Personality Trait Differences Between Young and Middle‐Aged Adults: Measurement Artifacts or Actual Trends?

A growing body of research demonstrates that older individuals tend to score differently on personality measures than younger adults. However, recent research using item response theory (IRT) has questioned these findings, suggesting that apparent age differences in personality traits merely reflect artifacts of the response process rather than true differences in the latent constructs. Conversely, other studies have found the opposite—age differences appear to be true differences rather than response artifacts. Given these contradictory findings, the goal of the present study was to examine the measurement equivalence of personality ratings drawn from large groups of young and middle‐aged adults (a) to examine whether age differences in personality traits could be completely explained by measurement nonequivalence and (b) to illustrate the comparability of IRT and confirmatory factor analysis approaches to testing equivalence in this context. Self‐ratings of personality traits were analyzed in two groups of Internet respondents aged 20 and 50 (n = 15,726 in each age group). Measurement nonequivalence across these groups was negligible. The effect sizes of the mean differences due to nonequivalence ranged from –.16 to .15. Results indicate that personality trait differences across age groups reflect actual differences rather than merely response artifacts.     

Generality of the practical functional assessment and skill‐based treatment among individuals with autism and mental health disorders

A practical functional assessment format was recently developed that informed a skill‐based treatment for the problem behavior of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Since its inception there have been multiple replications of the procedures; however, the comprehensive model has rarely been applied to populations with more complex comorbid disorders and severe problem behavior such as those diagnosed with anxiety or depression. We conducted the current study to systematically replicate the entire practical functional assessment and skill‐based treatment model with two participants diagnosed with multiple mental health disorders admitted to a severe behavior outpatient unit. The practical functional assessment identified reinforcers that were provided contingent on increasingly complex forms of communication. Problem behavior remained low for both participants after reinforcement was thinned by increasing a response requirement of completing difficult tasks. Furthermore, the results were socially validated by the parents and teachers and the treatment was extended to the home setting.