The role of cluster B and C personality disturbance in the course of depression: a prospective study

The association between personality disturbance and depression has been noted consistently. Prospective tests of personality's impact on the course of depression, however, are lacking. In a sample of 159 undergraduates who experienced at least one prospective depressive episode, dimensional scores for clusters B and C personality disturbance were examined as prospective predictors of four indicators of the course of depression: severity, episode duration, symptomatic chronicity and number of episodes. Cluster C personality disturbance, characterized by anxious and fearful features, predicted depression chronicity. Cluster B, characterized by dramatic, emotional and/or erratic features, predicted severity and duration of depression. The findings are discussed in terms of the possible mechanisms underlying the effects of clusters B and C, as well as implications for future research.     

Personality and Intelligence in Business People: A Study of Two Personality and Two Intelligence Measures

This study examined the overlap and correlations among two well-known personality measures (NEO-PI–R; Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, MBTI) and two widely used intelligence tests (the Graduate Management Assessment (GMA), Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA)). The GMA measures both fluid intelligence (Gf) and crystallized intelligence (Gc), whereas WGCTA mainly assess Gc. A total of over 3,500 participants completed the four measures in a middle management assessment event. Correlational analysis showed that Extraversion on the MBTI tended to be associated with Openness and Stability on the NEO. Intuition was associated with Openness and Introversion. Feeling types tended to be both Agreeable and Neurotic while perceiving types were high on Openness but low on Agreeableness. The NEO Big Five factor of Openness was most consistently and significantly associated with both measures of intelligence (r = .09 to r =.12). Results from the MBTI showed that Intuition and Perceiving scores were positively and significantly associated with both intelligence test scores which were intercorrelated (r = .38). Regressional analysis showed that personality traits are logically and coherently related to intelligence test scores. Implications for selection and assessment are considered.     

Prospective memory and pediatric traumatic brain injury: effects of cognitive demand.

This study investigated the effects of pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) on prospective memory. Fourteen children and 14 adolescents with TBI were compared with 25 and 23 noninjured children and adolescents, respectively. Based on a prefrontal model, the cognitive demand on the ongoing component of a prospective-memory task was manipulated. Overall, those with TBI had poorer prospective-memory performance than their noninjured peers. Performance was worse in a high cognitive-demand condition than a low, and younger children performed worse than adolescents. Decreases in performance from the low- to high-demand conditions were not significantly different between the two children's groups but were between the two adolescents' groups. Furthermore, the age and injury effects were reflected in the performances on executive function tests: the Self-ordered Pointing Task (SOPT), and the Stroop Color Word Interference Test. The Tower of London (TOL), which did not produce age or injury effects, was nevertheless found to be an important predictor of performance on the high-demand task in those with TBI. Although previous research has demonstrated impaired prospective memory performance in children with TBI, this study attempted to explain why this might occur, specifically that the prefrontal regions might be implicated.     

Mental representation of symbols as revealed by vocabulary errors in two bonobos (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Pan paniscus</Emphasis>)

Error analysis has been used in humans to detect implicit representations and categories in language use. The present study utilizes the same technique to report on mental representations and categories in symbol use from two bonobos (Pan paniscus). These bonobos have been shown in published reports to comprehend English at the level of a two-and-a-half year old child and to use a keyboard with over 200 visuographic symbols (lexigrams). In this study, vocabulary test errors from over 10 years of data revealed auditory, visual, and spatio-temporal generalizations (errors were more likely items that looked like sounded like, or were frequently associated with the sample item in space or in time), as well as hierarchical and conceptual categorizations. These error data, like those of humans, are a result of spontaneous responding rather than specific training and do not solely depend upon the sample mode (e.g. auditory similarity errors are not universally more frequent with an English sample, nor were visual similarity errors universally more frequent with a photograph sample). However, unlike humans, these bonobos do not make errors based on syntactical confusions (e.g. confusing semantically unrelated nouns), suggesting that they may not separate syntactical and semantic information. These data suggest that apes spontaneously create a complex, hierarchical, web of representations when exposed to a symbol system. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Relationships Among Self,Others, and Persecutors in Individuals With Persecutory Delusions: A Repertory Grid Analysis

The purpose of the current study was to examine the way individuals with persecutory delusions construe the self, others, and their main persecutor with reference to the constructs of malevolence and omnipotence, and examine the extent to which these interpersonal beliefs link to distress, self-esteem, and delusion conviction. Repertory grid methodology was used to explore interpersonal beliefs about malevolence and omnipotence in a sample (N = 30) of individuals with current persecutory delusions (mean age 36.4 years; 62% male and 53% White). Participants also completed measures of emotional distress (depression and anxiety) and self-esteem. The findings suggested that persecutors were construed as more omnipotent and malevolent than both the self and others; others in turn were construed as more omnipotent and malevolent than the self. Beliefs about self as powerful were associated with lower anxiety, depression, and higher self-esteem, and beliefs about persecutors’ omnipotence predicted delusion conviction. As with voices, the concepts of power/omnipotence and malevolence/benevolence appear to be important constructs when seeking to understand the relationship between individuals and their perceived persecutors. These findings support working therapeutically with negative schematic beliefs about self, others, and persecutors, which is consistent with a person-based cognitive therapy model of distressing psychosis.     

Early Pubertal Timing as a Vulnerability to Depression Symptoms: Differential Effects of Race and Sex

Robust evidence supports that girls and boys who experience early pubertal timing, maturing earlier than one’s peers, are vulnerable to developing symptoms of depression. However, it has yet to be clarified whether early pubertal timing confers vulnerability to African American as well as to Caucasian adolescents and whether this vulnerability is specific to depressive symptoms or can be generalized to symptoms of social anxiety. In previous studies, one race or one sex was examined in isolation or sample sizes were too small to examine racial differences. Our longitudinal study consisted of a sample of 223 adolescents (M_age?=?12.42, 54.3 % female, 50.2 % African American, and 49.8 % Caucasian). At baseline, depressive symptoms, social anxiety symptoms, and pubertal timing were assessed by self-report. Nine months later, we assessed depressive symptoms, social anxiety symptoms, body esteem, and stressful life events that occurred between baseline and follow-up. Analyses indicated that early pubertal timing interacted with stressful life events to predict increased symptoms of depression, but only for Caucasian girls and African American boys. Results were found to be specific to depressive symptoms and did not generalize to symptoms of social anxiety. Additionally, there was a significant positive indirect effect of pubertal timing on symptoms of depression through body esteem for Caucasian females.     

The Ethics of Enhanced Interrogations and Torture: A Reappraisal of the Argument

This article critically reviews what is known about the ethical status of psychologists’ putative involvement with enhanced interrogations and torture (EITs). We examine three major normative ethical accounts (utilitarian, deontic, and virtue ethics) of EITs and conclude, contra the American Psychological Association, that reasonable arguments can be made that in certain cases the use of EITs is ethical and even, in certain circumstances, morally obligatory. We suggest that this moral question is complex as it has competing moral values involved, that is, the humane treatment of detainee competes with the ethical value/duty/virtue of protecting innocent third parties. We also suggest that there is an ethical duty to minimize harm by making only judicious and morally responsible allegations against the psychologists alleged to be involved in EITs. Finally, we make recommendations regarding completing the historical record, improvements in the professional ethics code, and the moral treatment of individuals accused in this controversy.     

Development ethics and evolving methods: a comparison of fair trade with the Millennium Villages Project

The motivations for rural and agricultural development in the twenty-first century are not different from previous centuries, but evolving technologies in the late twentieth century have altered many methods and institutional arrangements for accomplishing development. The internet has facilitated initiatives that in earlier decades would have required large, complex organizations in both donor and developing countries. We will compare the ethical and institutional strengths and weaknesses of two such initiatives in Malawi: a smallholder farmers organization involved in fair trade and the Millennium Village Project. These are two of a large array of institutions which are currently being used to benefit smallholder agricultural producers. We will examine their relative merits through the lenses of various ethical paradigms and show that the institutional arrangements of the two programs are complimentary in the evolution of agricultural trading systems linking the global north and south.     

Method Effects on an Adaptation of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale in Greek and the Role of Personality Traits

Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale is a balanced, 10-item scale designed to be unidimensional; however, research has repeatedly shown that its factorial structure is contaminated by method effects due to item wording. Beyond the substantive self-esteem factor, 2 additional factors linked to the positive and negative wording of items have been theoretically specified and empirically supported. Initial evidence has revealed systematic relations of the 2 method factors with variables expressing approach and avoidance motivation. This study assessed the fit of competing confirmatory factor analytic models for the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale using data from 2 samples of adult participants in Cyprus. Models that accounted for both positive and negative wording effects via 2 latent method factors had better fit compared to alternative models. Measures of experiential avoidance, social anxiety, and private self-consciousness were associated with the method factors in structural equation models. The findings highlight the need to specify models with wording effects for a more accurate representation of the scale's structure and support the hypothesis of method factors as response styles, which are associated with individual characteristics related to avoidance motivation, behavioral inhibition, and anxiety.