Gratifications, collective self-esteem, online emotional openness, and traitlike communication apprehension as predictors of Facebook uses

This study explores whether and how gratifications and psychological traits impact people's Facebook use. First, a factor analysis of an online survey (N= 437) outlined a unique set of gratifications obtained from the use of Facebook. Six aspects of gratifications (i.e., social surveillance, entertainment, recognition, emotional support, network extension, and maintenance) were identified. Results from regression analyses showed that psychological traits (i.e., collective self-esteem, online emotional openness, and traitlike communication apprehension) were strong predictors of most Facebook gratifications. Additionally, gratifications and, to a lesser extent, psychological traits significantly predicted Facebook usage, both in perceived importance and different indicators in the level of Facebook use.     

The group's search for wholeness: A Jungian perspective

In attempting to address a common group concept from a Jungian perspective, this paper starts by taking competing models as all contributing to laying the foundations of a generally accepted general theory. The theory of the invisible group as elaborated by Agazarian and Peters is taken as one of the most clearly stated models of the group-as-a-whole, and Jung's more obscure concepts of the self, the archetypes, individuation and the collective unconscious are used, not as a competing theory, but as a way of enlarging and enriching what is already known. First an outline of the invisible group theory is given. The theoretical clarity of this model is then contrasted with the richness of the group's fantasies about itself, and it is suggested that these point to a group self which represents the group-as-a-whole. Seen in this way, there are many similarities with Jung's treatment of individuation at an individual level, which are drawn out. Although Jung's model is more difficult to grasp in its paradoxes, it is often nearer to the experience of the group as it continuously and progressively defines itself. Finally, the limitations of models that try to define the group-as-a-whole are examined by looking at the boundaries between the group-as-an-individual and the outside world, which parallels Jung's attempts to view the self as both being the individual and transcending the limits of the individual, so that the group can be seen to develop in its search for wholeness.     

A 25-year follow-up: Some reflections on personality development over the long term

Highlights of our work over the last 30 years are reviewed; we begin with the infants whom we studied in the mid-1950s and conclude with impressions from a follow-up of their development 30 years later. The review begins with our first effort to propose a constructionist view of behavioral organization over the first 3 years of life, in terms of the negotiation by infant and caregiver of a sequence of adaptations in their interaction. This review includes a brief consideration of living systems and some of the principles that constrain the organization of behavior of the participants. Illustration of the way that these principles set up the “event-structure” of a system is given. In its recurrence, this event-structure sets the stage for psychic organization. The application of this early formulation to the study of 25- to 30-year outcome in these same infants studies the hypothesis that the configuration of adaptive strategies that the subject constructs by 2 years of age will be recognizable in the strategies which that individual employs in self-recognition and in the later construction of his ecologic niche at age 25. The logic or rules for this construction are set up over the first 2 years, as the infant's adaptation to the event-structure of the system is achieved and regulates later constructions. The bias set depends on the red thread of the subject's early inner experience of state and emotion (or affect) in relation to the infant's competence as agent in regulating states. A basis for inference as to this red thread of inner experience has been summarized in five propositions of construction. These highlight the patterning of competence in self-regulation within the individual's unique system. The role of infant state and of positive affects in this long-term influence is critical, as is the patterning of competence in enabling the infant to reconstruct desired states as goals in the unique configuration of adaptive solutions achieved for that system.     

A generalized simplex for factor analysis

By a simplex is meant a set of statistical variables whose interrleations reveal a simple order pattern. For the case of quantitative variables, an order model was analyzed previously which allowed only for positive correlations among the variables and a limited type of gradient among the correlation coefficients. The present paper analyzes a more general model and shows how it is more appropriate to empirical data. Among the novel features emerging from the analysis are: (a) the factoring implied of the correlation matrix; (b) the use of a non-Euclidean distance function; and (c) the possible underlying psychological theories.Read at the International Congress of Psychology, Montreal, June 7–12, 1954. This research was facilitated in part by an uncommitted grant-in-aid to the writer from the Behavioral Sciences Division of the Ford Foundation.     

Exploration in outbred mice covaries with general learning abilities irrespective of stress reactivity, emotionality, and physical attributes

Across multiple learning tasks (that place different sensory, motor, and information processing demands on the animals), we have found that the performance of mice is commonly regulated by a single factor ("general learning") that accounts for 30-40% of the variance across individuals and tasks. Furthermore, individuals' general learning abilities were highly correlated with their propensity to engage in exploration in an open field, a behavior that is potentially stress-inducing. This relationship between exploration in the open field and general learning abilities suggests the possibility that variations in stress sensitivity/responsivity or related emotional responses might directly influence individuals' general learning abilities. Here, the relationship of sensory/motor skills and stress sensitivity/emotionality to animals' general learning abilities were assessed. Outbred (CD-1) mice were tested in a battery of six learning tasks as well as 21 tests of exploratory behavior, sensory/motor function and fitness, emotionality, and stress reactivity. The performances of individual mice were correlated across six learning tasks, and the performance measures of all learning tasks loaded heavily on a single factor (principal component analysis), accounting for 32% of the variability between animals and tasks. Open field exploration and seven additional exploratory behaviors (including those exhibited in an elevated plus maze) also loaded heavily on this same factor, although general activity, sensory/motor responses, physical characteristics, and direct measures of fear did not. In a separate experiment, serum corticosterone levels of mice were elevated in response to a mild environmental stressor (confinement on an elevated platform). Stress-induced corticosterone levels were correlated with behavioral fear responses, but were unsystematically related to individuals' propensity for exploration. In total, these results suggest that although general learning abilities are strongly related to individuals' propensity for exploration, this relationship is not attributable to variations in sensory/motor function or the individuals' physiological or behavioral sensitivity to conditions that promote stress or fear.