An Examination of the Latent Structure of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale

The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz and Roemer, Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 26:41?C54, 2004) is a popular multidimensional self-report measure of emotion regulation. The present study sought to examine the latent factor structure of the DERS. An examination of latent factor intercorrelations and a higher-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) suggested that the DERS-AWARENESS dimension may not represent the same higher-order emotion regulation construct as the other five DERS dimensions. Furthermore, findings supported the adequacy of a revised five-factor model of the DERS in which the AWARENESS dimension was removed. This revised DERS total scale did not diminish concurrent relations between the DERS and outcomes relevant to the emotion regulation domain (i.e., depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress symptoms). Implications for the conceptualization and assessment of emotion regulation are discussed.     

Development and validation of the shy bladder scale

Paruresis, characterized by the difficulty or inability to urinate in a variety of social contexts, is a scientifically under-studied phenomenon. One reason for this state of affairs is the paucity of reliable and valid measures for assessing this problem. The present article attempted to address this limitation by investigating the psychometric properties and validity of a new measure of paruresis: the Shy Bladder Scale (SBS). In two undergraduate samples, the SBS demonstrated excellent internal consistency and a stable factor structure assessing difficulty urinating in public, impairment and distress, and paruresis-related fear of negative evaluation. Undergraduate students evidenced very low levels of paruresis-related concerns. In contrast, SBS scores were markedly elevated among individuals recruited from an online support network who appeared to meet diagnostic criteria for paruresis-specific social phobia. Our findings highlight the SBS's potential utility as a measure of paruresis in clinical and research contexts.     

Word-List-Learning Performance in Younger and Older Adults: Intra-Individual Performance Variability and False Memory

ABSTRACT

We investigated the word-list-learning performance of younger and older adults over 4 consecutive days at different times of day to study age-related differences in consistency of performance over time and the influence of circadian variation on performance. Eighteen younger (M age, 23.4 years) and 18 older (M age, 73.3 years) men and women participated. The start time of testing alternated between morning and early evening across the 4 days of testing. On each test day, participants learned a different list of 15 unrelated words over four learning trials. As expected, younger adults performed better than older adults on immediate recall, delayed recall, and recognition. Contrary to our expectations, time of day did not significantly influence recall or recognition performance in either the older or younger adults. Older adults did show a greater incidence of false memory (i.e., previously learned list intrusions in free recall and false alarms in recognition) than younger adults. Older adults also exhibited greater intra-individual performance variability on the measures of false memory across test days. This variability was not related to circadian variation. False memory and variability of performance have both been linked to frontal systems dysfunction. The findings presented here are consistent with the notion that changes in cognition with aging in part reflect age-related decline in frontal lobe function.     

Age-Related Differences in Cued Recall: Effects of Support at Encoding and Retrieval

The literature is unclear about the relative contributions of environmental supporting conditions to younger and older adults’ episodic memory performance. The work reported addresses the conditions under which different support patterns are obtained. In three experiments, younger and older adults learned picture-word pairs and were then tested with a cued-recall task. Supportive conditions included semantic relations between the pair members (all experiments), and first-letter cues for the target words at retrieval (Experiments 2 and 3). Results of the three experiments indicated different patterns of support for younger and older adults, depending on the number and location of the supporting conditions used. These different patterns are in line with the suggestion that whereas younger adults benefit substantially from support at encoding only, older adults require support at both encoding and retrieval. Alternative accounts of the results are also discussed.     

No Fact of the Matter

One familiar form of argument for rejecting entities of a certain kind is that, by rejecting them, we avoid certain difficult problems associated with them. Such problem-avoidance arguments backfire if the problems cited survive the elimination of the rejected entities. In particular, we examine one way problems can survive: a question for the realist about which of a set of inconsistent statements is false may give way to an equally difficult question for the eliminativist about which of a set of inconsistent statements fail to be ‘factual’. Much of the first half of the paper is devoted to explaining a notion of factuality that does not imply truth but still consists in ‘getting the world right’. The second half of the paper is a case study. Some ‘compositional nihilists’ have argued that, by rejecting composite objects (and so by denying the composition ever takes place), we avoid the notorious puzzles of coincidence, for example, the statue/lump and the ship of Theseus puzzles. Using the apparatus developed in the first half of the paper, we explore the question of whether these puzzles survive the elimination of composite objects.     

Introduction to the Special Issue on Personality Assessment in Medical Settings

Rouse, Greene, Butcher, Nichols, and Williams (2008) Sellbom, M., Ben-Porath, Y. S. and Bagby, R. M. 2008a. On the hierarchical structure of mood and anxiety disorders: Confirmatory evidence and an elaboration of a model of temperament markers. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 117: 576–590. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] repeat two claims about the MMPI–2 Restructured (RC) scales. One asserts that the correlations of RC scales with parent Clinical scales are modest compared to the correlations with other existing MMPI–2 scales. In response, we reiterate that the RC scales were not meant to emulate the divergent and overlapping content of the Clinical scales. Instead, each represents a distinctive Clinical scale component. Although individually focused, the RC scales span collectively a wide range of content and used as multivariate predictors, account for most of the variance of each Clinical scale. Rouse et al. also claim that most RC scales are redundant with existing MMPI–2 scales, which they propose as substitutes (“proxies”). However, our analyses of Rouse et al.'s database and of our own data show that several of their proposed proxies are far less mutually distinguishable than are the RC scale counterparts. Furthermore, several Clinical scales are more successfully, and none are less successfully, accounted for by RC scales than by proxies. In response to Rouse et al.'s neglect of a body of empirical findings supporting the construct validity of the RC scales, we also review the relevant research literature.     

The Rorschach in the Context of Performance-Based Personality Assessment

Twenty-eight normal and 28 learning disabled children were given the Bender-Gestalt Test under instructional sets of low (standard) attention or high attention. Results failed to support the hypothesis that high attention instructions would lead to differential recall performance of the diagnostic groups. Normal children produced better designs during recall than learning disabled children regardless of instructional set. The evidence suggests that standard Bender instructions should not be altered in an attempt to elicit recall performance differences.     

Factor Structure and Incremental Validity of the Original and Modified Versions of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale

This paper describes a human science approach to the delivery of the feedback component of assessment services. The feedback process is now central to a collaborative assessment that is integrated with intervention. Research has suggested that subject, situational, and assessor variables are relevant for feedback, but such research has been unsystematic. A servicedelivery paradigm for feedback of assessment findings is described that includes four levels of increasing client participation: information, emotional contingencies, transfer of power, and functioning of an assessment system. Communication of assessment findings has been incomplete historically because motivation for feedback, resource accessibility for feedback utilization, and criteria for adequate feedback have been considered as unrelated ingredients. The components of Antonovsky's Sense of Coherence construct – meaningfulness, manageability and comprehensibility – provide one conceptualization for interaction of these ingredients. It is now feasible to do systematic research on assessment that includes feedback of assessment findings and the service-delivery process.     

National Valuing of Character Strengths and Indicators of National Development: A Pilot Study

Character strengths are personal qualities that have communal value and have been linked to personal happiness and well-being. Little research has investigated the degree to which strengths are valued across nations. Similarly, while certain strengths have been associated with indicators of well-being on an individual level, it is yet to be explored which strengths are associated with indicators of national development and well-being. The present study examined the relationship between perceived national valuing of character strengths and key national indicators. A sample of 2119 adults from 84 countries were asked to rate the extent to which each of 24 character strengths is valued by their country. Strength ratings were then compared to indices of national functioning: happiness, freedom, corruption, and gross domestic product per capita measured at purchasing power parity (GDP). The strengths the participants perceived as valued by their countries differed from their self-evaluations of their character strengths. Bravery was the most valued strength across all geographic regions and countries, and humility was the least. Valuing of humor was most consistently and strongly related to happiness. GDP was associated with less prudence, kindness, fairness, and honesty, and more bravery, perseverance, and spirituality. Greater honesty was reflective of less corruption. Freedom was inconsistently related to valuations of strengths. This study should be considered a pilot given its limitations, but it suggests the degree to which a society values certain socially important person variables does not appear to affect individual expression of character strengths, but may be related to national functioning.