The general factor of personality: Questions and elaborations

Predictions from Rushton’s theory that a general factor of personality (GFP) has evolved based on effective social participation were examined in two large samples of adult Australian twins (5834 and 3672 individuals) and their relatives (8303 and 2677). General factors based on items and scales were compared to each other, across two different questionnaires, and between adults and adolescents. Behavior-genetic analyses based on the twin samples tested predictions comparing GFPs to scales with the GFP partialled out. Some support was found for Rushton’s theory, but the GFP was only marginally more heritable than the GFP-free scales and was not especially marked by the expected non-additivity of its genetic variance; moreover, the adult and adolescent GFPs showed substantial differences.     

Anger Mediates the Effects of Fear on Support for the Far Right—A Rejoinder

We are grateful to John Jost for carefully engaging with our work and presenting a different interpretation of our findings on the effects of fear and anger stemming from the November 13, 2015, Paris attacks on the propensity to vote for the far right. Jost advances a model that holds that anger mediates the effect of fear on support for the far right. In this rejoinder, we respond to the issues he raises regarding our model specification, consider his alternative suggestion, and offer some conclusions about how to resolve this debate empirically. We hope this exchange advances the literature on the impact of various societal threats on voting for the far right.     

Pitch direction ability predicts melodic perception in autism

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) often present atypical auditory perception. Previous work has reported both enhanced low-level pitch discrimination and superior abilities to detect local pitch structure on higher-level melodic tasks in ASD. However, it is unclear how low and high levels of auditory perception are related in ASD or typical development (TD), or how this relationship might change across development and stimulus presentation rates. To these aims, in the present study, children with ASD and TD were tested on a low-level pitch direction discrimination task and a high-level melodic global-local task. Groups performed similarly on both of these auditory tasks. Moreover, individual differences in low-level pitch direction ability predicted performance on the higher-level global-local task, with a stronger relationship in ASD. Age did not affect the relationship between low-level and high-level pitch performance in either ASD or TD. However, there was a more positive effect of age on the high-level global-local task performance in TD than ASD. Finally, there was no effect of stimulus rate on the relationship between low-level and high-level pitch performance in either group. These findings provide a better understanding of how perception is associated across levels of processing in ASD versus TD. This work helps to better understand individual differences in auditory perception and to refine ASD phenotypes.     

Increasing intolerance of uncertainty over time: the potential influence of increasing connectivity

Anxiety levels have increased for several decades, despite objective indicators of historically unprecedented safety. A perceived inability to tolerate uncertainty or distress motivates individuals experiencing anxiety to engage in safety behaviors. Mobile phones provide unrestricted access to safety cues intended to reduce uncertainty and therein anxiety; however, recurrent engagement in reassurance seeking behaviors paradoxically increases anxiety. The current research was designed to assess whether self-reported intolerance of uncertainty (IU) levels may have been increasing and, if so, whether the increases correlate positively with mobile phone penetration and Internet usage. A cross-temporal meta-analysis was conducted using data from 52 North American studies exploring IU as well as social indicator data from several public sources. A statistically significant increase in IU levels occurred from 1999 to 2014, correlated with increases in mobile phone penetration and Internet usage. As hypothesized, IU levels appeared to be increasing over time and the increases correlate positively with mobile phone penetration and Internet usage. The results support the possibility that mobile phones increase reassurance seeking, acting as safety cues, and reducing spontaneous, everyday exposures to uncertainty, which may ultimately potentiate psychopathology by increasing IU and anxiety. Subsequent experimental research to assess for causality appears warranted. Limitations and directions for future research are presented.     

Contractualism for Us As We Are

A difficult problem for contractualists is how to provide an interpretation of the contractual situation that is both subject to appropriately stringent constraints and yet also appropriately sensitive to certain features of us as we actually are. My suggestion is that we should embrace a model of contractualism that is structurally analogous to the “advice model” of the ideal observer theory famously proposed by Michael Smith (1994, 1995). An advice model of contractualism is appealing since it promises to deliver a straightforward solution to the so‐called “conditional fallacy.” But it faces some formidable challenges. On the face of it, it seems to be straightforwardly conceptually incoherent. And it seems to deliver a solution to the conditional fallacy at the cost of being vulnerable to what I shall call “the concessional fallacy.” I shall consider how, if at all, these challenges are to be met. I shall then conclude by considering what this might mean for the so‐called “ideal/non‐ideal theory” issue.     

An Examination of the Joint Effects of Affective Experiences and Job Beliefs on Job Satisfaction and Variations in Affective Experiences over Time

This study investigated the joint influences of episodic levels of pleasant mood at work and beliefs about one's job on judgments of job satisfaction, as well as examining the prediction of the patterns of affective states over time. Twenty-four managerial workers completed a diary during work hours which required them to report their mood state at four different times during the workday. The diaries were completed for 16 workdays. At a separate time they completed a measure of overall satisfaction, a Valence-Instrumentality-Expectancy (VIE) measure of beliefs about the job and two dispositional variables, dispositional happiness and affect intensity. Results showed that average levels of pleasant mood over the 16 days and VIE beliefs about the job made significant and independent contributions to the prediction of overall job satisfaction and did so over and above the contribution of dispositional happiness. Results also indicated that individual differences in affective intensity predicted the variability of pleasant mood over time as well as mean levels of mood activation. Finally, spectral analyses applied to the series of mood observations showed that the variability over time in the series of mood observations showed two definite cycles, one corresponding to a daily cycle and one corresponding to a two-period oscillation in mood. Results are discussed in terms of the joint influences of affective experiences and job beliefs on job attitudes and the importance of studying affect over time independent of job satisfaction. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.