Age differences in instability, contingency, and level of self-esteem across the life span

We investigated age differences in instability, contingency, and level of self-esteem from age 13 to 72 years, using data from 1386 individuals who participated in a diary study over 25 days. Instability and contingency of self-esteem decreased from adolescence to old age, whereas level of self-esteem increased. Big Five personality traits predicted the level, but not the slope, of the trajectories of self-esteem characteristics. Age differences in self-esteem characteristics did not merely reflect age differences in instability and level of positive and negative affect. Finally, self-esteem characteristics showed a stable pattern of interrelations across the life span. Overall, the findings suggest that people’s self-esteem tends to become better adjusted—i.e., more stable, less contingent, and higher—across the life course.     

Response inhibition and immediate arousal in children with high-functioning autism.

The current study compared high-functioning children with autism (HFA) and a peer control group on an immediate arousal task measuring response inhibition. In one condition go stimuli were presented whereas in another condition a tone preceded the go stimulus. The tone caused an immediate arousal effect, which resulted in a reaction time decrease and an error rate increase. It was expected that children with HFA would produce a higher error rate in comparison with normal peers, since they might be less able to suppress immediate arousal. However, the HFA group outperformed the control group, indicating neither arousal regulation deficit nor response inhibition deficit.     

Single‐item big five ratings in a social network design

To develop and validate an ultra‐short measure to assess the Big Five in social network designs, the unipolar items of the Ten‐Item Personality Inventory were adapted to create a bipolar single‐item scale (TIPI‐r), including a new Openness item. Reliability was examined in terms of the internal consistency and test–retest stability of self‐ratings and peer‐rating composites (trait reputations). Validity was examined by means of convergence between TIPI‐r and Big Five Inventory (BFI) scores, self‐peer agreement and projection (intra‐ individual correlation between self‐ and peer‐ratings). The psychometric quality of the TIPI‐r differed somewhat between scales and the different reliability and validity criteria. The high reliability of the peer‐rating composites motivates to use the TIPI‐r in future studies employing social network designs. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Development and validation of a Dutch translation of the Big Five Inventory (BFI)

In this article, we describe the translation and validation of the Dutch Big Five Inventory (BFI; John & Srivastava, 1999), a short instrument designed to measure the Big Five factors of personality. We obtained evidence of the instrument's good psychometric properties in terms of factorial equivalence to the English original and other BFI translations and the relative independence and internal consistency of the five scales. The findings suggest that the instrument can be used in diverse age groups without substantial changes in factor structure. The Dutch BFI scales showed similar demographic correlates as the English original, with higher Agreeableness and Conscientiousness and lower Neuroticism values in older participants, higher Neuroticism values in women, and higher Openness and Conscientiousness values in better educated participants. Use of the Dutch BFI will allow researchers to integrate their findings with the extant Big Five research literature. The brevity of the instrument will be appealing to researchers who are concerned about taxing the time and motivation of their participants.     

Agreement Between Parent and Teacher Ratings of Disruptive Behavior Disorders in Children with Clinically Diagnosed ADHD

This study investigated the agreement between parent and teacher ratings of DSM-IV symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and related disorders: Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD). A sample of 55 children in the age range of 6–12 years with clinically diagnosed ADHD participated in the study. Parents and teachers were asked to complete the Disruptive Behavior Disorder Rating Scale (DBDRS; W. E., Pelham, E. M., Gnagy, K. E., Greenslade, & R. Milich, 1992). No association was found between parent and teacher ratings of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. However, moderate to high levels of agreement were obtained for ratings of symptoms that characterized ODD and CD. The observed low levels of agreement between parent and teacher ratings of ADHD symptoms may be attributed to different perceptions of the problem behavior by parents and teachers, medication effects, or the situation specificity of children's behavior. It is recommended that the diagnostic criterion of symptom pervasiveness for the diagnosis of ADHD be operationalized more clearly.     

Right or Wrong? The Brain's Fast Response to Morally Objectionable Statements

ABSTRACT— How does the brain respond to statements that clash with a person's value system? We recorded event-related brain potentials while respondents from contrasting political-ethical backgrounds completed an attitude survey on drugs, medical ethics, social conduct, and other issues. Our results show that value-based disagreement is unlocked by language extremely rapidly, within 200 to 250 ms after the first word that indicates a clash with the reader's value system (e.g., "I think euthanasia is an acceptable/unacceptable…"). Furthermore, strong disagreement rapidly influences the ongoing analysis of meaning, which indicates that even very early processes in language comprehension are sensitive to a person's value system. Our results testify to rapid reciprocal links between neural systems for language and for valuation.     

“How many bad apples does it take to spoil the whole barrel?”: Social exclusion and toleration for bad apples

In social dilemmas, where personal welfare is in conflict with collective welfare, there are inherent incentives to act non-cooperatively. Moreover, there is evidence that the example of a few uncooperative group members (“bad apples”) is more influential than the example of comparable numbers of cooperative members (a bad apple effect). Two studies are reported that examine the functional relationship between the number of likely bad apples and individual cooperation, and whether and when the threat of social exclusion for uncooperative behavior may effectively counter the temptation to follow the example of such “bad apples”. It is shown that (a) the threat of exclusion is sufficient to counter the temptation to follow a few bad apples’ example, (b) such threats cannot, however, overcome the cooperation-degrading effects of large numbers (e.g., a majority) of bad apples, and (c) the effectiveness of such threats may be greater in relatively smaller groups.     

Comorbid Problems in ADHD: Degree of Association,Shared Endophenotypes,and Formation of Distinct Subtypes. Implications for a Future <Emphasis Type="Italic">DSM</Emphasis>

We aimed to assess which comorbid problems (oppositional defiant behaviors, anxiety, autistic traits, motor coordination problems, and reading problems) were most associated with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); to determine whether these comorbid problems shared executive and motor problems on an endophenotype level with ADHD; and to determine whether executive functioning (EF)—and motor-endophenotypes supported the hypothesis that ADHD with comorbid problems is a qualitatively different phenotype than ADHD without comorbid problems. An EF—and a motor-endophenotype were formed based on nine neuropsychological tasks administered to 816 children from ADHD—and control-families. Additional data on comorbid problems were gathered using questionnaires. Results indicated that oppositional defiant behaviors appeared the most important comorbid problems of ADHD, followed by autistic traits, and than followed by motor coordination problems, anxiety, and reading problems. Both the EF—and motor-endophenotype were correlated and cross-correlated in siblings to autistic traits, motor coordination problems and reading problems, suggesting ADHD and these comorbid problems may possibly share familial/genetic EF and motor deficits. No such results were found for oppositional defiant behaviors and anxiety. ADHD in co-occurrence with comorbid problems may not be best seen as a distinct subtype of ADHD, but further research is warranted. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Interference Control in Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

The view that Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with a diminished ability to control interfference is controversial and based exclusively on results of (verbal)-visual interference tasks, primarily the Stroop Color Word task. The present study compares medication-naïve children with ADHD (n?=?35 and n?=?51 in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively) with normal controls (n?=?26 and n?=?32, respectively) on two interference tasks to assess interference control in both the auditory and the visual modality: an Auditory Stroop task and a Simon task. Both groups showed reliable but equal degrees of interference on both tasks, suggesting that children with ADHD do not differ from normal controls in their ability to control interference in either modality.     

Strategic self-marginalization: the case of psychoanalysis

Marginality is an important concept in the history of science, though it is often used in a manner that presumes marginality to be a static designation. We contend that the dynamics of marginality are crucial to the history of psychoanalysis, a discipline that has moved between dominant and marginal positions. We address psychoanalytic marginality via three specific "cases": the marginalization among Freud and his followers when psychoanalysis was an emergent discipline; the marginality trope in Erich Fromm's popular psychoanalytic writing when psychoanalysis was orthodoxy in American academic psychiatry; and the rhetorical marginality of psychoanalysis in Sweden as psychoanalysis entered a decline within psychiatry. Our aim is to show that marginalization and self-marginalization serve interpersonal, social, and professional strategies.