Level of agency in sub-clinical checking

This study examined cognitive representations of routine action, through the assessment of level of agency, in individuals with sub-clinical checking. The level of agency stems from Action Identification Theory [Vallacher, R. R., Wegner, D. M. (1989). Levels of personal agency: Individual variation in action identification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57, 660-671], which states that how actions are usually identified (based on instrumental aspects or purpose) reflects the predominant accessibility of internal representation (movements executed vs. goal pursued). Furthermore, this framework proposed that altered action regulation is related to low-level of agency (i.e., action identification at an instrumental level). In the current study, the main result indicated that checking symptoms were related to a low-level of agency, that is, individuals with sub-clinical checking identified habitual actions on the basis of instrumental aspects. This seems to indicate that checkers may act with a lack of goal representations. The results are discussed in terms of the role of low-level of agency in checking phenomena and related cognitive dysfunction.     

The divine dreams of a sample of South African children: the gateway to their spirituality

As part of a research project on religion, spirituality and education, the authors attended to the role that children's divine dreams could play in religious education (RE). They contend that such dreams can indeed be used by RE teachers as the gateway to understanding the spirituality of their learners. They defend their claim by firstly developing a conceptual‐theoretical framework with respect to religion, spirituality and children's divine dreams, and then presenting the results of an explorative quantitative‐qualitative investigation in three schools. They find their claim to have been vindicated, and suggest that although RE teachers should not necessarily teach divine dreams per se, they should, nevertheless, explore the possibility that (at least some of) the contents of children's divine dreams may be useful for the purpose of teaching them RE from religion itself, rather than teaching them only about religion.     

The limits of top-down control of visual attention

The extent to which spatial selection is driven by the goals of the observer and by the properties of the environment is one of the major issues in the field of visual attention. Here we review recent experimental evidence from behavioral and eye movement studies suggesting that top-down control has temporal and spatial limits. More specifically, we argue that the first feedforward sweep of information is bottom-up, and that top-down control can influence selection only after the sweep is completed. In addition, top-down control can limit spatial selection through adjusting the size of attentional window, an area of visual space which receives priority in information sampling. Finally, we discuss the evidence found using brain imaging techniques for top-down control in an attempt to reconcile it with behavioral findings. We conclude by discussing theoretical implications of these results for the current models of visual selection.     

Proactive People Are Morning People1

Proactivity is the willingness and ability to take action to change a situation to one's advantage and has been studied in a wide range of contexts. The role of chronotype on proactivity has not been assessed. Individual differences in circadian rhythms have been widely acknowledged and are accepted as an interesting facet of human personality. Morning people were more proactive than evening types, and people with small differences in rise time between weekdays and free days were also more proactive persons. Sleep length (on weekdays and on free days) and total time spent in weekend oversleep did not show any relationship with proactivity. These results suggest that morning people are more proactive than are evening types.     

How to like yourself better, or chocolate less: Changing implicit attitudes with one IAT task

The current paper introduces a novel feature of implicit association tests (IATs) by demonstrating their potential to change implicit attitudes. We assume that such changes are driven by associative learning mechanisms caused by carrying out an IAT task. Currently, evaluative conditioning appears to be the only widespread paradigm for changing implicit attitudes. An IAT task could provide an alternative. In two experiments, participants initially reacted to only one IAT task. Implicit preferences subsequently assessed with different implicit measures depended on the initial IAT task. This was shown for implicit self-esteem and for implicit attitudes towards well-known candy brands. Findings are discussed in relation to task-order effects in IATs.     

Delay and Inhibition as Early Predictors of ADHD Symptoms in Third Grade

We used data from a large, longitudinal study of children in the community, the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, to examine how well earlier measures of delay capacity, inhibitory control, planning, and attention predicted symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessed in third grade. Children with elevated symptoms of both inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity (n = 57) and with inattentive symptoms only (n = 80) were identified via mother and teacher reports using the “or” rule, as were children without significant symptoms (n = 790). Multinomial logistic regression analyses indicated that poorer performance on earlier measures of resistance to temptation, delay of gratification, response inhibition, attention, and planning obtained from 36 months to 1st grade predicted membership in the two symptom groups relative to the comparison group in 3rd grade, albeit with somewhat different patterns of predictors. Controls for 36 month school readiness and externalizing symptoms indicated that these results were generally robust and not an artifact of initial cognitive or behavioral differences. Implications for developmental models of ADHD are discussed.

Childhood intelligence,locus of control and behaviour disturbance as determinants of intergenerational social mobility: British Cohort Study 1970

Determinants of intergenerational social mobility were examined in 8287 men from the British Cohort Study 1970. Confirming previous research, parental social class, childhood intelligence, and educational qualifications were the strongest predictors of occupational social class at the age of 30. Locus of control and childhood behaviour disturbance had independent significant effects and accounted for additional amounts of variance. Self-esteem had only a trivial influence on social mobility. Structural equation modelling using full information maximum likelihood estimation demonstrated that: educational qualifications mediated other predictors' effects, accounting for the greatest amount of variance in people's own social status attainment; there was a substantial overlap of childhood behavioural disturbance, intelligence, and locus of control; there were effects of parental social class on own occupational social class attainment. Intergenerational social mobility is determined by a nexus of inter-correlated variables whose independent effects remain difficult to disentangle.     

Personality types and self-reported aggressiveness

Applying a person-centered approach, three personality types based on the NEO-FFI scales were identified in a sample of N = 141 participants by means of clustering methods. They were described as a resilient (low N, high E), a non-desirable (high N, low E, A, and C), and a reserved overcontrolled prototype (low E and O, high A and C). The prototypes were related to the level of aggressiveness, assessed by the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ). Results indicate that the three clusters differ mainly in their levels of hostility, verbal aggressiveness, and with respect to anger. With respect to total aggressiveness, the non-desirable prototype displayed the highest and the reserved prototype the lowest AQ scores. The results are discussed in relation to studies based on a variable-centered approach. Possible implications for treatment and research are addressed.     

What Carries a Mediation Process? Configural Analysis of Mediation

Mediation is a process that links a predictor and a criterion via a mediator variable. Mediation can be full or partial. This well-established definition operates at the level of variables even if they are categorical. In this article, two new approaches to the analysis of mediation are proposed. Both of these approaches focus on the analysis of categorical variables. The first involves mediation analysis at the level of configurations instead of variables. Thus, mediation can be incorporated into the arsenal of methods of analysis for person-oriented research. Second, it is proposed that Configural Frequency Analysis (CFA) can be used for both exploration and confirmation of mediation relationships among categorical variables. The implications of using CFA are first that mediation hypotheses can be tested at the level of individual configurations instead of variables. Second, this approach leaves the door open for different types of mediation processes to exist within the same set. Using a data example, it is illustrated that aggregate-level analysis can overlook mediation processes that operate at the level of individual configurations.