A Big Five personality inventory in two non-Indo-European languages

In this study we report on two successful replications of a five-factor personality inventory in two non-Indo-European languages, Estonian and Finnish, which both belong to the group of Uralic languages. Costa and McCrae's (1985) NEO Personality Inventory was adapted to these two languages. By all relevant psychometric parameters neither developed construct differs from the original construct: the reliabilities of only 11 per cent for the Estonian and 36 per cent for the Finnish subscale were lower than those of the respective NEO-PI scales. The factor structure of both Estonian and Finnish inventories was very close to the five-factor structure of the NEO-PI, accounting for 71.7 per cent and 67.0 per cent of the variance, respectively. In spite of this generally good agreement, some language- or culture-dependent differences were observed. Both Estonian and Finnish women were more extroverted and conscientious than men, compared with their English-speaking counterparts. Also, some differences exist in the need for other people's company and excitement seeking. In the Balto-Fennic culture gregariousness appears to presuppose some emotional stability and openness and excitement seeking is conceptualized more as a tool of rescuing from anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. This study is considered as a step towards determination of which parts of the most popular instrument for the measurement of the Big Five personality dimensions are truly universal and which parts of it are specific to a particular language and culture.     

A SCALING METHOD FOR MEASURING COLOR CONSTANCY

Recently developed types of indirect psychophysical scaling method served as starting point in finding a handy procedure for measuring differences in the degrees of 'color constancy'. A design for carrying out categorical comparisons with color paper proofs was constructed. The raw scores, given as percentage distributions, prove transformable into standard scale values. These demonstrate the shifted positions of the colors in question when presented in alternating conditions of illumination.     

Transference in view of a classical conditioning model

This article presents a qualitative metasynthetic study, addressing 33 transference case studies, that investigates the interrelationship of the transference concept from psychoanalysis and cognitive-behavioral concepts in an attempt to construct a theoretical platform for clinical integration. Relationship between categories analysis was used to compare Luborsky's (1998) transference components (wish, response from other, and response of self) and cognitive-behavioral ones. Results showed reciprocal relations between transference and classical conditioning. Furthermore, explicit occurrences of distorted thinking due to overgeneralization were found in more than 90% of the cases. A conceptual model describes transference as a conditioned response activated by thematic conditioning, a particular case of classical conditioning that repeatedly pairs a given interpersonal situation with internal thematic stimuli, thus shaping the person's narrative. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well.     

The Effects of Experimentally Induced Rumination, Positive Reappraisal, Acceptance, and Distancing When Thinking About a Stressful Event on Affect States in Adolescents

The current study compares the effects of experimentally induced rumination, positive reappraisal, distancing, and acceptance on affect states in adolescents aged 13–18. Participants (N = 160) were instructed to think about a recent stressful event. Next, they received specific instructions on how to think about that event in each condition. Manipulation checks revealed that the manipulations were successful, except for acceptance. The two most reported events were “a fight” and “death of loved one”. Results showed that positive reappraisal (i.e., thinking about the benefits and personal growth) caused a significantly larger increase in positive affect and decrease in negative affect compared to rumination, distancing, and acceptance. Current findings implicate that positive reappraisal seems an adequate coping strategy in the short-term, and therefore could be applied in interventions for youth experiencing difficulties managing negative affect. Future research should focus on long-term effects of these cognitive strategies and on more intensive training of acceptance.     

Job skill discretion and emotion control strategies as antecedents of recovery from work

Recovery from work protects employees’ health and well-being, and therefore it is important to understand its antecedents. The aim of this study conducted among 183 middle-aged participants drawn from the Finnish Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development was to examine whether job skill discretion and emotion control strategies (emotional rumination and emotional inhibition) are related to psychological aspects of recovery from work (subjective recovery evaluation, psychological detachment and relaxation). The results of hierarchical general linear models confirmed the hypothesis that job skill discretion is positively associated with subjective recovery evaluation and relaxation. As expected, high emotional rumination predicted difficulties in psychological detachment and relaxation. Emotional inhibition moderated the relationship between job skill discretion and psychological detachment: where emotional inhibition was at a moderate level, job skill discretion was positively related to psychological detachment. The findings suggest that not only job characteristics but also individual factors contribute to recovery, revealing practical implications for employees, employers and occupational health care professionals seeking to promote employees’ work ability, health and well-being.     

Why are artificial polymorphous concepts so hard for birds to learn?

Stimulus sets defined in terms of artificial polymorphous concepts have frequently been used in experiments to investigate the mechanisms of discrimination of natural concepts, both in humans and in other animals. However, such stimulus sets are frequently difficult for either animals or humans to discriminate. Properties of artificial polymorphous stimulus sets that might explain this difficulty include the complexity of the individual stimuli, the unreliable reinforcement of individual positive features, attentional load, difficulties in discriminating some stimulus dimensions, memory load, and a lack of the correlation between features that characterizes natural concepts. An experiment using chickens as subjects and complex artificial visual stimulus sets investigated these hypotheses by training the birds in discriminations that were not polymorphous but did have some of the properties listed above. Discriminations that involved unreliable reinforcement or high attentional load were found to approach the difficulty of polymorphous concept discriminations, and these two factors together were sufficient to account for the entire difficulty. The usual kind of artificial polymorphous concept may not be a good model for natural concepts as they are perceived and discriminated by birds. A RULEX account of natural concept learning may be preferable.     

The face of schadenfreude: Differentiation of joy and schadenfreude by electromyography

The present study investigated whether the facial expression of the social emotion schadenfreude, the pleasant emotion which arises in response to another’s misfortune, can be differentiated from the facial expression of joy. Schadenfreude was induced by videos displaying unsuccessful penalty shots of Dutch soccer players and joy by successful penalty shots of German soccer players. Thirty-two participants watched videos while the activity of four facial muscles was recorded electromyographically. Furthermore, they judged each stimulus according to valence, arousal, joy, schadenfreude and sadness. Electromyography (EMG) results revealed that schadenfreude expressions did not differ from joy with regard to involved muscles (increase of Musculus zygomaticus major and M. orbicularis oculi activity, decrease of M. corrugator supercilii activity, no activity change of M. frontalis medialis). Furthermore, facial reactions developed fast in both conditions and EMG indicated stronger reactions in the schadenfreude condition, but according to ratings participants felt more pleasure in the joy condition.     

Direct and Indirect Effects of Adolescent Self-Control of Emotions and Behavioral Expression on Adult Health Outcomes

In the ongoing Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development, we examined the direct and indirect effects of self-control of emotions and behavioral expression, as rated by teachers at age 14, on various self-reported health outcomes at age 36 in 123 women and 129 men. The relation between independent and dependent variables was expected to be mediated by health-related behaviors at age 36 (exercise, tobacco use, heavy drinking). Path analysis showed that, in men, low self-control of emotions was linked to self-assessed poor health and physical symptoms indirectly via health-risk behaviors, but directly to disabilities. Behavioral expression at age 14, indexed by social activity, was directly linked to disabilities. In women, behavioral expression was unrelated to health outcomes, but low self-control of emotions was indirectly linked to self-assessed poor health, physical symptoms, and disabilities via health-risk behaviors.     

Associations between personality traits and psychological well-being across time in middle adulthood

Associations of personality traits with psychological well-being (PWB) were analyzed across ages 33–50 as part of an ongoing Finnish longitudinal study (initial N = 369). Bivariate latent growth curve analyses indicated that a low initial level of neuroticism (.75) and high extraversion (.55) correlated strongly with a high level of PWB. Moreover, a high level of conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness also correlated significantly with PWB. The change factor was significant only for openness: the higher the initial level of PWB, the higher the increase in openness from age 33–50. In comparison with emotional well-being, indicated by general life satisfaction, the associations of the personality traits with PWB were significantly stronger for neuroticism, extraversion, and openness.     

ON THE ROAD WITH RELIGION‐AND‐SCIENCE AND THE ROMANCE OF THE PAST

This essay responds to the question “Where Are We Going?Zygon and the Future of Religion‐and‐Science” and was first presented on 9 May 2009 at a symposium honoring Philip Hefner's editorship of Zygon. It offers four suggestions for the future of religion‐and‐science: Ask big questions; encourage cultural literacy in the public sphere; bring a critical voice to other academic disciplines; and include the history of philosophy.