Female counter-adaptations to rape

Female counter-adaptations to rap

The development of a quality of life scale for informal carers for older adults

Background: The aim of the study was to develop a multidimensional quality of life instrument suitable for use among individuals across cultures who have an informal care role for older persons. Methods: Participants were informal carers of older adults in the United Kingdom (n = 308), United States (n = 164), and China (n = 131). We carried out exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of 61 items derived from the eight-factor Adult Carers Quality of Life Questionnaire with newly added items to define both traditional and nontraditional informal care roles. Results: Findings suggest a 24-item quality of life scale with a six-factor structure to caring for older adults that assesses (a) exhaustion, (b) adoption of a traditional carer role, (c) personal growth, (d) management and performance, (e) level of support, and (f) financial matters. Conclusion: We present a new scale to assess the multidimensional aspects of quality of life among those caring for older adults

Looking bad: inferring criminality after 100 milliseconds

Research finds we make spontaneous trait inferences from facial appearance, even after brief exposures to a face (i.e., less than or equal to 100 ms). We examined spontaneous impressions of criminality from facial appearance, testing whether these impressions persist after repeated presentation (i.e., one to three exposures) and increased exposure duration (100, 500, or 1,000 ms) to the face. Judgement confidence and response times were recorded. Other participants viewed the faces for an unlimited period of time, rating trustworthiness, dominance and criminal appearance. We found evidence that participants spontaneously make criminal appearance attributions. These inferences persisted with repeated presentation and increased exposure duration, were related to trustworthiness and dominance ratings, and were made with high confidence. Implications are discussed

An ecological systems model of trait resilience: Cross-cultural and clinical relevance

© 2016. The study explored how scores on the three dimensions of the Engineering, Ecological, and Adaptive Capacity (EEA) trait resilience scale, derived from Holling's ecological systems theory of resilience, demonstrate fit within higher-order bifactor models of measurement, cultural invariance, and associations with clinical caseness of affect. Three samples (295 US adults, and 179 Japanese and 251 Polish university students) completed the EEA trait resilience scale. In addition, a subsample of US adults were administered the Ten-Item Personality Inventory and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale). Across all samples, a higher-order bifactor model provided the best fit of the data, with salience of loadings on the three group factors. A multi-group comparison found configural invariance, but neither metric nor scalar invariance, for EEA resilience scores across the three samples. Among the US sample, engineering and adaptive trait resilience scores predicted clinical caseness of depression, and adaptive trait resilience scores predicted clinical caseness of anxiety, after controlling for sex, age, income, education, employment, and personality. The findings suggest the cross-cultural replicability of the structure (but not the meaning) of the three-factor EEA measure of trait resilience, and its relevance for predicting clinical caseness of affect among a US sample

Irrational Happiness Beliefs Scale: Development and Initial Validation

This study sought to develop a new scale of irrational happiness beliefs (IHB) and test its reliability and validity across two British samples. The participants were subjected toa series of happiness, rationality, irrationality, subjective and psychological well-being measures. The exploratory (n = 207) and confirmatory factor analyses (n = 157) suggested that the IHB scale was unidimensional with three items demonstrating a goodinternal consistency reliability estimate. The IHB also showed significant positive correlations with measures of valuing happiness, negative affect, perceived stress and irrational thinking and that significant negative correlations with measures of satisfaction with life, subjective happiness, positive affect, psychological well-being and rational thinking. Additionally, the IHB scale was found to be discriminated from the valuing happiness measure. The results thus suggest that the IHB is a valid and reliable measure that can be used to assess one’s irrational happiness beliefs and that can readily be placed within wider psychology by contributing to individual well-being

Regulatory motivations in celebrity interest: Self-suppression and self-expansion

Due to concerns regarding the theoretical and empirical contexts that surround the description of celebrity interest, the current studies examined the development of a measure of two selfregulatory motivations in celebrity interest (RMiCI): self-suppression and self-expansion. Across two samples (total n = 527), scores on an adapted version of Stenseng, Rise, and Kraft’s (2012) Escapism Scale demonstrated a replicable two-factor structure, concurrent and convergent with other measures of celebrity interest and the biopsychological theory of personality. Scores on the measure also demonstrated discriminant and predictive validity in terms of divergent associations between self-suppression and self-expansion with positive and negative affect respectively. These current findings add to the celebrity interest literature, focussing on regulatory processes in celebrity interest

Examining Irrational Happiness Beliefs within an Adaptation-Continuum Model of Personality and Coping

The integration of dispositional characteristics of personality and coping as part of an adaptation-continuum model of personality and coping has become a focal point in recent studies. The model has been used to provide a context in which to understand the factors related to human health and well-being. The present study sought to investigate the position of irrational happiness beliefs within the adaptation continuum model by integrating Gray’s model of personality and Ferguson’s model of coping strategies. A total of 166 adults (mean age = 39.48, SD = 11.32), recruited from the United States, participated in the study. All the participants completed measures of irrational happiness beliefs, personality traits, and functional dimensional coping. The results showed that approach, emotional regulation and reappraisal copings and BAS personality loaded together to form the BAS-Coping factor, while avoidance coping and BIS personality loaded together to constitute the BIS-Coping factor. The results also showed that irrational happiness beliefs significantly correlated with BAS-Coping. This suggests that the combination of personality and coping is a useful context for both researchers and practitioners in understanding irrational happiness beliefs as part of an adaptation-continuum model of personality and coping

Identifying the Psychological Processes used by Male and Female Students when Learning about Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics: A Linguistic Inquiry

Learning in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is challenging, leaving many students to give up on these subjects. Specifically, females are underrepresented in STEM industries. Identifying how male and female students deal with STEM learning challenges, and how this relates to learning outcomes, may inform teaching that best supports the preferences of individual students. This study asked secondary school students, who had just completed a STEM lesson that they reported as finding difficult (n = 3758; male = 51.2%), to write narratives about how they dealt with the lesson. Narratives were analyzed using a linguistic text analysis program to identify core psychological processes contained within the narratives from lessons in science n = 1305 (males = 46.3%), technology n = 589 (males = 63.7%), engineering n = 202 (males = 57.9%), and mathematics n = 1662 (males = 49.9%). Students were also asked to score how well they think they did in the difficult lesson (learning outcome). Pearson's correlations between students' use of core psychological processes and their perceptions of lesson success were computed separately for males and females. Common strategies emerged across the STEM subjects: for female students, positive learning outcomes were associated with positive emotions, social processes, rewards, and strategic thinking. For male students, positive learning outcomes were associated with motivation around the risk of failing, rationalizing the problem, and strategic thinking. Negative emotion was associated with a negative learning outcome for both broadly defined genders, but this was more evident across the subjects for females. We specify our understanding of this strategy by reporting data separately for the STEM subjects and the implications for STEM pedagogy

Assessing mental health difficulties of persons with Huntington’s disease: Does informant presence make a difference?

Objective: Persons with Huntington’s disease (HD) often have communication difficulties and cognitive impairments, making mental health assessment difficult. Informants close to the patient are often included in assessments. The authors investigated effects of informant presence during assessment of persons with HD. Methods: Data for four subsamples from ENROLL-HD were examined: manifest for HD (N=4,109), premanifest (N=1,790), genotype negative (N=1,041), and family members with no genetic risk (N=974). Assessment interviews with and without an informant present were identified, and the subsamples were compared on three subscales of the short-form Problem Behaviors Assessment: affect, apathy, and irritability. Differences in scores between participant-only and informant-present interviews were examined via multiple regression, controlling for demographic, disease-related, and individual confounds. Results: Significant differences in apathy and irritability scores were found between participant-only and informant-present conditions for the premanifest, manifest, and genotype-negative subsamples. Affect subscale scores were not influenced by informant presence. When the analysis controlled for confounds, informant presence significantly increased irritability scores in the manifest, and genotype-negative groups and significantly increased apathy scores in the manifest group. Conclusions: Apathy may have been systemically underreported in participant-only interviews, which supports previous findings that persons with HD underreport mental health symptoms. When an informant was present, irritability scores were higher for both HD and non-HD individuals, suggesting that underreporting via self-report may be attributable to non-HD factors. Informant contributions to apathy assessments may be particularly important for persons with HD. Clinicians should note potential underreporting regarding irritability and affect, which was not remediated by informant presence.</p

Regression Analysis with Subjective Well-being, Psychological Well-being and Physical Health as Dependent Variables, and Sex, Age, Personality, Coping and EEA Trait Resilience Used as Predictor Variables.

<p>Regression Analysis with Subjective Well-being, Psychological Well-being and Physical Health as Dependent Variables, and Sex, Age, Personality, Coping and EEA Trait Resilience Used as Predictor Variables.</p