Personality versus traffic accidents; meta-analysis of real and method effects

ProblemThe association between personality and traffic accident involvement has been extensively researched, but the literature is difficult to summarise, because different personality instruments and statistics have been used, and effect sizes differ strongly between studies.MethodA meta-analysis of studies which had used measures of personality which could be converted into Big Five dimensions, and traffic accidents as the dependent variable, was undertaken.AnalysisOutlier values were identified and removed. Also, analyses on effects of common method variance, type of instrument, dissemination bias and restriction of variance were undertaken.ResultsOutlier problems exist in these data, which prohibit any certainty in the conclusions. Each of the 5 personality dimensions were predictors of accident involvement, but the effects were small (r < .1), which is much weaker than in a previous meta-analysis. Effect sizes were dependent upon variance in the accident variable, and the true (population) effects could therefore be larger than the present estimates, something which could be ascertained by new studies using high-risk samples over longer time periods. Newer studies and those using Big Five instruments tended to have smaller effects. No effects of common method variance could be found.ConclusionsTests of personality are weak predictors of traffic accident involvement, compared to other variables, such as previous accidents. Research into whether larger effects of personality can be found with methods other than self-reports is needed.     

Sociodemographic,psychosocial and physical health correlates of common mental disorder symptoms among mothers in Trinidad and Tobago: Examining ethnic variations

Historical and cultural experiences have shaped the life experiences of cultural communities in Trinidad and Tobago. Using a cultural focus, the goal of this investigation was to examine ethnic variations both in the prevalence of common mental disorder (CMD) symptoms as well as in the associations between sociodemographic, psychosocial, physical health correlates and CMDs among mothers in Trinidad and Tobago. Participants included 1002 mothers (359 African‐, 353 Indo‐ and 290 Mixed‐Ethnic Trinidadian). Mean comparisons indicated similarities in the levels of depression, somatisation and anxiety across ethnic groups. The associations between physical ill health, experiences of pain and depression and between physical ill health and somatisation were stronger for Mixed‐Ethnic Trinidadian than Indo‐Trinidadian mothers. The relationship between early experiences of domestic violence and depression was stronger for Indo‐Trinidadian than Mixed‐Ethnic Trinidadian mothers. The associations between early experiences of domestic violence and depression and between experiences of pain and somatisation were stronger for African Trinidadian than Mixed‐Ethnic Trinidadian mothers. Thus beyond the direct effects, mothers belonging to specific ethnic groups indicated greater or lesser vulnerabilities to CMDs depending on their exposure to specific correlates. Results have applicability for the development of culturally sensitive interventions for mothers experiencing CMDs.     

Incongruent imagery interferes with action initiation

It has been suggested that representing an action through observation and imagery share neural processes with action execution. In support of this view, motor-priming research has shown that observing an action can influence action initiation. However, there is little motor-priming research showing that imagining an action can modulate action initiation. The current study examined whether action imagery could prime subsequent execution of a reach and grasp action. Across two motion analysis tracking experiments, 40 participants grasped an object following congruent or incongruent action imagery. In Experiment 1, movement initiation was faster following congruent compared to incongruent imagery, demonstrating that imagery can prime the initiation of grasping. In Experiment 2, incongruent imagery resulted in slower movement initiation compared to a no-imagery control. These data show that imagining a different action to that which is performed can interfere with action production. We propose that the most likely neural correlates of this interference effect are brain regions that code imagined and executed actions. Further, we outline a plausible mechanistic account of how priming in these brain regions through imagery could play a role in action cognition.     

What Does it Mean to be a Common Factors Informed Family Therapist?

The common factors paradigm in couple and family therapy has gained popularity over the past several decades, leading many therapists to refer to themselves as common factors family therapists. Despite this, no consensus exists on what it means to be a common factors family therapist, or if such a designation even makes sense given that the common factors paradigm is not a model. Synthesizing the existing common factors literature, a case is made for the designation “common factors informed family therapist,” and the following six core principles are outlined that characterize this designation: (1) sees overlap among theories; (2) passionate about theory, not a theory; (3) client centered; (4) monitors hope and the therapeutic alliance; (5) views clients as people rather than objects; and (6) prioritizes healing over therapy. Each of the concepts is discussed in depth, and clinical implications are provided.     

Common language effect size for correlations

The Pearson correlation coefficient can be translated to a common language effect size, which shows the probability of obtaining a certain value on one variable, given the value on the other variable. This common language effect size makes the size of a correlation coefficient understandable to laypeople. Three examples are provided to demonstrate the application of the common language effect size in interpreting Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple correlation coefficients.     

Lucky joint action

In this paper, I argue that joint action permits a certain degree of luck. The cases I have in mind exhibit the following structure: each participant believes that the intended ends of each robustly support the joint action. This belief turns out to be false. Due to lucky circumstances, the discordance in intention never becomes common knowledge. However, common knowledge of the relevant intentions would have undermined the joint action altogether. The analysis of such cases shows the extent to which common knowledge of the participants’ intentions can be harmful to joint action. This extends a recent line of research that has questioned the necessity of common knowledge in joint action.     

Pragmatic effects on reference resolution in a collaborative task: evidence from eye movements

In order to investigate whether addressees can make immediate use of speaker-based constraints during reference resolution, participant addressees’ eye movements were monitored as they helped a confederate cook follow a recipe. Objects were located in the helper’s area, which the cook could not reach, and the cook’s area, which both could reach. Critical referring expressions matched one object (helper’s area) or two objects (helper’s and cook’s areas), and were produced when the cook’s hands were empty or full, which defined the cook’s reaching ability constraints. Helper’s first and total fixations showed that they restricted their domain of interpretation to their own objects when the cook’s hands were empty, and widened it to include the cook’s objects only when the cook’s hands were full. These results demonstrate that addressees can quickly take into account task-relevant constraints to restrict their referential domain to referents that are plausible given the speaker’s goals and constraints.     

Practicing psychology without an empirical evidence-base: The bricoleur model

The scientist-practitioner-model is rejected, based on an earlier critique of the current paradigm for psychological research. Ten cases exemplifying a bricoleur type of practice without a discernible empirical evidence-base are briefly presented. In the absence of useful empirical scientific evidence, the bricoleur model is proposed as a possible rationale for professional psychological practice.     

Rational Redundancy in Referring Expressions: Evidence from Event-related Potentials

In referential communication, Grice's Maxim of Quantity is thought to imply that utterances conveying unnecessary information should incur comprehension difficulties. There is, however, considerable evidence that speakers frequently encode redundant information in their referring expressions, raising the question as to whether such overspecifications hinder listeners’ processing. Evidence from previous work is inconclusive, and mostly comes from offline studies. In this article, we present two event-related potential (ERP) experiments, investigating the real-time comprehension of referring expressions that contain redundant adjectives in complex visual contexts. Our findings provide support for both Gricean and bounded-rational accounts. We argue that these seemingly incompatible results can be reconciled if common ground is taken into account. We propose a bounded-rational account of overspecification, according to which even redundant words can be beneficial to comprehension to the extent that they facilitate the reduction of listeners’ uncertainty regarding the target referent.     

从"和善"看日本伦理思想的特质

对伦理思想的分析,人们通常从思想家或思潮的角度进行,但这很不够。本文从日本人的心情主义入手探讨日本伦理思想的特质。“和善“是一个具有强烈道德意味的词,可以解读出日本人和日本社会的伦理思想。“和善”由传统的注重共感发展为今天强调共生,这其间也包含了日本伦理思想的变迁。