Psychopathic Traits in Adolescence and the Five Factor Model of Personality

The present study aimed to expand work on psychopathic traits and the Five Factor Model (FFM; Costa and McCrae 1992). The associations between the three factors of psychopathy and personality traits—assessed by means of the Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory (YPI, Andershed et al. 2002) and the Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R; Costa and McCrae 1992)—were explored in a community sample of 152 male adolescents and young adults. The unique relations of each YPI subscale with the NEO domains/facets were examined by computing partial correlations controlling for the scores on the other two YPI psychopathy subscales. The YPI Callous/Unemotional dimension exhibited negative associations with Extraversion, Openness, and Agreeableness. The YPI Impulsive/Irresponsible factor was positively associated with Extraversion and negatively with Conscientiousness. The YPI Grandiose/Manipulative factor displayed positive associations with Openness and Conscientiousness. We discuss the implications of the differential associations of the three psychopathy factors with the Five Factor domains/facets for theories of the etiology of psychopathy.     

Effect of self-discrepancy on specificity of autobiographical memory retrieval

Research using a cue word paradigm has consistently shown that depression, in both adults and adolescents, is associated with difficulties in retrieving specific autobiographical memories. Inspired by previous work stating that depressed feelings are related to a perceived discrepancy between attributes of the actual and the ideal self, the present study aimed to investigate the hypothesis that cues bringing discrepancies between the actual and ideal selves to the foreground might promote or facilitate the recall of overgeneral (instead of specific) autobiographical memories. In two studies adolescents provided autobiographical memories in response to 10 high-discrepant and 10 low-discrepant words. As predicted, results in both studies showed an effect of cue word discrepancy on the specificity of autobiographical memories such that participants retrieved a smaller proportion of specific and a greater proportion of overgeneral memories in response to high-discrepant words as compared to low-discrepant words. The findings are discussed in terms of the self-memory system (SMS) as a conceptual framework of autobiographical memory (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000).     

Integrating leadership: The leadership circumplex

The present study aims to integrate leadership conceptualizations into one overarching model, using a “leadership circumplex”. Two studies describe the construction and examine the psychometric characteristics of an operationalization of the leadership circumplex, the Circumplex Leadership Scan (CLS). Results showed that the CLS complies with the criteria of a true circumplex. Furthermore, scales, representing leadership styles, showed reasonable to high reliability. A third study confirmed the stability of the CLS structure and additionally explored the circumplex structure of subordinates’ ratings of their leaders, which were found to have the same underlying circumplex structure. A fourth study was conducted to assess the convergent validity with other leadership styles from the existing leadership literature, the predictive validity of the styles, as well as the test–retest reliability. A fifth study confirmed the predictive validity results observed in Study 4 using different-source ratings of leadership outcomes. Finally, a sixth study explored the possibility of creating a short version of the CLS.     

Kinds of chance in games and sports

While talking about sports (and games) we use such expressions as ‘random victory’, ‘winning by accident’, ‘skill against luck’, ‘chance (fortune) favours the better player’, etc. Unfortunately, chance-related notions that occur in these expressions are not well defined—their meaning is vague and it is not clear whether they refer to one or many different phenomena. Because such phenomena play an important role in sport, from the viewpoint of the philosophy of sport it is necessary to give a systematic account of this topic. Although the works of De Wachter, Simon, Dixon, Breivik and Loland contain many important insights, there is still a room for further research in this field. The author tries to establish a typology of phenomena that could generally be called ‘chance-phenomena’, which however, should be precisely distinguished. As such the primary task is to present an analysis of several different kinds of chance in sports. In constructing this typology the author uses both the distinction between different kinds of games (performative vs. kinetic) as well as analysis of structure of a game (four constitutive elements: players, constitutive rules, material substrate of the game and the world of the game). The most important method used is phenomenological analysis, especially Ingarden-style analysis. These kinds of ‘chance-phenomena’ are: aleatoriness, chaos, irregularity, imprecision and arbitrariness. The paradigm cases of each kind of chance are discussed. The genesis and functions of the respective phenomena in sports and games are also shown, as well as their position in the structure of the game. Such analytic work should precede any solutions of the chance vs. skill problem, or other problems concerning chance in sport. As a test of usefulness of the provided distinctions, the author considers the veracity of the judgements expressed in such sentences as ‘Fortune favours the better player’.     

Year-Round Effectiveness of Physical Activity Counseling on Subjective Well-Being: A Self-Determination Approach Among Flemish Sedentary Adults

This study evaluated the year-round effectiveness of need-supportive physical activity counseling on various dimensions of subjective well-being. Flemish adults who did not attain the recommended level of physical activity were assigned to an intervention (n?=?92) or a control condition (n?=?34). Participants of the intervention condition received a four-month physical activity coaching based on the Self-Determination Theory. The coaching was limited to five individual contact moments with a bachelor in kinesiology specializing in health-related physical activity counseling. Self-reports on various intensities of physical activity and physical and psychological well-being were completed before (i.e. pre-test), immediately after (i.e. post-test) and 1 year after (i.e. follow-up-test) the intervention. Repeated measurements ANOVAs showed significant time by condition interaction effects with respect to physical well-being. More specifically, physical well-being significantly increased in the intervention condition from pre- to post-test and from pre- to follow-up-test, whereas no changes occurred in the control condition. Bootstrapping mediation analyses revealed that the changes in physical well-being were mediated by changes in strenuous intensity physical activity. The findings demonstrate the year-round effectiveness of need-supportive physical activity counseling with a limited number of contact moments on (physical) well-being and suggest its potential as a public health initiative.     

An enhanced examination of Holland's consistency and differentiation hypotheses

The research support for Holland's concepts of consistency and differentiation has been equivocal (Nauta, 2010). To provide a reexamination of these concepts, a new method of operationalizing Holland's constructs of consistency and differentiation using the cosine fit function to the RIASEC score profile is proposed. The relation of these new indices to career certainty, congruence and the moderation of the congruence–certainty relation were examined in a sample of 118 college students (study 1). Support was found for the superiority of the cosine fit definitions of consistency and differentiation over the traditional representations. The cosine fit indices were further examined in a second study on 167 adults examining interest stability over 15 years. The cosine fit indices of consistency and differentiation were related to both occupational stability over 15 years and career satisfaction. The results suggest that the concepts of differentiation and consistency may still have merit but only with more exact methods of specification.     

“Food for Memory”: Pictorial Food-Related Memory Bias and the Role of Thought Suppression in High and Low Restrained Eaters

The Psychological Record - Building on cognitive theory, the present study is the first to test whether high restrained eaters show an immediate and delayed memory bias for pictorial food cues and...     

A metasynthesis of published case studies through Lacan's L‐schema: Transference in perversion

Transference in perversion is characterized by specific problems such as a defiant and polemic attitude, erotic transference, projections, and aggression. Such transference poses particular problems in the treatment of perversion and might render analytical work with these patients impossible. The authors propose that Lacan's L‐schema can contribute to separating productive from counterproductive aspects of transference as it distinguishes between an Imaginary and a Symbolic dimension in transference. In this meta‐synthesis of 11 published case studies on sexual perversion, patterns of transference are analysed. On the Imaginary dimension, the authors found that patients with perversion tend to (un)consciously engage the analyst in a relationship characterized by identification, fusion and rivalry. On the Symbolic dimension, they found that perverse patients are able to question their motives, lapses, symptoms, and subjective identity. The thematic analysis revealed the importance of the position of the analyst in this work, which is described within the L‐schema as being the representative of the otherness in the Other. Implications for clinical practice and recommendations for further research are outlined.     

Meta-analysis of the association between rumination and reduced autobiographical memory specificity

The CaRFAX model, proposed by Williams J. M. G. (2006. Capture and rumination, functional avoidance, and executive control (CaRFAX): Three processes that underlie overgeneral memory. Cognition and Emotion, 20, 548–568. doi:10.1080/02699930500450465; Williams, J. M. G., Barnhofer, T., Crane, C., Herman, D., Raes, F., Watkins, E., &; Dalgleish, T. (2007). Autobiographical memory specificity and emotional disorder. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 122–148. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.122) posits that reduced autobiographical memory specificity, a key factor associated with the emergence and maintenance of emotional disorders, may result from heightened rumination. We provide the first meta-analysis of the relation between autobiographical memory specificity and trait rumination. PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES and MEDLINE databases were searched and the following were extracted: the correlation between the number of specific memories recalled in the Autobiographical Memory Test and self-reported trait rumination scores, and its sub-factors – brooding and reflection. The pooled effect size for the correlation between memory specificity and trait rumination was small (d?=??.05) and did not differ significantly from zero (p?=?.09). The effect sizes for the correlation with brooding and reflection were not significantly different from zero. There is limited support for the association between trait rumination and memory specificity suggested in CaRFAX.