Maladaptive personality traits in adolescence: Psychometric properties of the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+

The Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4+ (PDQ-4+) is a self-report used for the assessment of personality disorder traits, however, its psychometric characteristics have yet to be tested in community samples of adolescents. The main goal was to analyze the psychometric properties of the PDQ-4+ scores in a large sample of non-clinical adolescents (N = 1,443; M = 15.9 years; SD = 1.2). The PDQ-4+ scores showed adequate psychometric properties. Reliability of the subscales, incorporating a Likert-type 5-point response format, ranged from .62 to .85. The study of the internal structure at item level revealed that the PDQ-4+ subscales were essentially one-dimensional. Analysis of the internal structure at the subscale level by means of exploratory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling yielded a possible three-dimensional solution. The PDQ-4+ subscales correlated moderately with emotional and behavioural variables measured by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. The results have clear implications for the understanding of maladaptive personality traits in adolescents.     

Evaluation of the Latin American version of the Life Orientation Test-Revised

The Life Orientation Test (LOT-R) is the most intensively used instrument for the assessment of optimism, but empirical evidence of its psychometric quality in Latin America is lacking. The aim of this study was to test psychometric properties of this questionnaire based on a representative sample of the general population of Colombia (N = 1,500). Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the bi-dimensionality of the questionnaire with two factors, namely Optimism and Pessimism. The sum scores of the optimism and pessimism subscale correlated with r = ?.12. Convergent validity aspects were studied by correlating LOT-R values with anxiety, depression, quality of life, fatigue, mental health, hopelessness, and self-efficacy. Optimism was more strongly correlated with these variables than pessimism. Normative data and mean values for both genders and different age groups are given. Generally, there were only small age and gender effects. Compared to the German norm data, the Colombian participants scored on average one scale point higher in the dimension of optimism. In summary, the LOT-R in its Spanish version is an appropriate and practical tool for screening purposes in individual diagnostics and epidemiological research in Latin American samples.     

Emotional responses to a negative emotion induction procedure in Borderline Personality Disorder

The aim of this study was to determine if patients with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) present higher emotional response than healthy controls in a laboratory setting. Fifty participants (35 patients with BPD and 15 healthy controls) underwent a negative emotion induction procedure (presentation of standardized unpleasant images). Subjective emotional responses were assessed by means of self-reported questionnaires while biological reactivity during the procedure was measured through levels of salivary cortisol (sCORT) and alphaamylase (sAA). Patients with BPD exhibited significant lower cortisol levels and higher sAA levels compared to controls. Self-reported emotional reactivity did not give rise to differences between groups but participants with BPD did present higher levels of negative emotional intensity at baseline and during the entire procedure. The findings do not give support to the emotional hyperreactivity hypothesis in BPD. However, BPD patients presented heightened negative mood intensity at baseline, which should be considered a hallmark of the disorder. Further studies using more BPD-specific emotion inductions are needed to confirm the trends observed in this study.     

Measurement invariance of self-continuity strategies: Comparisons of early adolescents from Brazil,Canada and Colombia

Data from 655 early adolescents from three contexts (Curitiba, Brazil; Montreal, Canada and Barranquilla, Colombia) were used to test for measurement invariance in the constructs of essentialism and narrativism. These two different strategies have been proposed to explain the perceptions of stability of self-continuity over time. Essentialism predicates self-continuity on some fundamental, unchanging aspect of the self. In contrast, narrativism is an understanding of self-continuity as a result of one's cumulative experiences and decisions. Previous research using interview methods have found that these two strategies are mutually exclusive expressions of self-continuity. The current study sought to test this conceptualization using a questionnaire that assessed the underlying structural relation between essentialism and narrativism. The analyses supported a two factor model with measurement invariance across samples allowing for a comparison of mean differences across language and cultural barriers. As a whole, these findings highlight the need to examine developmental changes in warranting strategies for self-continuity.     

Failure in Class-Inclusion Reasoning in a University Sample

Two studies were undertaken with the purpose of examining adult performance on tasks of class-inclusion reasoning. Both duration of visual presentation and instructions regarding speed of response were varied. In both studies overall performance was low (approximately 60% of items were answered correctly) but neither duration of visual presentation nor speed of responding were shown to be systematically related to errors. Even when participants were permitted unlimited time to view the visual display and put under no pressure to respond quickly performance only reached 80% correct. Significant improvement over trials was observed, which suggests that participants may not have initially understood the task. Results are discussed in terms of the adequacy of class-inclusion tasks as measures of competence in logical reasoning about classes.     

Naturalizing Moral Justification: Rethinking the Method of Moral Epistemology

The companion piece to this article, “Situating Moral Justification,” challenges the idea that moral epistemology's mission is to establish a single, all‐purpose reasoning strategy for moral justification because no reasoning practice can be expected to deliver authoritative moral conclusions in all social contexts. The present article argues that rethinking the mission of moral epistemology requires rethinking its method as well. Philosophers cannot learn which reasoning practices are suitable to use in particular contexts exclusively by exploring logical relations among concepts. Instead, in order to understand which reasoning practices are capable of justifying moral claims in different types of contexts, we need to study empirically the relationships between reasoning practices and the contexts in which they are used. The article proposes that philosophers investigate case studies of real‐world moral disputes in which people lack shared cultural assumptions and/or are unequal in social power. It motivates and explains the proposed case study method and illustrates the philosophical value of this method through a case study.     

Treatment effectiveness of PMTO for children's behavior problems in Iceland: Assessing parenting practices in a randomized controlled trial

Findings are presented from an Icelandic randomized control trial (RCT) evaluating parent management training – Oregon model (PMTO?), a parent training intervention designed to improve parenting practices and reduce child behavior problems. In a prior report from this effectiveness study that focused on child outcomes, children in the PMTO condition showed greater reductions in reported child adjustment problems relative to the comparison group. The present report focuses on observed parenting practices as the targeted outcome, with risk by treatment moderators also tested. It was hypothesized that mothers assigned to the PMTO condition would show greater gains in pre‐post parenting practices relative to controls. The sample was recruited from five municipalities throughout Iceland and included 102 participating families of children with behavior problems. Cases were referred by community professionals and randomly assigned to either PMTO (n = 51) or community services usually offered (n = 51). Child age ranged from 5 to 12 years; 73% were boys. Contrary to expectations, findings showed no main effects for changes in maternal parenting. However, evaluation of risk by treatment moderators showed greater gains in parenting practices for mothers who increased in depressed mood within the PMTO group relative to their counterparts in the comparison group. This finding suggests that PMTO prevented the expected damaging effects of depression on maternal parenting. Failure to find hypothesized main effects may indicate that there were some unobserved factors regarding the measurement and a need to further adapt the global observational procedures to Icelandic culture.     

The benefits and risks of strategic genealogy and dichotomy

This contribution to a symposium on Manuel A. Vásquez’ More Than Belief: A Materialist Theory of Religion (2011) looks at the role of genealogy in the book. Vásquez reviews a range of authors (from Plato to Tweed) to contextualize his view that the study of religion should place greater emphasis on embodiment, practices, and emplacement. The resulting sequence of paraphrases is highly dichotomized; some illustrate the 'dominant canon' that he critiques and some the view that he champions. This is used to illustrate two very broad 'epistemologies.' (In this light, the book champions a very general meta-theoretical stance, not a specific theory.) I suggest that this approach does not offer an argument, i.e., independent rational support, for Vásquez' view. However, it does tell a story that could be very persuasive in the study of religion, given that the use of theory in the discipline tends to be a matter of applying precedents and concepts from an accepted body of literature.     

Some effects of external circumstances on the inner experience of two child patients

This paper describes the research findings that formed part of a professional doctorate in Child Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. It explores the impact of unresolved mourning following parental death in early adolescence on subsequent adolescent development. Via reference to a single case study, it describes emergent and overlapping themes related both to the bereavement process and adolescent development, and links the themes with psychoanalytic theoretical research in both adolescent development and bereavement. It considers how these themes changed over the course of an intensive psychotherapeutic treatment.