Scoring the DSM-IV personality disorders using the Five-Factor Model: development and validation of normative scores for North American, French, and Dutch-Flemish samples

Five-Factor Model (FFM) personality disorder (PD) counts have demonstrated significant convergent and discriminant validity with DSM-IV PD symptoms. However, these FFM PD counts are of limited clinical use without normative data because it is difficult to determine what a specific score means with regard to the relative level of elevation. The current study presents data from three large normative samples that can be used as norms for the FFM PD counts in the respective countries: United States (N = 1,000), France (N = 801), and Belgium-Netherlands (N = 549). The present study also examines the performance, with regard to diagnostic efficiency, of statistically-defined cut-offs at 1.5 standard deviations above the mean (T > or = 65) versus previously identified cut-offs using receiver-operator characteristics (ROC) analyses. These cut-offs are tested in three clinical samples-one from each of the aforementioned countries. In general, the T > or = 65 cut-offs performed similarly to those identified using ROC analyses and manifested properties relevant to a screening instrument. These normative data allow FFM data to be used in a flexible and comprehensive manner, which may include scoring this type of personality data in order to screen for DSM-IV PD constructs.     

Retrospective Analysis of Gender Differences in Reaction to Media Coverage of Crisis Events: New Insights on the Justice and Care Orientations

We surveyed 2,125 men and 3,735 women (N = 5,860) across the USA to test hypothesized relationships regarding women’s and men’s use of justice and care orientations when they confront crisis events with moral implications. Consistent with previous research, we found that women were more likely than men to adopt a care orientation. Contrary to expectations, however, women also adopted a justice response to a greater degree than did men. We found that, in response to a crisis, women, unlike men, were more likely to believe they would connect with others and take action. Implications for explaining inconsistencies in prior research findings on the justice and care orientations, and for conceptualizing these important constructs in a new way, are discussed.     

Distinct neural mechanisms mediate olfactory memory formation at different timescales

Habituation is one of the oldest forms of learning, broadly expressed across sensory systems and taxa. Here, we demonstrate that olfactory habituation induced at different timescales (comprising different odor exposure and intertrial interval durations) is mediated by different neural mechanisms. First, the persistence of habituation memory is greater when mice are habituated on longer timescales. Second, the specificity of the memory (degree of cross-habituation to similar stimuli) also depends on induction timescale. Third, we demonstrate a pharmacological double dissociation between the glutamatergic mechanisms underlying short- and long-timescale odor habituation. LY341495, a class II/III metabotropic glutamate receptor antagonist, blocked habituation only when the induction timescale was short. Conversely, MK-801, an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, prevented habituation only when the timescale was long. Finally, whereas short-timescale odor habituation is mediated within the anterior piriform cortex, infusion of MK-801 into the olfactory bulbs prevented odor habituation only at longer timescales. Thus, we demonstrate two neural mechanisms underlying simple olfactory learning, distinguished by their persistence and specificity, mediated by different olfactory structures and pharmacological effectors, and differentially utilized based solely on the timescale of odor presentation.     

Psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) in general population

This is the first study that provides normative, reliability, factor validity and discriminant validity data of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988) in the Spanish general population, Sanz and Navarro's (2003) Spanish version of the BAI was administered to 249 adults. Factor analyses suggested that the BAI taps a general anxiety dimension comprising two related factors (somatic and affective-cognitive symptoms), but these factors hardly explained any additional variance and, therefore, little information is lost in considering only full-scale scores. Internal consistency estimate for the BAI was high (alpha = .93). The BAI was correlated .63 with the BDI-II and .32 with the Trait-Anger scale of the STAXI 2, but a factor analysis of their items revealed three factors, suggesting that the correlations between the instruments may be better accounted for by relationships between anxiety, depression, and anger, than by problems of discriminant validity. The mean BAI total score and the distribution of BAI scores were similar to those found in other countries. BAI norm scores for the community sample were provided from the total sample and from the male and female subsamples, as females scored higher than males. The utility of these scores for assessing clinical significance of treatment outcomes for anxiety is discussed.     

Alzheimer's disease and the loss of self

This article focuses on the fact that persons (including the author) who are entering the later stages of life are confronted with the real possibility that they may become afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. It proposes an alternative to speculating about one's own chances of becoming afflicted, which is to enter imaginatively into the world of the Alzheimer's patient, and uses contemporary poems to assist in this regard. It notes that the author's attempt to "join the patient" led to the realization that Alzheimer's disease does not, as is commonly believed, completely obliterate the self. Recognizing the inevitable limits of one's ability to imagine what it is like to suffer from Alzheimer's disease, it advocates the embracing of forgetfulness as an integral part of the self.     

Methodological considerations in the study of delay discounting in intertemporal choice: A comparison of tasks and modes

An experimental comparison of two commonly used delay-discounting procedures (binary choice and fill in the blank) and modes of administration (paper and pencil and computer based) was conducted. Statistically significant main effects were found for task type—steeper discounting was observed in the binary-choice task— but not for mode of administration. As simple evidence of validity, hyperbolic curves consistently provided a better fit to the data than did exponential curves for both tasks. Further, magnitude effects were also observed across conditions. Correlational results varied largely as a function of the discounting index (either k or area under the curve) under consideration. Across the two tasks, discounting indices showed modest levels of reliability [r(AUC)=.33; r(k)=.75]. The findings pointed to refinements for both the methodology and criteria that are used to study delay discounting and raised questions about the commonly assumed relationship between discounting and the construct of impulsivity.     

Evangelicalism

Abstract : The evangelical ethos gives priority to grace over works and is shaped by its irrepressible missionary impulse; faith is existential rather than merely conceptual. The early roots of evangelicalism through the modern period are discussed, and put in context with other movements that grew out of the Reformation. The goal of Christian evangelizing is the creation of a person whose life bears witness to the authenticity of faith.     

Olfactory Comfort and Attachment Within Relationships

We replicated a previous study that found that men and women often smell their sexual partners' clothing when they are apart ( McBurney, Shoup, & Streeter, 2006 ). We found that women tend to perform this behavior across a broader range of relationships than do men. We asked 128 participants if they had ever intentionally smelled another person's clothing, slept with another person's clothing because of its smell, or given another person an article of their own clothing. The most common response was a romantic partner's clothing. However, women more often than men reported smelling the clothing of family members.     

Motor programming when sequencing multiple elements of the same duration

Motor programming at the self-select paradigm was adopted in 2 experiments to examine the processing demands of independent processes. One process (INT) is responsible for organizing the internal features of the individual elements in a movement (e.g., response duration). The 2nd process (SEQ) is responsible for placing the elements into the proper serial order before execution. Participants in Experiment 1 performed tasks involving 1 key press or sequences of 4 key presses of the same duration. Implementing INT and SEQ was more time consuming for key-pressing sequences than for single key-press tasks. Experiment 2 examined whether the INT costs resulting from the increase in sequence length observed in Experiment 1 resulted from independent planning of each sequence element or via a separate "multiplier" process that handled repetitions of elements of the same duration. Findings from Experiment 2, in which participants performed single key presses or double or triple key sequences of the same duration, suggested that INT is involved with the independent organization of each element contained in the sequence. Researchers offer an elaboration of the 2-process account of motor programming to incorporate the present findings and the findings from other recent sequence-learning research.