Counseling Status and Academic Achievement of College Freshmen

Baccalaureate- (four-year) and associate- (two-year) degree students counseled prior to registration and after registration, and those not counseled were compared on the basis of ability and first-term grade point average. The time of counseling was not significantly related to the achievement of baccalaureate students with high ability or those with low ability. However, significant differences were found between high and low ability associate students in favor of high ability associate students who were counseled during the summer over those who were counseled during the fall, or who were not counseled. Both baccalaureate- and associate-degree students with low ability more frequently earned lower grades and were more concerned about academic probation than students with high ability.     

Attributional Consequences of Chemical Exposure and Performance Feedback1

Much has been learned about the behavioral and physiological effects of various chemicals and drugs on human performance. The present study concerns the attributional consequences of such exposure. Pairs of subjects inhaled measured quantities of methyl chloride, an industrial solvent, and ingested caffeine. Each performed a variety of tasks involving eye-hand coordination and mental alertness. Participants generally tended to underestimate their actual performance on the tasks. Later, false feedback was given to each subject indicating either a superior or inferior performance on some of the tasks. Attributions of participants to ability, effort, and the effects of the agents were influenced both by type of exposure and type of feedback provided. Subjects considered both their own performance and data about the performance of previous participants when estimating their partner's performance. The implications of such findings for industrial relations are discussed.     

Relationships between the Dark Triad and humor styles: A replication and extension

Two hundred undergraduate students completed paper-and-pencil measures of the Dark Triad (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) and the Humor Styles Questionnaire, which taps two adaptive (affiliative and self-enhancing) and two maladaptive (aggressive and self-defeating) styles of humor. The first purpose of the study was to replicate relationships between these variables reported by Veselka et al. (2010). The second purpose was to expand on their results by investigating relationships between several sub-factors of the Dark Triad (in addition to global scores) and the humor styles. Results provided substantial replication of Veselka et al. at the global level and, at the sub-factor level, provided additional insights into the potential role of adaptive and maladaptive humor styles in the personality dynamics of individuals characterized by the various facets of the Dark Triad.     

The Belief in a Just World: An Examination of Reliability Estimates Across Three Measures

This paper presents a model for viewing assessment from nine vantage points simultaneously. Each of these dimensions or 'parameters' is divided into sublevels. The power and usefulness of the resultant model stems from the variety of possible unique interactions among these dimensions and their sublevels. The model has the following useful properties: (a) it provides a multidimensional definition of several aspects of psychological assessment, (b) it serves as a checklist and guide for the criticism of existing psychological tests and measures, (c) it has potential heuristic value in the generation of new measures and tests, (d) it is flexible, in that new parameters may be added and sublevels changed to suit specific needs, and (e) it is presented visually as a spatial model, thus allowing the Viewer a more "concrete" appreciation of what are really theoretical interactions.     

A Comparison of the Construct Validity of Two Alternative Approaches to the Assessment of Psychopathy in the Community

This study compared the validity of 2 different self-report approaches to the assessment of psychopathy in nonforensic samples: the Psychopathy Resemblance Index (PRI), derived from a measure of normal personality functioning, and the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP), developed specifically to assess the maladaptive traits associated with psychopathy. In 2 adult samples (n ₁ = 260, n₂ = 250), the PRI and the SRP were positively correlated with each other and with measures of maladaptive personality traits related to Machiavellianism and narcissism. However, unlike the SRP, the PRI was independent of trait empathy and general psychopathology and was positively associated with trait emotional intelligence. These results suggest that the PRI captures a more adaptive variant of psychopathy than does the SRP.     

Proactive coping,gratitude, and posttraumatic stress disorder in college women

Abstract

This study investigated relationships among proactive coping, positive emotions, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity for 182 undergraduate women with trauma histories. Participants were administered the Life Events Checklist (LEC), PTSD Checklist, Proactive Coping Inventory, Proactive Attitude Scale, General Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale, and measures of posttrauma gratitude and emotional growth. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with proactive coping, proactive attitude, and self-efficacy items indicated a one-factor solution. The proactive coping style factor and posttrauma gratitude were independently negatively associated with current PTSD symptom level, above and beyond the effects of trauma severity, trauma history, and time elapsed since the trauma. The implications of these results for future research and understanding of the development of PTSD and its treatment are discussed.     

A Preliminary Examination of Thought Suppression,Emotion Regulation,and Coping in a Trauma-Exposed Sample

Attempts to modulate negative emotional and cognitive symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be related to psychopathology. Trauma-exposed undergraduates, 31 reporting severe PTSD symptoms (PTSD group) and 34 without PTSD symptoms (non-PTSD group), completed measures of PTSD, depression, anxiety, thought control, emotion regulation, and coping. The PTSD group had greater psychopathology and overall modulation strategy use than the non-PTSD group. Thought suppression, emotion suppression, and avoidant coping strategies were positively related to psychopathology, whereas emotion reappraisal and approach coping strategies were either not related or weakly negatively related. Hierarchical multiple regressions with psychopathologic variables as criteria and modulation strategies as predictors indicated significant models in all cases. Generally, thought suppression was the only significant independent predictor of psychopathology.     

The relation between antisocial personality and the perceived ability to deceive

The current study investigated relations between the perceived ability to deceive and the Dark Triad personality traits in two samples. In study 1, the sample consisted of 1074 participants (329 male, 745 female) aged 17–71 years (M = 22.96, SD = 6.92). Participants completed the perceived ability to deceive scale, in which they were asked to estimate the percentage of people who are worse at lying than they are in a number of situations. Participants also completed the Short-D3 – a measure of the Dark Triad personality traits. As expected, correlational analyses demonstrated that Machiavellianism was most highly correlated with the perceived ability to deceive (r = .41), followed by psychopathy (r = .35), and narcissism (r = .33). These findings were replicated in study 2, which consisted of 1448 undergraduate students (498 males, 947 females, 3 other), aged 18–43 (M = 18.35, SD = 1.77). Study 2 also investigated the association of the Dark Triad and perceived ability to deceive with dimensions of the Big Five model of personality. Implications are discussed.     

Categories of Life: The Status of the Camp in Derrida and Agamben

This essay is an exploration of the relationship between Agamben's 1995 text, Homo Sacer, and Derrida's 1992 “Force of Law” essay. Agamben attempts to show that the camp, as the topological space of the state of exception, has become the biopolitical paradigm for modernity. He draws this conclusion on the basis of a distinction, which he finds in an essay by Walter Benjamin, between categories of life, with the “pro‐tagonist” of the work being what he calls homo sacer, or bare life—life that is stripped of its humanity and value. Five years earlier, in 1990, Derrida had given a lecture at UCLA (later published in its entirety as “The Force of Law”) in which he had analyzed the very same essay by Benjamin and had highlighted the distinction between “base life” and “just life.” The implications of his analysis show a discomforting prox‐imity between Benjaminian messianism and the Nazi “final solution,” a conclusion that Agamben dismisses entirely. In this paper, however, I demonstrate that the structures of the two works are quite similar in many important ways. I argue that, though the broad scope of Agamben's work is original in many respects, and I would not wish to reduce Agamben's work to Derridean repetitions, he nevertheless utilizes much more of Derrida's analysis, specifically with respect to the categori‐zation of life, than he would like the reader to believe.