Relationships between personality, attitudes and dietary behaviour in a group of Scottish adolescents

Dietary behaviours, dietary attitudes, dietary knowledge and personality were surveyed in a group of 451 Scottish schoolchildren aged 11–15 years. A factor analysis of the behaviour items gave a three-factor structure with factors designated Healthy Eating, Unhealthy Eating and Health Habits. A general healthy vs. unhealthy eating factor was also extracted. A factor analysis of the attitude statements gave factors designated Pickiness, Neophobia and Food Interest. Dietary knowledge was found to be positively correlated with Healthy Eating score and negatively correlated with Unhealthy Eating score. The personality trait of Psychoticism was positively correlated with Unhealthy Eating score and negatively correlated with dietary knowledge, whilst Neuroticism was significantly negatively correlated with Healthy Eating and Health Habits and significantly positively correlated with Pickiness and Neophobia. Gender and socio-economic status differences in behaviour and attitude factor scores are also reported.     

Did I do that? Self–esteem–related differences in reactions to romantic partners’ moods

This study examined the relation between self–esteem and responses to a romantic partner's moods. College students in dating relationships imagined one scenario in which their romantic partners were in a positive mood and one in which their partners were in a negative mood. A probable source of each mood was suggested to half the participants. Participants reported their cognitive, affective, behavioral, and attributional responses to each scenario. When the partner's mood was negative and ambiguous in cause, participants with low self–esteem felt more responsible for the mood, more rejected, and more hostile than did those with high self–esteem. A mediational analysis suggested a dependency regulation explanation of the results, such that low self–esteem people perceived self–directed negativity in their partners’ bad moods and in turn responded with more negativity toward their partners.     

The effects of varying attentional demands on the word retrieval skills of adults with aphasia, right hemisphere brain damage, or no brain damage

Adults with mild aphasia, right hemisphere brain damage (RBD), or no brain damage (NBD) provided one-word phrase completions under isolation, focused attention, and divided attention conditions and in response to relatively constrained or unconstrained phrase stems. Despite comparable word retrieval accuracy among groups during the isolation condition, aphasic and RBD groups performed less accurately than the NBD group during focused and divided attention conditions. Across conditions, there were no significant differences between aphasic and RBD groups. Only aphasic subjects demonstrated a significant effect of phrase type, responding more accurately when completing constrained versus unconstrained stimuli. For aphasic and RBD groups, error type analysis indicated that semantic and phonological aspects of word retrieval were influenced by increased attentional demands. These findings suggest that for adults with aphasia or RBD, there is a negative relation between attention impairments and word retrieval abilities.     

Relations between Unsociability and Peer Problems in Chinese Children: Moderating Effect of Behavioural Control

Unsociable children are likely to develop adjustment difficulties in Chinese society. The primary goal of the present study was to examine the moderating effect of behavioural control on the relation between unsociability and peer problems in Chinese children. Participants were fourth to eighth grade students in urban China (N = 787). Assessments of unsociability, shyness, peer problems and behavioural control were obtained from peer nominations and teacher ratings. Results indicated that unsociability was positively related to peer problems in Chinese children after controlling for shyness. Also, the relation between unsociability and peer problems was attenuated among children with higher behavioural control. Thus, behavioural control may be a buffering factor that serves to protect unsociable children from developing peer problems. Gender and age also moderated these associations. Results are discussed in terms of the meaning and implications of unsociability and behavioural control in Chinese culture. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personality And Leadership Composition in Top Management Teams: Implications For Organizational Effectiveness

This study examines whether top management team (TMT) personality and leadership are associated with organizational effectiveness beyond the effects of CEO personality and leadership, as suggested by upper echelons theory. Using direct measures of personality and leadership, rather than proxy variables from archival sources or demographic data, we found that mean levels of conscientiousness among TMT members were related to lagged indicators of organizational performance, as were CEO conscientiousness and transformational leadership. Follower commitment to the organization was found to be associated with higher levels of transformational leadership from both the CEO and TMT. The results are consistent with the upper echelons perspective that organizational effectiveness is influenced not only by the CEO but also by a dominant coalition of leaders. Yet, the results also show that the CEO plays a distinct role in influencing organizational financial performance and collective organizational commitment. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.     

Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and the Ethics of Body and Place: Critical Methodological Reflections

This article is a critical methodological reflection on the use of interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) initiated in the context of a qualitative research project on the experience of seclusion in a psychiatric setting. It addresses an explicit gap in the IPA literature to explore the ways that Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology can extend the remit of IPA for noncognitivist qualitative research projects beyond the field of health psychology. In particular, the article develops Merleau-Ponty’s understanding of the lived-body, language, and embodied speech, with specific attention to the ethical implications of body and place. It concludes with a discussion on phenomenological reflexivity and prompts a reconsideration of phenomenological methods across a wide range of qualitative research projects concerned with subjectivity and ethical practice, including critical health studies, critical bioethics, and cultural studies that employ a qualitative empirical research design.