The factor ‘fulfillment model’ and the concept of multivariate personality type

This paper presents a theory of personality integration as a process of fulfillment within the context of a multifactor-system dynamics theory of individuality theory provides an inventory of the invariant factors in six systems: style, value, cognition, affect, sensory and motor. Individual uniqueness exists in the form of different profiles on some 200 dimensions. Similar profiles constitute a relatively small number of personality types characterized by tendencies toward both perfection and actualization. The theory hypothesizes two major types—assimilators and accommodators. Assimilators tend to process information via the individual's high profile dimensions, whereas accomodators tend to process information via both high and low profile dimensions. In general, assimilators process information more efficiently than accommdators, but they are also less flexible and more encapsulated than accomodators in their ability to adapt to the demands of a broad range of situations. The paper includes an analysis of why the concept of type is necessary for a viable theory of personality and how the multivariate concept of personality overcomes the failures of previous conceptualizations.     

Therapist Interventions Associated with Productive Emotional Processing in the Context of Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Depressed and Suicidal Adolescents

Productive emotional processing is considered a key change mechanism in attachment-based family therapy (ABFT). This study examined the impact of attachment-based family therapy therapist interventions aimed to promote productive emotional processing of primary adaptive emotions in a sample of 30 depressed and suicidal adolescents who had participated in a larger randomized clinical trial. Results of sequential analyses revealed that relational reframes and therapists’ focus on primary adaptive emotions were associated with the subsequent initiation of adolescents’ productive emotional processing of primary adaptive emotions. In contrast, interpretations, reassurances, and therapists’ focus on adolescents’ rejecting anger toward their parents were all followed by the discontinuation of adolescents’ emotional processing that had already begun. Finally, therapists’ general encouragement of affect and focus on adolescents’ unmet attachment/identity needs were associated with both the initiation of adolescents’ productive emotional processing, and with the discontinuation of such processing once it had already begun. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.     

Conditions under which young children can hold two rules in mind and inhibit a prepotent response

The day-night task requires saying "night" to a picture of the sun and "day" to a picture of the moon. In this investigation of why young children fail at this task, systematic variations of the task were administered to 96 children, half 4 years old and half 4 1/2 years old. Training children on the strategy of chunking the 2 rules into I ("say the opposite"), thus reducing memory load, did not help their performance. What helped was reducing the inhibitory demand by instructing them to say "dog" and "pig" (not "night" and "day") even though memory of 2 rules and inhibiting saying what the pictures represented were still required. Here the response to be activated and the response to be inhibited were unrelated. When the correct response was semantically related to, and the direct opposite of, the to-be-inhibited response, children performed poorly. Inserting a delay between stimulus and response helped even though that delay was filled with distraction. Young children apparently need several seconds to compute the answer on this task. Often they do not take the needed time; when forced to do so, they do well.     

Taxometric analysis of the antisocial features scale of the personality assessment inventory in federal prison inmates

The Antisocial Features (ANT) scale of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) was subjected to taxometric analysis in a group of 2,135 federal prison inmates. Scores on the three ANT subscales-Antisocial Behaviors (ANT-A), Egocentricity (ANT-E), and Stimulus Seeking (ANT-S)-served as indicators in this study and were evaluated using the following taxometric procedures: mean above minus below a cut (MAMBAC), maximum eigenvalue (MAXEIG), and latent mode factor analysis (L-Mode). Objective and subjective evaluation of the results revealed consistent support for a dimensional interpretation of latent structure across the di ferent taxometric procedures as well as across gender, race, and security level. As a dimensional construct, antisocial personality disorder arranges respondents along one or more quantitative dimensions (degree of antisociality), rather than assigning them to qualitatively distinct categories (antisocial or not antisocial).     

A Dynamical Systems Approach to the Development and Expression of Female Same-Sex Sexuality

ABSTRACT— Researchers have documented substantial variability in the development and expression of same-sex sexuality, especially among women, posing challenges to traditional linear developmental models. In this article, I argue for a new approach to conceptualizing the development and expression of female same-sex sexuality over the life course, based in dynamical systems theory. Dynamical systems models seek to explain how complex patterns emerge, stabilize, change, and restabilize over time. Although originally developed by mathematicians and physicists to model complex physical phenomena in the natural world, they have increasingly been applied to social-behavioral phenomena, ranging from motor development to cognition to language. I demonstrate the utility of this approach for modeling change over time in female same-sex sexuality, reviewing extant published research and also introducing data collected from an ongoing, 10-year longitudinal study of young nonheterosexual women. I provide evidence that female same-sex sexuality demonstrates the emblematic features of a dynamical system: nonlinear change over time, spontaneous emergence of novel forms, and periodic reorganizations and phase transitions within the overall system. I highlight the specific contribution of a dynamical systems perspective for understanding such phenomena and suggest directions for future study.     

Association rule learning in neuropsychological data analysis for Alzheimer’s disease

Efficient methods of analysis readily available for clinicians continue to be limited within neuropsychological assessment at the raw data level. Here, a novel approach for generating predictive response patterns and analysing neuropsychological raw data is offered. In order to assess the usefulness of association rule learning as an analysis tool for neuropsychological raw data, Frequent Pattern Growth (FP-Growth) was used to mine patterns from the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease Neuropsychological Battery (CERAD-NB) database. Complete assessment data for 84 post-mortem confirmed Alzheimer’s disease (AD) cases and 294 age, race, and education matched controls were analysed across baseline and one-year follow-up using FP-Growth, for the purpose of assessing the clinical utility of a finer analysis at the raw data level and the feasibility of predicting response patterns for clinical/control groups. Output from FP-Growth, in terms of the number of frequent itemsets retained across both evaluation timepoints, was discernable between controls, mild, and moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease cases (p < .001, and η² = .488). Patterns within raw data scores, both in terms of frequent itemsets and predictive association rules, appear to be differentiable across groups within neuropsychological analysis, which indicates that FP-Growth is applicable as a supplementary analysis tool for neuropsychological assessment by means of offering an additional level of data analysis, predictive item response capabilities, and aiding in clinical decision making.     

Social smokers: Smoking motivations,behavior, vulnerability,and responses to antismoking advertising

Antismoking campaigns have traditionally ignored the differences between social and regular smokers. This paper reports the results of three studies: interviews with 17 college students describing themselves as social smokers, a survey verifying the interview results with a larger sample of undergraduates, and an experimental test of advertising appeals based on the survey results. In the interviews, social smokers differentiated themselves from regular smokers and described smoking mostly in situations where drinking and smoking goes hand in hand. They did not feel vulnerable to the long‐term consequences of smoking. The survey confirmed differences between the behaviors, motivations, and perceived vulnerability of social and regular smokers. The experimental study found that both social and regular smokers were persuaded by an advertisement describing the risk of cancer, but social smokers expressed the lowest vulnerability to this risk. A message strategy describing the risk of addiction was particularly effective in capturing the attention of social smokers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coping patterns of in vitro fertilization nurse coordinators: Strategies for combating low outcome effectance

Abstract

Data were gathered concerning coping strategies that nurse coordinators working in the field of in vitro fertilization would use to meet typical work-related stressors. Causality orientation—or tendency to perceive oneself as autonomous, controlled or helpless—was also measured. It was hypothesized that nurses using problem-focused/disengaged strategies, such as thinking about therapeutic successes or trying not to dwell on stressors, and who were high in autonomy, would be most effective in coping with situations where control over outcomes is limited. Statistical analyses revealed a group of nurses following the coping pattern described in the hypothesis. These individuals reported less work-related stress than other nurse coordinators.