Assessing Aberrant Personality in Managerial Coaching: Measurement Issues and Prevalence Rates across Employment Sectors

The convergent and discriminant validity of two methods to assess a broad spectrum of aberrant personality tendencies was examined in a large sample of managers who were administered the NEO‐PI‐R (N = 11 862) and the Hogan Development Survey (N = 6774) in the context of a professional development assessment. Five‐Factor Model (FFM) aberrant compounds, defined as linear combinations of NEO‐PI‐R facets, converged for the antisocial, borderline, histrionic, avoidant and obsessive–compulsive tendencies with their respective Hogan Development Survey counterparts. Alternative linear FFM combinations did improve convergent results for the schizoid and obsessive–compulsive pattern. Risk for various aberrant tendencies was roughly equal across different employment sectors, with a higher prevalence of borderline, avoidant and dependent tendencies in the legal and more histrionic tendencies in the retail sector. Adopting FFM aberrant compound cut‐offs developed for coaching purposes to flag at risk individuals showed that 20% to 25% of all managers qualified for at least one and 10% to 15% were flagged as at risk for two or more aberrant tendencies. The theoretical implications and the repercussions of this research for the design of professional development and coaching trajectories are discussed. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Diminished testing benefits in young adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Memory retrieval has been shown to enhance the long-term retention of tested material; however, recent research suggests that limiting attention during retrieval can decrease the benefits of testing memory. The present study examined whether testing benefits are reduced in young adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). College students with and without ADHD read three short prose passages, each followed by a free recall test, a restudy period or a distractor task. Two days later participants recalled the passages. Although participants without ADHD did not show a significant benefit of testing over restudying, testing did produce recall benefits relative to not taking a test. These testing benefits were diminished in participants with ADHD, who did not show any advantage of testing over either restudying or no test. The absence of testing benefits in the ADHD group is likely due in part to decreased recall on the initial test. These findings have implications for improving educational practices among individuals with ADHD and also speak to the need to examine individual differences in the effectiveness of testing as a learning strategy.     

ANS acuity and mathematics ability in preschoolers from low‐income homes: contributions of inhibitory control

Recent findings by Libertus, Feigenson, and Halberda (2011) suggest that there is an association between the acuity of young children's approximate number system (ANS) and their mathematics ability before exposure to instruction in formal schooling. The present study examined the generalizability and validity of these findings in a sample of preschoolers from low‐income homes. Children attending Head Start (N = 103) completed measures to assess ANS acuity, mathematics ability, receptive vocabulary, and inhibitory control. Results showed only a weak association between ANS acuity and mathematics ability that was reduced to non‐significance when controlling for a direct measure of receptive vocabulary. Results also revealed that inhibitory control plays an important role in the relation between ANS acuity and mathematics ability. Specifically, ANS acuity accounted for significant variance in mathematics ability over and above receptive vocabulary, but only for ANS acuity trials in which surface area conflicted with numerosity. Moreover, this association became non‐significant when controlling for inhibitory control. These results suggest that early mathematical experiences prior to formal schooling may influence the strength of the association between ANS acuity and mathematics ability and that inhibitory control may drive that association in young children.     

Ethical,legal and social issues surrounding research on genetic contributions to anti-social behavior

Scientific study of genetic contributions to chronic antisocial behavior has stemmed from many lines of research in recent years. Genetic research involving twin, family, and adoption studies has traditionally been used to compare the health and behavior outcomes of individuals who share the same environment or hereditary lineage; several of these studies have concluded that heredity plays some role in the formation of chronic antisocial behavior, including various forms of aggression and chronic norm-defiance. However, the ethical, social, and legal environment surrounding research on the biological contributions to antisocial behavior in the United States is contentious. Although there has been some discussion in the last few decades regarding the ethical, social, and legal concerns around this type of research within academic and policy circles, analysis and discussion of these concerns rarely appear together. This paper explores the main themes that interact to form the basis of much of the resistance to positing biological contributions to antisocial behavior.     

Of hissing snakes and angry voices: human infants are differentially responsive to evolutionary fear‐relevant sounds

Adult humans demonstrate differential processing of stimuli that were recurrent threats to safety and survival throughout evolutionary history. Recent studies suggest that differential processing of evolutionarily ancient threats occurs in human infants, leading to the proposal of an inborn mechanism for rapid identification of, and response to, evolutionary fear‐relevant stimuli. The current study provides novel data in support of this proposal, showing for the first time that human infants differentially process evolutionary threats presented in the auditory modality. Sixty‐one 9‐month‐olds listened to evolutionary fear‐relevant, modern fear‐relevant, and pleasant sounds, while their heart rate, startle, and visual orienting behaviours were measured. Infants demonstrated significantly enhanced heart rate deceleration, larger eye‐blinks, and more visual orienting when listening to evolutionary fear‐relevant sounds compared to sounds from the other two categories. These results support the proposal that human infants possess evolved mechanisms for the differential processing of a range of ancient environmental threats.     

Measuring the Time Teens Spend with Media: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

This article considers the challenges researchers face in attempting to measure the amount of time teenagers spend with media. After reviewing the methods and measures that have been used in research incorporating “time spent with media” as a critical variable, it concludes that there is a lack of information about the reliability and validity of these measures and highlights the challenges that face researchers in this domain. In particular, there has been little comparison of the different self-report measures commonly used to capture media time. Moreover, little effort has been made to explore differences in media time use measures across the variety of media available today. Finally, we argue that teens are a unique audience for media and that their media use patterns may be distinct. To address these and other issues, data from 2 exploratory studies are presented. Study 1, a self-administered questionnaire with 191 youth ages 12 to 19, examines the correlation of an ordinal-level Frequency measure with a continuous Minutes per Week measure and finds important differences within and across the media used by teens. Study 2, a survey of 86 youth ages 12 to 18 conducted in a focus-group format, examines the correlation of responses to a cued-recall measure (a TV grid) and a media time use log (a diary in 30-min time blocks). Respondents’ reports of time spent with television from the TV grid were significantly greater than those from the time-use log. The article concludes with suggestions for future research needed to better understand teenagers’ time with media in the new media environment.     

Liking Violence and Action: An Examination of Gender Differences in Children's Processing of Animated Content

It is widely assumed that children like violence in cartoons, but this assumption has not been supported in existing studies that show nonviolent programs are liked just as much or more than violent programs. The present experiment extended enjoyment of media violence research by testing whether violence and action (independently manipulated) influenced children's liking of slapstick cartoons. We also proposed a path model to test potential indirect effects of violence and action on liking. Using animation software, four versions of a slapstick cartoon were created that varied in terms of violence (present, absent) and action (high, low). A total of 128 elementary school children watched one of the four versions of the program. Violence had no direct effect on the liking of the cartoon, but did indirectly decrease liking for males by decreasing boys' wishful identification with the anthropomorphized characters. Action increased liking for males but not for females.     

Emotion recognition of static and dynamic faces in autism spectrum disorder

There is substantial evidence for facial emotion recognition (FER) deficits in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The extent of this impairment, however, remains unclear, and there is some suggestion that clinical groups might benefit from the use of dynamic rather than static images. High-functioning individuals with ASD (n = 36) and typically developing controls (n = 36) completed a computerised FER task involving static and dynamic expressions of the six basic emotions. The ASD group showed poorer overall performance in identifying anger and disgust and were disadvantaged by dynamic (relative to static) stimuli when presented with sad expressions. Among both groups, however, dynamic stimuli appeared to improve recognition of anger. This research provides further evidence of specific impairment in the recognition of negative emotions in ASD, but argues against any broad advantages associated with the use of dynamic displays.     

On the criterion and incremental validity of trait emotional intelligence

This paper presents a comprehensive investigation of the criterion and incremental validity of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self-efficacy), which is defined as a constellation of emotion-related self-perceptions and dispositions located at the lower levels of personality hierarchies (Petrides & Furnham, 2001 Petrides, K. V. and Furnham, A. 2001. Trait emotional intelligence: Psychometric investigation with reference to established trait taxonomies. European Journal of Personality, 15: 425–448. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In Studies 1 and 2 (N=166 and 354, respectively) trait EI is shown to be related to measures of rumination, life satisfaction, depression, dysfunctional attitudes, and coping. Most relationships remained statistically significant even after controlling for Big Five variance. In Study 3 (N=212) trait EI is shown to be related to depression and nine distinct personality disorders. Most relationships remained significant, even after controlling for positive and negative affectivity (mood). It is concluded that trait EI has a role to play in personality, clinical, and social psychology, often with effects that are incremental over the basic dimensions of personality and mood.     

Ethnic Minority Women’s Experiences with Intimate Partner Violence: Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Ask the Right Questions

Current definitions, instruments, and processes for measuring intimate partner violence, including sexual assault, are insufficient to detect the nature and scope of violence against all women. To remedy this problem, we recommend the use of community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles to develop culturally informed quantitative instruments that measure ethnic minority women’s experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV). CBPR requires community members and researchers to work equitably together throughout the research process, sharing decision-making and ownership. This paper identifies problems with current measurement approaches and describes the strengths and challenges of the CBPR approach. We argue that this research orientation offers the potential for “flexible standardization” that can provide better estimates of the extent of IPV and sexual assault, and provide communities with the knowledge they need to address these problems in a culturally sensitive manner.