Zuckerman's revised alternative five-factor model: validation of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire in four French-speaking countries

The aim of this study was to analyze the replicability of Zuckerman's revised Alternative Five-factor model in a French-speaking context by validating the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ) simultaneously in 4 French-speaking countries. The total sample was made up of 1,497 subjects from Belgium, Canada, France, and Switzerland. The internal consistencies for all countries were generally similar to those found for the normative U.S. and Spanish samples. A factor analysis confirmed that the normative structure replicated well and was stable within this French-speaking context. Moreover, multigroup confirmatory factor analyses have shown that the ZKA-PQ reaches scalar invariance across these 4 countries. Mean scores were slightly different for women and men, with women scoring higher on Neuroticism but lower on Sensation Seeking. Globally, mean score differences across countries were small. Overall, the ZKA-PQ seems an interesting alternative to assess both lower and higher order personality traits for applied or research purposes.     

The Meaning of Parental Control in Migrant,Sending, and Host Communities: Adaptation or Persistence?

The goal of the present study was to investigate whether migrant adolescents tend to adopt the host culture's view of parental control or whether they are inclined to reaffirm their heritage culture with regard to the meaning assigned to parental control. The hypotheses regarding the level and meaning of parental control were tested on 296 Turkish‐Belgian adolescents, 306 Turks in Turkey, and 304 Belgians in Belgium with median ages of 16, 17, and 16, respectively. Although migrants reported the highest level of parental control, their ratings of parental warmth, satisfaction with the relationships with their parents, and self‐esteem did not correlate with parental control as was the case among Belgians. The findings suggest that traditional parenting is accentuated in migrant families, and that there is continuity in the traditional meaning of parental control in migration. Findings are discussed with reference to contextual factors that may reinforce culture maintenance in migration. Le but de cette recherche était d’étudier le sens que des adolescents immigrés assignaient au contrôle parental: adoptent‐ils la culture d’accueil ou ont‐ils plutôt tendance à réaffirmer leur héritage culturel? Des hypothèses tenant compte du niveau et de la signification du contrôle parental ont été testées auprès de 296 adolescents Turcs‐Belges, 306 Turcs de Turquie et 304 Belges de Belgique dont les âges médians étaient respectivement de 16, 17 et 16 ans. Bien que les immigrés présentent un plus haut niveau de contrôle parental, leurs résultats concernant la chaleur parentale, la satisfaction de leurs relations avec leurs parents, et l’estime de soi n’étaient pas corrélés avec le contrôle parental contrairement aux adolescents Belges. Ces résultats montrent que l’éducation traditionnelle est accentuée dans les familles immigrées, et que la signification traditionnelle accordée au contrôle parental persiste dans l’immigration. Ces résultats sont discutés en référence à des facteurs contextuels pouvant renforcer le maintien de la culture d’origine dans l’immigration.     

Why Do Young Children Look so Smart and Older Children Look so Dumb on True Belief Control Tasks? An Investigation of Pragmatic Performance Factors

ABSTRACT

When do children acquire a meta-representational Theory of Mind? False Belief (FB) tasks have become the litmus test to answer this question. In such tasks, subjects must ascribe a non-veridical belief to another agent and predict/explain her actions accordingly. Empirically, children pass explicit verbal versions of FB tasks from around age 4. The standard interpretation of this finding is that children at this age have acquired a solid capacity for meta-representation. New research with true belief (TB) control tasks, however, presents a puzzling phenomenon: While 3-year-olds pass these tasks but fail FB tasks, children from age 4 begin to show the reverse performance (passing FB but failing TB). Competence deficit accounts claim that these findings jeopardize the standard interpretation; they show that children may use simple heuristics rather than true meta-representation and that the original FB findings may thus have been false positives. Pragmatic performance limitation accounts, in contrast, claim that these findings do not document any conceptual limitations, but merely reflect children’s confusion in light of the task pragmatics. In the present study, the two accounts were tested against each other in seven experiments with 4- to 7-year-old children. Pragmatic tasks factors of TB tests were systematically modified. Results show that children’s difficulty with TB tasks indeed disappeared after some such modifications. This clearly speaks against competence limitation accounts and corroborates the standard interpretation of FB and related Theory of Mind tasks.     

Prediction of Behaviour vs. Prediction of Behaviour Change: The Role of Motivational Moderators in the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Research has identified moderating variables of the cognition–behaviour relationship in the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). These include intention certainty, affective–cognitive congruence of attitudes, attitudinal ambivalence, and past behaviour. It has not yet been systematically tested if these moderators apply in similar ways to the prediction of behaviour and behaviour change (when past behaviour is controlled). A sample of 1,418 university students completed measures of the direct predictors of the TPB (perceived behavioural control; PBC and intention), intention certainty, affective–cognitive congruence of attitudes, attitudinal ambivalence, and the Godin Leisure Time Physical Exercise Questionnaire at the beginning of the academic year and two months later. Data were analysed using moderated hierarchical linear regressions. Without controlling for baseline behaviour, intention certainty and affective–cognitive congruence moderated both the intention–behaviour and PBC–behaviour relationships and showed additional main effects. Attitudinal ambivalence did not contribute to the prediction. When past behaviour was controlled, the main effects were attenuated and only the intention certainty* PBC interaction remained significant. Predictors of behaviour do not necessarily predict behaviour change. The TPB-related moderators studied here weakly contributed to the prediction of behaviour change. Proposals for increasing the predictive power of TPB for behaviour change are discussed.