Construct validation of the Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire in Spanish-speaking countries: Assessment of the reliability,structural and external validity and cross-cultural equivalence

A recent re-operationalisation of grandiose narcissism has resulted in the distinction of two narcissistic strategies based on the cognitive, affective-motivational and behavioural dynamics: admiration (assertive self-enhancement) and rivalry (antagonistic self-protection). The Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry Questionnaire (NARQ) was developed to assess this model with two higher-order dimensions. However, cross-validations of the NARQ have not been extensively conducted across diverse population groups and languages. This study aimed to test the internal and external validity (through the relation with envy and self-esteem), reliability and cross-cultural equivalence of the Spanish version of the NARQ. The psychometric properties were evaluated in a Spanish sample (N = 310), and cross-cultural equivalence was tested in participants from Chile (N = 234) and Colombia (N = 256). The results supported the reliability and validity of the Spanish NARQ, as well as the cross-cultural equivalence across Spanish-speaking countries. In addition, we discuss obtained differences across Spanish, Chilean and Colombian sample within two narcissistic strategies.     

Cross-Cultural Sexism and the Effectiveness of Gender (Non)Traditional Advertising: A Comparison of Purchase Intentions in Poland,South Africa,and the United Kingdom

Findings regarding the effectiveness of (non)traditionally gendered advertisements are mixed and largely emanate from the United States. We tested the stereotype content model and ambivalent sexism theory cross-nationally in an advertising context and predicted that paternalistic (vs. envious) female stereotypes will trigger higher purchase intent (PI) irrespective of country (Hypothesis 1), viewers’ benevolent sexism will positively predict PI for paternalistic housewife advertisements (Hypothesis 2a), viewers’ hostile sexism will negatively predict PI for envious businesswoman advertisements (Hypothesis 2b), and these relationships with sexism will be confined to less gender egalitarian countries (i.e., Poland and South Africa) (Hypothesis 3). Statistical analyses of data from 468 Polish, South African, and British university students supported Hypothesis 1 and partially supported Hypotheses 2 and 3. The predicted patterns held for South Africa, but in Poland, viewers’ benevolence positively predicted PI for both advertisement types, with the exception of highly hostile women. British viewers’ hostility positively predicted PI for the housewife advertisement. Our findings support the cross-cultural applicability of the stereotype content model to advertising and suggest that the predictive role of sexism changes depending on its type, advertisement type, country, and gender. We recommend that advertisers should adopt a nuanced approach in predicting the effectiveness of gendered advertisements.     

Validating the coping scale for Chinese athletes using multidimensional Rasch analysis

Objective

The Coping Scale for Chinese Athletes (CSCA) was developed and validated using classic testing theory in 2004 (Chung, Si, Lee, & Liu, 2004). This study aimed to validate CSCA using multidimensional Rasch analysis with the ConQuest software programme.

Method

The sample in this study comprised 367 athletes from mainland China. A Multidimensional Rating Scale model was applied to investigate the validity of the four-dimension scale. Standard fit statistics (Infit and Outfit MNSQ) and Differential item functioning (DIF) were computed to examine the model-data fit. Test reliability and category functioning were also checked.

Results

The item difficulty and the athletes’ trait level of coping were calibrated along the same latent trait scale. Three items were removed from the scale due to misfit with the Rasch model. No DIF across gender was found for the remaining 21 items. Test reliabilities for the four subscales ranged from 0.66 to 0.76. The results also indicated that the original 5-category rating scale structure did not function well.

Conclusion

The multidimensional Rasch analysis supported that the 21-item CSCA measures four latent traits of coping of Chinese athletes as expected. The results also demonstrated advantages of multidimensional Rasch analysis over unidimensional Rasch analysis as well as traditional approach in examining the quality of multidimensional scale in sport settings.     

The bystander-effect: a meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies

Research on bystander intervention has produced a great number of studies showing that the presence of other people in a critical situation reduces the likelihood that an individual will help. As the last systematic review of bystander research was published in 1981 and was not a quantitative meta-analysis in the modern sense, the present meta-analysis updates the knowledge about the bystander effect and its potential moderators. The present work (a) integrates the bystander literature from the 1960s to 2010, (b) provides statistical tests of potential moderators, and (c) presents new theoretical and empirical perspectives on the novel finding of non-negative bystander effects in certain dangerous emergencies as well as situations where bystanders are a source of physical support for the potentially intervening individual. In a fixed effects model, data from over 7,700 participants and 105 independent effect sizes revealed an overall effect size of g = -0.35. The bystander effect was attenuated when situations were perceived as dangerous (compared with non-dangerous), perpetrators were present (compared with non-present), and the costs of intervention were physical (compared with non-physical). This pattern of findings is consistent with the arousal-cost-reward model, which proposes that dangerous emergencies are recognized faster and more clearly as real emergencies, thereby inducing higher levels of arousal and hence more helping. We also identified situations where bystanders provide welcome physical support for the potentially intervening individual and thus reduce the bystander effect, such as when the bystanders were exclusively male, when they were naive rather than passive confederates or only virtually present persons, and when the bystanders were not strangers.     

Building a Committed Hospice Volunteer Workforce—Do Variables at the Experience Stage Matter?

Volunteers are crucial to the survival of non‐profit organisations, who therefore have a fundamental interest in sustaining voluntary engagement over time. A central variable regarding sustained voluntary engagement is volunteers' organisational commitment, which has so far been a neglected research issue. The study at hand therefore explicitly focuses on hospice volunteers' commitment. Starting from the assumption that variables at the experience stage of volunteerism may be relevant in predicting volunteer commitment, questionnaire data on volunteers' motives, motive fulfilment and role identity were collected in a sample of hospice volunteers (N = 276). Results of multiple regression analyses show positive relationships between altruistic motive fulfilment and a volunteer role identity on the one hand and volunteer commitment on the other. Observed interaction effects imply that altruistic motive fulfilment is of importance both at the initial phase of volunteering and for long‐term volunteers. Moreover, interaction effects provide evidence that the fulfilment of egoistic motives is of particular importance amongst volunteers to whom egoistic motives are central. Thus, the fulfilment of altruistic motives and facilitating the development of a volunteer role identity should be permanent concerns in building a committed workforce. Egoistic motive fulfilment in contrast is of special relevance, when egoistic motives for volunteering are strong. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Connectivity among semantic associates: an fMRI study of semantic priming

Semantic priming refers to a reduction in the reaction time to identify or make a judgment about a stimulus that has been immediately preceded by a semantically related word or picture and is thought to result from a partial overlap in the semantic associates of the two words. A semantic priming lexical decision task using spoken words was presented in event-related fMRI and behavioral paradigms. Word pairs varied in terms of semantic relatedness and the connectivity between associates. Thirteen right-handed subjects underwent fMRI imaging and 10 additional subjects were tested in a behavioral version of the semantic priming task. It was hypothesized priming would be greatest, reaction time fastest, and cortical activation reduced the most for related word pairs of high connectivity, followed by related word pairs of low connectivity, and then by unrelated word pairs. Behavioral and fMRI results confirmed these predictions. fMRI activity located primarily in bilateral posterior superior and middle temporal regions showed modulation by connectivity and relatedness. The results suggest that these regions are involved in semantic processing.     

What Matters More—Breaking Tradition or Stereotype Content? Envious and Paternalistic Gender Stereotypes and Advertising Effectiveness

The outcomes of 2 experiments investigating the effectiveness of advertisements that use (non)traditional stereotypes of women (Experiment 1) or men (Experiment 2) are reported. Effectiveness of the ads was tested in relation to perceivers' attitudes toward female or male gender roles, respectively. The main finding was that for both male and female versions of the advertisements, the paternalistic ad strategies were more effective than were the envious ones, supporting the predictions of the stereotype content model over the classic prediction of negative effects of nontraditional gender portrayals for advertising effectiveness. Moreover, attitudes toward gender roles played only a limited role in determining ad effectiveness. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Creativity and Cognitive Control: Explorations of Generation and Evaluation Skills

Two experiments are reported in which relationships between cognitive control and generative as well as evaluative aspects of creativity were studied. Cognitive control was assessed through the interference effects of the Navon and Stroop tasks. Generative and evaluative aspects of creativity were studied with a procedure, called Generation and Evaluation (GenEva). Each participant first generated a number of solutions to a set of divergent problems, and then he or she evaluated solutions provided by another participant, chosen at random. The data suggest that participants scoring high on Urban and Jellen's Test for Creative Thinking-Drawing Production showed better indexes of cognitive control than participants with lower scores. A similar relationship has been found concerning the originality of participants' productions (GenEva procedure) but not their fluency and flexibility. These findings are interpreted in terms of basic cognitive processes, which are probably responsible for idea production. It also appeared that cognitive control allowed more accurate evaluation of other people's ideas, but only in the case of participants with global cognitive style of information processing.     

Posttraumatic Stress in Women with Breast Cancer and Their Daughters

Using the PTSD Reaction Index, posttraumatic stress was assessed in 133 women with breast cancer and 64 of their daughters. Twenty-one percent of patients and 13% of daughters reported symptoms consistent with PTSD. PTSD in these patients without bone marrow transplants may be higher than reported in other samples, and the prevalence of PTSD symptoms in the daughters appear comparable to women with breast cancer. For patients, cancer stage at diagnosis was positively associated with posttraumatic stress severity. Mothers experiencing PTSD symptoms were significantly more likely to have daughters experiencing PTSD symptoms. Intergenerational patterns in reaction to breast cancer are discussed.