Testing neural network models of personality

Attempts to develop neural network models of personality have not generally used empirical data for training and validating the models. Two illustrations are provided which demonstrate the incorporation of empirical data into the modeling of behavioral responses to situations varying in closeness and hierarchical role relationships. An event-contingent recording procedure is utilized to obtain data from the same participant in multiple events for multiple situations. This data is then used in the training and validation of the neural networks. The first illustration models dominant and submissive behaviors in response to situations varying in social role status. The second illustration models agreeable and quarrelsome behaviors in response to situations varying in closeness and gender of the interaction partner. The predictions from both neural network models are consistent with previous research.     

Assessing interpersonal perceptions using the interpersonal grid

Three studies were conducted using the interpersonal grid, a method for assessing perceptions of agentic and communal behavior based on the interpersonal circumplex. The 1st examined consistency across perceivers and convergence between perceiver and the perceived person. The 2nd examined whether responses to the interpersonal grid were sensitive to an experimental manipulation of portrayed agency and communion. The 3rd used the interpersonal grid in an event-contingent recording study. The reliability and validity of the measure were supported by findings demonstrating generalizability across perceivers, generalizability across perceptions of events involving the same person, convergence between perceiver and perceived person, and sensitivity to changes in levels of agency and communion. Applications of the interpersonal grid to clinical practice and research are described.     

Social rank strategies in hierarchical relationships

Social rank theorists propose that threat appraisals evoke escalation behavior toward subordinates and de-escalation behavior toward superiors. These hypotheses were examined among records of behavior sampled ecologically from the work environments of 90 individuals. At the level of the event, situated threat appraisals (feeling criticized) predicted different kinds of behavior across status situations. Individuals tended to quarrel when criticized by subordinates and to submit when criticized by superiors. At the level of the person, aggregated rank appraisals (feeling inferior) predicted different kinds of behavior across status situations. Individuals who typically felt more inferior tended to quarrel more frequently with subordinates and to submit more frequently with superiors. Findings implicated inferiority and threat as fundamental dimensions underlying the behavior of the social rank system.     

Positive affect and the other side of coping

Although research on coping over the past 30 years has produced convergent evidence about the functions of coping and the factors that influence it, psychologists still have a great deal to learn about how coping mechanisms affect diverse outcomes. One of the reasons more progress has not been made is the almost exclusive focus on negative outcomes in the stress process. Coping theory and research need to consider positive outcomes as well. The authors focus on one such outcome, positive affect, and review findings about the co-occurrence of positive affect with negative affect during chronic stress, the adaptive functions of positive affect during chronic stress, and a special class of meaning-based coping processes that support positive affect during chronic stress.     

Coping and physical health during caregiving: the roles of positive and negative affect

The associations among coping, mood, and health variables were examined prospectively over 2 years in 86 HIV positive (HIV+) and 167 HIV negative (HIV-) gay men undergoing the stress of AIDS-related caregiving. Path models suggested that including both positive and negative mood and the men's associated coping strategies increases understanding of why some people suffer adverse health effects during times of stress. Among the HIV- caregivers, higher levels of social coping predicted increases in positive affect, which in turn resulted in lower levels of physical symptoms. In contrast, higher levels of cognitive avoidance predicted increases in negative affect, which in turn resulted in higher levels of physical symptoms. Self-injurious forms of avoidance coping predicted higher levels of physical symptoms independent of mood among the HIV+ caregivers.     

Trait Agreeableness and Social Status Moderate Behavioral Responsiveness to Communal Behavior

The present study examined the influence of trait Agreeableness and its interaction with social role status on interpersonal correspondence as reflected in the within‐person relation between a person's communal (agreeable‐quarrelsome) behavior and perceptions of the interaction partner's communal behavior. We used a sample of working adults (original data set: 113 participants and 12,303 interpersonal events; constrained data set in the work setting: 109 participants and 3,193 interpersonal events) and an event‐contingent recording procedure to assess behavior in naturalistic interpersonal events. The results of multilevel modeling indicated that interpersonal correspondence was lower for high trait Agreeableness persons than for low trait Agreeableness persons, apparently due to less responsiveness to more disagreeable behavior by the other person in an interaction. High Agreeableness persons manifest greater interpersonal correspondence when in a high‐status role than when in a low‐status role, apparently by increasing responsiveness to disagreeable behavior from others. The results imply that high social role status may influence the effortful control process of high trait Agreeableness persons over their behavioral reactions to others' disagreeable behavior during interpersonal interactions.     

Affect dysregulation in individuals with borderline personality disorder: persistence and interpersonal triggers

We hypothesized that affect dysregulation among individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) would involve greater persistence of negative affect between interpersonal events and heightened reactivity to stimuli indicating risk of rejection or disapproval, specifically perceptions of others' communal (agreeable-quarrelsome) behaviors. A total of 38 participants with BPD and 31 controls collected information about affect and perceptions of the interaction partner's behavior during interpersonal events for a 20-day period. Negative and positive affect persisted more across interpersonal events for individuals with BPD than for controls. In addition, individuals with BPD reported a greater increase in negative affect when they perceived less communal behavior and a smaller increase in positive affect when they perceived more communal behavior in others. Findings indicate the importance of interpersonal perceptions in the affect dysregulation of individuals with BPD.     

Teens on the Internet—commercial application of a deconstructive analysis of ‘teen zine’ features

This paper presents the authors' approach to understanding drivers of interest for teen e‐zines (Internet magazines). The paper shows how a deconstruction of the current set of e‐zines provides the raw material for a conjoint measurement study, whereby the elements are mixed and matched in order to create new test concepts. From reactions to those test concepts one can identify four newly emerging segments: the ‘indifferents’, the ‘adults in training’, the ‘media and me’ and the ‘talk and celebrate being a teen’. Deconstruction applied to the competitive frame provides both a deeper understanding of the e‐zine landscape and input for newer and better e‐zines that are targeted to specific mindsets. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications.