Can personality close the intention-behavior gap for healthy eating? An examination with the HEXACO personality traits

The aim of this study was to investigate the predictive and moderating effects of HEXACO personality factors, in addition to theory of planned behavior (TPB) variables, on fruit and vegetable consumption. American college students (N = 1036) from 24 institutions were administered the TPB, HEXACO and a self-reported fruit and vegetable consumption measure. The TPB predicted 11–17% of variance in fruit and vegetable consumption, with greater variance accounted for in healthy weight compared to overweight individuals. Personality did not significantly improve the prediction of behavior above TPB constructs; however, conscientiousness was a significant incremental predictor of intention in both healthy weight and overweight/obese groups. While support was found for the TPB as an important predictor of fruit and vegetable consumption in students, little support was found for personality factors. Such findings have implications for interventions designed to target students at risk of chronic disease.     

Through Literacy to Fluency: Reading in the Religious Studies Classroom

This paper addresses a perennial question of the religious studies and, indeed, of most liberal arts classrooms: How do I get my students to read texts thoroughly and with understanding? After briefly reviewing the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) data, I argue that what teachers desire is not just basic literacy, but fluency, which is the capacity to read analytically (and, for me, appreciatively), deploying the strategies of reading in a high process, improvisational mode. I unpack the elements and efficacy of one close reading classroom teaching practice I use, guided annotation, as a strategy for developing fluency. I argue that close analysis of a short, intentionally chosen passage with a guiding question builds towards reading fluency. Annotating short passages, singly and then in relation to other passages, with the author's and disciplinary concerns as the foci, practices the skills that build fluency. Annotation is akin to playing scales in music, repeating a baseline task of reading; working slowly and simply at first, but then with increasing speed and complexity, moving the student towards reading whole texts well.     

Analyzing student motivation at the confluence of achievement goals and their underlying reasons: an investigation of goal complexes

This research investigated the interrelations among achievement goals and the underlying reasons for pursuing them. To do so, it utilized the framework of goal complexes, which are regulatory constructs defined at the intersection of aims and reasons. Data from two independent large samples of New Zealand university students showed that across types of reasons, namely development versus demonstration of competence/ability, and approach-avoidance tendencies pertaining to aims and reasons, respectively, participants rated lowest items mapping normative aims. Additionally, for most non-normative achievement goals, which in this study were related to task and own past performance, students endorsed more strongly items pertaining to the development rather than the demonstration of competence/ability. This pattern of results was reversed for approach—but not avoidance—related reasons associated with normative aims. These findings are largely consistent with the tenets of cognitive dissonance theory and have important implications for pedagogical practice, policy development, and the study of self-evaluation and cognitive processes. In addition, they delineate new directions for fruitful future research.     

Can Creativity Predict Cognitive Reserve?

Cognitive reserve relies on the ability to effectively cope with aging and brain damage by using alternate processes to approach tasks when standard approaches are no longer available. In this study, the issue if creativity can predict cognitive reserve has been explored. Forty participants (mean age: 61 years) filled out: the Cognitive Reserve Index questionnaire, the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking in visual and verbal form, Raven's Progressive Matrices (PM38), and the Verbal Judgments Test. The analysis revealed that all indices of verbal creativity were positively correlated with indices of cognitive reserve, except with cognitive reserve related to working activity. However, using the composite score of verbal creativity, all indices of cognitive reserve were predicted, including the index related to working activity. These results show that verbal creativity could be considered as another proxy indicator of cognitive reserve, and open to the hypothesis that verbal creativity enhances cognitive reserve and sustains active aging.     

Differences between multimedia and text-based assessments of emotion management: An exploration with the multimedia emotion management assessment (MEMA)

People process emotional information using visual, vocal, and verbal cues. However, emotion management is typically assessed with text based rather than multimedia stimuli. This study (N?=?427) presents the new multimedia emotion management assessment (MEMA) and compares it to the text-based assessment of emotion management used in the MSCEIT. The text-based and multimedia assessment showed similar levels of cognitive saturation and similar prediction of relevant criteria. Results demonstrate that the MEMA scores have equivalent evidence of validity to the text-based MSCEIT test scores, demonstrating that multimedia assessment of emotion management is viable. Furthermore, our results inform the debate as to whether cognitive saturation in emotional intelligence (EI) measures represents “noise” or “substance”. We find that cognitive ability associations with EI represent substantive variance rather than construct-irrelevant shared variance due to reading comprehension ability required for text-based items.     

Some Factors Explaining the Reliability of a Structured Interview System at a Work Site

Recent meta-analytic research has demonstrated structured interviewing to hold acceptable validity and reliability. While the emphasis has been on refining psychometric properties, there is sufficient evidence to suggest a discrepancy between the manner in which interviewing systems should be used and how they are actually used. The present study examined the use of a commercially available structured interviewing system based on past behaviour. 112 candidates were interviewed on two separate occasions by 28 interviewers. Inter-rater reliability was 0.55. The system required the derivation of a consensus score which was found not to differ significantly from the arithmetical mean of the original scores suggesting the process was not undertaken as required. Follow up discussions with interviewers reported three main areas of misunderstanding; lack of role clarity, different interpretations of job specification and inconsistent use of the rating system. Data also suggested interviewers were inexperienced. A critical finding involved female interviewers making assumptions about female applicant's motivations and suitability to the position. This finding was explained by employing ‘person-in-job’ prototypes. The data support the conclusion that although structured interviews may contain appropriate psychometric properties, the application of the system is critical.     

Homosexuality,Heterosexuality, and Cross-Dressing: Perceptions of Gender Discordant Behavior

This study examined attitudes of heterosexual and homosexual males toward heterosexual and homosexual cross-dressers. It was hypothesized that heterosexual males would be equally intolerant of homosexual cross-dressers, heterosexual cross-dressers, and homosexuals who did not cross-dress, but that homosexuals would be more tolerant of noncross-dressing homosexuals than of the other two groups. It was also hypothesized that homosexual subjects, but not the heterosexual subjects, would rate the homosexual noncross-dressers as more masculine than the cross-dressers. Forty-five heterosexual and 45 homosexual male college students read stories about a character who was described as a heterosexual cross-dresser, a homosexual cross-dresser, or a plain homosexual. 83 subjects were Caucasian, 2 were Asian, and 5 were African American; about 60% of the subjects were middle class; 30% were from lower class families and 10% were upper class. Heterosexuals were much less tolerant of all three vignette characters than homosexuals, but neither group rated the characters much differently when they were labeled differently. Homosexuals, but not heterosexuals, rated the plain homosexual as more masculine than the cross-dressing characters. Results also showed that gay males with highly nontraditional attitudes toward women had higher self-esteem.     

Perceptual attenuation of nonfocused auditory streams

The aim of this study was to measure the perceptual attenuation, measured in decibels, resulting from the focusing of attention on one stream within a multistream auditory sequence. The intensity of a nonfocused stream was increased until the accuracy of detecting a temporal irregularity in this stream was the same as in a focused stream. Eight subjects were required to detect a temporal irregularity created by delaying or advancing one tone which could be situated in one of three temporally regular streams played simultaneously to create a multistream sequence. The three streams differed in tempo and frequency. Subjects’ attention was focused on one of the streams by preceding the multistream sequence with one of the single streams (a cue). We first established the size of temporal irregularity detected at a 90% level in cued streams, confirming that subjects were able to focus on one particular stream. Second, an irregularity of this size was not detected above chance level in noncued streams, demonstrating that listeners focus only on the cued stream. Third, for 5 subjects, a 15-dB increase in the level of one of the noncued streams was necessary to bring detection up to that found in the cued streams. This gain provides an equivalent measure of the perceptual attenuation of nonfocused streams. For 3 other subjects, detection in the noncued stream remained at chance performance whatever the level. For all subjects, detection in the cued stream decreased slightly as the level of the noncued stream increased. We conclude that the attenuation of nonfocused auditory streams can attain as much as 15 dB, at least for some subjects.     

Counselors and the Backlash: Rape Hype “and False-Memory Syndrome”

This article describes the “syndromes” of “rape hype” and “false memory” and corrects misinformation associated with these labels. It describes common themes that permeate both issues and suggests ways in which counselors can respond effectively to the public and professional debate about these concerns.     

Entorhinal but Not Hippocampal or Subicular Lesions Disrupt Latent Inhibition in Rats

Latent inhibition (LI) is the deficit of conditioning resulting from repeated nonreinforced preexposure to a conditioned stimulus before its pairing with an unconditioned stimulus. There are cumulative data showing that large lesions of the hippocampal formation disrupt LI. However, the effects of selective lesions of the different components of the hippocampal formation have never been directly addressed in the same study and conditioning paradigm. The first experiment of the present study aimed at investigating the effects of excitotoxic lesions of the hippocampus, subiculum, or entorhinal cortex on LI in an "off-baseline"-conditioned emotional response procedure. Hippocampus or subiculum lesions had no effect on either LI or conditioning. In contrast, entorhinal cortex lesions disrupted LI without modifying conditioning. In Experiment 2, locomotor activity in a novel environment was assessed in the same rats. Whereas lesions of hippocampus increased locomotor activity, lesions of the subiculum or the entorhinal cortex were devoid of effect. Although both LI and habituation to novel environmental cues are thought to involve interactions between the hippocampal formation and the mesolimbic pathway, these results indicate a functional dissociation between the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex.