Stimulus familiarity,dogmatism, and the duration of attention

Thirtyeight males and 30 females viewed each of 30 black and white photographs for as long as they wished. Half the photographs were judged by the Es to be unfamiliar to college students. The remaining photographs were judged to be familiar. After the looking task all Ss cotnpleted the Dogmatism Scale. It was predicted that the open-minded Ss would spend more time looking at the novel stimuli than the closed-minded Ss, and, that all Ss would spend more time looking at novel stimuli than familiar stimuli. The results failed to confirm the hypothesis that open-minded Ss would look longer at the novel stimuli than closed-minded Ss. However, it was found that Ss spent more time looking at novel stimuli than familiar stimuli regardless of the degree to which their belief systems were opened or closed. The adwwtage of manipulating stimulus familiarity by E-selection of the stimuli was discussed.     

Competitiveness and the Similarity of Preferred Coworkers1

The study investigated effects of different work contexts on the individual's desire to work with a similar or dissimilar coworker. Business students (N= 536) were assigned to 1 of 3 conditions (competitive task, skill‐development task, and nonspecific task) and were asked to describe their preferred coworker for that task. Individuals were expected to prefer coworkers whom they perceived as similar in noncompetitive situations, but those whom they perceived as dissimilar in competitive situations. Further, it was hypothesized that the type of similarity emphasized (skills, personal values, and personal style) would reflect the type of anticipated interaction. As expected, participants in competitive conditions chose coworkers with lower skills and generally dissimilar values and personal style. Coworkers selected for the skill‐development condition possessed similar skills and were more similar in values.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the Japanese Version of the Elder Life Adjustment Interview Schedule for Depression

The Elder Life Adjustment Interview Schedule (ELAIS) was developed as an age- and culture-sensitive assessment device for depression and 9 environmental, behavioral, and health correlates (Schlatter et al., 1993, J. MARC Res. 1: 27–42). The psychometric adequacy of the ELAIS has been demonstrated with samples of elder Americans of Asian, Caucasian, and Native Hawaiian ancestry (Dubanoski et al., 1996, J. Clin. Gerospsychol. 2: 247–262). This study reports on the reliability and construct validity of a translated Japanese version. Participants were 55 community-dwelling elders living in the areas surrounding Maebashi, Japan. The ELAIS contains 14 scales of which 9 represent theoretical predictors of depression. The 2 Environmental Condition scales measure life events and social support. The 4 Behavioral Competency scales measure recreational activity, assertiveness, self-reinforcement, and perceived control. The 3 Health Factor scales measure perceived health, functional ability, and objective health. The 5 Other scales measure demographics, depression, life satisfaction, cognitive functioning, and response style. Results yielded acceptable internal consistency and stability reliability coefficients for all but 1 of the subscales on the ELAIS (informational social support). Construct validity support was found for the Depression scale and 6 theoretical predictors, including life events, recreational activity, assertiveness, self-reinforcement, functional ability, and objective health. Treatment and prevention implications for the cross-ethnic multivariate assessment of depression among elders are discussed.     

A dynamic extraversion model. The brain's response to a single dose of a stimulant drug

The aim of this paper is to present a mathematical dynamic modelling of the effect a stimulant drug has on different people which, at the same time, can be a useful tool for future brain studies. To this end, a dynamic model of the evolution of extraversion (considering its tonic and phasic aspects) has been constructed taking into account the unique personality trait theory and the general modelling methodology. This model consists of a delayed differential equation which, on one hand, considers that the active stimulus, a consequence of a single intake, is not constant; on the other hand, it contemplates that the state variable representing the phasic extraversion also represents the brain activation. The derivative of this state variable is calculated as the sum of the homeostatic control flow, the excitatory effect flow and the inhibitor effect flow. The solutions of this equation relate the tonic activation of an individual (that characterizes his or her personality) with his or her phasic activation level, whose evolution over time describes the organism's response to a single drug intake. These solutions quantitatively reproduce the predictions of current personality theories and anticipate vulnerability to drug misuse and addiction development.     

Interpersonal relations as a source of risk of mobbing in the local police

Social relations in the workplace are one of the main sources of risk for the onset of mobbing. In this work, we analyzed, through the perceived social climate, the influence of interpersonal relations on the characterization of the processes of mobbing, in a sample of local police (N = 235). In particular, the policemen and women's opinions of the quality of the personal relations among the group members and the treatment they receive from the command posts were assessed. The results of the study show that the development of guidelines of social interaction based on discrimination and abuse of authority are predicting variables of mobbing in this group.     

Cognitive and affective variables as predictors of life satisfaction

This work shows the association between personality variables, such as cognitive and affective variables, and psychological adjustment, such as life satisfaction and depressive symptoms. Accordingly, this study assessed the role of outcome expectancies (optimism and pessimism) and affectivity (positive and negative affect) as a predictors of life satisfaction and depressive symptoms. A total of 458 students from the University Rovira i Virgili completed the scales LOT-R, PANAS, the Satisfaction with Life Scale and BDI. Path analysis results suggest that affectivity variables are more important to predict life satisfaction and depressive symptoms than outcome expectancies. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Median decision techniques as an alternative to the classical statistical inference test

In the research area, the criterion to test a hypothesis is frequently the distance of each subject from the mean of the distribution. This concept of distance is constantly used and re-used as a source of evidence in the search for significant contrasts with respect to models of theoretical probability. This paper proposes a number of ideas regarding the use of new distance indicators related to statistics that rely less heavily on parametric assumptions, in particular, the use of median confidence intervals. We have simulated via EXCEL different data samples for a design of two independent groups under 15 different conditions in two different situations: mean equality and mean differences. The results showed the high sensitivity of the comparison of the confidence intervals, especially if a strict decision criterion is used. However, we did not obtain good results for sensitivity. In fact, in some cases, the comparison of the confidence intervals of the mean worked better than those of median.