An 18-month follow-up investigation of motor coordination and working memory in primary school children

The aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between motor coordination and visual working memory in children aged 5–11 years. Participants were 18 children with movement difficulty and 41 control children, assessed at baseline and following an 18-month time period. The McCarron Assessment of Neuromuscular Development provided a measure of motor skills and the CogState One-Back task was used to assess visual working memory. Multi-level mixed effects linear regressions were used to assess the relationship between fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and visual working memory. The results revealed that for children with movement difficulty, better fine motor skills at baseline significantly predicted greater One-Back accuracy and greater (i.e., faster) speed at 18-month follow-up. Conversely, fine motor skills at baseline did not predict One-Back accuracy and speed for control children. However, for both groups, greater One-Back accuracy at baseline predicted better fine and gross motor skills at follow-up. These findings have important implications for the assessment and treatment of children referred for motor difficulties and/or working memory difficulties.     

Daily Occupations and Adaptation to Daily Life Described by Women Suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder

Clients suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder have significant impairments in relation to health. Despite this, their occupational status is rarely described. The aim of this study was to examine how women with Borderline Personality Disorder describe their daily occupations and adaptation to daily life. The study included nine participants. The data were collected using a semi-structured interview and were analyzed using content analysis.

Theme: Having few organized daily activities and poor personal causation prevent changes in adaptation to daily life. Two categories: performance and self-image, and four subcategories: competent or incompetent to perform, positive self-image, and lack of self-image were identified.     

Putting the “IRT” in “Dirty”: Item response theory analyses of the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen—An efficient measure of narcissism,psychopathy, and Machiavellianism

The Dark Triad Dirty Dozen is a new, concise personality inventory designed to measure individual differences in narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism in sub-clinical populations. To date, the psychometric work on this measure has used classical test theory to assess its validity, reliability, and structure. In two independent samples (N = 1014), we provide the first analyses of this measure using item response theory. In both samples, the Dark Triad Dirty Dozen efficiently recovered information and showed some evidence of differential scale functioning by sex, with a lower endorsement threshold for men compared to women. Results shed new light on the measurement of these “dark” personality traits.     

„Es waren ja fast alle weggegangen“

The complex and partly disputed history of German psychoanalysis during the Third Reich has been thoroughly investigated to date. There are various stages of historical analysis which are distinguished by differing discourses that are presented as part of this work. The first stage of historical analysis was characterized by conflicts within the German psychoanalytical societies and marked by two antagonistic narratives about the transformation of German psychoanalysis during the Third Reich. This study investigated which discourses on the history of German psychoanalysis were integrated into the professional biographies of the first generation of post-war psychoanalysts. In this study 23 narrative interviews were conducted with psychoanalysts who where born before 1st January 1937 focusing on the professional biography and the results were analyzed. The interviewees stressed the ‘damage’ to German psychoanalysis in general and on their training in particular. The ‘damage’ was described as an uncontrollable result of National Socialism and the structural and theoretical changes that were connected to it whereby its effects continued to impact on post-war psychoanalysis. Especially the discourses of the first stage of historical analysis appear to have been integrated into professional biographies and are still having an impact on the interpretation of history for the post-war generation to this day. The history of psychoanalysis is presented as a narrative of ‘rescue’ or ‘liquidation’ of psychoanalysis during the Third Reich depending on the professional identity of the psychoanalysts.     

Factorial validity of the Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48

The purpose of this study was to assess the factorial validity of the Mental Toughness Questionnaire-48 (Clough, Earle, & Sewell, 2002). In total, 8207 participants (male n = 4019, female n = 3922, unspecified = 266) aged between 16 and 68 years (M = 37.00, SD = 12.09) completed the MTQ48. Model fit was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling, in addition to the robust maximum likelihood estimator. Overall, our results support the factorial validity of the MTQ48 and indicate that the MTQ48 is a robust psychometric measure of mental toughness. Along with previous data, which supports the internal validity of the MTQ48 in addition to results of this study, it would appear that the MTQ48 is an acceptable method of assessing mental toughness.     

Warm and Competent Hassan = Cold and Incompetent Eric: A Harsh Equation of Real-Life Hiring Discrimination

In a field experiment, we sent out 5,636 job applications varying how Swedish (in-group) and Arab (out-group) applicants presented themselves in terms of two fundamental dimensions of social judgment: warmth and competence. Results indicate substantial discrimination where Arab applicants receive fewer invitations to job interviews. Conveying a warmer or more competent personality increases invitations. However, appearing both warm and competent seems to be especially important for Arab applicants. Arab applicants need to appear warmer and more competent than Swedish applicants to be invited equally often. The practical importance of signaling warmth and competence in labor market contexts is discussed.