Personality dimensions and emotional problems: The mediating role of irrational beliefs in Pakistani adult non‐clinical sample

This study presents the first examination of the relation between the Big Five personality traits, irrational beliefs and emotional problems in Pakistan, which is an understudied country in the psychological distress literature. A total of 195 participants (aged 25–60 years), employees at COMSATS University, completed a demographic information sheet, the Big Five Personality Questionnaire, the Irrational Belief Inventory and two subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory including depression and anxiety. Direct effects of neuroticism, openness and conscientiousness were also observed for depression and anxiety. Structural Equation Modelling demonstrated that irrational beliefs played a significant mediating role in the relationship between neuroticism and anxiety and neuroticism and depression. The results highlight the importance of cognitive beliefs in functionally linking personality traits and emotional problems.     

Response preparation with anticues in children and adults

We examined the ability of children (mean age: 10.4 years) and adults (mean age: 20.7 years) to prepare finger keypress responses in an anticue paradigm by presenting left and right spatial cues, which specified right and left hand finger responses, respectively. Four time intervals separated cue onset from target onset: 200 ms, 600 ms, 1000 ms, and 2000 ms. Results showed that, overall, children responded slower and less accurately than did adults; nevertheless they were equally effective in using anticue information to reduce reaction time with preparation intervals of 600 ms and longer. This outcome is discussed in terms of a slow, voluntary, top-down executive process that redirects motor preparation from the ipsi- to the contralateral hand. The absence of an age effect suggests an early maturation of the underlying neural mechanisms.     

Facial Expressions and the Ability to Recognize Emotions from the Eyes or Mouth: A Comparison Between Children and Adults

The authors sought to contribute to the literature on the ability to recognize anger, happiness, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, and neutral emotions from facial information. They aimed to investigate if—regardless of age—this pattern changes. More specifically, the present study aimed to compare the difference between the performance of adults and 6- to 7-year-old children in detecting emotions from the whole face and a specific face region, namely the eyes and mouth. The findings seem to indicate that, for both groups, recognizing disgust, happiness, and surprise is facilitated when pictures represent the whole face. However, with regard to a specific region, a prevalence for children was not found between the eyes and mouth. Meanwhile, for adults, would seem to detect a greater role of the eye region. Finally, regarding the differences in the performance of emotions recognition, adults are better only in a few cases, whereas children are better in recognizing anger from the mouth.     

Documenting changes in adult speakers' locus of causality during stuttering treatment using Origin and Pawn scaling

The concepts of locus of control and locus of causality are similar and refer to the degree to which a person perceives daily occurrences to be a consequence of his or her own behavior. Locus of control is considered to be a unidimensional construct indicating an inverse relationship between the polls of internality and externality. The locus of control is generally determined by using questionnaires with a limited number of items. Locus of causality is considered to be a two-dimensional construct where Origin and Pawn values, which are similar to internality and externality, respectively, are not necessarily inversely related. Locus of causality is determined by content analysis of freely spoken or written narratives. In the current study Origin and Pawn scores were obtained from twenty adults prior to and following a three-week intensive stuttering treatment program. Brief narratives written by the participants were analyzed to obtain Origin and Pawn values. These scores were compared with traditional measures of therapeutic outcome (Locus of Control, OASES, PSI, percentage of syllables stuttered). Results indicated statistically significant increases in pre- to post-treatment Origin scores (p = .001; Cohen's d = 1.44) and statistically significant decreases in pre- to post-treatment Pawn scores (p = .003; Cohen's d = 1.11). Origin and Pawn scores showed significant relationships with other measures of stuttering, indicating concurrent and construct validity. Origin and Pawn scaling procedures appear to provide a valid, sensitive, and nonreactive indicator of the speaker's locus of causality and ability to develop an autonomous and agentic lifestyle.Educational objectives: After reading this article, the readers will be able to: (1) distinguish between the concepts of locus of control and locus of causality, (2) describe the characteristics of individuals behaving as an Origin and a Pawn, (3) differentiate patterns of change for Origin and Pawn scores prior to and following treatment, and (4) describe the clinical advantages using Origin and Pawn scaling procedures for individuals who stutter.     

Focussing on overexcitabilities: Studies with intellectually gifted and academically talented adults

The concept of “overexcitability” has recently become popular within the field of giftedness and talent research. Some authors argue that overexcitability questionnaires can be used to identify gifted/talented individuals. A sample of intellectually gifted adults (n = 96; mean age: 31.4; SD = 0.3) was compared to a sample of adults of average intelligence (n = 91; mean age: 31.4; SD = 0.4). Additionally, a sample of 123 high achievers (mean age = 30.5; SD = 0.3) was compared to 97 average achievers (mean age: 30.5; SD = 0.3). The “Overexcitability Questionnaire-Two” was used to assess emotional, imaginational, intellectual, psychomotor, and sensual overexcitability. The gifted adults scored statistically significantly higher on “intellectual overexcitability” (d = .42). High and average achievers differed statistically significantly in “intellectual overexcitability” (d = .56) and “sensual overexcitability” (d = .32). For the giftedness sample, the accuracy of group membership prediction (gifted/non-gifted) via discriminant analyses was 60.4%. For the performance sample, the accuracy was 63.4%. The observed differences in the overexcitabilities were small; the risk of misclassification is too big to attempt to identify gifted or high achieving adults solely on the basis of overexcitability scores.     

Student clinicians’ and clients’ perceptions of the therapeutic alliance and outcomes in stuttering treatment

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine how the therapeutic alliances (TA) of graduate student clinicians and adult clients who stutter relate to perceived treatment outcomes.MethodsStudent clinicians (N = 42) and adult clients who stutter (N = 22) completed a survey assessing their TA strength and perception of treatment outcomes. Responses were analyzed to determine similarities and differences in how clinicians and clients relate the TA to perceptions of treatment effectiveness, progress, and outcome satisfaction.ResultsResults suggest that clinicians and clients who stutter both relate the TA to treatment outcome, but in different ways. While clinicians associate the TA most with treatment effectiveness and client progress, clients relate the TA most to outcome satisfaction.ConclusionClinicians should be aware that for adult clients who stutter, outcome satisfaction is related to the degree of shared understanding, agreement on daily tasks, and bond they experience with their clinician. To ensure a strong TA and client satisfaction, clinicians should actively seek their clients’ perspective regarding TA status.     

Who uses what and how often?: Personality predictors of multiplatform social media use among young adults

To understand who uses social media and how often they do so, we examined the personality traits that predict frequency of using a set of 10 different types of social media (e.g., social networks, blogs, virtual worlds). Using survey data collected from two large-scale samples of young adults (Exploratory Study 1 N = 1586, Confirmatory Study 2 N = 1432), we conducted direct replications of our findings to test whether the observed relationships between social media use and personality traits were reliable. Our replicated findings reveal that sex, age and extraversion are reliable predictors of several types of social media use (e.g., Facebook, Messaging Platforms, Online Forums), while other traits (e.g., agreeableness, Machiavellianism) showed unreliable associations. Our findings also reveal dimensions of multiplatform social media use that categorize the media ecologies of young adults and show significant associations with individual difference measures.     

Cognitive Progression in Epilepsy

The issue of cognitive progression in people with epilepsy is of considerable interest and has important clinical and theoretical implications. In this paper, we review recent studies in both the adult and childhood epilepsy literature which have included a longitudinal test–retest design to examine this question. Several important methodological issues of this literature are highlighted and areas which require more investigation are identified.     

Differences in feedback- and inhibition-related neural activity in adult ADHD

The objective of this study was to examine response inhibition- and feedback-related neural activity in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using event-related functional MRI. Sixteen male adults with ADHD and 13 healthy/normal controls participated in this study and performed a modified Go/NoGo task. Behaviourally, attention and inhibition problems in the ADHD group were observed; no feedback-related differences between the groups were detected. The neuroimaging data showed that the ADHD group displayed more activation in the inferior frontal gyrus and putamen during response inhibition. During feedback-related processes, the ADHD group displayed less activation in the inferior frontal/orbitofrontal cortex, hippocampus/nucleus accumbens, and caudate nucleus, but more activity in the inferior frontal gyrus. These results indicate that at least two distinguishable underlying brain networks related to response inhibition and feedback are altered in adults with ADHD.     

Determinants of standard motorcycle safety helmet usage among child pillion riders

The World Health Organization stressed that compliance with the use of safety helmet could significantly reduce the risk of injury by 72% and the probability of death by 39%. In Malaysia, the enforcement of the safety helmet legislation significantly reduced 30% of motorcycle crash fatalities in Malaysia. The aim of this study is to explore the use of motorcycle helmets and the determinants of standard helmet usage among child pillion riders. A cross-sectional survey of 200 adult riders accompanied by the child pillion riders aged 6–12 years old from Klang, Selangor, was conducted. The proper use of the helmet among the respondents and the child pillion riders was observed and recorded. A questionnaire was used to assess socio-demographic background and awareness of the use of child safety helmets. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 23. Only 3% of child pillion riders use standard child safety helmets, while 37% wear standard adult motorcycle helmets. Adult riders who were married, female, always wear helmets, have a higher household income and travel a long distance, are more likely to use a standard motorcycle helmet for their child pillion riders. Knowledge on Standard Certification (SIRIM) label and its importance, awareness of the campaign on child safety helmets, police enforcement, understanding the safety of toy/game helmet use have been identified as additional determinants of standard helmet use among child pillion riders. This study recommends prospective studies with continuous road safety educations programs that integrate behavioural change approaches to enhance the use of standard motorcycle helmets among the child pillion riders in Malaysia.