INTERNATIONAL VALIDITY GENERALIZATION OF GMA AND COGNITIVE ABILITIES: A EUROPEAN COMMUNITY META-ANALYSIS

This article reports on a series of meta-analyses into the criterion validity of general menatl ability (GMA) and specific cognitive ability tests for predicting job performance ratings and training success in the European Community (EC). Meta-analyses were computed on a large EC database examining the operational validity of GMA and other specific cognitive abilities, including verbal, numerical, spatial-mechanical, perceptual and memory ( N ranged from 946 to 16,065) across 10 EC member countries. The results showed that tests of GMA and specific cognitive ability are very good predictors of job performance and training success across the EC. Evidence for the international validity generalization of GMA and specific cognitive abilities was presented. The results for the EC meta-analyses showed a larger operational validity than previous meta-analyses in the U.S. for predicting job performance. For training success, the European and American results are very similar. Implications for the international generalizability of GMA test validities, practical use of cognitive ability tests for personnel selection, and directions for future research are discussed.     

The Cognitive Underpinnings of Continuous Identity: Higher Episodic Memory Recall and Lower Heuristic Usage Predicts Highest Levels of Self-Continuity

Continuous identity (CI) is a sense of persistent identity wherein the present self is seen as overlapping with the past and future selves. This study addressed the hypothesis that judgments of CI require successful retrieval of information by examining the relationship between varying levels of CI and two forms of memory recall. The pattern of findings indicated that high levels of cued memory recall combined with low levels of heuristic usage were associated with higher levels of CI, and this occurred for both past-to-present CI and present-to-future CI. We propose that to achieve high levels of CI, individuals need to access and analyze a fund of stored autobiographical information.     

The Danger of Unrealistic Optimism: Linking Caregivers' Perceived Ability to Help Victims of Terror With Their Own Secondary Traumatic Stress

This study examined how caregivers' biased perceptions of ability to help traumatized patients relates to the caregivers' secondary traumatic stress (STS). There is reason to believe that caregivers overestimate their ability to help and underestimate their vulnerability to develop STS, but it is unclear how such unrealistic optimism relates to STS. The results show that Israeli caregivers working with terror victims believed that their ability to help traumatic patients is superior to their peers' while their likelihood to be negatively affected by such treatment is lower. Beyond the impact of the number of patients treated and caregivers' experience, unrealistic optimism was positively correlated to caregivers' STS. Theoretical and practical implications for those working with traumatized patients are discussed.     

What predicts depression in cardiac patients: sociodemographic factors, disease severity or theoretical vulnerabilities?

Depression is associated with increased cardiovascular risk in acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients, but some argue that elevated depression is actually a marker of cardiovascular disease severity. Therefore, disease indices should better predict depression than established theoretical causes of depression (interpersonal life events, reinforcing events, cognitive distortions, type D personality). However, little theory-based research has been conducted in this area. In a cross-sectional design, ACS patients (n = 336) completed questionnaires assessing depression and psychosocial vulnerabilities. Nested logistic regression assessed the relative contribution of demographic or vulnerability factors, or disease indices or vulnerabilities to depression. In multivariate analysis, all vulnerabilities were independent significant predictors of depression (scoring above threshold on any scale, 48%). Demographic variables accounted for <1% of the variance of depression status, with vulnerabilities accounting for significantly more (pseudo R2 = 0.16, χ2(change) = 150.9, df = 4, p < 0.001). Disease indices accounted for 7% of the variance in depression (pseudo R2 = 0.07, χ2 = 137.9, p < 0.001). However, adding the vulnerabilities increased the overall variance explained to 22% (pseudo R2 = 0.22, χ2 = 58.6, df = 4, p < 0.001). Theoretical vulnerabilities predicted depression status better than did either demographic or disease indices. The presence of these proximal causes of depression suggests that depression in ACS patients is not simply a result of cardiovascular disease severity.     

Sensory empathy and enactment1

The authors propose the concept of sensory empathy which emerges through contact between analyst and patient as they get in touch with an area concerning the primary bond. This area is not so much based on thoughts and fantasies as it is on physical sensations. Sensory empathy has to do with that instrument described by Freud as pertaining to the unconscious of any human, which enables one person to interpret unconscious communications of another person. The authors link this concept to that of enactment precisely because the latter concerns unconscious, early elements that fi nd in the act a fi rst meaningful expression. It involves both analyst and patient. In other words, the authors wish to emphasize the importance of the analytical process maintaining contact with that immense fi eld of human interaction that can be defi ned as primary sensory area and which becomes intertwined with the evolution of affects. Clinical examples are provided to clarify these hypotheses.     

Happy Like a Fish in Water? The Role of Personality–Situation Fit for Momentary Happiness in Social Interactions across the Adult Lifespan

Growing research on personality–relationship dynamics demonstrates that people's personality and their (enjoyment of) social relationships are closely intertwined. Using experience sampling data from 136 adults (aged 18–89 years) who reported on more than 50 000 social interactions, we zoom into everyday real‐world social interactions to examine how Big Five personality traits and social context characteristics shape people's happiness in social encounters across the adult lifespan. Results revealed that interactions that were social (vs. task‐oriented) and with close (vs. less close) others were associated with higher momentary happiness as were higher levels of the target person's extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness, and lower neuroticism. Of the 10 personality × situation interactions tested, only one reached significance (with p = .041): Individuals with higher levels of neuroticism benefitted more from interactions with friends than did individuals low in neuroticism. The role of social context characteristics for momentary happiness changed with age, but the role of personality or personality × social context did not, suggesting that personality effects on happiness in social context manifest in similar ways across the adult lifespan. We discuss implications for personality–situation research and the understanding of affective dynamics in everyday social interactions. © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Off Belay! The Morality of Free-soloing*

In this paper, we use qualitative and quantitative research, along with reference to current philosophical literature to consider the question of whether the sport of free-soloing is inherently immoral given the unavoidable extreme risk taken by the climber and imposed upon others not directly participating in the sport. The first thing we look at is what kind of values climbers see in free-soloing and show, through interviews we conducted with soloers and through a review of the literature on the philosophy of extreme sports, that climbers derive what might be called ‘higher pleasures’ from free-soloing. We then argue that despite its inherent riskiness, free-soloers ought to be allowed the autonomy and freedom to choose to engage in the sport, provided they are doing so in a conscientious manner. To show that they are, we again appeal to interviews we conducted to demonstrate that soloers decide to attempt a free-solo in a thoughtful manner, as prescribed by philosophers who work on the morality of decision-making under uncertainty. We finally use data that we collected through quantitative research to show that free-soloing does not make those athletes who participate in the sport into risk-taking personalities. Thus, we conclude that the sport of free-soloing is not inherently immoral.