Incremental Validity of Leaderless Group Discussion Ratings Over and Above General Mental Ability and Personality in Predicting Promotion

Leaderless group discussions (LGDs) constitute one of the oldest assessment center exercises. In recent times, their added value has sometimes been questioned in light of trends to streamline assessment centers. The purpose of the present study is to examine the incremental validity of LGD ratings over cognitive ability scores and personality ratings for the prediction of extrinsic career success (i.e., promotion speed and number of promotions). We investigated this issue in the context of the promotion of French naval officers (N = 93) in an academy for high‐level executive positions over a 10‐year period. Results indicated that LGD ratings accounted for incremental variance in the prediction of promotion criterion measures, beyond cognitive ability and personality test scores. These results confirm that LGD ratings provide a unique contribution to the prediction of extrinsic career success in high‐level executive positions.     

Les troubles des comportements alimentaires chez des étudiants de première année : une étude prospective multigroupes

There is increasing use of the phrase “campus eating symptoms” to describe regular binge eating (together with frequent exercise, and occasional reliance on vomiting or laxatives), concerns about body image, depressive symptoms, stress, and university adjustment problems among students. Incidence of eating disorders in the early grades of university is increasing, and the period from age 17–19 years (peak of bulimia) which corresponds to the beginning of study at university is critical. Given the stressful environment that is the 1st academic year, it is useful to consider eating disorders risk factors.

Method

Our study is longitudinal. At the beginning, the participants consisted of 1110 freshmen. Data regarding adjustment to university, gender, body image, BMI, transactional variables (perceived stress and coping) and eating disorders (EAT-26) were collected. At T2 (end of academic year), 556 students were recruited to reassess their eating behaviours. The aim of the study was to test gender invariance of a theoretical eating disorders model including all these variables and eating disorders measured a year apart from a mixed population integrating the university for the first times. This model assumes that these variables exert direct effects on eating disorders as measured in time one who in turn will affect the stability of these troubles a year later. Although very little research include boys in the study of eating disorders, the results of our multi-group analysis support the idea of the existence of sex differences in eating disorder predictors: the only common predictor of eating disorders among girls and boys was the use emotion-focused coping. Among boys, the best predictors of eating disorders were problem-focused coping, and seeking social support. Among girls, our results revealed that body mass index, body image, and academic adjustment and stress were the predictors of eating disorders. Finally, we found a temporal stability of eating disorders. This study showed that personal and contextual aspects have a direct impact on students’ eating behaviour. However, among boys, neither body image nor perceived stress affect the eating behaviour but how they cope with stress. The gender gap in the explanation of eating disorders suggest to not exclude the male population in this type of study and to treat the data separately.     

Development and validation of a multidimensional smoking behaviour questionnaire

We administered a 42-item smoking behaviour questionnaire to 150 adult smokers (75 men and 75 women), 18 to 70 years old (M = 37.1 yr., SD = 12.2). A principal component analysis of their responses followed by varimax rotation yielded four factors accounting for about 52% of the total variance: dependence, social integration, regulation of negative affect, and hedonism. Some sociodemographic and dispositional characteristics of the smokers predict these four dimensions. The predictors of each smoking dimension are quite different for male and female smokers.     

Du modèle transactionnel à une approche dyadique en psychologie de la santé

In the context of chronic disease, models and studies in health psychology have first focused on the patients’ adjustment. Research conducted with the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984) and the Transactional Integrative and Multifactorial Model (Bruchon-Schweitzer, 2002) have shown that individuals’ social relations, and especially family support, are associated to patients’ outcomes. Recently, studies have taken more attention to the “significant others”, most often the partners. In fact, relatives are also affected indirectly by the disease and its changes on daily life. Moreover, they often play a crucial role by helping the patient to face the disease. These models are focused on the individual and are not relevant to study dyads. An evolution of these models can be proposed by integrating a systemic and dyadic approach. In fact, the way the patient and the relative face the disease, the quality of their relation but also the way they face the disease together, as a dyad, have to be considered. The first part of this article presents the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping and the Transactional Integrative and Multifactorial Model and their evolutions. The second part shows how it is possible to develop a dyadic approach based on these models. It presents the Family System-Illness Model (Rolland, 1987), the Developmental-Contextual Model of couples coping with chronic illness across the adult life span (Berg and Upchurch, 2007) and a Systemic and Transactional Model of Dyads, which help to take more completely into account the adjustment processes of patients and relatives to a chronic illness.     

The body-image questionnaire: an extension

The 19-item Body-Image Questionnaire, developed by our team and first published in this journal in 1987 by Bruchon-Schweitzer, was administered to 1,222 male and female French subjects. A principal component analysis of their responses yielded an axis we interpreted as a general Body Satisfaction dimension. The four-factor structure observed in 1987 was not replicated. Body Satisfaction was associated with sex, health, and with current and future emotional adjustment.     

Support for a Modified Tripartite Dual Pathway Model of Body Image Concerns and Risky Body Change Behaviors in French Young Men

The aim of the present study was to extend the extant literature by testing a modified Tripartite Dual Pathway Model of the development of male body image and eating concerns among French young men. A sample of 147 French male college students (M _age = 22.09 years-old, range = 18–30) completed a questionnaire assessing sociocultural influences, internalization of the lean/low body fat ideal and the muscular/athletic ideal, appearance comparison, body fat and muscularity dissatisfaction, muscularity enhancement behaviors, drive for thinness, and bulimic symptoms. The revised and final model was an adequate fit to the data, and included separate pathways for muscularity- and leanness-related concerns. This model shows that sociocultural pressures perceived from the media, family members, and peers were associated, through appearance comparison and internalization of the lean and muscular ideal, with body image concerns, disordered eating, and muscularity enhancement behaviors. Results reveal a strong and direct relationship between the internalization of the muscular/athletic ideal and muscularity enhancement behaviors. These findings contribute to the refinement of sociocultural models of the development of body image concerns and unhealthy body change behaviors including disordered eating among men, provide additional support for the usefulness of these models, and extend them to non-English speaking Western contexts.     

Evaluation of a psychosocial intervention on social support, perceived control, coping strategies, emotional distress, and quality of life of breast cancer patients

The purpose of this research was to demonstrate that a specific psychosocial intervention changes reactions to cancer and quality of life. This study was carried out on 66 patients with a first breast cancer. Patients were randomly divided into two groups: a specific intervention group (G1, 8 sessions) or a support group (G2, 8 sessions). A control group (G3) was composed of patients who refused to participate in psychological intervention. Social support, perceived control, repression of emotions, coping strategies, emotional distress, and quality of life were assessed one week before (T1) and at the end (T2) of the psychological intervention. Results showed that G1 did not have significantly modified quality of life or psychological scores. Patients of G2 had poorer emotional quality of life, use of internal causal attributions, and minimized their illness at T1 as compared to patients of G3. At Time 2 these differences were not observed.     

Short form of Sarason's Social Support Questionnaire: French adaptation and validation

The original short form of Sarason's Social Support Questionnaire measures two dimensions of social support, availability and satisfaction. The factorial structure of the social support was assessed in a French sample along with the association between the dimensions of social support and personality traits such as Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Depression. A 6-item French version was administered to 648 subjects: 348 university freshmen (228 females, 120 males) and 304 unemployed men. A principal component analysis followed by oblique rotations was undertaken on each sample. This yielded two factors, Availability and Satisfaction. These results sustained the stability of the factorial structure from one culture to another. Validity and reliability were satisfactory. Moreover, these two dimensions were correlated with two personality scales (high extraversion, low depression). Such results agree with previous results establishing relations between social support and salutogenic dimensions of personality.