Is the genetic structure of human personality universal? A cross-cultural twin study from North America, Europe, and Asia

This study examined whether universality of the 5-factor model (FFM) of personality operationalized by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory is due to genetic influences that are invariant across diverse nations. Factor analyses were conducted on matrices of phenotypic, genetic, and environmental correlations estimated in a sample of 1,209 monozygotic and 701 dizygotic twin pairs from Canada, Germany, and Japan. Five genetic and environmental factors were extracted for each sample. High congruence coefficients were observed when phenotypic, genetic, and environmental factors were compared in each sample as well as when each factor was compared across samples. These results suggest that the FFM has a solid biological basis and may represent a common heritage of the human species.     

Objective Evaluation of Performance Stress in Musicians With Focal Hand Dystonia: A Case Series

Five musicians suffering from focal dystonia participated in a pilot study that examined the feasibility of an experimental protocol designed to assess musicians' motor performance under stress. Electrocardiography, free cortisol levels, and subjective assessments were used to monitor alterations of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. As measures of motor outcome, temporal variability of finger movements and muscular cocontraction of the wrist flexor and extensor were assessed. Findings suggest that the specific experimental design could be successfully applied. Several methodological issues such as carryover effects, the use of free cortisol, the inclusion of a double baseline, and the classification of dystonic patients into stress responders and nonresponders are analyzed and discussed.     

Effects of attention state on electrodermal activity during auditory stimulation of children.

During passive and active listening tasks electrodermal activity of 49 healthy school children was studied. The procedure included baseline recording, a passive listening task, instructions, and simple and discriminative active-listening tasks. On the passive task from Trials 1 to 10, habituation of the amplitude of the skin conductance response (SCR) occurred. Habituation of SCR amplitude did not occur during the active tasks. The children seemed to pay more attention during the active tasks than during the passive task, since the need to press the key is apt to require and may even increase general attention. As for temporal variables of SCR, the frequency of spontaneous SCRs showed a significant negative correlation with SCR latency and rise time. Reaction time exhibited a significant negative correlation with age. An increase in reaction time was found during the discriminative active-listening task over that for the simple active-listening task during the course of 10 trials. The younger children (6-8 yr.) seemed to require longer to pay attention than the older ones (10-12 yr.). Children seemed to pay more attention during the discriminative than during the simple active-listening task, since the need to press the key for discrimination should require and is likely to increase general attention.     

Structure of a phase induced with Xe-ion irradiation-implantation in γ-TiAl

A phase transformation in γ-TiAl intermetallic alloy was found to be induced with 50keV Xe-ion irradiation-implantation at doses larger than 2.2 x 10¹⁸ ions m^-2 at room temperature. The structure and the chemical composition of the induced phase were investigated with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The zones of the induced phase have sizes up to about several tens of nanometres. The phase has a hexagonal structure with a = 0.286 nm and c = 0.462nm. The crystallographic orientation relationship between the phase (P) and the gamma-TiAl matrix is (001)_P//(111)_γ and \[100]_P//[011]_γ. The \[Al]/[Ti] atomic composition ratio in the phase is analysed to be 56/44, slightly different from that of the matrix, 51/49. These results suggest that the induced phase is an Al solid solution of α-Ti alloy phase, which has different structural parameters and chemical composition from those of the reported phase. It is suggested that the size of the ions is important in the phase transformation.     

Synthesis of amorphous and quasicrystal phases by mechanical alloying of Ti 45 Zr 38 Ni 17 powder mixtures,and their hydrogenation

Mechanical alloying of Ti 45 Zr 38 Ni 17 powder mixture forms an amorphous phase, but subsequent annealing causes the formation of an icosahedral ( i ) phase. The maximum hydrogen concentration that can be loaded at 573K at a hydrogen pressure of 3.8MPa is the same (\[H]/\[M] 1.5) for the amorphous and i -phase powders. With hydrogenation, the i -phase is almost stable, forming no hydrides, whereas the amorphous phase transforms to a fcc hydride. The activation energy for hydrogen desorption for the i -phase is about 127kJmol -1, which is lower than that for the amorphous phase, suggesting that the i -phase powder may have better properties for hydrogen-storage applications.     

Identification with a wrongful subgroup and the feeling of collective guilt

The present study examined the relationship between group identification and the feeling of collective guilt. This study argued that identification with a subgroup of one's ingroup (subgroup identification) would predict the feeling of collective guilt better than identification with the whole ingroup (whole‐group identification). To manipulate the level of subgroup identification, we instructed participants to imagine the presence of a close friend (vs a friend of one's close friend) in a fictitious subgroup. In Experiment 1, we predicted and found that high subgroup identifiers experienced less collective guilt compared to low subgroup identifiers, regardless of their degree of whole‐group identification. In contrast, the results from Experiment 2 indicated that when the presence of the third party was made salient, high subgroup identifiers experienced more collective guilt in comparison to low subgroup identifiers. The importance of interpersonal connections for collective responsibility and the facilitating role of the third party for reconciliation of the intergroup conflicts are discussed.     

Correlates of retrospective early life experience with personality in young Japanese women

To examine the influence of early experiences on the development of personality. We used the Temperament and Character Inventory to assess 98 young women who had first entered a company. Different early experiences were linked, albeit weakly, to test scores. Both partial correlations and multiple regression analyses indicated that Self-directedness was higher if women reported more care of parents. Partial correlation, but not multiple regression analyses, showed that Cooperativeness was greater if women reported more care of parents and less frequent abuse. Reports of early parental loss or negative or positive early life events showed no correlation with scores on any of the Temperament and Character Inventory subscales.     

Individual differences in the biomechanical effect of loudness and tempo on upper-limb movements during repetitive piano keystrokes

The present study addressed the effect of loudness and tempo on kinematics and muscular activities of the upper extremity during repetitive piano keystrokes. Eighteen pianists with professional music education struck two keys simultaneously and repetitively with a combination of four loudness levels and four tempi. The results demonstrated a significant interaction effect of loudness and tempo on peak angular velocity for the shoulder, elbow, wrist and finger joints, mean muscular activity for the corresponding flexors and extensors, and their co-activation level. The interaction effect indicated greater increases with tempo when eliciting louder tones for all joints and muscles except for the elbow velocity showing a greater decrease with tempo. Multiple-regression analysis and K-means clustering further revealed that 18 pianists were categorized into three clusters with different interaction effects on joint kinematics. These clusters were characterized by either an elbow-velocity decrease and a finger-velocity increase, a finger-velocity decrease with increases in shoulder and wrist velocities, or a large elbow-velocity decrease with a shoulder-velocity increase when increasing both loudness and tempo. Furthermore, the muscular load considerably differed across the clusters. These findings provide information to determine muscles with the greatest potential risk of playing-related disorders based on movement characteristics of individual pianists.     

Genetic and environmental structure of Cloninger's temperament and character dimensions

The multivariate genetic and environmental structure of Cloninger's Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) was investigated in a sample of 617 pairs of adolescent and young adult twins from Japan. Additive genetic factors accounted for 22% to 49% of the variability on all TCI temperament scales. Although the theory predicts lower heritability for the character scales, all character subscales had a substantial genetic contribution, and nonshared environmental influences accounted for the remainder. Multivariate genetic analyses showed that several subscales used to define one dimension shared a common genetic basis with subscales defining others. Using the degree of shared genetic influence as the basis to rearrange the TCI subscales into new dimensions, it was possible to create genetically independent scales. The implications for personality measurement, theory, and molecular genetic research are discussed.     

Multinational data show that conspiracy beliefs are associated with the perception (and reality) of poor national economic performance

While a great deal is known about the individual difference factors associated with conspiracy beliefs, much less is known about the country-level factors that shape people's willingness to believe conspiracy theories. In the current article we discuss the possibility that willingness to believe conspiracy theories might be shaped by the perception (and reality) of poor economic performance at the national level. To test this notion, we surveyed 6723 participants from 36 countries. In line with predictions, propensity to believe conspiracy theories was negatively associated with perceptions of current and future national economic vitality. Furthermore, countries with higher GDP per capita tended to have lower belief in conspiracy theories. The data suggest that conspiracy beliefs are not just caused by intrapsychic factors but are also shaped by difficult economic circumstances for which distrust might have a rational basis.