Graduate employment status and health: a longitudinal analysis of the transition from student

The prevalence of unemployment and underemployment was explored longitudinally in 248 recent graduates (73 males and 175 females) over an 18–24 month transition from final year student to 9–12 months post-graduation. Over this period changes in levels of psychological distress, health behaviours, social support, optimism and achievement motivation were measured. Results show that both unemployment and underemployment have deleterious effects on psychological and physical health, social support, optimism and achievement motivation.

A Review of Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion,Volume 15

Book reviewed in this article: Ralph L. Piedmont and David O. Moberg, Eds. (2005). Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 15.     

Perceived differences between chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) and human (Homo sapiens) facial expressions are related to emotional interpretation

Human face perception is a finely tuned, specialized process. When comparing faces between species, therefore, it is essential to consider how people make these observational judgments. Comparing facial expressions may be particularly problematic, given that people tend to consider them categorically as emotional signals, which may affect how accurately specific details are processed. The bared-teeth display (BT), observed in most primates, has been proposed as a homologue of the human smile (J. A. R. A. M. van Hooff, 1972). In this study, judgments of similarity between BT displays of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and human smiles varied in relation to perceived emotional valence. When a chimpanzee BT was interpreted as fearful, observers tended to underestimate the magnitude of the relationship between certain features (the extent of lip corner raise) and human smiles. These judgments may reflect the combined effects of categorical emotional perception, configural face processing, and perceptual organization in mental imagery and may demonstrate the advantages of using standardized observational methods in comparative facial expression research.     

Reality monitoring and the media

The study of reality monitoring is concerned with the factors and processes that influence the veridicality of memories and knowledge, and the reasonableness of beliefs. In thinking about the mass media and reality monitoring, there are intriguing and challenging issues at multiple levels of analysis. At the individual level, we can ask how the media influence individuals' memories, knowledge and beliefs, and what determines whether individuals are able to identify and mitigate or benefit from the media's effects. At the institutional level, we can ask about the factors that determine the veridicality of the information presented, for example, the institutional procedures and criteria used for assessing and controlling the quality of the products produced. At the inter‐institutional level we can consider the role that the media play in monitoring the products and actions of other institutions (e.g. government) and, in turn, how other institutions monitor the media. Interaction across these levels is also important, for example, how does individuals' trust in, or cynicism about, the media's institutional reality monitoring mechanisms affect how individuals process the media and, in turn, how the media engages in intra‐ and inter‐institutional reality monitoring. The media are interesting not only as an important source of individuals' cognitions and emotions, but for the key role the media play in a critical web of social/cultural reality monitoring mechanisms. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Culture and the behavioural manifestations of traits: an application of the Act Frequency Approach

The behavioural manifestations of Big Five traits were compared across cultures using the Act Frequency Approach. American (n = 176) and Filipino (n = 195) students completed a Big Five measure and act frequency ratings for behaviours performed during the past month. Acts for specific traits cohered to an equivalent degree across cultures. In both cultures, the structure of act composites resembled the Big Five and the strength of trait‐behaviour relationships was very similar. Many acts were multidimensional and analyses revealed cultural commonalities and differences in the relevance and prevalence of acts for the Big Five traits. The results were more consistent with trait than cultural psychology perspectives, because traits predicted behaviour equally well, on average, in the two cultures. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Multilevel modelling: Beyond the basic applications

Over the last 30 years statistical algorithms have been developed to analyse datasets that have a hierarchical/multilevel structure. Particularly within developmental and educational psychology these techniques have become common where the sample has an obvious hierarchical structure, like pupils nested within a classroom. We describe two areas beyond the basic applications of multilevel modelling that are important to psychology: modelling the covariance structure in longitudinal designs and using generalized linear multilevel modelling as an alternative to methods from signal detection theory (SDT). Detailed code for all analyses is described using packages for the freeware R.     

The Pathoplastic Relationship Between Interpersonal Problems and Fear of Failure

ABSTRACT This study advances the understanding of fear of failure (FF), a dispositional avoidance-oriented achievement motive, by employing interpersonal classification techniques to groups of individuals who fear failure in order to examine the pathoplastic relations between FF and interpersonal problems. Shame-based FF is thought to be related to the self-regulation strategies of appeasement and aggression, and these strategies are hypothesized to be associated with the interpersonal problems of Nonassertiveness and Vindictiveness, respectively. Using 2 independent samples ( n s=60 and 38) reporting high FF, interpersonal profiles were examined for the groups in their entirety and for cluster solutions within the larger samples. Results demonstrated that individuals high in FF exhibited 1 of 2 prototypical interpersonal profiles associated with Domineering/Vindictive or Nonassertive/Exploitable problems that correspond with the hypothesized aggression and appeasement regulation strategies. Consistent with the concept of pathoplasticity, these differences were not better accounted for by demographic, affective, motivational, personality, or attachment style characteristics of the samples.