Lay conceptions of personality: Eliciting tiers of a scientific conception of personality

Two studies are reported which examine the availability of scientific propositions of personality in lay conceptions of personality. It is argued from a social constructivist perspective that models of personality must derive from and refer to lay conceptions of persons. Eysenck's trait-type model of introversion-extraversion, containing specific propositions about phenotypic and genotypic differences between extraverts and introverts, was utilized as the scientific model of personality and its availability in lay conceptions of personality was examined in two studies. In the first study, subjects were presented with a genotypic characterization of either an introvert or an extravert target person and asked to infer corresponding phenotypic differences. In the second study, the inference process was reversed with subjects being asked to infer genotypic characteristics of introverts versus extraverts on the basis of phenotypic target person desecrations of the two types. Results from both studies show a high degree of accuracy in subjects' inferences, suggesting that laypersons have well-formed conceptions about personality containing ‘higher-order’ psychogenetic propositions corresponding to Eysenck's trait-type model. The implications of the findings for theory construction are discussed.     

Social structure features in three inbred strains of mice, C57Bl/6J, Balb/cj, and NIH: a comparative study

Some features of social living were investigated in three inbred strains of mice: C57Bl/6j, Balb/cj, and NIH. Five social behaviors--Aggression, Submission, Allogrooming, Social Rest and Rest Alone, as well as Wheel Running Activity--were recorded 2 h daily for a week, in 26 groups of seven male mice living in an enriched environment. Dominants and subordinates among strains shared some behavioral characteristics, but strain contributions upon social structure were also detected. Similarities among strains included the appearance of a single dominant mouse per group rated as the most aggressive, besides from being the animal presented with most Submissions. Allogrooming was more frequent among subordinates than among dominants and subordinates. Differences among strains were that agonistic behavior among subordinates was higher in the Balb/cj and NIH groups than in the C57Bl/6j mice. NIH mice were recorded in Rest Alone more often than mice from the other strains. C57Bl/6j dominants showed higher rates of Wheel Running Activity than subordinates.     

On structural equation modeling with data that are not missing completely at random

A general latent variable model is given which includes the specification of a missing data mechanism. This framework allows for an elucidating discussion of existing general multivariate theory bearing on maximum likelihood estimation with missing data. Here, missing completely at random is not a prerequisite for unbiased estimation in large samples, as when using the traditional listwise or pairwise present data approaches. The theory is connected with old and new results in the area of selection and factorial invariance. It is pointed out that in many applications, maximum likelihood estimation with missing data may be carried out by existing structural equation modeling software, such as LISREL and LISCOMP. Several sets of artifical data are generated within the general model framework. The proposed estimator is compared to the two traditional ones and found superior.The research of the first author was supported by grant No. SES-8312583 from the National Science Foundation and by a Spencer Foundation grant. We wish to thank Chuen-Rong Chan for drawing the path diagram.     

Assessment of antisocial behaviour in children and adolescents: new data with the ASB scale

Information is given about a series of studies with Allsopp and Feldman's ASB scale (1976) in its Spanish version, which compliments the information collected in Silva, Martorell and Clemente (1986a). It deals with test-retest reliability with an interval of 12 months; with comparisons between anonymous and non-anonymous data, and comparison between self-evaluation and evaluation by others. The results support the metric quality of the ASB scale, inviting revision of some of the common criticisms made of these types of instruments.     

Three-dimensional perspective drawing of two-dimensional functions with microcomputers

In this paper, we present a BASIC program for Apple II series computers that allows the user to obtain perspective drawings of two-dimensional functions of known analytical expression. Also, we outline a procedure for obtaining perspective representations of two-dimensional arrays of data using the same program. The program should run on any computer with graphics mode with only slight modifications in the graphics commands.     

Maps between some different kinds of contraction function: The finite case

In some recent papers, the authors and Peter Gärdenfors have defined and studied two different kinds of formal operation, conceived as possible representations of the intuitive process of contracting a theory to eliminate a proposition. These are partial meet contraction (including as limiting cases full meet contraction and maxichoice contraction) and safe contraction. It is known, via the representation theorem for the former, that every safe contraction operation over a theory is a partial meet contraction over that theory. The purpose of the present paper is to study the relationship more finely, by seeking an explicit map between the component orderings involved in each of the two kinds of contraction. It is shown that at least in the finite case a suitable map exists, with the consequence that the relational, transitively relational, and antisymmetrically relational partial meet contraction functions form identifiable subclasses of the safe contraction functions, over any theory finite modulo logical equivalence. In the process of constructing the map, as the composition of four simple transformations, mediating notions of bottom and top contraction are introduced. The study of the infinite case remains open.     

Emotions as social relationships

While emotions are usually treated as internal states, it is possible to view them as social relationships. From this perspective, the different emotions are not primarily understood in terms of facial expression, physiological pattern, hedonic tone, or level of arousal, but as different transformations of the relationship between person and other. To demonstrate the value of this approach, judgments of the similarity between different emotions were submitted to multidimensional scaling. It is shown that the resulting dimensions describe different aspects of the relation between self and other. These dimensions provide us with a taxonomy of emotions that makes some important distinctions between closely related emotions and leads to some interesting predictions about personality differences.The authors would like to thank David Stevens for his assistance with the statistical analysis, Eric de Rivera for drafting the three-dimensional figures, and James D. Laird and Shula Sommers for their helpful commentary.     

A general structural equation model with dichotomous,ordered categorical,and continuous latent variable indicators

A structural equation model is proposed with a generalized measurement part, allowing for dichotomous and ordered categorical variables (indicators) in addition to continuous ones. A computationally feasible three-stage estimator is proposed for any combination of observed variable types. This approach provides large-sample chi-square tests of fit and standard errors of estimates for situations not previously covered. Two multiple-indicator modeling examples are given. One is a simultaneous analysis of two groups with a structural equation model underlying skewed Likert variables. The second is a longitudinal model with a structural model for multivariate probit regressions.This research was supported by Grant No. 81-IJ-CX-0015 from the National Institute of Justice, by Grant No. DA 01070 from the U.S. Public Health Service, and by Grant No. SES-8312583 from the National Science Foundation. I thank Julie Honig for drawing the figures. Requests for reprints should be sent to Bengt Muthén, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024.     

Personality and context-related factors of helping and helping-related affect during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic led to introduction of lockdown measures in many countries, while in Serbia the Government also introduced the curfew by which vulnerable groups of citizens were prohibited from leaving their homes at any time. In such a situation many citizens organized to voluntarily offer their help to those in isolation, which offered a unique opportunity to examine prosocial behavior in the natural setting of global crisis. This study examined the differences between non-helpers and helpers, as well as groups of helpers who provided their help to close or unknown others, in personality (prosocial tendencies, selfishness and communal narcissism) and context-related factors (situation specific empathy and fear) of prosocial behaviors. Additionally, the study also analyzed the helping-related affect among helpers, depending on the recipient of help and personality characteristics. Results revealed that groups of helpers with different recipients of help (close persons, unknown persons or both) were not different among each other, but they were different from non-helpers. Non-helpers were more selfish and had self-focused prosocial tendencies, and they showed less empathy towards people in isolation, compared to helper groups. However, the helping-related affect depended on the recipient of help and helper's personality traits. This study confirmed some previous findings and offered novel insights into factors related to helping in crises.     

A review on equivalence-based procedures to teach food-portion estimation skills

This review involved a systematic analysis of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) that aimed to improve food-size interventions in diverse populations. Systematic searches identified seven studies published since 2010 that met inclusion criteria. These studies were analyzed according to their participants, design, setting, content taught, training structures, training protocol, testing format, treatment integrity, and outcomes. Results showed EBI procedures for teaching food estimation skills have been mostly implemented with adults. The type of content taught in the identified studies included carbohydrate ranges, portion size with food and non-food items, measuring cups and nutritional content of calories. Majority of included studies used one-to-many training structure and simultaneous protocols for teaching stimulus relations. Five studies completed a generalization probe and three studies reported treatment integrity data. Overall, all participants demonstrated skill acquisition of novel relations between food and portion measurement aides. Recommendations for future research and clinical applications of EBI in teaching food portion estimation are presented.