Longitudinal Associations Between the Five-Factor Model of Personality and The Bi-Factor Model of Psychopathology: Continuity,Pathoplasty and Complication Effects in Adolescents

The study of the bifactor structure of psychopathology, which includes a general factor of psychopathology (or p factor) in addition to the internalizing and externalizing factors, has gained attention. However, its associations with the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality has been addressed in few studies, and none has examined different plausible etiological models (i.e., continuity, pathoplasty, complication) to explain its relationship, which is the aim of the present research. Additionally, the longitudinal association of the General Factor of Personality (GFP) and the p factor will be also explored. Personality and psychopathological symptoms of high school students were assessed at three time points (once a year) (n?=?655; M?=?13.79, SD?=?1.24; 49.8% girls). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (and measurement invariance across waves) were tested for the traits, the GFP and the bifactor model of psychopathology. While the bifactor model and the one-factor solution for each personality trait displayed good fit to the data and remained invariant over time, the structure of the GFP was adequate and invariant in two of the three waves. The resulting factors were included in cross-lagged panel models and showed that the FFM traits and the psychopathology factors influenced each other reciprocally. Most associations fell in line with the continuity model, but minor pathoplastic and complication effects were also reported. Similar associations were found between the GFP and the p factor. These results suggest that interventions in riskier personality profiles might prevent the development of general and more specific psychopathology spectra.

     

Psychological Wellbeing,Dyadic Adjustment,and Parental Stress among Spanish Families during the COVID-19 Outbreak

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Due to COVID-19, many countries, like Spain, imposed lockdown on the entire population to prevent the virus from spreading. The purpose of this exploratory...     

Humor Styles,Perceived Threat,Funniness of COVID-19 Memes,and Affective Mood in the Early Stages of COVID-19 Lockdown

Existing psychological research has long considered humor as a useful strategy for individuals in coping with adverse circumstances and life stressors. However, empirical studies are called for to better understand the role of humor in facing the COVID-19 pandemic. In a community sample of 527 Spanish adults, we investigated the associations between humor styles, perceived threat from COVID-19, funniness of COVID-19 memes, and individuals’ affective mood. Data were collected during the third week of lockdown in Spain (from 26 to 31 March 2020). Our results suggest that intrapsychic humor styles were associated with better coping with the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural equation modelling showed that self-enhancing and aggressive humor styles were related to perceiving COVID-19 as less psychologically threatening, which, in turn, was associated with a greater perceived funniness of COVID-19 memes, thus predicting higher levels of happiness. Interestingly, the opposite pattern of connections was found for self-defeating humor. These findings suggest that humor styles aimed at boosting one’s own self, irrespective of their potentially lighter or darker nature, may contribute to alleviating adverse psychological consequences arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

     

Tradition religieuse et capacité de pardon

Forgiveness is a fundamental ingredient of everyday life. This article is intended to present, in a synthetic way, a number of recent works having empirically determined the relationship between religious tradition and forgivingness. To forgive is basically to give something to someone. For/give is the equivalent of the latin per/donare. Forgiveness is the gift of one's right to resentment after having been the victim of an offense. Forgiveness has been empirically investigated in two ways. The first approach specifically considered forgiveness as a possible answer to a given situation. The second approach considered forgiveness as a philosophy of life, as a habit; that is, as a personality trait. The studies reported in this article illustrate this second approach. A three-factor model of forgivingness is presented: lasting resentment, sensitivity to the circumstances of the offence, and unconditional forgiveness. It is shown that this model nicely fit empirical data from samples of persons grown up either in the Buddhist tradition, or in the Christian tradition, or in the Hindu tradition. It is also shown that among people grown up in the Muslim tradition this model must be adjusted to reflect the unique character of this tradition: Islam is both a religious and a political tradition. In brief, people whose spiritual references are either Buddhist or Christian or Hindu must be aware that if a conflict, even a minor one, opposes them to Muslims, a particular attention will be attributed to their apologizing behavior and to their efforts to repair the wrong committed. Forgiveness will probably be granted only after the offender has satisfied a number of conditions. Symmetrically, people whose references are Muslim must be aware that, if a conflict opposes them to people grown up in the other traditions, all the circumstances of the situation will probably play a more or less similar role (intention, apology, social proximity) and that forgiveness may be unconditionally granted. Unconditional forgiveness exists, at least in theory, in these traditions: it is not regarded as a weakness or as an immoral disposition.     

Individual differences in timing of discrete and continuous movements: a dimensional approach

This study investigated aspects of individual differences in timing of continuous and discontinuous movements to different pacing signals (auditory or visual), pacing intervals (500, 650, 800, 950 ms), and across effectors (dominant versus non-dominant hand). Correlation and principal component analysis demonstrated that a single statistical dimension accounted for up to 60 % of the explained variance in discontinuous tasks and 25 % of the variance in continuous tasks, when applied to performance obtained from tasks conducted with different effectors and at different pacing rates. Correlation analysis of factor scores representing effector and rate independent task performances showed that timing of discrete or continuous movements can be associated with modality independent mechanisms. Timing variability from discrete and continuous trials was not significantly correlated. This study goes beyond previous correlational work on individual differences in discrete and continuous movements, demonstrating that individual differences in discrete (event-based) or continuous (emergent) motor timing tasks can be modeled as distinctive statistical components with dissimilar capability to capture effector, rate, and modality independent variance.     

Psychological Change in Everyday Life: An Exploratory Study

The innovative moments model was used in a pilot study that aimed to explore the change processes involved in everyday change outside psychotherapy. According to this model, the emergence and development of innovative moments (IMs) as exceptions to a problematic pattern are closely associated with psychological change. A longitudinal design covering 4 months of interviews was implemented with 13 adults who were coping with significant personal problems without clinical psychopathological complaints. Semistructured interviews were used to explore participants' personal accounts of their problems, and change was assessed using a scaling task at the end of the study. A total of 114 interviews were analyzed using the innovative moments coding system. A general linear model showed that higher levels of change were associated with higher proportions of complex IMs over time. Moreover, lower levels of change were associated with an increase in elementary IMs. These results support the idea that successful psychological change in everyday life shares similarities with the change pattern found in psychotherapy using the innovative moments model.