The Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT) as a measure of academic achievement and general intelligence

The degree to which practical, creative, and analytical abilities, measured by the Sternberg Triarchic Abilities Test (STAT) (Sternberg, 1993), significantly contribute to the prediction of academic achievement, independent of general intelligence, was investigated. Although Sternberg et al. (2000) claim that the STAT is not related to, nor a measure of, general intelligence, data obtained by Sternberg, Ferrari, Clinkenbeard, and Grigorenko (1996), found that STAT scores were significantly correlated with measures of general intelligence. In the present study, introductory psychology midterm examination grades, STAT scores, and Wonderlic Personnel Test scores (as a measure of general intelligence), were obtained from undergraduate students at the University of Western Ontario (N=150). Total STAT scores and each of the STAT subsection scores were significantly related to Wonderlic test scores, P<0.01, and the STAT subsections were significantly related to each other, P<0.01. The partial correlations between midterm grades and creative, practical, analytical, and total STAT scores, with the variance due to the Wonderlic test removed, were also found to be significant for practical and for total STAT scores, P<0.05, but nonsignificant for creative and analytical STAT scores. A factor analysis including midterm examination grades, the Wonderlic test, and each of the STAT subsections revealed a single general factor. Thus, some results supported Sternberg but others were contrary to his claims.     

Maternal Antisocial Behavior, Parenting Practices, and Behavior Problems in Boys at Risk for Antisocial Behavior

We investigated the independent contributions of maternal history of antisocial behavior and parenting practices to the worsening course of sons' behavior problems in a sample of young urban boys at risk for antisocial behavior. Mothers reported on boys' behavior problems at baseline and one year later, as well as on their own history of antisocial behavior before and after age 15, and of lifetime depression and substance use disorders (provisional DSM-III-R diagnoses). Baseline reports of parenting practices were obtained. Lower involvement, lower monitoring, and higher levels of parent–child conflict and maternal Conduct Disorder (CD) before age 15 contributed to the worsening of boys' behavior problems one year later; mothers' symptoms of Antisocial Personality Disorder after age 15 did not. Mothers' lifetime history of Major Depression and Substance Use Disorder did not add to the worsening of boys' behavior problems after accounting for these other factors. Although maternal CD contributed directly to the worsening of boys' behavior problems, the effect of parenting was more substantial. We discuss clinical implications for prevention and treatment of children's antisocial behavior, and intergenerational implications of girls' early antisocial behavior.     

No deficits in nonverbal memory, metamemory and internal as well as external source memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

A large body of literature suggests that some symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) result from mnemonic dysfunctions. The present study tested various formulations of the memory deficit hypothesis considering important moderators, such as depression and response slowing. Thirty-two OCD patients and 32 healthy controls were presented verbal or nonverbal instructions for actions (e.g. simple gestures). These actions should either be performed or imagined. For recognition, previously presented as well as novel actions were displayed. Decisions had to be made whether an action was previously displayed (verbally vs. nonverbally) or not and whether an action was performed or imagined (internal source memory). Moreover, both judgments required confidence ratings. Groups did not differ in memory accuracy and metamemory for verbally presented material. Patients displayed some impairment for nonverbally presented material and imagined instructions, which, however, could be fully accounted for by response slowing and depressive symptoms. The study challenges the view that primary memory deficits underlie OCD or any of its subtypes. We claim that research should move forward from the mere study of objective impairment to the assessment of cognitive performance in conjunction with personality traits such as inflated responsibility.     

Role of collective self-esteem on youth violence in a collective culture

Youth violence involvement has always been the focus of significant research attention. However, as most of the studies on youth violence have been conducted in Western cultures, little is known about the antecedents of violence in the Asian context. Researchers have suggested that collectivism might be the reason for the lower violent crime rates in Asia. Nevertheless, the present study proposes an alternative approach to the collectivistic orientation and violence relationship: The possibility that allocentrism (collectivist tendency at the individual difference level) might shape the meaning of and the attitudes towards violence; thus not all aspects of a collectivist culture serve as deterrents for violence. Instead of viewing it as a random individual act, violence in a collective cultural context could be seen, under certain circumstances, as a social obligation to one's in-group (especially when one's in-group is supportive of violence) and as an internalization of the norms and values of the culture. Thus, the present study investigates the relationship between allocentrism and its relation to violence in a highly collectivist Asian culture, Singapore. We further hypothesized that collective self-esteem might serve as the mediator between allocentrism and the values of violence. Using a sample of 149 incarcerated Singaporean male adolescents, results support the proposed theoretical model whereby collective self-esteem was found to mediate between allocentrism and the culture's norms and attitudes of violence, which eventually lead to physical violence behaviours.     

A clinical contribution to the etiology of lesbianism

Lesbianism may be viewed as an attempt to rectify malfunctioning in the original mother/daughter dyad. This paper discusses how failure of the girl child to establish female identification is preceded by failure to individuate, causing regression to an earlier symbiotic stage, resulting in feelings and desire for merging. It is this failure in development, regression to the symbiotic stage and wish to merge which may be a crucial component in the lesbian personality. The course of treatment of a young woman, who was not sure whether she was lesbian or not, is described with focus on her request for a hypnotic session, which was done by another therapist.     

Beyond Consistency: Contextual Dependency of Language Style in Monolog and Conversation

Language is highly dynamic: It unfolds over time, and we can use it to achieve a wide variety of communicative goals, from telling a story to trying to persuade another person. One aspect of language that has gained increasing popularity among researchers in the last several decades is the individual language style (LS) represented by an individual’s use of function words (e.g., pronouns, articles). Previous approaches to LS mostly focus on LS of one individual in isolation, paying less attention to the fact that language emerges from interaction with others. The aim of this paper is twofold: First, we integrate LS into a dynamical theoretical framework and present an innovative methodological approach. Second, this paper aims to address how interactive conversation—as an aspect of the communicative setting—changes an individual’s LS. We use recurrence quantification analysis to look at structure in patterns of LS in monologs and conversations of 118 participants. Our results showed that LS significantly differs from monolog to conversation, and post hoc analyses further revealed that the change in LS is greater for conflict than for friendly conversations. The difference between monologs and conversations is reflected more strongly in the dynamics (i.e., structure and complexity) of LS than the proportion of function words used. Theoretical implications and directions for future studies are discussed.     

Health care practitioners' perceptions of public mental health care in the Eastern Cape,South Africa

This qualitative study explored the perceptions of health care practitioners (HCPs) concerning public mental health care in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Data were collected from thirteen purposively selected HCPs using in-depth unstructured interviews (males?=?6, females?=?7). Data were transcribed verbatim and later thematically analysed. The findings suggest that mental health professionals perceive mental health services to be both inadequate and of suboptimal quality. Specifically, they perceived public mental health care to have lower priority, to be poorly resourced and lacking in patient-oriented care qualities.     

Identity status measurement across contexts: variations in measurement structure and mean levels among White American, Hispanic American, and Swedish emerging adults

We conducted this study to examine measurement equivalence and mean differences in identity status across 3 ethnic/cultural contexts: White American, Hispanic American, and Swedish. We used the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status II (EOM-EIS-II; Bennion & Adams, 1986), a commonly used instrument in the identity status literature. We conducted analyses to ascertain the extent to which the EOM-EIS-II functioned equivalently in 3 ethnically/culturally different samples. The internal structure of the measure was consistent across contexts. When we statistically controlled effects of age and gender, mean differences tended to be largely cross-cultural at the observed level of analysis but to be both cross-ethnic and cross-cultural at the latent level of analysis. This divergence in findings was found despite the limited age range represented in each of the samples. We therefore concluded that measurement error may have played a role in these differences and that data gathered using the EOM-EIS-II should be analyzed using latent variable methods. We discuss results in terms of using the EOM-EIS-II with diverse populations.     

Unpacking psychological inequalities in organisations: Psychological capital reconsidered

In this paper, we argue that psychological capital is unequally distributed among people from different social classes, ethnic backgrounds and genders. Confronting the limitations of the current, individualistic perspective on psychological capital, we offer a re-conceptualisation of the construct from a critical, interdisciplinary perspective, placing it at the intersection of sociology and psychology. We discuss the various mechanisms through which social inequalities may cause differential access to psychological capital for members of low- and high-status social groups and show how this differential access to psychological capital results in and exacerbates social inequalities. By doing this, we postulate a recursive theory on psychological capital that both recognises the formative effect of socio-organisational structures on one's psychology and vice versa.