Planification de l’âge du départ à la retraite professionnelle : contribution de l’ouverture aux expériences

The present research examines mechanisms underlying planned retirement age by applying Beehr’Model (1986). The contribution of personality traits was investigated among 300 active employees. Multiple regression analyses, performed at both broad and facet-level, revealed that Openness to experiences and ideas positively contribute to planned retirement age beyond variables of Beehr’Model (i.e., personal, contextual and psychological variables). This study contributes to an in-depth understand of planning retirement mechanisms and insists on the major role of dispositional variables.     

Evaluation of the psychometric properties of a modified Positive and Negative Affect Schedule including a direction scale (PANAS-D) among French athletes

ObjectivesThe goal of these studies was to provide validity and reliability evidence of a modified Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) including a direction scale (PANAS-D). Study 1 tested the validity and reliability of the PANAS-D to measure both intensity and direction of affects. Study 2 examined the relationships between direction of affects and selected variables (i.e., coping, attainment of achievement goals and sport satisfaction) by controlling for intensity of affects.MethodA total of 306 and 296 athletes (studies 1 and 2) completed the PANAS-D and other self-report questionnaires. Data were analysed with reliability, confirmatory factor analyses (study 1) and correlational analyses (studies 1 and 2).DesignCross-sectional with self-reported questionnaires.ResultsIn study 1, the 4-factor structure of the PANAS-D (intensity and direction of positive affect and negative affect) fitted the data adequately. Multiple-group CFAs showed that PANAS-D was partially invariant across the two measurement occasions (before and after competition). The patterns of relationships between PANAS-D, attainment of achievement goals and coping provided evidence for the criterion-related validity of the PANAS-D. In study 2, direction of positive affect and negative affect were associated with selected outcomes (i.e., coping, attainment of sport achievement goals, and/or sport satisfaction) after intensity of these affective states were held constant.ConclusionsThis study provided support for the reliability and validity of the PANAS-D (study 1) and the incremental validity of the direction of affective states (study 2), supporting the distinction between athletes' intensity and direction of affective states.     

The structure of executive functioning in 11 to 14 year olds with and without special educational needs

The structure and development of executive functioning (EF) have been intensively studied in typically developing populations, with little attention given to those with Special Educational Needs (SEN). This study addresses this by comparing the EF structure of 132 adolescents (11–14 years-old) with SEN and 138 adolescents not requiring additional support (Non-SEN peers). Participants completed verbal and non-verbal assessments of key components of EF: inhibition, working memory and switching. Confirmatory Factor Analysis on each group tested one-, two- and three-factor models of EF. In both groups, there was statistical support for the fit of one- and two-factor models with no model being clearly better than the others; there was little support for three-factor models. Parsimony suggests that the one-factor model best represents the structure of EF. In light of our results, the implications for the nature of EF in early adolescence in both SEN and Non-SEN groups are discussed.     

Personality predicts innovation and social learning in children: Implications for cultural evolution

Innovation and social learning are the pillars of cultural evolution, allowing cultural behaviours to cumulatively advance over generations. Yet, little is known about individual differences in the use of social and asocial information. We examined whether personality influenced 7-11-year-old children's (N = 282) propensity to elect to observe others first or independently generate solutions to novel problems. Conscientiousness was associated with electing for no demonstrations, while agreeableness was associated with opting for demonstrations. For children receiving demonstrations, openness to experience consistently predicted deviation from observed methods. Children who opted for no demonstrations were also more likely than those opting for demonstrations to exhibit tool manufacture on an innovation challenge and displayed higher creativity, as measured by an alternate uses task. These results highlight how new cultural traditions emerge, establish and advance by identifying which individuals generate new cultural variants in populations and which are influential in the diffusion of these variants, and help reduce the apparent tension within the ‘ratchet’ of cumulative culture.     

Heterogeneity of treatment changes after psychodynamic therapy within a one year follow‐up: A replication study

Naturalistic psychotherapy effect studies commonly report effect sizes for the total sample. However, a previous study of SCL‐90 Global Severity Index (GSI) improvement in a large outpatient sample used a cluster analytic strategy and reported clinical relevant outcome trajectories that could be grouped into early within‐treatment improvement, late improvement in the follow‐up period, and deteriorating patients with slight improvement that was lost at follow‐up. We explore GSI outcome trajectories and clinical significant change in a sample of 320 patients at a public psychiatric outpatient psychodynamic group therapy unit, the majority with anxiety, personality, and mood disorders. The study revealed large discharge and follow‐up effect sizes but more than one third of the patients were without measurable improvement. The major clusters described above were confirmed, and revealed unique clinical and socio‐demographic characteristics. Late improvers, as compared with early improvers, were characterized by anxiety symptoms and lack of network support after controlling for GSI at admission. Similarly, deteriorating patients had longer duration of illness and less favourable social characteristics compared with the other two groups. Early improving patients were less likely to have participated in short‐term groups, and only one third participated in additional treatment compared with more than 69% of the other patients. Severe and socially affected psychiatric patients, and patients with anxiety and agoraphobic symptoms may be less optimally treated in short‐term time limited psychodynamic groups. There is an obvious need for diversity of treatment offers, better integration of psycho‐social treatment components, and long‐term open ended treatment.     

An atypical anxious‐impulsive pattern of social anxiety disorder in an adult clinical population

An atypical subgroup of Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) with impulsive rather than inhibited traits has recently been reported. The current study examined whether such an atypical subgroup could be identified in a clinical population of 84 adults with SAD. The temperament dimensions harm avoidance and novelty seeking of the Temperament and Character Inventory, and the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale were used in cluster analyses. The identified clusters were compared on depressive symptoms, the character dimension self‐directedness, and treatment outcome. Among the six identified clusters, 24% of the sample had atypical characteristics, demonstrating mainly generalized SAD in combination with coexisting traits of inhibition and impulsivity. As additional signs of severity, this group showed low self‐directedness and high levels of depressive symptoms. We also identified a typically inhibited subgroup comprising generalized SAD with high levels of harm avoidance and low levels of novelty seeking, with a similar clinical severity as the atypical subgroup. Thus, higher levels of harm avoidance and social anxiety in combination with higher or lower levels of novelty seeking and low self‐directedness seem to contribute to a more severe clinical picture. Post hoc examination of the treatment outcome in these subgroups showed that only 20 to 30% achieved clinically significant change.     

Positive beliefs about worry: A psychometric evaluation of the Why Worry-II

Positive beliefs about worry are theorized to maintain excessive and uncontrollable worry, the hallmark of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The Why Worry-II (WW-II) is a 25-item revised questionnaire designed to measure five positive beliefs about worry. These five beliefs are that worry: (1) facilitates problem solving; (2) enhances motivation; (3) protects against negative emotions; (4) prevents negative outcomes; and (5) reflects a positive personality trait. The main goal of this study was to assess the WW-II’s psychometric properties, including its factor structure. Undergraduate participants (N = 309) completed the WW-II, and measures of worry, depression, anxiety, and positive and negative beliefs about worry. Overall, the results suggest that the five-factor model is a good fit to the data. The WW-II demonstrated excellent internal consistency, good test–retest reliability at six weeks, and evidence of convergent and divergent validity. The WW-II also uniquely predicted worry severity. Overall, our findings suggest that the WW-II has a five-factor structure congruent with theoretical predictions, sound psychometric properties, and a unique relationship to excessive worry. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The Dark Triad,happiness and subjective well-being

Narcissism can be expressed in grandiose or vulnerable forms. We examined whether positive psychological states (defined by the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) and the Diener Satisfaction With Life (SWL) scales) assisted differentiation relative to general personality traits and the “the Dark Triad” (psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, measured by the D12 and Short Dark Triad (SD3) indices) for 840 persons primarily from the UK, USA and Canada. The best fitting structural equation model comprised two latent variables, one of positive mood (comprising total scores on the OHI and SWL scales), and another forming a “dark dyad” of Machiavellianism and psychopathy (predicted by low agreeableness and lower positive mood), with narcissism regarded as a separate construct correlated with the dark dyad. Latent positive mood was primarily predicted by higher emotional stability and extraversion. Narcissism was predicted by lower emotional stability, lower agreeableness, and higher extraversion. Latent profile analysis identified four groups in the data: “unhappy but not narcissistic”, “vulnerable narcissism”, “happy non-narcissism” and “grandiose narcissism”. Our results suggest more problematic narcissism can be identified by reference to measures indexing positive mood states and general personality traits.     

Personality Traits Increasingly Important for Male Fertility: Evidence from Norway

We study the relationship between personality traits and fertility using a survey of Norwegian men and women born from 1927 to 1968 (N = 7017 individuals). We found that personality relates to men's and women's fertility differently; conscientiousness decreases female fertility, openness decreases male fertility and extraversion raises the fertility of both sexes. Neuroticism depresses fertility for men, but only for those born after 1956. The lower male fertility in younger cohorts high in neuroticism cannot be explained by partnership status, income or education. The proportion of childless men (at age 40 years) has increased rapidly for Norwegian male cohorts from 1940 to 1970 (from about 15 to 25 per cent). For women, it has only increased marginally (from 10 to 13 per cent). Our findings suggest that this could be partly explained by the increasing importance of personality characteristics for men's probability of becoming fathers. Men that have certain personality traits may increasingly be avoiding the long‐term commitment of having children, or their female partners are shunning entering this type of commitment with them. Childbearing in contemporary richer countries may be less likely to be influenced by economic necessities and more by individual partner characteristics, such as personality. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology