Just Promise: Reformulating Justice as a Practice of the Gift

The triune God's justice is best understood as promised justice. Promised justice enables Christian practices that critique and end injustice.     

The response dynamics of preferential choice

The ubiquity of psychological process models requires an increased degree of sophistication in the methods and metrics that we use to evaluate them. We contribute to this venture by capitalizing on recent work in cognitive science analyzing response dynamics, which shows that the bearing information processing dynamics have on intended action is also revealed in the motor system. This decidedly “embodied” view suggests that researchers are missing out on potential dependent variables with which to evaluate their models—those associated with the motor response that produces a choice. The current work develops a method for collecting and analyzing such data in the domain of decision making. We first validate this method using widely normed stimuli from the International Affective Picture System (Experiment 1), and demonstrate that curvature in response trajectories provides a metric of the competition between choice options. We next extend the method to risky decision making (Experiment 2) and develop predictions for three popular classes of process model. The data provided by response dynamics demonstrate that choices contrary to the maxim of risk seeking in losses and risk aversion in gains may be the product of at least one “online” preference reversal, and can thus begin to discriminate amongst the candidate models. Finally, we incorporate attentional data collected via eye-tracking (Experiment 3) to develop a formal computational model of joint information sampling and preference accumulation. In sum, we validate response dynamics for use in preferential choice tasks and demonstrate the unique conclusions afforded by response dynamics over and above traditional methods.     

Longitudinal measurement invariance of psychosocial measures in physical activity research: an application to adolescent data

The current study served as a practical and substantive guide to establishing longitudinal measurement invariance of psychosocial measures commonly used in adolescent physical activity (PA) research. Psychosocial data on an initial sample of 878 adolescents (ages 11–15) recruited through primary care providers were provided at baseline, 6, 12, and 24 months. The target measures included family support, peer support, decisional balance (pros, cons), self‐efficacy, and behavioral strategies. Five of the six psychosocial measures exhibited strict longitudinal measurement invariance, with the sixth measure (self‐efficacy) exhibiting strong longitudinal measurement invariance. These findings support the equivalence of these measures across time, and provide the foundation to substantively interpret group differences and associations involving these measures and PA.     

Is Change Bad? Personality Change Is Associated with Poorer Psychological Health and Greater Metabolic Syndrome in Midlife

Personality change is emerging as an important predictor of health and well‐being. Extending previous research, we examined whether two types of personality change, directional and absolute, are associated with both subjective and objective indicators of health. Utilizing the longitudinal Midlife in the United States survey (MIDUS) data, we examined whether both types of change over 10 years were associated with psychological well‐being, self‐reported global health, and the presence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) components and diagnosis. Socially undesirable personality change (e.g., becoming less conscientious and more neurotic) and absolute personality change were independently associated with worse perceived health and well‐being at Time 2. Notably, absolute personality change, regardless of the direction, was also associated with having a greater number of MetS components and a greater probability of diagnosis at Time 2. In sum, too much personality change may be bad for one's health: Socially undesirable and absolute personality change were both associated with worse psychological health and worse metabolic profiles over 10 years. These findings suggest that personality change may contribute to psychological and physical health, and provide initial insight into potential intermediate links between personality change and distal outcomes such as mortality.     

Psychometric Characteristics of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support

The initial study describing the development of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) indicated that it was a psychometrically sound instrument (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & FarIey, 1988). The current study attempted to extend the initial findings by demonstrating the internal reliability, factorial validity, and subscale validity of the MSPSS using three different subject groups: (a) 265 pregnant women, (b) 74 adolescents living in Europe with their families, and (c) 55 pediatric residents. The MSPSS was found to have good internal reliability across subject groups. In addition, strong factorial validity was demonstrated, confirming the three-subscale structure of the MSPSS: Family, Friends, and Significant Other. Finally, strong support was also found for the validity of the Family and Significant Other subscales.     

A Short Measure of the Need for Affect

Summary

Widespread divergencies of opinion exist over the usefulness, the nature, the purpose, and the scientific status of clinical psychological testing. This paper seeks to order these problems in historical and philosophical perspective. Largely different values and orientations have been contributed by traditional American academic psychology, by clinical psychology, and by psychiatry. Academic psychologists advocate a rigorous scientific basis (logical positivism) for testing, which the clinician tends to find overly confining and antagonistic to his humanistic, individual centered, service orientation; while psychiatrists tend to differ greatly among themselves in their understanding of psychological testing and hence exert no uniform influence on the practice. The current trend emphasizes greater sophistication in the academic approach to testing, with advances in empiricism and computer-aided manipulation of data, while the more clinically oriented psychologists seek to strengthen their theoretical position and to demonstrate the effectiveness of their methods through studies of clinical judgment. At the same time basic methodological research to support the “clinical position” is yet too sparse. It is proposed that both academic and clinical approaches have a significant contribution to make to clinical psychological testing. Ultimately the design of psychological tests and the evaluation of their usefulness rests upon what we conceive psychological science to be, and we need to remind ourselves, in this regard, that the conception of science is subject to change.     

The Susceptibility of the EPPS to Faking in Simulated and Actual Employment Situations

To investigate the fakability of the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS) 60 Ss were given the scale under standard (anonymous) instructions; a month later, a third of them were given the scale under ‘simulated’ instructions, a third under instructions to make a ‘good impression’ and a third under ‘actual employment’ conditions. Since the pattern of scores differed significantly between the standard instructions and each of the latter instructions it was concluded that the EPPS is very easily faked and hence should be used with caution outside the research setting.     

Depressed and Nondepressed Students: Differences in Interpersonal Perceptions

The purpose of this research was to study the patterns of interpersonal behavior of depressed students. Depressed participants rated themselves lower than non-depressed controls on assertiveness and initiation of interactions and significantly higher than controls on concern about what others think, introversion, and submissiveness. Depressed participants also scored significantly higher than controls on measures of dependency, self-criticism, and the need to please others. Ratings of depressed participants by their roommates were not correlated with depressed participants' self-reports. In contrast, most subscale self-ratings and roommate ratings for the nondepressed participants and their roommates were significantly correlated.