How Emotional Stability and Openness to Experience Support Invention: A Study with German Independent Inventors

How does invention depend on personality? Do inventors differ from noninventors? This study investigated the personal factors influencing a sample of independent inventors in Germany (N = 69). Standardized psychological questionnaires were employed to assess the Big Five personality dimensions, willingness to take risks, self-concept, and self-efficacy. For a comparison with noninventors, scores from reference samples were taken. Hypotheses were formulated based on research into creativity and entrepreneurship and the normative DABEI Stage Model of invention. As expected, the independent inventors showed higher levels of extraversion and openness to experience. In addition, independent inventors stood out in terms of emotional stability (low neuroticism scores). Surprisingly, in this sample success as an inventor correlated negatively with openness to experience. The interpretation is along the lines that inventors may work in a focused manner and technical implementation of an innovative idea may be optimized with great persistence. Discussion centers around the generalizability of the results.     

The utility of screen for child anxiety related emotional disorders (scared) as a tool for identifying children at high risk for prevalent anxiety disorders

Abstract

The current study examined the utility of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) as a screening tool for the identification of children at high risk for prevalent childhood anxiety disorders. The child version of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM (KSCID) was used as the diagnostic standard. It was investigated whether SCARED scores are indicative for the presence of generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and social phobia. Five-hundred-and-thirty-seven children aged 7–14 years completed the SCARED. From this sample, 82 children were selected on the basis of their SCARED scores. A subgroup of these children scored relatively high on the generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and/or social phobia scale(s) of the SCARED. A comparison group of children scored relatively low on these SCARED scales. Both groups of children then received the semi-structured interview to assess to what extent they fulfilled the DSM-IV criteria for the relevant anxiety disorders. Results provided some support for the predictive validity of the SCARED generalized anxiety disorder and separation anxiety disorder subscales. The implications of these findings for the detection of anxiety disorders in normal children are briefly discussed.     

Proactive climate in a post-reorganization setting: When staff compensate managers' weakness

This study explored the effects of proactive climate on performance in a post-reorganization setting. We hypothesized that proactive climate should have both a direct effect on unit performance and should—in the sense of the “substitutes for leadership” approach—enhance the effect of managers' entrepreneurial attributes (e.g., personal initiative) on unit performance. Hypotheses were tested using data from organizational units, called “centres” (n?=?35), of four recently reorganized public transport organizations. Managers provided ratings of centre performance, and centre members assessed their centre's climate. Proactive climate was positively related with performance. Moderated regression analyses revealed significant interaction effects between proactive climate and some centre manager variables; however, the interaction pattern indicated that proactive climate compensated for a low degree of entrepreneurial attributes.     

Predicting adolescents' parent–child relationship quality from parental personality,marital conflict and adolescents' personality

Longitudinal influences on the relationships between parents and their adolescent children in 175 Austrian families were analysed with data from three measurement points over a time span of 18 years. We investigated the influences of parental personality, marital conflict and adolescents' personality on the father–child and mother–child relationships separately. Inconsistent with previous theories and empirical findings, we found almost no associations between parental personality and parent–child relationships. Marital conflict was associated with only the father–child relationship. Children's personality showed the most consistent associations with the parent–child relationship. Our data support the theory of dynamic interactionism, which postulates an interdependency of personality factors and social relationships.     

The Incompleteness of Ideal Theory

Can one give an account of a perfectly just society without invoking principles governing our responses to injustice? My claim is that addressing this question puts us in a position to reveal ambiguities and problems with the way in which Rawls draws the ideal/nonideal theory distinction that have so far gone unnoticed. In the first part of my paper, I demonstrate that Rawls’s original definition of the ideal/nonideal theory distinction is ambiguous as it is composed of two different conceptual distinctions, before clarifying the distinctions involved, paying particular attention to the unfamiliar distinction between primary and secondary principles. I then show that we can best account for what Rawls is actually doing at the level of ideal and nonideal theory by invoking this distinction between primary and secondary principles. This result sets the stage for my argument in the second part. I first explain why Rawls does not have access to an understanding of the strict compliance condition that can account for the irrelevance of secondary principles for a complete account of the principles regulating a perfectly just basic structure. I then point out that there is a tension between what Rawls claims to be doing at the level of ideal theory and what he is actually doing at the level of ideal theory. On this basis, I argue that Rawls’s ideal (domestic and international) conceptions of justice are incomplete because they do not encompass secondary principles. The Conclusion unpacks the contributions this article makes to the ideal/nonideal theory debate.     

Psychophysical correlations,synchronicity and meaning

The dual‐aspect framework which Jung developed with Wolfgang Pauli implies that psychophysical phenomena are neither reducible to physical processes nor to conscious mental activity. Rather, they constitute a radically novel kind of phenomena, deriving from correlations between the physical and the mental. In synchronistic events, a particular subclass of psychophysical phenomena, these correlations are explicated as experienced meaning.     

Response Latencies and Attitude‐Behavior Consistency in a Direct Democratic Setting: Evidence from a Subnational Referendum in Germany

This article addresses the role of response latencies in affecting the attitude‐behavior consistency in a German subnational referendum. As voters faced a comparatively easy choice in this referendum, it puts the hypothesis concerning the role of attitude accessibility in increasing attitude‐behavior consistency to a particularly hard test. Utilizing data from a two‐wave panel survey, the analysis examines the effect of response latencies on the attitude‐behavior consistency concerning participation and vote choice. The evidence confirms hypotheses derived from attitude‐consistency theory only in a limited number of cases. The institutional setting and the nature of choice thus appear to make a difference. Moreover, substantive findings depend partially upon the procedure to measure response latencies. Accordingly, sensitivity tests should be employed by default. Irrespective of operationalization, response latencies play a crucial role when it comes to respondents who answered that they would “perhaps” participate. Whereas a quickly uttered “perhaps” was indicative of a rather low likelihood of participation, a slowly given “perhaps” indicated a considerably high probability.