A Multimethod Multitrait Validity Assessment of Self‐Construal in Japan,Korea, and the United States

A large number of previous studies have used self‐construal to predict communication outcomes. Recent evidence, however, suggests that validity problems may exist in self‐construal measurement. The current study conducted a multimethod multitrait (Campbell & Fiske, 1959) validation study of self‐construal measures with data (total N= 578) collected in Korea (N= 200), Japan (N= 212), and the U.S. (N= 166). The data showed that the Singelis (1994) Self‐Construal Scale, the Cross, Bacon, and Morris (2000) Relational Interdependent Self‐Construal Scale (RISC), and the Kuhn and McPartland (1954) Twenty Statements Test (TST) lacked convergent and discriminant validity, both pan‐culturally and within each of the three countries included in the study. Scores on the TST were not significantly related to scores on the self‐construal scales, and the various self‐construal measures correlated more highly with measures of communication directness than with alternative measures of the same type of self‐construal. Substantial method effects were also observed. The results were tested for both 2‐ and 3‐dimensional models of self‐construal and for refined scales and scales with all items retained. The results of all analyses were inconsistent with the claim that self‐construal measures are construct valid.     

Comparison of the Matthews Youth Test for Health and the Hunter-Wolf A-B Rating Scale: measures of type A behavior in children

This study evaluated the extent to which two youth measures of Type A behavior--the Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH) and the Hunter-Wolf A-B Rating Scale--similarly assess the Type A construct. Data from 25 elementary teachers and from 300 of their students revealed that these scales are weakly correlated and that the concordance of their Type A-Type B classifications was only slightly above that expected by chance. Weak agreement was found even when teachers and students rated the same Type A behaviors, which suggests that variability in content was not the principal reason for the lack of agreement between these measures. The major implication of this study is that the MYTH and the Hunter-Wolf scale should not be considered interchangeable measures of Type A behavior. The study reveals that investigators' choice of a Type A measure may strongly affect the nature of their research findings and may inhibit the integration of their data with data from other investigators who employ different measures of the Type A construct. It is recommended that, if multiple measures cannot be used in a study, the investigator employ the MYTH.     

The Causal Organisation of Emotional Knowledge: A Developmental Study

Abstract

Using a theory of emotional understanding, the basis for distinguishing among happiness, anger, and sadness was investigated. Three and six-year-old children and adults predicted and explained people's emotional responses to different types of events. The events varied as to whether a person's goal was to attain or to avoid a state, whether the goal was achieved or not, who or what was responsible for success or failure, and whether the outcome was intentional or accidental. For all groups, the attainment and maintenance of goals was the primary focus of explanations for emotions and for the plans that followed emotions. A distinct set of features was used to infer and explain happiness as opposed to anger and sadness. Happiness was elicited by goal success and was followed by plans to maintain or enjoy current goal states. Anger and sadness were elicited by goal failure and were followed by plans to reinstate, replace, or forfeit goals. Anger occurred more frequently than sadness when an aversive rather than a loss state occurred, when an animate agent rather than a natural event caused a negative outcome, and when attention was focused on the cause rather than the consequence of goal failure. Two dimensions associated with anger changed as a function of age. First grade children, and adults were more likely than preschool children to predict anger in response to intentional harm, and their explanations for anger were more likely to refer to the agent or cause of goal failure. For all age groups, however, the majority of subjects responded to aversive situations with anger responses, independent of the causal conditions that produced the aversive state. The results therefore indicate that anger can be produced without intentional harm, but that intentional harm becomes an important dimension in attributing anger, especially as a function of development.     

Cognitive and motor deficits in older adults with HIV infection: Comparison with normal ageing and Parkinson’s disease

Despite the life-extending success of antiretroviral pharmacotherapy in HIV infection (HIV), the prevalence of mild cognitive impairment in HIV remains high. Near-normal life expectancy invokes an emerging role for age–infection interaction and a potential synergy between immunosenescence and HIV-related health factors, increasing risk of cognitive and motor impairment associated with degradation in corticostriatal circuits. These neural systems are also compromised in Parkinson’s disease (PD), which could help model the cognitive deficit pattern in HIV. This cross-sectional study examined three groups, age 45–79 years: 42 HIV, 41 PD, and 37 control (CTRL) participants, tested at Stanford University Medical School and SRI International. Neuropsychological tests assessed executive function (EF), information processing speed (IPS), episodic memory (MEM), visuospatial processing (VSP), and upper motor (MOT) speed and dexterity. The HIV and PD deficit profiles were similar for EF, MEM, and VSP. Although only the PD group was impaired on MOT compared with CTRL, MOT scores were related to cognitive scores in HIV but not PD. Performance was not related to depressive symptoms, socioeconomic status, or CD4⁺ T-cell counts. The overlap of HIV-PD cognitive deficits implicates frontostriatal disruption in both conditions. The motor-cognitive score relation in HIV provides further support for the hypothesis that these processes share similar underlying mechanisms in HIV infection possibly expressed with or exacerbated by ageing.     

Duration of attention: The perceptual deprivation effect

College students viewed 18-sided randomly generated polygons. They were told to attend to each form until they “finished looking at it.” Before each stimulus presentation, 2, 16, 30, or 44 sec of perceptual deprivation was administered. The results indicated that there was a direct relationship between the duration of perceptual deprivation and the duration of attention. The results were interpreted in terms of the deprivation establishing a need for stimulation that is satisfied by attending.