Measurement of agency, communion, and emotional vulnerability with the Personal Attributes Questionnaire

Factor analytic studies of the 24-item Personal Attributes Questionnaire (Spence & Helmreich, 1978) have reported inconsistent results, and a previous confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated inadequate fit for factors corresponding to Masculinity, Femininity, and Masculinity-Femininity scales. In this research, we used CFA in a college sample (N = 382) to evaluate the 3-factor model, and we revised scales by eliminating 6 misspecified items. The revised model fit well in another college sample (N = 230). We renamed the revised scales Agency, Communion, and Emotional Vulnerability. In relation to Five-factor theory, Emotional Vulnerability and Communion correlated well with Neuroticism and Agreeableness, respectively, and Agency had moderate correlations with Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness. Psychometric results in the context of current theory suggest that Agency (Masculinity) may not be a fully adequate measure of the agency construct.     

Corpus callosum size is linked to dichotic deafness and hemisphericity, not sex or handedness

Individuals differ in the number of corpus callosum (CC) nerve fibers interconnecting their cerebral hemispheres by about threefold. Early reports suggested that males had smaller CCs than females. This was often interpreted to support the concept that the male brain is more "lateralized" or "specialized," thus accounting for presumed male predominance in mathematics, as well as for aggressive behavior. Ultimately, meta-analyses of these many reports found no significant overall sex differences in inter-cerebral information carrying capacity. Here, using quantitative MRI, we found the midline CC area of 113 subjects was significantly correlated, not with handedness or sex, but with dichotic deafness, and even more so with redefined hemisphericity, the latter accounting for over 19% of CC variability. That is, both dichotic hearing and right brain-oriented individuals of either sex had significantly larger CCs than dichotically deaf or left brain-oriented persons. Thus, current traditions of brain laterality and gender may benefit from revisions that include redefined hemisphericity.     

CBT intensity and outcome for panic disorder in a primary care setting

A hybrid efficacy-effectiveness design in which participants (n = 91/93) were retained in the study regardless of whether or not they received treatment enabled evaluation of CBT intensity in relation to panic disorder in the primary care setting. CBT intensity was operationalized as number of cognitive-behavioral therapy sessions, number of follow-up booster phone calls, and secondarily, as number of cognitive behavioral coping and exposure strategies. Baseline psychosocial and demographic predictors of CBT intensity were analyzed first. Severity of anxiety sensitivity predicted number of cognitive behavioral sessions, but no baseline variables predicted number of follow-up booster phone calls or number of coping and exposure strategies. Multivariate logistic and linear regressions were used to evaluate the degree to which treatment intensity predicted 3-month and 12-month outcomes (anxiety sensitivity, phobic avoidance, depressive symptoms, disability, and medical and mental health functioning) after controlling for potential confounding baseline variables. Number of cognitive behavioral therapy sessions predicted lower anxiety sensitivity at 3 and 12 months, and number of follow-up booster phone calls predicted lower anxiety sensitivity, less phobic avoidance, and less depression at 12 months. These findings indicate that "dose" of psychotherapy was an important predictor of outcome. The significance of follow-up booster phone contact is discussed as an index of continued self-management of panic and anxiety following acute treatment.     

Depression, anxiety, and resting frontal EEG asymmetry: a meta-analytic review

Emotion-related disturbances, such as depression and anxiety, have been linked to relative right-sided resting frontal electroencephalograph (EEG) asymmetry among adults and infants of afflicted mothers. However, a somewhat inconsistent pattern of findings has emerged. A meta-analysis was undertaken to (a) evaluate the magnitude of effects across EEG studies of resting frontal asymmetry and depression, anxiety, and comorbid depression and anxiety and (b) determine whether certain moderator variables could help reconcile inconsistent findings. Moderate effects of similar magnitude were obtained for the depression and anxiety studies, whereas a smaller effect emerged for comorbid studies. Three moderating variables predicted effect sizes: (a) Shorter EEG recording periods were associated with larger effects among adults, (b) different operationalizations of depression yielded effects of marginally different magnitudes, and (c) younger infant samples showed larger effects than older ones. The current data support a link between resting frontal EEG asymmetry and depression and anxiety and provide a partial account of inconsistent findings across studies.     

Assessing cross-cultural differences through use of multiple-group invariance analyses

The use of structural equation modeling in cross-cultural personality research has become a popular method for testing measurement invariance. In this report, we present an example of testing measurement invariance using the Sense of Coherence Scale of Antonovsky (1993) in 3 ethnic groups: Chinese, Japanese, and Whites. In a series of increasingly restrictive constraints on the measurement models of the 3 groups, we demonstrate how to assess differences among the groups. We also provide an example of construct validation.     

Stochastic approaches to understanding dissociations in inflectional morphology

Computer modelling research has undermined the view that double dissociations in behaviour are sufficient to infer separability in the cognitive mechanisms underlying those behaviours. However, all these models employ multi-modal representational schemes, where functional specialisation of processing emerges from the training process. Targeted lesioning of different regions of functional specialisation leads to varied but predictable deficits in model performance. We argue that multi-modal representational schemes are not a necessary condition for the observation of double dissociations in an information processing system that shares resources across multiple tasks. Using a uni-modal representational system, we demonstrate that double dissociations may also result from stochastic processes. Lesioning experiments on a single-route, uni-modal connectionist model of regular and irregular noun and verb morphology confirm and extend earlier work demonstrating that selective impairment across tasks can result from damage to a distributed information processing system. A systematic investigation of the degree to which performance deteriorates across different inflectional classes reveals that simple and double dissociations can occur in this single-route, uni-modal model. An important prediction of the model is that double dissociations between regular and irregular inflection, resulting from stochastic processes should be extremely rare. However, they are particularly likely to occur when the researcher uses test batteries consisting of a small number of items. Given that cognitive neuropsychologists rarely provide details about the distribution of performance in a disordered population, it is concluded that a stochastic interpretation of double dissociations may have wider applicability than is normally supposed.     

Confucius's Aesthetic Concept of Noble Man: Beyond Moralism

The prevailing interpretation of ren (humanness) in the Analects is ethical. One consequence of this interpretation is the one-dimensional image of the Confucian junzi (noble man) as a rigid moralist, a fastidious observer of li (ritual). But there are numerous passages in the Analects that resist such a one-sided representation of the junzi, especially Confucius's remarks related to the (Book of) Songs and music. My basic thesis is that Confucius's concept of junji is aesthetic. This is implied by his notion of junji ru (noble scholar) as opposed to xiaoren ru (common scholar). The noble man is one awakened to the beauty of humanness. It is because of this awareness that he ‘sets his mind on the Way, depends on virtue, relies on ren and enjoys the arts.’ Confucius included the Songs and music in his curriculum precisely for the purpose of cultivating in his pupils this aesthetic sensibility.     

Novel labels support 10-month-olds’ attention to novel objects

What is the source of the mutual exclusivity bias whereby infants map novel labels onto novel objects? In an intermodal preferential looking task, we found that novel labels support 10-month-olds’ attention to a novel object over a familiar object. In contrast, familiar labels and a neutral phrase gradually reduced attention to a novel object. Markman (1989, 1990) argued that infants must recall the name of a familiar object to exclude it as the referent of a novel label. We argue that 10-month-olds’ attention is guided by the novelty of objects and labels rather than knowledge of the names for familiar objects. Mutual exclusivity, as a language-specific bias, might emerge from a more general constraint on attention and learning.     

Approach/Positive Anticipation,Frustration/Anger,and Overt Aggression in Childhood

ABSTRACT We examined mothers' ratings of children's affective and behavioral aspects of approach tendencies and links with overt aggressive behavior problems while considering the genetic etiology of these processes. Approach/positive anticipation (AP), frustration/anger (FA), and overt aggression in 4–9‐year‐olds were assessed using mothers' reports in a diverse national sample (n=992) and a sample of same‐sex twins (n=195 pairs). AP and FA were positively correlated with each other and with overt aggression (r from .2 to .5), and these associations were very similar for boys and girls. AP and FA provided overlapping as well as independent statistical prediction of aggression. AP statistical prediction of aggression was substantially mediated by FA, an effect that was accounted for by underlying genetic and nonshared environmental influences.     

Relationship between a history of consistent maternal employment and depression in young adults

Research on the correlates of maternal employment has yielded inconsistent results. In this study, 79 male and 120 female undergraduates with mothers who had been employed from the students' infancy through their adolescence scored higher on the Beck Depression Inventory-II than those whose mothers had not been employed. This relationship between children's depressive symptoms and mothers' employment history was not evident among young adults whose mothers' employment was perceived to be financially unnecessary.