Distinguishing intellectual humility and general humility

Two studies provide evidence for distinguishing intellectual humility (IH) from general humility (GH). Humility involves (a) an Accurate View of Self and (b) the ability to regulate egotism and cultivate an other-oriented stance; IH is a subdomain of humility that involves (a) having an accurate view of one’s intellectual strengths and limitations and (b) the ability to negotiate ideas in a fair and inoffensive manner. First, we present a theoretical framework for distinguishing these constructs. In Study 1, with a sample of undergraduate students (N = 1097), we used confirmatory factor analysis to provide empirical evidence for this distinction. We also found that IH predicted unique variance in openness to experience relative to GH. In Study 2, we examined additional evidence of discriminant validity with another sample of college students (N = 355). IH also predicted unique variance in need for cognition, objectivism, and religious ethnocentrism relative to GH.     

Positivity ratio of flourishing individuals: Examining the moderation effects of methodological variations and chronological age

We tested the relationship between flourishing and positivity ratio while accounting for different measures of affect and rating scale formats. We further examined age-related differences in positivity ratio. Studies 1 and 2 showed that positivity ratio is affected by the measure used, but not by the rating scale format. Study 3 further showed that positivity ratio is higher among older adults. The above pattern of methodological variations was replicated in Study 4 with daily ratings of emotions and in Study 5 where emotions were rated on an extended scale. Study 5 also replicated the aforementioned age effect. Together these studies suggest that positivity ratio is moderated by methodological variants and individual differences, such as chronological age. Future studies should account for these possible moderation effects when exploring the positivity ratio and its relationship to flourishing.     

Perception Differences in Ambiguous Forms of Workplace Sexual Harassment: A Comparison between the United States and Turkey

Certain social–sexual behaviors that could be potentially encountered in workplaces are ambiguous in nature and perceiving them as sexual harassment can depend on the culture. With an aim to delineate the overlap and distinctions of sexual harassment perceptions of such behaviors across samples of women university students from Turkey (TR, N = 215) and the United States (US, N = 209), measurement invariance and latent mean differences in perceiving three ambiguous forms; sexist hostility, sexual hostility, and insinuation-of-interest, were examined. It was hypothesized that the US sample would perceive sexist hostility more sexually harassing as sexist workplace discriminatory practices are emphasized as a form of sexual harassment, and that the TR sample would perceive sexual hostility and insinuation-of-interest as more sexually harassing as women in TR operate in a conservative context. Despite similarities in rank ordering, US participants perceived sexist hostility more sexually harassing; insinuation-of-interest and sexual hostility less sexually harassing than Turkish participants, supporting all three hypotheses. There are implications of differing perceptions across cultures for organizations in terms of disseminating awareness via training programs about the forms of sexual harassment (SH) in a local context and for taking account of local findings in shaping the labor code of countries in relation to SH.     

Occupational differences in work engagement: A longitudinal study among eight occupational groups in Norway

The aim of the present study was to explore occupational differences in the experience of engagement both with regard to differences in the level of work engagement as well as in the predicting value of different antecedent variables. Multigroup latent mean analysis was performed on eight different occupational groups in Norway (lawyers, physicians, nurses, teachers, church ministers, bus drivers, and people working in advertising and information technology; N = 3,475). Tests for factorial invariance supported the use of the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory scale across occupational groups and that the latent means were comparable across the groups. Results indicated significant occupational differences in the experience of vigor and dedication. The lawyers reported the most vigor and the church ministers the most dedication. Least vigor was reported among the teachers and the advertising group reported to be least dedicated. Cross‐lagged multigroup structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis suggested there are different processes behind the development of engagement across occupations. Visualization of how some occupations cluster or differ from each other is important as it might engender theory building and further hypotheses testing.     

The location of the Trait Emotional Intelligence in the Zuckerman's Personality Model space and the role of General Intelligence and social status

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between Emotional Intelligence (EI) measured by the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) and personality measured by the Zuckerman‐Kuhlman‐Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA‐PQ) with the purpose of analyzing similarities and differences of both psychological constructs. Additionally, we studied the relationship among EI, personality, General Intelligence (GI) and a social position index (SPI). Results showed that the ZKA‐PQ predicts the 66% (facets) and the 64% (factors) of the TEIQue. High scores in EI correlated negatively with Neuroticism (r: –0.66) and Aggressiveness (r: –0.27); and positively with Extraversion (r: 0.62). Oblique factorial analyses demonstrated that TEIQue scales were located basically in the Neuroticism and Extraversion factors. The SPI and GI no loaded in any factor. These findings showed that EI is a not a distinct construct of personality and it cannot be isolated in the ZKA‐PQ personality space. GI is related with the SPI (r: 0.26), and EI correlated with GI (r: 0.18) and SPI (r: 0.16). Nevertheless, we found differences between GI high groups and the TEIQue and ZKA‐PQ factors when controlling age and sex. These findings are discussed in the individual differences context.     

Improving Psychological Measurement: Does It Make a Difference? A Comment on Nesselroade and Molenaar (2016)

Nesselroade and Molenaar advocate the use of an idiographic filter approach. This is a fixed-effects approach, which may limit the number of individuals that can be simultaneously modeled, and it is not clear how to model the presence of subpopulations. Most important, Nesselroade and Molenaar's proposal appears to be best suited for modeling long time series on a few variables for a few individuals. Long time series are not common in psychological applications. Can it be applied to the usual longitudinal data we face? These are characterized by short time series (four to five points in time), hundreds of individuals, and dozens of variables. If so, what do we gain? Applied settings most often involve between-individual decisions. I conjecture that their approach will not outperform common, simpler, methods. However, when intraindividual decisions are involved, their approach may have an edge.     

The Combined Effects of Measurement Error and Omitting Confounders in the Single-Mediator Model

Mediation analysis requires a number of strong assumptions be met in order to make valid causal inferences. Failing to account for violations of these assumptions, such as not modeling measurement error or omitting a common cause of the effects in the model, can bias the parameter estimates of the mediated effect. When the independent variable is perfectly reliable, for example when participants are randomly assigned to levels of treatment, measurement error in the mediator tends to underestimate the mediated effect, while the omission of a confounding variable of the mediator-to-outcome relation tends to overestimate the mediated effect. Violations of these two assumptions often co-occur, however, in which case the mediated effect could be overestimated, underestimated, or even, in very rare circumstances, unbiased. To explore the combined effect of measurement error and omitted confounders in the same model, the effect of each violation on the single-mediator model is first examined individually. Then the combined effect of having measurement error and omitted confounders in the same model is discussed. Throughout, an empirical example is provided to illustrate the effect of violating these assumptions on the mediated effect.     

Response to Stuart Kauffman: The Paradox of Divine Action and Scientific Truth

We three authors compare and contrast Stuart Kauffman's concept of the “cosmic mind” with similar ideas developed in our recent book, The Unity of Truth: Solving the Paradox of Science and Religion (IUniverse, 2012). Albert Einstein was known to have said: “Science without religion is lame, religion with science is blind.” We authors make use of the “paradox resolution” methods of physics to find a non-conflicting method by which God's actions communicate with human beings without violating any of the laws of science. The “communications paradox” is resolved by hypothesizing non-causal quantum-mechanical measurements as the way God communicates. the quantum-mechanical resolution of the “communications paradox” is completely consistent with both theist belief and the laws of science, whereas Kauffman's “cosmic mind” concept is seen to be consistent with pantheism.     

Factorial Structure of the Family Values Scale From a Multilevel-Multicultural Perspective

In cross-cultural research, there is a tendency for researchers to draw inferences at the country level based on individual-level data. Such action implicitly and often mistakenly assumes that both the measuring instrument and its underlying construct(s) are operating equivalently across both levels. Based on responses from 5,482 college students sampled from 27 countries, we took a structural equation modeling approach to addressing this issue of level equivalence. Purposes of the study were: (a) to validate the hypothesized two-factor structure of the Family Values Scale (FV Scale; Georgas, 1999) within a multilevel framework that took individual- and country-level information into account; (b) to test equivalence of the FV Scale across individual and country levels; and (c) to evaluate relations between the FV Scale and three possibly important covariates—gender at the individual level, and affluence and religion at the country level. Implications of findings and importance of multilevel equivalence in cross-cultural research are discussed.