Personality as Performance

Abstract— As people seek to understand events within the world, they develop habitual tendencies related to categorization. Such tendencies can be measured by tasks that determine the relative ease or difficulty a person has in making a given distinction (e.g., between threatening and nonthreatening events). Researchers have sought to determine how categorization tendencies relate to personality traits on the one hand and emotional outcomes on the other. The results indicate that traits and categorization tendencies are distinct manifestations of personality. However, they often interact with each other. Three distinct interactive patterns are described. Categorization clearly does play a role in personality functioning, but its role goes beyond assimilation effects on behavior and experience.     

Lesslie Newbigin and Edinburgh’s Common Call

In a world where pluralism is the norm, interfaith encounter and dialogue are essential parts of the Christian experience. Lesslie Newbigin reflected extensively on a theological understanding of the Christian encounter with those of other faiths, emphasizing the importance of both a humble orientation toward God and others and a firm commitment to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. This juxtaposition of humble witness and firm faith in interfaith encounter is also reflected in the Edinburgh 2010 mission conference’s Common Call. This article will explore Newbigin’s reflections on interfaith dialogue and consider their implications for the future of the ecumenical movement.     

Attention bias for social threat in youth with tic disorders: Links with tic severity and social anxiety

Many individuals with Tourette syndrome and chronic tic disorders (TS/CTDs) report poor social functioning and comorbid social anxiety. Yet limited research has investigated the role of cognitive factors that highlight social threats in youth with TS/CTD, and whether these biases underlie tic severity and co-occurring social anxiety. This study examined whether selective attention to social threat is enhanced young people with TS/CTDs compared to healthy controls, and whether attention biases are associated with tic severity and social anxiety. Twenty seven young people with TS/CTDs and 25 matched control participants completed an experimental measure of attention bias toward/away from threat stimuli. A clinician-rated interview measuring tic severity/impairment (YGTSS Total Score) and questionnaire measures of social anxiety were completed by participants and their parents. Young people with TS/CTD showed an attention bias to social threat words (relative to benign words) compared to controls but no such bias for social threat faces. Attention bias for social threat words was associated with increasing YGTSS Total Score and parent-reported social anxiety in the TS/CTDs group. Mediation analysis revealed a significant indirect path between YGTSS Total Score and social anxiety, via attention to social threat. Tentatively, these associations appeared to be driven by impairment rather than tic severity scores. Preliminary data suggests that youth with TS/CTD have enhanced attention to threat, compared to controls, and this is associated with impairment and social anxiety. Attention to threat could offer a cognitive mechanism connecting impairment and social anxiety, and so be a valuable trans-diagnostic treatment target.     

Poverty and Depressed Mood Among Urban African-American Adolescents: A Family Stress Perspective

We examined the role of family stress as a mediator of the relationship between poverty and depressed mood among 1,704 low-income, inner-city African- American adolescents. Nearly half of participants (47%) reported clinically significant levels of depressive symptoms. Being female, reporting higher levels of family stress, and scoring higher on a poverty index were significantly associated with increased reports of depressed mood. Family stress significantly mediated the relationship between poverty and adolescent depressed mood, explaining 50% of the total effect. Sex-specific analyses revealed that this relationship only held for females, and there was no direct relationship between poverty and depressed mood for males. Results lend further support to family stress theory, although they suggest that the model may be more relevant for females than males. Implications for community-based preventive intervention and social policy are discussed.     

A client‐generated psychometric instrument: The development of ‘PSYCHLOPS’

PSYCHLOPS (Psychological Outcome Profiles) is a recently developed, client‐generated, psychometric instrument that can be used as an outcome measure. Based on a similar instrument developed primarily for use in physical illnesses (MYMOP — ‘Measure Your Medical Outcome Profile’), it seeks the client's perspective on their psychological distress. It asks them to describe and then score the problem that troubles them the most at the start of counselling. We describe the development of PSYCHLOPS, including the involvement of the Plain English Campaign and two national mental health organisations: the mental health charity and support group, Depression Alliance (DA) and Primary Care Mental Health Education (PRIMHE). We review the literature and suggest that PSYCHLOPS, by focusing on the problems of greatest priority to the client, might prove a sensitive measure of improvement after counselling.     

The Teacher of Reading: The First Twenty-Five Years Are the Most Challenging

This study investigated approaches to reading acquisition used in four first grades of a suburban elementary school. Individual teacher interviews established the differences in program emphases. Group A used the basal reader program; Group B, the basal reader and an additional phonics program; Group C, the basal reader and the language experience approach; Group D, the language experience approach and a wide range of supplementary readers and trade books. All groups participated in supportive language arts activities. Nine randomly selected subjects from each class participated‐‐three from each high, middle, and low reading group. Informal reading inventories were individually administered and scored for levels of word recognition in context and reading comprehension. Results support the use of a language experience approach as a viable alternative to the basal reader approach for teaching reading and writing.