Erratum

Behavior modification with children has been popularized through television shows such as Super Nanny and Nanny 911. The popularity of these shows may be related to the demand parents have for improving their children's behavior. Interestingly, an approach adopted by The Dog Whisperer may prove effective when used with children. The purpose of this brief review is to summarize how behavior modification with children has been used in the media and to detail the surprisingly large amount of research support for The Dog Whisperer's approach. This article also may be used as a guide for those who interact with children.     

The structure of adversarial growth in a sample of cancer patients 8 years post-diagnosis: a revision of the SLQ-38

Stressful and traumatic events may trigger positive life changes, so-called adversarial growth. Despite growing interest in this topic, the structure and dimensionality of this concept has not been established. Recently, empirical reviews have suggested that the factors underlying this construct are highly related. Currently, the use of confirmatory factor analysis to test this hypothesis is advocated. Using data from cancer patients (n = 206), this study investigated the dimensionality of a Dutch translated version of the Silver Lining Questionnaire (SLQ-38). A 16-item SLQ (SLQ-16), with three subscales or first-order factors (enhanced personal relationships, changes in life philosophy and changes within the self) loading on a second-order general adversarial growth factor, was a good fitting model. In conclusion, the SLQ-16 may prove useful in the assessment of adversarial growth following illness.     

Dimensions of perceived control: A factor analysis of three measures and an examination of their relation to activity level and mood in a student and cross-cultural patient sample

Abstract

This study investigated whether measures of three perceived control (PC) concepts tapped independent dimensions, were invariant to population characteristics of health and culture, were differentially sensitive to health outcomes, and were discriminable from self-report disability. The Multidimensional Health Locus of Control, Generalized Self-efficacy, and Perceived Health Competence (PHC) Scales were administered to 106 Scottish students and 145 Scottish, Spanish and Irish patients, who also completed versions of the Sickness Impact Profile. Principal Components analyses revealed five factors reflecting scale constructions for students and six factors for patients, as PHC items fell on two factors. Disability items fell on a separate factor from all PC items. Results suggest: (a) PC is multidimensional regardless of health and culture; (b) adequate assessment requires multiple PC measures; and (c) it is meaningful to consider PC as a possible influence on disability.     

问题结构因素对伦敦塔问题解决的影响

以121名2,4,6年级小学生为被试,采用计算机呈现的方式,探讨了子目标和次佳路径这两个问题结构因素对伦敦塔问题解决表现的影响。结果发现：子目标和次佳路径两个因素存在交互作用,解决有子目标－无次佳路径问题时的计划指标要高于其他类型问题。根据被试在伦敦塔任务上的表现,划分为三大类7种表现类型。当存在不同的问题结构因素时,问题解决表现类型体现出差异性。     

Model Fit and Item Factor Analysis: Overfactoring,Underfactoring, and a Program to Guide Interpretation

In exploratory item factor analysis (IFA), researchers may use model fit statistics and commonly invoked fit thresholds to help determine the dimensionality of an assessment. However, these indices and thresholds may mislead as they were developed in a confirmatory framework for models with continuous, not categorical, indicators. The present study used Monte Carlo simulation methods to investigate the ability of popular model fit statistics (chi-square, root mean square error of approximation, the comparative fit index, and the Tucker–Lewis index) and their standard cutoff values to detect the optimal number of latent dimensions underlying sets of dichotomous items. Models were fit to data generated from three-factor population structures that varied in factor loading magnitude, factor intercorrelation magnitude, number of indicators, and whether cross loadings or minor factors were included. The effectiveness of the thresholds varied across fit statistics, and was conditional on many features of the underlying model. Together, results suggest that conventional fit thresholds offer questionable utility in the context of IFA.     

Estimating Optimal Weights for Compound Scores: A Multidimensional IRT Approach

A method is proposed for constructing indices as linear functions of variables such that the reliability of the compound score is maximized. Reliability is defined in the framework of latent variable modeling [i.e., item response theory (IRT)] and optimal weights of the components of the index are found by maximizing the posterior variance relative to the total latent variable variance. Three methods for estimating the weights are proposed. The first is a likelihood-based approach, that is, marginal maximum likelihood (MML). The other two are Bayesian approaches based on Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) computational methods. One is based on an augmented Gibbs sampler specifically targeted at IRT, and the other is based on a general purpose Gibbs sampler such as implemented in OpenBugs and Jags. Simulation studies are presented to demonstrate the procedure and to compare the three methods. Results are very similar, so practitioners may be suggested the use of the easily accessible latter method. A real-data set pertaining to the 28-joint Disease Activity Score is used to show how the methods can be applied in a complex measurement situation with multiple time points and mixed data formats.     

Self-esteem and higher-order factors of personality: A reply to Simsek

Simsek (2012) argued that earlier research by Erdle and colleagues on the relationship between self-esteem and higher-order factors of personality used “poor statistical methodology”, that “their results may be untenable”, and that the results of his “high-level data analysis” are “the first to show the importance of self-esteem in the differentiation between stability and plasticity”. In this rejoinder, it is argued that the statistical methodology used by Erdle and colleagues demonstrated the effect of controlling self-esteem on the relationship between stability and plasticity earlier and more accurately than that used by Simsek (2012). Moreover, it is argued that self-esteem might not be a biasing factor, but instead might be a theoretically expected substantive correlate of the Big Five and of higher-order factors of personality. Finally, it is argued that a hierarchical structure of personality, with a general factor of personality (GFP) at the apex, might have a neurological basis in the activity of the prefrontal cortices.     

On the validity of implicit association measures of personality traits

Participants (N = 200) completed self-report and implicit association (IAT) measures of Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability. Peer trait ratings and supervisor ratings of job performance were also collected. Results suggested low convergence between IAT and self-report trait measures. Cognitive ability and self-positive bias both explained significant portions of the method variance expressed by IAT measures. Correlations between IAT trait measures and job performance were statistically non-significant, of similar magnitudes to their self-report counterparts, and of magnitudes consistent with past research on criterion validities of self-report trait measures. The results offer only very limited support for the use of IAT trait measures in applied assessment settings.     

The general factor of personality: Substance or artefact?

While it is now widely recognized that a general factor (GFP) can be extracted from most personality data, this finding has been subject to numerous critiques: (1) that the GFP is an artefact due to socially desirable responding; (2) that it is factorially indeterminate; (3) that it can be more parsimoniously modelled using blended variables; (4) that it shows less genetic variance due to dominance than should be true of a fitness trait; (5) that it correlates more weakly with g than would be predicted from Life History theory; (6) that it cannot be recovered across personality inventories. We present new evidence and argument to show that each of these critiques is open to reasonable doubt.     

Research off the couch: Re-visiting the transsexual conundrum

This paper outlines the findings of a qualitative study involving interviews with eight transsexual individuals who had volunteered to take part in a television (TV) documentary about transsexuality. The participants were interviewed before taking part in the documentary and after its screening on national TV. The author proposes that for either biological and/or psychological reasons, some transsexual individuals experience early on a profound and disturbing incongruence at the level of the bodily self. In turn, this experience of incongruity is not contingently mirrored by primary attachment figures and remains unmentalized, thus disrupting self-coherence. In an attempt to restore self-coherence, the individual searches for the ‘right’ body that is anticipated to relieve the felt incongruity. The way this modified body relieves the incongruity is through the certainty it imparts that the image in the ‘mirror’ will match the subjective experience of the body. In this study, the experience of being mirrored through the group process during filming and the audience's response to the TV series, which was very positive, appeared to be associated with an attenuation in the urgency with which planned body modifications were being discussed post-TV screenings.