The social desirability factor in the measurement of listening skills: A brief report

At an early stage in the development of a self-report Listening Skills Scale (LSS), socially desirable responding (SDR) became a concern. In the next phase of the scale's development, 44 tertiary students, enrolled in relevant subjects, completed 67 LSS items in five content domains. Strong SDR was suggested in the low discrimination power and high positive endorsement of 46 of the 67 items, and in the results of a varimax factor analysis. The five factors could be interpreted as aspects of SDR, reflecting trainees' concern with avoiding error and doing well, rather than with the domains of listening. It is suggested that the trainees' need to present themselves positively may compete with client-focussed attending, despite their desire to have these skills. This concern, plus the management of SDR in the LSS responses, are challenges for the next stages of test development.     

The false consensus effect: A meta-analysis of 115 hypothesis tests

False consensus refers to an egocentric bias that occurs when people estimate consensus for their own behaviors. Specifically, the false consensus hypothesis holds that people who engage in a given behavior will estimate that behavior to be more common than it is estimated to be by people who engage in alternative behaviors. A meta-analysis was conducted upon 115 tests of this hypothesis. The combined effects of the tests of the false consensus hypothesis were highly statistically significant and of moderate magnitude. Further, the 115 tests of false consensus appear to be relatively heterogeneous in terms of significance levels and effect sizes. Correlational analyses and focused comparisons indicate that the false consensus effect does not appear to be influenced by the generality of the reference population, nor by the difference between alternative choices in actual consensus. However, the significance and magnitude of the false consensus effect was significantly predicted by the number of behavioral choices/estimates subjects had to make, and the sequence of measurement of choices and estimates. These patterns of results are interpreted as being inconsistent with the self-presentational, motivational explanation for the false consensus effect.     

Is there a dual system for regular inflections?

A central question in morphological research is whether there are whole-word representations for regularly inflected forms. A series of four lexical decision experiments addressed this question by looking at whole-word frequency effects across a range of frequency values with constant stem-cluster frequencies. Frequency effects were only found for inflected forms above a threshold of about 6 per million, whereas such effects were found for morphologically simple controls in all frequency ranges. We discuss these data in the context of two kinds of dual models and in relation to competition models proposed within the connectionist literature.     

The link between time orientation and religious orientation among American college students

The purpose of this study was to explore how an individual’s religion relates to their time orientation. Specifically, we hypothesised (a) intrinsic orientation would positively correlate with future orientation, (b) extrinsic orientation would positively correlate with present-hedonistic orientation, (c) quest orientation would positively correlate with present-hedonistic and future orientations, (d) orthodox orientation would positively correlate with past positive orientation, and (e) secularism would positively correlate with past negative orientation, present-fatalistic and future orientations. Participants (n?=?150) completed an online survey of time orientation and religious orientation. The results showed that perceptions of the past are strongly linked to religious orientation, with more positive perceptions being linked to the more traditional orientations, and less positive perceptions linked to the looser and secularist orientations.     

Family and Partner Facing a Chronic Disease: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

The purpose of this article is to analyze the growing interest in the influence of the family, particularly the patient's partner, on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Social support is a vital element in many medical conditions. There is growing interest in the influence of the family, particularly the patient's partner, on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), but more work is needed in this line. Helping family members to optimize the support they provide may be the key to improving the efficacy of therapeutic interventions in CFS, and have a positive impact on the patient's symptoms.