Ubiquitous Personality-Trait Concepts in 13 Diverse and Isolated Languages: A Cluster–Classification Approach

There is longstanding interest in the generalizability of personality across diverse cultures. To investigate the generalizability of personality concepts, we examined the English translations of individual-difference entries from the dictionaries of 12 small-scale societies previously studied for ubiquity of individual differences plus the dictionary of an additional society not previously studied in this manner. These 13 societies are highly diverse in geographical location, culture, and language family; their languages developed in isolation from modern-world languages. The goal of our exploratory research was to discover ubiquitous personality concepts in these 13 independent societies and their languages, providing a window into personality concepts across a broad range of cultures and languages. This study used clusters of empirically related terms (e.g. brave, courageous, and daring), based on a taxonomy of English-language personality concepts that consisted of 100 personality-trait clusters. English-language definitions of dictionary entries from the 13 languages were matched to the meanings of the synonym clusters. The cluster–classification method uncovered nine ubiquitous personality concepts, plus six that were present in at least 12 of the 13 languages. The nine ubiquitous personality concepts include some not previously identified and suggest a core of possibly universal concepts. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Self-efficacy and Strategy on Complex Tasks

The mediational role of strategy in the relationship between self-efficacy and performance on complex tasks is analysed. Within an individual's multidimensional self-efficacy belief system, perceived capabilities for conducting searches in different modalities and for the processing of information, including the use of tools to overcome cognitive limits, are predicted to have differential impacts on the use of judgmental heuristics and biases and the choice of strategies. Search efficacy is predicted to differ across search modalities, such as experimentation, interpersonal questioning, electronic search and passive study, as a function of differences in personal and situational determinants. Processing efficacy is predicted to generalise across a much wider range of cognitive tasks, depending upon perceived similarities in the content of tasks (e.g. verbal versus quantitative) and the tools used. Low search efficacy is predicted to lead to greater use of the availability heuristic, while low processing efficacy is predicted to lead to greater use of the anchoring and adjustment and representativeness heuristics. Choices of specific strategies are predicted from different combinations of weak and strong efficacy beliefs for exploratory search and deliberative processing.     

Predicting adolescent eating and activity behaviors: the role of social norms and personal agency.

Guided by the theory of planned behavior, this 2-week longitudinal study examined health behaviors in a sample of 279 adolescents. Social norms and perceived behavioral control (PBC) were tested as predictors of self-reported intentions and behaviors in 2 domains, eating and physical activity. Differentiating, as opposed to aggregating, parent and peer norms provided unique information. For PBC, the authors distinguished global causality beliefs from self-related agency beliefs and intraself (effort, ability) from extraself (parents, teachers) means. Intraself agency beliefs strongly predicted healthy intentions, whereas intraself causality beliefs had a negative influence. Patterns differed somewhat across behaviors and gender. Results highlight theoretical issues and provide potential targets for research on health promotion programs for youth.     

Eye-movements support chronometric imagery performance even when the task is occluded

ABSTRACT

Mental chronometry has often been used to provide a temporal comparison between executed and imagined movements, with smaller discrepancies indicating more accurate image production and better imagery performance. In this study, we examined the importance of retinal and extra-retinal information in the performance of simple, sequential movements. After physical practice of four activities of daily living (Southampton Hand Assessment Procedure), nineteen participants imagined completing the same tasks with: 1) free eye-movements and visible objects, 2) free eye-movements and no visibility of the objects, and 3) constrained eye-movements and visible objects. Results suggested imagery performance was slower/less accurate compared to physical execution when the eyes were constrained. Conversely, chronometric imagery performance was unaffected with free eye movements, even when task-specific visual information was occluded. This study highlights the crucial role that eye-movements play in the regulation of the temporal aspects of imagery even when retinal information is absent, suggesting that temporal sequencing of imagined actions is largely dependent on extra-retinal information sources.