Reactive and proactive aggression: stability of constructs and relations to correlates

The authors examined short-term temporal stability of reactive and proactive aggression, as well as short-term consistency of differential relations of reactive versus proactive aggression to 4 correlates. The authors used parent, teacher, peer, and self-report measures twice across 1 year to assess reactive aggression, proactive aggression, hyperactivity, social skills, anger expression, and depressive symptoms of 2nd-grade boys and girls (N = 57). Both subtypes of aggression remained stable across the year, even when the other subtype of aggression was explained at each assessment. Reactive aggression, but not proactive aggression, was consistently positively related to hyperactivity, poor social skills, and anger expression at each assessment.     

Oppositional defiant disorder toward adults and oppositional defiant disorder toward peers: initial evidence for two separate constructs

Confirmatory factor analysis of 25 items on the Child and Adolescent Disruptive Behavior Inventory (CADBI, Version 2.3; G. L. Burns, T. K. Taylor, & J. C. Rusby, 2001) was conducted on teacher ratings of 824 kindergarten children and replicated on 534 children. Model fit was improved when correcting for 2 method effects: (a) adjacent items and (b) identical behaviors (e.g., argues with adults, argues with peers). The results show that the 25 items loaded on 3 distinct but correlated factors: Hyperactivity, Oppositional to Adults, and Oppositional to Peers. These more refined constructs from the CADBI may be useful for practitioners in identifying children who are at risk and for helping define appropriate contexts in which to intervene. The CADBI and analytic procedures also may contribute to future psychoeducational research on the development of problem behavior.     

That's a boy's toy: gender-typed knowledge in toddlers as a function of mother's marital status

A child who is highly gender schematic readily uses gender when processing new information. In the current study, we examined whether and how family structure predicts a child's level of gender-typed knowledge (as assessed by a gender-stereotype sorting task) once the category of gender is in place (as assessed by a gender-labeling task). It was predicted that children from more "traditional" family structures (married mothers) would have more gender-typed knowledge compared to children from less traditional families (unmarried mothers). Moreover, we explored if this relationship would be related to, at least in part, the greater frequency of androgynous behaviors (i.e., both masculine and feminine household activities) an unmarried mother performs. Twenty-eight children (age 2 to 3) were tested at local childcare centers. The mother of each child reported her marital status as well as how often she engaged in stereotypically masculine and feminine behaviors. As expected, mothers' marital status was associated with children's level of gender-typed knowledge, such that children with unmarried mothers had less gender-typed knowledge, in part due to the unmarried mother's greater frequency of androgynous behaviors. Implications for children's acquisition of gender-related stereotypes and the possible benefit of having mothers model both masculine and feminine behaviors are discussed.     

How Personality and Reward Relate to Automobile Drivers' Judgments of Affordances Using Their Own Vehicles

Abstract

Researchers have long recognized the importance of psychological processes in motor vehicle safety, but ecological theory-based research on factors that might contribute to motor vehicle crashes has lagged. This study was designed to test factors that might influence motor vehicle drivers' judgments of passability and fit-ability affordances. In particular, the authors tested personality and behavioral reinforcement as factors that might influence automobile drivers' judgments of affordances in three tasks set at various π-numbers: driving forward through a gap, driving backward through a gap, and fitting into a parallel-parking spot. Results across two studies suggest that personality does not relate to judgment of driving environment affordances, but institution of a behavioral reward system causes drivers to judge affordances in different ways. Implications for future research and for automobile safety intervention are discussed.     

Interactive-Virtual Reality (IVR) Exercise: An Examination of In-Task and Pre-to-Post Exercise Affective Changes

In this research, we examine the influence of imposed vs. self-chosen interactive/virtual reality (IVR) exercise on affect response following, as well as during, exercise. Our sample included 131 university students who were assigned to one of three 10-min conditions: (a) self-selected interactive/virtual reality (IVR) exercise, (b) externally imposed IVR exercise, or (c) regular exercise. Exercise intensity was standardized in terms of metabolic benchmarks. Mood benefits were observed pre-to-post exercise regardless of condition. During exercise, however, higher pleasure ratings were reported by participants in the self-selected IVR exercise condition. The implications of the immediate mood effects of self-selected IVR exercise are discussed.     

Clinicians’ Attitudes Toward Therapeutic Alliance in E-Therapy

Although therapeutic alliance is a crucial factor in face-to-face therapies, no data exist on clinicians’ attitudes towards alliance in E-therapy. The study explored clinicians’ perceived importance of alliance in E-therapy, clinicians’ confidence in their skills to develop alliance in E-therapy, and whether attitudes towards alliance in E-therapy are associated with intended E-therapy practice. Clinicians (n = 106) responded to an online survey. The majority of clinicians considered alliance to be extremely important in both face-to-face therapy and E-therapy. However, clinicians’ ratings of the importance of alliance in face-to-face therapies were significantly higher than their ratings of the importance of alliance in E-therapy. Clinicians reported less confidence in their skills to develop alliance in E-therapy than in face-to-face therapy. Intended E-therapy practice correlated with confidence in one's ability to develop alliance in E-therapy and with previous E-therapy practice.     

The personality differentiation by intelligence hypothesis: A measurement invariance investigation

Stability in the measurement of personality is crucial to its construct and predictive validity. The personality differentiation by intelligence hypothesis suggests that intelligence may be a threat to the measurement of personality. This study builds on existing literature by applying multigroup confirmatory factor analytic measurement invariance techniques to the item-level responses of a commonly used personality inventory. In contrast to recently published findings, our results suggest that the measurement of personality is not equivalent across intelligence levels. Though these results have important implications for the use of personality in research and practice, we maintain that personality measures are still important predictors of key criteria. We discuss future research directions, and hope that the current study highlights the need to increase the sophistication of currently available measurement techniques, and will bring continued examination of the personality differentiation by intelligence hypothesis.     

A comparison of human performance in figural and navigational versions of the traveling salesman problem

Performance on a typical pen-and-paper (figural) version of the Traveling Salesman Problem was compared to performance on a room-sized navigational version of the same task. Nine configurations were designed to examine the use of the nearest-neighbor (NN), cluster approach, and convex-hull strategies. Performance decreased with an increasing number of nodes internal to the hull, and improved when the NN strategy produced the optimal path. There was no overall difference in performance between figural and navigational task modalities. However, there was an interaction between modality and configuration, with evidence that participants relied more heavily on the NN strategy in the figural condition. Our results suggest that participants employed similar, but not identical, strategies when solving figural and navigational versions of the problem. Surprisingly, there was no evidence that participants favored global strategies in the figural version and local strategies in the navigational version.     

Sleep disturbance and emotion dysregulation as transdiagnostic processes in a comorbid sample

Sleep disturbance and emotion dysregulation have been identified as etiologic and maintaining factors for a range of psychopathology and separate literatures support their relationships to anxiety, depression, PTSD, and alcohol dependence (AD) symptom severity. Previous studies have examined these relationships in isolation, failing to account for the high rates of comorbidity among disorders. It is not yet known whether these processes uniquely predict symptom severity in each of these domains. Participants were 220 patients in residential substance abuse treatment, who had experienced a potentially traumatic event and exceeded screening cutoffs for probable PTSD and problematic alcohol use. Controlling for emotion dysregulation and the interrelationships among the outcome variables, insomnia was uniquely associated with anxiety (B = .27, p < .001), depression (B = .25, p < .001), PTSD (B = .22, p < .001), and AD (B = .17, p = .01) symptom severity. Similarly, controlling for insomnia, emotion dysregulation was uniquely associated with anxiety (B = .40, p < .001), depression (B = .47, p < .001), PTSD (B = .38, p < .001), and AD (B = .26, p < .001) symptom severity. Insomnia and emotion dysregulation appear to be transdiagnostic processes uniquely associated with symptom severity across a number of different domains and might be important treatment targets for individuals with PTSD and AD.     

Pupil diameter measurement errors as a function of gaze direction in corneal reflection eyetrackers

Pupil dilation is a useful, noninvasive technique for measuring the change in cognitive load. Since it is implicit and nonverbal, it is particularly useful with preverbal or nonverbal participants. In cognitive psychology, pupil dilation is most often measured by corneal reflection eye-tracking devices. The present study investigates the effect of gaze position on pupil size estimation by three common eye-tracking systems. The task consisted of a simple object pursuit situation, as a sphere rotated around the display screen. Systematic errors of pupil size estimation were found with all three systems. Implications for task-elicited pupillometry, especially for gaze-contingent studies such as object tracking or reading, are discussed.