Challenges associated with a polythetic diagnostic system: criteria combinations in the personality disorders

Converging research on the diagnostic criteria for personality disorders (PDs) reveals that most criteria have different psychometric properties. This finding is inconsistent with the PD diagnostic system according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994), which weights each criterion equally. The purpose of the current study was to examine the potential effects of using equal weights for differentially functioning criteria. Data from over 2,100 outpatients were used to analyze and score response patterns to the diagnostic criteria for 9 PDs within an item response theory framework. Results indicated that combinations that included the same number of endorsed criteria yielded differing estimates of PD traits, depending on which criteria were met. Moreover, trait estimates from subthreshold criteria combinations often overlapped with diagnostic (at-threshold or higher) combinations, indicating that there were subthreshold combinations of criteria that indicated as much or more PD than did some combinations at the diagnostic threshold. These results suggest that counting the number of criteria an individual meets provides only a coarse estimation of his or her PD trait level. Implications for the assessment of polythetically defined mental disorders and for the PD proposal for the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders are discussed.     

Seeing is believing: Trustworthiness as a dynamic belief

Recent efforts to understand the mechanisms underlying human cooperation have focused on the notion of trust, with research illustrating that both initial impressions and previous interactions impact the amount of trust people place in a partner. Less is known, however, about how these two types of information interact in iterated exchanges. The present study examined how implicit initial trustworthiness information interacts with experienced trustworthiness in a repeated Trust Game. Consistent with our hypotheses, these two factors reliably influence behavior both independently and synergistically, in terms of how much money players were willing to entrust to their partner and also in their post-game subjective ratings of trustworthiness. To further understand this interaction, we used Reinforcement Learning models to test several distinct processing hypotheses. These results suggest that trustworthiness is a belief about probability of reciprocation based initially on implicit judgments, and then dynamically updated based on experiences. This study provides a novel quantitative framework to conceptualize the notion of trustworthiness.     

Test of a brief theory of planned behaviour‐based intervention to promote adolescent safe sex intentions

The present study tested a brief (303 word) intervention designed to change attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control regarding a safe sex behaviour in a sample of 16‐ to 18‐year‐olds. Participants (N = 288) were randomized to receive either an experimental intervention or a control (knowledge only) intervention and completed measures of their reactions to the stimuli as well as pre‐ and post‐test measures of theory of planned behaviour variables. The experimental intervention significantly increased message processing (mean between‐group difference = 0.73, 95% CI = 0.40, 1.06; Cohen's d = .52), message acceptance (mean between‐group difference = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.57, 1.07; Cohen's d = .77), subjective norm (adjusted Mean between‐group difference = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.26, 0.81; Cohen's d = .37; mean within‐group difference for intervention condition = 0.59, 95% CI = 0.36, 0.81; Cohen's d = .38) and intention (adjusted Mean between‐group difference = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.02, 0.53; Cohen's d = .20; mean within‐group difference for intervention condition = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.33, 0.75; Cohen's d = .31), but not attitude or perceived behavioural control. The effects of the experimental intervention on intention were mediated solely through subjective norm. The present findings: (a) compare favourably in terms of the effect sizes reported in previous research in this area (mean Cohen's d for within‐group difference for intervention conditions = .009 and .09, for norms and intention, respectively, see Albarracín et al. (2003) ), (b) imply that subjective norms are causally related to intentions, and (c) suggest that interventions designed to change subjective norms (as opposed to communication of risks and fear appeals) might ultimately be effective in changing behaviour.     

Prosociality and morality through the lens of personality psychology

Prosociality and morality are critical to the functioning and flourishing of society. There is, however, great variation in the degree to which individuals help or hinder one another, or adhere to ethical standards of “rightness.” One way to understand this variation is by drawing on theories and models within personality psychology, which may illuminate the basic individual characteristics that drive a wide range of other-regarding tendencies. In this review, we provide a snapshot of three research strands addressing these themes. The first concerns how personality traits map onto prosocial preferences for fairness and cooperation, as studied using classic social decision-making tasks called economic games. The second concerns the robust associations between personality traits and indicators of inter-group prejudice (e.g., authoritarian ideology). The third concerns the emerging concept of moral exceptionality, and the personality traits that may characterise individuals at the forefront of moral progress. These examples demonstrate the core role that personality psychology is playing in the study of prosocial and moral behaviour, as well as the critical mass emerging in the Australian context around these themes.     

How many voices did you hear? Natural variability disrupts identity perception from unfamiliar voices

Our voices sound different depending on the context (laughing vs. talking to a child vs. giving a speech), making within‐person variability an inherent feature of human voices. When perceiving speaker identities, listeners therefore need to not only ‘tell people apart’ (perceiving exemplars from two different speakers as separate identities) but also ‘tell people together’ (perceiving different exemplars from the same speaker as a single identity). In the current study, we investigated how such natural within‐person variability affects voice identity perception. Using voices from a popular TV show, listeners, who were either familiar or unfamiliar with this show, sorted naturally varying voice clips from two speakers into clusters to represent perceived identities. Across three independent participant samples, unfamiliar listeners perceived more identities than familiar listeners and frequently mistook exemplars from the same speaker to be different identities. These findings point towards a selective failure in ‘telling people together’. Our study highlights within‐person variability as a key feature of voices that has striking effects on (unfamiliar) voice identity perception. Our findings not only open up a new line of enquiry in the field of voice perception but also call for a re‐evaluation of theoretical models to account for natural variability during identity perception.     

Attachment models of the self and others: Relations with self‐esteem,humanity‐esteem,and parental treatment

The present research tested the extent to which perceptions of early childhood experiences with parents predicted general views of the self (i.e., self‐esteem) and others (i.e., humanity‐esteem), and whether attachment self‐ and other‐models mediated these links. Two studies used a new measure of humanity‐esteem (Luke & Maio, 2004) to achieve these ends. As expected, indices that tapped a positive model of the self in relationships were associated with high self‐esteem and indices that tapped a positive model of others in relationships were associated with high humanity‐esteem. Also, early attachment experiences with fathers and mothers predicted self‐esteem and humanity‐esteem, respectively, and these direct relations were mediated by the attachment models. The studies, therefore, provide direct evidence that attachment measures predict general favorability toward the self and others, while revealing novel differences in the roles of childhood experiences with fathers and mothers.

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Executive function and theory of mind: stability and prediction from ages 2 to 3

Several studies have demonstrated a relation between executive functioning (EF) and theory of mind (ToM) in preschoolers, yet the developmental course of this relation remains unknown. Longitudinal stability and EF-ToM relations were examined in 81 children at 24 and 39 months. At Time 1, EF was unrelated to behavioral measures of ToM but was significantly related to parent report of children's internal-state language, independent of vocabulary size. At Time 2, behavioral batteries of EF and ToM were significantly related (r=.50, p<.01). Furthermore, EF (Time 1) significantly predicted ToM (Time 2), independent of several controls. A reciprocal relation (internal-state language --> EF at Time 2) was nonsignificant with the controls included. Individual differences in EF were relatively stable.     

The appraisal of social concerns scale: psychometric validation with a clinical sample of patients with social anxiety disorder

The Appraisal of Social Concerns (ASC) Scale was created by Telch et al. (2004) to improve upon existing self-report measures of social anxiety–related cognition. In a largely nonclinical sample, the ASC was found to possess three factors and was psychometrically sound. In a smaller clinical sample, the ASC demonstrated sensitivity to the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy. In the present study, the psychometric properties of the ASC were examined in a larger sample of patients with social anxiety disorder. In this sample, the ASC exhibited a 2-factor structure; the nature of the factors was similar to the primary factors originally reported by Telch et al. The ASC also demonstrated strong validity, internal consistency, and sensitivity to treatment effects. It is concluded that the ASC may be useful in the assessment of cognition and cognitive change in patients with social anxiety disorder.