Trauma and Religiousness

Victims of traumatic events who experience re-traumatization often develop a highly ambivalent relationship to God and all religiosity as extremely conflictual. On the one hand, they may choose to blame God for not having protected them, for having left them to feel so alone, for having been indifferent to them or they may even turn their wrath upon God, as the source of cruelty. Often though, the traumas experienced by individuals prompt them to turn to God and religion in search of help. This gives reason for the need of new and up-to-date research that can help elucidate why some people choose to seek help in religion and others turn away from it.     

Towards a Pan‐cultural Personality Structure: Input from 11 Psycholexical Studies

The purpose of the present study is to find the common kernel of different trait taxonomic studies and find out how the individual structures relate to this common kernel. Trait terms from 11 psycholexically based taxonomies were all translated into English. On the basis of the commonalities in English, the 11 matrices were merged into a joint matrix with 7104 subjects and 1993 trait terms. Untranslatable terms produced large areas with missing data. To arrive at the kernel structure of the joint matrix, a simultaneous component analysis was applied. In addition, the kernel structures were compared with the individual taxonomy trait structures, obtained via principal component analysis. The findings provide evidence of a structure consisting of three components to stand out as the core of the taxonomies included in this study; those components were named dynamism, affiliation, and order. Moreover, the relations between these three kernel components and those of a six‐component solution (completing the six‐factor model) are provided. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Work engagement during life-span: The role of interaction outside the organization and task significance

Growing proportion of older employees in the workforce has pushed scholars and managers to examine the changes of individual work-related attitudes and behavior during the life-span and accordingly reconsider work design to sustain the engagement of aging workforces. This study contributes to ambiguous previous findings by investigating age–work engagement linkage and moderating effects of such job characteristics as employees' perceived task significance and interaction outside organization. Survey of bank employees revealed an overall positive linear effect of age on work engagement; task significance was further positively related to work engagement. Although the direct impact of interaction outside the organization to work engagement was not found, the interaction outside the organization moderated the relationship between age and work engagement: older employees with more external interactions reported higher engagement levels than older employees with fewer interactions. Work engagement was highest for older employees who experienced more interaction outside the organization, or perceived their work as significant or both. There was no positive effect of age on work engagement for employees with both lower levels of interaction outside organization and lower task significance.     

The World at 7:00: Comparing the Experience of Situations Across 20 Countries

The purpose of this research is to quantitatively compare everyday situational experience around the world. Local collaborators recruited 5,447 members of college communities in 20 countries, who provided data via a Web site in 14 languages. Using the 89 items of the Riverside Situational Q‐sort (RSQ), participants described the situation they experienced the previous evening at 7:00 p.m. Correlations among the average situational profiles of each country ranged from r = .73 to r = .95; the typical situation was described as largely pleasant. Most similar were the United States/Canada; least similar were South Korea/Denmark. Japan had the most homogenous situational experience; South Korea, the least. The 15 RSQ items varying the most across countries described relatively negative aspects of situational experience; the 15 least varying items were more positive. Further analyses correlated RSQ items with national scores on six value dimensions, the Big Five traits, economic output, and population. Individualism, Neuroticism, Openness, and Gross Domestic Product yielded more significant correlations than expected by chance. Psychological research traditionally has paid more attention to the assessment of persons than of situations, a discrepancy that extends to cross‐cultural psychology. The present study demonstrates how cultures vary in situational experience in psychologically meaningful ways.     

Development of the Short Version of the Individuation Test for Emerging Adults (ITEA–S) and Its Measurement Invariance Across Slovene and U.S. Emerging Adults

In this study we developed a short version of the Individuation Test for Emerging Adults (ITEA–S) and tested its measurement invariance across Slovene and U.S. samples of emerging adults. The item reduction process resulted in retaining 21 out of 36 items. The content analysis of the retained and discarded items revealed that the ITEA–S adequately measures the 5 individuation domains (support seeking, connectedness, intrusiveness, self-reliance, and fear of disappointing the parent). In our samples, the ITEA–S demonstrated evidence for construct validity and its 5 scales showed adequate internal consistency. The scale scores were also meaningfully associated with the relevant demographic variables in both countries, as well as the three scales of the Psychological Separation Inventory (Hoffman, 1984 Hoffman, J. A. (1984). Psychological separation of late adolescents from their parents. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 31, 170–178.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; the Slovene sample), and the scales of the Differentiation of Self–Revised questionnaire (Skowron &; Schmitt, 2003 Skowron, E. A., &; Schmitt, T. A. (2003). Assessing interpersonal fusion: Reliability and validity of a new DSI Fusion with Others subscale. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 29, 209–222.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; the U.S. sample). The results of multiple group confirmatory factor analyses supported the hypothesis of full metric and partial scalar invariance for both ITEA–S forms (in relation to mother and father) across the 2 country groups.     

How do trainees choose their first psychotherapy training? The case of training in psychotherapy integration

Future trainees go through difficult decision-making processes when starting their first psychotherapy training. The choice of training in psychotherapy integration is a specific type of this process. In this study, qualitative data were obtained from the motivational letters, in-depth semi-structured interviews and e-mail questionnaires of 26 future trainees to answer the research question, ‘How do trainees choose their first psychotherapy training?’ We primarily employed the grounded theory approach as well as consensual qualitative research to shed light on the central category of Gaining Certainty to enter the training. This category was elaborated into a four-phase model, specifically comprised of the: (1) Critical Comparison, (2) Identification, (3) Self-Confirmation and (4) Waiting phases. The model was then discussed in connection with relevant concepts, such as the degree of complexity and flexibility within the epistemological development of trainees [Vasco, A. B., &; Dryden, W. (1994). The development of psychotherapists’ theoretical orientation and clinical practice. British Journal of Guidance &; Counselling, 22(3), 327–341].     

Age Differences in the Variance of Personality Characteristics

In contrast to mean‐level comparisons, age group differences in personality trait variance have received only passing research interest. This may seem surprising because individual differences in personality characteristics are exactly what most of personality psychology is about. Because different proposed mechanisms of personality development may entail either increases or decreases in variance over time, the current study is exploratory in nature. Age differences in variance were tested by comparing the standard deviations of the five‐factor model domain and facet scales across two age groups (20 to 30 years old versus 50 to 60 years old). Samples from three cultures (Estonia, the Czech Republic and Russia) were employed, and two methods (self‐reports and informant‐reports) were used. The results showed modest convergence across samples and methods. Age group differences were significant for 11 of 150 facet‐level comparisons but never consistently for the same facets. No significant age group differences were observed for the five‐factor model domain variance. Therefore, there is little evidence for individual differences in personality characteristics being systematically smaller or larger in older as opposed to younger people. We discuss the implications of these findings for understanding personality development. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Applicant Reactions to Selection Methods in China

This study examines applicant reactions to ten popular selection methods in China. Using a sample of 294 graduates we found that Chinese applicants’ reactions were highly favorable for work sample tests, interviews, and written ability tests, whereas Guanxi (i.e., relying on personal contacts when applying for a job) and graphology were perceived as the least favorable selection methods. Guanxi was also perceived as significantly less fair method compared with all others on all seven procedural dimensions studied. These findings suggest that Guanxi as an informal selection channel might threaten the fairness of personnel selection in China. Implications for the design of selection systems in Chinese companies are discussed, and ramifications for future research into applicant reactions are considered.     

Polemics on Ethical Aspects in the Compost Business

This paper focuses on compost use in overpasses and underpasses for wild animals over roads and other similar linear structures. In this context, good quality of compost may result in faster and more resistant vegetation cover during the year. Inter alia, this can be interpreted also as reduction of damage and saving lives. There are millions of tones of plant residue produced every day worldwide. These represent prospective business for manufacturers of compost additives called “accelerators”. The opinions of the sale representatives’ with regards to other alternatives of biowaste utilization and their own products were reviewed. The robust analyzes of several “accelerated” composts revealed that the quality was generally low. Only two accelerated composts were somewhat similar in quality to the blank sample that was produced according to the traditional procedure. Overlaps between the interests of decision makers on future soil fertility were weighed against the preferences on short-term profit. Possible causes that allowed the boom of these underperforming products and the possible consequences are also discussed. Conclusions regarding the ethical concerns on how to run businesses with products whose profitability depends on weaknesses in the legal system and customer unawareness are to follow.     

Belief in a zero-sum game and subjective well-being across 35 countries

Current Psychology - This article presents a short research report on the relationship between perceived antagonism in social relations measured using the Belief in a Zero-Sum Game (BZSG) scale,...