‘Personality in Its Natural Habitat’ Revisited: A Pooled,Multi-sample Examination of the Relationships Between the Big Five Personality Traits and Daily Behaviour and Language Use

Past research using the Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR), an observational ambulatory assessment method for the real-world measurement of daily behaviour, has identified several behavioural manifestations of the Big Five domains in a small college sample (N = 96). With the use of a larger and more diverse sample of pooled data from N = 462 participants from a total of four community samples who wore the EAR from 2 to 6 days, the primary purpose of the present study was to obtain more precise and generalizable effect estimates of the Big Five–behaviour relationships and to re-examine the degree to which these relationships are gender specific. In an extension of the original article, the secondary purpose of the present study was to examine if the Big Five–behaviour relationships differed across two facets of each Big Five domain. Overall, while several of the behavioural manifestations of the Big Five were generally consistent with the trait definitions (replicating some findings from the original article), we found little evidence of gender differences (not replicating a basic finding from the original article). Unique to the present study, the Big Five–behaviour relationships were not always comparable across the two facets of each Big Five domain. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Diffusion-tensor imaging of cognitive performance

MR methods have for some years been used to assess cognitive performance. Recently, studies have shown that diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI), which provides noninvasive maps of microscopic structural information of oriented tissue in vivo, is finding utility in studies of cognition in the normal and abnormal aging population. These studies suggest that water proton nonrandom, anisotropic diffusion measured by DTI is highly sensitive to otherwise subtle disease processes not easily seen with conventional MRI tissue contrast mechanisms and raises new issues of the role of MR in assessing cognitive potential.     

Forms of logic in faith development theory

A fundamental characteristic of structural-developmental psychology is that development is governed by a logico-mathematical, hence scientific, principle of equilibrium. In this article I examine James Fowler's proposal for a metaphorical interpretation of logic in his theory of faith development. I intend to argue that a metaphorical understanding of logic radically shifts the theory of faith development away from Piagetian structuralism and towards dialectical psychology. A metaphorical reading of stages and their transformation raises serious questions about the attempt to define faith in terms of stages of individual psychological development. A secondary proposal to be considered is the relevance of metaphorical theology to faith development theory.An earlier version of this paper was read at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Religious Research Association in Salt Lake City, Utah, October 29, 1989. I am indebted to Professor Brown from the University of New South Wales, Australia for his helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.     

Hypnotic Psychotherapy With Sex Offenders

The authors review the literature on the prevalence of sex offenders; multiple treatment modalities; and implications of the use of hypnotic psychotherapy, coupled with cognitive behavioral treatment programs, for treating sex offenders.     

Excel: An intensive and structured program of advising and academic support to assist minority freshmen to succeed at a large state university

It is a consistent observation that minority students graduate at much lower rates than majority students at our large state colleges and universities. The Excel program was designed to assist ethnic minority students adjust to the demands of university life and succeed both academically and personally. The program has three major components: a two semester two credit core seminar, weekly instructional support groups, and peer led tutorial/discussion groups. The results of the first two years of the program were evaluated in a number of studies comparing the performance of the Excel students to other minority and majority freshmen at the university. In all comparisons the Excel students were found to have performed significantly better than other minority groups and equal to or better than majority students. The results are discussed in terms of the variables that appear to affect minority student success at large universities.     

Universal Popular Responses to Inkblots in Five Cultures: Denmark,Germany, Hong Kong,Mexico and United States

Klopfer and Kelly in 1942 predicted that “a sufficient number of frequency counts” would indicate universality of response to certain inkblots by groups, e.g. cultural. Group administration and the development of a computer based scoring program has enabled the authors to examine adequate frequencies across five cultures (Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Mexico, United States) and validate the prediction. Using Holtzman's criterion for Popular, universality was found in 23 inkblots and near-universality in 10 additional. The core concept person accounted for the populars in 15 instances; other concepts were animal, fowl, face or mask, person-riding-animal, landscape, butterfly or moth, seahorse, fish, and rain or storm. Across all five cultures there was much more commonality than differences in perception of inkblots.     

ABA and Diverse Cultural and Linguistic Environments: A Welsh Perspective

Gwynedd Local Education Authority (LEA) in North West Wales, UK, is funding a small-scale autism-specific specialist education service using ABA methodology. The program is available through the medium of Welsh, English or bilingually, depending on the individual needs of the child (Jones and Hoerger in Eur J Behav Anal 10:249–253, 2009). Delivering an ABA curriculum within a Welsh context raises issues regarding how ABA interventions work in a non-Anglo-American cultural and linguistic context. We describe one part of the program, as well as the mechanics of translation and interpretation: How ABA fits conceptually in a different language, how Skinner’s original ideas about developing a scientific terminology to describe behavior can be applied to a different cultural and linguistic tradition, and cultural variation in reinforcement practices.