Using Indirect Measurement Tasks to Assess the Self‐concept of Personality: A Systematic Review and Meta‐analyses

This systematic review presents the current state of research investigating the implicit self‐concept of personality. First, we present results on meta‐analyses estimating internal consistency, reliability coefficients, the implicit–explicit consistency and the single association predictive effect of implicit self‐concept of personality measures. To do this, studies were aggregated over personality domains. Second, for each of the Five Factor personality domains, different aspects of construct validity and predictive validity are reviewed in a narrative way. Results show that implicit self‐concept of personality measures are reliable, and there is evidence for the construct and predictive validity of these implicit measures, especially in the extraversion and agreeableness domains of personality. However, it must be kept in mind that clear evidence for publication bias was found for studies examining the single association predictive pattern. Finally, this systematic review identifies some achievable improvements that are needed in future research. Large cross‐lab efforts are important in this respect. Moreover, the implicit self‐concept of personality field must move from an ‘ad hoc’ to a ‘validation’ approach in developing new indirect measurement tasks. By adopting these research objectives, the information processing account of personality will increase its potential to become integrated into mainstream personality theory and research. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

What Provides Justification for Cheating—Producing or Observing Counterfactuals?

When people can profit financially by lying, they do so to the extent to which they can justify their lies. One type of justification is the observation and production of desirable counterfactual information. Here, we disentangle observing and producing of desired counterfactuals and test whether the mere observation is sufficient or whether one actually needs to produce the information in order to justify lying. By employing a modified version of the Die‐Under‐Cup task, we ask participants to privately roll a die three times and to report the outcome of the first die roll (with higher values corresponding to higher payoffs). In all three conditions, participants produce (roll the die) and observe the first die roll, which is relevant for pay. We manipulate whether participants produce and observe versus only observe the second and third die roll outcomes, which are both irrelevant for pay. Results reveal that people lie to the same extent—when producing and observing the counterfactuals, and when merely observing them. It seems that merely observing counterfactual information is sufficient to allow people to use this information to justify their lies. We further test whether creativity and moral disengagement are associated with dishonesty and replicate the finding showing that unethical behavior increases with creativity. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Linking actors and models for water policy development in Egypt: Analyzing actors and their options

Policy development in the field of water resources management is traditionally supported by various analysis tools and planning models. Recent years have shown increasing attention for the social dimension of policy development, as this involves different actors interacting in an attempt to satisfy their interests. This requires information on the technical and financial aspects of policy options and information on the roles and interests of different actors. The use of the analysis of options technique is explored in this article, with the aim of incorporating such information in the development of a new water policy for Egypt. His main research interest is in the use of actor analysis to support decision making in the field of water resources management, and he has worked on actor analyses for water projects in Yemen, Egypt, and The Netherlands. He received his M.Sc. in Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management from Delft University of Technology in 1999. Nader El-Masry works as a water resources engineer for the National Water Resources Pan Project at the Ministry of Water resources and Irrigation in Egypt. In this position, he is involved in the development of a national water resources plan that should match Egypt’s water demands and supplies until the year 2017. He holds an M.Sc. in Water Resources and Environmental Management, from IHE, Delft, The Netherlands. Tarek Sadek has 12 years of experience in the field of hydrogeology, hydraulics, geomorphology, water resources management and environmental science. Currently, he is director of the National Water Resources Plan Project at the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation in Egypt. He holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of Cairo University (1988), an M.Sc. in Hydrology from the Department of Engineering Hydrology, University College Galway (UCG, 1992), Republic of Ireland, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Australia (1997).     

Coordination dynamics and attentional costs of continuous and discontinuous bimanual circle drawing movements

It has been suggested that the temporal control of rhythmic unimanual movements is different between tasks requiring continuous (e.g., circle drawing) and discontinuous movements (e.g., finger tapping). Specifically, for continuous movements temporal regularities are an emergent property, whereas for tasks that involve discontinuities timing is an explicit part of the action goal. The present experiment further investigated the control of continuous and discontinuous movements by comparing the coordination dynamics and attentional demands of bimanual continuous circle drawing with bimanual intermittent circle drawing. The intermittent task required participants to insert a 400ms pause between each cycle while circling. Using dual-task methodology, 15 right-handed participants performed the two circle drawing tasks, while vocally responding to randomly presented auditory probes. The circle drawing tasks were performed in symmetrical and asymmetrical coordination modes and at movement frequencies of 1Hz and 1.7Hz. Intermittent circle drawing exhibited superior spatial and temporal accuracy and stability than continuous circle drawing supporting the hypothesis that the two tasks have different underlying control processes. In terms of attentional cost, probe RT was significantly slower during the intermittent circle drawing task than the continuous circle drawing task across both coordination modes and movement frequencies. Of interest was the finding that in the intermittent circling task reaction time (RT) to probes presented during the pause between cycles did not differ from the RT to probes occurring during the circling movement. The differences in attentional demands between the intermittent and continuous circle drawing tasks may reflect the operation of explicit event timing and implicit emergent timing processes, respectively.     

The development of cued versus contextual conditioning in a predictable and an unpredictable human fear conditioning preparation

In this human fear conditioning study, the online development of conditioned US-expectancy to discrete cues and background contexts was measured in two groups. In the paired group (n=30), the CS was systematically followed by an aversive shock (US). In the unpaired group (n=30), CS and US were presented explicitly unpaired. Using US-expectancy ratings, we replicated the basic finding already illustrated in humans with startle modulation. In the paired group, the CS elicited more US-expectancy than the context, whereas in the unpaired group, the context elicited more US-expectancy than the CS. Interestingly, we also observed a trial-by-trial development of conditioning to the context in the unpaired group as indicated by a significant linear trend. This gradual development and the evidence for the role of US-expectancy in contextual fear add to the idea that cued and contextual fear rely on the same basic associative processes.     

Overgeneral autobiographical memory predicts diagnostic status in depression

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterised by difficulties in retrieving specific autobiographical memories, with a significant propensity towards categoric memories (i.e. memories of a summary type). Previous studies have demonstrated that this overgeneral memory is a valid predictor of the course of depression, with reduced specificity being associated with worse outcome. Most of these studies have employed continuous measures of depression to assess the course of the symptoms. This study investigated whether overgeneral memory also predicts clinical status at follow-up (i.e. whether patients still meet criteria for depression). Patients who fulfilled criteria for major depressive disorder were tested shortly after admission to the hospital and were retested some weeks later. It was found that lower levels of specificity or a higher number of categoric memories were associated with a higher probability of still being diagnosed with MDD. These memory variables outperformed other relevant indices, such as depression severity, rumination, level of self-esteem and dysfunctional attitudes.     

Community psychology,digital technology,and loss: Remembrance activities of young adults who have experienced the death of a close friend

We argue for community psychology to include digital communications technology in research on ways that the social environment shapes fundamental human experiences. We present a qualitative study that examined the narrative accounts of 20 young adults who experienced the death of a close friend to describe both traditional and digital forms of remembrance in coping with loss. Findings suggest that young adults' activities both online and offline were intended to acknowledge the loss, exchange social support, create and sustain memories of their deceased friend, and facilitate continued communication with the deceased. Participants described both costs and benefits to their real and virtual remembrance activities. Findings illustrate ways that the study of digital technology adds to our understanding of grief and bereavement and contributes to dominant cultural narratives about coping with death. Implications of findings for research in community psychology are discussed.     

African American Muslims: Intersectionality and Cultural Competence

Although African American Muslims constitute 40% of all American‐born Muslims (Pew Research Center, 2011), they are virtually absent from the literature. Increasing the presence of African American Muslims in the literature may improve counselors' cultural competence when working with them. Using intersectional theory, the authors outline the rich history of African American Muslims and highlight ways counselors can improve their cultural and spiritual competence when working with African American Muslims.     

Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli

Putting feelings into words (affect labeling) has long been thought to help manage negative emotional experiences; however, the mechanisms by which affect labeling produces this benefit remain largely unknown. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest a possible neurocognitive pathway for this process, but methodological limitations of previous studies have prevented strong inferences from being drawn. A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of affect labeling was conducted to remedy these limitations. The results indicated that affect labeling, relative to other forms of encoding, diminished the response of the amygdala and other limbic regions to negative emotional images. Additionally, affect labeling produced increased activity in a single brain region, right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (RVLPFC). Finally, RVLPFC and amygdala activity during affect labeling were inversely correlated, a relationship that was mediated by activity in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC). These results suggest that affect labeling may diminish emotional reactivity along a pathway from RVLPFC to MPFC to the amygdala.     

A sentence completion procedure as an alternative to the Autobiographical Memory Test for assessing overgeneral memory in non-clinical populations

Overgeneral memory (OGM) has been proposed as a vulnerability factor for depression (Williams et al., 2007) or depressive reactivity to stressful life-events (e.g., Gibbs & Rude, 2004). Traditionally, a cue word procedure known as the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT; Williams & Broadbent, 1986) is used to assess OGM. Although frequently and validly used in clinical populations, there is evidence suggesting that the AMT is insufficiently sensitive to measure OGM in non-clinical groups. Study 1 evaluated the usefulness of a sentence completion method to assess OGM in non-clinical groups, as an alternative to the AMT. Participants were 197 students who completed the AMT, the Sentence Completion for Events from the Past Test (SCEPT), a depression measure, and visual analogue scales assessing ruminative thinking. Results showed that the mean proportion of overgeneral responses was markedly higher for the SCEPT than for the standard AMT. Also, overgeneral responding on the SCEPT was positively associated to depression scores and depressive rumination scores, whereas overgeneral responding on the AMT was not. Results suggest that the SCEPT, relative to the AMT, is a more sensitive instrument to measure OGM, at least in non-clinical populations. Study 2 further showed that this enhanced sensitivity is most likely due to the omission of the instruction to be specific rather than to the SCEPT's sentence completion format (as opposed to free recall to cue words).