Validity of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4 (PDQ-4+) among mentally ill prison inmates in Singapore

We examined the validity of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire--4+ (PDQ-4+) as a screening instrument for personality disorders among mentally ill prison inmates in Singapore. A total of 313 prison inmates completed the PDQ-4+ and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Disorders (SCID-II). The subjects were 303 (96.8%) males and 10 (3.2%) females with a mean (SD) age of 40.7 (8.8) years. Kappa agreement between PDQ-4+ and SCID-II for the presence at least one personality disorder was moderate with high sensitivity and low specificity. For specific personality disorders and clusters, we found that the PDQ-4+ diagnosed more subjects as having each of the personality disorders than SCID-II with high negative predictive values. The area under the curve indicated moderate discriminatory capabilities. Our results suggest that the PDQ-4+ could be used as a potential screening instrument for personality disorders in prison inmates.     

高校毕业生可雇佣能力的因素、结构与测量

该研究在文献理论分析、招聘广告词频分析、专家反馈、焦点团队访谈和半开放式问卷调查的基础上,编制了高校毕业生可雇佣能力问卷,并对已签订就业协议的930名高校毕业生进行了施测。探索性和验证性因素分析结果表明高校毕业生可雇佣能力是一个多层次多维度的结构,主要包括15个基本因素,分别归属于5个二阶维度和一个三阶维度,量表的信、效度指标均达到心理测量学要求。     

罗尔斯契约论中的正常能力假定与能力缺陷问题

罗尔斯的契约论强调公民是正常而充分合作的社会成员,而且它还假定他们的种种天赋才能处于正常范围。在可行能力思路看来,由于这样一种契约主义的方法论,那些具有严重能力缺陷的人不能从正义原则中公平受益,他们甚至被排除在正义原则的选择过程之外了,因此这种理论没能真正保障每一个人基于正义的不可侵犯性。但在罗尔斯的契约论中,作为正常合作成员之基础的两种道德能力应当被理解为是每一个公民所拥有的,而正常能力的假定意在排除能力差异在原则选择过程中的影响,因而它反而是包容性的。在组织有序的社会中,有能力缺陷的人的一些特殊需要确实没有被当作一个基本正义问题来对待,但这一点乃是平等的政治自主性的代价。     

Observing neighborhood effects without neighbors

With a new metric called phonological Levenshtein distance (PLD20), the present study explores the effects of phonological similarity and word frequency on spoken word recognition, using polysyllabic words that have neither phonological nor orthographic neighbors, as defined by neighborhood density (the N-metric). Inhibitory effects of PLD20 were observed for these lexical hermits: Close-PLD20 words were recognized more slowly than distant PLD20 words, indicating lexical competition. Importantly, these inhibitory effects were found only for low- (not high-) frequency words, in line with previous findings that phonetically related primes inhibit recognition of low-frequency words. These results indicate that the properties of PLD20--a continuous measure of word-form similarity--make it a promising new metric for quantifying phonological distinctiveness in spoken word recognition research.     

Li (Ritual/Rite) and Tian (Heaven/Nature) in the Xunzi: Does Confucian li need metaphysics?

Ritual (li) is central to Confucian ethics and political philosophy. Robert Neville believes that Chinese Philosophy has an important role to play in our times by bringing ritual theory to the analysis of global moral and political issues. In a recent work, Neville maintains that ritual ??needs a contemporary metaphysical expression if its importance is to be seen.?? This paper examines Neville's claim through a detailed study of the ??ethics of ritual?? in one of the early Confucian texts, the Xunzi. This text has sometimes been read as offering a form of naturalism in its discussions of ??heaven (tian)?? as analogous to Western, even modern, concept of ??nature,?? while other interpreters insist that tian is a normative notion. Does this concept of tian offer a metaphysical ground for ethics of ritual advocated in the text? If so, what kind of metaphysics is it? Does Confucian ritual ethics need any metaphysical grounding? There is no specific metaphysical theory in the Xunzi and passages which could be referring to or implying metaphysical assumptions are open to hermeneutical debates. Even if metaphysical assumptions are necessary or beneficial to an ethics of ritual, the paper argues that the ??metaphysical flexibility?? of the text could work to its advantage in remaining relevant in contemporary context. The conclusion explores some possible directions for further exploring the metaphysics of ritual in a modern understanding of Xunzi.     

Counseling in Singapore

Singapore, a tiny island nation, rose from 3rd‐ to 1st‐world status in just 3 decades. Unlike in most developed countries, counseling in Singapore has a short history with faith‐based beginnings and currently faces challenges to remain culturally relevant. The authors trace the development of Singapore's counseling services, provide an update regarding counseling practices in the school and community, and describe counseling and its relation to psychology in the educational setting. The authors conclude by examining professional issues and future directions.     

Surface‐ and deep‐level dissimilarity effects on social integration and individual effectiveness related outcomes in work groups: A meta‐analytic integration

Prior research linking demographic (e.g., age, ethnicity/race, gender, and tenure) and underlying psychological (e.g., personality, attitudes, and values) dissimilarity variables to individual group member's work‐related outcomes produced mixed and contradictory results. To account for these findings, this study develops a contingency framework and tests it using meta‐analytic and structural equation modelling techniques. In line with this framework, results showed different effects of surface‐level (i.e., demographic) dissimilarity and deep‐level (i.e., underlying psychological) dissimilarity on social integration, and ultimately on individual effectiveness related outcomes (i.e., turnover, task, and contextual performance). Specifically, surface‐level dissimilarity had a negative effect on social integration under low but not under high team interdependence. In return, social integration fully mediated the negative relationship between surface‐level dissimilarity and individual effectiveness related outcomes under low interdependence. In contrast, deep‐level dissimilarity had a negative effect on social integration, which was stronger under high and weaker under low team interdependence. Contrary to our predictions, social integration did not mediate the negative relationship between deep‐level dissimilarity and individual effectiveness related outcomes but suppressed positive direct effects of deep‐level dissimilarity on individual effectiveness related outcomes. Possible explanations for these counterintuitive findings are discussed.     

Therapeutic alliance in guided internet-delivered cognitive behavioural treatment of depression, generalized anxiety disorder and social anxiety disorder

Guided internet-delivered cognitive behaviour therapy (ICBT) has been found to be effective in several controlled trials, but the mechanisms of change are largely unknown. Therapeutic alliance is a factor that has been studied in many psychotherapy trials, but the role of therapeutic alliance in ICBT is less well known. The present study investigated early alliance ratings in three separate samples. Participants from one sample of depressed individuals (N = 49), one sample of individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (N = 35), and one sample with social anxiety disorder (N = 90) completed the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) modified for ICBT early in the treatment (weeks 3-4) when they took part in guided ICBT for their conditions. Results showed that alliance ratings were high in all three samples and that the WAI including the subscales of Task, Goal and Bond had high internal consistencies. Overall, correlations between the WAI and residualized change scores on the primary outcome measures were small and not statistically significant. We conclude that even if alliance ratings are in line with face-to-face studies, therapeutic alliance as measured by the WAI is probably less important in ICBT than in regular face-to-face psychotherapy.     

TripleR: An R package for social relations analyses based on round-robin designs

In this article, we present TripleR, an R package for the calculation of social relations analyses (Kenny, 1994) based on round-robin designs. The scope of existing software solutions is ported to R and enhanced with previously unimplemented methods of significance testing in single groups (Lashley & Bond, 1997) and handling of missing values. The package requires only minimal knowledge of R, and results can be exported for subsequent analyses to other software packages. We demonstrate the use of TripleR with several didactic examples.     

The language of landmarks: the role of background knowledge in indoor wayfinding

To effectively wayfind through unfamiliar buildings, humans infer their relative position to target locations not only by interpreting geometric layouts, especially length of line of sight, but also by using background knowledge to evaluate landmarks with respect to their probable spatial relation to a target. Questionnaire results revealed that participants have consistent background knowledge about the relative position of target locations. Landmarks were rated significantly differently with respect to their spatial relation to targets. In addition, results from a forced-choice task comparing snapshots of a virtual environment revealed that background knowledge influenced wayfinding decisions. We suggest that landmarks are interpreted semantically with respect to their function and spatial relation to the target location and thereby influence wayfinding decisions. This indicates that background knowledge plays a role in wayfinding.