Defensive Reactance of Psychologists to a Metaphysical Foundation for Integrating Different Psychologies

Psychology is fragmented and encumbered by an inordinate influence from the outdated positivistic tradition. Whereas many psychologists obdurately embrace positivism, others react strongly against it, thus producing the polarities of thinking that Kimble (1984) called the two cultures of psychology. Researchers have frequently called for more flexible epistemology, but these have not resulted in the incorporation of modernity into our science, nor have they led to metaphysical integration. This resistance on the part of many psychologists to change is attributed to cognitive defense mechanisms. The defense mechanisms are placed against feelings of inferiority. Low tolerance for ambiguity (Frenkel-Brunswik, 1949) about a subject matter that encompasses unexplainable variance in behaviors is a particular mechanism, in perceived contrast to the physical sciences. Therefore, many psychologists tend to adopt extreme views on such metaphysical issues as free will and determinism, a tendency that results in sharp divisions in the profession.     

Age Differences in Multiple Outcome Measures of Time-Based Prospective Memory

ABSTRACT

This study examined time-based prospective memory performance in relation to age, monitoring strategy, response accuracy, and dual-task demands. Young, middle-aged and older adults (N?=?115) completed a prospective memory task, in which they indicated the passing of time every 5 min while listening to a short story (low task demands) or completing a series of cognitive tasks (high task demands). Young and older adults showed similar patterns of monitoring behavior, with low rates of clock checking during the early phase of each 5-min interval, followed by linearly accelerating monitoring functions. However, to obtain the same level of prospective memory performance older adults needed more frequent clock checks than young adults. Furthermore, older adults' compensatory monitoring strategy was associated with an additional cost in primary task performance. Finally, increased primary task demands shifted age differences in prospective memory from monitoring frequency to response accuracy. These findings suggest that goal-directed behavior requires efficient task coordination and resource allocation, and that age-related differences in time-based prospective memory should be evaluated by using multiple outcome measures.     

Identifying repressors: A methodological issue for health psychology

Abstract

The majority of studies in health psychology use self-report measures. However, there is a growing body of evidence indicating that this methodology may be problematic for a significant minority of the population: individuals who possess a repressive coping style (repressors). Repressors, who fail to report negative affect, answer many self-report measures in a positive fashion. Research has identified an association between repressors, who are identified by low trait anxiety scores and high defensiveness scores, and adverse health outcomes. Therefore, repressors are an important group for health psychologists to investigate. Health psychology research should use more than one method of data collection in an attempt to unravel this difficult methodological problem.     

The Overclaiming Questionnaire: A good way to measure faking?

We evaluated the validity of the Overclaiming Questionnaire (OCQ) as a measure of job applicants’ faking of personality tests. We assessed whether the OCQ (a) converged with an established measure of applicant faking, Residualized Individual Change Scores (RICSs); (b) predicted admission of faking and faking tendencies (Faking Frequency, Minimizing Weaknesses, Exaggerating Strengths, and Complete Misrepresentation); and, (c) predicted the aforementioned measures as strongly as RICSs did. First, 261 participants were instructed to respond honesty to an extraversion measure. Next, in a mock job application, they filled out the extraversion measure again, as well as the OCQ. The OCQ only weakly predicted RICSs (r = .17), Faking Admission (r = .18), and Faking Frequency (r = .15), and it failed to correlate significantly with Minimizing Weaknesses, Exaggerating Strengths, and Complete Misrepresentation. Moreover, the OCQ performed significantly worse than RICS in predicting Faking Admission, Faking Frequency, Minimizing Weaknesses, Exaggerating Strengths, and Complete Misrepresentation. We urge caution in using the current version of the OCQ to measure faking, but speculate that the innovative approach taken in the OCQ might be more effectively exploited if the OCQ content were tailored to the specific job that applicants are being tested for.     

Evaluating Ethics Education Programs: A Multilevel Approach

Although education in the responsible conduct of research is considered necessary, evidence bearing on the effectiveness of these programs in improving research ethics has indicated that, although some programs are successful, many fail. Accordingly, there is a need for systematic evaluation of ethics education programs. In the present effort, we examine procedures for evaluation of ethics education programs from a multilevel perspective: examining both within-program evaluation and cross-program evaluation. With regard to within-program evaluation, we note requisite designs and measures for conducting systematic program evaluation have been developed and multiple measures should be applied in program evaluation. With regard to cross-program evaluation, we argue that a meta-analytic framework should be employed where analyses are used to identify best practices in ethics education. The implications of this multilevel approach for improving responsible conduct of research educational programs are discussed.     

基于文本阅读的间接接触也可改善公众对残疾人的态度

以镶嵌残疾人图片的正性行为描述性信息为文本阅读材料,以大学生为被试,采用概念启动范式,考察了健全人对残疾人态度改善的可能性.研究结果表明,阅读残疾人正性行为描述性材料不仅可以降低健全人对残疾人的负性认知评价,而且可以提高其对残疾人的钦佩感和减弱其对残疾人的嫌弃感,同时也可提高健全人对该类人群的积极趋近行为和减弱对该类人群的消极趋近和消极回避行为,从而证明基于文本阅读的间接接触可改善公众对残疾人的负性态度的假设.因此,创造条件鼓励残疾人尽力发挥其积极的社会功能,引导和塑造其身残志不残的品质,有助于改善健全人对该类人群的消极态度.     

Specifying Ability Growth Models Using a Multidimensional Item Response Model for Repeated Measures Categorical Ordinal Item Response Data

When categorical ordinal item response data are collected over multiple timepoints from a repeated measures design, an item response theory (IRT) modeling approach whose unit of analysis is an item response is suitable. This study proposes a few longitudinal IRT models and illustrates how a popular compensatory multidimensional IRT model can be utilized to formulate such longitudinal IRT models, which permits an investigation of ability growth at both individual and population levels. The equivalence of an existing multidimensional IRT model and those longitudinal IRT models is also elaborated so that one can make use of an existing multidimensional IRT model to implement the longitudinal IRT models.