Three-way interaction of neuroticism,extraversion, and conscientiousness in the internalizing disorders: Evidence of disorder specificity in a psychiatric sample

It is well-established that neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness are individually associated with internalizing disorders, but research suggests that these main effects may be qualified by a three-way interaction when predicting depression. The current study was the first to examine this three-way interaction in a psychiatric sample (N = 463) with a range of internalizing symptoms as the outcomes. Using two omnibus personality inventories and a diagnostic interview, the expected three-way interaction emerged most consistently for symptoms of major depression, and there was also evidence of synergistic effects for post-traumatic stress disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Findings indicate that, even in a clinically-distressed and currently-disordered sample, high levels of extraversion and conscientiousness protect against distress disorders for those with high levels of neuroticism.     

词语型类别属性归纳中分类与属性推理过程的时间特征

先前的研究中没有清晰分离类别属性归纳任务中分类过程与属性推理过程的ERP特征。本研究采用了事件相关电位技术(ERPs), 通过在词语型类别属性归纳任务的结论呈现阶段分开呈现结论类别和结论属性, 探讨了类别属性归纳中分类过程和属性推理过程的ERP特征。实验结果显示：在结论类别呈现阶段, 结论无关类别比结论关联类别诱发了更大的N400, 表明N400与类别属性归纳中的语义分类过程密切相关。在结论属性呈现阶段, 无论是在类别关联还是在类别无关条件下, 不一致属性比一致属性均诱发了更大的前部N2成分, 反映了属性知觉上的失匹配或规则的违背。随后, 在300~400 ms的时间窗口发现, 一致属性比不一致属性在前部脑区诱发了更大的类似于P3a的正偏转, 反映了对一致属性的更多关注。同时, 实验还发现, 当结论类别与前提类别关联时, 在300~400 ms的时间窗口, 一致属性比不一致属性在后部脑区也诱发了更大的类似于P3b的正偏转, 反映了推理预期的满意程度; 随后, 在400~600 ms的时间窗口, 不一致属性比一致属性在后部脑区诱发了更大的正偏转, 这与推理规则的违反相关。     

The conjunction fallacy and the many meanings of and

According to the conjunction rule, the probability of A and B cannot exceed the probability of either single event. This rule reads and in terms of the logical operator wedge, interpreting A and B as an intersection of two events. As linguists have long argued, in natural language "and" can convey a wide range of relationships between conjuncts such as temporal order ("I went to the store and bought some whisky"), causal relationships ("Smile and the world smiles with you"), and can indicate a collection of sets rather than their intersection (as in "He invited friends and colleagues to the party"). When "and" is used in word problems researching the conjunction fallacy, the conjunction rule, which assumes the logical operator wedge, therefore cannot be mechanically invoked as a norm. Across several studies, we used different methods of probing people's understanding of and-conjunctions, and found evidence that many of those respondents who violated the conjunction rule in their probability or frequency judgments inferred a meaning of and that differs from the logical operator wedge. We argue that these findings have implications for whether judgments involving ambiguous and-conjunctions that violate the conjunction rule should be considered manifestations of fallacious reasoning or of reasonable pragmatic and semantic inferences.     

Knowledge activation after information encoding: Implications of trait priming on person judgment

It is widely assumed that traits primed after the encoding of person information do not lead to assimilation effects on the judgment of that person. The authors challenge this view by providing evidence that post-encoding trait primes can result in assimilative person judgments under certain conditions. In Experiments 1 and 2, we identify the conditions under which these assimilation effects occur. Experiment 1 shows the importance of participants’ goals during person information encoding: assimilation is observed when person information is encoded as part of a memorization goal (as opposed to an impression formation goal). The findings of Experiment 2 further reveal that the encoded person information should imply trait concepts rather than being merely vague with respect to the primed trait category. Finally, the results of Experiment 3 suggest that the obtained assimilation effect is driven by differential accessibility for prime-congruent person information.     

The happy personality: Mediational role of trait emotional intelligence

This study examined the relationship between the Big Five personality traits (Gosling et al., 2003), trait emotional intelligence (EI) (Petrides & Furnham, 2001) and happiness (Argyle et al., 1989) in a sample of 112 (61 female) student and non-student participants. Strong dispositional determinants of happiness were identified. In line with previous findings, four of the Big Five, namely stability, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness, were positively correlated with both happiness and trait EI, which explained 18% of unique variance (over and above age and the Big Five) in happiness. Furthermore, a significant amount of shared variance between happiness and the Big Five was explained by trait EI, which partly mediated the paths from stability and conscientiousness to happiness, and fully mediated the link between agreeableness and happiness. Limitations and implications are discussed.     

Forgiveness, personality and gratitude

Recent evidence indicates that personality plays a role in the study of forgiveness, but the literature has been limited. This study sought to determine whether gratitude accounted for a significant portion of the variance beyond that of personality in the study of dispositional forgiveness (enduring resentment, sensitivity to circumstances, and overall propensity to forgive). One hundred and fifty-two Portuguese college students (51% females and 49% males, mean = 21.10 years) participated in the study. The results confirmed that personality, particularly agreeableness and neuroticism correlate with enduring resentment and overall tendency to forgive. Additionally, results using multiple regression models indicated that gratitude explained a significant amount of variance of overall propensity to forgive.     

Processing efficiency in preschoolers’ memory span: Individual differences related to age and anxiety

In self-paced auditory memory span tasks, the microanalysis of response timing measures represents a developmentally sensitive measure, providing insights into the development of distinct processing rates during recall performance. The current study first examined the effects of age and trait anxiety on span accuracy (effectiveness) and response timing (efficiency) measures from word and digit span performance in a preschool sample (N = 76, mean age = 57 months, SD = 11). Children were reassessed 8 months later using the same two tasks plus a test of nonword memory span and a measure of articulation rate. The results at the second time point (T2) confirmed the effects of age on both processing effectiveness and efficiency. Trait anxiety was an additional negative predictor of span effectiveness (especially for digit span) and efficiency (in the case of word and nonword span). The findings are discussed in the context of factors contributing to early short-term memory development and attentional control theory.     

How Are Traits Related to Problem Behavior in Preschoolers? Similarities and Contrasts Between Temperament and Personality

The lack of empirical research relating temperament models and personality hinders conceptual integration and holds back research linking childhood traits to problem behavior or maladjustment. This study evaluates, within a sample of 443 preschoolers, the relationships between children’s maladaptation and traits measured by three temperament models (Thomas and Chess, Buss and Plomin, and Rothbart), and a Five-Factor based personality model. Adequate reliabilities and expected factor structures are demonstrated for most scales. A joint principal component analysis combining 28 temperament and 18 personality scales indicates a six-factor model, distinguishing Sociability, Activity, Conscientiousness, Disagreeableness, Emotionality, and Sensitivity. Regression analyses reveal that although single temperament and personality scales explain from 23% to 37% of problem behavior variance, the six components explain from 41% to 49% and provide a clearer differentiation among CBCL-problem scales. This age-specific taxonomy refines and corroborates conclusions based on narrative reviews and furnishes a more balanced view of trait–maladjustment relationships.

Explaining the protective effect of trait emotional intelligence regarding occupational stress: Exploration of emotional labour processes

This paper aims at understanding the processes explaining the protective effect of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) regarding occupational stress. The present study focuses on a widespread occupational stressor: emotional labour (EL). EL refers to the act of managing emotions and emotional expressions in order to be consistent with organizational ‘display rules’, defined as the organizationally required emotions during interpersonal service transactions. As these display rules interact with employees spontaneous feelings, they regularly induce a clash between inner/real and required feelings. Different strategies exist to cope with this dissonance, with either beneficial or deleterious outcomes regarding psychological and physical health. The hypothesis underlying this study was that individuals varying in the level of trait EI would use different EL strategies, with different outcomes in terms of burnout and somatic complaints. Globally, the results showed that, when confronted with emotional labour, high trait EI individuals experience lower levels of burnout and somatic complaints, and this effect was found to be mediated by the choice of emotional labour strategies. Implications of these results for research, theory and practice are discussed.     

对相容和不相容析取关系下析取句与条件句之间推理的比较

研究析取句和条件句之间的推理能检验推理心理学中的主要理论解释。一个实验考察了析取句和条件句中两个基本成分之间的关系(相容析取与不相容析取)和推理方向(由析取句推条件句与由条件句推析取句)对析取句与其等值的条件句之间推理的影响。结果发现,推理方向的影响取决于条件句和析取句中基本成分间的关系,在不相容析取关系下的推理成绩好于在相容析取关系下的推理成绩。现有的推理理论不能解释被试的整体反应模式,作者提出的特殊知识启发式与一般的句法意义对比启发式的竞争能统一解释被试的主导反应模式。