Psychological Reports

A body of data on IQ collected over 50 years has revealed that average population IQ varies across time, race, and nationality. An explanation for these differences may be that intelligence test performance requires literacy skills not present in all people to the same extent. In eight analyses, population mean full scale IQ and literacy scores yielded correlations ranging from .79 to .99. In cohort studies, significantly larger improvements in IQ occurred in the lower half of the IQ distribution, affecting the distribution variance and skewness in the predicted manner. In addition, three Verbal subscales on the WAIS show the largest Flynn effect sizes and all four Verbal subscales are among those showing the highest racial IQ differences. This pattern of findings supports the hypothesis that both secular and racial differences in intelligence test scores have an environmental explanation: secular and racial differences in IQ are an artifact of variation in literacy skills. These findings suggest that racial IQ distributions will converge if opportunities are equalized for different population groups to achieve the same high level of literacy skills. Social justice requires more effective implementation of policies and programs designed to eliminate inequities in IQ and literacy.

This article discusses the use of Google Earth to visit significant geographical locations associated with events in the history of psychology. The process of opening files, viewing content, adding placemarks, and saving customized virtual tours on Google Earth are explained. Suggestions for incorporating Google Earth into a history of psychology course are also described.

This study examined the differences and similarities between domestic and international negotiations, using Kelley's Negotiation Game to measure the profit achieved. There were 58 participants in the international negotiation sample, 29 Turkish and 29 European students. There were 62 Turkish students in the domestic negotiations. All participants studied business or related topics at a university in Izmir. Student t tests indicated statistically significant differences in scores on misrepresentation of information, interpersonal attraction, peer evaluation of misrepresentation information, and satisfaction between domestic and international negotiations.

The relation between personality disorders and premature dropout (attending half of the sessions or fewer) from a psychological treatment for giving up smoking was examined in a sample of 202 smokers. Percent of premature dropout was significantly higher for smokers with personality disorder in general, specifically for smokers with dependent personality disorder and with Cluster C personality disorder, than in smokers without such psychopathology.

The study examined the differences in performance on the national Kiswahili achievement tests administered in 2005, 2006, and 2007 among three cohorts of primary school children from two different linguistic backgrounds in Kenya. The analysis showed the test favored children from Kiswahili-speaking communities; those whose mother tongue had no linguistic relation with Kiswahili scored lower. Results are discussed in terms of language effects on performance and cognition.

The Evaluation of Risks scale was recently developed as a self-report inventory for assessing risk-taking propensity, but further validation is necessary because most studies have predominantly included male subjects. Because males commonly exhibit greater risk-taking propensity than females, evidence of such a sex difference on the scale would further support its construct validity. 29 men and 25 women equated for age (range: 18 to 36 years) completed the scale. Internal consistency of the scale was generally modest, particularly among women. Men scored significantly higher than women on four of nine indices of risk-taking propensity, including Danger Seeking, Energy, Invincibility, and Total Risk-Propensity. Factors measuring thrill seeking and danger seeking correlated positively with a concurrent measure of sensation seeking. Although the higher scores exhibited by men are consistent with prior research on other measures of risk-taking, further research on this scale with samples including women is warranted.

In this study, the effects of ethanol on honey bee social communication and behavior within the hive were studied to further investigate the usefulness of honey bees as an ethanol-abuse model. Control (1.5 M sucrose) and experimental (1.5 M sucrose, 2.5% w/v ethanol) solutions were directly administered to individual forager bees via proboscis contact with glass capillary tubes. The duration, frequency, and proportion of time spent performing social and nonsocial behaviors were the dependent variables of interest. No differences in the relative frequency or proportion of time spent performing the target behaviors were observed. However, ethanol consumption significantly decreased bouts of walking, resting, and the duration of trophallactic (i.e., food-exchange) encounters. The results of this study suggest that a low dose of ethanol is sufficient to disrupt both social and nonsocial behaviors in honey bees. In view of these results, future behavioral-genetic investigations of honey bee social behavior are encouraged.

Voracek (2004, 2006a, 2006b, 2009) reported that cognitive ability predicts national suicide rates, even after plausible controls. Yet, national IQs were not a significant predictor of suicide rates when regressed with indices of national religiousness and perceptions of personal health.

Self-monitoring is the extent to which individuals regulate self-presentation for the sake of desired public appearances. Snyder developed a Self-Monitoring Scale to measure individual differences on this construct. Since the measure could be insensitive to situational influences, it is uncertain whether the short-term self-monitoring elicited by certain social interactions could be examined. The present study explored the factor structures of a state self-monitoring scale which was adapted from 10 items of the Self-Monitoring Scale. Participants took part in an individual interview with an unfamiliar authority, and then completed the State Self-Monitoring Scale. Two samples of adolescents (N = 98 and N = 95) were tested. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis using the two samples indicated that the 9-item State Self-Monitoring Scale had two stable factors. There was a statistically significant difference on State Self-monitoring between adolescents with high and low academic achievement, supporting the validity of the scale.

This article is a review of Voracek's report (2009) of aggregate intelligence and suicide rates in Italy's regions, contending some findings and proposing new evidence and suggestions for further research. Voracek did not use intelligence data, but educational attainment, which in Italy's regions is affected by sharp imbalances in the quality of public schools and may not reflect differences in intelligence. The statistical analyses were inadequate given the small number of cases; the resulting correlation could be meaningless or even misleading. The paper shows that when the analysis is extended to other variables (latitude) or historical periods (1911) the correlations reported by Voracek are not significant. This criticism is based on perspectives among different branches of psychology and cognitive sciences, economic and social history, and economic geography.

Marketing researchers employ the Five-Factor Model to describe branded products using attributes of human personality. “Marker attributes” used to elicit these brand personality attributes may be related to consumers' intention to purchase. Two connected studies, carried out on two samples of 91 and 557 participants, respectively, indicated that brand personality-marker attributes predict intention to purchase, but only to the extent that such attributes are “vivid” and, in particular, when they elicit emotional responses (i.e., when they are emotionally interesting). These findings have several implications for people involved in developing strategies for advertising.

Shi, Wang, and Chen's 2009 study validated the Personal Need for Structure Scale in Chinese. The two-factor structure can be further validated by examining the different functions of its components, i.e., “Desire for Structure” and “Response to Lack of Structure.” This validation will help researchers and practitioners explore the different attributes, functions, and foundations of the two factors, and also help cultivate the use of the scale in the most appropriate situations.

The objective of the present study was to examine the moderating role of interpersonal harmony in the relation of proactive personality with organizational citizenship behavior. 158 employees in Chinese state-owned companies completed the Proactive Personality Scale (Bateman & Crant, 1993), Harmony scale, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Questionnaire. Proactive personality had insignificant correlation with job dedication. The correlation between interpersonal facilitation and proactive personality was significant but quite low. Results of the hierarchical regression analyses indicated that when demographic variables were controlled, Harmony had significant moderating effects on the relations of proactive behavior and job dedication/interpersonal facilitation. In the high Harmony group, the correlation between proactive personality and organizational citizenship behavior was significant; whereas in the low Harmony group, this correlation was not significant.

In 2009, Merydith and Phelps reported convergent validity of scales in the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent (MMPI–A) and the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory (MACI) that assess depression with a sample of adolescent psychiatric inpatients. This comment addresses analysis of these data, cites selected research on sex and the two inventories, and restates the recommendation that researchers routinely examine such data separately by sex before proceeding with combined-sex analyses.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how education majors' images of teaching, teachers, and children change before and after student teaching, with special attention to the grade level (Grades 1–2, 3–4, 5–6) taught by the student teachers at primary school in Japan. A total of 126 student teachers from an education faculty (49 men, 77 women) participated in this study using metaphorquestionnaires before and after student teaching. For images of teaching, responses to the factors Dull Event and Live Event changed, suggesting that students started to develop more positive, active, and clear images of teaching. For images of teachers, responses on the factor Performer changed, suggesting that students started to develop more active images of teachers. For images of children, responses on the factors Critic and Pure-minded Person changed, suggesting that student teachers started to develop more realistic images of children. However, grade level taught had no significant effect.

To verify the hypothesis that suicide attempts are associated with lower serum cholesterol and triglyceride levels of patients with mood disorders, 26 patients with mood disorders (bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder) were admitted after a medically serious suicide attempt to the emergency department and then hospitalized in the psychiatric unit of the Sant'Andrea Hospital (Rome, Italy). Controls were 87 patients who had not made a recent suicide attempt. Attempters and nonattempters did not differ in the levels of serum cholesterol or triglycerides. Indeed, attempters had nonsignificantly higher serum levels of cholesterol and lower serum levels of triglycerides. The use of biologic indicators such as levels of serum cholesterol and triglycerides in the prediction of suicide risk in mood disorders was not fully supported from this small sample.

A journal, two suicide notes, and two tape recordings from a young man who took his own life were analyzed by applying a computer program to analyze texts. The analysis indicates a calming trend from the journal entries to the suicide notes to the tape recordings, with an additional increase in positive emotions expressed from the first recorded message to the second recording made just an hour or two before his death. The usefulness of this approach for understanding the psychodynamics of suicidal behavior is discussed.

English competency has become essential for obtaining a better job or succeeding in higher education in Taiwan. Thus, passing the General English Proficiency Test is important for college students in Taiwan. The current study applied Ajzen's theory of planned behavior and the notions of outcome expectancy and self-efficacy from Bandura's social cognitive theory to investigate college students' intentions to take the General English Proficiency Test. The formal sample consisted of 425 undergraduates (217 women, 208 men; M age = 19.5 yr., SD = 1.3). The theory of planned behavior showed greater predictive ability (R² = 33%) of intention than the social cognitive theory (R² = 7%) in regression analysis and made a unique contribution to prediction of actual test-taking behavior one year later in logistic regression. Within-model analyses indicated that subjective norm in theory of planned behavior and outcome expectancy in social cognitive theory are crucial factors in predicting intention. Implications for enhancing undergraduates' intentions to take the English proficiency test are discussed.

An analysis of trends over time in the poems of Sara Teasdale as the time of her suicide approached identified a decrease in positive emotions and fewer references to the self and to others. These trends are different from those previously identified from studies of letters and diaries written by suicides.

The theory of humors, which was the prevalent theory of affect in Shakespeare's day, was used to explain both states (moods, emotions) and traits (personalities). This article reports humoral scores appropriate to the major characters of Shakespeare's comedies. The Dictionary of Affect in Language was used to score all words (N = 180,243) spoken by 105 major characters in 13 comedies in terms of their emotional undertones. These were translated into humoral scores. Translation was possible because emotional undertones, humor, and personality (e.g., Eysenck's model) are defined by various axes in the same two-dimensional space. Humoral scores differed for different types of characters, e.g., Shakespeare's lovers used more Sanguine language and his clowns more Melancholy language than other characters. A study of Kate and Petruchio from The Taming of the Shrew demonstrated state-like changes in humor for characters as the play unfolded.

Trauma survivors with PTSD show social interaction and relationship impairments. It is hypothesized that traumatic experiences lead to known PTSD symptoms, empathic ability impairment, and difficulties in sharing affective, emotional, or cognitive states. A PTSD group (N = 16) and a nontraumatized Control group (N = 16) were compared on empathic abilities, namely the Empathic Resonance Test, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, and Faux Pas Test. The Interpersonal Reactivity Index as a self-report measure of empathy and measures of nonsocial cognitive functions, namely the Verbal Fluency Test, the Five-Point Test, and the Stroop Test, were also administered. The PTSD group showed lower empathic resonance. No clear indications of other impairments in social cognitive functions were found. The PTSD group had significantly higher personal distress. Empathic resonance impairments did not correlate with subjective severity of PTSD symptomatology. This article discusses whether impaired empathic resonance in PTSD trauma survivors is a consequence of trauma itself or a protective coping strategy.

128 undergraduates' perceptions of tattoos on a model described as a college instructor were assessed. They viewed one of four photographs of a tattooed or nontattooed female model. Students rated her on nine teaching-related characteristics. Analyses indicated that the presence of tattoos was associated with some positive changes in ratings: students' motivation, being imaginative about assignments, and how likely students were to recommend her as an instructor.

The goal of the present study was to identify factors which may affect the difference between the actual time participants expected to wait for downloading a web page and the perceived waiting time, i.e., the online waiting-time gap. The findings from an experiment in which the music tempo (fast vs slow) and waiting-duration information (presence vs absence) were manipulated showed that sex moderated the relation between the manipulated variables and waiting-time gap; emotional response was more important between the manipulated variables and waiting-time gap than was cognitive response. The type of emotional response with an effect on waiting-time gap varied by sex: pleasure for women and arousal for men. For women, pleasure was affected by their cognitive response, while cognitive response played no significant role for men. For both sexes, information on waiting duration increased the perceived waiting time. This study leads to reconsidering the role of emotional response and sex in evaluating waiting time.

This study examined the reliability of the Revised Competitiveness Index by investigating the test-retest reliability, interitem reliability, and factor structure of the measure based on a sample of 280 undergraduates (200 women, 80 men) ranging in age from 18 to 28 years (M = 20.1, SD = 2.1). The findings indicate that the Revised Competitiveness Index has high test-retest reliability, high interitem reliability, and a stable factor structure. The results support the assertion that the Revised Competitiveness Index assesses competitiveness as a stable trait rather than a dynamic state.

The present study used data from the General Social Survey, collected between 1972 and 2006 (N = 45,463) to analyze changes over time in three aspects of religion among American adults: religious affiliation, frequency of attending religious services, and strength of faith. The last two measures were analyzed only for survey participants who had a religious affiliation. Ordinary least-squares regression confirmed a significant decrease in religious affiliation over time, after controlling for socio-demographic variables that are known to be associated with religion. A significant decrease in attending religious services was found among those survey participants who were religiously affiliated. As expected, participants who were African American, female, older, and from the South were more religious according to all three measures. No effect of birth-cohort was found for any religious measure. The results are discussed in the context of Stark and Bainbridge's 1996 theory of religion.

The citation impact of a comprehensive sample of articles published in social and personality psychology journals in 1998 was evaluated. Potential predictors of the 10-yr. citation impact of 1,580 articles from 37 journals were investigated, including number of authors, number of references, journal impact factor, author nationality, and article length, using linear regression. The impact factor of the journal in which articles appeared was the primary predictor of the citations that they accrued, accounting for 30% of the total variance. Articles with greater length, more references, and more authors were cited relatively often, although the citation advantage of longer articles was not proportionate to their length. A citation advantage was also enjoyed by authors from the United States of America, Canada, and the United Kingdom. 37% of the variance in the total number of citations was accounted for by the study variables.

Data from 1,376 respondents on a 1994 scale to measure depressive and manic experiences devised by Thalbourne, Delin, and Basset (1994) were analyzed. Internal consistency reliability estimates for the Total scale (.66), the Depressive subscale (.63), and the Manic subscale (.45) were poor to marginal, and a confirmatory factor analysis did not support the two-subscale structure of the scale. These results, considered in conjunction with those of previous psychometric analyses of the Manic-Depressive Scale, cast doubt on its usefulness for research and clinical use.

Previous research showing everyday memory is impaired by heavy alcohol use may have underestimated the cognitive impairment of heavy users because drinkers consuming over the recommended limits for safe drinking have often been treated as a homogeneous group, often with a low threshold for inclusion. The current study investigated whether the reported linear relationship applies to participants consuming alcohol significantly above recommended limits. The everyday memory of 80 participants (43 men; modal age, 31–35 years) was investigated using the Prospective Memory Questionnaire. Participants also detailed their average weekly intake of alcohol and other substances. Current heavy users of alcohol (who consumed on average over 25 units per week) reported more memory problems than low (1–9 units per week) or medium users (10–25 units per week). Participants undergoing counselling for alcohol use reported more deficits than low or medium drinkers, but fewer than current heavy drinkers. Possible reasons for this were discussed. Strengths and limitations of subjective approaches to memory assessment were discussed as well as suggestions for future research.

This report concerns the case of a female client with a probable borderline personality disorder who requested psychological treatment for the cessation of smoking. After six sessions, this client gave up smoking and remained abstinent at follow-up after 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. The presence of a probable borderline personality disorder did not interfere in the cessation of tobacco use or in the maintenance of abstinence.

This exploratory study examined the relationship between problem-solving styles and multicultural personality dispositions among 91 graduate students enrolled in an urban university located in the northeast United States. Problem-solving style was assessed with the three dimensions of the VIEW: an Assessment of Problem Solving Style. Multicultural personality was assessed with the five-factor Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ); its factors of Cultural Empathy, Open-mindedness, Social Initiative, and Flexibility correlated significantly with Explorer and External problem-solving styles, as predicted. The Emotional Stability subscale also correlated significantly with scores on Explorer style, suggesting that individuals who prefer “thinking in new directions” in problem solving are more likely to report remaining calm under stressful situations. Collectively, study results provided additional evidence of construct validity for the VIEW.

In an ongoing discussion regarding use of the concept of Internet addiction, it does not seem reasonable to use the concept in studies which are conducted in nonclinical settings and describe negative situations experienced by the general population during Internet use. It may be more appropriate to discuss problematic Internet use. Dimensional rather than categorical measures would be more appropriate than Young's diagnostic criteria alone to specify whether Internet use is within a healthy range.

The purpose of this study was to explore the sensitivity and specificity of the Clock Drawing Test by using a widely employed four-point scoring system to discriminate between patients with Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia. Receiver operating characteristic analysis indicated that the Clock Drawing Test was able to distinguish between normal elders and those with a dementia diagnosis. The cutoff score for differentiating patients with Alzheimer's disease from normal participants was = 3. The cutoff score for differentiating those with vascular disease from normal participants was = 3. Overall, the four-point scoring system demonstrated good sensitivity and specificity for identifying cognitive dysfunction associated with dementia; however, the current findings do not support the utility of the four-point scoring system in discriminating Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.

The correlations among indicators of objective well-being, cultural dimensions, and subjective well-being were investigated using Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data from 35 countries. The subjective well-being measures included life satisfaction as well as six positive and six negative indexes of experience. Positive and negative experience scores were subjected to principal component analysis, and two positive experience components (labeled as “positive experiences” and “time management”) and two negative experience components (labeled as “pain, worry, and sadness” and “anger and boredom”) were extracted. Objective well-being included economic indicators, education, and health. The cultural variables included Hofstede's and Schwartz's cultural dimensions, national Big Five personality scores, and national IQs. High life satisfaction was positively related to Gross Domestic Product, life expectancy, education, individualism, affective and intellectual autonomy, egalitarianism, and conscientiousness, whereas low life satisfaction was related to unemployment, unequal income distribution, power distance, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, embeddedness, hierarchy, and neuroticism.