JUSTICE IN CHOICE BEHAVIOR

Une série d'études inter-culturelles a été consacrée à L'effet de L'équité sur le comportement de choix, dans un jeu de type Dilemme du Prisonnier. Les résultats antérieurement collectés montrent que les sujets américains choisissent de maximiser leur gain en fonction de leur niveau d'estime de soi: une distribution des récompenses en fonction du mérite semble correspondre à un besoin d'équité; mais les sujets italiens qui ont une faible estime d'eux-mêmes tendent à maximiser plus fréquemment leur gain: ils ont tendance à être “ ego-défensifs”. Dans les études qui sont présentées ici, une récompense initiale est donnée à L'un des deux partenaires, sur la base d'un “test” d'aptitude à la prédiction (Distribution Juste), ou bien la récompense est donnée arbitrairement, sans tenir compre du test (Distribution Injuste). Les sujets doivent ensuite faire une serie de cinquante choix. Les choix des sujets américains renètent un besoin d'équité dans la condition Distribution Injuste, le sujet qui a reçu une récompense choisit moins souvent de maximiser ses gains que le sujet qui n'a pas reçu de récompense; dans la condition Distribution Juste, les sujets maintiennent L'inégalité créée par la récompense initiale. Sur L'ensemble des trois échantillons italiens qui ont été étudiés séparément, on observe une tendance à minimiser L'injustice dans la condition Distribution Injuste; mais dans la condition Distribution Juste, on observe un effet de défense du moi. Différentes interprétations théoriques des résultats sont discutées.     

Adolescent substance use groups: antecedent and concurrent personality differences in a longitudinal study

This study attempted to extend Shedler and Block's (1990) influential study, which found that adolescent drug experimenters had the healthiest personality functioning compared to abstainers and frequent users. Using a prospective design, we examined the relationship between antecedent and concurrent personality and age-18 substance use in a community sample of 1,298 twins (96% Caucasian, 49% male). Personality measures at ages 11 and 18 assessed positive emotionality (agentic and communal), negative emotionality, and constraint. Substance use groups-abstainers, experimenters, and problem users-were created at age 18. Age-18 substance use groups differed in age-11 and age-18 constraint such that problem users were lower than experimenters, who were lower than abstainers. Age-18 substance use groups did not differ in age-18 positive emotionality. However, abstainers were significantly lower than experimenters in communal positive emotionality, whereas female abstainers scored higher in agentic positive emotionality than female experimenters, who scored higher than female problem users. Experimenters were significantly lower in negative emotionality than problem users. Our findings are inconsistent with the notion that experimenters had the healthiest personality functioning and instead suggest different strengths and weaknesses for each group. Future studies should examine agentic and communal positive emotionality separately.     

Delineating Selection and Mediation Effects Among Childhood Personality and Environmental Risk Factors in the Development of Adolescent Substance Abuse

Utilizing the large, longitudinal Minnesota Twin Family Study (N?=?2510; 96 % European American ancestry), we examined the influence of several person-environment transactions on adolescent substance abuse. We focused on the two childhood personality traits found to be most predictive of substance abuse in this sample—socialization (willingness to follow rules and endorse conventional values) and boldness (social engagement and assurance, stress resilience, thrill seeking)—and the environmental variables of antisocial and prosocial peers, academic engagement, parent–child relationship quality, and stressful life events. Path analysis revealed that low socialization had a selection effect for each environmental risk factor, that is, socialization at age 11 predicted environmental risk at age 14, after controlling for the stability of the environmental variables from ages 11 to 14. Antisocial peers and academic engagement at age 14 then mediated some of the risk of low socialization on substance abuse at age 17, but the majority of risk for substance abuse was accounted for by the stability of socialization from age 11 to 14. Boldness at age 11 also increased risk for substance abuse, but did so primarily via a direct effect. The findings help to parse the nature of person-environment transactions across multiple personality traits and contextual risk factors that contribute to adolescent substance abuse.     

Parental divorce and adolescent delinquency: ruling out the impact of common genes

Although the well-documented association between parental divorce and adolescent delinquency is generally assumed to be environmental (i.e., causal) in origin, genetic mediation is also possible. Namely, the behavior problems often found in children of divorce could derive from similar pathology in the parents, pathology that is both heritable and increases the risk that the parent will experience divorce. To test these alternative hypotheses, the authors made use of a novel design that incorporated timing of divorce in a sample of 610 adoptive and biological families. They reasoned that if genes common to parent and child mediate this association, nonadopted youth should manifest increased delinquency in the presence of parental divorce even if the divorce preceded their birth (i.e., was from a prior parental relationship). However, should the association be environmental in origin, the authors reasoned that adolescents should manifest increased delinquency only in response to divorce exposure, and this association should not vary by adoption status. Results firmly supported the latter, suggesting that it is the experience of parental divorce, and not common genes, that drives the association between divorce and adolescent delinquency.     

Beyond Millianism

In Beyond Rigidity, Soames attempts to defend Millianism by articulating a novel account of the semantics and pragmatics of sentences containing names. Soames uses this account both to respond to the objection that Millianism unintuitively allows the unrestricted substitution of coreferential names in propositional attitude contexts, and to generate a positive argument for Millianism. I argue that the positive argument fails, and that Soames’s account of the semantics and pragmatics of sentences containing names is inconsistent with Millianism.

Personality Traits Predict the Developmental Course of Externalizing: A Four‐Wave Longitudinal Study Spanning Age 17 to Age 29

The objective of the present study was to determine whether and how personality predicts the developmental course of externalizing problems, including antisocial behavior and substance dependence. In a large, population‐based longitudinal study (N = 1,252), the 11 personality traits assessed by the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire were measured at age 17, and DSM diagnoses of adult antisocial behavior, alcohol dependence, and drug dependence were obtained at ages 17, 20, 24, and 29. We fit a quadratic multiple indicator latent growth model where the three diagnoses loaded onto an externalizing factor. This model fit the data well, and externalizing increased until it started to decline at age 24. High aggression and low control were the most significant predictors of the development of externalizing, with aggression playing a significant role in the development of externalizing across the 12‐year time span, and control predicting the development from age 17 to 24. The findings highlight the importance of considering the developmental course of externalizing in the context of personality and suggest that the specific personality traits of aggression and control might be targeted in externalizing prevention and intervention programs.     

Dietary restraint moderates genetic risk for binge eating

Dietary restraint is a prospective risk factor for the development of binge eating and bulimia nervosa. Although many women engage in dietary restraint, relatively few develop binge eating. Dietary restraint may increase susceptibility for binge eating only in individuals who are at genetic risk. Specifically, dietary restraint may be a behavioral exposure factor that activates genetic predispositions for binge eating. We investigated this possibility in 1,678 young adolescent and adult same-sex female twins from the Minnesota Twin Family Study and the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Twin moderation models were used to examine whether levels of dietary restraint moderate genetic and environmental influences on binge eating. Results indicated that genetic and nonshared environmental factors for binge eating increased at higher levels of dietary restraint. These effects were present after controlling for age, body mass index, and genetic and environmental overlap among dietary restraint and binge eating. Results suggest that dietary restraint may be most important for individuals at genetic risk for binge eating and that the combination of these factors could enhance individual differences in risk for binge eating.