Synchrony,complexity and directiveness in mothers’ interactions with infants pre- and post-cochlear implantation

This study investigated effects of profound hearing loss on mother–infant interactions before and after cochlear implantation with a focus on maternal synchrony, complexity, and directiveness. Participants included two groups of mother–infant dyads: 9 dyads of mothers and infants with normal hearing; and 9 dyads of hearing mothers and infants with profound hearing loss. Dyads were observed at two time points: Time 1, scheduled to occur before cochlear implantation for infants with profound hearing loss (mean age = 13.6 months); and Time 2 (mean age = 23.3 months), scheduled to occur approximately six months after cochlear implantation. Hearing infants were age-matched to infants with hearing loss at both time points. Dependent variables included the proportion of maternal utterances that overlapped infant vocalizations, maternal mean length of utterance, infant word use, and combined maternal directives and prohibitions. Results showed mothers’ utterances overlapped the vocalizations of infants with hearing loss more often before cochlear implantation than after, mothers used less complex utterances with infants with cochlear implants compared to hearing peers (Time 2), and mothers of infants with profound hearing loss used frequent directives and prohibitions both before and after cochlear implantation. Together, mothers and infants adapted relatively quickly to infants’ access to cochlear implants, showing improved interactional synchrony, increased infant word use, and levels of maternal language complexity compatible with infants’ word use, all within seven months of cochlear implant activation.     

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 Applicant Personality on Resume Evaluations

Purpose

This study examined the extent that personality information in resumes impacts hiring judgments through applicant’s resumes. Study 1 examined lay theories regarding relationships between resume cues and the applicant’s personality and hireability. Study 2 examined how the applicant’s personality impacted hiring judgments through resumes.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data for both studies were collected in the context of a managerial position. For Study 1, participants assessed resume cues in regards to their relationship with personality and hireability. For Study 2, Human Resource personnel evaluated each resume in regards to personality and hireability.

Findings

Results for Study 1 highlight several connections between applicants’ personality and resumes, with strong links between resume content and perceptions of conscientiousness and agreeableness. Results for Study 2 indicate that personality was largely unrelated to ratings of hireability but perceptions of personality were strongly linked to hireability; actual personality was linked to the variability in cue information related to hireability, and conscientiousness was indirectly related to hireability through judgments of conscientiousness.

Implications

Results from these studies suggest that personality and perceptions of personality play a greater role in resume development and screening than has been previously suggested. The pattern of results reported suggest that there are a number of resumes cues that accurately reflect an applicant’s personality and influence perceptions of hireability.

Originality/Value

By taking an exploratory approach, the current studies were able to explore a large variety of cues linked to personality and ratings of hireability. Results have implications for both applicants and HR personnel evaluating resumes.     

Disrupted attentional learning in high schizotypy: Evidence of aberrant salience

The relationship between learned variations in attention and schizotypy was examined in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants low on a negative subscale of schizotypy exhibited an explicit bias in overt attention towards stimuli that were established as predictive of a trial outcome, relative to stimuli that were irrelevant. The same participants also showed a bias in learning about these stimuli when they presented in a novel context. Neither of these effects was observed in participants high in schizotypy. In Experiment 2, participants low on the negative subscale of schizotypy exhibited faster reaction times towards a target that was cued by a stimulus that had a history of predictive validity relative to a stimulus that had a history of irrelevance. Again, this effect was not present in participants high in schizotypy. These results imply a disruption in the normal allocation of attention to cues that have predictive significance in schizotypy.     

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.