Breakthrough victories: How can a loser ever win?

The domain of sport provides opportunity for development and growth, which is often incremental but can be marked by significant breakthroughs. Using Aristotle’s virtue ethic as a model, this paper explores the challenge of overcoming new obstacles, sometimes reversing bad habits, in the athletic domain. Breakthrough victories in sport are achievements that both reward persistent effort and open new horizons in the pursuit of excellence. They are significant because they seem to hold out a promise for future performance, now that some barrier has been passed. Breakthrough victories are often among the most important and rewarding moments in an athletic career.     

Iteration of Partially Specified Target Matrices: Application to the Bi-Factor Case

The current study proposes a new bi-factor rotation method, Schmid-Leiman with iterative target rotation (SLi), based on the iteration of partially specified target matrices and an initial target constructed from a Schmid-Leiman (SL) orthogonalization. SLi was expected to ameliorate some of the limitations of the previously presented SL bi-factor rotations, SL and SL with target rotation (SLt), when the factor structure either includes cross-loadings, near-zero loadings, or both. A Monte Carlo simulation was carried out to test the performance of SLi, SL, SLt, and the two analytic bi-factor rotations, bi-quartimin and bi-geomin. The results revealed that SLi accurately recovered the bi-factor structures across the majority of the conditions, and generally outperformed the other rotation methods. SLi provided the biggest improvements over SL and SLt when the bi-factor structures contained cross-loadings and pure indicators of the general factor. Additionally, SLi was superior to bi-quartimin and bi-geomin, which performed inconsistently across the types of factor structures evaluated. No method produced a good recovery of the bi-factor structures when small samples (N = 200) were combined with low factor loadings (0.30–0.50) in the specific factors. Thus, it is recommended that larger samples of at least 500 observations be obtained.     

An Examination of Alcohol Use Disorder Symptoms and Neighborhood Disorganization from Age 21 to 39

Living in disorganized neighborhoods characterized by high levels of poverty, crime, violence, and deteriorating buildings has been associated with increased alcohol consumption and mental health problems. Data drawn from the Seattle Social Development Project (N = 790), a theory‐driven longitudinal study originating in Seattle, WA, were used to estimate trajectories of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) symptoms from age 21 to 39. Time‐varying measures of neighborhood disorganization, psychological distress, and sociodemographic factors were associated with deviations from average AUD symptoms at each wave. Results indicated that, on average, AUD symptoms decreased as individuals got older. Living in more disorganized neighborhoods and experiencing psychological distress was associated with increased AUD symptoms after accounting for average reductions from AUD symptoms over time and time‐varying measures of relevant sociodemographic factors. Results of mediation analysis suggested that psychological distress is a mechanism by which disorganized neighborhoods increased risk of AUD from age 21 to 39.     

Describing Trajectories of Homeless Service Use in Hawai‘i Using Latent Class Growth Analysis

The State of Hawai‘i, like many other areas across the United States, has large numbers of individuals and families experiencing homelessness, many of whom seek support through statewide shelters and services. This study explored the diversity of ways in which individuals and families moved through Hawai‘i's homeless service system. Using administrative data, a cohort of new service users was tracked across time to trace the developmental trajectories of their homeless service use. The sample consisted of adults who had entered the service system for the first time in the fiscal year (FY) of 2010 (N = 4655). These individuals were then tracked through the end of FY 2014, as they used emergency shelter, transitional shelter, and outreach services. A latent class growth analysis was conducted and identified four distinct patterns of service use: low service use (n = 3966, 85.2%); typical transitional shelter use (n = 452, 9.7%); atypical transitional use (n = 127, 2.7%), and potential chronic service use (n = 110, 2.4%). Multinomial logistic regression models were then used to determine if select demographic, family, background experience (e.g., education, employment), or health variables were associated with class membership. The distinct profiles for class membership are discussed.     

Post-traumatic growth as positive personality change: Developing a measure to assess within-person variability

Earlier work has defined post-traumatic growth (PTG) as positive personality change, but measurement of this construct has relied almost exclusively on cross-sectional and retrospective assessments. The aim of this study was to use an experience-sampling procedure to measure the extent to which PTG manifested in individuals’ everyday lives after a recent highly stressful or traumatic adverse event (compared to a control group). In doing so, we developed a state measure of PTG. The factor structure of state PTG was comparable to trait PTG, there was significant variability in individuals’ PTG from moment-to-moment, but individuals’ trait PTG was unrelated to their state PTG. Moreover, individuals who had experienced a recent adversity did not differ from control participants on state PTG.     

Loneliness as Moderator Between Trauma and Posttraumatic Growth

This study investigated the association between loneliness, trauma symptomatology, and posttraumatic growth (PTG) in undergraduate students (N = 362). The study also explored whether loneliness moderated the relationship between experiences of trauma and PTG. The results demonstrated that both loneliness and trauma symptoms predicted levels of PTG, and loneliness moderated the relationship between trauma and PTG. Limitations, directions for future research, and implications for counseling are discussed.     

Dendrite growth velocity in the undercooled melt of glass forming Ni50Zr50 compound

Glass-forming Ni₅₀Zr₅₀ intermetallic compound is containerless undercooled and solidified using electrostatic levitation. Large undercoolings up to ?T = 300 K are achieved. The dendrite growth velocity of the congruently melting alloy is measured as a function of undercooling using a high-speed camera technique. The experimental data is analysed within a sharp interface theory. It is found that the driving force of crystallisation is controlling the growth kinetics at ?T < 250 K but at larger undercoolings the growth kinetics is progressively controlled by atomic diffusion. This leads to a slowing down of the growth velocity. The maximum velocity and the temperature at which the maximum occurs (T_max) are inferred from the dendrite growth velocity – undercooling relation. The relation of the temperature T_max and the glass temperature fits into a general classification scheme for glass-forming systems. The kinetic and thermal undercooling terms are calculated within dendrite growth theory as a function of the total undercooling. At ?T > 126 K, the kinetic undercooling dominates and increases rapidly with the undercooling ?T. The maximum prefactor of the kinetic undercooling is plotted vs. the reciprocal temperature. Its temperature dependence is discussed.     

Old Wine in New Bottles? The Case of Self‐compassion and Neuroticism

Research on self‐compassion, which is defined as being understanding and kind to oneself when confronted with negative experiences, has produced an impressive number of articles in recent years. This research shows that individual differences in self‐compassion, as measured by the Self‐Compassion Scale (SCS), are positively related to life satisfaction, health and social functioning. However, a critical and systematic test of self‐compassion from a personality perspective has not yet conducted so far. In the present study (N = 576), we (i) tested the factor structure of the SCS, (ii) examined the distinctiveness of self‐compassion with regard to the five‐factor model of personality, focusing on neuroticism, and (iii) tested the incremental predictive power of self‐compassion beyond the five‐factor model in the context of life satisfaction. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a two‐factor plus six facets solution of self‐compassion (a positive factor and a negative factor). Additional analyses revealed that the negative factor was redundant with facets of neuroticism (rs ≥ .85), whereas the positive factor had some unique variance left. However, neither the negative factor nor the positive factor could explain substantial incremental variance in life satisfaction beyond neuroticism. Recommendations for how to use the SCS are provided, and the future of research on self‐compassion is discussed. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Personality Traits Predict Smartphone Usage

The present study investigates to what degree individual differences can predict frequency and duration of actual behaviour, manifested in mobile application (app) usage on smartphones. In particular, this work focuses on the identification of stable associations between personality on the factor and facet level, fluid intelligence, demography and app usage in 16 distinct categories. A total of 137 subjects (87 women and 50 men), with an average age of 24 (SD = 4.72), participated in a 90‐min psychometric lab session as well as in a subsequent 60‐day data logging study in the field. Our data suggest that personality traits predict mobile application usage in several specific categories such as communication, photography, gaming, transportation and entertainment. Extraversion, conscientiousness and agreeableness are better predictors of mobile application usage than basic demographic variables in several distinct categories. Furthermore, predictive performance is slightly higher for single factor—in comparison with facet‐level personality scores. Fluid intelligence and demographics additionally show stable associations with categorical app usage. In sum, this study demonstrates how individual differences can be effectively related to actual behaviour and how this can assist in understanding the behavioural underpinnings of personality. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology