Testing an interactionist perspective on the relationship between personality traits and performance under public pressure

Objectives

The interactionist principle of trait activation [Tett & Gutermann (2000). Situation trait relevance, trait expression, and cross-situational consistency: testing a principle of trait activation. Journal of Research in Personality, 34, 397-423.] explains human behavior through the stimulation of traits by trait-relevant situational cues (i.e., situation-trait relevance). In applied (real-world) high-pressure situations, audiences provide the situational demand of public evaluation. Therefore, traits that are related to public evaluation are appraised as situation-relevant. The purpose of the current study was to test if situation-relevant traits (i.e., narcissism, public self-consciousness) predict performance in applied high-pressure situations, while situation-irrelevant traits (i.e., private self-consciousness) do not contribute to the performance explanation.

Design/Method

Experienced handball players (N = 55) completed personality questionnaires and performed a throwing task in low and high-pressure conditions, whereby the high-pressure condition involved 1500-2000 spectators during halftime breaks of professional handball games.

Results

Findings supported the assumptions about situation-trait relevancies and indicated that narcissism and public self-consciousness were relevant to high-pressure performance (i.e., positively associated), whereas private self-consciousness was found to be irrelevant. No predictors were correlated to low-pressure performance.

Conclusions

Results emphasize that trait activation is a promising explanation for the relevance of personality characteristics to performance under pressure. A systematic consideration of situational demands of high-pressure situations will result in adequate appraisals of situation-trait relevance and help predict performance with trait scores.     

质性研究中的资料饱和及其判定

在质性研究中,资料饱和通常被用以评估研究资料的充足性。但在研究实践中,资料饱和却存在概念模糊及操作性问题。作为某项质性研究所抽取的样本量已满足研究需要的标志,按照在研究过程中判定时点的先后顺序,资料饱和可划分为数据饱和、编码或主题饱和、意义饱和及理论饱和4种主要形式。4种形式的资料饱和各有其特定的内涵、评估方式和判定标准。研究认为,达到资料饱和的样本量标准不应统一设定,其检验需嵌入具体的研究过程;资料饱和存在逻辑上的不确定性,适度追加抽样有助于进一步确认;资料饱和作为考察研究质量的一项重要指标,并不适用于所有质性研究。     

Comparing the facets of the big two in global evaluation of self versus other people

The Big Two of agency and communion can be divided into the facets of agency-assertiveness, agency-competence, communion-morality, and communion-warmth. The present research studies how these facets are related to global evaluation of self versus others. In five studies we tested whether self-evaluation is reliably related to agency-assertiveness (H1), and evaluation of others to communion-morality (H2). Participants had to describe themselves (or a specific other person) on the facets and later to rate their self-evaluation (or other-evaluation). Supporting hypotheses, Studies 1, 3, and 4 showed that agency-assertiveness was reliably related to self-evaluation (Study 4: also agency-competence). Studies 2–5 showed that communion-morality was reliably related to evaluation of an acquaintance, but agency-competence (Studies 3 and 5) and communion-warmth (Study 2) were also important. We conclude that supporting H1, agency-assertiveness is particularly important for self-evaluation, whereas partly supporting H2, evaluation of others is associated with communion-morality, but also agency-competence and communion-warmth.     

Psychometric evaluation of the Negative Religious Coping (NRC) Scale of the Brief RCOPE in the Czech environment

ABSTRACT

The Negative Religious Coping (NRC) Subscale is a part of the Brief RCOPE Scale, but can also be used separatelly. It is a brief measure assessing negative religous coping. The aim of this study was to psychometrically evaluate the NRC in Czech conditions. The NRC was administered to 531 religious respondents (25.5?±?3.4 years, 43.5% male). Negative religious coping and religiosity, together with basic sociodemographic information, were measured. The non-parametric comparison of different sociodemographic groups showed no differences between genders and almost no differences among the age groups. Significantly lower NRC scores were obtained by widows/widowers. The Czech version of the NRC showed a coherent one-dimensional factor structure and high reliability, with Cronbach’s α?=?.84 (95% CI .83–.85) and McDonald’s ω_t?=?.90. Our findings indicate that the Czech version of the NRC scale may reliably assess religious coping. This instrument might be useful both for research and clinical praxis.     

THE TOTALITARIAN STATE OF MIND

The paper describes the development of Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy for use with complex depression (DITCC), and a pilot study testing DITCC’s effectiveness. The pilot found large pre-post improvements in well-being and distress; moderate rates of reliable improvement and clinically significant change; and curvilinear declines in depression and anxiety. Treatment completers and near-completers (N= 19) showed a significant curvilinear decline in symptoms of depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7). The results provide preliminary evidence that DITCC can be used as an effective treatment approach for complex depression. However, further research is needed to test its effectiveness in different settings with a larger sample size, using appropriate comparison groups under controlled conditions to further elaborate the short-term and long-term effects.     

线上社交焦虑:社交媒体中的人际负性体验

线上社交焦虑指个体在社交媒体交往情境中感知到的紧张和恐惧等人际负性体验,包含隐私担忧、交往焦虑和负面评价恐惧三个方面。线上社交焦虑可以通过质性分析法、实验诱发法和问卷测量法进行研究。线上社交焦虑既会受到社交媒体自身特点、个体特征因素、网络欺凌和文化因素的影响,还会对个体的心理与行为产生后效。未来研究者需要开发有效的本土化测量工具、探索其形成和作用机制、关注线上社交焦虑悖论以及推动对其干预。     

Irish norms for the SCORE‐15 and 28 from a national telephone survey

In this study a 29‐item version of the systemic clinical outcome and routine evaluation (SCORE), which contained all items from the SCORE‐15 and SCORE‐28, was used to develop norms for both the 15 and the 28 versions of the SCORE from the same sample. In a random digit dialling telephone survey, a stratified national random sample of 403 adults living in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland completed the SCORE and brief measures of family and personal adjustment. Using receiver operating characteristic curve analyses, cut‐off points for the SCORE‐28 and 15 were found to identify families of children with significant emotional and behavioural problems. We also established 90^th percentile points and percentages of cases falling above each scale point for both versions of the SCORE. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that, for both versions of the SCORE, the data fit the three factor solutions found in previous studies. The SCORE scales also had significant correlations with measures of family, parental and child adjustment, and negligible correlations with socioeconomic variables and social desirability response set.     

Long-term school-level effects of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP)

In agreement with two predictions, this somewhat unusual study documented that 70 elementary schools (A-schools) with continued and repeated use of the Olweus Bullying Questionnaire (OBQ) in a four-year follow-up period of 2007–2010, two to eight years after original implementation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP), had a clearly more favorable long-term development in terms of being-bullied problems, as measured with a completely independent data source, the National Pupil Survey than 102 comparable schools (B-schools) that had not conducted any OBQ-surveys in the same period. The odds of being bullied for students in a Norwegian average elementary school were also almost 40% higher than for students who attended a school with continued use of the OBQ, and very likely, other components of the program. Several alternative explanations of the findings were explored and found wanting. Results suggested that A-schools with continued use had changed their “school culture” for the better with regard to awareness, preparedness and competence in handling and preventing bullying. This form of ‘organizational learning’ has major consequences in that new groups of students will benefit from such a school environment. It was generally concluded – in spite of a highly stable average of the level of bullying problems in Norway – that it is fully possible to substantially reduce such problems not only in one-year evaluations, as has been amply documented before, but also in the long term, up to eight years after original implementation, with a program such as the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program.     

Toddlers’ affective responses to sociomoral scenes: Insights from physiological measures

A growing literature suggests that preverbal infants are sensitive to sociomoral scenes and prefer prosocial agents over antisocial agents. It remains unclear, however, whether and how emotional processes are implicated in infants’ responses to prosocial/antisocial actions. Although a recent study found that infants and toddlers showed more positive facial expressions after viewing helping (vs. hindering) events, these findings were based on naïve coder ratings of facial activity; furthermore, effect sizes were small. The current studies examined 18- and 24-month-old toddlers’ real-time reactivity to helping and hindering interactions using three physiological measures of emotion-related processes. At 18 months, activity in facial musculature involved in smiling/frowning was explored via facial electromyography (EMG). At 24 months, stress (sweat) was explored via electrodermal activity (EDA). At both ages, arousal was explored via pupillometry. Behaviorally, infants showed no preferences for the helper over the hinderer across age groups. EMG analyses revealed that 18-month-olds showed higher corrugator activity (more frowning) during hindering (vs. helping) actions, followed by lower corrugator activity (less frowning) after hindering (vs. helping) actions finished. These findings suggest that antisocial actions elicited negativity, perhaps followed by brief disengagement. EDA analyses revealed no significant event-related differences. Pupillometry analyses revealed that both 18- and 24-month-olds’ pupils were smaller after viewing hindering (vs. helping), replicating recent evidence with 5-month-olds and suggesting that toddlers also show less arousal following hindering than following helping. Together, these results provide new evidence with respect to whether and how arousal/affective processes are involved when infants process sociomoral scenarios.