Survey return rates as a function of priority versus first-class mailing

Prior research indicates survey procedures that signal significance and individualized mailings have higher response rates. Thus, it was hypothesized that surveys delivered via Priority mail would result in higher return rates than surveys delivered via First-Class. 260 surveys were sent to individuals randomly selected from lists of licensed physical and behavioral healthcare providers in Alaska and New Mexico. Half of the selected individuals were assigned randomly to receive mailings using Priority mail, the other half received First-Class mailings. Return rate was 39% for First-Class and 35% for Priority. Z tests of proportion indicated no statistically significant differences between methods. Given increased costs with no resultant increase in response rate, sending surveys to potential participants via Priority mail does not appear warranted.     

Impression Management Behavior in Assessment Centers: Artificial Behavior or Much Ado About Nothing?

Candidates’ assertive impression-management (IM) behaviors affect performance ratings during selection interviews, a finding that has caused some concern about selection interviews’ objectivity and accuracy. Similar effects have been proposed for assessment centers, yet research on IM in assessments centers is rare and inconclusive. This study uses trait-activation theory (Tett &; Guterman, 2000 Tett, R. P. and Guterman, H. A. 2000. Situation trait relevance, trait expression, and cross-situational consistency: Testing a principle of trait activation. Journal of Research in Personality, 34: 397–423. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) to predict how assertive IM-behaviors emerge and influence performance ratings during assessments centers. Results showed that candidates’ ingratiation behaviors related to observer ratings on the conceptually related AC-dimension cooperation, whereas self-promotion behaviors related to ratings on the dimensions leadership and planning. Furthermore, assertive IM behaviors during the assessment center construct-related validity and correlated significantly with candidates’ performance in non-evaluative situations. Consequently, assertive IM behaviors in personnel selection may pose less of a threat than frequently assumed but may partially reflect a behavioral manifestation of candidates’ underlying interindividual differences.     

Interpersonal violence and its relationship to some personality measures

One hundred and fifteen patients in a psychiatric hospital for criminal offenders volunteered to be tested with the overcontrolled hostility scale, the self focus sentence completion, and an emotional empathy measure. The subjects were divided into five groups on the basis of criminal offenses (murder, assault with a deadly weapon, rape, pedophilia, and nonviolent property offenses). It was also possible to divide the sample on the basis of diagnostic features (psychosis, personality disorder, and brain syndrome). The results failed to support the hypothesis that more violent (by nature of their offense) individuals would-as a group-score higher on the overcontrolled hostility scale than less aggressive counterparts. There was some evidence that psychotics showed more self focus at the expense of external focus. The empathy measure failed to reveal any meaningful differences. It is suggested that more validation data are called for to establish the generality of the overcontrolled hostility scale and that, in view of the therapeutic importance which empathy training may have for violent individuals, further effort should be expanded to find a generally valid empathy measure.     

When preschoolers follow their eyes and older children follow their noses: visuo‐olfactory social affective matching in childhood

Recognition of emotional facial expressions is a crucial skill for adaptive behavior that most often occurs in a multi‐sensory context. Affective matching tasks have been used across development to investigate how people integrate facial information with other senses. Given the relative affective strength of olfaction and its relevance in mediating social information since birth, we assessed olfactory–visual matching abilities in a group of 140 children between the ages of 3 and 11 years old. We presented one of three odor primes (rose, fish and no‐odor, rated as pleasant or unpleasant by individual children) before a facial choice task (happy vs. disgusted face). Children were instructed to select one of two faces. As expected, children of all ages tended to choose happy faces. Children younger than 5 years of age were biased towards choosing the happy face, irrespective of the odor smelled. After age 5, an affective matching strategy guided children's choices. Smelling a pleasant odor predicted the choice of happy faces, whereas smelling the unpleasant or fish odor predicted the choice of disgusted faces. The present study fills a gap in the developmental literature on olfactory‐visual affective strategies that affect decision‐making, and represents an important step towards understanding the underlying developmental processes that shape the typical social mind.     

A tool for investigating the differential functions of aggressive behavior in the face-to-face and cyber context: Extending the Cyber-Aggression Typology Questionnaire

Aggressive behavior in the face-to-face and cyber contexts is driven by underlying aggression (i.e., functions of aggressive behavior). Common theories of aggression distinguish between reactive (e.g., rage) and proactive (e.g., seeking to achieve power and affiliation) aggression. However, according to the quadripartite violence typology, this distinction conflates aspects of motivational valence with self-regulatory processes. The Cyber-Aggression Typology Questionnaire (CATQ; Runions et al., 2017, Aggress Behav, 43(1), pp. 74–84) overcomes this weakness by identifying four types of cyber-aggression (impulsive-aversive/rage, controlled-aversive/revenge, controlled-appetitive/reward, and impulsive-appetitive/recreation cyber-aggression). However, the CATQ only considers aggression in cyberspace. We extended the CATQ to the face-to-face context by developing a corresponding Face-to-Face Aggression Typology Questionnaire (FATQ). The aim of this study was to investigate factorial and convergent validity and metric measurement invariance between four-factorial cyber and face-to-face aggression. In total, 587 students from six Austrian universities filled out the CATQ, the FATQ, and additional scales during regular university lectures to examine convergent validity. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the four-factor structure of both questionnaires, after excluding inconclusive items from the impulsive-aversive/rage subscale of the FATQ. These items were also removed from the CATQ to obtain two symmetric questionnaires. Metric measurement invariance between the CATQ and the FATQ was confirmed. Convergent validity was largely observed. Our results support an extended four-factor model of aggression. Having two parallel questionnaires, the FATQ and CATQ, enables future studies to investigate commonalities and differences in underlying drivers of aggressive behavior in the cyber and face-to-face contexts.     

Predictive Factors of Spiritual Quality of Life during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multivariate Analysis

Journal of Religion and Health - COVID-19 has led to the implementation of various social and sanitary measures, impacting populations’ quality of life. Aims: Documenting the spiritual...     

On the origin of worries about modern health hazards: Experimental evidence for a conjoint influence of media reports and personality traits

Objective: Worries about health threatening effects of potential health hazards of modern life (e.g. electric devices and pollution) represent a growing phenomenon in Western countries. Yet, little is known about the causes of this growing special case of affective risk perceptions termed Modern Health Worries (MHW). The purpose of this study is to examine a possible role of biased media reports in the formation of MHW.

Design: In two experiments, we investigated whether typical television reports affect MHW. In Study 1, 130 participants were randomly assigned to a film on idiopathic environmental intolerance (IEI) or a control film about cystic fibrosis. In Study 2, 82 participants were randomly assigned to either a film on the dangers of electromagnetic fields or a control condition.

Main outcome measures: Increases in MHW after sensational media reports.

Results: In Study 1, only participants high on the personality trait of absorption revealed increased MHW after watching the IEI film. In Study 2, specifically worries about radiation were found to be elevated after watching the film on the dangers of electromagnetic fields compared to the control film.

Conclusion: The results of both studies reveal a significant and specific influence of sensational short mass media reports on MHW. The influence of potential moderators such as absorption remains to be clarified.     

Parents’ Judgments about the Desirability of Toys for Their Children: Associations with Gender Role Attitudes,Gender-typing of Toys,and Demographics

Parental toy selection and responses to toy play are important factors in children’s gender socialization. Reinforcing play with same-gender-typed toys guides children’s activities and limits their action repertoires in accordance with gender stereotypes. A survey of 324 Austrian parents of three- to six-year-old children was conducted to investigate parents’ judgments about the desirability of different types of toys for their children and how these judgements relate to parents’ gender-typing of toys, gender role attitudes, and demographics (age, education, gender). Results show that parents rated same-gender-typed and gender-neutral toys as more desirable for their children than cross-gender-typed toys. The traditionalism of parents’ gender role attitudes was not associated with their desirability judgments of same-gender-typed toys, but was negatively related to their desirability judgments of cross-gender-typed toys. This indicates that egalitarian parents permit a greater range of interests and behaviors in their children than traditional parents do. Younger parents, parents with lower educational levels, and fathers reported more traditional gender role attitudes than did older parents, parents with higher educational levels, and mothers. However, no differences based on age, educational level or gender were found in parents’ judgments of toy desirability. The present study demonstrates that parents’ judgments about the desirability of toys for their children do not accurately reflect their gender role attitudes. This finding highlights the importance of simultaneously investigating different aspects of parents’ gender-related attitudes in order to gain a better understanding of parental transmission of gender stereotypes.     

Integration of faces and voices, but not faces and names, in person recognition

Recent studies on cross-modal recognition suggest that face and voice information are linked for the purpose of person identification. We tested whether congruent associations between familiarized faces and voices facilitated subsequent person recognition relative to incongruent associations. Furthermore, we investigated whether congruent face and name associations would similarly benefit person identification relative to incongruent face and name associations. Participants were familiarized with a set of talking video-images of actors, their names, and their voices. They were then tested on their recognition of either the face, voice, or name of each actor from bimodal stimuli which were either congruent or novel (incongruent) associations between the familiarized face and voice or face and name. We found that response times to familiarity decisions based on congruent face and voice stimuli were facilitated relative to incongruent associations. In contrast, we failed to find a benefit for congruent face and name pairs. Our findings suggest that faces and voices, but not faces and names, are integrated in memory for the purpose of person recognition. These findings have important implications for current models of face perception and support growing evidence for multisensory effects in face perception areas of the brain for the purpose of person recognition.