Europe’s Journal of Psychology (PsychOpen)
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A Call for More Research on the Relationship Between Intelligence and Job Performance: Non-Task Performance, Non-Euro-American Contexts, and the Science-Practice Gap
No full textNo abstract available
Rasch Measurement in Language Research: Creating the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Inventory
No full textThe purpose of this study was to construct a new scale for measuring foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA). It begun with the creation of an extended item pool generated by qualitative methods. Subsequent Rasch and semantic analyses led to the final 18-item Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Inventory (FLCAI). In comparison with the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the FLCAI demonstrated more convincing evidence of unidimensionality and the optimal 5-point Likert scale functioned better. The FLCAI, while 55% the length of the FLCAS, thus more practical for classroom practitioners to administer and analyse, maintains its psychometric properties and covers a wider range on the construct continuum thus improving the degree of validity of the instrument. Finally, test anxiety was shown to be a component of FLCA
Physical Aggression and Facial Expression Identification
No full textSocial information processing theories suggest that aggressive individuals may exhibit hostile perceptual biases when interpreting other’s behaviour. This hypothesis was tested in the present study which investigated the effects of physical aggression on facial expression identification in a sample of healthy participants. Participants were asked to judge the expressions of faces presented to them and to complete a self-report measure of aggression. Relative to low physically aggressive participants, high physically aggressive participants were more likely to mistake non-angry facial expressions as being angry facial expressions (misattribution errors), supporting the idea of a hostile predisposition. These differences were not explained by gender, or response times. There were no differences in identifying angry expressions in general between aggression groups (misperceived errors). These findings add support to the idea that aggressive individuals exhibit hostile perceptual biases when interpreting facial expressions
Exploring the Relationship Between Honesty-Humility, the Big Five, and Liberal Values in Swedish Students
No full textPrevious research on the Five-Factor model (Big Five) reports a relationship between personality traits and liberal values, and the trait Agreeableness has demonstrated the strongest relationship. The HEXACO model offers a complement to the Five-factor model with an additional sixth trait of Honesty-Humility. Previous research on the Honesty-Humility trait has reported mixed results with liberal values, and this study set out to resolve this. The work presented here explored the relationship between the Honesty-Humility trait on facet-level (Sincerity, Fairness, Greed-avoidance and Modesty) and liberal values (equality for women, minorities, and socio-economical groups). Data from Swedish students (N = 202), known for their individualistic and liberal mindset, were sampled. There was an overall positive correlation between Honesty-Humility and the strength of liberal values (r = .36), and Honesty-Humility predicted liberal values beyond Agreeableness. We discuss these results in terms of the significance of traits and values in a culture that promotes both individualism and equality
Dyadic Empathy, Dyadic Coping, and Relationship Satisfaction: A Dyadic Model
No full textThe purpose of the present study was to investigate a theoretical model specifying the direct and indirect associations between dyadic empathy, dyadic coping, and relationship satisfaction in a sample of 187 heterosexual couples. Dyadic and structural aspects of mediation were tested using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model. Results revealed that greater levels of an individual’s own propensity for dyadic empathy (i.e., one’s ability to experience empathic concern and perspective-taking) significantly predicted greater levels of an individual’s own dyadic coping strategies among both male and female participants. Moreover, increased levels of an individual’s own dyadic coping strategies significantly predicted a similar greater degree of an individual’s own relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, results also provide support for the possible mediating role that an individual’s own dyadic coping strategies may hold in explaining the links between an individual’s own empathic concern and an individual’s own relationship satisfaction among male participants. With regard to the dyadic components of the study’s model, findings indicated that perspective-taking among males significantly improve their female partners’ propensity to employ positive dyadic coping strategies. Moreover, empathic concern among female participants was found to improve their male partners’ dyadic coping strategies. Findings suggest the potential utility of examining dyadic coping as a means to expand clinical and empirical insights regarding the links between dyadic empathy and relationship satisfaction
“I Like My Body; Therefore, I Like Myself”: How Body Image Influences Self-Esteem—A Cross-Sectional Study on Italian Adolescents
No full textPuberty is a very important process for adolescents. Physiological changes and body modifications lead to great vulnerability. This vulnerability is connected to the adolescent’s perceptions of the uncertainty of outcomes due to the transformation of their infant body into an adult one. This cross-sectional study aims to better understand whether body image perception and satisfaction influence self-esteem in a sample of Italian male and female adolescents. A total of 242 adolescents (120 male and 122 female individuals) aged 11 to 17 years (M = 13.33; SD = 1.7) completed the study measures. Quantitative and qualitative instruments were used. In particular, adolescents completed self-report questionnaires to assess their pubertal status (Pubertal Developmental Scale, Peterson, Crockett, Richards, & Boxer, 1988), their body esteem (Body Esteem Scale, Mendelson, Mendelson, & White, 2001), their body image (Body Image Satisfaction Questionnaire, Rauste-von Wright, 1989), and their self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Rosenberg,1965). Adolescent were also invited to depict themselves to assess their body representations by completing the Drawing Me test (Confalonieri, 2011). Results from MANOVAs confirm that gender and age are two factors that influence body image perception and satisfaction. SEM analyses show that good self-esteem is reached through good body satisfaction following different trajectories in male and female individuals. Data from adolescents’ body representations obtained via drawings confirm that females are more concerned about their body changes and about the appearance of secondary sexual features than males. This research, stressing the influence of various individual factors and highlighting the psychological distress and dissatisfaction of adolescents, especially females, confirms the importance of studying this topic in order to generate preventive measures to help adolescents through this developmental task
No Occasion for Pleasure: The Self-Worth Contingency of a Setback and Coping With Humor
No full textWhether or not one uses humor to cope with a setback may depend on the idiosyncratic relation of the setback to feeling of self-worth. All people pursue the higher order goal of self-validation, but people differ in what domains of life their self-worth is contingent upon and to what extent. In this article based on an incongruity theory of humor we argue that the use of humor in coping with a highly self-worth-contingent setback may be impeded by two cognitive-motivational processes: goal-driven activation and goal shielding. From the outlined theory we derived the hypothesis that the more a domain is contingent upon self-worth, the less likely a person will be to use humor to deal with a setback in that domain. We tested this hypothesis in two studies employing two forms of self-report, i.e., ratings of reaction likelihood to setbacks described at an abstract domain level (Study 1), and ranking of reaction likelihood to concrete setbacks from different domains (Study 2). The hypothesis was affirmed in different domains of self-worth contingency controlling for the influence of habitual coping with humor, coping by disengagement, and global self-esteem
Psychophysiological Research of Borderline Personality Disorder: Review and Implications for Biosocial Theory
No full textAccording to the Biosocial theory, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is developed by a biological predisposition to hyperarousal and hyperreactivity combined with an invalidating environment. Although widely supported by subjective measures, the impaired insight present in BPD may skew results, and thus psychophysiological measures have been suggested as an alternative method of examining possible biological differences in BPD. The current review aimed to critically assess psychophysiological research of BPD by electronic searching of relevant databases, with 22 articles meeting inclusion criteria. Results showed that in contrast to the hyperarousal proposed in the Biosocial theory, BPD was associated with hypoarousal and hyporeactivity to non-emotionally valenced stimuli. However, there was also evidence of BPD hyperreactivity towards negatively valenced stimuli, and impaired habituation during stressor tasks. As current psychophysiological results were inconsistent, it has been postulated that there may be possible subtypes of BPD. Further, evolutionary-based theories do not appear to adequately explain the complexity of emotion dysregulation in BPD, thus the Emotional Coherence theory has been proposed as an alternate method of conceptualising the role of psychophysiology in BPD. From the lack of clear or consistent findings, further research in the area appears necessary to determine the role of psychophysiology in BPD