Improving self-report measures of non-adherence to HIV medications

The aim of this article is to clarify what factors should be measured to assess non-adherence to an antiretroviral medication regimen among individuals with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). In order to consider a patient as non-adherent, a clear operational definition of medication non-adherence should be formulated. This definition should specify the medication to be taken, the medical advice to be followed as well as the behaviors a patient should adopt in a given period of time. Techniques aimed at reducing the influence of several potential biases in self-report questionnaires, such as forgetfulness and social desirability, are also reviewed.     

Use of verbal pain measurement in the detection of hidden psychological morbidity among low back pain patients with objective organic findings

Abstract

Patients with positive physical findings to explain low back pain arc believed lo belong to two organic subgroups. One group has organic disease alone: in the other, organic disease is accompanied by psychological disturbance. Separation of patients with medical findings into groups with varying levels of psychological disturbance is difficult, because emotional disturbance is often hidden. In this study, the pain report of 124 patients with organic findings alone, and 50 patients with organic and psychological findings was examined to determine whether pain measurement could he used to identify accurately patients belonging 10 the two groups. the pain groups differed in the use of 43 pain words from the Low Back Pain Symptom Check List. Using a set of weights derived From discriminant analysis. the 33 pain words predicted 99.2% of the patients with organic disease alone and 86.0% of the patients with organic disease and psychological disturbance. The results were replicated in a new sample of 140 patients. Cross-validation shrinkage in accuracy was 8.3%. The results of the two studies suggest that pain measurement may he a useful clinical indicator of psychological disturbance in patients with organic findings.     

Book Review of Health and the Construction of the Individual. J. Ogden. London: Routledge, 2002. i–viii + 130 pages ISBN 0415233070

Abstract

Recent theoretical and empirical research has challenged the assumption of health psychologists employing social cognitive models that beliefs can confidently be inferred on the basis of questionnaire responses. It is charged that responses to questionnaires are a function of the intelligibility of the items, constructs and theoretical framework to survey participants. To investigate this contention, cognitions specified by Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) were measured with respect to intentions to use a condom and intentions to use dental floss. Three alternative formats of a questionnaire which varied the order of presentation of PMT items were distributed to student samples. Analyses showed that while questionnaire format did not affect the reliability of cognition measures, there was some variation in the significance and strength of correlations between PMT cognitions across formats. Individual differences in social desirability and salience of the target behaviour had small and predictable effects upon reliabilities and intercorrelations. Implications for the measurement of health beliefs and the status of questionnaire responses are outlined and suggestions are made for controlling bias associated with respondents' capacity to “read” a questionnaire.     

Curriculum-Based Measurement

Abstract

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) has evolved as a reliable and valid method for measuring and monitoring student performance in basic academic skills. While the efficacy of CBM for assessing reading skills is not in question, issues remain regarding whether or not a difference exists between CBM probes derived directly from the instructional curriculum and generic probes. The current study extends previous research comparing the utility of two types of CBM reading probe materials. Both types of probes were administered to 13 second grade students twice weekly for 5 weeks. No significant differences were found between the two probe types' measurement of performance or progress over time, which suggests that school psychologists and educational professionals can use generic or curriculum-dependent probes in curriculum-based measurement.     

Influence of response time frame on mood assessment

Abstract

Dental anxiety and the related avoidance of dental treatment can result in severe impairment of health. We investigated the influence on avoidance behavior of phobic severity, gender, characteristics related to generalized anxiety and depression, such as dysfunctional cognitions and sensitivity of bodily symptoms, as well as personality traits of self-efficacy and locus of control. Forty-eight dental phobics were given an initial assessment and avoidance behavior was determined by the degree of observance of three subsequent dental appointments. Principal component analysis revealed separate factors for trait and phobic anxiety as well as for avoidance and dysfunctional cognitions. Women showed a higher degree of avoidance than men. Regression analysis revealed a high desire for control over dental treatment combined with a low level of perceived control as the only significant predictor variable of avoidance. The results suggest that avoidance behavior in dental phobia could be reduced by extending patients’ control over treatment conditions.     

A multi-dimensional measure of worry: Development and preliminary validation of the anxious thoughts inventory

This paper reports the development of a dispositional self-report measure of multiple dimensions of generalised worry. Factor analyses demonstrated a replicable three factor structure indicating that this measure of worry comprises three basic dimensions: social worry, health worry, and meta-worry. The first two factors reflect different content dimensions whereas the meta-worry factor consists of both content and process dimensions of worry. Individual differences in subscale scores show moderate stability over time, and the subscales possess good psychometric properties. Significant correlations were found between worry subscales and personality dimensions of self-consciousness and EPI scores. The role of multi-dimensional measurement in the exploration of worry is discussed.     

Limitations of perceptual segmentation on contextual cueing in visual search

In visual search, detection of a target in a repeated layout is faster than search within a novel arrangement, demonstrating that contextual invariances can implicitly guide attention to the target location (“contextual cueing”; Chun & Jiang, 1998). Here, we investigated how display segmentation processes influence contextual cueing. Seven experiments showed that grouping by colour and by size can considerably reduce contextual cueing. However, selectively attending to a relevant subgroup of items (that contains the target) preserved context-based learning effects. Finally, the reduction of contextual cueing by means of grouping affected both the latent learning and the recall of display layouts. In sum, all experiments show an influence of grouping on contextual cueing. This influence is larger for variations of spatial (as compared to surface) features and is consistent with the view that learning of contextual relations critically interferes with processes that segment a display into segregated groups of items.     

Development and initial validation of an implicit measure of humility relative to arrogance

Data from two studies describe the development of an implicit measure of humility and support the idea that dispositional humility is a positive quality with possible benefits. In Study 1, 135 college students completed Humility and Self-Esteem Implicit Association Tests (IATs) and several self-report measures of personality self-concept. Fifty-four participants also completed the Humility IAT again approximately 2 weeks later and their humility was rated by close acquaintances. The Humility IAT was found to be internally and temporally consistent. Implicit humility correlated with self-reported humility relative to arrogance, implicit self-esteem, and narcissism (inversely). Humility was not associated with self-reported low self-esteem, pessimism, or depression. In fact, self-reported humility relative to arrogance correlated positively with self-reported self-esteem, gratitude, forgiveness, spirituality, and general health. In addition, self-reported humility and acquaintance-rated humility correlated positively; however, implicit humility and acquaintance-rated humility were not strongly associated. In Study 2, to examine the idea that humility might be associated with increased academic performance, we examined actual course grades of 55 college students who completed Humility and Self-Esteem IATs. Implicit humility correlated positively with higher actual course grades when narcissism, conscientiousness, and implicit self-esteem were simultaneously controlled. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Humility: Review of measurement strategies and conceptualization as personality judgment

Humility is an understudied virtue in positive psychology. Both conceptual and methodological challenges have retarded its study. In this article, we discuss how humility has been defined. Specifically, researchers disagree whether humility refers to the accuracy of an individual's view of self, or whether humility primarily describes someone's interpersonal stance toward others. We critique four approaches that researchers have used to measure humility: self-reports, implicit measures, social comparisons of self to others, and informant ratings of humility. We then theoretically elaborate on the later method, which has been mostly overlooked. Accordingly, we present a model of relational humility. We define humility as a relationship-specific personality judgment, and we describe the relationship factors that affect how humility is perceived [Funder, D.C. (1995 Funder, DC. 1995. On the accuracy of personality judgment: A realistic approach. Psychological Review, 102: 652–670. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). On the accuracy of personality judgment: A realistic approach. Psychological Review, 102, 652–670.]. Finally, we provide next steps for researchers using a relational approach.     

Processing fluency as a predictor of salience asymmetries in the Implicit Association Test

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is the most popular indirect measure of attitudes in social psychology. Rothermund and Wentura (2001, 2004) suggested that artifacts such as salience asymmetries are a source of compatibility effects in the IAT, and, therefore, the IAT does not necessarily measure attitude. They claim that salience asymmetries correspond with visual search asymmetries, such that the stimulus categories that are more quickly detected in a visual search task are also compatible in the IAT. We propose that processing fluency is a more reliable indicator of salience asymmetries in the IAT than are visual search asymmetries. To test this hypothesis, we set processing fluency in opposition to visual search asymmetry to see which variable better predicted IAT effects. In one pair of categories, the category that was more quickly detected in visual search was also more fluently processed in a binary classification task. In a second pair of categories, the category that was more quickly detected in visual search was the less fluently processed category. Across four experiments, we demonstrated that compatibility effects in the IAT corresponded with differences in processing fluency between categories, rather than with visual search asymmetries.