Linking dimensions and dynamics in psychopathology research: An example using DSM-5 instruments

The DSM-5 includes two measures to assess dimensions of personality pathology (Personality Inventory for DSM-5; PID-5) and cross-cutting symptoms of psychopathology (DSM-5 Cross-cutting Symptom Measure; CCS). Few studies have evaluated these measures in an ecologically valid context. Participants (N = 248, student sample) completed self-report versions of the DSM-5 measures, and then completed a two-week daily diary of internalizing and externalizing outcomes. The CCS scales evidenced convergent and discriminant validity with these outcomes, PID-5 Negative Affectivity and Detachment were related to internalizing outcomes, and PID-5 Antagonism was related to externalizing outcomes. We also demonstrated the benefit of linking static dimensions to temporally-dynamic processes by examining how PID-5/CCS dimensions moderated the within-person associations among daily cognitive distortions and internalizing and externalizing outcomes.     

Learned Helplessness,Therapy, and Personality Traits: An Experimental Study

Abstract

The authors investigated 3 aspects of the learned helplessness (LH) phenomenon: the induction of helplessness in humans by a new instrumental task, the effects of a therapy technique that relies on direct retroactive reevaluation of the helplessness experience, and the role of personality characteristics in both helplessness induction and therapy. The sample consisted of 92 Turkish Bo?aziçi University undergraduates, 42 men and 50 women. The authors exposed 2 experimental groups to an LH induction by presenting them with an unsolvable maze task; 1 group received therapy afterward, and the other group did not. There were also 2 control groups: a group that received only a solvable version of the maze and another group that received no treatment. Before the experimental procedure, all participants completed the Turkish version of the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (FFI). The authors evaluated picture-rating and anagram-solving performances to differentiate the cognitive and emotional deficits of LH. Results of the factorial analyses of variance and the Wilcoxon signed ranks test supported the success of both the helplessness induction and the therapy technique. Although no significant gender differences were found in the effects of the helplessness-induction and therapy procedures, correlation analyses revealed that individual differences, particularly in the interaction between gender and personality characteristics, can have an important impact on LH and on the capacity to benefit from therapy.     

Development of a Brief Version of the Social Phobia Inventory Using Item Response Theory: The Mini-SPIN-R

The Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) is a widely used measure in mental health settings and a 3-item version (mini-SPIN) has been developed as a screening instrument for social anxiety disorder. In the present study, we examined the psychometric properties of the SPIN and developed a brief version (mini-SPIN-R) designed to assess social anxiety severity using item response theory. Our sample included 569 individuals with social anxiety disorder who participated in 2 clinical trials and filled out a battery of self-report measures. Using a nonparametric kernel smoothing method we identified the most sensitive items of the SPIN. These 3 items comprised the mini-SPIN-R, which was found to have greater internal consistency, and to capture a greater range of symptoms compared to the mini-SPIN. The mini-SPIN-R evidenced superior convergent validity compared to the mini-SPIN and both measures had similar divergent validity. Thus, the mini-SPIN-R is a promising brief measure of social anxiety severity.     

健康焦虑的研究现状

健康焦虑是一种由轻到重的连续性的症状谱,它的极端形式被称之为疑病症.关于健康焦虑的流行病学数据很少,发病的机制和原因也不清楚,但大多数的研究证实健康焦虑与焦虑障碍有相同的认知过程.疑病症的临床表现为疾病观念、躯体症状、歪曲信念和行为,健康焦虑只是在程度上轻于疑病症,并没有发生质的改变.在健康焦虑的治疗中最受关注的应属正念认知疗法,它在很多方面都优于传统的认知行为疗法,当然其他治疗方法也能起到一定的辅助作用.健康焦虑带来的危害是巨大的,因此社会将面临重大挑战.     

自我调节学习量表的修订:发展性研究

现有的自我调节学习研究的工具适用范围受到一定限制。依据心理测量学原理随机抽取了1115名青少年进行自我调节学习量表的施测和修订。结果表明:(1)修订后的量表由三个维度构成:动机,策略,意志;(2)各量表的信度和效度均达心理测量学标准,有较好的适用性;(3)修订后的自我调节学习量表适用的年龄范围较以往研究工具更为广泛。     

Adult temperament and childbearing over the life course

Emerging evidence suggests that temperament may predict childbearing. We examined the association between four temperament traits (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence and persistence of the Temperament and Character Inventory) and childbearing over the life course in the population‐based Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns study (n = 1535; 985 women, 550 men). Temperament was assessed when the participants were aged 20–35 and fertility history from adolescence to adulthood was reported by the participants at age 30–45. Discrete‐time survival analysis modelling indicated that high childbearing probability was predicted by low novelty seeking (standardized OR = 0.92; 95% confidence interval 0.88–0.97), low harm avoidance (OR = 0.90; 0.85–0.95), high reward dependence (OR = 1.09; 1.03–1.15) and low persistence (OR = 0.91; 0.87–0.96) with no sex differences or quadratic effects. These associations grew stronger with increase in numbers of children. The findings were substantially the same in a completely prospective analysis. Adjusting for education did not influence the associations. Despite its negative association with overall childbearing, high novelty seeking increased the probability of having children in participants who were not living with a partner (OR = 1.29; 1.12–1.49). These data provide novel evidence for the role of temperament in influencing childbearing, and suggest possible weak natural selection of temperament traits in contemporary humans. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Qualitative variations in personality inventories: subjective understandings of items in a personality inventory

Most studies using personality inventories do not take individual, subjective understandings of the items into account. The present study is one of the few to have investigated the quality of individuals’ psychological processes when making the Likert-like responses often used in psychological inventories. Respondents were asked to elaborate verbally on their Likert item responses to the 10-item short version of the Big Five Inventory. A common assumption about personality inventories is that there is a relatively homogenous understanding of the items and, in particular, the rating scales across respondents. However, our results suggest that the same item responses to a given item can reflect a variety of qualities across individuals’ understandings. At the same time, similar understandings and ways of relating to an item can lead to different item responses. Such findings have substantial implications for quantitative personality studies as well as quantitative survey or questionnaire studies, in general.     

Psychometric Properties of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory–Short Form Among Chilean Adults

This study evaluated the factorial structure, internal consistency, and construct validity of the Chilean version of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory–Short Form. The participants were 1,817 Chilean adults who had experienced the 2010 earthquake in Chile or other highly stressful events. Confirmatory factorial analysis supported the correlated five-factor structure of the PTGI-SF. A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis confirmed measurement invariance across different samples. Concurrent validity was assessed by correlation. These findings suggest that the psychometric properties of the PTGI-SF are adequate to measure posttraumatic growth in the Chilean and Latin American population.     

新编大学生性别角色量表揭示性别角色变迁

性别角色代表个人的社会性别, 对个人乃至整个民族素质的发展有重要意义。随着时代的变化, 当代大学生的性别角色观与性别角色也发生着变化。由于已有的性别角色测量工具多年来没有修订, 因此, 对当代大学生性别角色的测量亟需一个对发展变化敏感的有效测量工具。本研究根据性别角色研究的通行原则, 基于1700个相关词汇, 筛选出男女正性词各35个, 中性词20个。在386名大学生中初测结果显示, 男性化量表(16个题目)含领导力、男子气、理性、大度四个因子, 体现出男性的“工具性”特质; 女性化量表(16个题目)含同理心、女子气、勤俭心细三个因子, 反映出女性的“表达性”特质; 中性化量表则有18个题目。之后在全国5008名大学生中的复测表明, 该男性化量表内部一致性系数为0.89, 女性化量表为0.84; 两个量表的重测信度分别为0.82和0.80; 验证性因素分析显示该量表的结构效度良好, 他评效度和专家效度较高。与已有性别角色量表比较, 构成本量表的词汇有较大变化：男性化词汇体现的“理性化”特质反映出当代中国男性的特点; 女性化词汇虽仍以“表达性”特质为主, 但也体现了中国传统“勤俭心细”的特征。大样本调查发现, 当代大学生性别角色双性化、未分化和单性化群体数量各占约三分之一; 传统占优势的单性化已让位于非单性化; 理想的双性化与最差的未分化同步增长; 男性化比例男性高于女性, 女性化比例女性高于男性, 传统性别角色的影响减弱但依然存在。     

The effects of inventory on vowel perception in French and Spanish: an MEG study

Production studies have shown that speakers of languages with larger phoneme inventories expand their acoustic space relative to languages with smaller inventories [Bradlow, A. (1995). A comparative acoustic study of English and Spanish vowels. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 97(3), 1916-1924; Jongman, A., Fourakis, M., & Sereno, J. (1989). The acoustic vowel space of Modern Greek and German. Language Speech, 32, 221-248]. In this study, we investigated whether this acoustic expansion in production has a perceptual correlate, that is, whether the perceived distance between pairs of sounds separated by equal acoustic distances varies as a function of inventory size or organization. We used magnetoencephalography, specifically the mismatch field response (MMF), and compared two language groups, French and Spanish, whose vowel inventories differ in size and organization. Our results show that the MMF is sensitive to inventory size but not organization, suggesting that speakers of languages with larger inventories perceive the same sounds as less similar than speakers with smaller inventories.