Unintentional Injury Risk in Children with Externalizing Behavior Disorders at Summer Camp

Children with externalizing behavior disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD) have greatly increased risk of unintentional injury, but it is unclear what mechanisms are responsible for that increased risk. This study followed 22 children participating in a summer camp for children with ADHD. Injury incidents were recorded daily and a set of primary symptoms of behavioral disorders were recorded at 15-min intervals over the course of the 6-week summer camp experience (roughly 300 h of observing each child). We predicted symptoms of ODD and CD would be more strongly related to injury incidence than symptoms of ADHD. Results from univariate Poisson regression models confirmed our prediction. Symptoms of ODD and CD—violations and intentional aggression in particular—were related to injury incidence but symptoms of ADHD were not. This finding is consistent with a growing body of evidence that oppositional, noncompliant, and aggressive behavior patterns might be primarily responsible for increased risk for injury among children with externalizing behavior disorders. Thanks to Sylvie Mrug, Peter Winslett, and the other staff members of the STP camp for their cooperation.     

Testing the Triple‐Match Principle in the Technology Sector: A Two‐Wave Longitudinal Panel Study

The present study investigates the issue of match between job demands and job resources in the prediction of changes in job‐related well‐being outcomes as outlined by the Demand‐Induced Strain Compensation (DISC) model. Job demands, resources, and well‐being outcomes are considered to be multidimensional constructs comprising physical, cognitive, and/or emotional components. The Triple‐Match Principle (TMP) proposes that the strongest, interactive relationships between job demands and resources are observed when demands, resources, and outcomes are based on identical dimensions. This principle was tested using a two‐wave longitudinal panel study among 720 Belgian employees in the technology sector. Analyses were conducted with cross‐lagged structural equation modeling, and results tend to confirm the matching hypothesis. Specifically, the likelihood of finding valid interaction effects was nearly linearly related to the degree of match between demands, resources, and outcomes. Generalisability of the TMP in the technology sector was shown. Practically, findings indicate that enhancing specific, matching, job resources enables employees to deal with corresponding high job demands to improve employee well‐being.     

Reasons and Impossibility

Many philosophers claim that it cannot be the case that a person ought to perform an action if this person cannot perform this action. However, most of these philosophers do not give arguments for the truth of this claim. In this paper, I argue that it is plausible to interpret this claim in such a way that it is entailed by the claim that there cannot be a reason for a person to perform an action if it is impossible that this person will perform this action. I then give three arguments for the truth of the latter claim, which are also arguments for the truth of the former claim as I interpret it.     

Assessing Aberrant Personality in Managerial Coaching: Measurement Issues and Prevalence Rates across Employment Sectors

The convergent and discriminant validity of two methods to assess a broad spectrum of aberrant personality tendencies was examined in a large sample of managers who were administered the NEO‐PI‐R (N = 11 862) and the Hogan Development Survey (N = 6774) in the context of a professional development assessment. Five‐Factor Model (FFM) aberrant compounds, defined as linear combinations of NEO‐PI‐R facets, converged for the antisocial, borderline, histrionic, avoidant and obsessive–compulsive tendencies with their respective Hogan Development Survey counterparts. Alternative linear FFM combinations did improve convergent results for the schizoid and obsessive–compulsive pattern. Risk for various aberrant tendencies was roughly equal across different employment sectors, with a higher prevalence of borderline, avoidant and dependent tendencies in the legal and more histrionic tendencies in the retail sector. Adopting FFM aberrant compound cut‐offs developed for coaching purposes to flag at risk individuals showed that 20% to 25% of all managers qualified for at least one and 10% to 15% were flagged as at risk for two or more aberrant tendencies. The theoretical implications and the repercussions of this research for the design of professional development and coaching trajectories are discussed. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Depression and self-focused language in structured interviews with older men

The association between depression and self-focused language has been found to varying extents across studies. The presence or absence of the association may depend on the communicative context. Based on Beck's depression model, a broad, evaluative self-focused question was predicted more likely to elicit a stronger association than a full interview containing a more heterogeneous question set of items. The spontaneous speech obtained during structured interviews of 26 depressed and nondepressed older men, an as-yet little studied population, was analyzed. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that association between self-focused language and depression was demonstrated in the target question but not across the entire interview. The results may explain some of the aforementioned discrepancies in prior studies.     

Identification Problems in Personality Psychology

This paper discusses and illustrates identification problems in personality psychology. The measures used by psychologists to infer traits are based on behaviors, broadly defined. These behaviors are produced from multiple traits interacting with incentives in situations. In general, measures are determined by these multiple traits and do not identify any particular trait unless incentives and other traits are controlled for. Using two data sets, we show, that substantial portions of the variance in achievement test scores and grades, which are often used as measures of cognition, are explained by personality variables.