Personal values and political activism: A cross‐national study

Using data from 28 countries in four continents, the present research addresses the question of how basic values may account for political activism. Study (N = 35,116) analyses data from representative samples in 20 countries that responded to the 21‐item version of the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ‐21) in the European Social Survey. Study (N = 7,773) analyses data from adult samples in six of the same countries (Finland, Germany, Greece, Israel, Poland, and United Kingdom) and eight other countries (Australia, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Slovakia, Turkey, Ukraine, and United States) that completed the full 40‐item PVQ. Across both studies, political activism relates positively to self‐transcendence and openness to change values, especially to universalism and autonomy of thought, a subtype of self‐direction. Political activism relates negatively to conservation values, especially to conformity and personal security. National differences in the strength of the associations between individual values and political activism are linked to level of democratization.     

Age Neutrality of Categorically and Dimensionally Measured DSM–5 Section II Personality Disorder Symptoms

Studies on the face validity of DSM–5 Section II categorical personality disorder (PD) symptoms indicate a bias against older adults. To extend these results, this article explores whether categorically and dimensionally scored PD symptoms of DSM–5 Section II, as measured in the Assessment of DSM–IV Personality Disorders (ADP–IV; Schotte & de Doncker, 1994), corroborate potential age bias across younger (aged 18–34), middle-aged (35–59 years), and older adults (aged 60–75). Differential item functioning (DIF) analyses, following a classical test theory approach, showed that 2 of the 79 symptoms were measured differently across 3 age groups when categorically assessed, and 4 when dimensionally measured. Nevertheless, subsequent differential test functioning analyses supported a low aggregated impact of DIF on the dimensional scales, justifying mean-level comparisons across age groups. Generalizability of the results is discussed in light of methodological issues concerning the research of age neutrality of PD symptoms, including the employed measurement instrument, PD symptom measurement approach, and sample and age range used to describe older adults.     

Being modest makes you feel bad: Effects of the modesty norm and mortality salience on self‐esteem in a collectivistic culture

Terror management research shows that existential terror motivates people to live up to social norms. According to terror management theory (TMT), people can achieve a sense of self‐worth through compliance with social norms. However, this has not yet been empirically tested. Modesty has long been known as an important social norm in Eastern cultures, such as China, Japan, and Korea. The current research examined whether conforming to the modesty norm in response to reminders of death concerns increases self‐esteem for Chinese. In Study 1, following the modesty norm (i.e., explicit self‐effacement) led to decreased implicit self‐esteem, however, this was only the case if mortality was salient. In Study 2, violating the modesty norm (i.e., explicit self‐enhancement) increased implicit self‐esteem – however – again, this was only the case when mortality was salient. These findings indicate that self‐esteem cannot be maintained through compliance with the modesty norm. Implications of this research for understanding the interplay between self‐esteem and social norms in terror management processes are discussed.     

Swedish Muslims and Secular Society: Faith-Based Engagement and Place

This article sets out to explore how Muslims in Sweden identify with and create social life in the place where they live, that is, in their neighbourhood, in their town/city and in Swedish society at large. In a paradoxical religious landscape that includes a strong Lutheran state church heritage and a Christian free-church tradition, in what is, nevertheless, a very secular society, Muslims may choose different strategies to express their faith, here roughly described as “retreatist,” “engaged” or “essentialist/antagonistic.” Focusing on a non-antagonistic, engaged stance, and drawing upon a combination of authors' interviews, and materials published in newspapers and on the Internet, we first bring to the fore arguments by Muslim leaders in favour of creating a Muslim identity with a Swedish brand, and second give some examples of local Muslim individuals, acting as everyday makers in their neighbourhood, town or city. Third, we also give attention to an aggressively negative Islamophobic stance expressed both in words and in physical violence in parts of Swedish society. In conclusion, we reflect upon the challenges and potentialities of an emotionally engaged, dialogue-orientated Muslim position facing antagonistic interpretations of Islam, and an ignorant, sometimes Islamophobic, environment.     

Religio‐Spiritual Participation in Two American Indian Populations

Following a previous investigation of religio‐spiritual beliefs in American Indians, this article examined prevalence and correlates of religio‐spiritual participation in two tribes in the Southwest and Northern Plains (N = 3,084). Analysis suggested a “religious profile” characterized by strong participation across three traditions: aboriginal, Christian, and Native American Church. However, sociodemographic variables that have reliably predicted participation in the general American population, notably gender and age, frequently failed to achieve significance in multivariate analyses for each tradition. Religio‐spiritual participation was strongly and significantly related to belief salience for all traditions. Findings suggest that correlates of religious participation may be unique among American Indians, consistent with their distinctive religious profile. Results promise to inform researchers’ efforts to understand and theorize about religio‐spiritual behavior. They also provide tribal communities with practical information that might assist them in harnessing social networks to confront collective challenges through community‐based participatory research collaborations.     

Man Up: Young Men's Lived Experiences and Reflections on Counseling

The author interviewed 6 young men about their perceptions of masculinity and their experiences with counseling. Through a phenomenological approach, 3 themes emerged: characteristics of men, perceptions of social expectations, and experiences with counseling. All participants characterized men as emotionally reserved, protective and supportive, powerful, sexually motivated, honorable, and goal oriented. Findings are discussed in terms of theoretical and counseling implications.     

Factorial Validity of the Personality Adjective Checklist in a Dutch-Speaking Sample

We examined the factorial structure of the Dutch version of the Personality Adjective Checklist (PACL–D) in a Belgian sample of 3,012 community-dwelling adults. Exploratory factor analyses revealed a 5-factor structure (Neurotic, Aggressive/Dominant, Introverted vs. Extraverted, Conscientious, and Cooperative), that showed considerable overlap with 3 of the Big Five factors (i.e., Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness). Moreover, the 5-factor structure closely resembled the structure found in the original American PACL and was equivalent across gender and age.     

The effect of display timing on change blindness in pigeons (Columba livia)

Change blindness is a phenomenon in which even obvious changes in a visual scene may go unnoticed. Recent research has indicated that this phenomenon may not be exclusive to humans. Two experiments investigated change blindness in pigeons, using a variant of the widely‐used flicker task to investigate the influence of display timing on change blindness. Results indicate that the duration of time during which a stimulus display is visible influences change detection accuracy, with the effect due to additional search time. The results are discussed in relation to the value of comparative cognition and cross‐species investigations of behavior.     

Using Raw VAR Regression Coefficients to Build Networks can be Misleading

Many questions in the behavioral sciences focus on the causal interplay of a number of variables across time. To reveal the dynamic relations between the variables, their (auto- or cross-) regressive effects across time may be inspected by fitting a lag-one vector autoregressive, or VAR(1), model and visualizing the resulting regression coefficients as the edges of a weighted directed network. Usually, the raw VAR(1) regression coefficients are drawn, but we argue that this may yield misleading network figures and characteristics because of two problems. First, the raw regression coefficients are sensitive to scale and variance differences among the variables and therefore may lack comparability, which is needed if one wants to calculate, for example, centrality measures. Second, they only represent the unique direct effects of the variables, which may give a distorted picture when variables correlate strongly. To deal with these problems, we propose to use other VAR(1)-based measures as edges. Specifically, to solve the comparability issue, the standardized VAR(1) regression coefficients can be displayed. Furthermore, relative importance metrics can be computed to include direct as well as shared and indirect effects into the network.