‘Personality in Its Natural Habitat’ Revisited: A Pooled,Multi-sample Examination of the Relationships Between the Big Five Personality Traits and Daily Behaviour and Language Use

Past research using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an observational ambulatory assessment method for the real-world measurement of daily behaviour, has identified several behavioural manifestations of the Big Five domains in a small college sample (N = 96). With the use of a larger and more diverse sample of pooled data from N = 462 participants from a total of four community samples who wore the EAR from 2 to 6 days, the primary purpose of the present study was to obtain more precise and generalizable effect estimates of the Big Five–behaviour relationships and to re-examine the degree to which these relationships are gender specific. In an extension of the original article, the secondary purpose of the present study was to examine if the Big Five–behaviour relationships differed across two facets of each Big Five domain. Overall, while several of the behavioural manifestations of the Big Five were generally consistent with the trait definitions (replicating some findings from the original article), we found little evidence of gender differences (not replicating a basic finding from the original article). Unique to the present study, the Big Five–behaviour relationships were not always comparable across the two facets of each Big Five domain. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Neighborhood Stress and Life Satisfaction: Is there a Relationship for African American Adolescents?

Applied Research in Quality of Life - This study identified associations between perceived neighborhood stress and adolescents’ perceptions of life satisfaction. African American adolescents...     

Rethinking homosexuality: what it teaches us about psychoanalysis

This presentation, written ten years after the American Psychoanalytic Association adopted a nondiscrimination policy with regard to sexual orientation, discusses the evolving relationship between psychoanalysis and homosexuality. The paper is in three sections: (1) the process of policy change and the overturning of injustice; (2) the excursion after Freud's death into analytic bias and extreme pathologizing of homosexuality, the struggle to overcome those distortions, and the lessons to be learned from this history; and (3) the search, in the coming decade, for new understanding of homosexuality and all aspects of sexuality.     

Modeling of human posturokinetic movements by a linear feedback system: relations among feedback coefficients

This study describes a method of modeling human trunk and whole body backward bending and suggests a possible neural control strategy. The hypothesis was that the control system can be modeled as a linear feedback system, in which the torque acting at a given joint is a function of the state variables (angular positions and angular velocities). The linear system enabled representation of the feedback system by a gain matrix. The matrix was computed from the kinematics recorded by a movement analysis system and from the joint torques calculated by inverse dynamics. To validate the control model, a comparison was made between the angular kinematics yielded by the model and the experimental data. Moreover, for all subjects, the same relationships between feedback coefficients were found although gain values were different. The study showed that the feedback system is an appropriate model of the strategy from performing an accurate controlled trunk or whole body backward bending in the sagittal plane.     

Articulation in the context of edge classification

Many researchers believe the human visual system classifies luminance edges into those produced by reflectance edges or those produced by illumination edges, yet this classification process is not completely understood. One suggestion is that heuristics are used for edge classification. For example. specific contrast relationships at the luminance edge ('codirectional contrast invariance' and 'transversal luminance-ratio preserving') may distinguish an illumination edge from a reflectance edge on the one hand, and from a translucent edge on the other. Distinct from luminance junctions, these features are global characteristics of the luminance pattern that make distinguishing between different types of edge easier with more highly articulated scenes. I demonstrate that apparent translucency, nonreversing X-junctions, and single-reversing X-junctions are insufficient on their own to produce the lightness illusion of Adelson's well-known tile pattern. While tolerating violations of the codirectional contrast invariance and transversal-luminance-ratio presersving without reversing the sign of contrast, the visual system is quite sensitive to such contrast reversal at the luminance edge. I account for this by suggesting that humans process lightness in terms of an ordinal, rather than interval, (or ratio) scale.     

Change in cognitive functioning associated with apoE genotype in a community sample of older adults

The influence of a genetic risk factor, apolipoprotein E (apoE) epsilon4 variant, was assessed in older adults aged 70 to 94 on 3 occasions over 7 years. The results of latent growth curve analyses are reported for individuals genotyped for apoE at the 2nd measurement occasion (n = 601) and for a subsample of individuals without probable or definite dementia during the 1st or 2nd occasion (n = 434). ApoE-epsilon4 status was a significant predictor of level and change in memory performance and change in speed performance in the full sample, and of initial level and change in memory performance in the nondemented subsample. These results support previous findings that apoE-epsilon4 is associated with accelerated memory deterioration in individuals without clinical dementia.     

Pain sensitivity and individual differences in self-reported sexual behavior

The relationship between sexual behavior and pain sensitivity was assessed in 27 heterosexual men and 20 heterosexual women. Sexual behavior measures included sexual motivation and ratings of subjective sexual arousal to and enjoyment of an auditory stimulus. Pain sensitivity measures were pain threshold and pain tolerance in a cold pressor task. Participants were tested after exposure to a neutral or a sexual audio stimulus. Exposure to the sexual stimulus increased pain sensitivity in women but not in men. However, sexual behavior measures were correlated with pain threshold for both men and women. Specifically, higher pain thresholds were associated with weaker sexual motivation, lower enjoyment potential for sexual interaction, and increased inhibition during intercourse. These results are consistent with findings in laboratory animals, suggesting that differences in sexual behavior may reflect differences in responsiveness to a variety of stimuli.     

Some experimental analogues of obsession

This paper is an attempt to analyse some of the features of obsessional neurosis in terms of learning theory. First, the syndrome is described and found to have three main features: brooding, strong impulses to do unacceptable things, and ritualistic, defence-substitute activities. Second, the classical psychoanalytic explanation of the etiology of obsession is reviewed. This theory locates the source of conflict in the anal stage, but fails to give a satisfactory account of the precipitating conditions and of the cause for the persistence or fixation of the neurotic responses. In the third section both the precipitating conditions and the fixation conditions are analysed in terms of factors shown to be operative in animal learning experiments.     

Teamwork in multiteam systems

The authors examined how networks of teams integrate their efforts to succeed collectively. They proposed that integration processes used to align efforts among multiple teams are important predictors of multiteam performance. The authors used a multiteam system (MTS) simulation to assess how both cross-team and within-team processes relate to MTS performance over multiple performance episodes that differed in terms of required interdependence levels. They found that cross-team processes predicted MTS performance beyond that accounted for by within-team processes. Further, cross-team processes were more important for MTS effectiveness when there were high cross-team interdependence demands as compared with situations in which teams could work more independently. Results are discussed in terms of extending theory and applications from teams to multiteam systems.     

Straightness as a cue for luminance edge interpretation

In order to determine the reflectance of a surface, it is necessary to discount luminance changes produced by illumination variation, a process that requires the visual system to respond differently to luminance changes that are due to illumination and reflectance. It is known that various cues can be used in this process. By measuring the strength of lightness illusions, we find evidence that straightness is, used as a cue: When a boundary is straight rather than curved, it has a greater tendency to be discounted, as if it were an illumination edge. The strongest illusions occur when a boundary has high contrast and has multiple X-junctions that preserve a consistent contrast ratio.