Conceptual and Statistical Interactions: An Illustration with the AB5C and CWBs

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to compare the criterion validity of conceptual interactions between the Big Five traits of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability to the statistical interactions between these traits. For illustration purposes we focus on linking these interactions to counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs).

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data for Study 1 was obtained from 196 employed students and focuses on the interaction between agreeableness and conscientiousness. Data for Study 2 was obtained from 220 employees and expanded the interaction space examined to include emotional stability.

Findings

All of the circumplex traits representing conceptual interactions were related to CWBs but only the traits most closely associated with conscientiousness showed incremental validity beyond their associated Big Five traits. Dominance analysis highlights increased concurrent validity of the circumplex traits compared to the Big Five statistical interactions in relation to CWBs.

Implications

Understanding the unique circumplex blends of the Big Five traits offers opportunities to enhance the criterion validity of Big Five measures. Results question the similarity between the AB5C circumplex traits and Big Five interactions, with their contributions appearing to be unique but their justification drastically different.

Originality/Value

The validity of the AB5C circumplex traits are relatively unknown. The current results expand this knowledge and directly compare the circumplex traits to interaction terms between agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability.     

Effects of Parent Emotion Socialization on the Neurobiology Underlying Adolescent Emotion Processing: A Multimethod fMRI Study

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology - Parents’ emotion socialization (ES) practices impact socioemotional development throughout adolescence. Little is known, however, regarding...     

The Influence of Service Era: Comparing Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) Scale Scores Within a Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Treatment Clinic (PCT)

Research is mixed on the role of service era in symptom endorsement among Veterans, with differences emerging depending on the instrument evaluated. This study compares Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) scale scores of VA test-takers who served during the Vietnam, Desert Storm, or Post-9/11 service eras. The sample was collected at a VA Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Team. Associations between gender and combat exposure were also examined as covariates. Results suggest that Veterans’ self-report on the PAI is influenced by service era, even after accounting for gender and combat exposure during deployment. The largest differences were between Vietnam or Post-9/11 Veterans and those from the Gulf War era. Symptom differences typically varied across scales commonly associated with symptoms of trauma exposure/posttraumatic stress disorder. Implications for the clinical use of, and research with, the PAI and other broadband personality assessments within the VA healthcare system and trauma treatment settings are discussed.

     

What constitutes torture?: psychological impediments to an objective evaluation of enhanced interrogation tactics

Torture is prohibited by statutes worldwide, yet the legal definition of torture is almost invariably based on an inherently subjective judgment involving pain severity. In four experiments, we demonstrate that judgments of whether specific interrogation tactics constitute torture are subject to an empathy gap: People who are experiencing even a mild version of the specific pain produced by an interrogation tactic are more likely to classify that tactic as torture or as unethical than are those who are not experiencing pain. This discrepancy could result from an overestimation of the pain of torture by people in pain, an underestimation of the pain of torture by those not in pain, or both. The fourth experiment shows that the discrepancy results from an underestimation of pain by people who are not experiencing it. Given that legal standards guiding torture are typically established by people who are not in pain, this research suggests that practices that do constitute torture are likely to not be classified as such.     

Stress and Chronic Illness: the Case of Diabetes

Globally, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is one of the most prevalent chronic illnesses. Managing T2DM is a major challenge now affecting the lives of around 200 million people. Even when medication, diet, and physical activity regimens are maintained, blood sugar levels might not be effectively controlled because stress triggers the release of sugar into the blood. This makes the management of stress an important adjunct to the treatment of T2DM. Stress includes both life stress, the major issues that people face in their lives, such as job loss, divorce, or death of a loved one, and daily hassles, smaller everyday problems, such as deadlines for work, traffic hold-ups, or family disagreements. The stress levels created by these events are exacerbated by the stress created by the demands of managing diabetes. In this paper, we first examine the evidence for the relationship between stress and poor blood sugar control in people with T2DM. Then, we consider research that has examined the impact of various stress management strategies on blood sugar level. Finally, we discuss some promising psychological techniques for managing stress that could be helpful for people with diabetes or pre-diabetes. We note the double benefit of physical activity, which directly assists in the metabolism of sugar from the blood and indirectly reduces acute stress and chronic stress reactivity, thus providing a buffer against the effects of stress for people with T2DM.     

The relationship between Facebook and the well-being of undergraduate college students

We investigated how Facebook use and attitudes relate to self-esteem and college adjustment, and expected to find a positive relationship between Facebook and social adjustment, and a negative relationship between Facebook, self-esteem, and emotional adjustment. We examined these relationships in first-year and upper-class students and expected to find differences between the groups. Seventy undergraduate students completed Facebook measures (time, number of friends, emotional and social connection to Facebook), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Student Adaptation to College Scale. First-year students had a stronger emotional connection to and spent more time on Facebook while they reported fewer friends than upper-class students did. The groups did not differ in the adjustment scores. The number of Facebook friends potentially hinders academic adjustment, and spending a lot of time on Facebook is related to low self-esteem. The number of Facebook friends was negatively associated with emotional and academic adjustment among first-year students but positively related to social adjustment and attachment to institution among upper-class students. The results suggest that the relationship becomes positive later in college life when students use Facebook effectively to connect socially with their peers. Lastly, the number of Facebook friends and not the time spent on Facebook predicted college adjustment, suggesting the value of studying further the notion of Facebook friends.     

Systematic empirical research versus clinical case studies: a valid antagonism?

This paper considers the issue of systematic empirical research versus clinical case studies raised by Hoffman (2009). A rebuttal of Hoffman's arguments is offered, followed by an argument that each method addresses itself to different questions and that posing them in opposition is not fruitful. Finally, criteria and requirements of the case study method are proposed that, if met, would enhance its evidential value.     

For my eyes only: gaze control, enmeshment, and relationship quality

Perceived closeness that preserves the distinctness of each partner enhances intimate relationship quality, whereas pseudocloseness or enmeshment--reflecting an inability to distinguish one's own thoughts and emotions from a partner's--may have more negative outcomes (R. J. Green & P. D. Werner, 1996). Two studies investigated whether a dispositional inability to differentiate self from other is manifested at the attentional level as reduced capacity to inhibit following the gaze of another (A. Frischen, A. P. Bayliss, & S. P. Tipper, 2007). Among healthy elderly spouses in Study 1, superior gaze control predicted superior sociocognitive functioning, and those with poorer gaze control abilities were perceived by the partner as constricting the perceiving partner's autonomy, which in turn predicted lower relationship satisfaction among the latter. Moreover, these links were mediated by enmeshment, as indicated by the percentage of "we"-focused versus "I"- or partner-focused thoughts and emotions in the partners' independent accounts of the same relationship events. Extending these findings in a sample of Parkinson's disease patients and their spouses, Study 2 revealed a biphasic effect of self-other differentiation on relationship dynamics: In the early stages of the disease, increased couple focus promoted superior relationship quality, whereas lack of self-other differentiation predicted poorer relationship quality later. Thus, dispositional variations in fundamental social-perceptual processes predict both close relationship dynamics and long-term relationship quality.