“Evidence” on Characteristic Empathy: A Reply to Cross and Slee

This paper addresses a number of issues raised by Cross and Slee (1984) in their comment on Watson (1983). It clarifies the construct of characteristic empathy by comparing this variable with variables derived from interactive empathy. Various aspects of reliability as they relate to popular empathy measures are then discussed ad the particular version of the Indices studied by Watson (1983) is identified. Finally, there is a discussion of the extent to which the literature reviewed by Cross and Slee actually offers conclusive evidence about empathy measures.     

Creativity in Medical Education: The Value of Having Medical Students Make Stuff

What is the value of having medical students engage in creative production as part of their learning? Creating something new requires medical students to take risks and even to fail--something they tend to be neither accustomed to nor comfortable with doing. “Making stuff” can help students prepare for such failures in a controlled environment that doesn’t threaten their professional identities. Furthermore, doing so can facilitate students becoming resilient and creative problem-solvers who strive to find new ways to address vexing questions. Though creating something new can be fun, this is not the main outcome of interest. Rather, the principle reason we recommend devoting precious curricular time to creative endeavors is because it helps medical students become better doctors.     

Further assessment of the construct validity of four measures of narcissism: replication and extension

CT. The authors build on earlier research by L. S. Mullins and R. E. Kopelman (1988) and R. E. Kopelman and L. S. Mullins (1992) to reexamine the construct validity of four narcissism scales: the Margolis-Thomas Measure of Narcissism (MT; H. D. Margolis & V. A. Thomas, 1980), the Narcissistic Personality Disorder Scale (NPDS; H. U. Ashby, R. R. Lee, & E. H. Duke, 1979), the Narcissism-Hypersensitivity subscale of the MMPI, Scale 5, Masculinity-Femininity (NHMF; K. Serkownek, 1975), and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; R. Raskin & C. S. Hall, 1979). The present analysis included the revised NPI and its factors along with four measures of satisfaction and a number of other previously assessed variables. The MT exhibited the strongest validity, correlating positively with conceptually related constructs such as Machiavellianism, nonsignificantly with unrelated measures like the need to achieve, and inversely with all four satisfaction scales. Contrasts between the NPI and NPDS and NHMF seemed to parallel recent differentiations between overt and covert narcissism, but data for the NPI factors suggested instead that the four narcissism scales helped describe a complex psychological continuum related to adjustment.     

Self-Knowledge and Narcissism in Iranians: Relationships with Empathy and Self-Esteem

Self-knowledge is a Muslim psychological ideal, but social theory suggests that the dynamics of narcissism and self-esteem may challenge the stability of Muslim society. In Iranian university students, an Integrative Self-Knowledge Scale displayed relationships with narcissism, self-esteem, and empathy that reflected relative mental health; and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory included factors that pointed toward adjustment as well as maladjustment. Evidence that narcissism predicted positive forms of self-functioning was more obvious in men than in women. Outcomes further confirmed that self-knowledge is as an adaptive process in Iran and that narcissism and self-esteem may have noteworthy implications for understanding Muslim society.     

An Evaluation of Sex Hormone Replacement in Aged Women

Six same-different matching tests, both verbal and nonverbal, in three modalities, along with a set of reading tests, were administered to 120 Israeli children in second, third, and fourth grade. The main effects of all S variables, except sex (grade, socioeconomic level, and ability) were significant, as were the test factors of modality (visual, auditory, cross-modal) and form (verbal-nonverbal), but interactions between S and test factors were small. Multiple regression analysis revealed that overall matching test scores accounted for 35% of the variance in reading scores, although the additional contribution of specific subtests was negligible. Performance on the visual-visual tests was virtually perfect. Auditory-auditory matches were more difficult than auditory-visual matches with nonverbal stimuli, while the reverse was true with verbal stimuli.     

On the temporal stability of personality: evidence for differential stability and the role of life experiences

The authors investigated the stability of personality and trait affect in young adults. In Studies 1 and 2, young adults were retested on a Big Five personality measure and a trait affect inventory over a 2.5-year and a 2-month period, respectively. Results from Study 1 point to positive mean-level changes; participants scored higher on Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness at Time 2. Affectively, participants experienced less negative affect and more positive affect at Time 2. Results from both retests provide clear evidence of differential stability. Affective traits were consistently less stable than the Big Five. Other analyses suggest that life events influence the stability of affective traits more than the Big Five.     

Social networks and college drinking: probing processes of social influence and selection

This study used a three-wave panel design (N = 119 complete cases for all waves) to test for social influence and selection in the relation of college students' heavy drinking and that of their social networks. Evidence emerged for both social influence and selection, leading the authors to probe more specialized issues related to each. Results regarding social influence revealed, further, that greater presence in the network of individuals that the focal respondent considered "drinking buddies" was predictive of one's own later drinking, controlling for potential confounds. Network demographic characteristics associated with a "risky" (i.e., heavy-drinking) network also were documented. An additional finding, important for selection, was that wave-to-wave change in average network drinking appeared to result primarily from network members with different drinking levels being added to and dropped from the network. Findings are discussed in the context of the recent renaissance in social-network research.     

The method of constant stimuli is inefficient

Simpson (1988) has argued that the method of constant stimuli is as efficient as adaptive methods of threshold estimation, and has supported this claim with simulations. We show that Simpson's simulations are not a reasonable model of the experimental process, and that more plausible simulations confirm that adaptive methods are much more efficient than the method of constant stimuli.