From ABLE to TAPAS: A New Generation of Personality Tests to Support Military Selection and Classification Decisions

This article discusses 3 modern forced-choice personality tests developed for the U.S Armed Services to provide resistance to faking and other forms of response distortion: the Assessment of Individual Motivation, the Navy Computerized Adaptive Personality Scales, and the Tailored Adaptive Personality Assessment System. These tests represent the transition from Likert to forced-choice formats and from static to computerized adaptive item selection to meet the challenges of large-scale, high-stakes testing environments. For each test, we briefly describe the personality constructs that are assessed, the response format and scoring methods, and selected ongoing research and development efforts. We also highlight the potential of these tests for personnel selection, classification, and diagnostic screening purposes.     

Predictors of Diabetes Fatalism Among Arabs: A Cross-Sectional Study of Lebanese Adults with Type 2 Diabetes

Fatalism is a grounded cultural belief that is common among Arabs and is known to hinder self-care in chronic diseases including diabetes (Nabolsi and Carson in Scand J Caring Sci 25(4):716–724, 2011). The purpose of this study is to identify predictors of diabetes fatalism in this population. Data on 280 Lebanese patients with type 2 diabetes (mean age 58.24 ± 13.48 years; mean HbA1c 7.90 ± 1.90%; 53.76% females) recruited from one hospital in greater Beirut, Lebanon, and from the community using snowballing technique were examined. Multiple linear regression was used to assess the independent association between diabetes fatalism and demographic and patient characteristics. Age (β = ?.14, 95% CI ?.27, ?.002), BMI (β = .35, 95% CI .15; .54), level of education (β = ?3.98, 95% CI ?7.64; ?.32) and number of diabetes problems (β = ?5.03, 95% CI ?9.89; ?.18) were significantly associated with diabetes fatalism in the regression model. The combination of demographic and patient characteristics accounted for 14.5% of the variance in diabetes fatalism scores’ change. Patients with type 2 diabetes who exhibited more fatalistic attitudes were younger, of lower education levels, had higher BMI and had fewer diabetes comorbidities. Such findings are crucial for healthcare practitioners to identify fatalistic patients and to tailor culturally appropriate strategies in diabetes management. Further studies are warranted to explore other potential determinants of diabetes fatalism with larger sample and non-Lebanese Arabic population.     

Influence of Social Support Received in Online and Offline Contexts on Satisfaction With Social Support and Satisfaction With Life: A Longitudinal Study

People around the globe now regularly interact with family and friends through social network sites (SNSs). In this article, we investigated the differences between social interactions in online and offline contexts as well as users' satisfaction with the social support received in these contexts. It was hypothesized that SNSs are better set up for the task of leveraging informational support but that they are inferior to offline contexts in terms of emotional or instrumental support. We further assumed that users might feel similarly satisfied with how support is rendered online and offline but that only social support transacted in offline contexts would contribute to overall life satisfaction. All hypotheses were supported by longitudinal data (N = 327) that were used to investigate social support over the course of 2 years with 4 points of measurement.     

Try it, you'll like it: the influence of expectation, consumption, and revelation on preferences for beer

Patrons of a pub evaluated regular beer and "MIT brew" (regular beer plus a few drops of balsamic vinegar) in one of three conditions. One group tasted the samples blind (the secret ingredient was never disclosed). A second group was informed of the contents before tasting. A third group learned of the secret ingredient immediately after tasting, but prior to indicating their preference. Not surprisingly, preference for the MIT brew was higher in the blind condition than in either of the two disclosure conditions. However, the timing of the information mattered substantially. Disclosure of the secret ingredient significantly reduced preference only when the disclosure preceded tasting, suggesting that disclosure affected preferences by influencing the experience itself, rather than by acting as an independent negative input or by modifying retrospective interpretation of the experience.