A factor analysis of Furnham's Money Attitude Scale: a response to Furnham

Two empirically-derived scales from Furnham's Money Attitude Scale are presented. They measure money as a source of status and power and having a strong desire for money.     

Personality profiles and the prediction of categorical personality disorders

Personality disorders (PDs) are usually construed as psychiatric categories characterized by a unique configuration of traits and behaviors. To generate clinical hypotheses from normal personality trait scores, profile agreement statistics can be calculated using a prototypical personality profile for each PD. Multimethod data from 1,909 psychiatric patients in the People's Republic of China were used to examine the accuracy of such hypotheses in the Interpretive Report of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. Profile agreement indices from both self-reports and spouse ratings were significantly related to PD symptom scores derived from questionnaires and clinical interviews. However, accuracy of diagnostic classification was only modest to moderate, probably because PDs are not discrete categorical entities. Together with other literature, these data suggest that the current categorical system should be replaced by a more comprehensive system of personality traits and personality-related problems.     

向整合的超个人心理学

超个人心理学是20世纪60年代末在美国兴起的一种心理学流派。它认为个体能够通过对自我潜能的发掘,通过对意识状态的扩充,达到超越自我,超越时空的所谓超个人状态。本文追溯了超个人心理学产生的历史渊源,阐释了其基本理论框架和研究特点,从历史与现实、理论与实验相结合的角度探讨了这一学派的一些最新研究成果,如转换的意识状态,意识谱理论,沉思的研究与训练,揭示了当代西方心理学正在走向整合的新趋向。     

医疗事故处理法律亟待统一规范

目前在我国医疗工作的实践中,医疗纠纷呈上升趋势。然而,解决和处理医疗纠纷与医疗事故的法律、法规尚不移规范统一。随着我国法制的逐步健全,法律,法规的不断完善,医疗事故处理的法律亟待统一规范,以利于全社会遵法,守法,执法的实现。     

Childhood abuse in Chinese patients with borderline personality disorder

This study examined (1) the relative prevalence of childhood abuse and other pathological childhood experiences in China reported by outpatients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), with other personality disorders, and without personality disorders; and, (2) whether the primary predictors of BPD in North America are associated with the development of BPD in China. The childhood experiences of 203 outpatients with BPD, 109 outpatients with other personality disorders, and 70 outpatients without Axis II diagnoses were assessed with the Chinese version of the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Questionnaire (CECA.Q). Patients with BPD reported significantly more physical, emotional, and sexual abuse than either comparison group. Four types of childhood experiences were significant predictors of BPD: maternal neglect, paternal antipathy, sexual abuse, and maternal physical abuse. The findings suggest that maternal physical abuse is as strong a predictor of BPD in China as sexual abuse, a finding not replicated in North America.     

Differential trajectories of age-related changes in components of executive and memory processes

Several studies have demonstrated age-related declines in general executive function and memory. In this study, we examined cross-sectional and longitudinal age effects in more specific cognitive processes that constitute executive function and memory. We postulated that, whereas some components of executive and memory functions would show age differences and longitudinal declines, other specific abilities would be maintained or even improve with repeated testing. In a sample of individuals ≥55 years old from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, we found longitudinal declines in inhibition, manipulation, semantic retrieval, phonological retrieval, switching, and long-term memory over a maximum of 14 years follow-up. In contrast, abstraction, capacity, chunking, discrimination, and short-term memory were maintained or even improved longitudinally, probably due in part to repeated testing. Moreover, whereas several different abilities were correlated across participants' cross-sectional performance, longitudinal changes in performance showed more heterogeneous trajectories. Finally, compared with cross-sectional performance, longitudinal trajectories showed better distinction between participants with and those without later cognitive impairment. These results show that longitudinal cognitive aging of executive and memory functions is not a uniform process but a heterogeneous one and suggest that certain executive and memory functions remain stable despite age-related declines in other component processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

The Physical Appearance Perfectionism Scale: Development and Preliminary Validation

Eight studies with data from 2316 students are presented describing the development and preliminary validation of the Physical Appearance Perfectionism Scale (PAPS), a brief measure with two subscales: Worry About Imperfection and Hope For Perfection. Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the measure’s two-dimensional structure. Moreover, correlation analyses provided first evidence for the two subscales’ differential validity: Worry About Imperfection showed negative correlations with positive self-perceptions of one’s appearance (e.g., appearance self-esteem) and positive correlations with maladaptive concerns aspects of perfectionism, physical appearance concerns (e.g., body image disturbances), and body weight control whereas Hope For Perfection showed positive correlations with positive striving aspects of perfectionism, positive self-perceptions, and impression management. In addition, all PAPS scores showed high reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) and temporal stability (test-retest). Overall the findings suggest that the PAPS is a reliable and valid instrument to assess positive and negative aspects of physical appearance perfectionism.     

Active coping with stress suppresses glucose metabolism in the rat hypothalamus

We used 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose small-animal positron-emission tomography to determine whether different styles of coping with stress are associated with different patterns of neuronal activity in the hypothalamus. Adult rats were subjected to immobilization (IMO)-stress or to a non-immobilized condition for 30 min, in random order on separate days, each of which was followed by brain-scanning. Some rats in the immobilized condition were allowed to actively cope with the stress by chewing a wooden stick during IMO, while the other immobilized rats were given nothing to chew on. Voxel-based statistical analysis of the brain imaging data shows that chewing counteracted the stress-induced increased glucose uptake in the hypothalamus to the level of the non-immobilized condition. Region-of-interest analysis of the glucose uptake values further showed that chewing significantly suppressed stress-induced increased glucose uptake in the paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus and the anterior hypothalamic area but not in the lateral hypothalamus. Together with the finding that the mean plasma corticosterone concentration at the termination of the IMO was also significantly suppressed when rats had an opportunity to chew a wooden stick, our results showed that active coping by chewing inhibited the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis to reduce the endocrine stress response.     

The effects of self-brand connections on responses to brand failure: A new look at the consumer–brand relationship

We argue that consumers with high self-brand connections (SBC) respond to negative brand information as they do to personal failure — they experience a threat to their positive self-view. After viewing negative brand information, high (vs. low) SBC consumers reported lower state self-esteem. Consumers with high SBC also maintained favorable brand evaluations despite negative brand information. However, when they completed an unrelated self-affirmation task, they lowered their brand evaluations the same as low SBC consumers. This finding suggests that high SBC consumers' reluctance to lower brand evaluation might be driven by a motivation to protect the self rather than the brand.     

The AB Identification Survey: Identifying Absolute versus Relative Determinants of Happiness

This article introduces a simple survey method to distinguish between two types of variables that affect happiness—type A, which exerts an absolute effect on happiness, and type B, which affects happiness only through social context. The authors validate the method by comparing its findings with the findings of a theoretically superior but less practical experimental method, and use the method to identify the AB nature of a variety of naturally-occurring variables among both college students and people with work experience. We conclude by discussing the limitation of this method as well as its potential to inform policymakers about where to invest resources in order to improve people’s happiness over time.