Non‐Cognitive Constructs and Self‐Reported Creativity by Domain

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which non‐cognitive constructs (personality, thinking styles, motivation, and psychological well‐being) would predict self‐reported creativity across different domains among 266 college students. Consistent with hypotheses, openness, legislative thinking styles, and intrinsic motivation were significant predictors of overall self‐reported creativity and across several domains. Extraversion was also a key predictor. Some other relationships consistent with past research (such as disagreeableness and math/science creativity) were also noted.     

RECONSIDERING THE DISPOSITIONAL BASIS OF COUNTERPRODUCTIVE WORK BEHAVIOR: THE ROLE OF ABERRANT PERSONALITY

Interest in the study of aberrant behaviors has coincided with widely publicized scandals involving unethical behaviors of individuals in organizations. Consequently, the literature in the organizational sciences has been increasingly focused on counterproductive and deviant behaviors such as aggression, sabotage, or theft and how individual differences can predict such behaviors. As such, research linking personality to counterproductive work behaviors has grown substantially over the last 10 years. However, the majority of this research has relied on traditional personality traits as the dispositional antecedents of such counterproductive behaviors (e.g., the global traits comprising the five factor model). A different yet possibly fruitful framework with which to examine the link between individual differences and counterproductive work behaviors is through the use of aberrant personality traits. The importance of focusing attention on aberrant traits in relation to counterproductive work behaviors is highlighted through a review of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, followed by a variety of research hypotheses designed to spur future research in these and related areas.     

'Projective transidentifi cation': An extension of the concept of projective identifi cation

Questions about the concept of projective identifi cation still persist. The author presents the following hypotheses: Klein's traditional view and Bion's extension and revision of it can be thought of as occupying a continuum in reverse. He postulates that Bion's concept of communicative intersubjective projective identifi cation (which the author renames 'projective transidentifi cation') is primary and inclusive of Klein's earlier unconscious, omnipotent, intrapsychic mode but includes Bion's 'realistic' communicative mode as well. The author hypothesizes, consequently, that intersubjective projective identifi cation constitutes both the operation of an unconscious phantasy of omnipotent intrapsychic projective identifi cation solely within the internal world of the projecting subject-in addition to two other processes: conscious and/or preconscious modes of sensorimotor induction, which would include signaling and/or evocation or prompting gestures or techniques (mental, physical, verbal, posturing or priming) on the part of the projecting subject; followed by spontaneous empathic simulation in the receptive object of the subject's experience in which the receptive object is already inherently 'hard-wired' to be empathic with the prompting subject.     

DOES PERFORMANCE IMPROVE FOLLOWING MULTISOURCE FEEDBACK? A THEORETICAL MODEL,META‐ANALYSIS,AND REVIEW OF EMPIRICAL FINDINGS

We review evidence showing that multisource feedback ratings are related to other measures of leadership effectiveness and that different rater sources conceptualize performance in a similar manner. We then describe a meta-analysis of 24 longitudinal studies showing that improvement in direct report, peer, and supervisor ratings over time is generally small. We present a theoretical framework and review empirical evidence suggesting performance improvement should be more likely for some feedback recipients than others. Specifically, improvement is most likely to occur when feedback indicates that change is necessary, recipients have a positive feedback orientation, perceive a need to change their behavior, react positively to the feedback, believe change is feasible, set appropriate goals to regulate their behavior, and take actions that lead to skill and performance improvement.     

New Evidence for the Social Embeddedness of Infants' Early Triangular Capacities

Infants appear to be active participants in complex interactional sequences with their parents far earlier than previously theorized. In this report, we document the capacity of 3‐month‐old infants to share attention with two partners (mothers and fathers) simultaneously, and trace links between this capacity and early family group‐level dynamics. During comprehensive evaluations of the family's emergent coparenting alliance completed in 113 homes, we charted infants' eye gaze patterns during two different mother‐father‐infant assessment paradigms. Triangular capacities (operationalized as the frequency of rapid multishift gaze transitions between parents during interactions) were stable across interaction context. Infants exhibiting more advanced triangular capacities belonged to families showing evidence of better coparental adjustment. Theoretical and practice implications of these findings are discussed.     

TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF INTEGRITY TEST SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES: AN ITEM-LEVEL ANALYSIS OF SEVEN TESTS

A judgmental sort of 798 items from 7 paper-and-pencil integrity tests produced 23 thematic composites. Patterns of correlations between these composites and the 7 integrity measures and 2 Big Five measures shed light on similarities and differences between different integrity tests. Principal components analysis of 23 composites indicated 4 principal components that further illuminate the content domain of integrity tests. The relationships between 4 integrity principal components and integrity test scores as well as measures of the Big Five dimensions of personality are reported. The findings suggest that integrity tests can differ in their emphasis on various thematic composites, and, yet, be very similar in terms of their standing on the 4 integrity principal components. Different integrity tests can be quite different in terms of surface content, and, yet, assess the same underlying constructs.     

Exploring the Dimensionality of "Religiosity" and "Spirituality" in the Fetzer Multidimensional Measure

Reliable and valid measures of religiosity and spiritual dimensions appropriate for ethnically diverse groups are needed. I examine the factor structure of the relatively new Fetzer multidimensional measure (Fetzer Institute 1999). Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) of national data collected in the 1998 General Social Survey are conducted to (1) test the fit of the proposed dimensionality of the Fetzer measure, specifically comparing the Fetzer structure with a simpler single-factor model suggested by preliminary exploratory factor analyses; and (2) evaluate ethnic differences in factor structure of the Fetzer items. Data from 1,201 adults, 1,019 whites and 182 African Americans, are examined to compare the fit of the multidimensional Fetzer model against an alternative single-factor ("unitary spirituality") model. CFA analyses indicated that only the Fetzer models had acceptable fit indices (NFI and/or NNFI approaching or reaching 0.90). Ethnic differences in loadings, while significant, were not substantively different. These findings suggest that a multidimensional measure like the Fetzer is useful for multiethnic research and that combining the daily spirituality and values/beliefs dimensions into a single factor provides a simpler model overall (compared to the Fetzer model separating these dimensions out) while providing acceptable fit.     

The emotional experience of K

The author raises the question of the emotional experience of K in Bion's schema of affective links, L, H, and K, suggesting that it is the emotional experience of feeling curious. He explores the central role curiosity has in 'On arrogance' and 'Attacks on linking' and hypothesizes that in Learning from experience the more complex notion of K is introduced in its place. Thus, Bion's affective schema is taken to be a version of Freud's account of experience in terms of instinctual impulses recast in terms of emotional experience. Freud's primary developmental dichotomy, the tensions between the pleasure principle and the reality principle, can be seen as the dichotomy of tensions between the emotional experience of L/H and the emotional experience of K. This suggests that the potential tension between K and L/H is critical to what happens in the consulting room. Finally the author argues that containing as a developmental dynamic is an expression of a K-state-of-mind and thus the container is thus a container-in-K. It concludes that one important aspect of what Bion called -K is an attack on a K-state-of-mind by an intrusion of L/H which has the effect of contaminating and dominating the urge to know.