Personality and culture,the Social Science Research Council,and liberal social engineering: The Advisory Committee on Personality and Culture, 1930–1934

The field of personality and culture was given a significant impetus during the 1930s with the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Personality and Culture (1930–1934) by the Social Science Research Council. This committee provided an early formulation of personality and culture that emphasized the interdisciplinary focus on the processes of personality formation within small‐scale social settings. The committee's formulation also coupled personality and culture with a liberal social engineering approach geared toward cultural reconstruction. Major social scientists and clinicians were involved in the activities of the committee, including Edward Sapir, W. I. Thomas, E. W. Burgess, E. A. Bott, Robert S. Woodworth, Harry Stack Sullivan, C. M. Hincks, and Adolf Meyer. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Combining diversity and dispersion criteria for anticlustering: A bicriterion approach

Most partitioning methods used in psychological research seek to produce homogeneous groups (i.e., groups with low intra-group dissimilarity). However, there are also applications where the goal is to provide heterogeneous groups (i.e., groups with high intra-group dissimilarity). Examples of these anticlustering contexts include construction of stimulus sets, formation of student groups, assignment of employees to project work teams, and assembly of test forms from a bank of items. Unfortunately, most commercial software packages are not equipped to accommodate the objective criteria and constraints that commonly arise for anticlustering problems. Two important objective criteria for anticlustering based on information in a dissimilarity matrix are: a diversity measure based on within-cluster sums of dissimilarities; and a dispersion measure based on the within-cluster minimum dissimilarities. In many instances, it is possible to find a partition that provides a large improvement in one of these two criteria with little (or no) sacrifice in the other criterion. For this reason, it is of significant value to explore the trade-offs that arise between these two criteria. Accordingly, the key contribution of this paper is the formulation of a bicriterion optimization problem for anticlustering based on the diversity and dispersion criteria, along with heuristics to approximate the Pareto efficient set of partitions. A motivating example and computational study are provided within the framework of test assembly.     

Author gender differences in psychology citation impact 1996–2018

Academic psychology in the USA is a gender success story in terms of overturning its early male dominance but there are still relatively few senior female psychology researchers. To assess whether there are gender differences in citation impact that might help to explain either of these trends, this study investigates psychology articles since 1996. Seven out of eight Scopus psychology categories had a majority of female first-authored journal articles by 2018. From regression analyses of first and last author gender and team size, female first authors associate with a slightly higher average citation impact, but extra authors have a 10 times stronger association with higher average citation impact. Last author gender has little association with citation impact. Female first authors are more likely to be in larger teams and if team size is attributed to the first author's work, then their apparent influence of female first authors on citation impact doubles. While gender differences in average citation impact are too small to account for gender-related trends in academic psychology, they warn that male-dominated citation-based ranking lists of psychologists do not reflect the state of psychology research today.     

Roles of Religious Commitment,Emotion Regulation and Social Support in Preoperative Anxiety

Surgery is a relatively commonplace medical procedure in healthcare settings. The mental health status of the person undergoing surgery is vital, but there is dearth of empirical studies on the mental health status of surgery patients, particularly with regard to the factors associated with anxiety in surgical conditions. This study investigated the roles of religious commitment, emotion regulation (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and social support in preoperative anxiety in a sample of 210 surgical inpatients from a Nigerian tertiary healthcare institution. A cross-sectional design was adopted. Before the surgery, respondents completed the state anxiety subscale of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Religious Commitment Inventory, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. After controlling for relevant demographic factors, regression results showed that cognitive reappraisal, social support and interpersonal religious commitment were negatively associated with preoperative anxiety, while expressive suppression was positively associated with preoperative anxiety. The emotion regulation strategies made robust and significant explanation of variance in preoperative anxiety. Appropriate interventions to promote interpersonal religious commitment, encourage cognitive reappraisal and enhance social support quality may improve mental health outcomes in surgery.

     

Resident-Led Neighborhood Development to Support Health: Identifying Strategies Using CBPR

Evidence suggests that where people live, learn, work, and play affects a range of health outcomes for children and adults. Differential access to social, economic, and environmental supports puts some community members at greater risk, leading to disparities in health and well-being. The 2014 release of the For the Sake of All report highlighted persistent health disparities for African Americans in St. Louis, Missouri, and their social and economic impacts on the St. Louis region. This study extends this work by developing partnerships with community organizations and neighborhood residents to address health disparities. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods were utilized to engage partners in a 10-month research process to address community concerns that impact health. Seven community residents, neighborhood researchers, engaged in workshops to learn about the research process and used techniques to gather information to implement action strategies. Neighborhood researchers selected 14 vacant lots to implement their action plan, which included visions for repurposing the land into a community park, produced a report for dissemination, and organized a community action forum to communicate their findings. This study highlights a promising approach to promote healthy communities and health equity by empowering neighborhood residents using participatory methodologies.     

An experience sampling study of the momentary dynamics of moral,autonomous, competent,and related need satisfactions,moral enactments,and psychological thriving

Motivation and Emotion - Do people really have a psychological need to be moral? We present results from an experience sampling study of momentary moral need satisfaction, moral behaviors, and...     

Instructor behavior associated with trainee attentiveness during behavioral training workshops: A preliminary assessment

A variable affecting the success of behavioral training workshops is the degree to which workshop instructors promote attentiveness among trainees. This study represented a preliminary assessment of trainee attentiveness associated with different types of workshop instructor behavior. Attentiveness among 298 people attending 21 training workshops was observed as instructors engaged in different categories and subcategories of behavior. Results indicated a decreasing trend in trainee attentiveness as instructors spent more time exclusively talking and talking with a slide presentation. Relatedly, trainee attentiveness was lowest when instructors were talking with and without a slide presentation relative to engaging in these plus other behaviors (asking a question, telling a story, changing instructors, showing a video, providing a participant activity, and/or expressing humor). Results are discussed in terms of behavior analysts conducting workshops in light of instructional behavior associated with high levels of trainee attentiveness and exerting caution with time spent exclusively talking and talking with slide presentations. Future research areas discussed focus on ways to further specify workshop instructor behavior that promotes or impedes trainee attentiveness.     

Computational Goals,Values and Decision-Making

Science and Engineering Ethics - Considering the popular framing of an artificial intelligence as a rational agent that always seeks to maximise its expected utility, referred to as its goal, one...     

The impact of postpartum depressed mood on mother-infant interaction: Like mother like baby?

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that mothers with depressed mood would exhibit less optimal interaction than their nondepressed counterparts and that their infants would show similar deficits in interactional behavior. Twenty-two mothers and their 2-month-old infants were videotaped in to-minute free-play segments in a laboratory playroom, and their interactions were coded using both time-sampling and global clinical ratings of behavior. Mothers with depressed mood were judged significantly lower on overall positive interaction, Expressivity/Affective Involvement, and Responsivity/ Sensitivity than were nondepressed mothers. Infants of mothers with depressed mood were rated significantly lower than infants of nondepressed mothers on corresponding interaction domains. Mothers with depressed mood were also rated as more variable than nondepressed mothers along a continuum of withdrawal to controlling/intrusive behavior. Contrary to prediction, level of maternal stimulation and infant activity did not differ as a function of depression in maternal mood. We conclude that mild to moderate symptoms of maternal depression may have salient but selective effects on mother-infant interaction.