A comparison of the PAI and MMPI-2 as predictors of faking bad in college students

Both the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; Butcher et al., 2001) and Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) offer a large set of scales devoted to the identification of response styles. This study directly compared the effectiveness of the 2 inventories as indicators of overreporting. The 2 measures were administered to 52 college students instructed to fake bad under conditions describing either a forensic (n = 24) or psychiatric (n = 28) setting as well as to 432 psychiatric patients. Results indicated that the MMPI-2 F - K index and Fp Scale were the best single indicators of a faking bad response style and that the MMPI-2 scales were the better indicators as a set. However, the PAI scales demonstrated a significant level of incremental validity over the MMPI-2 indicators in every analysis conducted. The findings suggest that either inventory offers an effective approach to the detection of overreporting, and administering both inventories can enhance the accuracy of prediction further.     

Age effects in coding tasks: componential analysis and test of the sensory deficit hypothesis

Multiple forms of a symbol-digit substitution task were used to provide a componential analysis of age differences in coding task performance. The results demonstrated age differences in feature encoding, memory, and visual search. A 2nd experiment was conducted with young adults to investigate a sensory deficit as a locus of age differences. The spatial contrast sensitivity deficit of older adults was simulated on forms by applying a digital filter. Persons in the age-simulated contrast condition performed worse than those in the normal contrast condition. The stimulus degradation effect was linked to visual search speed. The study illustrates the utility of componential analysis and offers direct support for the hypothesis that sensory deficits affect performance on tasks used to assess intelligence.     

Developmental cognitive genetics: how psychology can inform genetics and vice versa

Developmental neuropsychology is concerned with uncovering the underlying basis of developmental disorders such as specific language impairment (SLI), developmental dyslexia, and autistic disorder. Twin and family studies indicate that genetic influences play an important part in the aetiology of all of these disorders, yet progress in identifying genes has been slow. One way forward is to cut loose from conventional clinical criteria for diagnosing disorders and to focus instead on measures of underlying cognitive mechanisms. Psychology can inform genetics by clarifying what the key dimensions are for heritable phenotypes. However, it is not a one-way street. By using genetically informative designs, one can gain insights about causal relationships between different cognitive deficits. For instance, it has been suggested that low-level auditory deficits cause phonological problems in SLI. However, a twin study showed that, although both types of deficit occur in SLI, they have quite different origins, with environmental factors more important for auditory deficit, and genes more important for deficient phonological short-term memory. Another study found that morphosyntactic deficits in SLI are also highly heritable, but have different genetic origins from impairments of phonological short-term memory. A genetic perspective shows that a search for the underlying cause of developmental disorders may be misguided, because they are complex and heterogeneous and are associated with multiple risk factors that only cause serious disability when they occur in combination.     

Sociodemographic factors,religiosity, academic performance,and substance use among first-year university students in South Africa

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships among sociodemographic variables, family background, religiosity, course of study, academic performance, and substance use. The sample included 799 first-year students in the age range of 16 to 49 years (M age 20.1 yr., SD = 3.2) chosen at random from the University of the North in South Africa. A Model Core Questionnaire from the WHO on Substance use was administered. Analysis indicated that women smoked tobacco or cannabis and drank less than men, while women took more stimulants and other opiate type drugs than men. Low scores on religiosity was a predictor for past-month tobacco use alcohol use, binge drinking, cannabis use, and having a drinking or drug problem now. Being a member of a Protestant denominational church or a Roman Catholic was a predictor for past-month tobacco and alcohol use. A family history of drinking or drug problems and being a social science or humanities student were predictive for a current alcohol or drug problem. Economic status, education of parents. living arrangement. and rural-urban differences were not associated with substance use. Findings have implications for prevention programmes.     

MCMI-II profiles of women with eating disorders: a cluster analytic investigation

A three-factor model of personality pathology was investigated in a clinical sample of 183 female patients in an outpatient eating disorders treatment program. Cluster analysis of MCMI-II personality scales (Millon, 1987) yielded three distinct personality profiles, which were consistent with previous studies. First, 16.9% of the sample comprised a High Functioning cluster, which manifested no clinical elevations on the MCMI-II and had significantly lower scores on the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI; Garner; 1991) scales than the other two clusters. Second, 49.1% of the sample comprised an Undercontrolled/Dysregulated cluster. Finally, the remaining 34% of the sample comprised an Overcontrolled/Avoidant cluster. This final cluster had significantly higher EDI Ineffectiveness scale scores than the Undercontrolled/Dysregulated cluster group. Cluster membership was not associated with eating disorder subtype, suggesting that there is considerable variance in personality pathology within eating disorder diagnostic categories.     

Selective attention as a protagonist in contemporary workplace stress: implications for the interruption age

Background and Objectives: The ubiquity of instant messages and email notifications in contemporary work environments has opened a Pandora's Box. This box is filled with countless interruptions coming from laptops, smartphones, and other devices, all of which constantly call for employees’ attention. In this interruption era, workplace stress is a pervasive problem. To examine this problem, the present study hypothesizes that the three-way interaction among the frequency with which interrupting stimuli appear, their salience, and employees’ deficits in inhibiting attentional responses to them impacts mental workload perceptions, ultimately leading to stress. The study, further, probes a related form of self-efficacy as a potential suppressor of interruption-based stress. Design: The study used a 2 (low vs. high frequency) × 2 (low vs. high salience) mixed model design. Methods: The 128 subjects completed a test of their inhibitory deficits and rated their mental workload perceptions and experiences of stress following a computer-based task. Results: Inhibitory deficits and increased interruption salience can alter the perception of mental workload in contemporary work environments for the worse, but interruption self-efficacy can help offset any resulting interruption-based stress. Conclusions: This study extends the literatures on work interruptions as well as on stress and coping in the workplace.     

The Prediction of Family Interaction from a Battery of Projective Techniques

This study first explored the adequacy of items on the Rorschach Rating Scale (RRS), which measures Rorschach constructs from a variety of scoring systems. Analyses determined that all items had an adequate capacity to differentiate people and none were clearly redundant. At the same time, the current version of the RRS requires good reading comprehension skills for accurate completion (13th grade level). Next, we developed two sets of RRS scales. Factor analysis of observer ratings (N = 234) indicated the RRS contained six broad, empirically derived factors. In addition, 19 conceptually derived scales were developed from the RRS item pool. Both sets of scales were evaluated for reliability and then compared to the Big Five model (B5M) of personality through a series of factor and regression analyses. Results indicated that RRS scales do not provide adequate definition of all B5M dimensions and B5M scales do not provide adequate definition of all RRS dimensions. We discuss the place of psychotic processes within a comprehensive model of personality and other implications from these findings.