The Relationship Between the Five-Factor Model of Personality and Symptoms of Clinical Disorders: A Meta-Analysis

This paper describes a meta-analysis of 33 studies that examined the relationship between the Five-Factor Model and symptoms of clinical disorders. The typical pattern found associated with clinical disorders or measures of clinical disorders was high Neuroticism, low Conscientiousness, low Agreeableness, and low Extraversion. Comparisons of diagnostic groups and norm groups showed higher levels of Neuroticism and lower levels of Extraversion than did studies of correlations between measures of the level of a disorder and measures of the five factors. Studies of observer ratings of the five factors showed lower levels of Neuroticism and Openness than did studies of self-report ratings. These and other findings relating to type of scale and type of comparison group have possible clinical implications and raise several questions worthy of further research.     

The effects of access to a playroom on the rate and quality of printing and writing of first and second-grade students

The major dependent variable was the rate at which first and second-grade students printed or wrote daily copying assignments. Data were also taken on the percentage of letters scored as errors according to a set of scoring criteria. Initially, these data were collected during a baseline condition in which each child returned to his seat as soon as his completed work had been scored, to wait for the rest of the class to finish their assignments. When the children were allowed to go to a playroom after their papers had been scored, there was a reliable increase in the mean printing or writing rates. Subsequent introductions of the baseline and playroom conditions replicated the relative effectiveness of access to the playroom to produce higher work rates. Finally, the total amount of time allowed for children to complete their assignments and then play was progressively reduced from 50 to 35 minutes. A progressive increase in work rates was correlated with these changes. Throughout the experiment, there was considerable variability in the mean number of letters scored as errors but there was a clear trend towards fewer errors.     

The effects of teacher attention on following instructions in a kindergarten class

A kindergarten class, composed of five girls ages 4.8 to 6 yr, participated in the study. In each of 20 daily sessions a sequence of 10 simple instructions was given to the class, In baseline sessions, the teacher did not interact with the students, other than to give instructions. During these sessions, the children followed the teacher's instructions 60% of the time. When the teacher began attending to each child if she followed an instruction, the mean percentage of instructions followed increased to 78%. Subsequently, the teacher again employed the baseline procedures and the percentage of instructions followed decreased to 68.7%. When the teacher again provided attention dependent on the children's following the instructions, the percentage of instructions followed increased to 83.7%. The results are consistent with research that has treated instructions as discriminative stimuli. The general findings are that consequences of instructed behavior determine the extent to which the instructions are followed.     

Important Goals,Meanings, and Relationships in Flourishing and Languishing States: Towards Patterns of Well-being

Qualitative studies of lay people’s perspectives on facets of well-being are scarce, and it is not known how the perspectives of people with high and low levels of well-being dovetail or differ. This research explored the experiences of people with high/flourishing versus low/languishing levels of positive mental health in three cross-sectional survey design studies. Languishing and flourishing participants were selected in each study based on quantitative data from the Mental Health Continuum - Short Form as reported by Keyes et al. (Journal of Health and Social Behavior 43:207–222, 2002). Qualitative content analyses were conducted on written responses to semistructured open-ended questions on the what and why of important meaningful things (study 1, n = 42), goals (study 2, n = 30), and relationships (study 3, n = 50). Results indicated that well-being is not only a matter of degree—manifestations differ qualitatively in flourishing and languishing states. Similar categories emerged for what flourishing and languishing people found important with regard to meaning, goals, and relationships, but the reasons for the importance thereof differed prominently. Languishing people manifested a self-focus and often motivated responses in terms of own needs and hedonic values such as own happiness, whereas flourishers were more other-focused and motivated responses in terms of eudaimonic values focusing on a greater good. We propose that positive mental health can be conceptualized in terms of dynamic quantitative and qualitative patterns of well-being. Interventions to promote well-being may need to take into account the patterns of well-being reflecting what people on various levels of well-being experience and value.

     

Can psychological interventions increase optimism? A meta-analysis

Greater optimism is related to better mental and physical health. A number of studies have investigated interventions intended to increase optimism. The aim of this meta-analysis was to consolidate effect sizes found in randomized controlled intervention studies of optimism training and to identify factors that may influence the effect of interventions. Twenty-nine studies, with a total of 3319 participants, met criteria for inclusion in the analysis. A significant meta-analytic effect size, g = .41, indicated that, across studies, interventions increased optimism. Moderator analyses showed that studies had significantly higher effect sizes if they used the Best Possible Self intervention, provided the intervention in person, used an active control, used separate positive and negative expectancy measures rather than a version of the LOT-R, had a final assessment within one day of the end of the intervention, and used completer analyses rather than intention-to-treat analyses. The results indicate that psychological interventions can increase optimism and that various factors may influence effect size.     

Developmental Differences in the Influence of Distractors on Maintenance in Spatial Working Memory

This study examined whether attention to a location plays a role in the maintenance of locations in spatial working memory in young children as it does in adults. This study was the first to investigate whether distractors presented during the delay of a spatial working-memory task influenced young children’s memory responses. Across 2 experiments, 3- and 6-year-olds completed a spatial working-memory task featuring a static target location and distractor location. Results indicated a change from 3 years to 6 years of age in how distractors influenced memory. Six-year-olds’ memory responses were biased away from a distractor that was close to the target location and on the outside of the target location relative to the center of the monitor. Distractors that were far from the target or that were toward the center of the monitor relative to the target location had no effect. Three-year-olds’ responses were biased toward a distractor when the distractor was on the outside of the target location and farther from the target. Distractors that were near the target location or toward the center of the monitor had no effect. These biases provide evidence that young children’s maintenance of a location in memory is influenced by attention.     

The Heritability of Human Behavior: Results of Aggregating Meta-Analyses

The heritability of human behavior can be estimated through studies comparing MZ and DZ twins and through adoption studies. Meta-analyses have estimated the heritability of intelligence, mental chronometric performance, language ability, anxiety disorders, major depression, antisocial behavior, problem drinking, and smoking. This article presents the aggregation and analysis of these meta-analyses, which included a total of over four hundred samples. The results of the aggregation suggest that about 41% of human behavior is genetically influenced, a percentage that may have evolutionary value. Some significant moderators were found in more than one meta-analysis, including greater heritability (a) in more disordered levels of a behavior for performance on a language-ability test, antisocial behavior, and smoking and (b) in females for antisocial behavior and smoking initiation. The moderator findings raise questions about what might explain the identified differences in level of heritability.     

Antecedent-Focused Emotion Regulation,Response Modulation and Well-Being

The aim of the research was to examine the full range of emotion regulation strategies proposed by the Gross and John (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85:348–362, 2003; John, O. P., & Gross, J. J. (2007). Individual differences in emotion regulation. In J. J. Gross (Ed.), Handbook of emotion regulation (pp. 351–372). New York: Guilford) process model of emotional regulation. Seventy-three participants from Australia provided information on their use of emotion regulation strategies, well-being, and emotional intelligence. As predicted by the process model of emotional regulation, antecedent focused regulation strategies were associated with greater well-being. Response-modulation strategies predicted no additional variance in well-being beyond antecedent-regulation strategies. In contrast to past research on the selected response modulation strategy of suppression, in the present research response modulation was not associated with negative well-being outcomes. Individuals higher in emotional intelligence showed more antecedent-focused regulation, a finding congruent with model-based predictions.     

Problematic Factorial Validity of Three Language Versions of the Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BPNS): Why and What are the Implications?

Self-determination theory is a macrotheory of human motivation that describes fundamental matters such as personality development, goals and aspirations, and self-regulation. Basic psychological needs theory, a subtheory of self-determination theory, postulates that the needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness are universal and the satisfaction thereof essential for human functioning. Despite the theory’s strong universality claim, almost no studies tested the assumption on the African continent. The present study addressed this by exploring the factorial validity of English, Afrikaans, and Setswana versions of the Basic Psychological Needs Scale (N = 1056). After incorporating a negative-worded method effect and removing several problematic items, the fit of the intended three-factor model was good for the Afrikaans version, marginal for the English version, and poor for the Setswana version. The resulting factors’ reliabilities were low. Configural, metric, and partial scalar invariance were established between the English and Afrikaans versions. Although these findings primarily highlighted problems with the particular scale, there is also the possibility that it could have implications for the validity of the universality assumption of basic psychological needs theory and/or assumptions about denotations or manifestations of the main constructs in various cultural contexts. The study indicated the conceptual and linguistic complexities involved in assessment across diverse and multicultural contexts.