Fitting model-based psychometric functions to simultaneity and temporal-order judgment data: MATLAB and R routines

Research on temporal-order perception uses temporal-order judgment (TOJ) tasks or synchrony judgment (SJ) tasks in their binary SJ2 or ternary SJ3 variants. In all cases, two stimuli are presented with some temporal delay, and observers judge the order of presentation. Arbitrary psychometric functions are typically fitted to obtain performance measures such as sensitivity or the point of subjective simultaneity, but the parameters of these functions are uninterpretable. We describe routines in MATLAB and R that fit model-based functions whose parameters are interpretable in terms of the processes underlying temporal-order and simultaneity judgments and responses. These functions arise from an independent-channels model assuming arrival latencies with exponential distributions and a trichotomous decision space. Different routines fit data separately for SJ2, SJ3, and TOJ tasks, jointly for any two tasks, or also jointly for the three tasks (for common cases in which two or even the three tasks were used with the same stimuli and participants). Additional routines provide bootstrap p-values and confidence intervals for estimated parameters. A further routine is included that obtains performance measures from the fitted functions. An R package for Windows and source code of the MATLAB and R routines are available as Supplementary Files.     

Validation of Dating Violence Questionnarie-R (DVQ-R)

Background/Objective

Despite the growing interest in the study of dating violence, relatively few psychometrically sound instruments are available to researchers. To provide an instrument to researchers and professionals to assess victimization in dating relationships, with adequate psychometric properties. Method: Participants were 6,138 adolescents drawn from the general population, 25% of which were university students. Participants responded to the original Dating Violence Questionnaire (DVQ). Results: Confirmatory analyses results provided evidence of a clear factorial structure that was invariant through sex groups. The DVQ-R measures with 20 items five dimensions of abuse in affective interpersonal relationships of adolescents and youth: Detachment, Humiliation, Coercion, Physical and Sexual violence. Internal consistency indexes were adequate for both each one of the five dimensions as well as for the general scale. Conclusions: The DVQ-R is an useful assessment to be applied in adolescents and youth. Implications for research and intervention are discussed in light of the results obtained.     

Between Homohysteria and Inclusivity: Tolerance Towards Sexual Diversity in Sport

The small number of openly gay or lesbian people in top-flight sport raises the question about whether sporting or social context makes it easy or difficult for these sportspeople to come out. There are studies conducted in the UK and USA using the theory of homohysteria but the scarcity of studies in Spain on this subject, added to the lack of a tool with which to measure tolerance towards sexual diversity in sport, has led us to write this paper in which we analyze the suitability of a new tool for classifying the metacognitive profiles of two samples from different cultures, relative to the concept of homohysteria. This correlational study involved 879 men and women aged 16–78 (M = 28.45 years; SD = 13.08) living in either Spain or the United Kingdom, who were actively participating in or following sport of some kind. Results show that the new instrument has adequate construct validity and high reliability (Alpha = .95), facilitating the measurement of two dimensions of tolerance towards non-heteronormative sexualities in sport: non-rejection and acceptance. Results point to three metacognitive profiles in terms of fit of the level of tolerance in these two dimensions: low, high, and partial. Findings show high levels of both dimensions of tolerance in the UK, and higher percentages of partial tolerance in Spain, underlining the importance of cultural contexts and policies which may affect people’s levels of tolerance. We conclude that a pseudo-inclusive climate exists in Spanish society today.     

Culture and Community Psychology: Toward a Renewed and Reimagined Vision

Interest is growing in community psychology to look more closely at culture. Culture has resided in community psychology in its emphasis on context, ecology, and diversity, however we believe that the field will benefit from a more explicit focus on culture. We suggest a cultural approach that values the community's points of view and an understanding of shared and divergent meanings, goals, and norms within a theory of empowerment. Furthermore, we posit the importance of pluralistic, multi-method programs of research and action encompassing both idiographic and nomothetic approaches, and critical reflexivity of our roles and agendas. Culture can be further incorporated into all the branches and fibers of community psychology.     

Psychometric analysis of the AF5 multidimensional scale of self-concept in a sample of adolescents and adults in Catalonia

The aim of this study is to carry out a psychometric study of the AF5 scale in a sample of 4.825 Catalan subjects from 11 to 63 years-old. They are students from secondary compulsory education (ESO), from high school, middle-level vocational training (CFGM) and from the university. Using a principal component analysis (PCA) the theoretical validity of the components is established and the reliability of the instrument is also analyzed. Differential analyses are performed by gender and normative group using a 2 x 6 factorial design. The normative group variable includes the different levels classified into 6 sub-groups: university, post-compulsory secondary education (high school and CFGM), 4th of ESO, 3rd of ESO, 2nd of ESO and 1st of ESO. The results indicate that the reliability of the Catalan version of the scale is similar to the original scale. The factorial structure also fits with the original model established beforehand. Significant differences by normative group in the four components of self-concept explored (social, family, academic/occupational and physical) are observed. By gender, significant differences appear in the component of physical self-concept, academic and social but not in the family component.     

Facilitation of the equivalence--equivalence responding

Equivalence-Equivalence responding, based on equivalence class formation, is a key concept of the functional-analytic model of analogical reasoning held by RFT theorists. Relational stimulus control is supposed to play an important role in this arbitrary relational response. Previous research showed that mere training of the prerequisites for equivalence class formation is not always enough for the derivation of equivalence-equivalence responding, even in adults. In the first experiment, with 12 adult participants, we designed a matching-to-sample training and testing procedure that, although it provided all necessary conditions, did not lead to Equivalence-Equivalence responding in most participants, so that the efficacy of a facilitation procedure could be assessed. In Experiment 2, with 32 valid participants, a matching-to-sample procedure based on non-arbitrary relations was introduced to assess its efficacy in enhancing stimulus control by the relational properties of sample and comparisons. Results showed a moderate effect: 40.6% of the participants passed the test after being exposed to a non-arbitrary relational matching task (but none without it). This research underlines the importance of non-arbitrary relational responses in the derivation of more complex repertoires.     

Web of Science production quality indicators of ten professors' at the area of personality, assessment and psychological treatment: additional contributions to Olivas-Ávila y Musi-Lechuga study

Rankings of scientific productivity are increasingly relevant both from an individual and a collective perspective. Therefore, making sure they are based on reliable and exhaustive information is really important. This study clearly shows that available rankings change dramatically when internationally acknowledged bibliometric indices are considered. Data from the 10 Professors belonging to the 'Personality, Assessment, and Psychological Treatment' Department considered in the recent analysis by Olivas-ávila y Musi-Lechuga ( Psicothema 2010. Vol. 22, no 4, pp. 909-916) are revisited here for illustrative purposes.     

Personality differences between alcohol abusers and matched controls: Relation to frontal symptoms and subtypes of addicts

Epidemiological studies usually show a link between personality disorders and addictions. Dimensional models of personality, such as that of Cloninger, are able to diagnose and discriminate between transient dysfunctional behavior styles and relatively more stable traits. Certain brain areas have been proposed, as trait locations, based on their activation. This paper explores differences in personality traits among a sample of alcohol abusers (N= 95) and a control group of non-clinical population (N= 95), matched in sociodemographic variables, using the TCI-R-67 and the FrSBe-Sp. It is hypothesized that such differences are associated with frontal symptomatology. The existence of different subgroups of addicts based on certain combinations of traits is also analyzed. Results showed significant differences in two temperament traits (Novelty Seeking and Harm Avoidance) and a characterial trait (Self-Direction). We also found a correlation with a large effect size between these traits and frontal symptomatology. Cluster analysis classified the participants into several subtypes with different combinations of traits that matched diverse frontal symptomatology. Possible neurobiological explanations of these differences and their importance in the clinical practice are discussed.     

When the victim is one among others: Empathy,awareness of others and motivational ambivalence

Feeling empathy for one person in need while being aware of others may increase the motivational ambivalence between the motive of helping the one and the motive of helping the others, and such motivational ambivalence may reduce the helping directed to the person in need. To test these hypotheses we carried out three studies in which participants were faced with a real case of a child in need. In Study 1, empathy, awareness of others and motivational ambivalence were allowed to occur naturally and subsequently measured. In Study 2, empathy and awareness of others were experimentally manipulated, and motivational ambivalence measured. In Study 3, we tested how empathy and motivational ambivalence influenced an actual helping decision. Taken together, the results supported our two hypotheses. The present research offers insight into processes not previously considered in the research, but which may influence decisions about assistance to others in need.