Psychological Reports

Earlier studies have shown that close relatives are heavily burdened when a family member has schizophrenia. The current purpose was twofold: (1) to examine the psychometric properties for a test of the burden of family members, one used in Swedish clinical practice (the Care Burden Scale for Relatives), and (2) develop a shortened version with the same or better psychometric properties. 99 close relatives, 34 men and 65 women of the same number of patients who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or delusional disorder, completed the Care Burden Scale for Relatives and a visual analog scale measuring perceived global burden on which the total burden was assessed. Patients of the close relatives were assessed on clinical tests often used in psychiatric care to validate the external criteria, such as severity of symptoms and level of functioning. The resulting version, the Burden Inventory for Relatives of persons with psychotic disturbances, showed good psychometric properties which simplifies data collection from relatives of patients with psychotic disturbances. In this study, relatives of those patients not in remission evinced a significantly greater family burden.

Given difficulty in having children assess their own behaviour, there are few self reports on child impulsivity. With the exception of Eysenck's 16 questionnaire, there are no self-report measures of impulsivity in children with good psychometric properties. The present study tested the possibility of using the adolescent version of the Barrati Impulsiveness Scale-11 with children. For this purpose the questionnaire was translated and backtranslated and administered to school children (182 boys and 195 girls) ages 8 to 12 years (M = 10.4, SD = 0.9). The data were analysed by exploratory factor analysis, to evaluate the factorial structure of the questionnaire, the fit of the proposed solution, and internal consistency reliabilities. Results seem to indicate that this questionnaire may be useful in assessing impulsivity in children. The three-factor structure showed slight differences with the initial questionnaire proposed by Barratt and had good or sufficient internal consistency (depending upon the scale) across the 8- to 12-yr.-old age range.

The Peaceful Alternatives to Tough Situations (PATTS) was evaluated for reduction of childhood aggression. A quasi-experimental pre- and posttest comparison group design was used to evaluate 71 PATTS participants who were selected by school personnel or juvenile caseworkers due to prior aggression. The participants responded to the Conflict Tactics Scale–Revised and a modified version of the Mauger Forgiveness Scale on the first and last group meetings. Analyses (n = 71 PATTS: n = 35 comparison group) indicated significant positive decreases in physical assault, psychological aggression, and vengefulness, and increased forgiveness of others in the PATTS group participants. There was also a reduction of school suspensions, principal referrals, or new criminal offenses for PATTS group participants.

The coverage of religion and mythology in undergraduate courses in the Psychology of Women was explored by (a) surveying a sample of undergraduate instructors (N = 72); and (b) examining coverage in textbooks on the Psychology of Women (N = 95). 48.6% of teachers said they include some coverage, while 43.1% said they never do. The total percentage of coverage in textbooks is small, ranging from a mean of 2.0% in the 1970s to 1.1% in the current decade.

Humor research has focused on relationships between humor and various personality traits. As personality and morningness–eveningness, as well as personality and humor, are related based on genetics and neurobehavioral function, one might also expect a relationship between humor and chronotype. 197 students responded to the Composite Scale of Morningness as a measure of chronotype, the Sense of Humor Questionnaire and a 10-item version of the Big Five Inventory. Individuals scoring as evening types reported a greater sense of humor than morning individuals, with higher morningness scores. In a stepwise linear regression. Extraversión, Agreeableness, Openness, and Chronotype each accounted for a significant amount of variance in sense of Humor scores. That is, the relationship between scores on Sense of Humor and evening orientation was significant after controlling for personality dimensions. Eveningness was related to sense of Humor scores in women but not in men. Social but not cognitive humor was predicted by eveningness.

This study compared the scripts of love among 60 prison inmates diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder and those of 40 inmates without an Antisocial Personality Disorder diagnosis but low antisocial tendencies, and a control group of 100 adult students in extramural or evening secondary schools without Antisocial Personality Disorder traits. The study focused on emotional knowledge about love of the group with Antisocial Personality Disorder, as they present lack of capacity for love. The study was done to examine how they perceive love and how much knowledge they have about love. All described their reactions to a photograph of a couple hugging each other. The content of these scripts, analyzed in terms of description of actors, their actions and emotions, and length of description, was compared among the groups. The scripts of love by antisocial inmates contained more actors' feelings and strong emotions, as well as more descriptions of actors' traits, their actions, and presumptions. The inmates with Antisocial Personality Disorder showed more focus on themselves when they described love than the other inmates and the controls.

This work evaluated the structure of dreams in depressed patients. The verbal reports of dreams of 100 depressed patients were compared with 251 dreams of a control group. In accordance with the Jungian thought, which view's dreams as texts, dream reports were assessed using textual analysis processing techniques. Significant differences were found in parameter values, as well as in the role of the dreamer as an external observer. Considering the length of the dreams' texts, depressed patients used fewer words than the control group. With regard to sensory field, there were fewer lemmas referring to sight for depressed patients than for healthy participants. This work seems to confirm the value of textual analysis in the study of oneiric material

To investigate the internal consistency reliability and three types of validity of the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE), a survey was conducted among 209 English schoolteachers in Japan. The Japanese version of the COPE Inventory was developed through a back-translation process. Cronbach coefficients alpha for the Japanese version were above .70 for all subscalcs except five, including Acceptance and Restraint, so internal consistencies for these five were insufficient. Goodness of fit indexes for a confirmatory factor analysis were acceptable except for the Comparative Fit Index. Scores on COPE subscales were significantly correlated with scores on other tests (29 of 75 correlations were in the expected directions). Further exploration is required for several subscales and for generalization to Japanese-speaking populations in careers other than teaching to ensure the Japanese version of the COPE will be useful in assessing coping strategics. Given the limitations, present data for Japanese teachers are encouraging.

The knowledge-and-appraisal personality architecture has potential as a theoretical framework for understanding the formation of self-efficacy in individuals. Two patterns were observed within 14 of 17 individual persons: a pattern of strong self-efficacy was displayed across outdoor recreation activities for which a self-descriptive attribute was viewed as an asset to successful performances, and a pattern of relatively weak self-efficacy was observed across outdoor recreation activities for which the same attribute was considered a hindrance to performances. Although the theory predicts self-efficacy within individuals, more research is needed to assess why the theory is not accurate in all cases.

This study was designed to assess whether the two subscales of the Hope Scale significantly predict semester grade point average (GPA), over and above American College Test (ACT) scores and Trait Anxiety (Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.) The Hope Scale includes two subscales, goal-directed determinism (Agency) and the ability to plan ways to attain goals (Pathway). As predicated, scores on the Hope Scale correlated significantly with semester GPA. Scores on the Agency subscale correlated positively with semester GPA in this college sample, but not those on the Pathways subscale. Partial correlations retained the association of scores on the Agency subscale and GPA, even when intelligence (ACT scores) and anxiety (Trait Anxiety scores) were controlled. Implications are discussed.

The present study tested a scale which measures core self-evaluation and was applied to two samples of Korean military members (Sample 1 N= 181; Sample 2 N = 280). Analysis indicated that seven items of the original 12-item scale developed by Judge, Erez, Bono, and Thoresen loaded on one factor and were internally consistent. Moreover, scores were correlated, as expected, with the four core traits which have been used as indirect measures of core self-evaluations (viz., self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, neuroticism, and locus of control), as well as affect and job satisfaction. In sum, results suggest that core self-evaluation can be measured validly in an Eastern culture, and the results should serve as a basis for extending this research in an international setting.

Faculty responded to a survey regarding submission guidelines and decision making processes to regional psychology conferences for undergraduate students. Respondents' mean age was 52.2 yr. (SD= 10.8), mean years of teaching experience was 22.5 (SD= 10.7), and 49.7% were women. Analyses indicated that students should know submission guidelines and evaluative criteria prior to submission, but may not. Results are presented to provide feedback for faculty about the conference submission process.

Logistic regression has increasingly become the tool of choice when analyzing data with a binary dependent variable. While resources relating to the technique are widely available, clear discussions of why logistic regression should be used in place of ordinary least squares regression are difficult to find. The current paper compares and contrasts the assumptions of ordinary least squares with those of logistic regression and explains why logistic regression's looser assumptions make it adept at handling violations of the more important assumptions in ordinary least squares.

The extent to which personality traits as defined by the Big Five model account for the unique variance in job satisfaction and organizational commitment was studied. Analyses of data obtained from 96 employees of two public institutions showed that 58 and 44% of the explained variance in job satisfaction and organizational commitment, respectively, were accounted for by factors in this personological framework.

Relations were examined among therapist stress, coping styles, career sustaining behaviors and therapist working alliance. 160 therapists completed a demographic questionnaire, a rating of stress experienced in work as a psychotherapist, a rating of stress experienced in work with an individual client, the Perceived Stress Scale, the Career Sustaining Behavior Questionnaire, the COPE, and the Working Alliance Inventory. After controlling for demographic and therapists' stress variables, and alternating entry of Career Sustaining Behavior and COPE scores in the regression model. Career Sustaining Behavior contributed significant variance to predicting working alliance, and COPE scores accounted for significant variance in working alliance with active coping a significant predictor. Career Sustaining Behavior and COPE scores entered together accounted for significant unique variance in Working Alliance with career sustaining behavior and avoidant coping identified as significant predictors.

11 healthy adult graduate students were studied on two separate occasions 2 wk. apart at the same time of day. Self-rating of perceived stress and serial measurements of salivary alpha-amylase levels were performed at T₁ = 15 min. before, T₂ = 1 min. before, T₃= 1 min. after, and T₄= 15 min. after an event. The events were a highly stressful master's degree oral examination on the first occasion and 15 min. of typing on a computer on the second occasion as a control activity. A kinetic assay was used to estimate salivary alpha-amylase activity. Students rated higher stress on the oral examination day, and their salivary alpha-amylase activity was higher during the oral examination period than on the second less stressful control day.

A sample of 811 women ages 18 to 59 (M = 26.0, SD=6.5) responded to an advertisement by telephone. Inquiries were made about childhood abuse status and adult use of alcohol, nicotine, and prescription and illicit drugs. Significant associations were noted for reported sexual, physical, and emotional childhood abuse with use of nicotine, marijuana, and antidepressants in adulthood. Reported childhood physical and emotional abuses were also significantly associated with use of cocaine and anxiolytics, and sexual abuse with antipsychotic use in adulthood. Only childhood emotional abuse was associated with the use of sleeping pills. Number of types of abuse was significantly related with use of nicotine, marijuana, cocaine, antidepressants, antipsychotics, and anxiolytics. Alcohol use was not related to any type of abuse. The long-term effects of childhood emotional abuse may be just as severe as physical or sexual abuse.

A permutation algorithm and associated FORTRAN program are provided for resampling weighted kappa. Program RWK provides the weighted kappa test statistic and the resampling one-sided upper-tail probability value.

Self-handicapping is a maladaptive behavior which undermines students' achievements, but the antecedents of self-handicapping are not well studied in physical education. The aim was to examine the relations of implicit theory of abilities and self-handicapping in physical education. 264 college students, whose mean age was 20.3 yr. (SD= 1.7), completed the Conceptions of the Nature of Athletic Ability Questionnaire-2 and Self-handicapping Scale for Sport. Analysis indicated entity beliefs positively predicted reduced effort and making excuses. Also, incremental beliefs negatively predicted reduced effort. Results are discussed in terms of implicit theory of ability and self-handicapping. Directions for research and implications are stated.

Pathological gambling has been proposed to belong to the obsessive-compulsive spectrum of disorders. Disorders on this spectrum are thought to share similar clinical features, neurobiology, and responses to treatment as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. A total of 18 studies were included in a meta-analysis to assess the strength of the association between these disorders. A strong relationship (effect size = 1. 01) was found between pathological gambling and obsessive-compulsive traits. A weak relationship was found between pathological gambling and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (.07) and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (effect size = .23). These results suggest pathological gambling and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder are distinct disorders. However, pathological gamblers do appear to show high rates of obsessive-compulsive traits relative to controls. These findings are only moderately supportive of the inclusion of pathological gambling within the obsessive-compulsive spectrum of conditions.

The present study explored the statistical properties of a randomization test based on the random assignment of the intervention point in a two-phase (AB) single-case design. The focus is on randomization distributions constructed with the values of the test statistic for all possible random assignments and used to obtain p values. The shape of those distributions is investigated for each specific data division defined by the moment in which the intervention is introduced. Another aim of the study consisted in testing the detection of inexistent effects (i.e., production of false alarms) in autocorrelated data series, in which the assumption of exchangeability between observations may be untenable. In this way, it was possible to compare nominal and empirical Type I error rates to obtain evidence on the statistical validity of the randomization test for each individual data division. The results suggest that, when either of the two phases has considerably fewer measurement times, Type I errors may be too probable and, hence, the decision-making process to be carried out by applied researchers may be jeopardized.

The hypothesis that organizational justice is linked to leader–member exchange, which in turn affects job performance, was examined. It was predicted that two dimensions of organizational culture, employee supportiveness and attention to detail, would affect both leader–member exchange and organizational justice. Results from a sample of 75 employees of a public service organization found solid support for the predicted model. Contrary to expectations, however, the two aspects of organizational culture were found to play a mediating role: they were affected by organizational justice and in turn affected leader–member exchange. The theoretical implications of the results are discussed.

A text analysis of 33 pairs of genuine and simulated suicides indicated that simulated notes are less concerned with others, focus more on the reasons for their suicide, and use more negations (such as no and not).

“Foot-in-the-door” is a well-known compliance technique which increases compliance to a request. Many investigations with this paradigm have generally used prosocial requests to test its effect. Evaluation of the effect of foot-in-the-door was carried out with a courtship request. 560 young women were solicited in the street to accept having a drink with a young male confederate. In the foot-in-the-door condition, before being solicited to have a drink, the young woman was asked to give directions to the confederate or to give him a light for his cigarette. Analysis showed foot-in-the-door was associated with greater compliance to the second request. The theoretical implication of such results with this nonprosocial request are discussed.

Importance of different criteria and age preference in spouse selection for single and married young Iranian adults was examined. The sample included 104 married (49 male. 55 female) and 112 single (51 male. 61 female) students. A 26- item scale developed for this study included 4 items related to demographic factors. 3 items on preferences for the ideal age of marriage, and 19 Likert-type items asking about criteria important for spouse selection. Analysis indicated that, in Iran, commitment, chastity, refinement, and health are four important criteria for spouse selection among male and female and single and married persons. Also, experience of marriage for married males may increase maturity, social prestige, family background, having a job, and age as criteria for choosing a spouse. On the other hand, marriage experience for females may decrease the importance of social skills, housekeeping, and autonomy for selecting a spouse.

This article addresses deficiencies in the most widely used estimators of reliability and draws attention to the reason that this issue is important. Accurate calibration of relationships between constructs is critical to theory development. Unless workers have accurate estimates of scale reliability, accurate estimates of those relationships will not be forthcoming because the classical disattenuation formula requires them. This article shows that classical test theory can easily accommodate the delineation of its error component E in test scores into two sources, inconsistency across content (E₁) and inconsistency across time (E₂). Viewed from this extended model, the alternate forms approach to reliability estimation is complete in that it gauges simultaneously both sources of error. Because that approach is rarely used today for that purpose, the integrity of estimation has been lost. In its place arose estimators of partial reliability—those for estimating generalizability over one medium or the other, but not both, thereby precluding the additivity of error components. Recent developments promise to restore the integrity of the alternate forms approach without the need for alternate forms and suggest an additive alternative to the current nonadditive coefficient of stability.

The mental health of individuals of Mexican origin may vary as a function of native status (i.e., Mexican born or USA born). Some have reported that Mexican Americans tend to display more depressive symptoms than Mexican immigrants. The present goal was to estimate the associations among acculturation and native status, and explore relative deprivation in the prevalence of depression. Participants included 153 individuals of Mexican origin who completed the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans, the Beck Depression Inventory–II, the Revised Generalized Expectancy for Success Scale, and relative deprivation questions. Analyses indicated women and those scoring low on acculturation were significantly more likely to report depressive symptoms. Participants who felt they had relatively better family happiness than Euro-Americans reported lower depressive symptoms. So participants' sex, acculturation, and relative lack of depressive symptoms allow better understanding of depressive symptoms among these Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants.

The aim of this study was to assess whether the desire to escape the psychological condition created by infertility (to have a baby) affected risk-taking behavior, with the possible relationship between ovarian cancer and infertility as the “accepted risk” to overcome infertility. 229 infertile and 204 fertile women who were patients at the Gulhane Military Medical Academy were administered a semistructured questionnaire. Increased ovarian cancer risk was accepted by 67.2% of the infertile women in order to have baby. There was no significant relation between the woman's age, duration of infertility, knowledge of the preventability and curability of ovarian cancer, or acceptable risk. These results indicate the importance to Turkish women of overcoming infertility.

English-language versions of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Form G) measure of psychological type and the NEO-FFI measure of the Big Five personality factors were completed by 57 Polish university students fluent in the English language. The pattern of correlations between MBTI and NEO-FFI scales for the Polish sample was compared to the pattern of correlations for measures of these same constructs reported for Americans. Four of the five significant relationships between MBTI and NEO-FFI scales reported in the American sample were also recorded in the Polish sample: MBTI Extraversion-Introversion with NEO Extraversion, MBTI Sensing-Intuition and MBTI Judging-Perceiving with NEO-Openness, and MBTI Judging-Perceiving with NEO Conscientiousness. Pending replication with a larger, more representative sample, this preliminary study supports the validity of psychological type in Polish society.

Unrealistic optimism is often assessed using a single question asking people to estimate their own risk compared to that of the average person like them. However, it has been proposed that such estimates of comparative risk are based mainly just on estimates of own risk. In two studies (n = 80 and n = 65). students gave estimates of comparative, own, and average person's risk and rated their confidence in these estimates. Confidence was lower for estimates of average person's risk than for estimates of own and comparative risk, which were given with equal confidence. Results were in accord with the proposal that judgments of comparative risk derive principally from judgments of own risk.

A mixed foot-in-the-door procedure was set up to lead offenders participating in French driver-rehabilitation training courses to commit to complying with speed limits. To improve this procedure, the reasons that led participants in such courses to commit or not were investigated in this preliminary study of the road safety research programs. The study participants were 89 men (M= 34 yr., range = 18–64 yr., SD= 13) attending driver-rehabilitation courses. Among them. 55% committed. The commitment was mainly explained by the drivers' will to change their speeding behaviour and their refusal by the perceived positive consequences of speeding. Moreover, some participants stated that they would be unable to follow through with the commitment to comply strictly with speed limits. After talking to the participants, it became clear that complying with speed limits was understood in a more or less strict way. In subsequent studies, some of the reasons given were used to prompt group discussion before asking participants to commit, and the meaning of “compliance with speed limits” was better defined.

Jones-Wiley, Restori, Lee, and Ho (2007) updated and re-estimated the reliability and construct validity of the 1944 Levinson and Sanford Anti-Semitism Scale. Criterion validity was not adequately supported, given the small number of Jewish and Muslim participants. Two separate studies were conducted, (1)a comparison of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian religious groups on the Anti-Semitism score and (2) the correlation of political preference with the Anti-Semitism scores of college students and local community members. These two studies provide evidence supportive of the criterion validity of the revised scale.

The aim of this research was to compare the features of social problem-solving scripts across groups of students with different social problem-solving abilities, based on dynamic memory theory 54 (32 girls/22 boys) educable intellectually disabled students. 58 (32 girls/26 boys) socially poorly adapted students, and 50 (28 girls/22 boys) socially well-adapted students participated. The average ages for educable intellectually disabled, poorly adapted, and well-adapted students were 13.9 yr. (SD = 1.7), 11.1 yr. (SD= .6), and 11 yr. (SD = .4), respectively. A semi-structured interview was designed. 14 social problems were proposed to each student. Results showed that the general features of the intermediate level of knowledge structure based on a hierarchical model of script theory are helpful in describing the differences among the groups regarding their “social problem-solving script.” In general, findings indicated that educable intellectually disabled students (segregated from the mainstream in Iran), compared to the other two groups of students, are less mature in their emotions, use ineffective self-regulation strategies, and have goals that are not constructive. Some educational recommendations are offered.

In a pilot study, 177 female students completed a diary-keeping survey and measures of well-being. Diary keepers reported lower well-being than non-diary keepers.

Undergraduates (N=115) completed the Propensity for Angry Driving Scale, Driving Anger Scale, and measures of trait aggression and self-control. Aggression and self-control correlated significantly with scores on the two scales, and Aggression subscale scores explained significant unique variance in both, but the predicated interaction of aggression and self-control was not significant. The Propensity for Angry Driving Scale is recommended to measure self-reported aggressive driving, and the Driving Anger Scale for assessment of driving-related anger.

Hypocrisy can be considered as a dissonance state expressed as a combination of two factors: commitment (advocating a pronormative position) and mindfulness (being aware of past transgressions). Such inconsistency between what people advocate and their past behaviors is usually reduced by modifying behaviors or behavioral intentions in line with normative advocacy. The aim of this study is to examine the conditions under which this set of behaviors (apparent hypocrisy) can occur. Specifically, the salience of the transgressions was manipulated: participants were led to recall 1 or 4 transgressions varying in severity (serious vs harmless). As expected, recalling 4 transgressions led to greater behavioral change than recalling only 1 transgression. Surprisingly, recalling 4 harmless transgressions induced greater behavioral change than recalling 4 serious transgressions.

230 adults estimated the ages at which children and adolescents ages 1 to 16 years could perform certain tasks like, “Say the months of the year backwards” and “Ride a bicycle.” Nearly two-thirds of the participants consistently underestimated the age at which young people could perform. A total “correct” score, computed for each participant, formed a normal distribution. This score was used as a criterion measure for a series of multiple regressions. The strongest predictor was the extent to which people had regular contact with children, indicating the role of experience.

Crime may be associated with a less structured society, less social integration, and feelings of less security and greater distress among citizens, which characteristics may lead to mental illness and subsequent suicide. Therefore, a cross-national analysis examining the association of general population suicide rates with percent of males and females in the population victimised by different categories of crime was undertaken using cross-national data from the World Health Organization and United Nations for 42 countries. Spearman correlations were generally weak and not statistically significant. Those values were at variance with the study's hypothesis and may be explained by several factors, including methodological issues. Individual-level case-control or cohort studies of suicides and attempted suicides in the general population may permit exploration of the relation of general population suicides with experience and percent by nations of being victimised by crime.