THE STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY JUDGMENTS: COMMENTS ON KUUSINEN'S PAPER AND FURTHER EVIDENCE

Kuusinen (1969) compared the factor structures of individual subjects' ratings of their peers with the structure of peer ratings made by a group of subjects. He concluded that the group structure adequately represented the individual structures and that inter-individual differences were unimportant. This conclusion is challenged in the present paper. It is argued that the between-subject differences in Kuusinen's results were too pronounced to be dismissed as negligible. Data are also presented from a study in which subjects made personality ratings of stereotypic role figures. The factor structure underlying each subject's ratings was determined and compared with that of each other subject. The degree of congruence between the factor structures of pairs of subjects varied and in general only moderate convergence was observed. Implications of these individual differences for the concept of implicit personality theories were discussed.     

Effects of nonnutritive sucking on state and activity: Term-preterm comparisons

The effects of ad libitum access to a pacifier on the behavioral state and motor activity of preterm infants have been compared with those observed in full-term neonates. Regardless of maturity, nonnutritive sucking (NNS) decreases the amount of time spent in active states and increases that spent in quiescent states, lengthens the longest state bout, and decreases the frequency of state transitions. NNS also reduces overall motor activity as well as that during Active Sleep. Provided such ad libitum sucking opportunity, preterm infants thus appear to derive no less benefit from NNS than do term neonates. This result contrasts with an earlier finding that preterms are less soothed by NNA than are term infants.     

Sleep and the affective response to stress and pain.

OBJECTIVE: The current study examined sleep disturbance (i.e., sleep duration, sleep quality) as a correlate of stress reactivity and pain reactivity. DESIGN AND OUTCOME MEASURES: An ecological momentary assessment design was used to evaluate the psychosocial functioning of men and women with fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis (N=49). Participants recorded numeric ratings of pain, the occurrence of a stressful event, as well as positive and negative affect 7 times throughout the day for 2 consecutive days. In addition, participants reported on their sleep duration and sleep quality each morning. RESULTS: Sleep disruption was not found to be an independent predictor of affect. However, sleep was found to buffer the relationship between stress and negative affect and the relationship between pain and both positive and negative affect. CONCLUSION: These results are consistent with a model in which good-quality sleep acts as a biobehavioral resource that minimizes allostatic load.