Comparability of Self‐Reported Conscientiousness Across 21 Countries

In cross‐national studies, mean levels of self‐reported phenomena are often not congruent with more objective criteria. One prominent explanation for such findings is that people make self‐report judgements in relation to culture‐specific standards (often called the reference group effect), thereby undermining the cross‐cultural comparability of the judgements. We employed a simple method called anchoring vignettes in order to test whether people from 21 different countries have varying standards for Conscientiousness, a Big Five personality trait that has repeatedly shown unexpected nation‐level relationships with external criteria. Participants rated their own Conscientiousness and that of 30 hypothetical persons portrayed in short vignettes. The latter type of ratings was expected to reveal individual differences in standards of Conscientiousness. The vignettes were rated relatively similarly in all countries, suggesting no substantial culture‐related differences in standards for Conscientiousness. Controlling for the small differences in standards did not substantially change the rankings of countries on mean self‐ratings or the predictive validities of these rankings for objective criteria. These findings are not consistent with mean self‐rated Conscientiousness scores being influenced by culture‐specific standards. The technique of anchoring vignettes can be used in various types of studies to assess the potentially confounding effects of reference levels. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring the Strength of Association between the Components of Emotion Syndromes: The Case of Surprise

A new experimental paradigm involving a computerised quiz was used to examine, on an intra-individual level, the strength of association between four components of the surprise syndrome: cognitive (degree of prospectively estimated unexpectedness), experiential (the feeling of surprise), behavioural (degree of response delay on a parallel task), and expressive (the facial expression of surprise). It is argued that this paradigm, together with associated methods of data analysis, effectively controls for most method factors that could in previous studies have lowered the correlations among the components of emotion syndromes. It was found that (a) the components of the surprise syndrome were all positively correlated; (b) strong association existed only between the cognitive and the experiential component of surprise; (c) the coherence between syndrome components did not increase with increasing intensity of surprise; and (d) there was also only moderate coherence between the components of the facial expression of surprise (eyebrow raising, eye widening, mouth opening), although in this case, coherence tended to increase with intensity. Taken together, the findings support only a weakly probabilistic version of a behavioural syndrome view of surprise. However, the component correlations seem strong enough to support the existence of strong associations among a subset of the mental or central neurophysiological processes engaged in surprise.     

Diagnosespezifische Strukturdefizite

Central to this work are the axes structure and treatment requirements of the Operationalized Psychodynamic Diagnostic in Childhood and Adolescence (OPD-CA), which were studied on a sample of n?=?195 inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric patients [mean age (M)?=?12.9 years, SD±10.1 years] in Austria. The study shows the overall poorer structure of male patients in all structural dimensions and the better treatment requirements of older compared to younger patients. Structural deficits not only affect the capacity for insight and motivation for treatment and the working alliance, but also the possible presence of morbid gain. In the diagnosis-specific analysis it was shown that patients diagnosed as F6 were understructured in emotional control, while patients with a diagnosis F9 have more structural deficits in the self-object differentiation. Patients with F3 and F4 diagnosis have better structural capacities for treatment, but their higher degree of insight and motivation for treatment is counterbalanced by an equally high gain of illness. The implications of these findings for treatment planning are discussed.     

Subject and Experimenter Errors in Behavioral Research with Particular Reference to Motor Behavior

Sources of error stemming from S and E and their interaction were identified, their prevalence in behavioral science research discussed, and means for eliminating or discounting them suggested. The findings reviewed indicated that E may bias his findings by indicating to S the demand characteristics of the experimental situation. S errors include such behavior as trying to be over-helpful, attempting to defeat E’s intentions, and the Hawthorne effect. Errors from E may arise by transmitting subtle cues to S as to the hypothesized outcome of the experiment, E’s various characteristics, situational factors, and intentional errors. The applicability of these errors to mo tor behavior research was discussed.     

Religiosity Reduces Family-Related Uncertainties but Exacerbates Their Association with Distress

The present study investigated the role of religiosity in dealing with family-related uncertainties (e.g., uncertainty concerning fertility decisions or the stability of family relationships) that arise from current social change in industrialized nations. We hypothesized that religiosity, because it is a central source of family values and norms, reduces individuals' perceived load of family-related uncertainties. At the same time, because perceiving family-related uncertainties may conflict with religious values and norms concerning the family, we expected that religiosity exacerbates the association of these uncertainties with psychological distress. Structural equation modeling with latent interactions in a sample of 2,571 Polish adolescents and adults 20 to 46 years of age supported these predictions. Although modest in magnitude, associations held after controlling for potential sociodemographic confounders. Our study reveals the complex role of religiosity in dealing with family-related uncertainties and underscores the importance of attending to potential downsides of this otherwise beneficial resource.     

A Multinomial Model to Assess Fluency and Recollection in a Sequence Learning Task

We suggest that well-formedness judgements in conjunction with L.L. Jacoby's (1991) process dissociation procedure and an appropriate measurement model can be used to obtain measures of implicit and explicit sequence knowledge. We introduce a new measurement model designed specifically for the sequence learning task. The model assumes that sequence identification is based on recollection, perceptual or motor fluency, systematicity detection, and guessing. The model and the application of the process dissociation procedure were empirically evaluatedusing auditory eventsequences. In Experiment 1, the parameterreflecting recollection was higher in an intentional than in an incidental learning condition. Experiment 2 showed that random sequences interspersed among the systematic sequences during the acquisition phase may change this pattern of results. A manipulation of processing fluency in Experiment 3 was reflected in the appropriate model parameter. In sum, the new measurement model and the application of the process dissociation procedure appear to be useful tools in sequence learning research.