From body motion to cheers: Speakers’ body movements as predictors of applause

Appearance cues and brief displays of behavior are related to people’s personality, to their performance at work and to the outcomes of elections. Thus, people present themselves to others on different communication channels, while their interaction partners form first impressions on the basis of the displayed cues. In the current study we examined whether people are able to read information from politicians’ body motion. For a rating experiment we translated short video clips of politicians giving a speech into animated stick-figures and had these animations rated on trustworthiness, dominance, competence and the Big Five personality dimensions. Afterwards we correlated the ratings with the applause and the hecklings that the speakers received throughout their entire speech. This revealed that speakers whose body movements were perceived as high on dominance, as high on extraversion and as low on agreeableness received more applause. Although the results obtained need support from additional studies they indicate that body motion is an informative cue in real life settings.     

Personality traits and affective states: Relationships with and without affect induction

Substantial evidence shows that extraversion is related to positive affect (PA) and neuroticism is related to negative affect (NA), and there are several possible explanations for these relationships. The current paper replicates these findings and examines relationships between the other Big Five traits with general positive and negative states (N = 257). Agreeableness was negatively related to NA, while conscientiousness and openness were positively related to PA. Next, affect was induced and extraversion and conscientiousness predicted changes in affect following an affect-induction (N = 262). The current findings support some theoretical understandings of broad personality traits and their relationships to general affect, and also suggests some refinements.     

The mediating role of self-esteem in the relationship between big five personality traits and depressive symptoms among Chinese undergraduate medical students

The objectives of this study were to examine the correlations between big five personality traits and depressive symptoms among Chinese undergraduate medical students, and to explore the mediating role of self-esteem on the correlations. Self-reported questionnaires, including Big Five Inventory, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem scale, and socio-demographic section were distributed to 2000 undergraduate medical students at four medical colleges and universities in Liaoning province, China, in June 2014. 1738 students became the final subjects. After adjustment for age and gender, agreeableness (β = −0.329) and openness (β = −0.096) were negatively related to depressive symptoms, while neuroticism (β = 0.245) was positively related to the symptoms. Self-esteem functioned as a mediator in the relationship between agreeableness (a * b = −0.154, 95% CI: −0.182, −0.127)/openness (a * b = −0.097, 95% CI: −0.124, −0.069)/neuroticism (a * b = 0.031, 95% CI: 0.007, 0.058) and depressive symptoms. Therefore, identifying at-risk students and undertaking appropriate intervention strategies that focus on both personality traits and self-esteem may be effective in preventing and reducing depressive symptoms among Chinese medical students.     

La clarté du concept de soi : validation d’une échelle de mesure en langue française

IntroductionThe self-concept clarity scale (SCC, Campbell et al., 1996) measures the extent to which self-beliefs are perceived as clearly defined, internally consistent and temporally stable.ObjectiveThe study aimed at testing the reliability and validity of a French version of the SCC scale and its relevance to predict the relationship between self-concept and vocational preference.MethodThree studies have been conducted on a total sample of 1114 participants (691 women) aged 15 and 62.ResultsResults revealed that the French version of the SCC had a unidimensional factor structure and high levels of internal consistency and temporal stability (study 1). As predicted, high SCC scores were independently associated with high self-esteem, high conscientiousness, high agreeability, low neuroticism and low social comparison orientation (study 2). Finally, a criterion validity argument was provided by demonstrating that high SCC scores predicted high matching degree between self-concept and occupational preference prototype (study 3).ConclusionThe psychometric properties of the French version of SCC are satisfactory and comparable to those of the English original scale. The use of the SCC scale in academic guidance and career counseling is therefore discussed.     

Le workaholisme dans une université française : une perspective transactionnelle

The aim of this research is to examine the phenomenon of workaholism with the staff of a French University. Three hundred and four employees completed measures of workaholism, personality and working conditions in order to study this phenomenon from a transactional perspective. Data analysis confirms the four hypotheses. Personality–in particular neuroticism–appears associated with workaholism. Working conditions also explain an additional proportion of variance of the phenomenon. In addition, workaholism does not appear to have serious consequences in terms of adaptation or professional medical and psychological disorders. Finally, interest is noted in direction of a differentiated study of the publics: if professors and teachers have higher level of workaholism than the technical and administrative staff, the origin is more for the professors and the teachers in individual characteristics expressed. The discussion raises some limitations of the research and outlines future prospects.     

Perceived social structural relations and group stereotypes: A test of the Stereotype Content Model in Malaysia

Using data from two studies, the current research tests the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) within a Malaysian context using Chinese and ethnic Malay participants. The aim of the research is to examine the theoretical underpinnings of the SCM in a new context by investigating the role of aspects of the perceived social structure that have not been considered previously. In line with the SCM it is found that the two dimensions of warmth and competence underlie in‐group and out‐group stereotypes in Malaysia. In addition, the in‐group was evaluated more positively than the out‐group on both dimensions. Furthermore, perceived economic social status rather than cultural or power status was related to out‐group competence (Study 1), and to out‐group warmth (Studies 1 and 2). Higher perceived economic competition was weakly and not consistently associated with less out‐group warmth, and political competition was not related to warmth.     

In touch with numbers: Embodied and situated effects in number magnitude comparison

The idea of embodied numerosity denotes that seemingly abstract number concepts (e.g., magnitude) are rooted in bodily experiences and situated action. In the present study we evaluated whether there is an embodied representation of the place–value structure of the Arabic number system and if so whether this representation is influenced by situated aspects. In a two-digit number magnitude comparison task participants had to directly touch the larger of two numbers. Importantly, pointing responses were systematically biased toward the decade digit of the target number. Additionally, this leftward bias towards the tens digit was reduced in unit–decade incompatible number pairs. Thereby, we demonstrated an influence of place–value processing on manual pointing movement. Our results therefore corroborate the notion of an embodied representation of the place–value structure of Arabic numbers which is modulated by situated aspects.     

Latent structure of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) in South African mortuary workers

This study applied confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to determine the dimensionality of PTSD symptoms as measured by the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5, Weathers et al., 2013). Participants were 150 trauma-exposed mortuary workers. Six alternative factor solutions resulted from the CFA; including Dysphoria model (four-factor), Dysphoric Arousal model (five-factor), Anhedonia model (six-factor), Externalising model (six-factor), and Hybrid model (seven-factor). Compared to the other models, the five-factor Dysphoric Arousal model had superior fit to the data. Overall, the current results provide evidence for the factorial validity and reliability of scores for the PCL-5 for research use in the South African context.     

Phase transformation of Cu precipitate in Fe–Cu alloy studied using self-guided molecular dynamics

The self-guided molecular dynamics (SGMD) method, which can enhance the conformational sampling efficiency in MD simulations, was applied in investigating the phase transformation of Cu precipitate in α-iron that took place during thermal aging. It was shown that the SGMD method can accelerate calculating the bcc to 9R structure transformation of a small precipitate (even 4.0 nm in size), enabling the transformation without introducing any excess vacancies. The size dependence of the transformation also agreed with that seen in previous experimental studies.