Self-informant Agreement for Personality and Evaluative Person Descriptors: Comparing Methods for Creating Informant Measures

Little attention typically is paid to the way self-report measures are translated for use in self-informant agreement studies. We studied two possible methods for creating informant measures: (a) the traditional method in which self-report items were translated from the first- to the third-person and (b) an alternative meta-perceptual method in which informants were directed to rate their perception of the targets' self-perception. We hypothesized that the latter method would yield stronger self-informant agreement for evaluative personality dimensions measured by indirect item markers. We studied these methods in a sample of 303 undergraduate friendship dyads. Results revealed mean-level differences between methods, similar self-informant agreement across methods, stronger agreement for Big Five dimensions than for evaluative dimensions, and incremental validity for meta-perceptual informant rating methods. Limited power reduced the interpretability of several sparse acquaintanceship effects. We conclude that traditional informant methods are appropriate for most personality traits, but meta-perceptual methods may be more appropriate when personality questionnaire items reflect indirect indicators of the trait being measured, which is particularly likely for evaluative traits.     

Investigating Hegemonic Masculinity: Portrayals of Masculinity in Men’s Lifestyle Magazines

A content analysis of eight different men’s lifestyle magazines sold in Canada between November 2004 and August 2006 was conducted to explore how masculinities are currently being portrayed in regards to the body, aesthetics and grooming, and fashion. Findings suggest that different men’s magazines represent different forms of masculinity but elements of hegemonic masculinity (culturally normative ideals of masculinity within a structure of social relations where some men are subordinated) are woven throughout. Although the marketed look varies by the magazine, these magazines not only convey the message that appearance can be manipulated—but it should also be enhanced, and that men should engage in bodywork in order to attain the lifestyle they desire.     

The Impact of Anger Management Treatment and Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy in a Public School Setting on Social Skills,Anger Management,and Depression

Public school students participated in a group to enhance and improve anger management. The study used a pre-post design with a comparison group. Students were assigned to either Anger Management Treatment or Anger Management plus Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). Each child served as his or her own control and received an empirically validated intervention. Pretest–posttest data were evaluated using the Social Skills Rating System, the Children’s Depression Inventory and the Children’s Inventory of Anger. Results indicate that the addition of the REBT component to Anger Management reduced anger as well as depression, while improving social skills, suggesting the addition of a specialized cognitive behavioral component increased the effectiveness of the intervention.     

Unraveling the race paradox of achievement and self-views

Considerable evidence indicates that African American students achieve less academically than European American students. Yet, African American students hold more positive self-views than their European American counterparts. Previous studies that address these seemingly paradoxical findings focus on students in a relatively narrow age range and/or convenience samples. Therefore, the current study examines two common explanations for these seemingly paradoxical findings, among a large and diverse sample of African American and European American students (N = 1, 493) from elementary to post-secondary school and across the socioeconomic spectrum. Results indicate that among a diverse group of students and conceptualized in two different ways, African American students do not devalue academics. However, African American students are more likely than European American students to discount academic feedback.     

On the consideration of automatic as well as controlled psychological processes in aggression

Without slighting the important role played by controlled psychological processes in human aggression, this paper recommends that considerable systematic attention should also be given to the operation of automatic processes in bringing about this behavior. The concepts of automaticity and impulsivity are discussed briefly and it is proposed that many impulsive actions, particularly antisocial ones, are due to failures of restraint after they were initiated involuntarily. A number of experiments are reviewed in which situational stimuli automatically instigated or heightened aggressive inclinations. These have to do with associations in hostility displacement, reactions to stigmatized persons, and association in aggressive reactions to media violence. The last-mentioned studies deal especially with factors affecting the selection of the target for aggression. In discussing these findings it is suggested that after the crucial situational features had automatically initiated the sequence of determinants, the aggression displayed could have been due either to a hostile appraisal of the target or the activation of aggression-related bodily reactions as well as hostile ideas. It is also hypothesized that in at least one of the studies, an experienced negative affect might have instigated the aggression independently of any appraisals.     

A Longitudinal Analysis of Psychiatric Severity upon Outcomes Among Substance Abusers Residing in Self-Help Settings

A longitudinal analysis of psychiatric severity was conducted with a national sample of recovering substance abusers living in Oxford Houses, which are self-run, self-help settings. Outcomes related to residents' psychiatric severity were examined at three follow-up intervals over one year. Over time, Oxford House residents with high versus low baseline psychiatric severity reported significantly more days using psychiatric medication, decreased outpatient psychiatric treatment, yet no significant differences for number of days abstinent and time living in an Oxford House. These findings suggest that a high level of psychiatric severity is not an impediment to residing in self-run, self-help settings such as Oxford House among persons with psychiatric comorbid substance use disorders.     

The Effects of Incentives on Visual–Spatial Working Memory in Children with Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Working memory is one of several putative core neurocognitive processes in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The present work seeks to determine whether visual–spatial working memory is sensitive to motivational incentives, a laboratory analogue of behavioral treatment. Participants were 21 children (ages 7–10) with a diagnosis of ADHD-combined type. Participants completed a computerized spatial span task designed to assess storage of visual–spatial information (forward span) and manipulation of the stored information (backward span). The spatial span task was completed twice on the same day, once with a performance-based incentive (trial-wise feedback and points redeemable for prizes) and once without incentives. Participants performed significantly better on the backward span when rewarded for correct responses, compared to the no incentive condition. However, incentives had no effect on performance during the forward span. These findings may suggest the use of motivational incentives improved manipulation, but not storage, of visual–spatial information among children with ADHD. Possible explanations for the differential incentive effects are discussed, including the possibility that incentives prevented a vigilance decrement as task difficulty and time on task increased.     

Predictors of heavy drinking and drinking problems over the first 4 years of marriage.

This study investigated the factors predictive of heavy drinking and drinking problems over the early years of marriage, focusing on premarital drinking and the relatively stable individual risk and protective factors that were present prior to marriage and on social-interpersonal factors that may change or emerge over marriage. Newlywed couples were assessed at the time of marriage and at the 1st, 2nd, and 4th anniversaries with respect to frequency of heavy drinking and the extent of drinking problems and a variety of factors that have been found to be predictive of adult alcohol problems. The results indicated that antisocial characteristics, family history of alcoholism, negative affect, and alcohol expectancies were related to heavy drinking and alcohol problems at the time of marriage. Changes after marriage were predicted by the drinking of one's partner and of one's peers and by alcohol expectancies for social/physical pleasure for both men and women. In addition, the quality of the marriage was longitudinally protective from the experience of alcohol problems for both men and women, although it was not related to changes in heavy drinking.     

“Not a little Mickey Mouse thing”: How experienced counselling psychologists describe the significance of personal therapy in clinical practice and training. Some results from an interpretative phenomenological analysis

The British Psychological Society's Division of Counselling Psychology currently specifies a mandatory period of personal therapy for trainees. However, evidence for the role of personal therapy in developing practitioner competence is sparse. This paper presents part of a wider ongoing interpretative phenomenological analysis exploring how counselling psychologists describe the meaning and significance of personal therapy in clinical practice and training. Detailed examination of a subset of data from this study suggests that personal therapy is valued as a vehicle for a genuine, often extremely intense relationship with the therapist, through which participants become able to establish authentic emotional contact with themselves and their clients. Whilst most participants felt that personal therapy should remain an obligatory part of the training curriculum, they were ambivalent about specifying its aims or evaluating its outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of establishing a sense of integrity and authenticity within the personal therapy experience and are tentatively situated within a possible theoretical framework drawing on current developmental literature.