about its conceptualization, there have been many attempts to build a multidimensional tool due to the lack of agreement in how to measure it. A recent study claimed support for a three-dimensional structure of impulsivity, however with weak empirical support. By re-analysing those data, a four-factor structure was found to describe the correlation matrix much better. The debate remains open and further research is needed to clarify the factor structure. The desirability of constructing new measures, perhaps analogously to the Wechsler Intelligence Scale, is emphasized.     

Eighteen month test-retest stability of the youth self report in a sample of Catalonian adolescents

The aim of this study is to assess the test-retest stability of the Spanish version of Youth Self Report after 18 mo. for a sample of 357 Catalonian high school students (158 boys and 199 girls). At Time 2 the girls' scores increased on Delinquent and Aggressive Behavior scales and, therefore on Externalizing scores. At Time 2 the boys' scores increased on Attention Problems and Delinquent Behavior and decreased on Anxious/Depressed, Social Problems, and Internalizing scales. Significant differences in the remaining scales were not observed. The test-retest intraclass correlations for the broad-band scales ranged between .62 (Internalizing) and .68 (Externalizing) and for the narrow-band scales between .37 and .67. The correlations for girls and boys were similar but slightly higher for girls on Anxious/Depressed and Thought Problems.     

Associative activation of stimulus representations restores lost salience: implications for perceptual learning

In 3 experiments, rats received preexposure to presentations of a compound flavor BX. The effective salience of B was then tested by assessing its ability to interfere with the aversion controlled by another flavor or the tendency to drink a saline solution after the induction of a salt need. It was found that the effective salience of B was maintained when during preexposure, presentations of BX alternated with presentations of X alone. This was true both when BX was presented as a simultaneous compound (Experiment 1) and as a serial compound (X-->B; Experiments 2 and 3); salience was not maintained when the serial compound took the form B-->X (Experiments 2 and 3a). It was argued that the salience of B declines during preexposure but is restored when presentations of X are able to activate the representation of B by way of the associative X-B link.     

The nature of residual cost in regular switch response factors

Two experiments are presented that compare the residual cost found when switching from one task to another under predictable conditions. The aim of the study was to explore the roles played by the stimulus, the response, or both in the process of the mental set reconfiguration necessary to switch between two tasks. The experiments tested [Rogers, R. D., & Monsell, S. (1995). Cost of a predictable switch between simple cognitive tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 124, 207-231] stimulus-cued-completion hypothesis and [Schuch, S., & Koch, I. (2003). The role of response selection for inhibition of task sets in task shifting. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 29, 92-105] hypothesis of response selection as the key factor in the nature of switch cost. In the first experiment, two conditions were created that varied in terms of a Go/No-Go signal: The Go trials were a replication of [Tornay, F. J., & Milán, E. G. (2001). A more complete task-set reconfiguration in random than in predictable task switch. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54A, 785-803 Experiment 3]; The No-Go trials were identical to the first condition, except that participants did not execute a response in the trial n-1 (Schuch & Koch, 2003). In addition, the percentage of Go and No-Go trials was manipulated. The results showed that the cost was significant only in the high Go signal-frequency case (Experiment 2), with an abrupt offset in Go trials and a gradual offset in No-Go trials. Based on the results of these experiments, it was concluded that the crucial factor to complete a mental set reconfiguration is response-related and not stimulus-related.     

Generalization of tacting actions in children with autism

This intervention compared the effects of two procedures on the generalization of a tacting repertoire (labeling) in 6 children with autism spectrum disorder. In one procedure the verbal antecedent stimulus “What is she doing?” appeared together with a person performing an action; in the other procedure, the antecedent stimulus was just the presence of the action. In initial tests, children emitted tacts only when the action was presented with the verbal antecedent. Thereafter, they learned to tact an action without the verbal antecedent and received tests to evaluate generalization to another action. Results indicated that in order to obtain generalization of tacting actions, it was necessary to learn to tact other actions without the verbal antecedent as well as learning to tact the action with the verbal antecedent. These findings have relevance for generalization of tacting actions from control by verbal antecedents to natural conditions and the production of spontaneous language.     

Arbitrariness and the death penalty: how the defendant's appearance during trial influences capital jurors' punishment decision

This paper examines the impact of the defendant's appearance during the trial on capital jurors' punishment decision. The data used in this analysis were gathered by the Capital Jury Project (CJP), a national program of research on the decision-making of capital jurors. A series of multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted using four aggravating circumstances related to the killing and eight defendant appearance variables as predictors of jurors' punishment decision at three points during the capital trial: (1) after the punishment phase ended, but before formal deliberation began; (2) when the first vote was taken on punishment at jury deliberations; and (3) at the final vote on punishment. Results indicated that when the defendant appeared emotionally involved during the trial (i.e. sorry and sincere) jurors either favored a life sentence or were undecided about punishment; however, when the defendant appeared emotionally uninvolved during the trial (i.e. bored) jurors either sought a death sentence or remained undecided. Policy implications will be discussed.