The Psychometric Costs of Applicants' Faking: Examining Measurement Invariance and Retest Correlations Across Response Conditions

This study examines the stability of the response process and the rank-order of respondents responding to 3 personality scales in 4 different response conditions. Applicants to the University College of Teacher Education Styria (N = 243) completed personality scales as part of their college admission process. Half a year later, they retook the same personality scales in 1 of 3 randomly assigned experimental response conditions: honest, faking-good, or reproduce. Longitudinal means and covariance structure analyses showed that applicants' response processes could be partially reproduced after half a year, and respondents seemed to rely on an honest response behavior as a frame of reference. Additionally, applicants' faking behavior and instructed faking (faking-good) caused differences in the latent retest correlations and consistently affected measurement properties. The varying latent retest correlations indicated that faking can distort respondents' rank-order and thus the fairness of subsequent selection decisions, depending on the kind of faking behavior. Instructed faking (faking-good) even affected weak measurement invariance, whereas applicants' faking behavior did not. Consequently, correlations with personality scales—which can be utilized for predictive validity—may be readily interpreted for applicants. Faking behavior also introduced a uniform bias, implying that the classically observed mean raw score differences may not be readily interpreted.     

Emotional Intelligence and cognitive abilities – associations and sex differences

In order to expand on previous research, this cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and cognitive abilities in healthy adults with a special focus on potential sex differences. EI was assessed by means of the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso-Emotional-Intelligence Test (MSCEIT), whereas cognitive abilities were investigated using the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS), which measures key aspects of cognitive functioning, i.e. verbal memory, working memory, motor speed, verbal fluency, attention and processing speed, and reasoning and problem solving. 137 subjects (65% female) with a mean age of 38.7 ± 11.8 years were included into the study. While males and females were comparable with regard to EI, men achieved significantly higher BACS composite scores and outperformed women in the BACS subscales motor speed, attention and processing speed, and reasoning and problem solving. Verbal fluency significantly predicted EI, whereas the MSCEIT subscale understanding emotions significantly predicted the BACS composite score. Our findings support previous research and emphasize the relevance of considering cognitive abilities when assessing ability EI in healthy individuals.     

What’s the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Matter</Emphasis> with cognition? A ‘Vygotskian’ perspective on material engagement theory

The cross-disciplinary framework of Material Engagement Theory (MET) has emerged as a novel research program that flexibly spans archeology, anthropology, philosophy, and cognitive science. True to its slogan to ‘take material culture seriously’, “MET wants to change our understanding of what minds are and what they are made of by changing what we know about what things are and what they do for the mind” (Malafouris 2013, 141). By tracing out more clearly the conceptual contours of ‘material engagement,’ and firming up its ontological commitments, the main goal of this article is to help refine Malafouris’ fertile approach. In particular, we argue for a rapprochement between MET and the tradition of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, based on the ‘Vygotskian’ hypothesis of scaffolded and/or distributed cognition.     

Evidenzbasierte Psychotherapie der Panikst?rung mit und ohne Agoraphobie

From the evidence reported in the recent guidelines [Heinrichs et al. (2009) Evidenzbasierte Leitlinie zur Psychotherapie der Panikst?rung mit und ohne Agoraphobie. Hogrefe, G?ttingen] the following conclusions can be drawn with respect to the treatment of panic disorder with or without agoraphobia, as well as for agoraphobia without panic disorder:

1. Every psychotherapy should be preceded by suitable diagnostics and a case formulation.
2. The effectiveness of every psychotherapy should be evaluated with well established measures.
3. For the treatment of panic disorder without agoraphobia, cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) and applied relaxation have been shown to be effective (evidence grade 1).
4. For panic disorder with agoraphobia, CBT, combination treatment (CBT plus medication), as well as panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy in the outpatient setting have shown short-term effectiveness (evidence grade 1). Longer lasting effects have been documented for CBT (evidence grade 1).
5. For agoraphobia without panic disorder, CBT with a focus on situational exposure can be recommended (evidence grade 1).

     

The embarrassed bystander: Embarrassability and the inhibition of helping

Two studies tested whether individual differences in the tendency to experience embarrassment could predict interpersonal helping behavior (informing another individual about a correctible flaw). In Study 1, 84 participants were given a chance to help an experimenter by telling her that she had ink on her face. Some knew she had an interview immediately following the experiment; some did not. Some participants were there with a confederate; some were alone. The presence of the confederate or of the interview predicted (negatively and positively, respectively) whether the participant would point out the ink. Among those who pointed out the ink, individuals higher in embarrassability were slower to help. In Study 2, participants reported on real-life interactions with others who had a temporary flaw (e.g., food in their teeth). Conceptually replicating Study 1, participants higher in embarrassability were less likely to point out the flaw. These studies suggest that fear of embarrassment is a strong inhibitory factor in social helping situations, and that personality factors can predict who will be inhibited from helping.     

Inducing and reducing false memories: a Swedish version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm

Participants tend to falsely remember a nonpresented critical word after having studied a list of the word's primary associates. We present here a Swedish version of the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm, which provides a tractable method of experimentally inducing and investigating such illusory memories. In Experiment 1 it was demonstrated that the constructed stimulus material induced highly reliable false-recall and false-recognition effects, and, moreover, that veridical and false memories were associated with a similar phenomenological experience of remembering. The results from Experiment 2 indicated that the susceptibility to false recognition can be substantially reduced when participants are explicitly required to monitor the sources of their memories. These findings are consistent with predictions derived from the source-monitoring framework.